umber eleven in the series of occasional roadside photos.

A night taxi driving.

r the end of the world as some would have it.

After a week of that, and having some pictures in the local newspapers ‘Snow watch’ its back to busy busy busy. Got a few things on and working on some paintings, hope to update the gallery on here soon. Its been far too long. Then theres the shop page. Should really sort that out. What I really need is some kind of 168 hour weekend. Anyway, heres the snow watch pictures in a size where you can see them properly. May have overdone it with the filter on the first two.

The following quote did make me laugh

THESE beautiful pictures of Bromsgrove were taken by Chris Hathway and clearly show how beautiful the town looked during the wintry weather.

Its taken me three trips to the local park so far to find places that aren’t either over ridden with signage, full of street furniture that isn’t really suited to a park, it being ’street’ furniture, or thats a nice view ruined by one of the varied coloured dog poo bins which are placed in the most random manner posible, in fact, maybe a second post to follow.

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umber ten in the series of near regular roadside photos.

This was taken with a TTV contraption, inspired to have a go by Pete Ashton’s pictures, and taken on a snowy winters morn outside the Bear’s Head in Brereton, Sandbach. I was checking the pubs name online, and it seems a lot of the pubs in the area are named after parts of a bears anatomy, The Bear’s Paw, The Black Bear Inn, The Beartown Tap, wonder why?

More updates soon. I’m just finishing off my second flu bug of the winter and I think two is quite enough for this year.

umber eight in the series of very occasional roadside photos. I suppose strictly this is an under the roadside photo as it was taken on floor one of the Arcadian Centre car park on Bromsgrove Street in Birmingham.

hugely enjoyable show from Billy Childish and the Musicians of the British Empire at the Boston last month. It seems to be going through a quiet period there at the moment so well worth a trip along. He’s playing on Friday 18th and again next month on the 16th[That ones off apparently], In fact pretty much every month, the newsletter from www.dirtywaterclub.com is probably the best way to follow the dates.

Also I see The Wildebeests have there much anticipated, by me, album launch party there on the 25th September. Might try to make it along to that.

I’ve been seeing shows there on and off for, well, quite a few years now. Ever since a good friend of mine used to phone me drunkenly from the phone box up the road, pre mobile phone era, to say what a great show he’d just seen. Actually I was only thinking this morning how nobody phones me drunkenly from gigs anymore. Is this a sign of fast approaching middle age?

umber seven in the series of roadside photos. Here is should be the view of the Aran Mountains on a sunny foggy August afternoon.

mmm, its taken me a couple of days to get my thoughts together around this years Supersonic Festival. First up, I enjoyed it a lot. But, it seemed to end on a bit of a low for me and It didn’t seem as if I’d enjoyed it as much as I did last years weekend, nor the years before and I couldn’t really work out why. Actually, I’m not really sure you should compare one years to another, like most people I think my memory tends to improve on the reality highlighting the good and toning down the bad, but I couldn’t help myself, so here goes;

Tonight I was sat in my local arts centre, watching a band from the early sixties go through their paces, with a pint of beer at £2.10 [rather than £4.00!!!] and immaculate toilets [rather than, well, less said the better] Seven days before I’d been watching Light Trap, Thorrs Hammer and Monotonix. While the music I was sat watching, with my reasonably priced pint, was good, at some times it felt like watching a pub band, and not a good one at that. During the pub band moments I got my thoughts together on what I enjoyed, what I didn’t and why from the Supersonic weekend.

First off, this years weekend was seemed a lot busier than last year – I recall us watching the ever excellent DJ Rupture at about 1am last time and being two of about ten people around the stage on the Friday night – so that was a good thing, well, untill it came to buying a drink but that said, I seemed to manage okay with that over the weekend, maybe a little too well in fact.

Last year we had problems getting into the Kitchen on Friday due to it being far too small for the crowd, this year we struggled to see anyone in the old Medicine Bar or Factory Club as it is now called [okay as it had been for quite some time]. It might have been better if Space 2 was open on Friday as well but I appreciate this probably involves a bunch more administration and no doubt a whole load of other red tape so such as it was it was get there early if you wanted to get in to the Factory Club. As it was we did make it in early in order to reserve our place to see Scorn, this turned out to be a worthwhile bit of planning and was very enjoyable indeed, I did also manage to catch the now oft talked about moment of venturing outside halfway through the set and catching half of the sound from scorn and half of the fantastical noise coming from the outside stage from Sunn 0))) – I can’t recall now whether this was in order to get to a less busy bar or to find a toilet that wasn’t out of order – I’d guess the second as so many people seem to have stumbled upon this fantastical spectacle. I don’t think anything could have topped that for the night and while I recall a bit of Kylie Minoise and enjoying Venitian Snares we had surely peaked and it was off home in the wee small hours.

