Books, Films, Gigs, and My Life!

The 30 Day Song Challenge - copied from my facebook, but without the videos so its not annoying!

Day 01 – Your favorite song - Dominion / Mother Russia by The Sisters of Mercy, The Fragile by Nine Inch Nails, and Lovesong by Jack Off Jill

Day 02 – Your least favorite song - Hey Ya by Outkast, You're Beautiful by James Blunt, and Sweet Child O'Mine by Guns N Roses

Day 03 – A song that makes you happy - Military Fashion Show by And One

Day 04 – A song that makes you sad - Inverse Midas / Anti-Everything by Mansun

Day 05 – A song that reminds you of someone - Papa by Span (Jamie!)

Day 06 – A song that reminds of you of somewhere - Pretty When You Cry by Vast (The Goth Night!)

Day 07 – A song that reminds you of a certain event - Monster by The Automatic (Kt's Parties!)

Day 08 – A song that you know all the words to - Capital G by Nine Inch Nails

Day 09 – A song that you can dance to - Exterminate, Annihilate, Destroy by Rotersand

Day 10 – A song that makes you fall asleep - La Mer by Nine Inch Nails

Day 11 – A song from your favorite band - We're in This Together Now - Nine Inch Nails, and When You Don't See Me - Sisters of Mercy

Day 12 – A song from a band you hate - I Wish I Had An Angel by Nightwish

Day 13 – A song that is a guilty pleasure - Toxic by Britany Spears (its actually great!)

Day 14 – A song that no one would expect you to love - Eleanore by The Turtles (one of the best lyrics ever - "You're my pride and joy, etc..." :D )

Day 15 – A song that describes you -changed to "A song that's stuck in head as I fear might be true - History of a Boring town by Less than Jake

Day 16 – A song that you used to love but now hate - Crazy by Buckcherry (reminds me of the Hemel Rock Nights...eugh!)

Day 17 – A song that you hear often on the radio - Kidz by Take That (and its great, haha)

Day 18 – A song that you wish you heard on the radio - Lightbringer by Covenant (one of my current favourite songs!)

Day 19 – A song from your favorite album - Flood 1 from Floodland by the Sisters of Mercy

Day 20 – A song that you listen to when you’re angry - Somewhat Damaged by Nine Inch Nails (amazing lyrics!)

Day 21 – A song that you listen to when you’re happy - Under the Cross by Uberbyte

Day 22 – A song that you listen to when you’re sad - The whole of The Fragile album by Nine Inch Nails

Day 23 – A song that you want to play at your wedding - Unexpected Song from Tell Me On A Sunday, sung by Marti Webb, Just like Heaven by The Cure, Here Comes The Sun by The Beatles

Day 24 – A song that you want to play at your funeral - Lovesong by the Cure (just to remind everyone!)

Day 25 – A song that makes you laugh - "the ultimate song about loneliness, love and loss" by Bill Bailey

Day 26 – A song that you can play on an instrument - Walking In The Air from The Snowman, on piano!

Day 27 – A song that you wish you could play - Hurt, either Nine Inch Nails or Johnny Cash - although I could probably work it out if I really tried.

Day 28 – A song that makes you feel guilty - Poison by Alice Cooper - it was so long ago, but this song still makes my stomach feel funny every time I hear it - I was so horrible :(

Day 29 – A song from your childhood - No Milk Today by Herman's Hermits - no Milk today, and Bus Stop by The Hollies - I don't know why, but they just remind me of when I was little! :)

Day 30 – Your favorite song at this time last year - I'm going to miss this one out as I have absolutely no idea!!

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my favourite Beatles songs are:

A Day In The Life
Glass Onion
Back In The USSR
Here Comes The Sun

I really love the whole of the Sgt Pepper album - it fits together so well, and its all so singable, haha.

And two which I love the covers of:

Dear Prudence (Siouxsie and the Banshees)
Because (can't remember who its by but its on the soundtrack of American Beauty!)

I think they're the best Pop band ever. They have such a range of songs which appeal to everyone, they're not all "pop", some of them are pretty weird, but thats great that they felt they could change in that kind of way, and still remained popular. Oh, and I love this 70s remix/mix of their songs, haha:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOuZmEKmtWQ

Please note I'm at work so can't check if the sound is any good on that video! :)

( Infest, 27th to 29th August 2010, Bradford Uni )
In summary – it was great and I can’t wait for next year!! :D

And pre-order their album now! :D

Only comes to about $15!

Click Here!

Oh, and if you really feel you have to listen to them first,

Go here

But they are actually great - we saw them supporting Combichrist, almost the best support band i've ever seen!

