Chapter 3 – Opening Day Of The Season (vs Aston Villa, Away, Sat 14th Aug)

It was actually a great journey up to the Midlands today. Decent traffic, weather was a bit pants, but that’s the way it goes. From memory normally opening day of the season is a nice affair weather wise, sunshine and warmth. Not rain, thunder and lighting.

We arrive, grab some food from a Tesco that’s right near the ground an park up, it’s literally just gone midday, around three hours to kick off. Lunch is scoffed (for the record I had a cheese sandwich, bag of ready salted Walkers crisps and a grab bag of sliced apple pieces) and we settle in to listen to the Spurs vs Man City game on the radio. Outside the rain lashes down at a crazy pace and many a fan walk past us totally drenched. Rather them than us!

Around 2.30pm we make the 5 minute trip to Villa Park to discover we are with the Villa fans. It’s a good time to point out why. I end up going to quite a few games with a mate, Paul, who is in a wheelchair. So we are in the official wheelchair section and at Villa Park, it’s stuck with loads of Villa fans, the opposite side to the rest of the West Ham supporters. Great! Never a good thing as I think of previous times this has happened. The only blessing today is that both clubs wear claret and blue, so my replica shirt blends in a bit more. But the early need to relieve myself means a trip right into the heart of the Villa fans for which I cover my shirt up as much as possible to try to avoid any hassle. The hassle came later.

Anyways, the excitement of the new season is shattered when the team is announced. Green, Reid, Tomkins, Upson, Ilunga, Faubert, Noble, Kovac, Parker, Boa Morte & Cole. Most of last years “flops” with added new singing, Winston Reid – a New Zealand international, making his debut for West Ham and playing right back. Not a good start, would have liked to see new signings Piquionne and Barrera feature from the start. It was announced that Hitzlsperger was out for this game, a shame for sure.

The game itself. WithVilla losing their manager just days before if we were gonna have a chance to beat them, surely this was it? But from kick off we were under pressure. I haven’t seen the replay, but the first goal looked offside from where I was. We just had nothing in reply to Villa, they passed the ball better, attacked with more invention and most of all they looked much fitter than we did. Reid on his debut looked shocking as well. Really terrible, hope he can improve big time, bloody needs to on that showing! But Villa ran us ragged, in every area of the pitch. We had none of the creative players on the pitch, no one who could really do something exciting. Avram Grant had sent out last years relegation fodder. Tomkins tried his best to give Villa more chances, giving Carew the best chance to score and he really should have. Half time, two goals down, it could have been much worse that’s for sure.

Positive start to the second half with Barrera and Piquionne both coming on, Boa Shitte, sorry Morte and Kovac making way. We played much better, attacked and created chances, very different from the first half. But looking weak at the back meant we conceded a third and couldn’t quite convert any chances up the other end. So a 3-0 defeat, a bad performance and I could have had no real complaints had it been 6 or 7 nil at the end.

During the game we had thunder, lightning and a huge down pour. Was kinda satisfying seeing these over paid footballers getting soaked whilst we stayed dry. The Villa fans opted to bee Robert Green at every chance. Yes he made an error in the World Cup, but should he be the scapegoat for the England team’s failure? No! Drawing to Algeria is pants, and the display against Germany was terrible, so many errors on the pitch, more blame to be placed around that just on Green’s shoulders.
But the way they booed James Milner, one of their own was crazy. Yes he might be off to Man City in a big money move, but instead of not playing, he’s out there giving his all for them. Funny how when he added a third they cheered and cheered. When he was taken off, they clapped galore. Funny how fickle some fans can be. Stick to your convictions. This is where the hassle started, not as bad as we have had before, but the Villa fan in front of us turned round and started to give us some lip. Giving it all “I didn’t boo Milner, I didn’t boo Green”. I was gave him lip back in the end along the lines off “well done mate, good for you, shame ya fellow Villa fans are as clued up as you then.” He was going on and on, even with my “Yeah mate, turn round, the game’s that way”. I fully admit I was being more than a little sarcastic in my tone and there was definitely a feeling it could explode. The stewards had words with him in the end, I mean come on dude, you’re winning 3-0, leave it out! If you get kicks from turning around and abusing fans stuck in wheelchairs, you obviously have a very sad existence. It’s not like we chose to be sat there, your crappy stadium plan dictates we have too, we would rather be with our own supporters. Total douche bag that bloke.

