It's photo time 

Siam 

Me and Tyla 2005 

Tyla 

Todays Activities..!!?!?!?

Went out for a short walk again today down to the ajacent housing estate again. Didn't take too long as it seemed as though it might rain again as it had 15mins earlier (It really rained cats and dogs then). Anyhow a little cooler today, so wore my coat just in case.

Thailand Sunsets.

Tyla's photo of Sunset, on Koh Samet Thailand

Koh Samet Sunset Thailand 

Hui Hin Sunset Thailand 

Our Garden 2005 

Garden 2005 This is our garden 1 year on. The photo was taken in roughly the same spot as before, although through the glass of the conservatory window.

Our Garden in 2004 

More Activities!!!

Nothing to report today, during work hours anyway. Went for another walk today, but only along the main road out of the University. About 15mins there and back. I dunno how long I'll keep it up before I become bored with it. Weather was a little cooler today and the sun was not out blazing down. A lot cooler after last nights thunder and lightning. If I go out tomorrow will take some pics to post up on here, to show where I'm walking.

Today's Activities!!?!??!

Well today I've tried to make another effort to do something about the weight, that my body insists on me putting on! Yesterday I took a short stroll down to the nearby housing estate and back again. The sun was shining down and was very pleasant.
Today I went out for a brisk walk with Ray on the nearby path that links my works side of the University campus to the main campus. The scenery is very pleasant as you walk through woods and can look out over the nearby fields. We walked through the woods along part of the nature trail and round by part of the lake. Again it was very warm with the sun shining down.

Ice Hockey Match

Went to see Iain play in a hockey match at the Coventry Skydome Ice rink. He was playing in a team made up of various parents (The Guests) whose children were involved in the ice hockey club.
He looked quite funny decked out in all the padding and helmet. When we arrived and I saw him on the ice I would not have recognized him, the padding was that thick. He certainly needed it as he spent a lot of the time towards the end of the match on his back on the ice.
They were playing the Coventry ladies, local Ice Hockey team. I would of thought they would of been quite a bit more experienced but the guests team were winning more or less all the way through. They picked up towards the end and the finishing time score was 8/8. All the Guest Parents team got presented with a medal for there achievement at the end.
Well I can't say that watching the game made me any more enthusiastic about watching a real game. It was good to see Iain enjoying himself, although for me I could of found something more interesting to do with myself on a Sunday evening. It got quite cold in there and was a relieve to get back out side into the evening sun to get warmed up again. The kids seem to enjoy it although some time was spent running around the seats in the venue to occupy them selves.

Summer Time

Summer time in the garden. Iain came round tonight and we sat chatting in the garden until the sun went down. We had a few beers while sitting in what has become a very pleasant and peaceful garden. Tyla and Siam played in the garden around the pool that I had recently purchased.

Siam in the paddling pool

Panee and Siam in the garden 

This pic looks really summery and if it wasn't for the background you'd think it was in some big swimming pool in a holiday resort.
Tyla in the paddling pool in our back garden.

Jef and Ginger

Jef and Ginger play 'Sick Of Drugs' for the encore.
Jef and Ginger

Ginger Jackdaw4 and PlanA Acoustic Gig.

Ginger Jackdaw4 and PlanA Acoustic Gig.
Venue: The Rugeley Rose, 17th .June 2005.

The venue was pretty easy to find as we arrived from Coventry at around 6.15pm. Took about an hour to get there driving. Left us with some time to go and get some food before going into the Rose. Kebab, chicken and chips were the order of the day.
Rugeley struck us as a very small quiet town and quite an unusual place for a band of Ginger's status to come to play. The Rose is situated behind the local police station and noise curfews are strictly kept to, as we were to find out later.

We hung around outside the Rose, for the doors to open at 7.30. We got the chance to hear PlanA sound checking while we waited. Anyhow we collected our tickets upon entering and then had a couple of drinks before going through to the band room, to see the 1st band, PlanA play. All the band times seemed to have changed as they were a little late on. But Plan A were definitely worth the wait and the entrance fee alone. Now here was a band I expected to fall a little flat on their faces with their brand of Punk / Rock. Normally the music from them is just in ya face! But yes the brilliance of the songs really came out in the acoustic performance. Consisting of Gary Mills on drum / guitar and Nick Peckham on bass. They did a fine job with doing the backing vocals for Jef Streatfield, on lead vocal /guitar also. Of the new songs , which was only one, 2nd song in, 'Station' had some great vocal work on it and some great stabby stop and start bits in it. Some real thought gone into how to put their songs across in this acoustic style. 'She Said'had a real bouncy feel to it with some accompaniment on a drum by Gary Mills. The song 'Hey Ho' had a great audience participation,with them all joining in for the 'Hey Ho, Hey Hey Ho!' chorus, brilliant! I look forward to some more studio stuff from this band. Although judging by this gig, the release of some acoustic would be a pretty good seller.

