Time flies

Today is a notable day for me, as it is the tenth anniversary of me leaving the job that I had worked at virtually since I'd left school. It was only supposed to be a stop-gap, before I moved on to the next job - six years later I was still there.

This great leap into the unknown felt like the first day of the rest of life. After much soul searching, I finally decided to plot an alternative career path - doing something that I really wanted to do

I had worked for Customs and Excise for nearly six years at the time of departure – one of those years was spent with metaphorical cigar-in-mouth - given the fact that I had put in my application for voluntary redundancy in the January of 1996 – 27th March 1997 was the last day that I could leave under this arrangement.

I had two options I could have followed. Having dabbled a bit in freelance journalism – it was my intention to go to University to study and then get a job in the profession.

Option two, was to follow my passion in music and study at LIPA in studio technology. I choose option one and with hindsight it is certainly the one that I'm hapy with.

The summer after my departure was probably one of the best, as I lived off my redundancy package - living a bohemian lifestyle as it were - well as much a bohemian lifestyle can be, living at your parents.

I undertook a short lived acting course, as well as a number of the more fruitful songwriting courses, that culminated in my first 'solo' live performance at The Picket in Liverpool. Basically I dossed about before going to Liverpool John Moores University in September to study Politics with Sociology.

On reflection, I can't believe how much I have crammed into the last ten years - I have lived in a foreign country (Finland) completed my Degree, MA, a teaching qualification and other varying qualifications, I have worked in the profession that I wanted to when I was at school (but I had dismissed the chances as being not for me). I have worked as a journalist and weirdly I'm now teaching the subject. My private life has been a little hectic too - falling in and out of love on numerous occasions - many times the unrequited type too. I have even moved away from Liverpool after a short stay in Stoke I'm now living in St Helens.

Here's to the next ten years, having crammed so much in the last ten, I would settle for something a little less hectic.

There are places I remember

Today was my first trip to Goodison in 2007 and given the fact that my Nan died on the Thursday - the pilgrimage was all the more poignant.

My Nan was 91, and had been in poor health for the last year, though there is a shock when someone passes away - it was certainly something that had been expected.

For the last few years my Nan had lived in a home in Crosby, as the onset of Alzheimer’s had made it increasingly difficult for her to live on her own. Before that she had lived on Goodison Road and in the surrounding areas most of her life - the house was a stone throw from Everton Football Club.

Saturdays would invariably be spent at either of my two Nans and in the days that I couldn’t attend the game on my own I used to go to soak up the action outside the ground and would occasionally buy a programme.

It would then be back to my Nan’s – gorge myself on the piles of cakes and sweets provided and listen to the game taking place down the road, unfold of the radio.

St Luke’s Church, which is tucked away in the corner of the ground, is a place that is something that I hold dear. Not only is it a place where the rampant commerciality of attending a modern day football match is kept at bay – I think you can get a mug of coffee and a scone and still get change out of a quid. You can also enjoy the prematch atmosphere amongst fans that span the decades and no doubt have some interesting tales to tell.

It is also the church, which my Nan attended on a Sunday, and where she will visit for the final time on Thursday. It is also the place that my parents married back in January 1970 – FA Cup third round Saturday. Apparently we were drawn away that day…and lost!!!

So with the talk of a move to a new stadium in Kirkby for Everton, it will be something I will look upon with deep sadness and regret as Walton and Goodison Road hold a special place in my heart and not just because of a team that play in blue.

Sup up your beer and collect your fags

There has been a spate of bands recently getting back together some for the right reasons and some to boost the pension funds for one last hurrah. It was pleasing to see that Crowded House have reformed, though this is one reunion that is tinged with sadness. As the original drummer Paul Hester will not be around, having committed suicide in 2005.

The news to today that The Jam are getting back together is something of a shock, given that Paul Weller had previously said that his kids would have to be destitute before he considered it.

The news is all the more baffling given that Weller in fact will not be joining the band for the ‘reunion’ - it will be bassist Bruce Foxton, Rick Buckler and AN Others instead. Worryingly they have a 20-date tour and album ready to roll.

This has got to be the most ill conceived idea that I have ever heard in my life. As the years have rolled on, the dignity of the other two has lapsed year-by-year, from the whingeing biography Our Story, through to Rick Buckler joining The Gift – a Jam tribute band!

The Jam is Paul Weller, and though Buckler and Foxton have some claim to the legacy of The Jam – this would in effect be pissing all over that legacy.

I don’t think I’ll be buying a ticket or the CD – I wait eagerly as to what Weller’s response will be.

TV Hell

I know it is a cliché to moan about TV, though I think I will do so here. Last night followed the usual pattern, as most workday nights tend to follow.

I usually come home from work and throw something into the oven that’s easy to cook and usually barely edible – as most of my cooking tends to be.

At no point in the night did I decide to put the TV on. This was mainly due to the paucity of anything worth watching to be fair.

Instead I spent the time listening to music, reading and going on the Internet. I seldom watch TV these days – unless there is something on specifically that I would like.

I wouldn’t miss it if I was to get rid of my TV, but that would mean I wouldn’t be able to watch my DVDs – a mainstay of my week.