Back to the car, in the car park, Paul tries to reverse to turn the car round, to make it easier to get out when they re-open the road and we’re set free. But a jobsworth copper on a bike speeds up and parks behind him wagging his finger! The car park was pretty empty as well, it would have been no hassle, but he sat there being a twat. Good news is we managed to dodge some traffic and made it out and back in a decent time. No complaints there, just a shame the game was such a crap event from a West Ham fans point of view.

With Bolton up next, the team will need to be changed from what started. We’ll need an attacking team, especially against Bolton and especially being at home. The fans there will need to see something positive from the team. I bloody hope this is the case!

Written: 16th August 2010

Chapter 2 – vs Deportivo La Coruna (Home 7th August 2010)

My first visit this season to a game. I did do the stadium tour just a few days ago for my birthday, which was a truly awesome experience. Instead off just chatting I’m gonna talk about the whole day and the experience I had, might be better than just a match report.

So let’s see, the traffic up was shitty. The M25 was slow and it took me just over three hours. Through the roadworks I chose the two lane option rather than the outside lane that split off, bad move! Some poor sod had broken down and therefore whilst the outside lane whizzed off, we were stuck for miles as everyone had to filter in, not much fun. The matter was made worse that I was suddenly gagging to drain the lizard and eventually managed to get through and make a dash into South Mimms service station. Phew! The rest of the journey was fine to be fair and I chose the park 20 minutes away, walk to the ground option. The normal chicken steak burger was purchased from the usual dodgy fast food shop. For something that is advertised at 99p, they always say £1. I never grumble though.

I had the idea of pre-ordering the new West Ham shirt before the game for easy collection. My plan was in theory a great idea but was thwarted when getting into the rammed club shop I had to queue up in the snake like affair and wait 35 minutes with everyone else parting with 40 notes for the new shirt.

Making the time about 2.45pm gave me time to head round to the Bobby Moore stand where I generally always sit. The ticket was a birthday present and the seat ended up just slightly off centre behind the goal, maybe 15 rows back, pretty good indeed. Settling in I had a kid next to me maybe about 10 who was with I’m guessing a chap who was his Dad who seemed to talk crap to the kid all game. Kept saying how great Scott Parker is, which is a fair comment and one I would agree with, but when praising Parker for something on the pitch that was actually Mark Noble I could feel myself getting more and more annoyed with him. He was just talking bollocks to this kid, I’m not sure if he goes to see us play often, but from the comments, I’m guessing not.

The game itself was a lack lustre affair, a solid 0-0 draw with minimal chances really. But in a pre season game it’s nice to not get injuries and you almost expect players to be easing off a bit. Nice chance to see some of the new signings. So after 90 minutes a penalty shoot out was to decide the outcome which luckily enough was to be right in front of me!

Anyways, we won the shoot out 5-3 and the hero was of course our goalie, Rob Green. Yes, that Rob Green on the now infamous England howler at the World Cup when that feeble USA shot squirmed in. It was always written for him to do well and I am pleased he excelled here. Should give his confidence a massive boost ahead of the new season – lovely stuff, well needed indeed.

A pretty positive feeling as I left and I’m hopeful for the new season. First up, Aston Villa away on Saturday and I’ve just seen that they’ve parted ways with their manager, hope this is going to work in our advantage and not theirs!

Written: 9th August 2010

Chapter 1 – Pre-season and new season hopes!

Those of you still reading who know about football will know my beloved West Ham have a new manger in place for next year, Avram Grant. I have to admit I feel confident that he will get us playing well and do a good job, bloody hope so! We have a few new faces as always happens during the Summer, but I was surprised not to see more leave yet. But the transfer window is still open as I write and many changes could easily be the case. Speculation suggests we may sell Carlton Cole and buy Yakubu. Right now I’d say bad move, but if it happens, let’s see if it comes off. Maybe this is why I am not a manager. Also I’d like to cash in on Upson, get rid of Dyer (won’t make a difference as he never plays anyway), Boa Morte should have gone and not been given a new contract, maybe the time is to cash in on Behrami as well. Also we should get shot of Gabbiadon, Spector and Tomkins. Yeah this leaves us lacking in defence, but surely we can get someone decent in.

We’ve had a decent pre-season actually. The first team have so far played 7, won 5, drawn 2 (of which one we won on penalties) – not like us, maybe it’s a good omen! Like to think so!

