My, My, My, It's a Beautiful World =)

So last night we - Matt, Shiny, Raj, Matt's parentals (for whom we'd bought tickets as a Christmas pressie) and Myself, trundled off to Belfast's Waterfront Hall to see Dave Matthews perform an acoustic set accompanied by his buddy, Tim Reynolds on geetar.


(Dave Matthews)

Fan-tastic. I don't know what else to say...besides "Dave - having the duck and the lamb, is probably never the best idea!" Anyhoo, I'm sure Matt's blog will be full of the joys of Dave in the next day or too so you can prolly read more over there.

On Sunday night Matt & I went to see Colin Hay (a la 'Men At Work') play in the Black Box in Belfast, as part of the Belfast - Nashville Music Festival. This was the one I was waiting not so patiently to see. Now, don't get me wrong...I was looking forward to seeing Dave too...but there's just something special about a much more intimate gig in a small venue, listening to someone who you never thought you would ever get to hear live. For me anyway.

There is just something about his voice; Smooth, yet it has weathered enough over the years to give it this finely ground texture. Like when you finally get your cookie dough mixed to perfection.

We were a little early for the gig, and when we arrived in the venue he was still sound checking, so we propped up a wall at the end of the bar until the event organiser eventually asked us if we'd like to go on ahead and buy tickets so's we could take a seat. I tried desperately not to reveal me inner squee as Colin walked past and said hi. *hangs head in shame* I'm such a girl.

Before the main event there were two local performers...Sarah Lyle (along with her stepdad who looked remarkable like Guy Siner, who played Lieutenant Gruber - the remarkably camp one in 80's tv show 'Allo Allo') and Tim Cobain. Tim had a superb voice and was giving away free ep's...which somehow we missed, bah!


(Tim Cobain)

When Colin took to the stage, I guess I just expected it to be like any other singers performance - a little bit of chat...some music...a bit more rambling and then more music again; but instead it was like watching a singing Billy Connelly! He went into all the ups and downs of his life and career in a brutally honest, totally relaxed, and hilarious stand up style of comfortable conversation with the crowd.


(Colin Hay)

He was superb, and had everyone joining in and cracking up at his "Are you lookin at me pal?"stories in broad Scottish and perfectly mimicked Aussie diction.

He hung around for a while after chatting to everyone and was saying about how he met this young guy 'Zach' in a bar...and how instrumental that meeting was in restarting his solo career at a point when he'd started to accept his time was up. It's funny...he said it himself, and he was right...Scrubs was the main reason half the audience knew who he was. Although I knew him from Men at Work, it was hearing his solo stuff in the episodes My Philosophy and My Overkill that really caught my attention. And Matt had never even made the connection until one evening Raj's dad, Nigel, mentioned how different the solo sound was from the old Men at Work days.

Anyways...the craic was fantastic, the beer was...um...well...whiskey actually...and I got to hear "I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You" live. =)


(Colin & Myself)

Well...it had to be done. My inner squee got the better of me, what can I say.

Whats That Coming Over the Hill......Is It An Update? ...Is It An Updaaaaate?

Well...I'm back. I'm not sure where I was, but it was dark and not the least bit shiny.

Anyhoo...upon request of Blu and threat of death from Dermo, I'm now gonna attempt to update my poor little blog with the many *cough* excitements of my life over the past few weeks. Aren't you all so very excited? Hmmm....well, no matter...I'm gonna tell yis anyways =P

Ok, lets see, what comes first? Oh, I guess it's gotta be my newly acquired Driving Licence! Fiiinally after almost 10 years of being too chicken to take the test...I passed!



Yes folks, as of the 5th Jan, I have been released onto the worlds unsuspecting roads. I received my lovely pink full licence t'other week, and I must say...it matches my new handbag just lovely! *ahem*

In other news, Matt has been playing geetar for a singer / songwriter called Allan Ellingsgaard, and performed with him at his 'Going Home' Album Launch last night in Ballymena Elim.





Check out dermo.co.uk for a couple more pics.

We also took another wee trip to down to Dublin to see Peter Mulvey. He was superb as always, and was joined by Irish musician Clive Barnes...an absolute magician on the slide guitar!







Poor Peter however is about 3 years behind the rest of the world...as we discovered from his many many many quotations throughout the night from the "Chuck Norris Random Fact Generator" such as "Chuck Norris' wristwatch has no numbers on it. It just says, Time to kick ass. " and "Giraffes were invented when Chuck Norris uppercut a horse". But, ya know, whatever keeps him amused! ;o)

I myself am much more partial to the Jack Bauer Random Fact Generator...I mean, did you know that Superman wears Jack Bauer pyjamas? ...well he does!

With this in mind, I decided it was about flippin time we had a Kiefer Movie Night. Cause...well, cause Kiefer rocks!

So last weekend, when my parents, Sarahs parents and Raj's parents all took themselves off to watch the Giants lose badly in both Hull and Shuffield, we elected to use that weekend to party, let loose and generally have a good time.

Well...we did have a good time...but whilst our respective parental units spent their time rollin in and out of hockey bars across England....we watched movies and ate salad. How feckin rock & roll are we, huh?

Ok...we didn't just eat salad. We actually had a rather lovely winter BBQ on Saturday at mine, thanks to Matty. But I did make a salad to go with it...and it flippin well rocked ok!!!

*sigh*

Anyways...despite there being beer in the fridge, wine in the rack and whiskey in the jar under the kitchen table, we all remained perfectly sober to enjoy 3 of Kiefers finest: Phonebooth, The Lost Boys, and Flatliners. Man I had forgotten just how much I loved The Lost Boys! Such a cracker movie =)

We decided we'd probably have a 'Kiefer: Part Two', as we only had time to watch 3 films...and we have still the likes of Young Guns, Stand By Me, and a few others to introduce ickle Sarah to ;o)

Anyways, Kiefer Night quickly morphed into Kiefer Weekend as we ended our celebrations on Sunday evening at Raj's, where he cooked us a beautiful Sunday Roast followed by a screening of The Sentinal on his lovely big new flatscreen.

Cue Movie.
Cue Sarah discovering that when she watched this on a plane she actually missed over an hour of it, and then finally realising why it never made any sense to her.
Cue at least 20 consecutive bellows of "Holster your weapon!!!!"
Cue 4 happy contented smiles.