This could turn into an anti-licence-fee rant but I feel that BBCi and the Radio are worthy of the licence-fee alone. One of the good things about my TV abstinence is that thankfully I have missed Nonentity Big Brother – though it is something that I would avoid anyway.

Apart from the usual washed-up has-beens and nonentities, this series has thrown up a fair bit of controversy over the racist bullying of the Indian Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty. Though I have not watched the programme – I have seen the alleged clips of racism on the news today. It is hard to describe the people in question as card carrying Nazis – I just think it may be the fact that are swimming in a shallow gene pool.

What do they expect? It is lowest common denominator TV, starring people from the lowest-of-the-low. Jade Goody is a vacuous, excuse for a human being anyway, but rolling out the rest of the family is a nadir, not just in the history of Big Brother, but TV. They are scum and pond life.

The rest are a f*cking waste of time and should be horsewhipped – not just for the racism but for the fact that they are a bunch of tossers. Rant over!!

We Are All Doomed

Apparently the Doomsday Clock now stands at 11:55 having been pushed forward by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (the organisation that devised the timepiece) as a result of the current concern over the threat of global warming.

The clock, which was set up in 1947 once reached two minutes to midnight in 1953 at a time when the United States and Soviet Union were involved in nuclear testing.

The clock has been moved backwards and forwards on 18 occasions in its 60-year history and reflects the prevailing political climate of the time.

This is the nearest that the clock has got to midnight for a number of years and the reasons this time are not just as a result of unstable political factors, but also for environmental reasons.

I guess I better clear out my shed and convert it into a panic room/shed to ward off the impending cataclysmic meltdown.

Shame really, as I was looking forward to a busy February.

It was 50 years ago today

The most famous club in Liverpool’s history (other than Everton) turned 50 today.The Cavern a club made famous with an association with The Beatles, celebrated an anniversary with a series of events.

It is a club that I have a fondness for and not just because of the links with The Beatles, but it was also a place that I spent some of my formative drinking years.

I remember the first time as an underage 15-year-old setting foot down those winding stairs to the dank atmosphere of The Cavern below – this could have been a disappointment to some – but not for me it was magical.

I can even remember what I drank in those days, it would without doubt have been Cider. (That must be the right of passage, as most underage drinkers start on that before ascending or should that be descending to drinking Lager).

At the time I didn’t realise that it was not the original club, but a carbon copy in roughly the same location on Matthew Street. In a typically short-sighted Liverpool City Council decision it was demolished in the 70s to make way for a ventilation shaft for the underground railway system – that ultimately wasn’t required.

It is a club that I suppose I started a relationship with one of my first girlfriends. It was a place that I lapsed from being a vegetarian after almost twelve months of abstinence. After a particularly inebriated night, the waft of the smell of onions from the botulism-burger van on the Matthew Street was too much of a temptation to overcome.

It was also a place where I ruined a pair of white jeans (I think they were just about fashionable at the time) when I decided to take James’ song Sit Down literally and park my arse on the floor amongst the dregs and slops – and no doubt other detritus that accounted for a night out in the Cavern.

I have taken numerous foreign visitors there who have not failed to fall for the charms of the old place.

Happy birthday and here’s to another 50 years in existence and hopefully I can fulfil one of my long held dreams and actually play a gig there.

A bunch of fives

As is the way at this time of year there are numerous retrospectives and round-ups of everything that happened in the previous twelve months.

This year is no different and having looked through the numerous lists I have decided to have a go at compiling my own.

I must admit I have lost touch with the NME of late - I no longer purchase it religiously every Wednesday like I used to, but I still takr the time to pick up the Christmas edition to check out the end of year round up.

The fact that I own 2 albums from this years NME top 50 indicates that I’m either getting too old or I’m losing touch – as I said I seldom buy the esteemed journal these days and the quality of the Christmas Edition is evidence that I’m not missing much – but that’s for a future blog.

I fare a little better with the Uncut(the magazine of choice these days) poll. I own 3 albums from their end of year list. Again in the Observer’s arts blog I only manage to accumulate 3 of the 50 albums – note to self – must do better next year. In their poll-of-polls I have 2 out of the ten.

I have probably bought a reasonable deal of albums this year – probably not as many as in previous years. I think I have probably bought a number of older records that I have I could have included such as the Editors and Jose Gonzalez but as they weren’t released this year I have omitted them.

Here are my lists as follows:

Favourite Albums 2006

1. Kelley Stoltz – Below The Branches
2. Roddy Frame – Western Skies
3. Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
4. The Raconteurs – Broken Boy Soldiers
5. Mansun – Legacy (Best of)

Favourite Singles 2006

1. Kelley Stoltz – The Sun Comes Through
2. Howling Bells – Setting Sun
3. Gnarls Barkley – Crazy
4. Snow Patrol & Martha Wainwright – Set the Fire To The Third Bar
5. Kasabian – Empire
6. Amy Winehouse – Rehab

Favourite Gigs

1. The Who - Liverpool Summer Pops (July)
2. Roddy Frame - Liverpool University (April)
3. The Zutons - Liverpool University (December)
4. The Raconteurs - Liverpool Carling Academy (March)
5. New Order (Liverpool Summer Pops (July)