So, the new season…I really don’t fancy another relegation battle. Mid table obscurity this season would be fine by me, then push on for the top half of the table next year. I am realistic, we’re not going to be pushing for those European places, we just don’t have the cash available that the likes of Man City have. It’d be nice if we did. So I’m gonna say we’ll finish 12th this season, or maybe 13th… no 12th! Let’s go for it!

Written: 9th August 2010

The Football Season commeth...

I thought I might scribble a little bit about football on here as well. I do realise loads of people will probably already have switched off from the rest of this by now, I understand that this is a massive possibility and I hope a few of you are still left reading.

Of course to get rid of a few more, I will take this opportunity to point out that I am West Ham United fan. Goodbye many more readers. Those of you still with me are either football fans, fellow Hammers or just wondering what crap I’m on about – anyways, thanks very much, I salute you!

I have spoken both in Lights Go Out and other zines about my love of West Ham and I could quite easily write about how hard it can be to be a fan of a club that never win anythying, hell not even that many games recently, but it’s been done time and time again. Instead, through the coming season I’ll try to relive the season step by step for you. It might work, it probably won’t – but tough shit, I’m gonna give it a go anyways!

Written: 9th August 2010

Civet

So last night I finally got to see Civet at the Camden Underworld and it was awesome!!!

This is the review I'll be running in the next issue of my zine, Lights Go Out (www.lightsgoout.co.uk)


CIVET + BORN TO LOSE + MIKE TV
London, Camden Underworld 09/08/10
Just made it into this show to catch the last few songs by Mike TV. A band I’ve heard lots about, formed from the ashes of Pickled Pick. It’s pop punk, they’re very good at it, frontman has a decent voice, but it’s pretty generic for me to be honest with ya. Definitely good at what they do though, so pop punk fans would love them!
Born To Lose are an American band who I’ve never heard before. But as the set draws on they just get better and better and I find that I too am moving along to the tunes. If you take all the good bits of bands like Rancid, Avail, Bouncing Souls and Dropkick Murphys and roll them into one band, this would be Born To Lose. Passionate songs, killer riffs and loads of sing-a-longs, totally impressed by them and I am regretting not getting a CD already.
So onto Civet, a band who have already been in these hallowed pages and whose album is amazing, but can the Civet ladies cut it live? In a word…YES! They’re brash and powerful with huge crunchy power chords, fast drumming and pounding basslines. With the gravelly angry front vocals of Liza Graves mixed in with the melodic backs ups from Jacqui Valentine, Suzi Homewrecker and Roxie Darling it’s easy to see that Civet are really onto something here. Hailing from Long Beach, California, they have a sound that mixes the anger of riot grrrl bands like Babes In Toyland, with Hole, The Distillers and even Motorhead into a faster, grittier punk rock sound. Back in the 90’s a band called Fluffy were very similar to this! The whole set was a 150mph punk rock rollercoaster, but highlight were tracks like “Hell Hath No Fury”, “Pay Up”, “Son Of A Bitch”, “Alibis”, “Take Me Away” and the Tim Armstrong of Rancid co-written “All I Want”, which is a poppier affair & really easy to sing along too. A powerful, ballsy set from Civet tonight, a truly great band!
Mr. T

They're knocking my old school down!

I recently got informed that they were going to knock my secondary school down to build some swanky new flats as they are building a new school. Now I can’t pretend that I enjoyed my days at St. Barts school, although I did go onto sixth form and completed 7 whole years there.

The option was there to have one last tour of the school before it is demolished. My first thoughts were wondering if I could press the button to start the wrecking ball in motion. But over a few weeks I started wondering if I should go and visit the school one last time.

Would it be interesting walking the halls again, seeing the places I used to hang out? I’m sure now I’m older the school wouldn’t feel as big as it did back then, but do I actually have good memories from those days?

I never particularly enjoyed school unless it was one of the days we had P.E. and I got to play football or do athletics. I hated rugby and cricket terms. It wasn’t that I was super shit at school, not a trouble maker, I was just totally bored by it if I am honest.

As I got older I got in trouble for long hair and scruffy Dr. Marten’s. But I was forced for five years to attend this place and kinda felt like I was expected to attend the sixth form, so did, but didn’t really apply myself to it at all.

My favourite memories of school really involve the parties we had in the sixth form and having my mates back to my house at lunchtime. I lived a two minute walk from the school, so we all used to pile back to mine and eat more toast than should actually be humanly possible!

