December 2018

So, another year has come to an end, and it goes without saying that as with every other year, a lot has happened - I'll try and keep it brief.

Negatives:
- Changes in my job
- Disillusion with social media
- Our pet ferrets Apollo and Luna both diagnosed with cancer
- Passing of our pet turtle Chief (RIP)
- Recent events around the world
- Personal matters (will not disclose those here)

Positives:
+ Still producing artwork - first Fyfe & Sparkplug comic completed
+ Opened a Twitter account
+ Began creating my own website
+ First full year working in a permanent job
+ Started getting help with my personal issues
+ 2 years married to my lovely wife
+ Lots of beach time and photography
+ Various getaways (mostly Rhode Island but a few detours here and there)
+ Flew back to the UK for the first time since my move to the US, via setting foot in Ireland for the first time

The past month was mostly busy, due to the festive season, with getting the house ready as well as it being one if the busiest times of year work-wise. However me and my wife did find time for celebration - two very close friends of ours, who had been engaged for quite some time, finally tied the knot this month, and we were present for the occasion - many congrats to the happy couple.
I ended up having both Christmas Eve and Day off, and it was mostly a nice relaxed couple of days - we spent it with the in laws, and needless to say presents, food, a board game, driving to see Christmas lights and deer, as well as some classic holiday films were involved. I also got the chance to wish my family back home in the UK well via Skype, which was wonderful.

To end this final blog of 2018, I'll leave you with this year's festive group shot for my close DeviantArt followers. All the best for 2019.

P.S. Here's a recent tune I came up with: https://youtu.be/-wXTZHLlL54

November 2018

I didn't really have a lot to say in last month's blog, and the same is true for November too, but here's what I have, anyway.
With the festive season approaching, my job has been crazy busy (especially the madness that was Black Friday) and in all honesty I've had a bit of a tough time with it lately. However, I am still on the hunt for another job, just got to keep on with that, as always.
This month also marked my third year celebrating Thanksgiving - it was a very relaxed and mostly quiet one, me and my wife spent time watching the parade on telly, followed by a meal and a good game of 500 rummy at the in-laws'.
Something I've done rarely with this blog is to pass on music, old or new, that I'm really into at the moment, usually because it doesn't occur to me. However this month there is one song I've been listening to a lot, "Love It If We Made It" by The 1975 - it's rare to hear a current sounding song that actually addresses subjects that really matter, as well as being not too shabby musically, either. Give it a listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnLxhG3pD10 (WARNING: explicit lyrics.)
As always, I'll leave you with some artwork - this one being a reminder that just because I don't live in the UK anymore, it doesn't mean I can't still celebrate Bonfire Night.
I hope my American followers enjoyed their Thanksgiving - it's almost hard to believe that when my next blog comes around, it will be Christmas, not to mention the end of 2018. See you then.

July 2017

Another July has come and gone once again - and something happened this month which wasn't something that personally happened to me, it was to a famous rockstar. Most of you reading this will know that I'm talking about what happened to Chester Bennington, the lead singer of Linkin Park - his death was tragic and shocking to hear about.
You might be wondering why I'm dwelling on the death of a celebrity, because I usually don't like to focus on the news, especially when it's about people dying, famous or not. The reason I am is because Linkin Park were one of my favourite bands as a teenager, and were one of the bands that got me into heavy rock music, along with Limp Bizkit and Slipknot. A lot of Linkin Park's music helped me get through my teenage and secondary school years, because I could relate to the lyrics and the heavy music. It's just a tragic irony that those same lyrics couldn't help the man who sang them with the passion and the fury that he had. RIP, Chester - I hope you're in a better place now.
On more personal matters, I've still had no luck on the job front, and as always I'm still looking. Helping around the house and doing the twice monthly side job has been keeping me busy though, as well as my artwork of course. I recently completed illustrating the second of the children's book series for our close friends, admittedly it took far longer than it should've because of my procrastination on it. I'll try and do better with the next book - it's just that circumstances get in the way.
A few blogs back, I mentioned how I was getting disillusioned with DeviantArt too - that's been the case again lately. I feel like there's been a lot of immature people trying to take advantage of me in order to get free art of their characters, or just posting stupid stuff on my pictures or profile just for the sake of attention. I have no time for people like that, and I'm sending out a warning now, anyone who continues to harrass me, or any of my friends that way, will receive an instant ban-hammer to the face. I'm not playing nice anymore.
On a brighter note, me and my wife have been making the most of the nice weather this month - as well as my bike rides, we took a few trips to state parks and beaches, and not surprisingly each place was canny packed. Also not surprisingly, we spent the 4th July week in Newport, the highlights of which were a play on a mini golf course with the in laws, and a sunset cruise around Narragansett Bay onboard the MV Gansett. We also went to a music gig at Mohegan Sun on the 29th, which was our first gig since the Deftones last August - the headline act this time was Kings of Leon, and they were absolutely spot on. The opening act, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, were canny tight too.

