Into The IUnknown

Remixed: Dead Or Alive!

2008-10-25T14:29:00.017Z

'Inspired' by some of the dodgy DMC remixes that Gaz usually plays on a Thursday night, I declared that I would take a track by one of Hayleys favourite bands and turn it into one of the said dodgy remixes. After browsing through accapellas4u I came across acapellas of You Give Love A Bad Name and Wanted Dead Or Alive. I settled on remixing the latter (although the former may appear at some point ;)). And so, I got down to having a shot at a remix and to be honest, I enjoyed it. It definately helps to have a goal in mind when writing a track and I think I may have gotten out of the 'playing around with one loop' syndrome that I've been stuck in for so long. My tracks are still nowhere near what I'd like them to be and probably in the future sometime I'll look back and think 'WTF!' but, as with the job I normally do, it's all about keeping at it and learning as you go along. I learnt something huge from this track but first, here it is for you to listen to:

And so, fairly pleased with my finished track, I burned it to CD and took it up the Hotel so that Gaz could give it an airing. Unfortunately, what I didn't know is that Gaz's CD player only plays mono and this is how the track sounds in mono:

At first it sounds fairly similar until the first synth line comes in and you're thinking 'hmmm, that sounds a little low' and then when the vocals come in at a pathetically low volume compared to the bass and drums then you know something ain't quite right. And it's all to do with the mono system. The track above is simply the mono version of the original but when converting the track from stereo to mono, the synths and vocals have effects on them (reverb, flanger, chorus etc) which were done in stereo and 'mono-ising' them leads to phase-cancellation (or anti-phase). I knew about it this and I always make sure my bass and drums are mono but I never realised what such an effect it would have on a mono-played stereo track. I guess from now on I'll be checking my track in both stereo and mono to make sure it sounds ok in both, although having had a go on the youtube version I put up (YouTube is also mono!!!), it's not an easy task to get it good in both :(

Here's a more in-depth analysis of what's going from a forum post over at Dogs On Acid:

What's first important is to realise that stereo is, at its most basic level, a difference between the two channels. When one thinks about all the ways the two channels can be different, there's a lot of them. All of these contribute to 'stereo' in some way. To look at a few;

Volume: If you have a single sine wave playing equal volume, 50/50 in both speakers, it 'appears' in the middle. Now shift that 50/50 balance in favour of the left speaker - ie increase the amplitude on the left and decrease it on the right. Now we have say 70/30 and the sound appears to be coming from some way to the left. Shift the balance further to 100/0 and it sounds totally left. Simple, right?

Now when you collapse to mono (2 channels added together to make 1), what happens? In all cases you get back what you put in. 50 + 50 = 70 + 30 = 100 + 0 = 100. Sweet. That sound, all we did was change the relative amplitudes, and it panned. And when we summed to mono nothing was lost.

So that's getting an otherwise monophonic signal and throwing it over to one side. Logic suggests that a good thing to do would be to get another sound and throw that to the other side, which would help give balance and also width.

Phase: Phase is how far through its cycle a wave is. This is often expressed in degrees - one wavecycle is 360 degrees. A sine wave starts at -infinity at 0 degrees, reaches maximum at 90 degrees, goes through -infinity at 180 degrees, minimum at 270 degrees and back up to -infinity at 360 before starting all over again.

So, if we have our left and right speakers playing a sine wave in phase - no phase difference - the signal is the same on both sides. This means the overall result appears in the middle, just like before. Now we create a phase difference - make them not line up any more - by delaying the right side by 90 degrees' worth. Now you will get the impression something is different, although it will still seem to come from the middle. When you collapse to mono, you get interference.

What this means is that you add the two sides up and see what you get. In the volume example, it was a straight addition as there was no phase difference. But now we have the problem where sometimes the right is positive and the left is negative, sometimes they are both positive. When you put them together, there are times where they 'destructively interfere'. This is what anti-phase means, the two sides will subtract from each other at such points. Something will be lost at these times.

We can go even further and make one side 180 degrees 'out of phase' ie in perfect antiphase. You can see this here;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:...f_two_waves.png

There's nothing left! So this is what antiphase is.

But this is all physics, where's the musical application? As shown, you can use phase differences to make the two sides different. When these phase differences are distributed across many frequencies, one gets the impression of a big wide sound because the two sides are very different in a lot of different areas. It seems to fill the space and sound deep and big etc. However, if your sound is made mono for any reason, you run the risk of severe phase cancellation across a wide range of freqs - the two sides will subtract from each other. Internet radio, for example - your big sound will sound 'ghostly' and 'hollow' as lots of it gets cancelled. Another famous thing is out of phase bass causing problems in vinyl cutting, because the needle is trying to go in two directions at once.

So phase difference can be useful - it makes the two channels different and therefore creates width. But this will cause some antiphase (ie cancellation upon monoisation). The more and more phase difference you make, the more antiphase you get - the more you lose on monoisation. Some people do not give a shit about this because they are going to CD, and there is no physical reason not to do it, unlike vinyl ie, don't worry about it.

To finish, how to use this fuckin shit? Many mixes I hear are 'big mono' - everything is panned centrally but with lots of reverb/chorus/widening etc. It's not width like you hear in jazz where the trumpet's over there, and the sax is over here.

That's width from panning - no antiphase. But width from panning alone doesn't fill space. So for dnb, I'd suggest (IMHO!) that a judicious combined use of these two approaches will give width AND spatial fullness. And keep your mono button handy to make sure your mix is pretty mono compatible - you never know where it might get played back, and you want it to sound good everywhere!

So, lesson learned: Always make sure that your track sounds just as good in mono as it does in stereo before playing it out somewhere!!

until next time :)

New track - Warfare

2008-09-29T00:20:00.003Z

I'm on a roll.... this is my latest track which is probably finished but may tweak a bit more (possibly to extend it).

I had wanted to do a 'war themed' track for a while and decided upon the Iraq theatre after starting to watch the series, Generation Kill. The track is trance based, written in FL Studio (my weapon of choice!) and uses Vangard for it's main synths. Samples are taken mainly from Generation Kill apart from the Dick Cheney part which was from an audio clip of his speech. There is no reason for the choice of the Cheney sample other than the fact that it fitted well in the track.

So, here is my latest track, constructive criticism welcome!

My First Complete Track

2008-09-14T22:17:00.005Z

OK, this is my first ever complete track made on FL Studio. It was written for a House Crew remix competition over on B2VOS and although I knew it was never going to win (there are some damn fine producers over there and I still need to learn a lot!) I was really pleased to get a couple of votes :)

So, in a '92 style, here's my track:

Kitchen Update

2008-09-08T00:00:00.002Z

Well, it didn't quite go to plan and this week has been a lot more hard work than I thought it would be. Currently there's still the tiling to be done and the walls smoothed in places and painted.

The task wasn't made easier when, after ripping down the first lot of units, we discovered the most inept wiring we'd ever seen. The main ring was basically hanging out at the back of the units with sockets acting as 2/3 way spurs off to other sockets and a cooker cable that was ripped through the plasterboard. The only thing we could do was to rip the wall down, re-wire it and board it back up. This cost a good couple of days in time plus the time we had to wait for a plumber to remove a gas pipe that we would no longer use and right where the electric oven needed to go.

Things went fairly smoothly after that but still took a lot longer than originally anticipated. There was some re-wiring that needed to on the other side of the room but it was not on the same scale as the outer wall.

Here's some piccies of how it's all going. Hopefully by the end of this week it'll all be done. The tiling is being completed tomorrow and I'll be trying to get the painting and coving up after work!

Click for piccies

New Kitchen

2008-08-31T23:08:00.002Z

I posted sometime back about a kitchen redesign I had planned. Well, the time has come for work on it to finally begin (tomorrow morning!). Below are my final designs for the kitchen and I'll be posting up some before, during and after pictures for comparison as the week progresses (actually hoping it's only going to take a couple of days :) )

British Summertime 2008

2008-07-06T23:29:00.004Z

Has been and gone yet again. It's bucketing it down outside as I type this and this is the BBC weather forecast for the next 5 days here in (notso)sunny Stoke-on-Trent:

So, that's "predominantly heavy showers" non-stop all week then. Great.

As long as it clears up for Saturday as I've planned to have a day out with the family at Alton Towers.