On Saturday, after a brief trip to the Lord Clifden, which used to be a proper, if empty, pub a few years ago when I used to work for Webazoot Industries in the Jewelry Quarter – I was there only a couple of weeks ago an it was very pleasant in the afternoon, busy with some fantastic food – unfortunately we stumbled into hard house day on the DJ decks and it was not at all conducive to late night recovery.

We quickly headed back to Birmingham central just missing Rose Kemp, which was a shame, we made it in time for Tartufi followed by Master Musicians of Bukkake [thats going to show this site in some odd searches now] We saw a bit of Skullflower and some of Marnie Stern before heading off for a decent pint and working toilet facilities at the pub. Turns out the facilities we’re taking a bit of a hammering in the pub too, with the toilets at both the Factory Club and the Kitchen being out of order – Clearly the plumbing in Digbeth isn’t quite up to coping with such an influx of people – mind, some of the things I saw – It seems some people hadn’t quite mastered the usage of modern plumbing themselves.

Back to Space Two for Iron Lung, who I remember enjoying, then we went to see Kim Hiorthoy in the Factory Club, getting there early to get in, The times had been changed and so instead we got to see Light Trap, who were fantastic. Then off to see Thorrs Hammer – the combination of Scorn/Sunn 0))) on Friday and Light Trap and Thorrs Hammer on Saturday really made the weekend for me. For some reason in my memory Thorrs Hammer played in the mid afternoon but looking at the timetable it was nearer ten o’clock. I think we had a bit of a break to buy our Thorrs Hammer T-shirts and recover making it back in time for Monotonix – I remember enjoying it a lot but thats about all I remember, I do have some quite odd photos on my camera from the set though. A quick pint in a Digbeth hostelry on the way home and to bed for Sunday.

I’ve tried to work out if I drank too much on Sunday because I was a bit bored or whether I got a bit bored because I had too much to drink. Or whether it was because of the weather – summer in Digbeth. I enjoyed Pontiak a lot, reminded me of a more MOR Pharaoh Overlord from Supersonic 2007, I had enjoyed them on the Brumcast a couple of weeks ago and already bought their CD. Then some acoustic music from Khyam Allami, which was an enjoyable low key break from all the noise and guitars – Though a bit of Black Sabbath did creep in even there.

After that we saw a few more people, caught a bit of the Memory Band who I also liked on the Brumcast and waited for Goblin. I should add we had been lucky enough to get a place to see Suspira at vivid as an opener to the festival. I remember enjoying the first couple of Dario Argento films I saw, since then they’ve been the kind of things I tend to stumble upon on late night satellite channels, falling asleep halfway through. While it was enjoyable watching the film in a disused car park in deepest Digbeth, and for Free, after an hour or so we got itchy feet, gave up waiting for the next set piece, normally the point I fall asleep I think, and headed over to the Spotted Dog for a swift half.

I mention all that as watching Goblin live didn’t work for me that well either, while it was unarguably well played, and enthusiastically presented, I found I just couldn’t really engage with it as music in its own right. Maybe it was the Space 2 stage. Due to how busy things we’re this year it seemed most of the ‘headline’ acts we’re on that stage and when its busy its not a great stage to see whats going on. Most of the memories I have from the previous years festival involve standing around the ‘Outside Stage’ which has a lot more atmosphere, character and also allows good views from both sides and the stage floor. Space 2 seems to have a much narrower area of view and taller fences each side of the stage this year, as such, if you can’t see whats going on it doesn’t involve. Whatever the was the reason I didn’t enjoy Goblin as much as I’d hoped though a lot of people did. Toward the end of the set we waded off to the after party at the Rainbow where we we’re quizzed by bouncers in the rain as to how many of tonight’s crowd we thought might be attending. A strange conversation to be sure but its always nice when someone values your opinion.

I got home on Monday morning to find a Tweak Bird CD in the mail, oh yeah, I thought, they we’re good on the podcast, where were they – turns out they canceled a few days before. Nevermind.

