Am I the only one who think it looks like the word ‘Penis’ in the title ?
Anyway, I haven’t been sleeping well lately so up at 5.50am I realised I didn’t do a run down of April for myself to look back on at the end of the year.
I looked at my diary and see the one gig for the month, the Masters of the Airwaves book launch. You can read about that here. While I was in Birmingham Timmy and I knocked out the pretty ‘weird’ Insanity. I just looked at the Soundcloud link and it’s had over 500 plays.. not bad really. There are things happening with it so can’t say much more than that really, I’m looking forward to giving it a spin at Southport. I’ve done a rather disturbing video for it which may be counterproductive as you don’t want a tune that scares the shit out of you in a club, then again I’ll probably load it anyway. Here’s the tune in case you missed it.
Other than that, the month has been relatively quiet for me. I’ve kept busy with a couple of websites but nothing like the previous months and we now have a new addition to the family in the form of little “Olivia” the kitten, who was “Oscar” until we realised ‘he’ is a ‘she’. Nice one Suella.. ha.
I’ve been a little short-tempered recently and I don’t know why, I deal with a lot of people who demand me to bite my tongue a lot, alas if I’m tired or grumpy then I generally let loose with both barrels. I was only commenting last week about how I’ve been in a relatively positive and happy mood for 95% of the year but in the last few days (which is May really but I’ll have forgotten about it by the end of the month) I seem to have turned into a grumpy old bastard. I do analyse things to see why, but I have no idea this time around.
The kids do try my patience, especially when I have to keep repeating things on a daily basis, but I have to say I am very impressed with how they are learning to stand up for themselves and give me valid ‘argument’ back when we are discussing things (generally relating to me shouting at them for being messy). I did think to myself the other day that I feel I have the balance right between teaching them discipline, self-respect and general life skills whilst at the same time allowing them to be the carefree 12 and 13 yr olds they are. Michelle may disagree at times when I’m strangling Mikey with a bread knife pressed against his ribs.
Talking of Michelle, yesterday was Spanish Mother’s Day and what a wonderful wife and mother she is. She won’t read this, but I felt like putting it out there. Today she drives down to the Costa del Sol again for a few days with her new job she started back in January. She has a lot of responsibility in her managerial role within a funeral plan company and I am very proud of her. She enjoyed a weekend in Birmingham with the girls recently. She is my rock.
I was lay in bed wondering why I am not sleeping well. As many will know, I do genuinely have some kind of issue in my head regarding any unfinished business. If I start a website I wake up the next day keen to crack on and get it done asap, I currently re-decorated my bedroom and am in the process of sprucing up the terrace. All these things will be completed (hopefully) this week and that is also something which is playing on my mind, as I get new ideas to thrust upon my good friend Paul who I decided to let professionally construct my Day Bed v2. All will be revealed when complete.
All is rosy with the VBW, tickets are still selling and hotels are near full. I have no idea if we will be as busy as past years, although we ARE the busiest we have ever been at this point in the year. I’m not concerned but maybe that is playing on my mind a little.
And then of course there is Southport. I can’t recall the last time I was so excited about it. I’m excited to go and have a play up and I’m trying to allow myself to get excited about playing, but I generally don’t let that happen because if anything was to go wrong before hand (like lose my music en-route or miss the plane) then I would be devastated. So, I always play down the excitement about performing until afterwards, which is then always stifled anyway with thoughts about how I could have made it EVEN better. I’d love a session with a psycho-analyst, they’d definitely get their money’s worth !
Talking of which, I feel this little ramble to you has alleviated some of the tension and I am ready for the week ahead. As I send this I am sure there are thousands of people trying to look at the inside of their brains after a heavy bank holiday and many more are still going for it. If you are one of them, have another for me.
Peace.
Oh – By the way, take a look on the website in the navigation bar for my VIP area, there’s a little gift there for you, and remember that all my day-to-day nonsense is captured in my Instagram feed on the site or here.
8th Dec 24: The Vocal Booth Radio Show
2 hours of forgotten gems and the occasional piece of buried treasure from the vinyl archives.