Linkin Park Revolution - Milton Keynes National Bowl - June 29th 2008

2008-06-30T22:47:00.028Z

Had great fun at the Linkin Park & Jay-Z Project Revolution over at the Milton Keynes National Bowl yesterday. It was a long day, we left Stoke-on-Trent at 9:30 a.m. and arrived back at 2:00 a.m. the next day but was well worth it. Journey time was around 2 hours and the roads were pretty clear. Only problem I've got now is that I'm sunburnt to hell! My arms are like red hot pokers and theres a unmissable dividing line between my overly burnt head and my much paler body. I got some funny looks in the gym today that's for sure! (get your heads out of the gutter :p ). I thought I'd prepared well by taking a coat and change of clothes for if it rained but who'd have though the sun would be out in full effect eh! Bloody *UN*typical British weather. Oh well, live and learn and next time the sun tan lotion will definately be taken along. :)

Anyway, once we'd queued for a ridiculous amount of time, we got in and headed straight to the VIP area for our wristbands. Guess where mine was! (see right ->).
The VIP area wasn't large or have that much more in it but what it did provide was seats and shorter bar queues, something which was most appreciated during bands and at the end of the night. There were slighty posher toilets as well although the queue for the blokes always seemed to be longer than the womens (something I thought I'd never see) and so a trip to the open air 'peeing-station' was called for. It's a bit odd peeing into a plastic trough while the crowd just walks past (there was a thin fence around it) but when you gotta go, you gotta go :D

Band-wise we missed Inner Sound System (who?) and just caught the tail-end of The Bravery. Enter Shikari were next up and although they're not to my taste they were loud and seemed to have plenty of fans in there. They were certainly encouraging the mosh pits and circles, something which probably didn't go down too well with the at-times overly zealous security officials. Up next were N.E.R.D. and they played a really good set. I'm not well up on their tracks but they were pretty good from what I heard. They also took crowd participant to the next level by inviting half a dozen ladies or so from the crowd up onto the stage. It was funny to see some of them still with cameras in hand trying to take a photo of Pharell Williams as he danced with them. Although fair play to him, he actually took the camera off one of the ladies to pose with her and take a picture of them both together. This was being shown on the large screens at the time and brought a massive round of appreciative applause from the crowd!

to be continued.... (bedtime now!)

Wazzzuuuuupp!!!

2008-06-25T22:12:00.002Z

I've neglected the blogging for a while as you might have noticed. I've not given up, I've just got pre-occupied with other things.

My life in bulletpoints! :)

Joined a gym - managing to go around 3 times a week and enjoying it. I've got a lot of exercise to catch up on having done nothing but be stuck in front of pcs for the last 15 years or so.
Started playing 5-a-side - bloody hard but good fun. After all these years I'm still crap at football but I don't care anymore!
Got a new pc - Bought a new Intel Quad Core PC. Way faster than my previous comp and only problem is that my MIDI keyboard for my music no longer works as there's no drivers available for Vista :(
Designing a new kitchen - We've ditched the extension idea which means that we can go ahead with redoing the kitchen. Initial design here but we've since been to the B&Q summer sale where they were selling unit fronts for £1 !!!! Have now got new designs to complete but they're not too different.
Linkin Park - Off to see LP on Sunday at Milton Keynes Bowl along with Jay-z, Pendulum, NERD, Enter Shikari and The Bravery. Treated myself & capn Jack to VIP tickets too. Looking forward to that and looks like it's going to be a long day given that it starts at midday!

Right, got some more rendering to do. catch ya later :)

The Price You Pay....

2008-05-25T22:11:00.003Z

For the first time in his four & half year existance, little Joshy finally had his first haircut at the barber shop. This makes a change from either mummy or myself doing it with the hair clippers, something that the neighbours must have thought we were trying to kill him he screamed so much over it. It's probably my fault that he doesn't like having his hair cut since I once nicked his ear with a pair of scissors trying to cut off one of them stray hairs (didn't realise an ear would bleed so much!!!!). So, time to get my hair trimmed and I thought I'd ask him if he wanted his cut too expecting the usual "when I'm five" answer. He iffed and arred and so I said I'd throw in a new England strip if he agreed to it (I know...I'm a sucker!) and suprisingly, he agreed. Even better, when he was sat in the seat, he was unbelievably calm and seemed to enjoy the experience......yay!

Not one to renege on my blatant bribe, I took him down to JJB to take a look at the strips on offer. On arrival he asks me who the team in blue are on the poster outside JJB sports. It is of course Chelsea but a swift "this is not the team you are looking for" Jedi mind trick (learned from Amy ;)) soon puts paid to any thoughts of him taking home said strip. Once inside we head to the replica shirts section to check out and the England strips and he sees the Man Utd ones. Now I'm not sure where it came from (there are a couple of kids in the street that he plays with who also have Man U strips) but he knew who that kit belonged to. "Daddy, is that Manchester and United?" he asks. Ok, he's not quite got the name right but he's spot on. "Yep, it is, England shirts are this way" I reply. "I want a Manchester shirt. A red one with number 10 on it" he say's. I show him a few other shirts but at this point he just wants a Man U strip and when a four year old sets his mind on wanting something then it's only going to end in tears if you don't give in and bow to their demand (a bit like a wife really! :p )

And so, sporting a new haircut and Man Utd strip (with the number 10 on the back!) we now have one very happy son as you can tell in the photo above. He couldn't wait to get the strip on and go outside in it.

That's the first football strip excursion done and dusted. Could have been worse I suppose had he decided he wanted the blue strip, I think I might have taken the tears if that had happened. And thank goodness they currently don't sell any red and white striped shirts, that's more than this father could bear!!! :o

When I Grow Up....

2008-05-12T23:42:00.003Z

... I want to be a hypnotist!

"Look Into My Eyes"

Picture of Amy taken a month ago in a dress she wore for a christening. I think she's trying to pull the old Jedi mind tricks here: "This is not the girl you are looking for"!

Playing with photos..

2008-05-11T23:22:00.005Z

..or rather, how to spend a few hours trawling the net for stuff you weren't looking for in the first place! I started the night looking for software to create photo collages and ended up reading a whole load of tutorials and hints & tips on achieving various effects to your photo collection. At least it was sort of related!

Anyways, here's a couple of photos I've been messing with:

Josh & Amy - Photo within Photo style

Captain Jack, me & some random passer by ;) - in a Scanner Darkly style!

Browsing through my photos made me realise just how many I've got (and forgotten about!) on my hard drive. One of my objectives this week has got to be to label, backup to DVD and archive them off to the mirrored network storage for keeps. Scary to think how much I could lose if my hard-drive failed - touches wood frantically!! :o

Disneyland Paris trip

2008-05-07T20:53:00.004Z

Click here for photo gallery

Our first Disneyland parade:

A little photo montage of Josh's meetings with the Disney characters:

It's alive.....

2008-04-23T22:19:00.005Z

It's been a while since I last wrote anything which is probably due to a lack of enthusiasm on my part rather than a lack of anything to write about, or as Captain Jack quite rightly states, I've been enrolled into the Marine Corp and currently spend most of my evenings blasting away on Call Of Duty 4 still (it's a bloody good game!)

It's not all been COD action though and I still manage to cope without it for the few on hours on a Thursday night that we spend up the hotel for our weekly dose of karaoke. If you've been reading Captain Jacks blog then you will already know that our regular Thursday night KJ and good friend Andy King has been unceremoniously dropped from his spot (bad landlord!!) to be replaced with DJ Gaz (who does the Sunday slot too) who along with the karaoke now hosts a quiz as well. The quiz doesn't intefere with the karaoke too much and it's still quiet enough to get a few songs in each. Andy's still there on a Tuesday night so I'll probably pop up then every so often to catch up on things but for now my main night will remain the Thursday night. There's a couple of reasons for this, the most driving one of course is the fact that I don't have to go to work on a Friday and so can have a few drinks without the worry of working with a hangover! ;)

You may remember me posting last year about the wife, the brand new Renault Scenic and her driving it into the wall 15 minutes after driving it from the showroom. You don't? Well, then head over to here and you'll see what I'm on about! Anyway, we finally got around to knocking it down to widen the opening this week. When I say 'we' I do of course mean our handyman brother-in-law came around to knock the wall down :) I helped by making him cups of tea which I must have got right as he had at least 3 that I remember! Even the little uns were helping out as you can see by their 'eagerness' to brush up the rubble. It's currently taken down and we just need to slope off the drive a little as it's left a 'step' where the wall was and also to rebuild the column in it's wider state. Hopefully that'll be happening this weekend.

Treated myself to a new camcorder this weekend. After reading some reviews I finally decided upon the Sony Handycam DCR-SR55 based upon price, storage options, connectibility and reader reviews. You can find the tech specs for it over on Amazon but basically it's got a 40Gb internal hard drive which it records onto directly in MPEG-2 format. You then connect it to the pc via USB and it shows as another drive from which you can simply drag and drop your ready made videos from to store or burn to disk. How easy is that! Certainly much easier than it was to get the film off the Hi-8 digital tapes that my [6 years] old previous camcorder used. The new one is also about a third of the size of the other one two as you can tell by my picture of them both side-by-side. I haven't had a real good play with it yet but tested it out quickly when we were watching the above wall being knocked down. It's not much but here's a little clip of the little uns with the brother-in-law working away knocking the wall down!

The main reason I bought it was to get some decent footage from our upcoming holiday :) Yep, we're off to Disneyland soon, Paris not Florida, for an extended weekend which the kids are excited about. Josh wants to meet Buzz Lightyear and Amy wants to meet Mickey Mouse. Hopefully we'll have a great time and they'll enjoy it. As usual I'm not looking forward to the flight (I really hate flying) but fortunately it's only a short (1½ hours) journey so we should be getting off as soon as we've got on! Can't wait and I'll be posting up whatever piccies and videos I that are worthwhile once we're back.

