Hello.

Hello blog.
It's been a while. I haven't forgotten about you, or stopped writing here.
The truth is, the last two months have been pretty quiet, pretty gig free and not much has been happening except for work and sleeping. I promise to pick the pace back up.
From me.

Pooh Watercolour finished!

So, early in October (only slightly later than planned), I put the final stitches to my Pooh Watercolour cross stitch. This year is going well for stitching so far, I'm on track to finish the 4 pieces I had in mind by the end of the year, although with the dark evenings, it's a little trickier.

I think it turned out pretty well, it's going to a work colleague, so hopefully her daughter will enjoy it.

Here's a little piccie of the finished piece.

Showcase:Live, Queen of Hoxton

My first time downstairs at the Queen of Hoxton, and what a super little venue!

This was my first time at Showcase:Live, and I'll definitely be going back. We had the pleasure of seeing Polar Night, The Pictures and finally Steve Appleton.

First on, Polar Night had that lovely full band sound, and to say this was their first London show I was mighty impressed. The room was already packed when we arrived, and I could feel my feet tapping along as I stood at the bar, I could happily listen to this music anytime, I look forward to seeing what's next for them.

The Pictures played a two person acoustic set. Apparently these guys were well known from the TV show Must Be The Music, which I have to admit I never watched, so really, not a clue what to expect. Bizarrely, the two people who played the set were the lead singer and the one who appears to be the drummer in the full band setup, but here was playing guitar. I have to say that the three of us were TOTALLY mesmerised by the drummer's cheeky grin...this was lighting up the room with his smile territory, not many people can do that. The lead singer was a bit nuts, but they were really excellent, so I'd love to see them as a full band. Here's the video from Must Be The Music.

Finally, Steve Appleton. You'll see that we saw Steve Appleton earlier in the year, and he was the main draw for us to this gig. A little bit different to last time, and without a full band, he played a couple of older songs, but mostly demo'd some new ones, which were really great. This man has more talent in his little finger than I have in my whole body, and between the guitar, the keyboard and using his new loop station, the sound was full and interesting. He even managed to pull off Twist and Shout out at the end for an encore. I very much look forward to hearing more from him.

Gotan Project, Troxy

And now for something completely different.

I really don't know how to describe the Gotan Project. They make sexy, sultry Tango music. I wasn't sure how this would translate to a live show, but with the Troxy as a venue, and a packed house to play to, it worked well.

Gotan Project are a band that I hear a lot, Rob likes to play this as music to relax to, and this works well for both of us. Their sound is distinctive, chilled out, and people at the gig moved to the back of the standing area to dance with each other...the type of live music where you're able to do that, despite being in a room with well over 2000 other people, well, that's a bit special.

I was worried that it'd all sound a bit samey, but thankfully the songs all sounded sufficiently different. The background projected visually interesting videos, a feast for the eyes and with the guys and ladies on the stage radiating sexiness, the Tango 3.0 show was enjoyable from beginning to end.

If you're not familiar with these guys, check them out... here is the new video Rayuela.

McFly

I had a lot of comments and eyerolling from people when I said I was going to see McFly. This I do not understand, because I think secretly some of these people guiltily like them. I think there was some jealousy going on because I was openly able to admit that I like them and I was going to see them live.

There's a bit of a backstory here... In the place where I work, there also used to work a grown man, we will call him M. On Fridays, M would get woken up by the radio wishing him a Happy McFly Day and with the playing of the McFly track 'Star Girl'. M would then make his way into the office, and pass on Happy McFly Day with the playing of the track out loud to the office and singing along with it. This reminded me how good and fun and silly they actually are, and that I really enjoy their music. Therefore when the show came along, we got tickets to see it, but sadly M couldn't come along with me, so I took my cousin instead.

So... the gig!

The boys kicked off with the track 'Party Girl' from the new album (Above the Noise, released 15th November 2010). Now, the video for this track is rather a lot raunchier than the McFly that I'd seen before. Interesting for me that they are taking this new direction, McFly are getting sexy. They are also releasing their first mini-feature film, which has 7 of the songs from the new album. More information on that is on their website, but it seems that they've been very busy boys!