My memories obviously have little resemblance to the actual school though so what should I do, make one last visit or not?

With the closing date looming, a decision needed to be made. The fee to visit was just £5….so what do I do?

Fuck it, I hated that place, good riddance to it being knocked down!

Oops...

So yeah I kinda forgot about this place, or maybe I could say I was too busy to actually have anything to write about. Which one could it be?

So I scribble loads of small things every now and then. Yes I am fully aware that most of the stuff I write is a load of old pony, but this exists just for me to be able to get the stuff online.

More Election Guff....

I know it’s really common to talk about the election and yes I do realise that I have already made one comment on here about it. But fuck it! It’s my Blog and I can post up here whatever I bloody well feel like.

Obviously yesterday the PM Gordon Brown made a huge error by insulting a voter. That’s surely his challenge dead and buried to win this election for Labour. But the thing is where do these votes go? You’d think Lib Dem’s would pick more up than the Conservatives. The hatred between Labour and Conservative would see Lib Dem’s take the votes I’d have thought and mount a real challenge to win.

I am also not watching these poxy live debates, because I’m honestly not interested in watching three boring men stand there and talk about things. Yes some of these things are important, but I have more important things going on in my own life. These debates will not change my decision on where to cast my vote. So fuck them.

And fair play to the SNP for trying to get in on the debate. If it’s going to be fair they should invite the leader of every party to a debate. Imagine seeing Lord Sutch on there back in the day, how great would that have been. But to make it fair they should invite the Green’s, the UKIP’s and the others – but a big fuck off to those arseholes in the BNP!

But let’s face it, all of the parties are as crooked as each other. They’ll say anything in their promises to get you to vote for them and 9 out of 10 times they won’t deliver (probably too busy filling out their poxy expense forms on their umpteenth residence or for massages cause of the stress of being an MP).

I have never missed a chance to vote personally, whether it is a general election or a local election, I feel I should go and cast my vote. With a general election I do vote properly for who I believe in. But like so many others my confidence in politicians is shot to fuck. My views have changed so much recently, it’s coming down to the fact that I will probably go and vote for the party who doesn’t go about slagging the other parties off. Maybe if politicians spent more time on their policies and making a positive change instead of looking for ways to have a go at the opposition.

I can see what’ll happen, I’ll get in the voting booth and if temptation takes over I’ll spoil my form. None Of The Above – Monty Brewster had the right idea in Brewster’s Millions! Either that or maybe I’ll vote for the person with the funniest name – done that before in the local elections, ha ha ha!

I also love it when they come knocking on my door to represent their party. I have to give them back chat, seems only fair. In my town it’s always a two horse race between Conservative and Lib Dems. If either come knocking then they are of course expected to field many questions from myself and given the chance to respond and persuade me to vote for them. Of course if they knock and cannot answer a question on their policies they will get called on it and told to politely fuck off! So far this election no one has knocked to ask if they can count on my vote, maybe I’ve been blacklisted for giving too much lip! Can’t say I’m fussed.

I also love to give shit to the people who sit at the entrance to the voting station. Sat there in their rosettes and asking for my registration number. They don’t need it, they just wanna scroll through their poxy list to see if I was a voter who said I’d support their party. I’m quite looking forward to it this year so that I can give them some chat back, it’s one of the best things about voting for sure!

Getting Older?

Sometimes I worry that I am getting a bit old for things. I am sat here at work yawning and struggling to keep my eyes open.

Last night I went to my second gig in three days. I went to see Dropkick Murphys in Brixton. (For the record, they did suck and I only wanted to see the support band, Face To Face. Who absolutely rocked by the way!). A Sunday night and I managed to roll into bed a couple of minutes before 1.30am. Up at 6 for work. Not a whole lot of sleep I know but when I was younger I used to go to three or four shows in a row and never be this tired!

This weekend saw me in Oxford on Friday and Brixton on Sunday - but Saturday was a night in with a movie as I turned down three potential offers of shows to attend. I can remember when I was younger seeing Ned's Atomic Dustbin in Wolverhampton on a Friday, Suede in Southampton the next night and then Sunday seeing Eat Static in Reading and though nothing of it. And that was much more mileage than the weekend I just had.

As I've got older it seems like I want more days to just chill out and not be out at gigs. I love gigs, don’t get me wrong, but I guess as I've grown up, my priorities have shifted. Obviously now I am married and have two children - so I want to be spending time with them and not be out every night at a show. Maybe it's not getting old, more of a change in my attitude. Having children changes the way you look at things before. I want to spend time with them, they're awesome and so much fun to hang out with.