So, tonight while walking in to pristine and empty toilets at the interval, though theres no room for complacency, I was thinking back over all the hugely enjoyable parts of the previous weekends festival. Looking back there was possible too much going on, or we tried to do too much of it at least, I missed all the talks in the Theater Space, which was a shame as several of them sounded really interesting and worthwhile. We barely got a break in the day to grab some food with so many bands on – in fact I don’t think we did eat at all on Sunday.

A hugely enjoyable weekend all in all, I think its fantastic what capsule have achieved in the ten years they’ve now been bringing and supporting music into Birmingham. Has it really been ten years. gosh. The positives, Great acts, Real ale – though unpleasantly warm real ale from Saturday on, decent ‘bargain’ accommodation this year, I’m keeping that one a secret and I didn’t get short changed all weekend [see Dave, forgive and forget, well, forgive anyway].

I kind of wish Saturday was swapped with Sunday so I’d left on more of a high rather than a hmmm. I think maybe the line up this year was more noise or certainly rawk orientated than I remember from previous years. I think maybe by Sunday I’d had my fill of Terrorizer-esq action for the month and would have liked a bit of a contrast. Overall though another fantastic Supersonic weekend, and at a very reasonable price too.

Hopefully the large profits the venue no doubt made from the
expensive bar prices can be invested in sorting the plumbing out for the future.

The end.

A couple more pictures;

Friendly locals in Digbeth
Someones order list for the bar [beautiful handwriting but a short memory]
Nervous bladder anyone?
My cammera is on the way out, but I do like what it did to this photo of PCM
Goodnight.

belated write up for the Screamin’ Festival last month… It was the first time we’d been to the new venue, only a mile or two up the coast from the small town of Calella, now in the smaller town of Pineda De Mar. I wasn’t sure what to expect though a couple of reviews I saw online made me laugh…

The main thing we noticed about the resort is that there is graffiti everywhere! All over the walls and along the beach front. The beach is a shingle beach, which is no good for kids as it shelves steeply as you go in. The main square is about a twenty minute walk away, which is nothing to write home about. We decided to take a trip into Calella, which everyone had told us had load of shops and was nice? it definitely had a load of shops, but most certainly wasn’t nice. Lots of dark streets, bit like Manchester on a bad day…

Another mentioned that the town was nothing but brick buildings, graffiti and that it was ‘like Beirut’ and not safe to be on the streets at night. Taking that with a large pinch of salt we arrived and set out to the first night of the festival…
To the sound of loud bangs going off all around, cars screaming along the darkened streets with folk hanging out of the windows and large groups of men running up the high street chanting loudly… Luckily this all turned out to be something to do with FC Barcelona winning somekind of sporting related contest and, apart from one overly merry chap in full football kit who kept breaking out into his own songs when he wasn’t falling over, during The Hot Rails excellent set, everyone had a grand old night.

The resort was pretty nice, we only saw the one piece of graffiti, Calella is certainly more developed and offers more to do in the daytime. However the town of Pineda De Mar seems to have really embraced the festival with several free events happening around the town and in local hotels which in the end pretty much made the festival for us. The Auto Show in Plaça de les Melies was a fantastic afternoon, with some very nice cars and bikes and live bands playing out in the sunshine. The Bands playing at night and the pool parties in the daytime at the Hotel Koopers we’re also really nice events.

Our hotel, the Golden Taurus Park Resort, was quite nice for a big holiday hotel, I’ve not stayed in a hotel quite that big for a fair few years, apart from the New Yorker and that goes up rather than along so it doesn’t count. Reading through the ‘Bienvenidos brochure the general concenus seems to be that you don’t really need to leave the hotel at all on your holiday and should be able to have a grand time without steping foot outside. In fact maybe this is why they placed the ‘way in’ right at the back of the hotel, leading out into the wilds of nowhere. The funniest line in the brochure ’suggests’ that you don’t need to bring any ‘outside food’ into the complex as there are a wide range of vending machines offering ‘anything you may require’ at any time of the day. Hmmm, true if you want to live on beer, fizzzy drinks, crisps and a rather impressive cheese toastie machine. Unfortunately the impressive vending machines throughout the complex were completely over shadowed by the ‘24 Vend’ shop front just two doors up form the hotel, one machine there I was particularly impressed with offered a variety of sex toys – in the same machine as a wide range of cup-a-soups!

