The Beat, Neville Staple and Pauline Black - HMV Forum 22/05/2010

It was the longest drawn out birthday ever! Back in February I bought BBE tickets to see The Beat, Neville Staple and Pauline Black in that there London, and finally this weekend a mere 14 weeks later the birthday present happened. And though I say it myself it was the best birthday present ever!

We actually went to the same gig last year in the Camden Centre, it was the night after Madstock and I travelled down to meet up with BBE after persuading him to stick around and go to this gig, which he'd been sort of talking about maybe doing anyway even though his train tickets were already booked to come back. But after seeing The Beat in St Helens and The Specials in Manchester, I was as keen as he was to go to the gig. Plus he really really wanted to see Pauline Black.

This years gig was significantly better than last year. Although the Camden Centre had a charm to it that made the whole thing feel more like a dancehall, everyone was dancing to the Ska / Reggae tunes being played by the DJ and there was a general excitement around the room but with a nice friendly atmosphere too. The Forum in contrast felt like a some kind of rock concert.

It was pretty packed. It was the largest crowd I'd seen for The Beat so far. In December at the O2 Academy (liverpool) the room didn't seem to be very busy at all, I was disappointed. But then last week in the Picket (Liverpool) the place was heaving. Smaller venue true but it was rammed. The Beat were second on the bill and played a much shorter set - which still included an encore despite not being the headliners.

BBE and Myself went and stationed ourselves at the front, holding onto the barrier just left of centre - the side where Ranking Roger positions himself. Ranking Roger is definitely at the top of my list of people I'd most like to meet - the guy is a legend. Admittedly I don't much like meeting "heroes" due to my fear that they'll turn out to be a bit of a twat. Surely the sort of people who seek fame and fortune must be fairly arrogant, but I guess the list of people I'd most like to meet is fairly hypothetical anyway. I had my chance to meet Ranking Roger at the Picket when he was stood watching Levi Tafari. But I didn't take it. Besides which - what am I going to say "Hello Ranking Roger, You're a legend, I love the Beat, I've got all your records"? Well am I? Well that's probably about all I could say to justify speaking to him in the first place - right? Or alternatively I'll be struck dumb, all the pages from my brain dictionary will be ripped out one by one until I can't remember even the most ordinary mundane word like "the" or "Beat" and I'll stand there slightly open mouthed or with a stupid grin on my face and then possibly, most embarassingly I'll do what I do generally under normal circumstances and burst into a bit of Ackee 123 or some other song by The Beat, and then feel really stupid that I just burst into song, and not just any song but a song by the very person stood in front of me.

The best kind of famous person to meet is the kind you don't like. Coz then you tend to have no interest in them at all and you can speak to them like you would speak to any stranger...although why you would want to speak to strangers, or indeed celebrities you don't like is a question that renders the point rather pointless.

So anyway. Pauline Black comes out backed by Neville Staple's band. She's brilliant, slightly intimidating but has a fantastic voice. Had quite a decent bit of space in which to dance too, which is always a bonus. Although that didn't last long once Neville Staple came on. I became aware of someone pushing in next to me, muscling her way in to the barrier and holding aloft a mobile phone pointed at Neville Staple. And there it stayed, occasionally straying across my line of vision and really really pissing me off. I know gigs are crowded but there's still ways to respect other people's personal space. I noticesd with satisfaction that she kept singing the words wrong. Ha. And yeah so what if I'm going to go search for the video on youtube, and appreciate the fact that someone recorded it...so what? She was still waving a bloody phone in my face for the best part of an hour. Neville Staple was a bit of a camera whore. Kept spotting where they were and making a point of looking at them and winking, smiling and posing as much as he could. His set was brilliant. Last year the sound had been pretty bad and he was clearly not happy at all. But last night he was brilliant, entertaining and full of energy.

So then The Beat came on. Camera girl had fucked off - clearly a Specials fan and completely ignorant to the fact that The Beat are awesomer (if that is such a word) and was replaced by a man who had earlier asked me who the previous band were and was clearly a Beat fan!

Ranking Junior was still hobbling about supporting himself on a cane. Last week we'd mistakenly thought at first that he had just come out to the Picket looking all suave in a shirt and tie and a walking cane, but then quickly realised when Roger was dancing alone that he was clearly injured. I wonder if there's be physio, then some light training to get match fit...Skanking should be listed as a sport in its own right...and judging my Rogers 6 pack when he threw his tshirt into the crowd its clearly very very good for you - In fact with only 2 weeks til my holiday I'm going to go kickstart my Beat work out and skank around the house to Wh'appen!!