That's pretty much it for July. As always, I'll leave you with some artwork - this surfing scene, which was an entry for a summer themed art jam that I hosted this month. See you in August.

April 2016

I must sound like a broken record when I keep saying how fast time seems to go these days, but it's true - I can't believe that it's been 4 months since I made my move Stateside, and already two months since and me and my wife Nicole tied the knot.
On that same note, it's now less then 2 months until our big ceremony in June, and while we're looking forward to it, it's also been a headache trying to plan it, even moreso for Nicole, and as anyone who's ever planned a wedding will know, it's not easy, but I've reassured her, reassured us both that it'll all come right. I'm also still hoping that my family can make it over despite the hurdles of passport applications and booking flights.
This month's seen some warmer weather, which gave me the push to finally venture out for a few bike rides, which not only gave me some much-needed exercise and fresh air, but also helped me get used to some of the local area. All of my rides were to a local landmark called East Rock, a small mountain that overlooks the city of New Haven, and while the walk uphill to the summit is exhausting, it's always worth it for the view of New Haven and the surrounding area from the top, and on a clear day you can even see Long Island in the distance - it's pretty much my "to-go" place now, much like Deerness Valley Way was back in the UK. (Still miss that place.)
On the music front, I bought a much-anticipated album that came out this month, "Gore" by one of my favourite bands, Deftones, and I was not disappointed - if you haven't heard them before, their music is best described as "heavy yet beautiful". They're playing at Mohegan Sun in August, and me and Nicole decided to book tickets to go and see them - can't wait.
Speaking of gigs, we finally got the chance to go to a gig together for the very first time (also my first American gig) - it just so happened that on 3 April, the 80s rock band The Cult were playing at Foxwoods Casino, and it was absolutely free, so we jumped at the chance. I'd only heard one Cult song before the gig ("She Sells Sanctuary"), so I wasn't sure what to expect, but they put on a great, solid show, and the venue was canny packed too. There was one funny moment during the show when The Cult's guitarist called out the security for being too rough with the crowds - needless to say he got a lot of cheers from the crowd. Both me and Nicole enjoyed the gig, we would definitely go see The Cult again.
We also had an interesting bit of travel on April 18 - the school where Nicole works asked her to represent them at an event held at a school down in the town of Mount Laurel in New Jersey (it would be my second trip to NJ, first visit was to Atlantic City back in 2011), and she asked me to accompany her, along with her parents. It was a very eventful 5 hour drive down to NJ, with some direction confusion and lots of sights of the "Garden State", but we got there in the end. We were put up in a really cool business-style hotel, and while I wasn't able to attend the event myself, I was able to keep myself occupied with planespotting (our hotel was close to Philadelphia Airport, so plenty of incoming air traffic). Nicole also found the event really interesting, which was great.
The following day we got to do a little more exploring, I briefly checked out the town of Moorestown with Nicole's parents, before we all got together and stopped at a picturesque park in Mount Laurel. After that, we headed back to Connecticut, with the drive being far less stressful this time round - on the way we stopped off to check out the Palisades Mall in New York State, a pretty cool place that reminded me a lot of the Metro Centre back in the UK - it's probably the only shopping centre that has an indoor rope course, a ferris wheel and a carousel. All in all, it was a pretty eventful trip.
There was more travel near the end of this month, and for a very special reason - April 23 was my wife's birthday, and I treated her to a new dress, a hand-drawn card, a pair of animal brooches and a copy of The Cult's greatest hits CD, in honour of our first gig together. To mark the occasion we travelled to the town of Mystic, a place we've been to many times, and visited the Mystic Seaport for the first time, a maritime museum themed as a harbour town from the old days, with old-skool shops and an impressive selection of boats on display, some of which we could walk onboard - it was very reminiscent of Beamish Museum, with its old-world look and feel. The highlights for me were getting the chance to build my own boat in a small workshop, and exploring the "Charles W. Morgan" whaling ship. Definitely a great place to visit overall.
We also stayed the night in a Holiday Inn, and I kid you not, our room included a jacuzzi, and we certainly made the most of it. It ended up being quite a late night too, as we paid another visit to Foxwoods Casino, where we stumbled across a live band playing covers of 80s rock, and they absolutely killed it. Nicole is a huge fan of 80s rock, it's almost as if they knew it was her birthday. It was a great weekend, simply put.

