Thursday nite saw us go to Sunderland to go see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band live. To say that in the past 7 months I've been looking forward to this is an understatement. As many of you know The Boss is and always will be one of my favourite artists, I don't recall any of his songs it albums that I have outright disliked .
For this gig I had not only had the day or the next day off but the whole week. This was the jewel in the crown of my week, the day I was looking forward to the most. We had got to Sunderland for around 2pm, a full 5 hours before the show to have some drinks and some food. It was quite clear from walking round town that their was an air of excitement hanging around, many people walking with either flags of the USA or walking around with Bruce Springsteen t-shirts. There was even some people dressed as cowboys and plenty of denim for all to see. As we walked the streets many bars could be heard playing an array of The Bosses hits, plenty of them to choose from.
In recent years Sunderland had started hosting gigs in the summer, with bands such as Coldplay, Oasis, take that, kings if Leon all playing, but this gig, this act is on a whole different level to them. Yes they are all bug name bands, there's no doubting and denying that, all those gigs were spectacular shows I've no doubt, but Bruce and the E Street are in their own category of super stardom, far higher and mighty than shy who had played Sunderland before and it's because of this that you could sense the excitement.
Once the show had started we were already well oiled from the drink. We initially started quite close to the front enjoying the first few tracks, but had got separated from our group of friends. Usually at gigs I'm more far to just bopping around, listening to the music and moshing a little if need be, yet at Bruce I prefer a. It more space to dance (although I'm not a very good one, the fact I had a fair few beers probably helped aid this desire) with this in mind we soon went further back in the crowd. We had found our friends and enjoying the music.
The boss played a lot from his new album wrecking ball and then an encore if hits. His whole show lasting between 3 and a half and 4 hours. The weather may have not been the best, but it could have been a lot worse, it being overcast and for only 5 minutes actually raining. It didn't dampen any ones spirits as The band started belting out hits such as Born to Run, Dancing in the Dark and Glory days many people were singing and dancing, often with perfect strangers, but this doesn't matter as their is a certain cameradere present when seeing an act of this magnitude. Couple this with people hearing the Boss sing new songs live for us for the first time such as waitin' on a sunny day and Jack of all trades, the crowd took really well eager to hear each song thrown our way.
The highlight of the night was undoubtedly the tribute played to the late great Clarence Clemons, the saxophonist on Bruce's biggest hits. The Big man will never be replaced, and his presence on stage was duly noted. It's great that the E Street managed to keep it in the family and have his nephew take up sax duties, and I'm sure his uncle taught him how to be such a good saxophonist. The band played 10th Avenue Freeze out as one of the last songs, and the lyric hit, "When the big man joined the band" the music stopped and a montage of pictures of Clarence played on the screens, from years gone by, at this point the crown stood and clapped, this was the case for the next 2 minutes until the band restarted the song from that point. A touching and fitting tribute for the big man himself who is sorely missed, but a fitting tribute to his greatness as a truly fantastic sax player.
The gig was beyond words, its tough to describe how good it was, and that is why I have to finish my post now, I could keep going on about each song and how the crowd reacted or talk about the night in endless details, but it wouldn't do any of it justice. To simply say The Boss was electric, the E Street Band was on fire and the atmosphere was magnetic would be a few simple steps to describe it, but would still be nowhere near giving it justice.
Today I had some more time to myself, the family are due back later and so I decided to get some tasks done and take a trip to York, where we will be moving to in a months time. I needed to submit some paperwork so I hoped on the train, listened to my music and enjoyed the scenery passing by the train...
This week is a week I d been looking forward to for quite sometime, and for quite a few reasons. Where to start? Well firstly I have a whole 8 days off work! Fantastic, what could be better no work, no meetings, no late finishes, or early starts (apart from getting up with the kids) just quality family time. Don't get me wrong, I like and enjoy my job but everyone needs a break at times and in the past I've been guilty of being on holiday but still working at home, but not in this case this is a 100% break.
