Back to the prep for the long-awaited phone box map while I’m taking a break from new boxes. Today I’ve added coordinate links for the Upper Street boxes from November 2016: here, here, here, here and here. (Plus a sad realisation that one of them is no longer in situ!)
Gig Review: Holly Johnson at The Glasshouse (Sage Gateshead), 12th November 2023
On we go with the gig blog catchup!
I really enjoyed this gig… well, I remember I did once the main act came on. There was a support act, which I only know because I took a picture. The old listing from the Glasshouse website tells me his name is Matt McManoman, but I’m afraid he was most likely doing the kind of acoustic stuff that my memory tends not to retain:
Sorry, Matt. If I see you again I’ll try harder to remember your set!
Onto Holly. Setlist recorded by the good folks at setlist.fm. It was a perfect list as far as I was concerned, with a great mix of Frankie classics and solo highlights. Holly also had some great stories about Newcastle back in the ’80s when he used to come up to record The Tube.
The encore was one song – ‘The Power of Love’ – which Holly said he believes shouldn’t just be a Christmas song but should be played year-round. I see his point, but seeing this lovely performance of the song in the run-up to Christmas did feel pretty special.
Onto 2024 next week! We’re getting there…
parkrunday: Town Moor #693
Last Saturday, Geth and I went to the Moor for a change. He fancied a faster effort and I was still taking it really easy due to my hamstring niggle. It’s strange how slow parkrun feels when you’re taking it properly easy. I was a little faster than the previous week at Jesmond Dene… but not much.
No picture as there was no photographer (I did take a selfie for logging purposes but it’s not particularly blogworthy).
I’ll still be taking it easy this weekend (yet to decide where) but the hamstring is much improved following a sports massage so hopefully I’ll be able to get a bit of speed up again soon!
Phone Box Thursday: Cruella’s Phone Box
Continuing the occasional theme of ‘red phone boxes in videogames’, one finally showed up in Disney Dreamlight Valley:
It appeared in the Cruella de Vil area of the newest expansion, Wishblossom Ranch. I have yoinked it to put next to my virtual house!
I’ve been posting a phone box post every Thursday since 1st February 2018 – that’s 418 Thursdays in a row including today! I will continue to do a phone-box-related post every week, but the main log of boxes will be on hiatus for a little while as I consolidate some things.
Gig Review: Duran Duran at Leeds Arena, 4th May 2023
It was getting to the stage at this point where I realised I was starting to ‘collect’ Duran gigs in different cities. Birmingham, Dublin, London and now Leeds. There’ll be at least one more city added to the collection in the upcoming weeks of this gig blog catchup! Leeds was probably the easiest for travelling so far.
A couple of support acts on this tour, the first of which was Lia Lia. I mostly remember this as ‘experimental but quite pleasant to listen to’.
Next up was Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters fame. He mainly performed his band’s classics, which was fine by me – I vaguely remember seeing the Scissor Sisters at some T in the Park or other back in the day, but like the majority of my twenties, it’s a very blurry memory, so it was fab to be able to see these songs played live again.
Onto the main event! As usual, setlist.fm has the details here.
As mentioned above, this was my fourth time seeing Duran in less than two years so I was quite familiar with the Future Past era setlist by this point. A couple of songs I was delighted to hear live for the first time were ‘Night Boat’ (in hindsight a hint towards the upcoming Danse Macabre album, at that point not yet officially announced) and ‘Is There Something I Should Know?’
I was also intrigued by the mashup of ‘Lonely in Your Nightmare’ and a cover of ‘Super Freak’ – another track that would later become very familiar in the Danse Macabre era! At the time I was a little concerned that this mashup had replaced my old favourite ‘Girls on Film’/’Acceptable in the ’80s’… but I needn’t have worried, as the latter made its appearance later in the evening 😊
I didn’t realise at the time that it would be a while before I saw the band again. 2024 ended up being Duranless because their only UK dates were a couple of festivals down south and the logistics didn’t work out for me. But there were quite a few other gigs, which I’ll be continuing to blog about over the next few weeks!
parkrunday: Jesmond Dene #246
I’ve felt a bit ‘deep in the winter slump’ this week. The winter running slump was what used to happen before I started my daily run streak (and, indeed, was one of the main reasons why I started my daily run streak). Every winter without fail, I just wouldn’t run at all for a couple of months. The streak put an end to that, thankfully, but there are other ways in which it shows up:
- The ‘strength and conditioning’ winter slump (I am making an effort to mitigate it and am back doing my prehab and gentle S&C again)
- General fatigue and stiffness (my hamstring has been tight and uncomfortable this week so I’ve been protecting it via less running and more cycling)
- Taking a break from race training plans (HIGHLY NECESSARY after the last couple of years but not great for motivation)
- Not making any more effort to get to a parkrun than I have to (I do make sure to attend parkrun every week, but in the winter it’s preferable to take the easy option, which most weeks is just walking to and from Jesmond Dene)
There’s something a bit ‘hygge’ and cosy about just going to your home parkrun all the time in January. Even if the infamous puddle is back and so you walk home with wet feet.
No plans for next week other than ‘attend parkrun’. Taking it a day at a time!
Phone Box Thursday: High Street, Burntisland
Dad captured this nice high street box in November.
(Coordinates 56°05’91.6″N, 3°23’43.5″W.)
(A few interesting changes to the building next door since the Street View image was taken a couple of years previously!)
This one appears to be a nice artwork/info showcase of some kind.
Gig Review: Jim Bob at The Cluny, 9th November 2022
Still catching up with the gigs from what is now four years ago. What this process is teaching me is that I really need to be more prompt with these reviews. It’s amazing how much you forget.
This was an early anniversary celebration for me and Geth (those who (a) attended our wedding in November 2012 and (b) have a particular niche music awareness may remember that we did our first dance to Carter USM’s ‘And God Created Brixton’).
Berries were the support act. I don’t really remember anything about them, sorry!
There’s no setlist on setlist.fm for this particular show, but the one listed for the Sheffield date is near-identical from my memory.
As is typical for Jim Bob gigs these days, it was a great mix of Carter classics and solo stuff. Geth and I had really been enjoying the recent solo stuff (‘Battling The Bottle’ and ‘The Summer of No Touching’ are big favourites of mine) so it was a constant vibe. We stood on the balcony platform to the side of the pit (I can’t do pits these days!) so the view was slightly blocked, but that didn’t spoil a thing. (Geth afterwards: ‘that was the best gig I’ve been to all year, and I could only see his feet’.)
Other than the abovementioned, my highlights were ‘Bloodsport for All’ (though, this being late 2022, my mind did wander to the question of whether the ‘God Save the Queen’ reference should be changed to ‘God Save the King’) and ‘Prince in a Pauper’s Grave’ (my all-time favourite Carter song).
It was a great night and definitely up there with the best of 2022. Jim Bob is playing Newcastle again this spring and I’m sort of tempted!
parkrunday: Jesmond Dene #245
Another week taking it easy at Jesmond Dene!
It wasn’t as damp as forecast, which was a bonus.
Next week is unplanned again (because January) but it may very well be another run round the Dene.
Phone Box Thursday: Toronto Revisit
Dad sent me an updated photo of the Toronto phone box from last September!
Still looking great and doing its job!