Ending with some artwork, as always - here's a sloth to brighten up your day.

Gigging it

Recently it was a bit of an anniversary - on April 11 it was 6 years since I went to see Fear Factory at Newcastle University, and it got me thinking about all the gigs that I've been to - so I'm gonna share them with you.


09/12/2004 - The Mad Capsule Markets - Newcastle University
It took me until I was 18 to get to my first proper gig - I'd been a fan of these Japanese punk/metal/techno noiseniks for a couple of years at that point, and when I heard they were coming to Newcastle, I had to be there. Because it was my first gig, it was a bit nerve-wracking being in the venue with so many people, and my clothes choice was a disaster too (baseball cap and tracksuit jacket, I didn't know any better), and I also didn't manage to get a decent spot in the crowd. All the signs of a gig newbie.
I ended up enjoying it though, it was definitely a first - TMCM were a blast from start to finish, playing mostly stuff from their albums OSC-DIS, 010 and their then new CiSTm K0nFLiqT, and there wasn't one bad song.


Support bands: 
Deadpad - uninspiring local industrial band.
McQueen - decent all girl rock band with a shade of Foo Fighters in their sound; bought their "Like I Care" EP at the gig.

The Mad Capsule Markets, Newcastle University, 09/12/2004

19/03/2006 - Fightstar - Newcastle University
Early '06 was when I got into Fightstar, and having been very impressed by their debut album "Grand Unification", I was definitely up for seeing them live.
I made sure to arrive in the queue much earlier this time in order to get a spot closer to the front, which I did - I was canny unprepared for the all the moshing going on! I did have better clothes this time, though.
Fightstar were absolutely spot on, of course they played mostly "Grand Unification" songs, but also slipped a B-side or two in there. Most memorable moment was the finale of "Palahniuk's Laughter", where they had members of support band Reuben join them on stage.
This gig was also my first experience of autograph hunting - braved the cold outside for a while with a few others to attempt to meet with the band, and it paid off - got my pictures took with Charlie Simpson (singer), Al Westaway (guitar) and Omar Abidi (drums), as well as all of their autographs. Quite a way to end the night.


Support bands:
Brigade - featuring Charlie Simpson's bro Will on vocals, they were playing as I came in, and I was pretty impressed. Bought their album "Lights" not long afterwards.
Last Days of April - somewhat bland Swedish indie rock.
Reuben - this was the gig that got me into this band. I'd only heard one song by them previously, which I thought was good, but they completely blew me away live. I've since bought almost all of their albums.