Maybe I am getting older, but maybe it's not really a change in tiredness but a change in priorities and knowing when you're taking the piss by being out too often.

I have to say I am looking forward to the days when my daughters wanna come to shows, hopefully they won't be too embarrassed to hang out with their Dad!

The Story Of Cum Mouth...

I mentioned before that I might relay some stories from days gone past and gigs. So why not! I'll do an instalment every now and then, don’t want to give you the whole deal in on go, need to show a little flesh just to keep you interested and then get my claws into you!

I was on before about days with The Slingbacks, but the more I think about it, the more I realise that these times were more about being drunk than anything super duper exciting happening. There was the one time that we went down to Exeter to see them play and a mate of ours (James) had another friend who said we could all crash at his house as he was away. Sounds like a plan to us. So anyways Gavin, The Slingbacks drummer came to crash as well as Fish the roadie and I think there was someone else, maybe Sploote the guitarist, I dunno. Just remember this house had snakes and we found all these dead mice and stuff in the freezer. A crazy night pretty much.

I promised a story, so why not. There was a time a few years back that one of my bands played a show a couple of hours away. I need to be careful not to mention any names of course. But this story has gone down in history amongst us and he will never live it down! Anyways, so we're at the show and we're playing with a mate's band who hail from The North (oop north if you need a translation). We play out set and all goes well, then it's our mate's turn. But one of their band is missing in action. No sign of him for ages and eventually he comes back with a young lady who we later learn has enjoyed some time with the fella. Further details would reveal she performed some action with the lower part of his anatomy and her mouth. Enough details. They play their set, great stuff. During it, one of my band (the nameless one) is chatting to this girl and is obviously pretty keen. We pack away, some people are pretty drunk at this stage, the nameless one is all over this girl, really trying his luck. I think she pretty much gave in to get rid of him and the two of them went on to share a lip locking time before we finally got him in the car so we could get on the road.

Once in the car, this is when we reveal to him the events that had occurred earlier in the evening between her and the other fella. He is devastated and I am sure it didn't help with us lot teasing him all the way home! A two hour drive can go really quickly when messing with your mate's head, but I am sure it felt like a long time for him. Especially when being told how he could taste the other guy's man juice and might as well have just sucked him off! This is three years ago now and we still get on his back about it, he will never live that one down! And that people is the story of cum mouth!

A brief political message on the upcoming UK general election...

May 6th sees the general election hit the UK. Now I wouldn’t like to reveal who I will be voting for. I know they say it’s a secret ballot although I’m sure it’s not – don’t even get me started on that. My point is more who to vote for?

You have the three “main” parties of course, Lib Dem, Conservatives and Labour. Let’s be honest they’re all as bad as each other, guilty of abusing expenses and what not. I’m not writing this to comment on all that stuff. More the fact that I was discussing the upcoming election with Mrs. T when she made a comment that she will have to vote for one of the big three because the others have no chance.

To me that’s a really defeatist attitude. All the parties are there and available for you to vote for. I know in realisation there are plenty of parties that don’t really have a chance of getting in and some parties I really hope don’t get in (and we all know who I’m talking about there!). But if everyone thought along these lines then there would never be a chance of a change. If you wanted to go and vote for a party called “None Of The Above” for instance, then you should. I do appreciate that there is a slim to none chance of certain parties gaining power but the change can be made in a small stage.

If you look at a local area of say 10,000 people. Now I am just roughly plucking these numbers out at random. Say in the last election the winner was Conservative and they had 32% of the vote and the Green party took just 6%. If enough people choose to vote Green and say next time they take a 10% share of the vote, that’s still 400 votes that would change the hands, and in total an 8% swing!!! If this continues each time then power will change!

I believe that you should vote for the party that you want to vote for and not feel like you should vote for one of the main parties, or the party you think will win.

With a general election, I know you have to look at the bigger picture. Local elections not so much. But the names of these political parties are on your ballot sheet, so you should vote for the one you want to, not feel pressured into voting for one of the so called “big three”.

If you want changes, then you need to vote and make your vote count. If enough people think they have to vote for the main three parties then no change will ever happen. If you want to vote for a “smaller” party, you bloody well should. Change can start on a small scale. So use your vote and vote for the party you believe in, it doesn’t have to be a three party race only!