Well, I think that'll do for now otherwise I'll be challenging me ol' shipmate at the amount of words-per-blog!

Take care people and see you later :)

Rude Rainbow

2008-03-28T00:12:00.001Z

After Captain Jack revealed his hidden talent tonight as a spot-on George impersonator, it reminded me of this epsiode of Rainbow.

So, who'd like to play with Janes maraccas? :D

Think you know music?

2008-03-08T14:14:00.004Z

Having seen Captain Jacks musical picture quiz this week, it reminded of another that's been knocking around on the net for a while now which you may or may not have seen before.

The picture below (click on it for a larger version) contains representations of 75 bands. Can you name them all?

I'll start you off with an easy one: B-52's

Answers in a week or so ;)

Quick Catchup

2008-03-05T23:36:00.003Z

Been a while since I last posted so thought I'd better let you know what's kicking in the world of Shaunio!

Firstly, it was my birthday last Thursday and I've now reached the grand old age of.....33 although at the moment I feel much older!! I actually night of said birthday sleeping on the settee as I was so ill. Had a bad cold and a touch of the shakes, I believe it was that well known virus: Man Flu! Not the best start to a day but it got better later on when I got my presents: Unreal Tournament 3 and a PS3 bluetooth Headset (gaming in style now ;) )

I haven't got around to playing UT3 much yet as I'm currently engrossed in Call Of Duty 4 online multiplayer with which I haven't been as engrossed in online play since I used to play Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory constantly a couple of years back. The makers, Infinity Ward, have been very clever the online play and laid out an XP system along with personal objectives to give you something extra to play for above and beyond the standard deathmatch games. Unfortunately I get suckered into this type of thing and now feel compelled to 'level up' my character and complete said challenges, although some are ridiculously hard like 'kill an enemy, swap his gun for yours, and then kill him again with his old gun!!!'. Still, I like a challenge :D

This also means that the FIFA matches between me and Captain Jack have also taken a back seat although to be fair, I've not seen said pirate online for a while even though I've been on pretty much every night. We'll have to arrange something matey ;)

There was no karaoke for me last Thursday as I was on a night out with my colleagues from work at MegaBowl for a bit of ten-pin bowling and beers a plenty. Great night had by all although it finished at a funny time where it was too late to get to the hotel for last orders but late enough that everyone who had to work the next day decided to call it a night. Good fun none-the-less!

When I've not been playing CoD4, I've either been working (a 5:45 a.m. start for me this morning for a site release, not been up at that time for a very long time and jeez, it was like -18 outside, bloody freezing!) or working on my music. Really love playing around with music production and although I've never written a complete track, that is going to change. I'll shall [hopefully!] be blogging about a track that I'm going to put together as I'm determined to finish one that I can say I like and will be documenting how I go about it and what I learn along the way. It at least gives me some sort of defined goals which I find I often need in order to give me that 'push' to getting things done ( I like measurable achievements).

Anyway, that's about as exciting as it gets around here, so with that I'll let you get on with whatever you were doing before you came here :)

ciao for now

Lost - Christian = Jacob?

2008-02-15T21:56:00.003Z

Lost is back bigger and better than ever and I've just stumbled across the 'mobisodes' which are by ABC and supposedly 'missing scenes' that they want us to see.

Most don't really have much to add and do feel like deleted footage (something that ABC stress that they're not) but the last one, mobisode 13, has got me going wow!

Take a look:

So, what the hell is Christian Shepherd doing in the jungle. We know that Jack saw him (or thinks he saw him) in the very first episode and it's fairly widely regarded that Christian was the bloke in the chair in Jacobs cabin when Hurley found it, so could Christian = Jacob who in turn is the smoke monster which we know can appear as another human being (remember Yemi and Eko).

Who the hell knows, I certainly don't, and reading the Lost forums everyone seems to have different opinions. It's definately an interesting clip though!

"Hit The Decks" Competition entry

2008-02-10T23:23:00.000Z

Here's my entry for a "Hit The Decks" style competition on the BackToTheOldSkool forum that I spent most of January pondering over.

Although in the end the competition didn't attract that much interest (4 entries in total) which was disappointing, I did learn a lot about FL Studio, the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), that I used and I hope to put that to good use in the future in producing my own tracks.

Here's the YouTube vids of the mix in action and you can download a 192kbs mp3 version of the mix here if you want to listen to it in it's uninterrupted entirety.

Part 1:

Part 2:

The tracks I used in the mix are (in order of appearance):

Edge*1 - Compounded
Circa 91 - Can You Feel Me
Blow - Cutter
Rachel Wallace - Tell Me Why
Quadrophonia - Quadrophonia
Krome & Time - This Sound Is For The Underground
Hedgehog Affair - Oh Wow What A Rush
Rhythm Quest - Closer To All Your Dreams
Prodigy - Everybody In The Place
Urban Hype - Trip To Trumpton
Shaft - Roobarb & Custard
2 Bad Mice - Bombscare
Acen - Close Your Eyes
Awesome 3 - Don't Go
House Crew - We Are Hardcore
Sonz Of A Loop Da Loop Era - Far Out
The Hypnotist - Hardcore You Know The Score
Frequency - Sky Is The Limit
Noise Factory - We Can
NRG - Never Lost His Hardcore
Release - Drifting
Cleptomaniacs - Positive Feedback
Altern 8 - Infiltrate 202
Blame - Music Takes You
Rave 8 - Jigsaw
Rythym For Reasons - Grand National
Elevation - Can You Feel It

And if you're wondering if I won the competition......

... Yes, I did :)

No prizes though unfortunately, but as I said to a colleague at work, it's just about the pride in others hearing your work and accomplishing what you set out to do (and the kudos of course ;) )

Quantum of Solace Countdown

2008-02-02T00:03:00.000Z

I'm not a huge fan of Bond I have to admit but I know someone who is, ain't that right Mr. Jack ;)

Anyhow, I was requested to do a countdown timer to the new Bond film, Quantum of Solace, due out this year on November 7 and so as not to disappoint, here it is:

Feel free to use it on your own blog/site (embed code below). All I ask in return is that if you use it, please leave a comment here to say so :)

Hope you like it!

embed code:

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It's All Gone Quiet....

2008-01-17T00:15:00.000Z

"Said Roobarb. Too quiet, said Custard"

Yep, it's all gone a bit quiet on the blogging front all round since things have gone back to some semblance of normality.

For me, I just haven't had anything to say that I thought warranted writing since the new year. I suppose I *could* tell you about the Playstation 3 I got for Christmas from Lisa which is bloody brilliant. I haven't played it anywhere near as much as I thought I would, although I expect this to change after I finish my 'hit the decks' competition entry, but what I have played has been fantastic. I've now got it hooked up via HDMI cable and it looks awesome on the Samsung LCD on the wall. Call Of Duty 4 is like watching CNN, Fifa 08 similarly is like watching Sky Sports and Motorstorm is just wow! The most played game since I finished Guitar Hero 3 (on easy) is Heavenly Sword and this one has really got me hooked. Brilliant gameplay, graphics and storyline. Perhaps a tad short as I'm nearly finished it now but brilliant nonetheless. Playing online is no slouch either and I've managed a few COD4 battles and a couple of Fifa 08 games against Scott.

For the record, the scores against Scott were:

Man Utd (Scott) 3 - 1 Arsenal (me)
LA Galaxy (Scott) 1 - 0 Chelsea (me) * note: I hit the post about 50 times in this game, no way I deserved to lose!! ;)

I may well keep a record of these games as I expect the tide to turn once I've played it a few times ;)

The rest of my spare time in the last 2 weeks has been spent working on a 'megamix' for a competition which needs to be 15 minutes long by the 27th Jan (I've done 4½ mins in 2 weeks so far so need to get a move on)! Similar in vein to the YouTube Hit The Decks videos top right, it's a mash-up of old school rave classics with audio samples galore chucked over the top. Believe me when I say it's much harder than I thought it would be! Once the compo is over and the results announced (keep your fingers crossed for me :) ) I'll be putting it up for download. I'm quite pleased with it so far and sure it stands a good chance (not least because I don't think there'll be that many entries!).

Anyway, that's been me for the last couple of weeks ,let's see what the next lot bring :)

Yo Yo Yo - You Are The Weakest Link Dude!!

2008-01-05T23:58:00.000Z

Not a big fan of The Weakest Link or Ann Robinson, but just came across this on YouTube from the American Rap Celebrity episode and just found it so funny.

Can't believe that B-Real (one half of Cypress Hill) got 3 times 4 wrong, doh!

Breaking News...

2008-01-04T01:33:00.001Z

Yep, in a compromise with the 70's & 80's night, karaoke returns to it's Thursday night slot from next week with the 70's & 80's tunes filling in breaks and the background at a guess.

You heard it here first!!* *(unless you were up the hotel tonight and heard Andy announce it too ;) )

Go on then....

