Epic Week 3

Ok, so finally we're here and this one will be about the Kasabian concert. :D

Okay, i finished at 4pm at the Recording Studio as usual and ran back home, dunno why really, suppose i was quite excited.

Same setup as going to Muse just about - change, grab ticket, head on out.
Same setup picking people up as well - Head in, get Alex and El and go to MacDonalds.

Tbh, twice is the probably the most i've had MacDonalds in a week lol, im not the biggest fan but it happened to be near the venue. So we dropped off there again but didn't meet Steven coz we had tickets in different areas. This was coz of a mix-up buying them back in June - Steven bought 4, Alex bought 3, so me and El went with Alex and Steven sold his other two.

So, we ate our "meals" and headed off again for the cue. Wasn't as much waiting round as Muse coz of course, you have reserved your seats. To pass the time before the support act we just browsed some merch which we weren't buying anyway coz it far too pricey. I didn't find out who the support act was beforehand but got a nice surprise when Reverend and the Makers came on stage. They aren't a favourite of mine but i know a couple of songs and they probably are the best support i have seen.

Again, an hour or so wait for Kasabian. Just sat around watching people trying to jump the barrier and getting caught, which had an effect on us all. We questioned trying it but since there was 3 of us we thought better of it, maybe if it was just the 2 of us.....so we didn't try that way, we tried the "honest" way. Went up to the standing guards and asked the kindest looking one if she would let us in, to which she politely refused.

At least we gave it a go :P

We returned to our seats where wondered if the two people next to us were going to show up...they did, right before it started, pissed out their tree lol.
Just kinda ignored them at first but then they started to make noise and i was a little weary coz i was right next to them. However it turned out to be completely fine, they were "happy drunks" and we had a good laugh with them. As i mentioned way back they "started" "mini mosh-pits" but they were absolutely out of it.

So Kasabian, i have to say, are better live than on the CD. The set was good, the crowd were up for it and so were the band themselves. They played all the big hits like "Empire" and "Club Foot" but also done some of the more strange tracks lke "West Ryder/Silver Bullet".
A good mix tho, including some songs i didn't know the words to.

I won't link the songs this time coz i haven't previously found any of the live songs and i don't have enough time right now. But i'll give the setlist so you can feel free to check out what u want. ;)

Julie & The Mothman
Underdog
Where Did All The Love Go?
Swarfiga
Shoot The Runner
Cutt Off
Pinch Roller
West Ryder/Silver Bullet
Thick As Thieves
Take Aim
Empire
I.D.
Ladies And Gentlemen (Roll The Dice)
Processed Beats
Fire
The Doberman
Fast Fuse
Club Foot

Encore :

Vlad The Impaler
Stuntman
L.S.F. (Lost Souls Forever)

I would recommend Where Did All The Love Go?, West Ryder/Silver Bullet, Club Foot, Vlad the Impaler and L.S.F
But they're all pretty awesome songs so fire away.

After the concert finished we said cheerio to the drunk guys and the hall emptied to the sounds of the crowd still singing L.S.F. 10,000 or so people singing along to that was just such an experience, nothing like it at Muse i have to say :O
But yeh, we walked the few streets to get to the car again, discussing and comparing the two concerts. Almost fell asleep in the car again =P and eventually did when i got back home.

Anyhoo, there's my Epic Week. Not to sound cheesy or anything but it was everything i expected plus more. The relaxation of work experience, the madness of the two concerts and the experience (in general) of the whole week was absolutely superb. I enjoyed it immensely.

Well, from now on, i will return to blogging about my "Daily Doings" but things are heating up in terms of schoolwork now. It's the hokidays and for the past couple of days i have been working and i will probably continue to do so. I apologise in advance for my inconsistant blogging, lack of appearances on MSN and the likes but i'll try to post as often as possible.

Oh i forgot to mention that i'll be going back to Steven's house along with Alex on Sunday for a little birthday celebration including Crazy Golf, Cinema and maybe more MacDonalds. But no fireworks lol. :(

Also, thanks to my most recent follower, who i think is Billy...? Sorry if it isn't (let me know)
I haven't received a follower in ages so i can take to the time to mention each person as they come lol.
Nah, i'm not too bothered about the amount of followers really just so long as i'm not typing away to nobody haha.

Cheers followers,
Rowan

Christmas Day

Don't we all love Christmas Day?

Well maybe not everyone does, but i do, and i had another good one today.

I feel a little guilty tho: for the first time ever, i didn't go to Church at Christmas. I find myself drifting further and further away from religion all the time, but that can wait for anoyher post =P

So....of course the presents i recieved were excellent but not just what the day was about.