(Obviously this is just my point of view, I am not asking you to take everything I say on this site seriously. It's my opinion and you are of course allowed to have your own. And opinion cannot be wrong!)

Lights Go Out Zine

The majority of you that read this blog of mine will know that I write a zine called Lights Go Out. And let's face it, there are not many of you who do actually read this little random scribblings of mine. I'd like to think that's because it's still very new and not the fact that I am basically a boring shit. Anyways, people do sometimes ask me why I write the zine and what I actually get out of it.

It's certainly not for the money, the zine will never make money and as soon as I get enough cash I just print a new one anyways. I used to write a zine years ago, back when I could photocopy it for free at work and distribute it for nothing. At the start of 2008 I decided I wanted to get back into the zine writing scene and came up with the idea for Lights Go Out. I'd been reading zines like Beat Motel, Fracture, Debunk for example and the odd other one here and there that I managed to pick up. I'd also been writing columns for other zines like Beat Motel and Unsigned Showcase in Reading and just felt it was time to start my own one up again.

I sold a Marshall 4x12 cab to Dan from Bastion and used that money to get the first issue of Lights Go Out printed. It felt great to have a zine all printed properly and with minimal hassle of sorting the pages out and stapling them myself. Obviously with the printing costs I stuck the cover price on the zine of just a quid. Pretty good value if you ask me, especially considering the amount of effort I'd put in and still continue to! Issue 1 sold pretty well to be honest and I made some great contacts thanks to the zine. People asked me about a second issue, so indeed Issue 2 was produced and printed once again. This one too did pretty well so I kinda guessed this was worth pursuing. Issue 7 is currently at the printers and is due out in a week or so.

There is nothing quite like when that box of new issues turns up and I get to open it up! The new issue is always really exciting for me, both for myself to see the fruits of my labour and also to see what others think about the zine.

But what do I actually get out of it? Nothing really. I like the fact that I am bringing a positive product to the scene, helping to highlight bands people might not know and would like to check out. I realise it may not be the greatest in terms of using a resource in the fact that the zine is paper but let's be honest it's much nicer than a webzine. I admit webzines are great for a source of information and are free to access, but I personally much prefer having a physical product in my hand. It's like getting an album, why download it when you can have the actual product complete with art work. Incidentally, I would always prefer to buy a band's record than download it. And if possible direct from the band at a show rather than using some online purchasing place or shop.

The zine isn't easy to put together. It does take time and effort. I don't use the many design packages available to do this on a computer - I prefer the old way of cut and paste. The scissors get well used and the gluing the little bits together to try and form something worth reading is half the fun to be honest. Finding the time to review stuff is always an issue as well. I probably get about 6-10 CD's a week fall onto my doormat (the postie probably hates me!) and I do have a great team of people who help out by adding their thoughts on releases. But the hard part is chasing them up to get them back to me in time. Something I hate doing to be fair! Of course the inevitable happens, the reviews are just about finished, I'm caught up with the review pile and then a bundle more turn up! I do have to just make a cut off point at some stage and hold some over for the next issue.

Another of the hardest things is the interviews. Contacting people/bands and requesting interviews takes a while. Loads never respond back to me. And on more than a few occasions I have sent interviews over and never got a response. This does my head in to be honest. I appreciate that people come back and say they're up for it, but then not to bother answering is more than a tad annoying. It's great when some bands come back really quickly and I appreciate that big time, it really does help with the zine process.

The other thing is when people rip you off. I have a few people who have taken copies of the zine and never paid for them. We're not some big company, I'm one bloke doing this pretty much all by myself. People who rip me off like this put the future of the zine in doubt. There are many great zines out there, please do not rip them off!

With Issue 7 on it's way in the coming days, it is once again pretty exciting for me. I can't wait for the box to arrive with the new issue in and off I go to sell as many copies as I can. So please if you see me at a show, do get a copy from me, like I said the zine is only £1 and I think it's well worth it. I would love to be able to give the zine away for nothing to as many people as I can, but with the costs of printing, I just can't do that! Of course we do have the online payment option. This can be from the main website: www.lightsgoout.co.uk and via the Myspace page which lives at www.myspace.com/lightsgooutpunkzine - so please do check them out if you get the chance.

I’d like to think that the zine is moving forward with each issue. We kinda have our format down now, the front covers seem to be getting better and better as well. Of course I am happy for suggestions for the zine, so please get in touch via the website with any ideas that you may have.

