You Must All Listen to 'Guillemots - Walk The River'

7 steps to a happier life in 2011...

Originally I was going to make my next post in this here blog about the year just gone, the highs, the lows and the sideways. But seeing as I have the rest of my life to look at the inconsistent year of 2010 and only about 8 hours left to look ahead to tomorrow, I feel that this would be the more important post to make at this time.

.....


On this day every year, people will look to make a resolution to take into the new year, in order to either better their or somebody else's life. Rarely are these ever kept further than a fortnight, and for that reason I try to stay clear of making such resolutions. No ban on alcohol for me, no sir!

But this year I aim to make several which I hope to keep throughout the year. None are particularly taxing or difficult, but are all there in order to improve on my life. Whether that to make me smarter, fitter, kinder they are all resolutions that aim to make it a year that I can look back on and be proud.

So here lies my 7 New Year Resolutions for 2011...

1 (Part 1) Become more well read...
Having just recently recieved an Amazon Kindle off my parents for Christmas, I have challanged myself to read more this year than any other. This year I read a measily 8-10 books, 4 of which were read on holiday. Meaning outside of the 2 week holiday I had at the end of July in Corfu, I have only read 4-6 books this year. Quite pathetic really, don't you think?

(Part 2) Don't just read books that have or are being made into films or TV programmes...
As an add on to the first part of this resolution I feel I must become more varied in what I read. If I was to subtract all the books that I read because they were made into films or TV programmes, I would be left with 1 (and that's an Autobiography).

2. Loose that podge...
This resolution quite clearly directed to the more vain side of my personality (small as it may be, it is there). But also, for my health. I feel that I'm now getting to that age where, for longevity of life, it's important I start looking at how much I weigh and do what I can to rectify the problem. I currently walk, on average, 6 miles a day. Obviously however, I need to start participating in activities that work up more of a sweat and (hopefully) burn the fat. I shall let you know the weight I have been at (prior to the gorging of Christmas dinners, note the plural) in order to have a refrence to look back on and to see if I have been succesful in completing this resolution in a years time. 14 st 7lbs.

3. Pass my probation...
Certainly the most improtant of all Resolutions, and quite clearly the most obvious. It's not so much a resolution, but an aim that most be made in order to have a good year. God forbid I have another 6 months of unemployment in 2011.

4. Take time to make 1 call per month to anyone of my friends or family, just for a chat...
Excuse the cliche's as I write this, but in the digital age of Facebook and other such "Social Networking" sites, the art of conversation has gone right out the window. Having a chat with someone now only consists of the hammering of letters on a keyboard or frantically tapping away on your mobile phone. Neither of which can beat the pleasure of actually talking to someone and not having to type "lol" everytime you find something mildly amusing. Instead, I want to be able to pick up the phone and actually use up the 100 minutes that I'm paying for each month. 1 phone call may not seem like much, but it's better than what I am currently achieving.

5. Moan less...
Nothing is achieved from moaning, all it does is make you depressed about things that don't really matter. I just want to enjoy the things that make me happy and ignore the things that get me down. It may not be good for me in the long term, but I want to have at least one truly happy year.

6. Give people their birthday presents on their actual birthday...
Something that I have only really been able to do on my Girlfriend's birthday this year. It may mean a bit more forward planning (something that I don't excel in) but I'm sure it'll be appreciated by those it matters to.

7. Give to charity...
I gave a grand total of £0 to charity this year (terrible I know, please don't judge me). In 2011, this must change. From Tuesday onwards, every week I shall buy The Big Issue from the guy that stands outside of Euston Station. £1.50 per week may not seem much to me, but the £78 that he'll be receiving over the course of the year I'm sure he'll greatly appreciate.


So that's that. My 7 new years resolutoins for 2011. I'll report back this time next year and let you know how I get on

Gig Review #2 on Vampire Weekend in 9 words, and a Rant in 900 Words!

Apologies to anyone who is expecting a review on the Vampire Weekend Gig I went to last week, but really I have to get something off my chest which came to the foreground during this gig.

My Pet hate!

Pet hate gives what I’m about to talk about an almost light hearted name to something that really gets my blood boiling, but it seems to be the correct description and it’s one that I shall use for now.

Obviously, the number of annoyances at gigs is far and wide, ranging from people who go out of their way to hurt people in a mosh pit, to people throwing their pints of lager when one the first chord of their favourite song is played.

But my pet hate at gigs isn’t about getting bruised or wet and made to smell of lager for the rest of the evening, no no, mine is far more simpler and seemingly less blatant to most people.

Talking.