So aside from that obvious reason why else have I been looking forward to this week for so long? Well, in fact it all started in November 2010. One of my favourite Bands had reformed, Blink 182. I had seen them earlier in the summer at Leeds festival, it was then announced that they would be touring the UK, do naturally as I always do when tickets went on sale I bought some, the ticket was originally for June 2011 but a few months before the gig the band postponed the gig as there album wouldn't be ready in time and only wanted to tour with a new album, fair does I can wait, it'll be awesome.
The day of the Blink 182 gig the Olympic torch goes by our house too.
Now being a keen sports fan and working in the fitness industry this is
something I really want to take my kids along to as I am well aware that
this is a lifetime opportunity, it definitely won't happen again in my
lifetime and probably not in my daughters, is the fact it passes our
house is great and something we will definitely see before heading
north. I only wish I was lucky enough to run with it myself, big I'm not
so seeing it will be great in its own right.
Little did I know however how the rescheduled show would be joined with other events in the week. In October 2011 it was announced that the Red Hot Chilli Peppers would play in Sunderland on Sunday 24th June. At the time I thought great, nice easy present for the OH, I like them but she loves them do there's a Christmas present and well go together, as well as many of my good school friends going it'll be a good day out.
Then in November the big announcement came that took this week from being a great week off to being and epic, spectacular, one if the best weeks of my life event, to join seeing Blink 182 and the Chilli Peppers, on Thursday 21st June at Sunderland none other than The Boss, Bruce Springsteen is playing. My mam bought me tickets for Christmas, and since this was announced I've been counting down the weeks the days and into hours now. I've already seen the Boss live once and it was the best gig I've been too, I can't wait it's gonna awesome.
I guess what's best as well is free childcare and accommodation this is all happening in my native north raft do we are travelling up and staying at my mams, she gets time with the grab kids and me and OH get time together and I also get time with my mates. It's all a win win.
So to quote the awesome Barney Stinson, this week is gonna be Legendary.....
This past weekend had seen a nice family orientated activity filled one. To start with we had to pick both girls up from great grandpa's as me and OH went out to celebrate one of her friends birthdays on Friday night. After picking up the girls and realising that I had had no breakfast which subsequently meant I needed to pull the car over so I could be sick we found a coffee shop in a small nearby village. There we sat and ate some breakfast/lunch before heading off to our days activities.
Every year Knaresborough have a bed race. This is an event where the streets get closed off to traffic and instead people push 'beds' through the streets in a time trial race.We only moved to the area last year and heard of the race but missed it. So this year I was quite excited to go and thought it would be quite fun. Each year there is a theme. This years theme was of course the Olympics, each team would represent a country and with close to 100 teams there would be a fair representation of the world. Unfortunately due to us typically running late we didn't manage to see any of the 'beds' decorated. We arrived as the race had started. All the beds were stripped off of their decorations and everyone was in the competitive spirit. The beds were racing down the hill which was our vantage point. The atmosphere was nice, everyone clapping each team of contestants spurring them on to the finish line...
Once the race had finished we popped for a bite to eat and a drink, We were told by an old woman about the story of why there was a statue of a cat on top of the local pub the Market Tavern, saying that the cat had a crooked tail and the cat spirit could often be seen at night. The weather started turning cold so eldest child borrowed my coat and anyone could have mistaken her for a mini grim reaper how it sat on her.....
The next day we popped into town, we had seen that in Valley Gardens there was a family fun day themed in the 1940's. We went along taking the children with us. Many people were dressed up as soldiers or wearing styles of the 40's. We saw some steam engines and children's rides from the 40's. Eldest has never been one for rides but today saw her change her mind and actually she wanted to go on the see saw swings, so we paid the £1 entry fee for her to decide 30 seconds later that shes in fact didn't want to be on it....