(best one ever was maybe paradise lost supporting type o...or maybe Chris Reed Unit, Salvation etc supporting the March Violets...or possibly it will be Anathema and My Dying Bride supporting Paradise Lost...but anyway!)

Listen to them and buy their album, its great.

Support the artists you like or else there will be none of them left! :)

I had a brilliant weekend this weekend - went to the most goth gig i've ever been to! :D I went to see The March Violets at Leeds Met on saturday night (8th December), it was great, they had great support bands as well.

First there was screaming banshee aircrew, they are what i would call 'modern goth' , and i think other people might call 'darkwave' - though im not sure what that is exactly, haha. they have female and male vocals, a upbeat sorta sound, with violins..and do a song which sounds so much like 'lovecats' by the cure, its called 'crazy cats' and its great, haha! :) the next band was "Salvation", and they were excellent! a sort of rocky goth sound, i recognised a couple of songs, the guy has a great voice. i really have to get one of their cds :) or vinyl of course! hehe! Next on was James Ray - he was weird. the music wasnt that bad, but he was doing a weird kind of dance around the stage and filming the audience on a little hand held video camera for most of it, which was a little strange! the music was sorta gothy music with a beat - it was ok. then there was Chris Reed Unit (I'm not sure if thats one word or not really, haha!). He used to be in Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, and I love them, so i was quite looking forward to seeing him. First thing that i noticed though was that he looked like Kt's mum's boyfriend - that was scary, haha! His music was ok - his voice is good, but it was a little boring to watch - was just him with a guitar and a backing drum track. I would listen to it on cd, but not sure about watching it live.

And then The March Violets. I wasn't sure what to expect really, i've seen a few bands who were from back in the 80s, and some were brilliant (Bauhaus) and some were a bit disappointing (Sisters of Mercy) - but luckily, The March Violets were great! not quite as good as Bauhaus i think, as i didnt know a huge amount of the songs (but thats my own fault really, haha) , but they were great. Great sound, great atmosphere, they had really good interaction with the crowd as well, which was good. and their new song, cut up pretty, was just amazing! aaa! definately my favourite song at hte moment - ooh and there was another new one about a dress (can't remember what that was called) but that was great too! the woman has a great voice! and the man as well - though he really didnt look like what i thought he would look like! most goths are thin and pasty, but he was..not. it was great, haha. Ooh and i got the copies of the lyrics after as well, hehehe! :D

And then after that it said there was going to be an aftershow party - we at first weren't quite sure where this was going to be, but then suddenly turned a corner and there were lots of people dancin g, so we danced to some great goth music for about 1 1/2 hours - then we had to go and get the train back to huddersfield.

So all in all, it was a brilliant night, i havent heard that much goth for ages, so it was brill :) and we were some of the youngest there, haha! and i felt so underdressed compared to everyone else (anyone want to buy me some overly extravagent goth clothes? hehehe! :D )

The next day (after a loooong lie in and some nicely cooked pasta, hehe!) we went to Manchester to see HIM. Now, I've seen HIM loads of times, and each time before i see them i think i might not like it, as i've seen them so much, but they really were quite excellent. Ville is a great performer, and the music they are doing now is just great, though a lot of people don't like it. I think maybe because its more "metal" than their other stuff (though obviously not as metal as proper metal - don't have a go at me about it!) people don't like the change in their sound. one thing i didn't like though - they really should do a black sabbath cover at some point!! as Ville talks about them all the time, and some of their riffs are similar (to me anyway) - i don't know maybe they won't do it because it might scare their fans! who now all seem to be about 15 - annoy as they all scream horribly when Ville comes on stage - but good as it means i can see over all of them, haha! :) they were great on stage, so overall it was a great night. Kill Hannah, the support band, were rubbish though!

Overall, I had a very excellent weekend :D I had written an excessive amount here, so i think i might just stop...but just to add that im quite excited about this week - am seeing Apocalyptica tomorrow (with my mum!), HIM again on thursday (again with my mum :D ) and VNV Nation next saturday as well....woooooo :D

(for rob and whoever else reads this :p ;) hehe :D )

I've had a brilliant week/week and a half...have had a great time with my friends, been to a few great gigs...means i havent had time to write about them...but i'll try a bit here, haha...

7th March - nine inch nails and ladytron at brixton academy - BRILLIANT! :D woo! one of the best gigs i've ever been to, and they started with somewhat damaged, my favourite song, and played most of my other favourites, including "ruiner" and "only" (which they dont usually play, woo! :D hehe!

10th March - Nathans party - was fun! katie played some great songs..andy's were a bit..poppy though :p hehe!