A particular mention must also go out to the Thompson Kids Club which would be broadcast throughout the hotel via a distorted PA system, with occasional feedback, from ten am till about three pm. All for the benefit of the twenty or so people standing right in front of the person on the PA. So loud you could still hear the untrained essex anouncers tones whilst in the shower, this meant that despite the profliteration of fine vending machines we we’re generally forced to leave the hotel/complex at this time. One suggestion I might make though having witnessed the ten people involved in the ‘games’ have a bit of a to-do and have to be calmed down by the reps, maybe calling the game ‘Killer’ Water Polo is going to lead to some aggression between the players?

Unfortunaetly the Taurus was also a good two mile walk to the main Screamin’ venue so if nothing else we got plenty of exercise. I was mostly impressed with the new venue, it lacked the character of the old factory space with its nice wooden roof but was well laid out with about the same size stage, cooler and with better[more] toilets, a decent outdoor seating area and a new food area[We both had a unpleasent morning best left unmentioned following a burger from there, be warned].

The timetable for each night had changed too, the old festival used to run with bands from about eight pm till two in the morning, with DJs and dancing following. This year bands didn’t tend to start till about ten pm and would generally finish about half four am. There was also a gap of forty five minutes to an hour between each band which seemed a little odd. All in all it meant, for me at least, the night was a little hard work. I’m not used to going out at ten o’clock these days, though I know some people do, I wouldn’t have minded but the waiting around between bands meant that as the night got later time did drag a little. Another little gripe was that after about three songs of watching each band a large number of the crowd would generally stop watching and go on to chatting amongst each other. I’ve no problem with that, some of the bands I saw this year I felt I’d got their act in three songs, but if I wanted to chat I wouldn’t do it three rows back from the stage in front of people trying to hear the sound. This, and the chain smoking going on in the venue, don’t know what the laws are in Spain these days but smoking in the venue was fine and there was a smoking bar in the hotel, was a bit annoying to me, someone who doesn’t smoke and wanted to watch/hear the bands[I didn't know smoking in venus bothered me but after a few years without it, yes it does...].

During the headlining acts I’d say there we’re probably about thirty percent of people watching the band and the rest chatting, catching up, trying to take pictures of themselves with the band behind them[?] comparing hair oil et… I think the festival has changed a little since we’ve been going. It seems much more popular now, and more so for the social interruption [I think the spell check did this, was supposed to be interaction but I like it.] and the dressing up/fashion** aspect of it than for the music side of things. Thinking back to the Wipeout Festival of a few years ago, we saw some fantastic bands every night, this year, and last actually, I only saw two bands I really enjoyed. Those bands, and definite highlights we’re WhistleBait from Finland who we’re excellent and also co headliners The Blasters who put on a fantastic high energy show – I didn’t know anyone could sweat as much as Phil Alvin and still deliver such a spot on set.

All in all though we had a great break, if a little more expensive due to the Euro this year. The highlights we’re definitely the free events at the Beach Bar in Calella, the Square in Pineda De Mar and the Hotel Koopers. Would I go next year? Yep, probably will, but I’m not sure I’d buy a weekend ticket, I’d maybe tend to go along a couple of nights and spend a couple around the town and in Calella.

*I meant to call this post ‘A load of Bull’ due to the holiday starting with us being chased by bulls on the Isle of Wight, staying at the Golden Taurus and attending a festival run by El Toro Records. But I forgot.

**could the vendors of records and clothing at the festival not provide some kind of ‘retro’ based packaging for their products? How about some paper sack bags or something? Theres nothing worse than seeing some guy or gal whose clearly spent hours getting themselves authentically 1950’s, as well as much of their spare time tracking down clothing of the period, to be wandering around with a cheap white plastic bag tied to their belt. Its just plain wrong.

urprisingly I have actually completed a couple of pieces of artwork in the past couple of weeks. Sadly the photos I took didn’t come out too well so I’ll have to take them again.

Until then I’ll just upload a couple of pics from the second fish-eye film I took, here, here and here. Came out okay, a little dark at times.

I also had a go at constructing my own matchbox pinhole camera from various items found around the home, and a couple of things from poundland, with the very excellent guide on matchboxpinhole.com. Sadly though when I picked up the photos I only received a roll of developed film back and no printed images. Annoyingly, it was my own fault, I wasn’t winding on the film enough and most of the photos are overlapped. I remember when I was younger photo labs used to just process films like that, giving people ’spooky’ photos to send in to the ghost section of ‘Take-a-Break’. But apparently its all done by computer now and the computer can’t cope with out gaps in the film. Hooray for progress.

So I’ll have another go at that. Meanwhile my Tomatos are growing well…
Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

I’m starting to think that dispite how the packet reads I am going to have to re-pot them as this just isn’t going to work…