We sat in the park and took in the view of the surrounding area, as we sat and ate out very typically British lunch of ham and cheese toasties with a spot of tea a marching band went past playing music to entertain us, it was very loud but fun to see...
After a spot of lunch we walked around.Valley gardens is a very pretty park in the middle of the town. It has a stream with ducks in it, which made eldest child happy as we had finally found some ducks after our failed attempt early this year on our duck hunt, unfortunately this time we forgot the bread...
After the 40's themed day in the park we decided to walk home, we walked past the stray in Harrogate which over the last week has had a fun fair on it. We stopped by to walk around it, Eldest decided she was going to be daring again and wanted to go on the rides. So she was told that if she went on a ride she wouldn't be able to get off and would have to stay on until the ride ends. She agreed and was allowed on the rides, as she went on her first, she grew more and more daring enjoying more and more daring rides....
And it wasn't just eldest who had fun, I saw a football game where you had the option to kick a football at either Rooney or Messi and try to knock them over. I thought this was a great opportunity for myself to smack Rooney square in the head....
Which I successfully managed....
Meaning a prize for daughters....
After all this fun it was time to go home and rest. It's been a long weekend, but also a fun weekend. We have seen lots and it's been nice weather. Hopefully this is just the start of many more great events this summer
So Britain has been blessed with sunshine. No doubt that this will be our summer compact into a few days of sunny rays. Up and down the country will see many dust of there summer cosies, and see many pasty bodies see there fleeting moments of the golden sun.
For us we took the opportunity of good weather to take the girls out and do some fun activities. I have been working late shifts this week, which mean finishing work rather late but the upside to this being I don't start work until late afternoon allowing us precious time to actually go do things.
On Wednesday we decided a trip to the park was necessary, we put youngest child in her pram seat and got both children sun creamed up, but forgetting myself as I am rather susceptible to the sun, I turn red faster than the carpet does when you've spilt black currant juice on it! The local park was great fun, it had a section for toddlers and a section for older children. Naturally myself and mummy had to try out the rides for our eldest child, starting with.....
Alas all this heat was too much for youngest who we ensured was in the cool shade in her pram and covered up, she decided to have a siesta....
Once we'd tested the rides for you fest it was only rude that we not test the older rides, naturally to ensure they were safe for other girls and boys but also for our eldest child when she gets older....
However at the park there was danger, there was a very hungry crocodile who needed feeding, unfortunately the crocodile ate me, and then decided to snack on our eldest child, who didn't look too worried about it all....
Once the danger from the crocodile was over youngest child decided it was time for her to wake up and join in on the fun. She woke up gave one of her trademark cute smiles to us and mummy got her out of her pram. Enjoying the sun, the park has an even smaller slide for toddlers, Granted our youngest isn't a toddler, but mummy decided that TV could experience her first slide, mummy grasp tightly to her, but she didn't seem too keen on the experience...
Once the park was done, we were all feeling the heat, so we decided to stop by a shop and get some ices creams in. We then sat in the cool shade of a nearby tree and enjoyed our ice creams...
Mummy made eldest a daisy chain necklace and showed her the art of blowing the needles off a dandelion clock which she has now seized upon every chance now....
The next day saw the sun shining again. This time I was off work so it meant we could spend the whole day together as a family and enjoy of what we hope won't be our British summer, but instead just the start of it. Usually on a Thursday we take the children to a ballet class at a nearby play facility. However this mornings class was cancelled as there was only eldest and another child who actually turned up, we guess that most people decided against it as they wanted to take advantage of the sun. No trouble we thought as we were planning on going out in there afternoon after the class we can just go do that now.
Knaresborough is a very beautiful olde town, it's just 5 minutes away from us and has a lovely river flowing through it and some very nice scenes.We decided that it would be nice to park the car up and go for a walk through Knaresborough. As we walked we got to see some very beautiful houses, some showing their age with thatched roof's and some with some artwork...