So for now the future of Lights Go Out does depend on the readers. If people keep buying the zine and want the zine to be there, then I am more than happy to keep on producing issues. Once the call for the zine seems to cease in existence, I will probably have to call it a day. I won't deny that I love writing the zine, it does take up a whole lot of my time, but it's time I am willing to give to be able to bring the zine into the scene.

Please do support Lights Go Out and other zines. Without you buying it, the zine just won’t exist.

Clash Of The Titans

The remake – something that Hollywood is constantly churning out. Now I admit that there have been a few decent remakes but overall not too many really. I enjoyed the remade Planet Of The Apes, but that was because they set it to a new story and didn’t copy the characters – a much better move.

I always get really worried when they remake some of my favourite movies. King Kong for instance. The 1933 version is one of the movies I remember as a kid and made me really get into the whole stop motion thing. The remake was a bit of a let down but a whole lot better than the 1976 remake – where they made Kong a bit of a perv! Another movie that left a huge impact on me from those days was Ray Harryhausen’s The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. This led me to check out as many Ray Harryhausen movies as I could. The Sinbads, Jason & The Argonuauts, Valley Of Gwangi and more. But of course this included Clash Of The Titans. A great fantasy movie where Harryhausen created some amazing beasts like Medusa and the Kraken. I love this movie and when I found out there was a remake of it I have to admit I was very worried about what they would do to one of my all time favourite films. (Note: I am also worried by the upcoming Karate Kid remake!).

Of course curiosity got the better of me and I had to go and see the remake so I could at least have an opinion on it. Only available in 3D – always a worry as I’m not really a fan of the 3D movie.

So what was this remake of Clash Of The Titans like? Honestly it was a huge pile of donkey poop! I hated it! Mrs. T enjoyed it though. The story was messed around with, there was one glimmering hope for me when we saw the metal owl, Bubo – a huge star in the original movie. But this one glimse was all we were permitted to in this remake. I am honestly struggling on what to write about this film. The budget was big, the effects were as expected from the current big blockbuster studios, but the story was so far from the original I couldn’t help but feel totally let down.

Is it possible to write to Warner Bros and ask for my entrance fee back? Two hours of my life that I’ll never get back….lost forever!

The Music I Lost Touch With....

Isn’t is strange how you can forget about bands and songs yet years later you suddenly remember them and still know all the words to their songs? This happened to me recently, I was on youtube watching some classic videos from bands like Senseless Things, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin and then Thousand Yard Stare.

Then there it was, a link on the side for a related video. The band? Airhead. The song? “Funny How”. I had to click it and remembered how amazing this slice of indie pop from the early 90’s really was. Then of course to check out their other singles, “Counting Sheep” and “Right Now”. I seriously loved this band when I was about 15, I used to play their album “Boing!” constantly. Not on CD though, on vinyl of course.

My rekindled love of Airhead then took me onto Myspace and there was an unofficial page and also I found an unofficial website. Just a shame I couldn’t get any free MP3’s of the songs. I never owned any Airhead CD’s but have all the singles on vinyl, but because I am now a Daddy, my vinyl collection resides nicely stored in my loft. Then I hopped onto eBay and it seems that “Boing!” on CD is quite sought after.

It then got me thinking about other bands I used to go and watch loads in the early 90’s. I can remember when I got my driving license in 1993 I just went to every gig I could for the next few years. Taking in loads of shows by bands I have no idea where they are now. Thousand Yard Stare, Voodoo Queens, These Animal Men, Kinky Machine, Mexico 70, Whiteout, Mambo Taxi, Joyrider, The Slingbacks, Compulsion and The Family Cat just to name a few of the bands I saw regularly. But back in those days, gigs were much cheaper, I could go see a signed band for £4, you’re lucky to get into a local show with bands you’ve not heard off for that price these days.

And of course punk shows were much cheaper then and the American bands seemed to come over more. We were always able to catch bands like Good Riddance, Ten Foot Pole, The Vandals, Lag Wagon and Strung Out in a smallish venue normally supported by Snuff or Vanilla Pod.

These were good times indeed and I wish I could still afford to head to as many shows as I did a few years ago, but as you grow up you get responsibilities and have bills to pay. And what with the global economy being as bad as it is, petrol prices are high, even though they have come down recently compared to a few months ago and tickets for shows are expensive. However much I love the excitement of a gig, I also love chilling out and spending time with my kids. I guess I’m just growing up, still it was nice to enjoy the songs I loved when I was 15 and I was so impressed I could still remember all the words. As I keep growing older that’s bound to be one of the things that changes…

Footnote: I will relay some stories from these days soon, especially of The Slingbacks!