First we opened presents at around 11ish, played around with them. Watched Top of the Pops (or some of it coz Muse and Kasabian were on....RATM did not appear of course but they played about half of Killing in the Name, conveniently cutting it off before the swearing started.) Not long after that we had family round, had our Chinese (of which there is at least half left!)
Then we sat down in the front room and watched the Xmas special of The Royle Family, what a show!
They're dragging it a bit but the Specials are quite funny.
And while watching it, my dad let me have a beer.....my "first"

He said "Ah, well, seeing as it's Christmas you can have your first full bottle of beer"
"Thanks Dad"

I drank it no bother, but unknown to him it was not my first ever full bottle of beer. Hehe.

It's made me a bit sleepy tho, it won't be long till i'm off to bed.

Anyway the presents i receieved were awesome!
My 100 Watt Bass Amp! called "Ashdown Five Fifteen" - After getting this amp i don't think i've ever enjoyed playing bass as much. The sound, compared to my last amp, is unbelievable. So much more powerful, not just in terms of volume but the sound that comes out, so much richer!
But, everyone was telling me if i played it too loud they wouldnt be happy and everyone seemed rather annoyed at it, as if it was going to disturb the whole neighbourhood (which it could!) but i'm considerate enough not too which is what annoyed me - everyone looking down on me as really inconsiderate and i don't really think i am.
Anyway i played at a decent volume which didn't bother anyone and still gave me a great time. Either way, i'll need to get some proper headphones.

I didn't get much else really, but thats fine coz the amp coast a lot.

But i did get a Mock The Week Outakes DVD.
3 books:
New Alex Rider book - Crocodile Tears.
A Muse book (didn't know they existed!)
And a Fernando Torres book. That will be enjoyable - Torres is hot, lol.

Lastly, i got the new Wolfmother CD, Cosmic Egg, and i'm listening to it right now and quite enjoying that also!
Came just in time, coz i'm seeing them on January 14th - Yep, another concert, lol!


Anyhoo, Boxing Day tomorrow. A day of lazing around and doing nothing lol. Can't wait =P

However, i hate to think about this now, but my holidays will be cut rather short on Monday or Tuesday coz i need to start doing revision (i hate that word) for school.
Revision over Christmas.....only coz a whole wave of Prelims are coming at the end of Januray, as in, every subject.

Oh and i got my test results back for those Maths and Biology tests.
Passed them, but it wasn't pretty.
55% overall on Maths.
20/30 on Biology (66%)

Tbh, i'm actually quite content with tht coz i didn't revise(arrggh) and they are my two worst subjects, so result for me!

There we go, have a good rest of Xmas if you're still celebrating and enjoy the rest of the festive season wherever you may be.

Cheers,
Rowan

MERRY CHRISTMAS ONE AND ALL!

Just a post to say Merry Christmas to everyone really.

I've been a good boy this year ;)
So i'm expecting loads of presents for tomorrow!

Nah, not really, i asked for one thing, a new amp for my bass and thats it. (Coz it costs a lot)
But my mum tells me she's got me more stuff!
Can't be an awful lot more (although i think she hinted at Xbox Live, but it wouldn't be that useful right now coz the console is rather prone to overheating) :(

It should be a good day tho, as always, and for the 2nd year running we will not be having the traditional roast - we will be getting a Chinese!
I could eat Chinese 7 days a week!

So Merry Christmas to all my 15 followers! And to all my non-followers actually!
Have a good time! Hope you get all your pressies!

Cheers,
Rowan

P.S. I'm now off to watch the best Christmas film of all time.....Die Hard =D
I watch it every Christmas Eve!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

And here's one of the best Christmas songs of all time!

"Epic Week" 2

Sorry this has taken a while, i sorta forgot but here we are.

I could just make this into one big post but i'd much rather concentrate on each separate concert.

----------

So i came out of work experience at 4pm, freezing, teeth chattering and making my way back home as quick as possible. Steven picked up on how cold i was just through a phone call =P.

Got home, got changed, grabbed ticket and then my dad drove me into town to pick up Alex and El (we were meeting Steven at Maccie D's lol)
Traffic was a nightmare, rush hour traffic is not fun.
The whole way there i was just a mess. "What if we don't make it in time aaaaaaah!" etc.
But that's just me, i'm a natural born worrier.
Everything was fine tho, got Alex from his guitar shop and El from his Hopsital and Dad dropped us at MacDonalds with Steven.
I didn't eat anything - was too worried and nervous....still.