2007-12-20T00:45:00.001Z

sorry, just one last post on Rave Generator ;) It's now hit a staggering 20,000 hits a day. Unbelievable for a simple, yet fun (for a few minutes at least) flash app and a good job I moved hosts too else it would have cost me a fortune!

I gave up on trying to keep a track on all the referral links and you can actually find most of them now by searching for "rave generator" in Google. I do admit to reading most of the forums (where no login is required) and seeing the comments it's getting. I'll also admit to being a bit embarrassed (and possibly flattered :p ) by all the positive comments it gets although it's pretty cool to see something you've made being enjoyed by people from all over the world.

I've got plans for a possible RG2 which will include the ability to play your own notes (rave stabs) alongside the loops, but for now it's just work in progress and I won't rush it out like I did with this one (yes, there are some parts I would have liked to have done differently in hindsight, but not going to change it now) ;) There may also be a Hardcore Breaks (HCB or New 'Old Skool' rave) generator in the pipeline in collaboration with others from the Back To The Old Skool forum. Watch this space :)

In the meantime, christmas is coming which means I'll probably be spending more nights out than in over the next few weeks so if I haven't posted anything up before christmas day then

MERRY XMAS TO YOU ALL

And just for Scott:

Rave Generator spotted on BBC website

2007-12-07T16:07:00.001Z

hehe, it get's a little link on a Radio 6 DJ page here.

:D

The Rave Generator

2007-12-06T00:45:00.001Z

It seems that my little 'Rave Generator' flash app is proving popular amongst fellow old skoolers!

It's had over 1000 hits in the last two days and looking at the different links it's getting referred from I can see this will only increase! Unfortunately my host only allows for a small amount of bandwith (about 6gb per month I think) so given that the app is 1.25Mb in size, an estimated average of around 500 hits per day means that I will hit this limit in about 10 days and start incurring costs :(

So, I've moved it to another host and got it it's own domain :D You can now find it over at www.ravegenerator.com where I have no bandwidth limitation, woohoo!

I'll try to keep a track of all the links it's being referred from here. Nice to see so many positive comments for this little time filler. I hope you get as much fun playing around with it as I did making it. :)

Referred links so far (*** forum requires registration):
http://www.backtotheoldskool.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=99728
http://pureoldskoolers.com/viewtopic.php?t=1748
http://www.bodytonicmusic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=27304
http://www.djhistory.com/forum/showthread.php?t=30058
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055195514
http://www.acroplane.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=365
http://www.bangingtunes.com/forum/topic/t84630/
http://www.scottishhardcore.co.uk/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=9076
http://tampahousemusic.proboards30.com/index.cgi?board=games&action=display&thread=1196973303
*** http://forums.thegaff.net/index.php?topic=16437.0
*** http://www.dancemusicireland.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=34392
*** http://www.nioldskool.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=59042&hl=

Well, there you go!

2007-12-03T00:30:00.000Z

10 Minutes Of Staring at Boobs Daily Prolongs Man's Life by 5 Years...

A German research published in New England Journal of Medicine and Weekly World News said that men staring at women's breasts in fact prolong their lives with years.

"Just 10 minutes of staring at the charms of a well-endowed female such as Baywatch actress Pamela Lee is equivalent to a 30-minute aerobics work-out," said Dr. Karen Weatherby, a gerontologist.

The team led by Weatherby was made up of researchers at three hospitals in Frankfurt, Germany, and found this results after monitoring for 5 years the health of 200 male subjects, half of whom were asked to look at busty females daily, while the other half had to abstain from doing so.

For five years, the boob oglers presented a lower blood pressure, slower resting pulse rates and decreased risk of coronary artery disease.

"Sexual excitement gets the heart pumping and improves blood circulation. There's no question: Gazing at large breasts makes men healthier. Our study indicates that engaging in this activity a few minutes daily cuts the risk of stroke and heart attack in half." said Weatherby, who even recommended that men aged over 40 should spend at least 10 minutes daily admiring breasts sized "D-cup" or larger.

She said that this was as healthy as going to the gym for 30 minutes daily and prolonged a man's life by five years.

"We believe that by doing so consistently, the average man can extend his life four to five years." said Weatherby.

full article here

The only question is.... why wasn't I asked to be involved in the research!

Karaoke - 22 November 2007 - The Final Night

2007-11-27T00:07:00.001Z

Others: Tim McGraw - Comin' Home (2007)
Others: Lindisfarne - Run For Home (1978) (2)
Others: Patsy Cline - I Fall To Pieces (1961)
Others: Fleetwood Mac - Little Lies (1987) (8)
Scott: Roxy Music - Love Is The Drug (1975) (new)
Others: The Zutons - Valerie (2006) (2)
Others: Tina Turner - River Deep Mountain High (1966)
Shaun: Kaiser Chiefs - Everyday I Love You Less And Less (2005) (2)
Others: Whitney Houston - Saving All My Love For You (1985) (3)
Others: Keith Urban - Days Go By (2005) (5)
Others: All 4 One - I Swear (1994)
Others: Abba - I Do I Do I Do I Do I Do (1975)
Others: Burt Bacharach - I'll Never Fall In Love Again (1969) (7)
Scott: Def Leppard - Let's Get Rocked (1992) (2)
Tina, Louise & Hayley: Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - I Love Rock N Roll (1982)
Others: Dido - White Flag (2003) (3)
Others: Shania Twain - You're Still The One (1998) (7)
Others: The Beatles - Revolution (1968)
Shaun: Black Eyed Peas - Pump It (2006) (2)
Others: Kate Nash - Foundations (2007)
Others: Lonestar - Smile (1999)
Others: Duran Duran - Rio (1983) (2)
Others: Lisa Stansfield - All Around The World (1989)
Others: Robyn & Kleerup - With Every Heartbeat (2007)
Tina, Louise & Hayley: Girls Aloud - Love Machine (2004) (6)
Others: Meatloaf - Paradise By The Dashboard Light (1977) (4)

This weeks stats:

26 songs sang tonight
12 had not been sung previously this year
14 have been sang already this year (None of which were sung last week)
There have been 1190 songs sung so far this year!

2007-11-19T22:13:00.000Z

Well, we thought the day may come eventually and, although we hoped it wouldn't, karaoke on a Thursday night at the Birches Head Hotel is now to be replaced with a 70's/80's disco from the week after next :(

Hardly suprising when you consider that this week there was only myself, Nicky and another guy (Simon?) in the hotel this week singing songs (oh and the odd one by Leanne when she wasn't insulting others!). Even regulars Scott, Hayley, Tina & Louise didn't make it this week so if anything was going to persuade the landlord he was making the right decision then this weeks dismal turnout compounded it. On the up side, the Tuesday karaoke is still on so we'll just swap nights, it just means I won't be able to get pissed as much as I have to go to work on Wednesdays whereas I don't on Fridays.

This weeks attempts:

Others: The Pretenders - I'll Stand By You (1994) (6)
Shaun: Arctic Monkeys - Flourescent Adolescent (2007) (3)
Others: REM - Losing My Religion (1991) (3)
Others: The Carpenters - Close To You (1970) (1)
Shaun: Godley & Crème - Under Your Thumb (1981) (1)
Others: Deep Blue Something - Breakfast At Tiffanys (1996) (1)
Others: Alannah Myles - Black Velvet (1990) (8)
Shaun: Kraftwerk - The Model (1981) (1)
Others: Lighthouse Family - High (1998) (1)
Others: Take That - A Million Love Songs (1992) (3)
Others: The Corrs - Breathless (2000) (7)
Shaun & Andy: Artful Dodger - Rewind (The Crowd Say Bo Selecta) (1999) (1)
Others: Mariah Carey - Hero (1993) (6)
Others: Lonestar - Amazed (2000) (4)
Others: Blondie - Denis (1978) (4)
Others: Righteous Brothers - You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling (1965) (1)
Shaun: Flock Of Seagulls - Wishing (1982) (1)
Others: Whitney Houston - I Wanna Dance With Somebody (1987) (2)
Andy: Chris Rea - Road To Hell (1989) (2)
Others: Fleetwood Mac - Everywhere 1988) (6)
Shaun & Andy: Run DMC Vs Jason Nevins - It's Like That (1998) (1)

This weeks stats:

21 songs sang tonight
9 had not been sung previously this year
12 have been sang already this year (2 of which were sung last week)
There have been 1164 songs sung so far this year!