So the Beat set was just out of this world. It was the bestest gig ever, they played pretty much everything you could hope for (apart from Ackee 123, but I doubt they'll ever play that - no matter how many times I write on their MySpace wall) BBE got a thumbs up from Roger for singing along to Muscle Ska - a new(ish) tune co written by Ranking Roger and Neville Staple. Of course if you keep going to see a band often enough all their "new" songs stop being new, so we were both doing the Vroom Vroom Vroom Zoom Zoom Zoom dance moves to "How Do You Do" and singing along to "Dangerous".

Disaster occurred during the encore when the guitar amp packed in - just as they were about to sing Save it For Later. Ranking Junior stepped up to deliver a few words about saving the day until the sound of guitar filled the room again and Ranking Roger said "now that's what I call an upgrade"

That's one of the reasons I like Roger so much. He always looks sooooo proud of his son Ranking Junior. And he always looks so happy. He sings, he dances around and he just grins all the way through it. I truly believe that he would be one of the few celebrities who wouldn't turn out to be an arrogant twat if you met him!! (Glenn Tilbrooke from Squeeze is the other celebrity at the top of my list - in fact I only have 2 people on my list - and I have it on good authority from other people who met him that he really is a very nice bloke when you meet him!)

So I was pleased to get a nod and a smile from Ranking Roger - whether that is because he clocked that I was dressed as the Beat Girl or whether it was because I gave him a big smile when he looked in my direction I don't know...he may well have been grinning at someone behind me, or maybe he just had wind!! Maybe He thought "Bloody hell are those 2 here again???"

I dare say we will be there again...we just can't stop it!

Holiday diets

Well the countdown is on to my summer holiday...my first summer holiday in 4 years, and my first holiday with BBE. First holiday with a boyfriend is huge isn't it? The last (and only) time I went on holiday with a boyfriend I broke up with him as soon as we returned. Seems like holidays can make or break a relationship.

Our holiday may well test us to the limit. Did I mention that my entire family are coming too? My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary recently and my siblings and I decided to pay for the whole family to go abroad for a week.

The in-laws plus hot sunshiney weather equals the worst holiday ever...but what makes BBE the Best Boyfriend Ever is his ability to understand (after a little guilt trip followed by barefaced blackmail) when he needs to do stuff he doesn't want to do just because I really want him to. And I don't make him do stuff he doesn't want to do very often...afterall I'm the Best Bird Ever!

So the last time my family saw me in a bikini I was still a teenager with a wierd anorexic looking underweight type body. Now I'm worried that the RSPCA might start poking me with sticks mistaking me for a beached whale.

I'm more concerned about getting my kit off in front of my family than in front of BBE. Whenever I complain about weight gain he cheers and quotes the Bare Naked Ladies at me "She's like a baby I'm like a cat, when we're happy we both get fat" he doesn't get fat though, the miserable git! Although he kindly insists he's getting a bit of a belly!

So naturally given that there's a holiday in the near future my thoughts turn to diets...but as with all thoughts of diets they immedietly get over taken by an overwhelming need to eat chocolate. In fact, the closer the holiday gets the more chocolate I eat.

So instead I've decided it would be better to take one for the team and just stay a bit overweight so that everyone else will feel better!

Plan?

Good plan!

The New Doctor

Well I've waited a few days to see what everyone else is saying before sharing my views on the Eleventh Doctor, and frankly I dunno what the problem is.

Doctor Who, is magical, whoever plays him, whichever generation he is, he's this magical man who travels through time and space saving whichever planet he turns up on. The man is a legend. Close your eyes and say Doctor Who and 9 times out of 10 you're going to picture Tom Baker, because that scarf just screams Doctor Who, but then maybe immedietly after picturing Tom Baker he'll be replaced by the current Doctor because he's freshest in your mind.

I've read and heard so many people complaining that it just wont be the same without David Tennant, and of course it won't be - just like the David Tennant era wasn't the same as Christopher Eccleston or Peter Davidson or Patrick Troughton or, well you get the point.

The Doctor owns a time machine, he saves the world, he talks to aliens on a daily basis, he has so many interesting stories to tell. He has gadgets galore, he's a genius. He's quite probably the most billiant living being ever...what's not to like there then?

It doesn't matter who is playing him - the mere concept of him is brilliant, awe-inspiringly brilliant!

Matt Smith played the part perfectly as far as I can see, but then, was there ever any doubt? There shouldn't have been. The Doctor is The Doctor, he's lovable, eccentric, funny, kind and utterly brilliant, and always will be no matter who plays him... after all he is just the same man in a different body.