I wanted a good place in line and we got it!
We were in the "2nd" queue (The 1st queue was people who has been there all day....crazy bunch)
But what i was most worried about was meeting up with Alex's cousin and her boyfriend coz we didn't know if we would all get into standing without them....we did and everything was good.

Then security hearded us up telling us the rules etc. No mosh pits, crowd-surfing you know.....don't enjoy yourself =P
I wasn't planning to anyway, pits aren't really my thing.
So we got in and the hall was empty apart from the stage and the stuctures at one end.
The 1st queue-people were sorta occupying the front left so we immediately ran for the front right and we were literally at the barrier (not leaning against it, but not far from it - 2/3 people from it)
Stood around and waited for support act The Big Pink to come on. They were ok i suppose but there show pretty much consisted of Dry icce, strobe lighting and similar sounding songs. But i kindly applauded them anyway. The only major talking point was their final song - Dominoes which was decent.

Knees are already starting to get sore at this point.

Was at least another hour and a half until Muse came on. So we just talked with people round about us and listened to the music on the PA.
After an hour the crowd was growing and getting restless, chants of "MUSE" started and then after one song it went quiet, everyone cheered.....then the next song came on lol. Everyone booed.

Eventually they did come on, the lights dimmed and they started their weird electronic intro - We Are the Universe. I like it, it's quite eerie and goes well with set opener - Uprising aka the "Doctor Who song" The place went mental, it was great! The clapping, the "singing" and the stage structure was WOW!
Then we had Resistance. Then the awesome New Born. (with lasers) by which time the three sturcture's had descended and now the band were properly alive.
Then we had Map of the Problematique - awesome!
Then Supermassive Black Hole
Guiding Light
Interlude + Hysteria (some bass line!)
Then there was some sort of jam while the piano was brought out and the Queenesque United States of Eurasia was played
Feeling Good
Piano then went away :( I thought we might have got Cave but we didn't get one song off the first album - double :(
But this was made up for by a special rendition of another jam.
Then we had the strange but lovely Undisclosed Desires (with more lasers)
Starlight (with more clapping)

By this time everyone at the front was getting thristy and the stewards gave up cups of water. One of the advantages about being down the front :D

Plug in Baby was next. Was simply amazing! Balloons were released and i touched one, twice!
Time is Running Out followed and matt, the lead singer, did the whole song on the podium right in front of us. A highlight of the night for me! (Tried to find one from a position we were in but couldn't get one)

And the set ended with Unnatural Selection

5-10 minute wait then the encore started with Exogenesis part 1 The visulas for this were stunning, just watch the vid! I might have a photo as well somewhere.

The heavy Stockholm Syndrome followed. It was mad! So much jumping and getting thrown around.
The set ended with Knights of Cydnonia which was equally mad jumping around at the end.

So when it finished we all staggered out, sweating like pigs and sat down coz my knees were killing me!
Wasn't finished yet tho, had to walk 10 mins to get to Alex's dad who was picking us up.
Almost fell asleep in the back of that car!
But we said our goodbyes and was to be pretty much the same plan for Kasabian.


Whoa, that took a while. If you didn't read it all, i don't blame ya.
If you have the time then check out some of the vids i linked!
And let me know if i should do that again when i talk about Kasabian.

Cheers,
Rowan

Exogenesis

Matt Bellamy (lead singer, guitar)

Chris Wolstenholme (backing vocals, bass)

Dom Howard (Drums) I quite like him ;)

Muse

Lolz, see ya!

Omegle

Ok so i read on Who's Keeping Score? by Brett about this website called Omegle.com

At first, i wasn't bothered but i wasn't up to much else so i thought id give it a go.
I landed lucky first time and got talking to a guy who pretty much gave me a tutorial on Omegle and told me what to watch out for.
He then disappeared.

Got loads of people asking for cyber sex which i was warned would happen then i finally struck up a convo with this girl from Alabama who was really nice.
Must have been chatting for about an hour, then i told her i was gay, or well that i was sorta unsure at the moment (we were talking about stuff like that and i could see it coming)

I know what you're thinking - I shouldn't have said it so hastily or be giving way info like that too readily etc. - but for at least half the conversation i was wondering about it and she was really nice and was not bothered by it at all.
It felt really nice, being accepted that way, like when the first time i peeped my head up here on Blogger. (and i still really like it:D)

Anyway, she eventually had to go but i asked if i could continue our conversation on msn sometime and she was fine with that.
I look forward to talking to her again, coz she's just really kind and understanding.

And it happened again!
This time a girl from North Carolina. She said she liked metal and i was quite taken aback and she said she was raised tough or something similar and she asked if i was gay and i said yeh.

