Stitchy update

Well, it's the middle of April and I thought time for an update on my current stitchy project. This is the Iris I've been working on.

I now reckon I'm about three quarters of the way through it. It's been quite a nice project as it's been big blocks of colour. Having said that, I'm getting close to the end now and this is normally the point where I just want to get it finished so that I can move onto the next one.

The frame Rob bought me for xmas is working out well, it's much easier to do a big project when I haven't got to handle the material, and as this is a slightly bigger project than I'm used to, it is keeping everything nice and neat and easy to do.

Fingers crossed I'll have it finished in the next month.

Jo and Rob go to the Forum

8th April. The Forum. Adelaide. Mayday Parade. We are the Ocean. Madina Lake.

When I booked this I wondered if it was bad form to be going to a gig purely to see one of the support acts. I think it's pretty bad planning if the doors open at 7 and the first band on starts at 7.10. Particularly if the queue goes the whole way round the block and most people miss the whole of Adelaide. I was a little grumpy about that, it surely could have been avoided.

Thankfully, we made it in with minutes to spare for Mayday Parade. And I sang my little socks off, danced as much as possible and thoroughly enjoyed the goosebumps shooting through my body from this lovely band. I mean, honestly, with song titles like 'If you can't live without me, why aren't you dead yet?' it's so easy to love them. They kept things lively, which meant I didn't get a couple of my faves, but it fitted the gig well and the crowd loved it. In my opinion, they should have had higher billing. They had flown over from the US afterall.

We Are The Ocean. I really don't know what to say about them. Neither of us knew who they were, although they were a local band by the sound of things. The guitarist had a great voice and led most of the songs, I liked his sound a lot. The other singer seemed more content screaming. Ruined it for me, I wasn't sure at all, but I'll go and have a listen to some of their recorded stuff, I suspect it's better than it was live.

Finally, the headliners, Madina Lake. I had gone some way to listen to their album on Spotify knowing that I was going to their gig. The songs I knew, I really enjoyed. A lot. The ones I didn't, not so much. They all have a bit of an out of space theme, which is quite funky. Highlights for me were Never Take Us Alive (the first song, kicked their set off nicely), Let's Get Outta Here and Welcome to Oblivion. They clearly put some thought into it, there were huge balloons at one point and streamers during another. Good fun, but wish I'd known more of the songs. The sound wasn't the best at times, but perhaps that was my hearing. I've seen a recording on youtube since and it sounds better than I remember.

Not too often that we get US bands that I quite like over here, so I'm pretty chuffed that I managed to see two in one go. I'll keep my fingers crossed for a Mayday Parade headline gig here at some point, I think they are definitely good enough and have a pretty loyal fanbase building over here.

Jo and Timmy go to a gig...

31st March and Timmy and I hit Shepherds Bush, Bush Hall to be exact. We were there to see Steve Appleton, someone Timmy had discovered a while ago.

Firstly, Bush Hall. It's gorgeous. Big chandeliers, pretty lighting, a lovely balcony and terrace outside. It's hosted many big names when they were still small fry - think Kings of Leon, Killers, Lily Allen, Florence and the Machine, the list just goes on and on.

Having listened to his stuff on his website and decided it was quite funky sounding(and moreso because the tickets were pretty cheap), we decided to give it a try - to be honest, I think this is a guy who is much better live. For a start, he looks like he's turned from a kid with a guitar into a grown up. He has funky hair, piercings and a bit of a swagger. The teenage girls are going totally nuts - it's been a while since I've been to a gig with such a young mostly female crowd and I felt like I was 16 again. It also makes a massive difference with a live band, and in the course of the show, he manages to show off his skill on both acoustic and electric guitar, keyboard and saxaphone. This is one talented guy, which makes me feel he's definitely going to be one to watch out for.

If you're in the UK and have spotify, go look him up on a sunny day and whack up Dirty Funk.