Silveruns Live Part2 - Teh Venue

The Venue was The Borderline appeared really small (not much bigger than the Cellar & made the Oxford Academy look like a stadium) with a small stage. However, there were really good acoustics & a massive sound system - it said something about the place with the amount of people that had ear plugs in - a good sign of things to come.

"The Borderline is a few minutes walk from Tottenham Court Road tube station. It is a cosy and atmospheric underground bar and venue, with a capacity of 275." apparently

Silversun Pickups overload!

OK, now for something a lot more recent - the Silversuns. This going to be a multi-part review, otherwise this will be an epic single posting!



So, where to begin?! This up-and-coming band, who have previously supported the Foos & Kaiser Chiefs on their last tours,few people have heard about & they are still relatively unknown to the majority. This suits them, however, as their gigs are more smaller, more personal & rather more fun!



I called them my band of '08 & I was really excited when Ents24 told me that they were coming to London!

They had 3 dates & I went for Borderline & got 2 tickets for me & Madd for a very reasonable £8.50 each & excitement began!

Coming up, the Venue, Support Act & Main Act & a picture or 2!

We continue...

Blogs to write this week

Going to do several updates this week,

1. Silversun Pickups Gig report from last week
2. Life/Ministry update
3. New book report - Mike Yaconelli collection - Getting Fired for the Glory of God

Hot Chip Gig Report

This is from what seems like a very long time ago...oh wait it was!! Way back on 23rd October [2008] in Southampton Guildhall.

The gig was of course Hot Chip & my accompanying crew were Madd, Doodles & her friend Hols.



As a general setup, the Guildhall was pretty good, it looks like an old cinema or theatre & had a good vibe about it. There were about 8 strobes & there plenty of studio lighting, rather than effects (a la Lemon Jelly) or anthing.

Here's their setlist:
One Pure Thought,
Bendable, Posable,
Shake a Fist,
I Was a Boy at School,
Hold On
*Alley Cats (New Song),
Over & Over,
Wrestlers,
*(New Song),
Ready for the Floor,
Made in the Dark,

Encore:
*(New Song),
My Piano.
No Fit State

Finale:
Nothing Compares (Cover)



The support act was terrible, so bad in fact, I'm not going to say anything about him! Hot Chip, however, were great - they really know how to rock the crowd & their set was packed with great tracks. Also their performance was really passionate & they worked really hard.

Overall I'd give it 4* (out of 5*), they lost one with that shocking support act!

For an alternate review, check out what click music had to say.

USA Day 5: Sunday

This was the last day at Lake Champion, so packing up was in order, then the final session, before heading off to Washington D.C. We drove for about 5 hours & ended up crossing 5 different states to get there. We arrived at a luxurious house to meet Lee Corder [Vice President of Young Life & Director of the Northern International Young Life Ministries] who we chatted to for a while, about who we were & where we came from etc. Next we headed to where we were to stay overnight, the name of the place I cannot say, but it was a place where many famous dignitaries & heads of state have stayed over the years. It’s a very stately place & extremely secret. It was the origins for the Good Will charity & the National Prayer Breakfast. It’s a very splendid & restful place.

My Grandma would love this place – it’s very much the sort of place she’d thrive in!!

Epic Failz

OK I admit it, I'm a blogging slacker, there's sooo much for me to catch up on with things going on with me at the moment: finishing off the america blog, more about Young Life/jobs & I've been to see Hot Chip & The Mighty Boosh live shows & said nothing about any of this yet.

So I'm pledging to try to catch up asap, so watch this space!

We continue

Day 4: Saturday

Today was more of watching Young Life activities & then had the afternoon off.

Day 3: Friday: Continued Camp

Today; quite busy, seeing the rest of Asian Young Life weekend away. We also helped in the kitchen after breakfast & lunch, before seeing in another weekend away group of about 250 young people, most of who weren’t Christians. The idea was to see a whole weekend of Young Life camp.

Day 2: Thursday: Seeing camp

OK today was a late waking day [jetlag grrr!] & basically had a day to have a look around Lake Champion, taking in their facilities, then went out for a pizza with Randy & the guys. Later on that evening, a group of 50 or so young people came over from Asian Young Life. It was great to see this guy’s ministry & see how he interacts with this young people from Asian descent.