Our destination in Knaresborough was to visit the castle, it's an old castle remains, and has some breathtaking fews of the river and Knaresborough. As we arrived we had a look around the ruins and accidentally walked into the middle of a tour which we then quickly left, but I was still punished as I was placed in the stocks...
Once free of these I managed to relax and take in the glorious view. The OH went off and bought some local Fish and Chips for us all to enjoy for our tea as we sat on the grass taking in the local scenery and just enjoying the weather...
Eldest child couldn't decide what she wanted to do one minute she was running around, the next relaxing and the next enjoying the view....
I hope you all have enjoyed the lovely weather, and lets all hope this is just the start of a great British summer!
Uh Oh look who is managing to sit up on her own accord now! Just 5 months old and now I'm sure the mayhem starts, we won't be able to leave anything anywhere as her and her big sister will be double teaming us and causing us endless mischief and mayhem, the fun starts here.....
A few weeks ago I was tagged in a meme, the meme was in Romanian Mum In London's blog which you can find here. The post itself was a guest post written by the retired musodad, which you can find here, who, like a band that had previously split up did a comeback tour as a one last hurrah *cough* money spinner *cough*
So I have taken a while to reply to the questions posted one reason is that I wanted to think about them, another and probably the most plausible reason is that I have been really lazy in my blog postings recently. So here goes:
1; First gig
Ahhh my first gig. I remember it was when I was 14, my sister bought me the ticket for my birthday. She came with me to the gig. I wish I could lie and say my first gig was someone undoubtedly cool and ever-lasting in music. The band I went to see first however has left us with some memorable tunes, I am not ashamed to say I've seen them, I'm glad I did, maybe just had preferred a different band for my first gig.
The band I first saw was Savage Garden. This was in Newcastle. Now they were a great show, the front man I remember was a Entertainer and they were really good live. Many people laugh when I say they were my first live band, but like say I'm not embarrassed to say they were, I still like there songs, they are catchy, and the gig was good, I remember getting quite a bit of stick from my school friends at the time for seeing them bit meh, who cares I survived it.
2: Worst gig
There's not too many bad gigs that spring to my mind. I've been lucky enough to see quite a few good bands. Theres a few bad acts I've seen as a result of being at a festival and just going along to see a band because no-one else has been on and I couldn't be bothered to go back to my tent as there's a band coming on next I want to see.
I'd say of this bunch last year I was at live at Leeds with my friends. I remember all the posters were dotted around town and had the full line up. Live at Leeds is kind if like a gig crawl, around the city there are different venues with different musicians on. One of the top acts their last year was James Blake. He was tipped to make it big last year by the radio and NME etc. so without ever hearing anything of his me and my mates went along to his 4pm show, by 4:15 we had left, I can honestly say that was one if the most depressing dull acts I'd ever seen. All his songs sounded the same and had all sounded like he was too depressed to do anything but cry. His singing didn't even sound human it sounded more like a whales mating call!
3: Best gig
This could only be one gig, without doubt it had to be when I saw Bruce Springsteen in Manchester in 2008. The gig was fantastic, the Boss is and always be one of my favourite musicians. He, in my eyes has never wrote a bad song that I've heard and his live shows certainly live up to his music. The E street band that accompany him are of course also of equally high measure and the fact the band and the Boss go on staff with no set list but the first couple of songs and the judge the mood and feel of the gig shows how good and In sync the band are with each other.
I'm delighted to say ill get to see them again this summer in Sunderland, and I'm sure it'll be an equally as good show, albeit quite sad as the big man Clarence Clemons Wont be there but I'm sure the Boss and the E-street band will do him justice. There's nothing like seeing a 60 year old man power slide across the stage on his knees to make you realise that he truly us a genius.