Now, I’m not talking about people who cheer during songs, or people who might make a humorous comment directed at the act on stage. That quite often is what makes a gig enjoyable and creates a fun atmosphere. What I’m talking about is the inconsiderate and rude individuals who shall talk about nonsensical crap during the quieter periods of the gig.

The most recent of this common occurrence took place during the Vampire Weekend gig of last week. During one of their quieter numbers, and a song that just so happens to be one of my favourites, ‘I Think Ur A Contra’.

Now I understand that everyone has their favourites, and that most people love Vampire Weekend and would go to their gigs for the songs that makes them want have a little jig, or, in some peoples cases, throw moves onto the dance floor that resemble someone having an epileptic fit. But what some people don’t seem to understand is that a lot of people at the gig that actually like more than just ‘A-Punk’ & ‘Cousins’, and will pay £20+ to see and hear a whole set and not just the ‘highlights package’.

On top of this, it’s not like they’re ever talking about anything of great importance. More often than not, it’s some idiot bloke who will take the opportunity of a quiet period during the gig to chat up a girl who probably only went along with him because of the offer of a free ticket where said girl is likely to run off after and avoid his texts and phone calls! Or it’s a group of lads boasting about how many pints they’ve had, or a guy telling his friends an offensive and largely unfunny joke he got in an email earlier that day.

There also seems to be a strong pattern to the type of gigs this happens at. Quite often, if you go to see a band who isn’t being played on Radio 1 and XFM non-stop, it will mean that the about 95% of the people there are going because they are massive fans who would happily hear every single song in their back catalogue and listen to them intently, the number of times people will talk during a quiet song or one of the more obscure numbers is minimal, if not completely unheard of.
Obviously, Vampire Weekend cannot be placed amongst these types of bands. As you’re almost guaranteed to hear them at least once over the course of the day, and probably several times when a new single is released. I think it’s safe to say this will attract a certain type of fan base.

Now, I’m not going to get up my own arse by saying that the type of people who go to gigs on the back of hearing them on XFM during Drive-time aren’t true music/gig fans, because more often than not, that will be how I hear band for the first time.
But I think where the difference lies is that when I will take the time to hear their albums and appreciate the music before I make the decision to see the band, others will use their disposable income on buying gig tickets to bands and artists that they’ve heard a few times on the radio, but have no real interest in finding out what the rest of their songs sound like. Worse than that, they have no respect for the people who do want to hear the rest of their music.

And I think having this type of audience has a bigger part to play than just the size of the crowd. An example of this would be when I went to see Guillemots at Somerset House in 2007, they were only starting to make a name for themselves after getting a mercury music prize nomination, and were able to sell out venues of 4000+, but when it came to a version of ‘We’re Here’, which involved Fyfe Dangerfield alone on stage with his guitar, silence was key to this song having it’s full effect. That is exactly what he got too, as soon as he started singing, 3000 people went silent to hear an absolutely beautiful and quiet version of a brilliant song.

Here is that song for you to listen to...



Anyway, I could talk about this pet hate of mine till the cow’s came home so I shall leave it at that. Please add your thoughts below, thanks.

By the way, Vampire Weekend are really good live.

Me & WHR #2 -'How not to commentate on football'

I think it's safe to say that Chris and I haven't quite hit our peak on the show. It is however, a work in progress.

This week I felt that the ideas that we brought to the show were good ones. It's important to both of us that we come up with content for our show that would bring enjoyment to our listeners and i feel we do this successfully.

Obviously, if you plan on listening to a radio show with 50 minutes of music to every hour it may not be the show for you. But we always do try our best to get a good mix of music and banter. Certainly this week during the first hour of the show we managed to get the Music to Talking ratio at 50:50, which I feel is ideal for our type of show. It was certainly an improvement from the week previous where only about 15 minutes worth of music was played during the first hour, as there are times when we find ourselves rambling on without realizing. Although I do think that the week previous was a great show, I do feel it's important to try and get an even mix of music to chatter, so that our listeners don't find listening to our show a chore. No doubt if I was sitting in a hospital bed all day I would probably welcome a bit of chatter on the radio to keep me entertained. Especially seeing as it's the only free entertainment available to the patients.

Anyway, moving onto the content of the show, as always, I brought a theme to the music for the first hour. With it being July the 4th a few days ago, I decided to bring a song from each decade from the 1950s to the 1990s that were either recorded or written by American artists (of course, before I played these songs I played the winner of last weeks poll, Mumford & Sons). The playlist, for my hour of this weeks show can be seen below.