Day 1: Wednesday: Arrival

So it’s Wednesday [OK really it's Saturday teehee!!] & I’ve been up for nearly 24 hours & am totally bushwacked, but here’s the story so far:

Got up at just after 5am & got on the 6:20am bus to Heathrow Terminal 5. With plenty of time I got through check-in & security & had a Starbucks breakfast & chatted to Maddie for a while before I boarded the plane. It was a British Airways 747 flight & nice & comfortable, but maybe not enough legroom for me – my knees properly caned afterwards. Good food on the flight & a couple of good movies kept me occupied for most of the flight, but did sleep [& dribbled!!] for a little while.

When I landed it definitely dawned on me that I’m coming to America [duh!], to meet with some people from Scotland & an American guy called Randy – none of whom I’d met before in my whole life!! Once through the intense security at customs, I got my case & went through the exit door – not know who I was looking for, or even if I could find them! Thankfully when I got through to the terminal, there was a guy asking every person if they were called Simon! This turned out to be Randy Nickel, & waiting for me just outside were 2 Scottish gentlemen - Paul & Graham.

We chatted for a bit & headed into Manhattan [a.k.a. New York], where we took in the sights of Times Square, went up the Empire State building saw the awesome views of the city. Next we had a wicked Chinese banquet & then headed off for a 2 hour drive to Lake Champion. We settled in & went to sleep almost instantly to a great place called Swiss House – the adult guest rooms.

Intro to trip:

This is what happened to get me to America: had a phone interview with a guy called Tom Hammon, from a youth ministry company called Young Life. Now some good friends of mine from CYM [Han & Sparky] both work for Young Life in Hillingdon [London] & had suggested talking to their boss [Tom] who is the head of the UK ministries. But they had also been singing my praises to both their immediate boss & their committee. People seemed pretty excited about me & the possibilities of working with Young Life in ministry. Anyways to cut a fairly long story short, I had a 45 chat with Tom Hammon & I shared a bit about me & my testimony. He suggested seeing if there was space with a group of Scottish guys who were going over to Baltimore & New York city to check out what Young Life is all about. Originally he suggested it was for a trip at the end November, then rang back shortly afterwards & said what was I doing next week! Obviously nothing, so I said why not – managed to get the funds raised for a flight & now I’m here!! What follows will be a series of blogs about what I get up to!

To be continued!

America Blog Part 1…of Many

OK this is going to be a series of old-skool blogger-blog’s from yours truly – what I did, where I went etc. enjoy peeps! Photos will be up on Facebook soon & I’ll try to post every day or so – there’s currently internet where I am, but not sure how long I’m here for! For those who don’t already know – I’m going to/in America for the next week or so.

Six out

What on earth

I have been meaning to post this for ages, but have been a slacker/busy!! So this is written about a week after I meant to!!

Not that I would ever borrow ideas from another blogger...but checking out Mark Oestreicher's blogthe other day, I came across a good template, like a kind of old skool questionnaire [see his original answers here]. I thought the questions were very apt for my own ministry/life/world, so I asked myself the same 8 questions:

the weekend that was: Last weekend was the beginnings of the studio idea [more on that on another blog methinks - watch this space!]

where I am at the moment: Was in Oxford, am now in a place called Lake Champion, in New York state, in America!!!

on my to-do list this week:Was to book a flight to Newark & get packing, but now it's all about checking out Young Life & spending so great times meeting people & seeing how they do ministry.

procrastinating about: Blogging & general geekiness & also what presents to get Maddie from America...oh & should I get some new/decent headphones while I'm over stateside?!

book I’m in the midst of:Jack Higgins' new Sean Dillon paperback: The Killing Ground. Haven't been reading it that much, it seems a little samey as other Dillon books [this is like 13/14th in the series!]. Have also been hearing a lot of the Stephen Fry audiobook forms of the Harry Potter series - a modern classic!

music that seemed to catch my attention this past week: Silversun Pickups & Autolux's debut albums [Carvanas & Future Perfect respectively]. However, I've also been learning the guitar & listening to a bit of acoustic stuff - the DVD's for Nirvana: Unplugged in New York & Foo Fighters: Skin & Bones. On the dance side it has to be Adam Freeland's BBC Radio 1 mix [aka 2 hours to Jupiter mix].

next trip:America - NOW!! To visit a Young Life camp with some others from Scotland & see how their ministry runs. Taking in New York, Washington DC & Baltimore.

how I’m feeling about this week:I have been really stoked about the possibilities of coming here to America to see Young Life, but also I had the chance to see the Mighty Boosh - legendary, simply legendarily funny. I had not laughed that much or that hard for a looooong time!! Having said all that, I am really missing my girlfriend, who I haven't seen for a few weeks, but will do when I get home - yaaaaaay!!