Wham Bars!!!!

Do you remember the days of struggling with sticky sweet wrappers? I am of course thinking about the main culprit of the sticky wrapper that just refused to all come off - the Wham bar!

Now for those of you unsure on what a Wham bar is - luckily it isn't anything to do with the camp as you like 80's chart toppers! Club Tropicana drinks may well be free, but the sweet wrappers still won't come off! Anyways, sorry! A Wham bar is a long sticky bright pink mess of a sweet. If the colour didn't put you off then the fact it had little crispy bits in (I'm sure they were called something like space crystals!) then the fact you just couldn't ever get the wrapper to come off really should have! But as kids these were our sweets of choice!

Wham bars were huge in the 80's! I remember we used to get them from the vending machine at the local sports centre. For just 10p we could enjoy the Wham goodness and moan about the sticky wrapper.

You open the bar and of course the paper would rip and parts would stay stuck to the chew. Of course looking back this should have put us off, but in fact it fuelled us into wanting the bar even more. Something that sticky surely can't be good news for your insides! Then you had to contend with the fact that if you did manage to get the wrapper off a bit decent like, then it would surely rip and little you'd be left with a shredded wrapper effect down this bright pink chew. The next option was of course to use your finger and pick at the remains of the wrapper. This lead to the inevitable really sticky fingers and more often that not, pieces of the pink wrapper getting trapped under your fingernails along with anything else that you'd managed to pick up at the sports centre. You had to leave it until you'd finished because you’d only get more stuck in there and picking out too early was not wise.

If you were still struggling with wrapper then the inevitable happened. You started eating it and eating around the wrapper. Pulling at the pink chew like a lion would pick the flesh of a recently caught gazelle. Oh yeah, we're talking primal instincts taking over right now. Gnawing and ripping away at the bright pink chew. Sometimes this could work well as it helped you get more chances to pull further wrapper off, including the options to rip upwards. Hell we'd try anything to get this chew in our system. And if still you have wrapper, the final option (which I dare say was taken a bit too often), would be to just eat the paper and try and spit it out. If it didn't come off then down the hatch it went! I dread to think how much Wham bar wrapper I would have eaten back in those days. I once worked with someone who used to bring their dog (Hamish) into the office. Hamish used to enjoy a cake or two and she used to let him eat the paper case the cakes would come in. She explained it would of course help them come out the other end all ready wrapped! What a lovely thought that was!

I'm not really sure when the Wham bar stopped becoming a part of my diet. Maybe around the times we stopped doing sporty things as kids and discovered parties and booze. Not sure which is actually worse for my guts? I have of course stopped drinking alcohol all together these days, but Wham bars found a recent resurgence into my life. Well a few years ago now…we bought a massive box of Wham Mini's and they helped us stay awake when getting the ridiculous middle of the night call from one of our kids as babies who needed a bottle, a change or a cuddle. Downstairs heating the bottle up, scoffing a few Wham bars to keep us awake. I know it's not ideal, but you do what works in these situations! I was most disappointed that they have obviously changed the texture of the wrapper as they cam right off. No more struggling and picking away at it. I guess that was most of the charm of the Wham bar and I missed it!

Pepsi Max.....Maximum Taste

I have to admit I am a fan of Pepsi but today opted to not purchase a can of the regular Pepsi and went for the no sugar option known as Pepsi Max. The tagline it gave me was how it had maximum taste. Honestly if that's the maximum taste, I would seriously hate to taste the minimum taste. It's like how I would imagine cat's pee to taste, seriously foul.
I will not fall into the "but it's better for you" soft drink trap ever again....from now on the sugar is an essential!

Welcome...

Right then - so here is my Blog for your reading pleasure.

Don't expect to read things here that will change the world or even change your perceptions. I plan on filling this with enough random scribblings to keep myself entertained - hey if it keeps you entertained for more than 5 seconds, then double Brucey bonus all round!

I never really got the whole blog thing, but have recently started a movie blog and need somewhere to add random thoughts. Twitter just doesn't cut the mustard as you only get a certain amount of charactors allowed - hence we now have this bad boy!

So stay tuned for plenty of random thoughts from me!

Cheers!
Mr. T