The karaoke chart will also fade away with the Thursday nights. It just won't be the same even though it's the same KJ and pub, but Thursdays were our night and always will be. This blog will continue on though with whatever my latest phase and news is ;)

And so for the last time for a Thursday night..... see you next week :'(

Karaoke - 8th November 2007

2007-11-12T22:04:00.000Z

Shaun: The Fratellis - Henrietta (2006) (6)
Scott: Electric Light Orchestra - Sweet Talking Woman (1978)
Others: Robbie Williams - No Regrets (1998) (2)
Others: Four Tops - Reach Out I'll Be There (1966)
Others: Cher - Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves (1971) (3)
Shaun: Razorlight - In The Morning (2006) (5)
Scott: Michael McDonald - Sweet Freedom (1986) (new)
Others: Eric Clapton - Wonderful Tonight (1987)
Others: REM - Losing My Religion (1991) (2)
Others: Seal - Kiss From A Rose (1994)
Tina & Hayley: Britney Spears - I Love Rock N Roll (2002) (11)
Others: Fleetwood Mac - Dreams (1977) (2)
Others: Elvis - Suspicious Minds (1969) (2)
Shaun: Maximo Park - Our Velocity (2007) (7)
Scott: Biffy Clyro - Folding Stars (2007) (4)
Others: Elvis - In The Ghetto (1969) (2)
Others: Scorpions - Wind Of Change (1991) (4)
Others: Texas - Black Eyed Boy (1997) (5)
Shaun: The View - Same Jeans (2007) (7)
Others: Marvin Gaye - Let's Get It On (1973)
Scott: Rod Stewart - Tom Traubert's Blues (1992) (new)
Tina & Hayley: Macy Gray - I Try (1999) (8)
Others: Fleetwood Mac - Everywhere (1988) (5)
Others: The Beatles - Hey Jude (1968)
Shaun & Scott: Linkin Park - In The End (2001) (4)

This weeks stats:

25 songs sang tonight
8 had not been sung previously this year
17 have been sang already this year (None of which were sung last week)
There have been 1143 songs sung so far this year!

Dance Amy, Dance

2007-11-09T22:10:00.000Z

Josh hijacks my PC to make some 'muuusic' for Amy to dance to. Damn those pesky drums!

The desk is a lot tidier now too! A 50p beech shelf (I think the B&Q checkout got the price wrong ;) ) and some silver finish kitchen unit legs make a great stand for the monitors and speakers.

Dual monitors rock by the way. If you have a dual output graphics card (anything fairly new will) then get a 2nd monitor, you won't regret it ;)

How To Make A Decent Beat...

2007-11-08T00:26:00.000Z

Been playing around recently with making music (of the old skool rave variety as it's easy-ish!) and having just seen this on YouTube, I now know where I'm going wrong!

Think I might try a bit of beat-boxing after a few pints on a Thursday night :o

Karaoke - 1st November 2007

2007-11-05T21:15:00.000Z

I've noticed that just recently I've been digging into the older stuff as there seems to be a bit of a shortage on decent new songs just lately and that got me thinking as to were there any trends in the ages of music that we sing on the karaoke. With the help of ChartStats and SongFacts I've managed to put a year of release next to all songs sang so far this year (an arduous task I tell ya!) and these are the results:

All Singers

There is a disproportinate amount of songs sang from this year and last year but overall the trend is probably as expected. The 2000's, late 80's/early 90's and late 70's probably just get the nod in the popularity stakes whilst working backwards from the mid-70's there is the expected downswing in songs from that era. Given that the earliest year we have is 1953 it's interesting to note that there is only 1955 that isn't represented. Maybe a blast of Bill Haley and His Comets - Rock Around The Clock could change that! 1955 chart here. (sidenote: how on earth could you have the same song by three different people in the top twenty all at once, see Yellow Rose Of Texas in previous link!!!)

Not satsified with seeing the overall trend I thought I'd see what the our trends are like. Make of it what you will :)

Andy

Wide range of eras represented by our KJ Andy with a little favouring towards the early-to-mid eighties. That'll be all those Dire Straits songs he keeps singing :)

The Girls
(Any that had either Tina, Louise or Hayley singing in)

No real trend here. Probably just leaning towards anything from 2000 onwards with a nice selection from days gone by. A couple of spikes in the mid-80's which I think will be the Eurythmics songs they occasionally do.

Scott

No suprise to see a large spike for 2007 as Scott likes to keep up to date, but overall the general era for the majority of his songs seems to be influenced around the mid-70's. Most of this trend will be propelled by his love of the Stones and him trying to sing their entire back catalogue! "A rolling stone gathers no moss" they say and Scott keeps rolling them out :)

Shaun

Hmmm... I seem to have a blinkered taste on music when it comes to karaoke. I didn't realise until now just how much my songs have been biased from the last couple of years as you can tell from my very one-sided chart. I just love to sing new stuff though and only delve into the past when there is nothing new out. Of course there is also my Fratellis addiction which fuelled a lot of the 2006 songs but the 2007 songs are mostly new stuff and I've not repeated that many.

I didn't compile these charts until earlier this week and oddly enough at last weeks karaoke I went back in time to the early 90's for my inspiration. Must have been in the sub-concious!

This weeks songs were:

Shaun: Chaka Demus & Pliers - Tease Me (1993)
Scott: Paul McCartney And Wings - Band On The Run (1974) (new)
Others: The Pretenders - I'll Stand By You (1994) (5)
Shaun: Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock - It Takes Two (1988) (new)
Scott: Mott The Hoople - Roll Away The Stone (1973) (new)
Others: Fleetwood Mac - Don't Stop (1977) (3)
Tina, Louise & Hayley: All Saints - Pure Shores (2000) (4)
Andy: Charlie Daniels Band - The Devil Went Down To Georgia (1979) (2)
Shaun: Erasure - Love To Hate You (1991) (new)
Scott: AC/DC - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (1980) (new)
Others: Burt Bacharach - I'll Never Fall In Love Again (1969) (6)
Tina, Louise & Hayley: Dido - Thank You (2001)
Others: Katie Melua - The Closest Thing To Crazy (2003) (7)
Others: Whitney Houston - The Greatest Love Of All (1986) (2)
Others: Bryan Adams - Summer Of '69 (1985)
Others: Elvis - Return To Sender (1962)
Shaun: Snow - Informer (1993)
Others: Frank Sinatra - Mack The Knife (1984) (2)
Scott: Elton John - Tiny Dancer (1971) (new)
Others: Paper Lace - Billy Don't Be A Hero (1974)
Others: Bob Marley - Jammin (1977) (7)
Others: Take That - A Million Love Songs (1992) (2)
Others: Hermes House Band - Country Roads (2001)
Others: Elvis - Teddy Bear (1957)
Tina, Louise & Hayley: Girls Aloud - Love Machine (2004) (5)
Others: Madonna - Frozen (1998)

This weeks stats:

26 songs sang tonight
15 had not been sung previously this year
11 have been sang already this year (2 of which were sung last week)
There have been 1118 songs sung so far this year!

Chaka Demus & Pliers - Tease Me		1st for 2007
	Year of release: 1993 Peak chart position: #3 Top reggae track from 1993 which remained in the UK top ten for three months, peaking at the number three slot, and selling more than three hundred thousand copies. The record brings back some memories, love it!
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

Rob Base & EZ Rock - It Takes Two		NEW SONG
	Year of release: 1988 Peak chart position: #24 "It Takes Two" is a 1988 hip hop song by Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock. It uses a sample from Lyn Collins' 1972 song "Think (About It)". It features on the soundtrack of the 1991 video game Action 52 and the 2003 video game, Grand Theft Auto:San Andreas on the hip-hop radio station Playback FM. The song was sampled by DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince in their song I Wanna Rock in their 1993 album Code Red.
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

Erasure - Love To Hate You		NEW SONG
	Year of release: 1991 Peak chart position: #4 The single was released by Mute Records in the UK and Sire Records in the U.S. The song, written by band members Vince Clarke and Andy Bell is an electronic dance track clearly inspired by disco music. The synthesizer melody in the chorus of "Love to Hate You" is an interpolation of the disco-era classic "I Will Survive". Lyrically Bell sings about "hating" the one he loves for tempting him by sending potential suitors, who immediately are turned away and sent back to his untrusting lover. "Love to Hate You" is one of Erasure's most successful singles on the UK singles chart, peaking at number four. It became a Top 20 hit in Germany (number nineteen) and a hit on the U.S. Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, where it reached number seventeen.
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

Snow - Informer		1st for 2007
	Year of release: 1993 Peak chart position: #2 "Informer" is a 1993 single by Canadian reggae musician Snow, featuring MC Shan as guest artist and producer, from his debut album 12 Inches of Snow. The single was released shortly before Snow was imprisoned for a year on an assault charge. Upon his release from prison, it became a chart topping hit, spending seven consecutive weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

Trick or Treat!

2007-10-31T23:48:00.000Z

Happy halloween :)

Here's a quick pic of Josh and Amy after we'd made the obligatory Jack-o'-lantern for putting outside.

Josh loves it, Amy wasn't too sure. She got really upset after going to see who was at the door with mummy and came running back in screaming 'monster, monster' at one point. All Josh was interested in was were there going to be any sweets left for him!!