That concludes this blog, but expect more in the next week with all my goings-on in America!!

...we continue!

A whole year!

OK this is a quick update for my relationship with Maddie - we've been together for a whole year today! I got her a cute, but fairly grown-up watch from Swatch in Canterbury which replaces her really old one from Disneyland Paris!! She got me loads of small & random presents, like a brand for toast which you press in then toast & it leaves a message - awwwww & some other narly things as well!! & the cards were proper cute as well.

Today we spent the whole day together, sharing meals, looking around Woking & as I type she's making me a romantical dinner - awwwww!! We've not spent a huge amount of monies on each other, but to be honest that's not really the point - we've managed with the means that we have & we've had the day together so that's all that matters.

It's been a great year, being with Maddie & long may it continue ;o)

Six [all loved up] out

HOT CHIP!!!

OK this should be auto-posted by the time I'm down in Portsmouth to visit young Doodles & also to see Hot Chip today - 23rd in the evening at Southampton Guildhall - I'm so very stoked about this & below is a darn good reason why!!

Clubbing & Spirituality - my thoughts

OK here are my thoughts….albeit briefly on the idea of the spirituality of clubbing.

Firstly what do I mean by clubbing? This, I would describe as the culture of dance music; specifically the sub-genre’s of Trance & Hard House. I choose these two specifically because of my own experience in going to clubs where this was the musical genre of choice. However, this can also be expanded to any genre of dance music, but usually with the stipulation that live mixing [that of merging two musical tracks together using either CD or vinyl turntables] takes place. The joy of dance music is that it is continually evolving.

In terms of the spirituality & dance music, I would argue that there is a real sense that when clubbers gather together & in the patterns that they form in the venue that they are dancing, there are at least parallels with how church operates. From ‘greeting’ at the door [bouncers!] & refreshments [all be it alcoholic], to the ‘alter’ that the DJ operates from. There is even a bizarre parallel to the ‘holiest of holies’ - the green room where the DJ’s gather before their performances.

This may not necessarily represent a true, or at least Christian idea of spirituality, but my argument would centre on the idea that there is still the search for spirituality. As a seasoned clubber myself [& one who still listens to a great deal of dance music!] I would suggest that having seen how clubbers behave, I would suggest that there really is spirituality rife in the clubbing world & therein lies a great opportunity for evangelism & to reach out to these people who are searching for something….although they may not know what!!

Classic....but better

I think it sounds so much better with Hot Chip lolz, but here's the original anyways

Cool W-hip VOX

Ideas Factory 3

If this studio idea has some merit, then here is a product which might just help me. It's called the JamVOX & is made by the legendary VOX Amplifier manufacturer.

The idea is that you get monitor speakers, which you can jack your electric/acoustic guitar into. It also has a mic input.

The unit hooks up to your Mac or PC via USB 2.0 & with the software you can change the inputted sound.



The software itself uses various synthesized amplifiers, stomp-boxes & effects pedals to alter the sound. Although it is synthetic, I believe that for recording purposes it could be brilliant.

It will record digitally which will be great for edting purposes.


It is not hugely priced - it is about £150 online at the moment. However, this is not much more expensive than a reasonable practice amp [VOX or Marshall].

Overall, I think that this could make a brilliant start for the idea of a studio & a worthy purchase!

Confused by what?!

OK this might just be me [& please take no offense from this if you feel my quirky sense of humour is, well, just a little bit too quirky for your liking] but attending the grad ceremony yesterday, & it's been something I thought was funny for a while, but it occurred to me how classic we all looked in our gowns & hats. But also just how similar they are to Harry Potter & his crew - of wizards!!! It could of course be my imagination, but you judge for yourself: