You Twitt

Having seen all the hype about Twitter, I finally succumbed & joined up myself. As a total shock I decided to be called Pikachuind, so check me out & follow me here.

Basically, for the uninitiated, it is very similar to the status updates for Facebook & it follows that it is known as an online social network. However, it is much simpler than other site, like Facebook, myspace, etc. because it's not geared up for a certain age bracket, but for 'everyone'. The idea is that you follow people & other people follow you.

It's quite addictive & also, there's less onus on you to do anything, it's really just a mini-blog. This sense of minuscule-ness is further heightened by the fact that you only have 140 characters to tell the world something. Also it's not just for us mere geeks, apparently celebrities use it as well, the most popular being Barack Obama, Stephen Fry, Jonathan Ross & Britney Spears but there are loads of others a well, including my favourites Bill Bailey & Eddie Izzard - theirs are classic.

My advice is to go check it out & see what some of your friends & some stars are up to!

Swoon-ing

OK, OK, I promise this is the last Silversun's blog today!

I ordered my copy of their new album - Swoon from good old Amazon, it's already been dispatched, so it should be here this week...expect a review later on this week, when I've given it a good caning!

Silversuns Live Part 5 Setlist

OK here's the set list as far as I could work out:

New song*
Well Thought out Twinkles
New song* (waiting raving falling?)
Little Lovers so Polite
New song* (right in your way)
Future Foe Scenario (brilliant!)
Kissing Families (awesome)
New song* (with a killer riff!)
Lazy Eye (amazing & awesome pedal work!)


*nooo idea what it was called, but always sounding good.

Unfortunately we both had to go (so Maddie to get back to Canterbury) so we missed the last parts of the set - d'oh!!

Silversuns Live Part 4 - The main event

Now we come to the good stuffs - the Silversun Pickups themselves.



I have to say I was properly excited about seeing them live, after how much time I had given over to listening to them & how much of an impact it made on my last year - it's good, happy, feel-good music & very melodic. What was great was that the crowd were all fans & really there to see Silversun's perform live or regulars there to check out a new band.

Their set list (more on that later) was packed with great songs from their EP & album, but sandwiched between these gems were selected tracks from their new album (Swoon, out today from amazon or via iTunes).

They were great, funny & Brian (the lead singer & guitarist) kept playing even when one of his pedals failed. All the songs were similar to the album versions, but there were some good 'live additions' between the song & you could see that they had really nailed down how they were going progress through their set. I decided that I really do want Brian's guitar - it is awesome (Epiphone Sheraton 2 from a previous blog)



Overall rating for the gig would 5* out of 5 - it was a great venue, great crowd, great warm-up band & awesome main act & to top it off I didn't have to sell my kidneys just to get a ticket! I'd give it 6*'s but the parking sucked (£1.50 for 15 minutes 24/7, I think not!!).

Finally, given the chance to see a small & intimate gig like this, with a great band like this again, I would literally jump at the chance & will certainly see them again next time they're within 100 miles of Oxford!!



P.S. Check out Lazy Eye live here

Silversuns Live Part 3 - The Support Act

Before the Silversun Pickups were on the stage, they had their support act - The Joy Formidable.



I would describe them as a little band with a BIG sound. They are a 3-piece setup - female fronted & lead guitarist, a mad bassist (with the volume up proper loud) & a very accomplished drummer.



Their style was similar style to the Silversuns, very melodic & well put together, loads of power chords & distortion.



The bass-lines were loud - a good thing & the vocals were hauntingly beautiful & very different because of the female lead. The bassist also sang & offered really good harmonies to the mix. Overall this band demand to be played loud - it suited their style & pulsing sound.

Finally, they also offered part of their EP/Album as a free download & for those who indulge, here is their myspace page

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!!