Charlie Simpson of Fightstar, Newcastle University, 19/03/2006

11/04/2006 - Fear Factory - Newcastle University
The aforementioned gig, another highly anticipated one - TMCM and Fightstar are heavy, but Fear Factory are a lot heavier. Couldn't wait to hear FF's industrial metal grooves live, and they certainly did not disappoint, they were on fire throughout, and because this was part of their "15 Years of Fear" tour, they pulled out all the big hits such as "Descent", "Martyr", "Self Bias Resistor", and climaxed in style with their signature song "Replica".
I also got to meet up with the band's singer Burton C Bell afterwards, really down-to-earth dude.


Support bands:
Misery Index - very heavy death-metal sounding band, even though the sound was a bit muddy, they weren't bad at all.
Breed 77 - a metal band from Gibraltar who inccorporate flamenco into their sound, pretty good, and they had some catchy stuff.

 Fear Factory, Newcastle University, 11/04/2006

Me and Fear Factory singer Burton C. Bell

30/08/2006 - King Edward/Red Method/No Libido - The Sportsman, Bishop Auckland
An all-local trio of bands this time round - I had a personal connection to this one, as I was schoolfriends with the lead singer of Red Method, he invited me to come and see his band play.
King Edward were alright, they had some nifty tunes but they didn't really stand out. Red Method on the other hand were brilliant, they played catchy yet heavy post-hardcore, and despite the small crowd there was some crowd-surfing attempted!
However, I thought the best of the trio was No Libido, a female-fronted punk band who had some very mosh-worthy tunes - bought their EP from them that night.
I'm guessing none of these bands are around anymore, but maybe that's how some of them are meant to be - short-term highs.

 King Edward, The Sportsman, 30/08/2006

  Red Method, The Sportsman, 30/08/2006

No Libido, The Sportsman, 30/08/2006

09/10/2006 - Fightstar - Northumbria University
Having enjoyed the first Fightstar gig so much, it was only natural that I had to go and see them again, and they were just as brilliant as they were first time round. Notably different was the venue, it was a little bigger than the university, which made it even better. Also got to meet up with the band a second time.


Support bands:
The Receiving End Of Sirens - solid American post-hardcore, I liked the dual vocalist set-up they had going on.
Oceansize - alternative/prog rock, they had some good moments, but some of their songs dragged in a bit too long. Also, their singer didn't do himself any favours by insulting some of the crowd.

 Fightstar, Northumbria University, 09/10/2006

Me with Fightstar's Charlie Simpson

13/03/2007 - Deftones - Newcastle Academy
Had to pull a few strings to actually get to go to this one, and I had to catch a bus at stupid o'clock to get back home from it - but it was worth it, because there was no way I was going to miss this band.
Found out the hard way just how crazy those mosh-pits can get - I was at the front, right in the middle, and when the Deftones came on and ripped straight into "Be Quiet and Drive", I almost got crushed. I had to clear out of the way in the end, but I didn't let that uncomfortable experience ruin the gig for me.
It goes without saying that the Deftones were amazing from start to finish, they played most of their classics such as "My Own Summer", as well as stuff from their then current album "Saturday Night Wrist". They finished off in explosive style with "7 Words".
Let's just say that my attempt to get their autographs didn't go to plan, however.


Support bands:
Mnemic - French/Belgian/Scandinavian industrial metal band, similar to Fear Factory, and also pretty good.

Deftones' Chino Moreno, Newcastle Academy, 13/03/2007

27/05/2007 - Biffy Clyro - Newcastle University
Anyone who knows me well will know that I'm a huge Biffy Clyro fan, and at the time of this gig I'd gotten into them over the last few months, so of I course I had to see them live. I wasn't alone this time either, my brother Chris tagged along too, and this was his first gig.
Biffy are known for being an awesome live act, and they were exactly that - the amount of energy they put into their performance pretty much blew my socks off. They had originally been going to play mostly songs from their then latest album "Puzzle", but because the release had been delayed, they instead played a handful of old faves such as "Justboy", and "Questions and Answers", though they did play one or two "Puzzle" tunes as well. Best moment was when, to mine and Chris' surprise, they played a song that neither of us expected to hear - "There's No Such Thing As A Jaggy Snake", which is Chris' fave Biffy song. Awesome finale too, with "Glitter and Trauma".
Didn't bother to go after autographs, myself and Chris just wanted our hotel beds after that - but we were exhausted for good reason.