Jackdaw4 or should that be 2, followed with the brilliant and underrated Willie Dowling! Wasn't sure what to expect from J4 after the excellent and brilliant produced album. How could the songs from the album transfer to an acoustic setting. Again very surprised! Opening the set with 'Stupid'. Some great catchy poppy rock! Willie the ever entertaining showman between songs. Willies partner in crime on 2nd guitar, was John Steel. He played on some tracks on the J4 album. He seemed a little out of place when 1st setting eyes on him. Looked as though he should have been playing in a club band. He proofed to be an excellent choice to be playing with Willie and as it turned out, he was Willie's friend, from his long lost school days!
The album was obviously given some plugs throughout with the line "We need some petrol money to get home, so go buy it". Now ya can only assume they got it, as they had gone home before Ginger had finished. Revelation of the night for Willie, was telling us about his friendship with Midge Ure and seeing him on This is Your life, and writing the same title song about the said programme. Upon playing the song Willie moved from the guitar and onto the keyboards. Of the songs from Willie's past that we got were Honeycrack's 'Sitting at Home' and the nearly/should have been classic, the excellent 'The Ballad of Vera Daydream', from Willie's days of being in The Grip. Yet again when I've seen Willie recently, he's played another song from his past that sends a chill down my spine. What an amazing song Vera Daydream is! Now if I hadn't shouted out for Vera Daydream, we'd have got another Grip song, the excellent, although a verging on political, 'England Your Dead!', so maybe it gives me an excuse to see them again on this tour if only to hear 'England....' The set was finished off with what I can only imagine is one of Willie's favourite songs, which was also covered by Honeycrack, the Beatles song, 'Hey Bulldog'.

Ginger hit the stage just before 10pm, and was a little late. Whether this was the cause of unhappiness on his face or the fact that they had been forced to play as a duo, again I don't know. Random Jon Poole was not playing the gig, and apparently he's off for the entire tour, spending some time doing some personal stuff. Giger definetly picked up after a few songs and some glasses of red wine. Someone shouted out an offer to buy him a JD and coke but Ginger declined the offer. Anyway, they opened with a new song, Man Who Cheated Death, which was the 1st of about 3 new tunes. Couple of the new ones sounded a little cowboy/country like in sound. Plenty of hilarity with Clamp Abuse stories of Ginger getting his car clamped while visiting London earlier in the day. Also Wank Abuse, when Ginger heard a guy next to us, shout 'wank' in a quiet moment. The songs took on a different direction from there withthe audience shouting wank at every oportunity. The guy who shouted it didn't think it too humourous and after some banter with Ginger, he was offered £10 to leave! The set was cut short due to the 11.00pm curfew, although Jef, joined them for the encore, of Sick Of Drugs which took us up to 11.10pm. Good to see Ginger and Jef on good terms.

As we left the building we saw a small group of Police officers heading towards the Rose to check the music had stopped, I can only assume. We hit the road at 11.15 and arrived back in Coventry by 12.15am. Jackdaw4 playing all the way home. Then it was chillout time with a couple of beers after what was an excellent night out!

Panee watching Plan A Now if you look closely at this pic you'll see the join. My camera has a little trick on it which lets you take 2 pics and then puts them together into the same frame.

Jackdaw4 Or Should that be Jackdaw2?
John Steel and Willie Dowling.

Rugeley Rose Collage

Sunday's - Who needs 'em?

Bit of a lazy day today doing nothing in particular. Got up about 9.40 and sat around reading the papers before moving onto doing stuff on the computer on and off all day. Sat in the garden on the grass for a while this afternoon.
Listened to Ricky Warwick albums again this evening. They are such good albums.
Panee in bed at 7pm tonight. Doubt I'll see her again tonight. Sleepy head!

Gutter Cat Drawing.

Found this pic today while looking for something to scan as I was setting up the scanner on new computer.
The drawing is part of a picture that was done for the 1st Gutter Cats demo tape back in the nineties. The picture was somepost to depict the band members as they would look if they were cartoon cats. This was how I looked. At some point I'll post some more of the cover.
Gutter Cat