12th March - Combichrist at the electric ballroom. wow. it was just brilliant! not as good as NIN, of course, but still brill! they're even better live than they are on record, which is great! they're a lot heavier and more stompy live, which is great :) and they had some excellent support bands too!

14th March - Katie's birthday, and our party! was brilliant! i was quite stressed out at first...remind me not to organise a party again...haha...but it was great! thank you to everyone who turned up, it was great to see people...sorry about the music :D i thought it was great though, hehehe!

15th March - Slab nine at the venue - this was also great! they're a good band..play some great songs, i love the covers..even though everlong does make me sad, its still great. and 'wishing well' is one of my favourite songs as well :)

16th March - was going to go to synthetic culture, but no one was going, so i went to see the gorgeous heroes, but then they weren't playing, so it was just cool to see friends and listen to some cool music! :) then went to someones house...which was also fun, but i got back waay too late, and slept all the next day, haha

17th March - slept all day, hehe! then went to the dragon garden, with katie, ben, kt, ben, rob, alan and chris. was nice! though confusing with too many katie and bens! hehe!then went to the rock night at the queens head...was great! i got to dj, woo, so i played a few songs that i dont think anyone liked, haha! but they were great!

18th March - my birthday, woo! got some great things...my parents are going to buy me a car..wooooo :D and got some dvds and a nine inch nails tshirt :D also went out for a meal with my parents and grandparents (and katie of course!) which was lovely :)

so overall, i've had a great week :) ooh, and ross got our download tickets as well, so im going to that...which is great, im so excited :D hehehe!

hmmm....i think i might have to make an 'appreciated' post soon...lots of pictures...hehe :D

Why is it that every other site is so hard to work compared to vampirefreaks? Its very annoying, because I think I can do it, and I know something about HTML, but I don't! Very annoying :)

But anyway. Not sure if anyone reads this, but I'll update it anyway! Life is pretty ok at the moment, apart from the fact that I don't have a job...but hopefully the agency will get back to me about that! The college said they didn't want me anymore, even though they don't have a receptionist yet, which means the admin staff have to do it, and they hate that, I don't know why they didn't just keep me on! But oh well. So at the moment I'm just sleeping a lot..going on the internet a lot...looking for jobs a lot! Though today I found some good ones to apply to, I'll have to do that, and I've just sent off a load of letters to lots of historical places in London and the surrounding area asking about jobs, so hopefully some of them will get back to me soon.
On the friends/going out front, its pretty good, got some great things lined up to do:

Gorgeous Heroes gig on 6th Jan (today actually, haha)
Alien Sex Fiend gig, and then club, on 13th Jan
Synthetic Culture on 19th Jan
Slab Nine gig on 20th Jan

So that should all be fun! I would quite like to go back to Norwich to go to Chains On Velvet again, and see Matt, Fiona etc, but unfortunately it's on the same weekend as Synthetic Culture, so I don't know if I'll be able to fit that in! Sometime soon hopefully. Though they really should come to Synthetic Culture - it's great :)
I wish KT didn't live so far away! It's so cool when she comes to visit us here in Hemel, hehe. Haven't really spoken to Sean much.... Rob is still being nice (both fortunately, and unfortunately, but its mainly good at the moment :) ) Katie is still a good sister :p Nathan is still there to talk to on msn etc, which is cool :) So yeah, I mainly have great friends at the moment! :)

America over Christmas was great. Had a good New Year. I've been really getting more into my family history at the moment, as I've been talking to a guy on the net who is part of my family...the grandson of my great nan's sister! (not sure what that makes him to me though!) He's shown me some great pictures, and had some great information about my great great uncle fred who died in the first world war, so that's been really interesting. And I've sent him pictures and information as well, which he really appreciated! :) What I need to do now is to go to the Family Records Centre, and get some birth and death certificates. That'll be really interesting...its always fun to find out what someone died of! I'd also like to go to some of the churches my ancestors were married/christened in, that would be so cool. Thats if they're still there, most of them are in the East End of London, which as everyone knows got very bombed in the second world war....but I'm still going to go along and see! :)

Really the only part of my life which is a bit rubbish is the job front..and hopefully that'll be sorted soon!
I hope that everyone who reads this is well, and that their lives are going well for them too! :)

No, its not some radical political statement, it's just the lyrics to a fantastic Sisters of Mercy song, which I saw performed LIVE! Last night! :D

I am tempted to just waffle on about how fantastic it was, but it wasn't quite as amazingly fantastic as I thought it would be, for a variety of reasons, but it was still great!