The live version of Party Girl sounded pretty close to the recorded one, and I'd say that most of the audience knew it, so from the first note, everyone was up and jumping and dancing around and singing their little hearts out. The vibe was one of pure entertainment, and that's the reason I love bands like this, it's a complete pleasure to be at their gigs, and the audience ranged from pre-teen kids all the way to people my age, older and a few with white hair! Fun for all the family :)

The band played through a number of the tracks from older albums... I felt especially giddy at hearing them do Star Girl live... but they also tried out some of the material from the new album. I very much liked it, and I'm sure it'll only grow on me... a little bit older and wiser but still with a polished sound and lights show that makes you feel on top of the world, these boys really do know how to throw a concert.

Mayday Parade, Islington O2 Academy

8th October & 11th October
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Yep, Mayday Parade were double-headlining alongside The Maine. I decided to write them up separately. For me, these were dream gigs. Two of my top 5 bands playing on the same night.

I love both the Mayday Parade albums, they are two of the favourite albums that I own, love every song from both of them. The last time I saw them in April, the sound in the Forum was terrible. I wasn't sure what to expect this time.

Almost as soon as The Maine had left the stage, the pushing forward started. It was the same in April, I don't know what makes these fans go nuts for Mayday, but the queues round the block and the crazy fan moshing are unlike anything I've ever seen for any other band. It's like they spray some magic potion into the air. The thing is, Mayday are good live, if you know the songs, but they are not the most brilliant band ever - at some points they sound like just a lot of noise. They are a bit wild, a bit wacky, they jump around a lot and play their guitars over their heads.

Yes, I love the songs, I really get into it and sing along, and jump a lot, but whereas The Maine improved on their songs by singing them live, this wasn't the case for Mayday - which was disappointing for me - the recorded stuff sounds much better. A couple of times, the band stopped mid song to speak to the audience, which felt a bit gimmicky and I don't think went down particularly well.

However, they did pull together an impressive setlist from their songbook, and it made the set seem longer than just over the hour that it actually was. Everyone got to sing along to the hugely popular 'Miserable at Best', which was pretty sweet, and with both Black Cat and Jamie All Over in there as well, it made it a good gig for me. Given that the tickets for both The Maine and Mayday Parade were only £12, I'm giving it 7.5/10.

The Maine, Islington O2 Academy

8th October & 11th October
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Tight.
That was the thought I had. It was the same comment that Steve made on Monday. Rob was also impressed with the live show and said he'd see them live again.
It's the first time I've seen the same group more than once on the same tour. I wouldn't do it for just anyone. But there's something about The Maine.
They were only on the stage for just over an hour, but they blasted through all of my favourite songs from both Can't Stop, Won't Stop and their new album Black and White.

They also kickstarted the evening with a romping, stomping new track, a bit of audience participation, and given that there was no support act, this was a great way to kick off the show and get everyone moving.

It's pretty clear how seriously The Maine take their jobs. They look like they are having fun, but everything is spot on. They've grown up a little with the second album - in every sense - music, lyrics, visually - gone is the long hair and young band look, replaced by something a bit mature, a bit edgier. John's voice has matured, it's more rock-n-rolly, quite a unique sound to it, and I actually thought that many of the songs they sang from the first album sounded better than on that album - whether this was more down to the 'liveness' or the maturity, I'm not sure.

How well known the band are over here in the UK is hard to say. This is their second trip to the UK, and certainly the songs from Can't Stop, Won't Stop were well known amongst the audience, the newer songs that were played have been publicised on www.wearethemaine.net, but I've not really seen Black and White selling over here in retail stores, I had to order mine from the US. Having said that, it didn't seem to stop the members of the audience getting right into the newer music, all the people right next to me were very much getting involved (the boys and the girls).

I can see massive potential in these guys, and I hope that they continue to tour the UK periodically. I'd love for them to get enough of a following to play somewhere like Somerset House and record a live album once they have another album or so under their belts. More than anything else, they work damn hard and they are likeable guys. I want them to succeed :)

Their live show was one of the most enjoyable I've seen, I just wish I'd been closer to the front. I woke up at 6am the next morning, grinning, counting myself lucky, and unable to get back to sleep for thinking about how good it was. 9/10