It comes as no suprise to hear females bemoaning the loss of the Tenth Doctor, because let's be honest the Doctor was never famed for his good looks, but then good looks are a matter of taste. David Tennant is a handsome man indeed...although I have to admit that as much as I found myself attracted to him when he was fiddling with his sonic screwdriver, in anything else I was quite uninterested.

Go on admit it...you only fancy David Tennant when he's the Doctor and you'll all be swooning over Matt Smith within a fortnight - I am fairly certain I will be anyway, but then I've always had a thing for geeky men - and believe me, geek is a state of mind, not a fashion statement.

Having watched the Eleventh Hour for a second time I can quite honestly say "oh yes, that'll do nicely"

Digital Piracy Rocks the Music Industry

So I read an article today about how Digital piracy is responsible for the decrease in sales of both hard copy music and downloads from legal download sites such as Itunes and Spotify.

Maybe it's just time for a change? Isn't it an exciting thought that actually people might get to have their own say about what they like? There's very little need for a recording contract with a record company anymore as digital recording software is easy to buy and easy to use. Bands can make some pretty damn fine "demos" in their rehearsal room and actually the quality most times is every bit as good as anything you can buy in the shops.

So you record your demo, then you load it onto MySpace for all the world to see, or you put it on Itunes to sell or you leak it to a site where people can download it illegaly for free.

Rather than bemoaning the falling sales maybe the music industry needs to look at this as a chance to change the way it operates. For years the public has been at the mercy of A&R people, huge companies deciding what we should listen to. They pay huge amounts of money to media to ensure that their next big thing is on the cover of the right magazines and played every 10 minutes on the radio. They saturate the market until even those of us with our own minds can't avoid hearing it. The media tells us what to think all the time, whether it's what music we should like, what constitutes attractive in the celebrity world or how thin we should be.

And ok, maybe we should feel sorry for the artists, those people who have worked hard on crafting their masterpieces only to find no one is buying them but everyone has a copy on their Ipod all the same.

But how sorry should we feel for the artist? ok so no one is buying their records, but when they sign a contract and recieve a huge multimillion pound non refundable advance payment against royalties, they're not the ones losing out are they? Nope. It's the record company that loses out because they never recoup the money back if no one buys the records.

And even if sales did impact on the artist, do we really care? Do they really deserve all the money when all they're likely to do is snort it up their nose anyway?

There will always be some bands you love so much you will buy every format that comes out, I myself recently acquired vinyl copies of the 3 original albums by The Beat, an honest to goodness hard working band, that gig constantly and keep smiling. I would like to hope that they earn enough from gigging to make a decent living, because they are my favourite band to watch and long may they continue to tour.

Maybe that is the key. Where in the past live tours were seen as a marketing expense to promote an album, perhaps the industry needs to stop bemoaning the falling record sales and shift their focus. Make records a marketing expense to promote a live tour. Instead of recording deals they can offer promotion deals, if they think a band is good enough they can raise their profile and make them celebrities so they can sell out stadiums at ?75 a ticket.

Although that wont appeal to everyone, some people like the small gig experience. but then again some people like buying CDs. The Music industry is never going to please everyone, but if they shift their focus they may find they at least still have an industry to call their own.

Leave Rafa Alone

It's not always easy being a Liverpool fan. We're like the under dogs of the top 4 - and yes I know, at least we are one of the top 4, but while we are up there, considered alongside Arsenal, Chelsea and the Scum, sometimes the difference between us and them seems mammoth. I'm pretty sure fans and players alike take for granted that Man U are going to win no matter who they play - and for the most part, they do. But while on paper we surely should win, we can never say for certain that we will.

Ironically when we meet one of our big rivals we pull out all the stops and we seem to fight more, and we've won some games which perhaps we weren't expecting...i bet Man U assumed given our run of bad luck it's be a walk in the park to take 3 points off us. But as if we're going to let Man U do that. So why do we let Fulham do it?

The difference i see between us and the other top 4 teams is the strength in the squad. Last season we finally had our starting eleven sorted and it worked like a dream, but what happens when one of the first eleven can't play? if the rest of the squad is rubbish then we're going to suffer when the likes of Gerrard or Torres are injured.

Of course then Alonso left, and christ if we haven't been allowed to forget it by every Red who can be arsed ringing phone-ins to complain - what sort of people do that anyway?? "We want Alonso back" "We're missing Alonso" and everyone's complaining about Rafa because Alonso has gone - Alonso chose to go. Rafa never wanted to lose him anymore than any of us did. But as much as I love my home, given the choice between living and raising a family in your home town in Spain and living and raising a family in Liverpool... can we really blame him for wanting to leave?

Rafa's got a long term plan, get the perfect starting eleven, then strengthen the rest of the squad. It's not his fault one of his key players left, and i reckon from the small glimpse we've had of Aquilani, he will be really good, but he needs time to gt familiar with the team and settle in. We're not going to have the answer over night.