And as part of that American theme, I tested Chris with a 20 question American Citizen test. We had the questions dispersed throughout the first hour of the show and I feel that we were reasonably successful in the timing of it all, even though we did have to cut out one of the songs from the plan. Chris managed to get a respectable 14 out of 20 which is enough to be considered an American citizen, or an American-English-Mancunian, if you will  (incidentally, I also managed to get 14 out of 20 when I took the test prior to the show).

With us only planning an hour of the show each I feel it makes it far easier to come up with a full hour of good content, quite often when planning the full 2 hours there was definitely a feeling that some of the content was more filler.

After my hour, as always, Chris and I change places and from 7 till 8 the decks are controlled by Chris for what can be considered an unpredictable hour of hospital radio.

It's safe to say that Chris brings a unique style of presenting to Hospital Radio, with an hour full of crazy games and sing-a-longs, as well as coming up with new jingles while we're on air. But certainly all we're hoping for is that we make our listeners smile in hope that they are enjoying the show.

This week however also consisted of some commentary on the Spain - Germany match as it started with half an hour of the show still to go.

One thing I will say is that Radio sports commentary is harder than you'd think. Trying to describe whats happening in the game as well as trying to keep up with the pace of it is extremely difficult.

But I guess the whole point of our show is make people laugh, smile, just generally take their mind off of things and just listen to two guys attempt at doing a radio show.

Playlist:
Mumford & Sons - Sign no more
Elvis Presley - Hound Dog/All shook up
The Animals - House of the rising sun
BB King - The thrill is gone
The Ramones - Baby, I love you
Nirvana - The man who sold the world

ps. I tend not to proof read these blogs, so apologies if it was difficult to read in places

pps. There is poll on the right regarding next weeks show, which is going to be a World Music theme.

A Poor Attempt at a Gig Review #1 'Foals and Two Door Cinema Club'

The iTunes festival is something I found out about 2 years ago, if you're unfamiliar with the premise of the iTunes Festival, it's basically a whole month of gigs, hosted at the same venue (this year it happens to be a The Camden Roundhouse, in past years it's been at The Koko and Institute of Contemporary Arts). But unlike most gigs and festivals, the tickets aren't purchased, but won. All you have to do is choose what gigs you want to apply for, give your email address and name, and if you're lucky, you win free tickets (which is great if you're unemployed like me).


When I first heard about the iTunes Festival not many people knew of it, but despite that, they were still getting loads of great acts to perform. That year I won about 4 different pairs of tickets.
Unfortunately the year after, I didn't win any.

What changed?

Simple answer really, Facebook.

When I won all those tickets in 2008, the only way you could enter was through the iTunes festival website, and the only place it was advertised was on iTunes.
Fast-forward a year, and the Festival was now advertised on Facebook. They even had a Facebook page where you could enter the competition, as well as numerous other website. That year the number of entries made had skyrocketed and made it very unlikely that you would win any tickets.

Moving forward to 2010, and the chances of winning tickets were even more unlikely. More people now know about it, there are more ways to enter, therefore, more people enter.

Despite this, I still entered, and on Saturday the 3rd of July, I got a notification on my iPod telling me I had won tickets to see Foals supported by Two Door Cinema Club on the 4th of July. Pretty short notice, but i was pretty chuffed to say the least. 24 hours later and my girlfriend and I were in the Roundhouse, waiting for Two Door Cinema Club to arrive on stage.

Due to the rules in place to make sure the venue gets filled, the competition winners are made to get to the venue for 7pm, otherwise the tickets go to those waiting in the stand by queue. Therefore, when the support act got on stage, there was the unfamiliar sight of a full venue for someone other than the main act. If truth be told, Two Door Cinema Club probably deserve a big crowd as they put on an entertaining set, lasting about 35 minutes as they played 7 or 8 songs off their debut album - 'Tourist History'.

Songs such as 'Something Good Can Work', 'Undercover Martyn' and 'Do You Want It All?' were played and got the crowd excited and warmed up for the headline act. Every band member was full of energy. Dancing and jumping round the stage, with very little space in-between songs to relax. If the young lads from Northern Island can make more albums to the high standard of their debut I wouldn't be surprised if they are filling arenas in 5 years time.

(Also as a side note: If you were a fan of Mumm-Ra, and were disappointed when you heard they split, this may well be the band to fill that little hole.)

After a 30 minute break, on came Foals. I had seen the band perform once before, as they supported Bloc Party at Olympia last year, however, back then I felt the quality of the sound let them down as it was very much geared towards making Bloc Party sound as good as possible.