Now i really now what you're thinking - hmm twice is chancing it a bit Rowan - lol
Maybe it is but we just really had a good laugh and she saddened me with a story about a bi friend of hers. He has problems in school with bullying and shit and she says she's going to arrange for us to talk soon!
I hope i can make him feel better or something.

I look forward to it tho.


But honestly, i recommend trying Omegle and seeing how you get on.
The people who actually use the site for it's intended purpose are really nice.
It really brightened up my night and made me realise that for all the bad people in the world, there are actually some really nice people to counter them.
Also made me realise the power of the internet, i know it's powerful but whoa, quite surprised at what happened tonight.


So thanks Brett again for making aware of Omegle.


Cheers,
Rowan

Rage Against the Machine Wins UK Xmas No.1!!!

Well, there we are, Killing in the Name makes it to top of the charts for Christmas 2009

I'm so glad it did, particularly after having twice bought it and also because it shows Simon Cowell what for.

The beauty of it is, it could have been any song that was chosen.

But yeh, i put the chart show on and it was about no.10 when i did. That was bad enough, the crap i had to endure lol

Then 6:45 it was announced (after ages of tense build-up) that Joe McElderry was no.2
I literally whooped for joy.
The whole house was wondering what happened lol.

But it was awesome. I had my bass setup to play the song when it came on and i was overjoyed that i didn't have to play along to the Xmas no.2 but the no.1 instead.
probably one of the best i played it as well, although (as expected) the BBC cut out the whole "Fuck you, i won't do what you tell me" part.

So, i listened to the copy i downloaded on itunes after.
My Itunes is awesome at the moment, only Muse and RATM are on it. And that took about two hours sorting out to do, so i still have my work cut out....

Anyways, that's all i wanted to post about.

Hopefully my next two posts will return to the "Epic Week". It's just coz this whole week has been full of ths music battle lol.

However it might have to wait till Tuesday coz unfortunately my dumbass school is sending us in tomorrow and Tuesday.
WTF?
Why not just let Friday have been the last day?
Why two pointless extra days where nobody will show up and no work will get completed?
Oh well,
My mum has said i only need to go in tomorrow in order to get some important test results - Maths, Biology (my two weakest subjects)
So after that i'm free for two weeks....good times.

Cheers,
Rowan



3:58 onwards :D

Take that Simon Scowl!

Rage Against the Machine vs Joe McElderry (and reality TV rant)

Before i do my next post on my big week i thought i would talk a bit about this.

Firstly, i think it's awesome!

For those who don't know it is a campaign started on facebook to overturn the crap that X Factor puts at Christmas Number 1 every year. The song chosen to get into No.1 for UK was Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name" (a great song in my opinion)
It was chosen because it has the line "Fuck you, i won't tell what you tell me" repeated many times for about a whole minute.

Secondly, i hate X Factor.

The amount of crap you get from it is unbelievable. For example, two irish no-marks invading our TV screens, "singing" (and ruining) some great songs.
It's just not right.

Jedward (what a cheesy name) sang a great Queen song "Under Pressure" and ruined it. I don't watch X Factor, i just seen the youtube vid and when Brian May and Roger Taylor from Queen were shown listening to the two and liking what they heard, i shook my head in dismay.

This year, another unknown covering a Miley Cyrus song might make it to Christmas Number 1.
I have no real problem with the guy, it's actually Simon Cowell, the big-headed, money-grabbing, idiot that he is.
Read or listen to an interview with him, at the end of the day, his whole speech is designed to make him money.


Anyway, i hate what reality TV and best performer whatever competitions have done to people.

People asking each other "Did you see what ****** did on Big Brother last night?"

Big Brother - People watching tv ABOUT people watching tv. How sad is that?

Celebrity Big Brother - Same thing but with washed-up celebrities.

I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here - Using washed-up celebs with nothing left to do, in order to gain viewers and money.

AND PEOPLE WATCH IT!!!.....AND ENJOY IT!

My god.

I'll just end my reality tv rant with one last argument against it.

Susan Boyle.




Back to this Chart Battle, sorry for that rant lol

I fully support this campaign to get Killing in the Name to top of the charts for Christmas Day.
I have until 23:15 on Saturday to buy it and i fully intend to. Possibly multiple times.

It's not just for that reason actually.
I know the bassline for the song and i think it's a great song.

A few people i know have already downloaded it and currently it's a few thousand sales above "Joe McElderry's" - "The Climb"
Joe McElderry is in brackets as it isn't even his song.