Support bands:
Frank Turner - ex-Million Dead singer, it was just him and his guitar, and he was brilliant, his voice really hit hard, and his songs tell quite some stories. Got his autograph and spoke to him after the gig, really cool down-to-earth fella.
yourcodenameis:milo - I'd heard about this Newcastle band before the gig, but didn't know what they sounded like - wish I'd heard them sooner, because their heavy, space-rockish sound blew me away. Bought their latest album there and then.

Biffy Clyro, Newcastle University, 27/05/2007

09/08/2007 - Eddie & the Hot Rods - Crook Football Club
I remember watching an episode of TOTP 2 a while back, and a band called Eddie & the Hot Rods were featured on it, playing their hit "Do Anything You Wanna Do" on the show way back in 1977. Didn't think I'd actually get to see that same band play in my hometown, but they did.
It's a funny story as to how I actually ended up at the gig - someone I know from my karaoke days (who out of respect will remain nameless) is actually friends with the band, and he helped to get them the gig in Crook. Anyway, he told me about it, so I got a ticket and went along.
Now, to be honest, I'm not really a huge fan of 70's rock, I prefer more modern, later stuff - but I did enjoy the gig, the band really put their all into it, and their singer Barrie Masters might have been in his 60's, but he sure didn't look or act like it. Of course, "Do Anything You Wanna Do" was the standout for me.
I actually spoke to the band and got their autographs, they were a canny bunch - and they even popped into my then local for a drink!


Support bands:
I didn't catch the support band, but apparently I didn't miss much.

Eddie & the Hot Rods, Crook Football Club, 09/08/2007

11/11/2007 - Biffy Clyro - Newcastle Academy
Just like with Fightstar, I just had to see the Biffy again - and I know they say lightning doesn't strike twice, but it did in this case, because they were just on fire throughout. They also had a more elaborate light-show this time, which really added to the atmosphere. They played a lot more "Puzzle" songs this time round, while still slipping in the classics too. There were many highlights including a beautiful rendition of "Machines" with just the singer Simon Neil, his acoustic guitar, a spotlight and loads of fans (me included) singing along. I recall they ended it with "Glitter and Trauma" again.
I did decide to autograph hunt this time - and it took another fan banging on the tour bus window to get the band to come out and see us! They were good about it though, and not only did I get their autographs but I got pictures with all three of them too. All in all, it was a crackin' night.


Support bands:
The Matches - American pop-rock band all dressed in matching red outfits - didn't think too much of them, even though they were canny energetic.
¡Forward, Russia! - similar to the Matches, though a little more off-kilter. Aside from one song, and though they also dressed in matching outfits, they weren't really that memorable.

 Biffy Clyro, Newcastle Academy, 11/11/2007

Me with Biffy Clyro's Simon Neil

22/05/2009 - Eddie & the Hot Rods - Crook Football Club
The Hot Rods decided to return to Crook for another gig 2 years after the first one, so I thought I might as well go and see them again - and it was more or less the same as last time, a good solid performance, with a mix of originals such as "Telephone Girl" and covers such as "Born To Be Wild". However, I heard afterwards that they probably wouldn't be coming back in the future, because apparently the sound operator made such a poor job with the mixing (this happened the first time too). It's a shame, but at least I was able to see them both times.
Somehow, I ended up going into two local pubs with my friend who's friends with the band, plus the band themselves - ended up having an interesting chat with the Hot Rods' singer Barrie Masters. It was a bit of a surreal, but interesting experience on the whole.


Support bands:
Propaganda - a cover band, who I didn't really think very much of - however they did cover a couple of Biffy Clyro songs, which was a plus.

Eddie & the Hot Rods, Crook Football Club, 22/05/2009

So there you have it, that's all the gigs I've been to - no idea if I'll ever get to another one any time soon, but if I do, you'll hear about it here.