This weekend I was asked twice about what music I liked and I am always stumped when it comes to this question and it always seems like a cop-out when I say “I like all types of music” and usually my mind goes blank when I try to think of specifics.

Of course there are exceptances to my “all types of music” rule but the fact is that there are so many different genres of music that I can’t simply say I like Indie/DnB/Rock (delete as appropriate). Generally I will give anything a listen and will decide there and then what I like without having too many preconceptions.

I don’t go out and buy albums anymore and usually get my fix from Spotify or Zane Lowe/Annie Mac on BBC Radio1 and I make my music choices from there. Currently I’m quite enjoying the track ‘Wile Out’ by DJ Zinc feat. Ms. Dynamite:

I know it may not be to everyone’s tastes but I like it, and I’ll probably like it just as much as some pop-pap that I’ll hear on the radio tomorrow.

Reading yesterday’s Thanet Times I was a little shocked to see that the Britannia Pub in Margate has closed down, which is bad news for Thanet as I would consider it one of the best live music venues in the local area. I wouldn’t say I was a regular but the Brit is always good for a few beers before going to the Winter Gardens, or walking down from Bugsy’s Bowling into Margate on a BDOF (Boy’s Day Of Fun), or even just to make a nice change from the usual pubs/bars around Thanet.

A Facebook group has been set-up ‘Save the Britannia Margate‘ which currently has just under 1000 members and is aiming to raise money to keep the venue open.

The group is aiming to run a fundraising live music event in an effort to raise enough money to keep it open, which will be fine in the short-term but is not really a long term solution. It’s been a very tough time for the pub industry and I’m not sure if this is enough to save the Brit.

On Saturday I went out for my Birthday meal at Churchills Tavern, Ramsgate, and I had a great time, so thanks to those who came along for the meal (Emma, Ian, Paul A, Phil, Emily, Paul F, Dan, Adele, Chris, Emma, Tom S, Jonny, Ben, Pip, and Anton) and those who came out after for drinks.

It was great to have lots of people out and that was one of the reasons for choosing Churchills which I find to be one of the most welcoming and relaxing venues in Thanet. Going to a restaurant in a big group can sometimes be more trouble than it’s worth so somewhere like Churchills was ideal where it’s easy going,  the food tastes great,  is good value, and more importantly where they serve good ales! I opted for the steak and ale pie (the most meat in a pie ever! official!) and also supped on the Chocolate Stout and had a few pints of Touché. There was even a band on that night (the Slug Pixies) who were pretty good, but as they got louder we decided to move on into town and headed to the cafe culture for somewhere a little quieter where we could all have a chat.

Gadds Beers

Now I’m not really one for wine bars as the main problem is that they’re usually pretty expensive and they usually don’t serve pints, but my view of Miles’ Bar has changed sinced they started serving Gadds ale. For example a bottle of lager (330ml) costs between £3-£3.50 but now you can get a 500ml bottle of Gadds Dogbolter or Gadds No.3 for the same price so I’m more than happy to go there now. After a few pints and some lounging upstairs we made a move to the Belgian Bar (which was very quiet for some reason), and then headed back to mine for drinks.

After thursday’s 2am bedtime, I followed this up with getting to sleep just after 6am, and then having to drive to London at 11am. To say I was tired was an understatement but I pulled through and had a great few days to celebrate my 29th.

Next Up: Planning for New Year’s Eve.

I do actually love this song and it came up on my generic MP3 player on the way home last night so I thought I’d bung it up here. Job Done. Enjoy.

walking through cornfields

Although money is tight, I still deserve to have fun and have some kind of holiday and so I’ve bought my ticket for Lounge on the Farm, the local music festival held in Canterbury. They are currently offering ‘Earlybird Tickets’ for only £65 each (instead of £95) which is a great deal considering the amount of acts that are performing and that it also includes camping too, so it hould make for a great long weekend (Fri-Mon).

I went to LOTF in 2008 and had a great time (photos here) so I know what to expect and will certainly prepare better than I did last time when I had wear all my clothes in my tent as it got really cold at night. One thing that did annoy me was that some drugdealers pitched up at 2am next to our tents and continued to tout for business throughout the night as well as playing shit music. This year they are introducing some more quiet camping areas and so I think I’ll see about pitching up there. I’ll have plenty of fun in the main area and when I get back to my tent I want to have a nice sleep instead of hearing dickheads chatting all night.

Don’t get the wrong idea about LOTF, it wasn’t full of druggies, but any festival is bound to attract people who don’t go for the music and instead go to make a few quid. This was aminor incident though so don’t let it put you off.
Anyway, back to the music… check out the line-up for last year:

Lots of great acts to see

There’s something for everyone in there and my aim this year is to try and see as many as possible and not just the ones I’ve heard of so I can’t wait for the new line-up to be announced.

Last night we held our second Heavy Metal Halloween following on from the success of last year and we had seven student bands performing the likes of Slipknot, Black Sabbath, Metallica, Rage Against The Machine, Attica, Paramore, and Limp Bizkit. Maybe not all of those fall distinctly into heavy metal but the name has a good ring to it, and it’s great to see students performing music they love instead of having to perform music for grades.

This year I managed to get some pumpkins to help with the decoration and got them from Aldi in Ramsgate for only 99p each which is a bargain and so yesterday afternoon after setting up but before the event kicked off I came home to do some carving (see below). I’ve never carved a pumpkin before but I thought I did quite well apart from covering my kitchen in pumpkin innards.

All in all a good night. Now I’ve got to figure a way to avoid trick or treaters….

Carved Pumpkins

As I’ve been working down the house I’ve been listening to a lot of radio and so I’ve got a couple of tunes to showcase here which I’ve heard a few times and have been liking a lot… they’ve got an electro edge so not guaranteed to be to everyones taste but give them a go.

Simian Mobile Disco -Audacity of Huge

Felix Da Housecat – ELVI$

I was thinking that as my own little tribute to Michael Jackson that I would learn to moonwalk. Not sure if that will happen but it would be very cool indeed.

Friday 19th June was our Summer Ball at Uni and my job for the evening was to take video and photos which is something I enjoy, although lugging around equipment for 7 hours wasn’t great fun especially as it was hot hot hot.

The good thing was that there were loads of bands and artists to photograph and I got a few good photos. Nothing amazing but I was happy with them, and will do for promotion for next year’s Ball.

Arcadian Kicks performing at the Summer Ball

You can see more photos here (over 300 so only if you have time!) and you can see the video below.