Karaoke - 25th October 2007

2007-10-28T22:35:00.000Z

Shaun: Rebel MC - Street Tuff (new)
Scott: Shake Down - Bob Seger (new)
Others: Bob Marley - Buffalo Soldier (4)
Andy: Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby (new)
Tina & Hayley: All Saints - Pure Shores (3)
Shaun: The Feeling - Sewn (new)
Scott: Queen - Tie Your Mother Down (new)
Others: Dave Edmunds - I Hear You Knocking (2)
Others: Cher - If I Could Turn Back Time (6)
Others: Jocelyn Brown - Somebody Else's Guy
Tina & Hayley: Dido - White Flag (2)
Others: Robbie Williams - Come Undone (4)
Shaun: Stan Ridgway - Camouflage
Others: Johnny Cash - One Piece At A Time
Scott: Bob Seger - We've Got Tonight (new)
Others: Alison Moyet - That Ole Devil Called Love (3)
Tina & Hayley: Belinda Carlisle - Circles In The Sand (2)
Others: Scorpions - Wind Of Change (3)
Others: Take That - A Million Love Songs
Others: Elvis (Jxl Remix Elvis) - A Little Less Conversation
Andy ft Scott & Shaun: Take That - Shine (5)
Shaun: Erasure - The Circus (4)
Scott: Police - Every Breath You Take (new)
Others: Diana Ross - Chain Reaction (8)

This weeks stats:

24 songs sang tonight
12 had not been sung previously this year
12 have been sang already this year (None of which were sung last week)
There have been 1092 songs sung so far this year!

Rebel MC - Street Tuff		NEW SONG
	Year of release: 1989 Peak chart position: #3 "Street Tuff" is a hit single by Rebel MC & Double Trouble. It became the biggest hit of both performers' careers, peaking at #3 on the UK singles chart. It is the follow-up to their first hit, "Just Keep On Rockin'", which made it into the UK Top 20. The two songs, plus Rebel MC's first solo single "Better World", appear on the Rebel MC album Rebel Music, released in 1990.
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

The Feeling - Sewn		NEW SONG
	Year of release: 2006 Peak chart position: #7 "Sewn" is the first single proper by British rock group The Feeling, following the 7" only single "Fill My Little World" (which would become a full single release itself). It was released in the UK on February 27, 2006 and entered the UK Singles Chart at #7 on March 5, 2006. "Sewn" gained the band a lot of support and went on to become one of the most successful songs of the year on British radio, with much thanks to Chris Moyles of BBC Radio One, who championed the band. The single was allegedly recorded in a shed in someone's back garden in Horsham.
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

Stan Ridgway - Camouflage		1st for 2007
	Year of release: 1986 Peak chart position: #4 The most recognisable track released by Stan Ridgway tells the story of a soldier getting into trouble in Vietnam and with the aid of a shadowy companion named "Camouflage" manages to make it through the night and back to the safety of HQ. It is only there that he is told that his saviour was a former marine who died the night before. Love it.
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

Erasure - The Circus		4th Time
	Year of release: 1987 Peak chart position: #6 "The Circus" was the fourth single, and the title-track, released from Erasure's second album. Mute Records issued the single in 1987 as the final release from the album. "The Circus" is written by Erasure members Vince Clarke and Andy Bell and creates a more downtempo and melancholy mood than their past singles. Essentially a synth pop track, the music is accentuated by acoustic guitar and circus-like accordion. The lyrics center around the lament of "working men" whose bright futures and job securities are left shattered in the modern world of greedy corporations and technology. Despite its lyrical content, "The Circus" became Erasure's third UK Top 10 hit, peaking at number six.
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

Karaoke - 18th October 2007

2007-10-28T22:27:00.000Z

Shaun: Will Smith - Miami (4)
Scott: Biffy Clyro - Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies (3)
Andy: Dire Straits - Money For Nothing (10)
Shaun: Gorillaz - 19/2000 (new)
Others: Texas - I Don't Want A Lover (5)
Scott: Rolling Stones - Under My Thumb (new)
Others: UB40 - Kingston Town (2)
Louise & Hayley: Rogue Traders - Voodoo Child (4)
Others: Fleetwood Mac - Don't Stop (2)
Shaun: The Fratellis - Doginabag (new)
Others: Snow Patrol - Open Your Eyes (2)
Scott: Electric Light Orchestra - Telephone Line (new)
Louise & Hayley: Madonna - Sorry
Others: Blondie - Denis (2)
Shaun: Supertramp - Breakfast In America (new)
Scott: Queen - Now I Am Here (new)
Others: Fleetwood Mac - Everywhere (4)
Shaun: Status Quo - Marguerita Time
Andy: T Rex - I Love To Boogie (new)
Louise & Hayley: Blondie - The Tide Is High
Others: The Mavericks - Dance The Night Away (2)
Others: Abba - Waterloo (4)
Others: Supremes - Baby Love
Scott: Status Quo - Rock N Roll (new)
Louise & Hayley: Girls Aloud - Wake Me Up (2)

This weeks stats:

25 songs sang tonight
12 had not been sung previously this year
13 have been sang already this year (None of which were sung last week)
There have been 1068 songs sung so far this year!

Will Smith - Miami		4th Time
	Year of release: 1998 Peak chart position: #3 Released from the album, Big Willie Style, which was the first solo studio album recorded by Will Smith, after spending most of his career as the latter half of DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince. The album was released on Columbia Records in the United States on November 25, 1997 and featured several popular singles including "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It", "Miami", "Just the Two of Us" and "Men In Black", which was also released earlier in the year on the soundtrack for the movie Men In Black.
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

Gorillaz - 19/2000		NEW SONG
	Year of release: 2001 Peak chart position: #6 The second single to be released from the debut self-titled Gorillaz album, released in June 2001 , and the remix was the song of choice to headline the soundtrack of FIFA 2002 game, from Electronic Arts. It peaked at the #6 position in the British charts, and the song samples the drumbeat from "Sing a Simple Song" by Sly & the Family Stone.
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

The Fratellis - Doginabag		NEW SONG
	Year of release: 2006 Peak chart position: N/A - EP/Album Track Track Number 7 of the, yep you guessed, brilliant Costello Music album. Probably the slowest one on their and not the longest either but a great little song nonetheless.
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

Supertramp - Breakfast In America		NEW SONG
	Year of release: 1979 Peak chart position: #9 Had to do this one after saying I would after singing Cupids Chokehold last week which samples this very song. It is the title track from Supertramp's 1979 album Breakfast in America. The song was a minor hit on the singles charts in the US but is a staple of classic rock radio. The song's lyrics tell about a person who has never been to America.
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

Status Quo - Marguerita Time		1st for 2007
	Year of release: 1983 Peak chart position: #3 Scott decided we should finish off with Status Quo songs so got rail-roaded into this. Whilst I like Quo and don't mind this song I have to say it was very boring to sing. Maybe it was the beer!
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

Karaoke - 11th October 2007

2007-10-15T22:22:00.001Z

Has anyone seen any singers?

Pretty poor showing tonight by anyones standards with most of the nights singing rotating between the 4 of us regulars. It wasn't until towards the end of the night that a few came in to have a go, maybe it was too cold to stand outside anymore! Yep, I blame the smoking ban for helping to ruin the pubs atmosphere as there were more people outside most of the night than there were inside. I'd rather have a smoky pub with people in than a lavender scented ghost lounge :s There is a fear that the hotel might not even be open come new year (which saves worrying about fancy dress then!) with the state of things as they currently are. Some new ideas are needed quickly to revive the once popular nights I think. Answers on a postcard please :)

Quiet nights mean plenty of songs and I managed to squeeze in 6 in tonight. I didn't really stick my neck out with anything and the only new one from me was one of the few remaining Fratellis album tracks that I've yet to sing. A few new ones from Scott and one from the girls, Pink - Who Knew, which I'd pestered them to do for ages but unfortunately it turned out to be a little too high towards the end and so won't get sung again. There were only 24 songs sung tonight which is lower than average and this is because of the extra long Meatloaf song sang as the end. Without that we could have probably got a couple more in each :p Despite being marked as sung by Others it was in fact sang by Scott with Leanne, although I refuse to tar his good name by associating it with such a monstrosity (the song that is, not Leanne!).

Anyway, this weeks songs:

Shaun: Tenpole Tudor - Swords Of A Thousand Men (4)
Scott: Kenny Loggins - Danger Zone (new)
Andy: Squeeze - Cool For Cats (3)
Shaun: K7 - Come Baby Come
Scott: Sting - So Lonely
Tina & Hayley: Louise - Stuck In The Middle (5)
Andy: Keith Urban - Jeans On (8)
Shaun: The Fratellis - Everybody Knows You Cried Last Night (new)
Scott: Rod Stewart - Maggie May (new)
Tina & Hayley: Infernal - Paris To Berlin (2)
Andy: Elvis - Girl Of My Best Friend (new)
Shaun: The Wonderstuff - Size Of A Cow (3)
Scott & Andy: The Proclaimers - 500 Miles (2)
Tina & Hayley: Pink - Who Knew (new)
Shaun: Gym Class Heroes - Cupids Chokehold (3)
Scott: Rolling Stones - Dead Flowers (new)
Tina & Hayley: Belinda Carlisle - Heaven Is A Place On Earth
Others: Mariah Carey - Hero (5)
Others: Abba - Waterloo (3)
Others: Elton John & Kiki Dee - Don't Go Breaking My Heart (2)
Shaun: The View - Same Jeans (6)
Scott: Kinks - Lola (new)
Others: Celine Dion - My Heart Will Go On
Others: Meatloaf - Paradise By The Dashboard Light (3)

This weeks stats:

24 songs sang tonight
10 had not been sung previously this year
14 have been sang already this year (None of which were sung last week)
There have been 1043 songs sung so far this year!