Maybe this isn't our Season, and yes, that's so disappointing given how close we came last season, but there's next season and the one after... It's a marathon not a sprint and we have to get off Rafa's case, because it's not his fault his key players are injured...

Perhaps they should rethink International Duty. Why can't all the qualifiers be played in the close season? at least then the England Squad would get a decent run of time to train and play together, and they could stop disrupting our domestic season and ruining all our players.

Travel Rage

Oh My God! I'm not saying I'm the worlds greatest driver but it seems that the streets of Waterloo are full of stupid dangerous drivers. So annoying.

And they all come along at once. So a 5 minute journey to work feels like a white knuckle ride.

Last week I opened the gates to my carpark - and that in itself is no mean feat...sometimes I can be pressing that damn remote control 30 times before it randomly decides to open the gate. But when the gates open there's a big van stopped across the driveway...who parks a van across a driveway for Gods sake??

So I squeezed myself out through the gap he'd left me and trundled on my way. As I'm pootling along a car infront of me starts indicating left, like he's about to pull in, park up, whatever...so as I move out to the right to over take him he suddenly swings right and parks on the other side of the road...er hello? I mean indicators are pretty self explanatory right? You move it that way to turn that way and this way to turn this way...

Of course if other drivers aren't being stupid then I'm getting lost... I nipped out to buy some bacon for breakfast on Sunday and on the way back managed to get in the wrong lane taking a slight detour round the cemetery at the end of the road.

I tend to go out of my way to avoid certain roads that I don't feel comfortable driving on. Unfortunately all of those roads lead from my house to my boyfriends house and I've had to learn to love them. But I constantly find myself in the wrong lane. We live 10 minutes from each other and yet sometimes it can take me 40 minutes to get home coz I somehow take a wrong turn. Still I've mastered it now.

I suppose there are worse ways to travel...

I went for a snowboarding taster session last weekend. it was hellacious!
Well maybe I exaggerate, it was kinda fun for about 2 seconds at a time...those 2 seconds inbetween wobbling about all over the place and crashing into the crash mats at the end of the slope. 2 seconds in which I somehow managed to stay upright! Then just as I'm congratualting myself on staying upright and thinking "wowee that was fun" I look up the hill to where everyone is lined up and realise I have to somehow walk back up there with a piggin' great snowboard attached to one foot!

The instructor tried to make us turn left and right, jump, and touch the board...I could just about go in a straightline. The only thing I did during the whole session that impressed the instructor was nearly take out a skier....apparently that is a good thing in snowboarding world - excellent -I should do just fine up a moutain then!

So - am I going to go on a snowboarding holiday with my boyfriend next year? I think so. But he's going to find out just what a nark I am when I can't do something right away, and I may need to take some lessons in seeing the funny side.

And if any skier indicates left and turns right he's getting the full force of my road rage!

What a difference a week makes.

Dexter is very cute. There we sit every Sunday afternoon watching a few more episodes. We can overlook the serial killer aspect coz well, he has some morals...and besides, he's a bit easy on the eye.

Dexter the kitten on the other hand is very very cute but very very annoying. Wherever you walk in the house there's this kitten trying to stand on your foot. His eyes notice every little movement and pounce on anything that stays still long enough for him to catch it - including arms legs fingers toes...

Tilly has learned to tolerate him but he tests her patience on minutely basis, trying to fight her...she makes the best noises and swipes him across the face with a bigger heavier and stronger paw, but he just comes back fighting!

Last week I was mostly being immobile. I had a bit of a cold the week before and apparently the virus spread to my muscles and I was unable to move my neck. I struggled into work for 2 days before it took over my arm and back and I couldn't even get out of bed without taking a few pain killers. The doctor couldn't give me anything to treat it because of the blood pressure tablets I'm taking. So my days were spent on the sofa, with a heat pad around my neck and painkillers close to hand. Pain killers that knocked me out within 10 minutes of taking them. It's a wonder I managed to watch any of the shield at all! And lucky I was at home coz I had a wall of stench around me caused my regular applications of Tiger Balm. None of this had any effect on my pain or my ability to move mind you, but psychologically I felt like I was doing something!

So finally by the weekend I had some mobility in my neck and I left my house for the first time in 3 days and went round to visit the cats, and my boyfriend, and play guitar hero. I've even progressed onto medium and laughed at my former week younger self who couldn't even complete a song on easy!

Incidentally my boyfriend, really is the best boyfriend ever. He brought me round some emergency milk rations midweek and made me a cuppa. It's the little things that matter you know!