On this occasion, the quality of the sound was no problem and in that respect they sounded superb. However, as far as the performance went I felt it did have a somewhat lackluster middle section, which lasted around 20 minutes. But they more than made up for it with their performances of 'Cassius' and 'Balloons'. As well as the final 20 minutes which was absolutely mind blowing. It was highly energetic and their unique style of music and performance was excellent, we were even lucky enough to witness a rather impressive crowd dive from the Foals front man; Yannis.

The set in total was an hour long and despite the feeling the Foals have a lot of room for improvement, as soon as I got home I pre-ordered the live recordings from their set, which can be expected to be released early August on iTunes.

Two Door Cinema Club - 8/10
Foals - 7/10

Rob's Tip On What To See At The Cinema This Year #1

I really really want to see this film when it comes out in August



If you do not want to see it, i may have to reassess our friendship...

Me & WHR #1

This will hopefully be the first of many blogs about my radio show ‘A Game of 2 Halves – with Rob & Chris’ at Watford Hospital Radio but seeing as it is the first I think I’ll just give you a quick insight to my time so far at WHR and the birth of mine and Chris’s show.


I joined the station in November 2009. The reasons for doing so are many. Firstly, I was incredibly bored, at the time I was working in an office 9 till 5 and although I would spend my weekends going up to Cambridge to see my incredible girlfriend, my activities during the week after work were limited and repetitive. I needed something interesting and fun to do.

Secondly, volunteering always looks great on a CV, plus it’s very fulfilling, knowing that you might make one patient’s time in the hospital that little bit less stressful make it’s completely worth it. However, there was and always has been one overarching reason as to why I wanted to join WHR.

I want to work within the Media Industry!

‘What better way to get work experience than hospital radio!’ I thought to myself.

And it’s true, it is a superb way to get work experience, and to anyone who is looking at working in the media I highly recommend it. Not only is it a great way of building up your confidence behind the microphone, but it allows you to breed your creativity by planning and producing your own show, every single week.

But of course, they don’t give you a show as soon as you turn up. Plus, with the sudden influx of new applicants wanting to join the station, you may not get to do a show at the time you want. But before you have to worry your little head about that, every applicant has to go through training.

The training is of course, great fun. For many, like me, it’ll be the first time you get to go behind the mic and because of this you’d be wise to think that they’d give you a few test runs before they think about putting you on air to the patients. But you’d be wrong. Instead, they throw you straight into the deep-end by putting you live on-air while telling you how it all works. It can be a little daunting at first, but it is completely the right way of going about it. Largely because any of those nerves that may be simmering at the surface regarding going live on-air disappear almost immediately, but also you learn a whole lot quicker by actively doing it.

My training at WHR was somewhat stuttered by the snow making near impossible on occasions to get to the hospital, but eventually I had completed my training and by early February I had my very own show.

Before, ‘A Game of 2 Halves – with Rob & Chris’, the show was called ‘Thornley’s Folklores’. The show was based around playing Indie Folk & Acoustic music, and I had done the show by myself for around 2 to 3 months. It was a good show, and I thoroughly enjoyed doing it, but I always knew something was missing. A co-host!

Chris joined WHR a few months after myself and was in the middle of his training when we first met at the AGM meeting. It was decided there and then that doing the show together would benefit both of us. A few weeks later we had completed our first show together, after concluding that the show was a success we made the line up permanent.

Since then, the show has evolved into what we now call ‘A Game of 2 Halves –with Rob & Chris’.

The basic premise of the show is that we plan an hour each, I do the first hour, Chris does the second, each with there own unique style. My hour involves Music with a Theme, the themes range from Covers, to World Cup songs and from summer hits to Glastonbury’s finest.

Chris’s hour consists of all the requests made by the patients prior to the show, and in both hours we have games, quiz’s and banter filling up all the gaps.

Of course, it is still a work in progress, and it will only ever get better with the more shows we do (this week we came up with a jingle). But despite all the little mistakes that happen and the lack of structure to the show, it’s a really fun show to do, and I can only hope it’s as fun to listen too.

Anyway, I’m going to wrap up for now, and let you get on with your day. Be sure to visit this site regularly as I will hopefully update it with all sorts of stuff that might interest you. As for my WHR blogs, there’ll be another one next Friday.

Also, please do use the comments box below to give me feedback regarding anything to do with this blog or the show. Maybe you have an idea as to what theme of music I can play, or maybe you want to hear about something in particular regarding hospital radio. Whatever it is, I’ll be happy to hear your feedback.

Thanks for reading.

P.S. You'll note on the righthand side to this page there is a poll where you can vote for which song you think should open the show next week. Only takes a second, and even if you don't think you'll be listening next week, vote anyway. Thanks