** SHAUNS SONGS **

Tenpole Tudor - Swords Of A 1000 Men		4th Time
	Year of release: 1981 Peak chart position: #6 UK Easy one-hit-wonder track to start the night off with from British Punk Band Tenpole Tudor. Credit to Kantare karaoke on the backing of this track which is top notch and sounds great.
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

K7 - Come Baby Come		1st for 2007
	Year of release: 1993 Peak chart position: #3 Uk "Bounce, come on Bounce, Bounce, come on Bounce" - you know the one! A hip-hop one hit wonder from the early nineties with a great drum and sax line.
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

The Fratellis - Everybody Knows You Cried		NEW SONG
	Year of release: 2006 Peak chart position: N/A Album Track Only a couple more to go now and I'll have completed the album :) This is track number 10 from the excellent Costello Music album and it's just as catchy as everything else they've done.
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

The Wonderstuff - Size Of A Cow		3rd Time
	Year of release: 1991 Peak chart position: #5 UK The first song their third album finally gave The Wonderstuff their first top 10 hit. This was followed up by a collaboration with Vic Reeves singing Dizzy and then Welcome To The Cheap Seats, both of which also made the top 10, the former reaching #1 for a couple of weeks which gave them a much higher profile. Nice little song and one I may well do again.
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

Gym Class Heroes - Cupids Chokehold		3rd Time
	Year of release: 2007 Peak chart position: #3 UK It was first released in 2004 on The Papercut Chronicles, and re-recorded for their album As Cruel as School Children (which was re-released on November 4, 2006 with "Cupid's Chokehold" as an additional track). There are two music videos for this song, one for each version. The second version includes female backing vocals which are not included in version one. The second version of the video does contain the backing vocals of the first video. However, the female voice is integrated into the chorus behind Patrick Stump's vocals. Several versions were produced. The most common one features slow tempo and female backing vocals while the other one has a quicker tempo and Patrick Stump does every backing vocal. The song takes its music, chorus and famous spoken "ba ba da da" line from Supertramp's song "Breakfast in America." (source: wikipedia) I'm off to learn Breakfast in America now! :)
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

The View - Same Jeans		6th Time
	Year of release: 2001 Peak chart position: #8 UK The third single from their debut album and definately their best in my opinion (even if it does sound like Brimful Of Asha :p). Receiving significantly more airplay than the previous singles, it was the first single by the band to enter the BBC Radio 2 playlist and the first to be A-listed by BBC Radio 1. It entered the charts at #11 on downloads alone before hitting #3 the following week. It has spent more weeks in the UK top 40 than the two previous singles combined.
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

and so, until next week, if the karaokes still on(!), bye bye.

"It was as.. it were as if we felt no fear, as if we were already dead and had nothing to lose by dying. Or perhaps it was because we lived life so well and loved life so much that we imagined ourselves immortal. Overwhelming the powers that be with the force of our passion for science. Or maybe we were just fucked in the head." - Flatliners

Karaoke - 4th October 2007

2007-10-10T22:22:00.000Z

Ah well, despite our best efforts none of us regulars managed to get that coveted song # 1000. The title instead went to a pair of unknowns singing, errrr...who cares, it wasn't us! Wasn't a particularly busy night at the hotel this week so we got a few songs and a few pints in to make up for it instead.

Had a million and one things to do this week hence the lateness and shortness of this weeks blog. I felt a bit crap/down as well for most of the week, not sure why, think I need a break :s

Anyway, this weeks songs:

Shaun: Ghosts - Stay The Night (new)
Scott: James Blunt - 1973 (new)
Others: David Gray - Babylon (2)
Others: Fleetwood Mac - Little Lies (7)
Tina, Louise & Hayley: Britney Spears - I Love Rock N Roll (10)
Others: Womack & Womack - Teardrops (8)
Shaun: The Fray - How To Save A Life (2)
Scott: Foo Fighters - The Pretender (new)
Others: McFadden & Whitehead - Ain't No Stopping Us Now ** SONG # 1000 for 2007 **
Others: Fleetwood Mac - Don't Stop
Others: Elvis - If I Can Dream
Shaun: The Pigeon Detectives - Take Her Back (new)
Tina, Louise & Hayley: Meredith Brooks - Bitch (new)
Scott: Queen - Spread Your Wings (new)
Others: Blondie - Denis Denis
Others: Mike & The Mechanics - Over My Shoulder
Others: Elvis - That's Alright
Tina, Louise & Hayley: You Keep Me Hanging On - Kim Wilde (new)
Others: The Killers - Mr. Brightside (2)
Scott: Pat Benatar - All Fired Up (new)
Andy: Garth Brooks - Ain't Goin' Down Till The Sun Comes Up (5)
Others: Elvis - Moody Blue (3)
Others: Roxette - Listen To Your Heart (6)
Others: Meatloaf - You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth
Shaun & Scott: Linkin Park - In The End (3)
Others: Neil Diamond - Sweet Caroline (4)
Tina, Louise & Hayley: Belinda Carlisle - Circles In The Sand (new)
Others: Fleetwood Mac - Everywhere (3)

This weeks stats:

28 songs sang tonight
16 had not been sung previously this year
12 have been sang already this year (None of which were sung last week)
There have been 1019 songs sung so far this year!

** SHAUNS SONGS **

Ghosts - Stay The Night		NEW SONG
	Year of release: 2007 Peak chart position: #25 UK A great song that deserved better than a mere 25 position in the top 40. Expected it to be difficult to sing as there are a few parts that are edging towards the high side but fortunately I think it went alright. Makes a change to start the night off with something new ;)
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

The Fray - How To Save A Life		2nd Time
	Year of release: 2006 Peak chart position: #4 Uk An alternative rock song by Colorado-based rock band The Fray. It is the title track from their debut album, How to Save a Life. It was the follow-up single to the top 10 hit "Over My Head (Cable Car)" and peaked in the top 3 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States. It became the joint fifth longest charting single on the Billboard Hot 100, tying with Santana's "Smooth" (1999), at 58 consecutive weeks. (Source: Wikipedia) Requested by Jo to sing it and who am I to disappoint!
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

The Pigeon Detectives - Take Her Back		NEW SONG
	Year of release: 2007 Peak chart position: #20 UK Follow up to "I'm Not Sorry" this was actually the fifth single to be released from their debut album "Wait For Me". Not too bad a track and straightforward to sing although you need a deep breath for the repeated 'Take Her Back's' on the chorus!
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

Linkin Park - In The End		Many Times :)
	Year of release: 2001 Peak chart position: #8 UK There isn't anything else to add about this track that Scott didn't say here in his blog. Great band and a great song that has been sung many times before and will be sang many times again :)
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

I'll strive to get the next installment up a bit earlier after tomorrow nights karaoke! Can't get pissed tomorrow either as I'm on call :(

"Because you are good children, the monsters have looked forward to your make believe visit" - Earth Leakage Trip - No Idea!

Karaoke - 27th September 2007

2007-10-01T22:32:00.000Z

What can be better than going to the pub to drink some beer.......?

Going to the pub and drinking some FREE beer! :)

No, Scott didn't buy the rounds all night but rather there was free, yep really free, Magners being given out by a pair of ~~Barbie dolls~~ , Marketing ladies. And it very nice it was too, being free and all, and not that we've ever tried Magners before and knowing we already like it :) Scott managed to grab a couple of pints after telling the girl that Hayley would also like to try a pint (of course!) whilst I only managed to get one and the rest of Andys when he decided he didn't like it :o It was a good start to the night and when the girls came back round to canvas our opinions on the free beverage I don't think they quite got the answers they were looking for. In fact I think they were quite petrified (or maybe embarrassed) that they couldn't get any sort of sensible answer out of us (Scotts fault :p). Well, what did you want us to say: it's beer, it's free, what else is there! ...

....oh, and which pub are you going to next? :D

There were plenty of singers in tonight which made for a good atmosphere and night albeit at a cost of not singing our regular barrage of songs. In fact I only sang one of the songs that I intended to do with the others being replaced by a first song starter and an unexpected request. Props to Scott who sang 2 songs that we'd heard of tonight! Classics: Police - Message In A Bottle and Duran Duran - The Reflex and both were done and went down very well.

Not to be outdone we had our very own Sparks member lookalike (pic left, first guy on left) 'performing' seminal classics such as In The Air Tonight, Gold and Mustang Sally. It truly was a sight to behold as he punched the air with his microphone during Gold after hitting the most bum notes you're ever likely to hear, lol. Ah well, the more the merrier, it's all entertainment!! Actually, speaking of more, it seems like the Tuesday country crowd may be starting to turn up regularly on a Thursday now(notice the increase in Keith Urban and Tim McGraw songs recently). I think they may have figured out that you get more songs in on a Thursday than a Tuesday although given last Tuesdays poor turnout it may well be swinging the other way. Swings and Roundabouts I say!