Simon Cowell has been up in arms against the campaign coz he won't get as much money. Saying crap like "Joe deserved it way more, he's done more hard work etc"

The hell he has.

He is singing a cover of song.

Did he write the song? Did he write the lyrics? No.

In fact, i doubt Miley Cyrus did either, but i'm sure you get the point.

Rage have done a lot more hard work than Joe, he showed up on a singing contest and wins.

Rage show up in the middle of LA, unknown, and without the help of people like Simon Cowell become a major American selling band. This is grass roots. They started from the start with no help and became big.

They deserve it.

Better end this soon.

I'll embed both songs below so as you can compare and decide what you think is better. Lemme know, i'm not going to lose the plot is you disagree with me.
But i hope you enjoy Killing in the Name a lot more and i fully encourage anyone reading this to download it. (just 29p off Amazon!)

Oh, and feel free to share your thoughts on reality TV as well.
>

Couldn't find the X Factor version with a usable embed code.



Awesomeness, right?

See ya,
Rowan

"Epic Week" Pt 1

Ok, so i know it's been ages since this week took place but i said i would talk about it and i will.

It could be quite long so i'll do it in 3 separate parts.

Let's start with.....Work Experience?

Yeh, start with that : Work Experience in Music Recording Studio

Oh and the week was 9-16th November in case you forgot, but you can pretend it was last week if u want haha

-------------------------

To be honest, it wasn't the greatest or most exciting thing ever but it, without a doubt, beat school lol.

The first day i went in, i wasn't particularly nervous, as i had anticipated. Reason being, i sorta knew the people there and my uncle used to record stuff at the studio so they were really cool.

Although, the owner did seem a little surprised when i said what i was doing there, but he soon remembered.
Then he introduced me to some other people and told me what to say and do when answering the phone in the office, how to book people into rooms etc. Nothing too challenging.

I thought it was going to be boring but i wasn't the only one in the office, another guy, Gordon, was there with me and we got chatting about music and i mentioned the concerts i was going to.

So we were there for about 2 hours then Duncan, the owner, said i could go down to the studio an have a look around, so i did. Seen the mixing table, the recording studio. Mind-boggling really. So many dials!

I was only there from 12-4pm so thats about all i did that day.

And honestly, the other 4 days didn't differ much.

The Tuesday and Wednesday, there were some high school pupils in (a few years older than me) to learn about recording and how to use the mixing desk etc.

Gordon was only there for two days i was there tho, Monday and Tuesday, so for a lot of the other 3 days, i was kinda bored. Friday was good tho coz Duncan, his brother and some other guy are in this irish music/ceilidh band. They were recording some stuff and just watching was a blast! Duncan's brother was on the mandolin and boy was he good.
Shredding a mandolin just about!

Duncan plays bass as well, so for a lot of the week we were talking a lot about that.

Got to use a few practice rooms as well, closed the door, borrowed a bass and let rip!
The amps are massive, proper stacks. Almost blew my ears out!
Great fun tho, was like being at a thrid concert lol

Welllllll, there isn't much more detail to be going into, so i just have to apologize for the lateness of this. Could and should have happened a lot earlier, bout two weeks ago.
But better late than never i suppose

Probably talk about Muse next time, then Kasabian, and hopefully get up to date on other stuff that has happened recently :D

Bye for now.

Cheers,
Rowan

Rowan Returns!

Yay! Hi guys, finally have my computer back!

Actually it's a whole new computer (nothing fancy) and a whole new hard-drive.

My uncle is officially a genius. lol

He even got all the stuff (documents, pics, music etc.) off my old hard-drive and put them onto discs so i can transfer them onto this one!

AAAH

Relieved.....

Computer officially broke on 1st November and today is 16th December!
Been away for 46 days!
Unbelievable.....

Weel i'm back now :D

But coz my hard-drive has virtually nothing on it, i will have to do everything from the start again.....

Bad times, recreating my whole itunes library will not be fun
Also, i don't know exactly what other things might be on those discs, could be dodgy stuff so it might take me a while to sort it out.

Anyhoo, i look forward to reading blogs again, reading RB and perhaps try to get back on the ol' MSN!

But for now....

Cheers,
Rowan

Email

Yeh, i know i've been off for a while and i'm itching to get back but for the time being if you wanna chat just drop me an email

lets-start-over@hotmail.com

Things are changing soon in the house and i will try to mention my broken computer during this process to someone, who knows....maybe i'll have it back for Christmas LOL

As i said, i can't wait to get back but email me if you want anything, it's safe coz of course it's password protected, unlike blogger where you can view blogs without password or needing an account.

Cheers for now,
Rowan

.

Hi guys lol