After the gig also was coupled with a great night out, and isn't that the point of the gig. Not just the show itself but the stories you have of the night out afterwards. Me and my mate jack were staying in Manchester. I drove, I bought the tickets, all he had to do was sort the hotel, which he did, for £20 each in the city centre which I thought bargain! What he didn't tell me until we got there that it was a certain sexual preference hotel of which we were not! No difference, a bed is a bed after all. A night of many drinks around Manchester followed of which most stories I can not place on this blog :O
4: Last gig
Feeder in Sheffield. This was the 16th time I had seen this great band. They are my favourite band. I went to see them with my OH for the first time and my trusty side kick Disco Dave for the 16th time. Now many people say if you've seen them that many times you could act their show. True I always know what song they finish on but they do release new music and play them their gigs. They also regularly play songs they haven't done got years from their back catalogue.
In Sheffield it had coincided with the day of their new album being released. I had already feverishly listened to the whole album a few times and do was well acquainted with many of the new songs. They played a large majority of these, at the dismay to a few people behind me. I understand that some 'fans' may be annoyed at this but I see it from the bands point of view that they want people to hear their new music. They still played all their favourites but blended then in between new songs.
Now obviously I am going to be biased as I love all their songs and do they could've played their entire first album or their new album and I would still love every second of it. The gig itself was great and I've already got my ticket to gig number 17 bring it on.
6: Dream gig
This is a tough one as the rule of the original post stipulated it must not be the stereotypical answers of a band like the Beatles or Jimi Hendrix as these were obviously not around in my lifetime, but instead a band or musician I could've easily seen but didn't.
I guess for this dream gig I'd have to say it would be Tom Jones. Now I know very well that he's still alive and still active in the music industry and maybe one day I will get to see him. I think the man is a legend in the music industry and the reason why I chose him is simply that I've been privileged alot musically in my life that I've seen many of my favourite acts and artists live, quite a few time. There's many smaller bands that I like that I have never seen but these have never been dream gigs to me, they are simply would've been nice to see.
Similarly it would be great to see Bon Jovi or Robbie Williams live, but as they often tour the UK I am often confident that this will undoubtedly happen. However with Tom Jones I am less confident, I think what would make it a dream gig would be to see him live in somewhere like Las Vegas. I'd love to see a big act live in America, I've been to sporting events there and everything just seems to happen on a larger scale, and I'm sure Sir Tom wouldn't disappoint.
But now who to tag? The whole point of a meme is to tag people in it. Or should I just break the golden rule and not? Surely I can;t do that can I ? Well I think not tagging anyone would be disrespectful to Musodad who started this post and also Romanian Mum who kindly borrowed her blog for tis to happen.
So I will tag a few people. First my OH @ourpeagreenpod she probably won't do it because she hates memes, but its worth a try isn't it?
Next I'm going to have to tag @firsttimedaddy , purly beacuse we have had a few football related discussion on twitter and now I'd like to see his music tastes.
After this I am going to invite @saskadad , one of my new followers, I;m intrigued to hear his musical tastes. As well as @thejdaddy .
That is all for now, but if you want to join in please do so and comment me the link.
Today mummy went off to Blogcamp in Birmingham. Leaving me with the girls. So I enlisted to help of Nana and my nephew CJ, along with his mam. So we took the kids to Winkies, a local play area for children.
Both ER and CJ enjoyed being able to run around,play and be crazy and loud. Meanwhile TV got lots of attention by her Nana and her auntie.
CJ decided to part take on what has become mine and ERs weekly funny face competition....
And of course ER had to have hers taken....
Meanwhile TV was getting plenty of hugs and attention by Nana...
I'm guessing it won't be too long before she's up and playing with her sister and cousin. Meanwhile ER's trusty sidekick Rabbit guarded her shoes by wearing them whilst also getting ready 8 months ahead of time for Christmas by wearing a Santa coat...
After playing at Winkies for a good 3 hours we headed home so we could wave Nana and CJ off. A lively day spent with great family, we hope mummy had a nice relaxing day at her blogfest.