For a start, it was in the Astoria, and I HATE that venue. Even more now than I did before. When we (me, Sean, Simon, Katie, Emma and callum) got there, there wasn't much of a queue, which was good. We got in, no problem, and then the woman found my camera in my bag. I'd had no problem taking a camera in before, I'd taken loads of pictures in there before, but this time they decided to take it off me!!! which I was really quite angry about - it's quite an expensive camera, and I wanted to keep it with me, obviously! I was looking forward to getting some good pictures as well, as others I'd seen of Sisters gigs were really good, due to the smoke and the lights and things, so them taking my camera from me really made me angry. I wish they'd decide what their policy was on things like that, they seem to change it every time I go there! (As also, I was wearing a belt which was taken from me when I went to see megadeth, but they didn't even say anything about it this time!!) Also, people with camera phones were allowed to take photos, they didn't get their phones taken from them, so why wasn't I allowed? Made me really quite angry. But as the evening progressed, I got over it. After all, I have the gig in Norwich to be able to take pictures at!

But anyway. We got in there, decided to stand sort of in the middle. Which was quite good. Had to listen to reggae! (argh...I hate it!) for about an hour, and then the support band came on. they were called the ivories, they were really quite good. 3 girls and a guy, the drummer (girl) did backing vocals, and the main singer sounded like siouxsie sioux, which was really quite cool! they played for about half an hour. then reggae again (argh!) for about 40 minutes, and then sisters of mercy came on!! wooo!

At first all we could see was smoke! and cool lights, but gradually the smoke faded slightly, and we could see them. was a bit of a surprise though - this is really shallow of me, but I thought Andrew Eldritch would look really weird, as he has no hair now, but he looked ok! haha. another big surprise - I was expecting him to be wearing a yellow or orange T-shirt, as that's what I've seen in pictures of other gigs, but no! he was in fact wearing a white jacket! Not sure if it was long or short, there was too much smoke to see, but it was white with a furry bit round the collar, was quite cool. But what was more amazing - when he took it off - he was wearing (*gasp*) a BLACK TSHIRT!!!! Woah! I thought he didn't do that anymore! I was very impressed, hehe!! So after that slight moment of shallowness, haha, I got on with listening to the gig.

At first I was a little disappointed, even though I'd listened to all of their stuff earlier in the day, I didn't really recognise anything, which was a bit annoying. I think maybe they might have done some songs mixed together, like the first verse and chorus, and then go into another song, because I recognised some bits, but not all. But it was ok, I was just enjoying the lights, and the smoke and the fact that Andrew eldritch was right in front of me, hehe! :D then...wow...it was amazing...they started playing 'dominion/mother russia'!! it was just fantastic! Its one of my favourite songs by them, and live it was amazing! Was so cool! Then they started playing a few more I knew, though I totally forgot the words and what they were called half the time! But oh well, it was still great! Then...wow (again!)...this corrosion! Was amazing! With the audience singing along as well! Was so cool! Then 'lucretia my reflection'...that was just amazing! The lights were a little more subdued for this one, and when the chorus came, Andrew was on the side of the stage, bent forward so his face was in the beam of light which was across the stage, and sang 'lucretia, my reflection, dance the ghost with me' when the music goes a bit quieter, was so amazing. He has the most amazingly deep voice, sounds exactly the same as on the vinyl! Haha. Then, can't remember all the songs they played, hehe, but they were all great! The lights were fantastic too, sometimes really bright colours, like pink and purple, and through the smoke they looked amazing! Hopefully it'll be that good at Norwich, so I can get some good pictures! 2 encores - in the first one they did lucretia my reflection, and something else I cant remember. And then they went off again. Then the guitarist and bassist came back on, played for a little bit, obviously building up to a great song...Temple Of Love!!!! I thought they didn't play it anymore (though I might be wrong) so it was great to hear it! It was yet another arrangement of it, was a lot more rocky than the previous two versions, was great! Then they went off, and we went home!! (after a bit of a struggle through the crowd to get my camera!)

It was really good, but I'm glad I'm going to see them in Norwich as well...means I will be able to take some pictures there, and also the sound wasn't too great in the astoria (is it ever??) it was definitely too quiet this time though, quite annoying. And also, there was this man who shouted at me to 'shut up!' when I was talking to Katie during the band...and then later he was talking too! Was a bit of a weird crowd, not one of the best I've been in to be honest. Seemed a very uneven mixture between people who wanted to dance around/get to the front/mosh (yes, there was a mosh pit, I couldn'believe it, hehe!) and those who just wanted to stand and watch the band/talk.

But overall, I'm very glad I saw them! it really was great...his voice is still the same, it's so excellent! Can't wait until Saturday! Apart from the going back to uni thing, that's not good :(