Anyway, enough waffle, here's this weeks songs:

Shaun: Bloodhound Gang - Bad Touch (2)
Others: Lily Allen - Smile (9)
Others: Keith Urban - Stupid Boy
Others: Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight
Scott: Duran Duran - The Reflex (new)
Others: Billy Joel - The Entertainer
Tina & Hayley: Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (11)
Shaun: Green Day - American Idiot (2)
Others: Meatloaf - Dead Ringer For Love
Others: DJ Sammy - Heaven (2)
Others: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
Others: Keith Urban - Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me
Others: Spandau Ballet - Gold
Scott: Police - Message In A Bottle (new)
Others: Billy Joel - Keeping The Faith
Tina & Hayley: Lily Allen - LDN (3)
Others: Robbie Williams - Come Undone (3)
Others: Whitney Houston - Saving All My Love For You (2)
Shaun: The Fratellis - Creepin' Up The Backstairs (new)
Others: Jamelia - Something About You
Others: Tim McGraw - Live Like You Were Dying
Others: The Commitments - Mustang Sally (4)
Scott: Bob Seger - Hollywood Nights (new)
Others: Drifters - Like Sister & Brother (2)
Andy: Trent Tomlinson - Drunker Than Me (new)

This weeks stats:

25 songs sang tonight
15 had not been sung previously this year
10 have been sang already this year (1 of which was also sang last week)
There have been 991 songs sung so far this year!

** SHAUNS SONGS **

Bloodhound Gang - Bad Touch		2nd time
	Year of release: 1999 Peak chart position: #4 UK Although it's only the second time I've done this song since I've started keeping track, it's a song that I've started the night off with many many times before. In fact I'm not even sure that I've ever sang it when it's not been my first song of the night. A cracking track and seemingly the only one that the Bloodhound Gang will ever be remembered for over here as they never really followed it up. With lyrics like 'you and me baby ain't nothing but mammals, let's do it like they do on the discovery channel', the song is awash with sexual innuendo and this is also prevalent in the video which is bizarre to say the least (view left). Still, great track and no doubt I will be starting another night off with it :)
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

Green Day - American Idiot		1st for 2007
	Year of release: 2004 Peak chart position: #3 Uk Sang once before a while back and persuaded to sing it again tonight by Tina, this was Green Days first single released from their most successful (and seventh!) album of the same name. As the title suggests, it is a stab at being American in the post-9/11 era with all the paranoia and media attention paid to everything in the world. In fact most of the album follows, in a more subtle form, the same theme with tracks such as 'Holiday', 'Boulevard Of Broken Dreams' and 'Wake Me Up When September Ends' - all of which I've sang on the karaoke too. It's been some time that I've sang this and it may well be some time before it gets sung again. Not that I don't like it or anything because I do, it's just one of those 'now and again' songs if you know what I mean!
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

The Fratellis - Creepin' Up The Backstairs		NEW SONG
	Year of release: 2006 Peak chart position: N/A - EP/Album Track The first song to be released from the excellent Costello Music album, although as an EP it was not eligible for the UK charts. Even though it was only a limited edition edition there was still an official video made for it (left) so maybe the original plan was for it to be released as a single. Who knows!?! Either way it typifies the Fratellis style with it's infectious riffs and catchy choruses. Of all the album tracks I've done so far I felt (oddly) that this was the one that I didn't get the most satisifaction from singing. Can't really explain why, but I'm not sure I'll do this again (well, maybe on a Tuesday) even though it wasn't that bad. :s
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

After writing about the starting song tonight I thought I'd have a peek to see what songs/singers normally start the night off (results added to stats page) and here's the lowdown:

39 Thursday nights so far this week
20 of them (just over half) started by me
6 started by Scott & Andy (as a duet)
Most popular starting artist is Will Smith/Fresh Prince with 7
There has only been 1 song that was 'New' to start with - That was me on 16 Aug with Brad Paisleys - Mud On The Tires
The girls have only started the night off once (the first week in fact) with Abbas - Voulez Vouz and that was probably because there was only 4 of us in at the time and I was in the loo :p

Never really noticed it before but it seems that there's overwhelming statistical support to prove that if you're up first then the chances are you'll be singing something that both you and the pub are familiar with.

We're also up to 991 songs for the year now which means song # 9 next week will be song 1000! After much discussion, or rather a moment of enlightment whilst pissed, Scott and I are going to attempt to duet the 9th song with the Gorillaz's - Dare. Will we succeed or will the coveted thousandth song fall to lesser mortals??

Stay tuned for next weeks gripping installment!

"in here, music is life and life is rythym" - Dream Warriors - Face In The Basin

Karaoke - 20th September 2007

2007-09-24T23:58:00.001Z

After last weeks ghost pub it looked like it was going to be similar again this week early on but fortunately it picked up to a decent level. There were a few singers in too, one of which, Jenna/Jemma I think her name was, I'd not seen before and completely suprised us with her choice of songs: Arctic Monkeys and Gnarls Barkley. Not what you normally expect to hear from a female solo singer and she wasn't too bad either (at singing that is!).

As mentioned in a previous post, I've managed to get hold of the Fratellis - Costello Music album complete instrumentals for a small price and as expected I soon had them converted to karaoke tracks. I was up until the early hours getting them all ready although I plan to redo them all as I rushed some of them a little bit in my eagerness to sing them. They're still alright as are and wouldn't stop me singing them, I can just be a bit of a perfectionist sometimes, especially with these songs as I love them so much. Anyway I managed to reel off three of them tonight, Vince, For The Girl and Got Ma Nuts, all of which I thoroughly enjoyed (and hope others did too). If you've not heard the album yet, what are you waiting for!!!! Get it now! I've still got around 5-6 tracks still to sing off the album but will be spreading these out over the coming weeks rather than just blasting through them in succcessive week.

A new song for the girls (minus Louise) this week although I don't think they'll repeating it as the chorus was found to be a little too high for them. Normally it's the other way around, you can do the chorus but not the rest of the song!. Anyway, I've got some song suggestions for you to ponder (pretty sure Tina has done some of these before):

Madison Avenue - Don't Call Me Baby - this is a request :)
DB Boulevard - Point Of View
Dee Dee - Forever (sure you've done this but isn't in the book??)
TLC - No Scrubs
Geri Halliwell - Look At Me

edit: I think I may have mixed Dee Dee up with this one Lasgo - Something . You can do the Lasgo one ;)

I'm sure I can dig some more up if you want :)

Moving on to this weeks songs:

Scott & Andy: The Beatles - Day Tripper (2)
Shaun: The Fratellis - Vince The Lovable Stoner (new)
Others: Rob Thomas - This Is How My Heart Breaks
Others: DJ Sammy - Heaven
Scott: Foo Fighters - No Way Back (new)
Others: Shania Twain - You're Still The One (6)
Shaun: The Fratellis - For The Girl (new)
Others: Arctic Monkeys - Flourescent Adolescent (2)
Tina & Hayley: Katrina & The Waves - Walking On Sunshine (new)
Others: All Saints - Never Ever
Others: Arctic Monkeys - When The Sun Goes Down (2)
Others: Katie Melua - The Closest Thing To Crazy (6)
Andy: Keith Urban - Jeans On (7)
Others: The Rubettes - Jukebox Jive (2)
Scott: Audioslave - Doesn't Remind Me (new)
Tina & Hayley: All Saints - Pure Shores (2)
Shaun: The Fratellis - Got Ma Nuts From A Hippy (new)
Others: Freda Payne - Band Of Gold
Others: Keith Urban - Days Go By (4)
Others: Pink - Who Knew (2)
Others: Texas - Black Eyed Boy (4)
Tina & Hayley: Beautiful South - Rotterdam (2)
Shaun: Arctic Monkeys - I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor (2)
Scott: Jet - Are You Gonna Be My Girl (2)
Others: Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
Others: Fleetwood Mac - Everywhere (2)
Scott: Cheap Trick - Surrender (new)

This weeks stats:

27 songs sang tonight
12 had not been sung previously this year
15 have been sang already this year (1 of which was also sang last week)
There have been 966 songs sung so far this year!

Getting close to that 1000 songs for the year. Almost certain to be the 8th/9th song the week after next (4th October) when it goes, but who will get it..... The bookies say:

Others - 1/2
Shaun - 6/4
Scott - 2/1
Tina, Louise or Hayley - 8/1
Andy - 25/1
Elvis - 5000/1

get your bets on!

** SHAUNS SONGS **

The Fratellis - Vince The Lovable Stoner		NEW SONG
	Year of release: 2006 Peak chart position: N/A - Album Track One of the more mellower tracks off the album and with a slight country twist to it, Vince is rumoured to be a tongue in cheek take on Mince's (the Fratellis drummer) life pre joining the band. A crowd pleaser in the live performances with plenty of 'ahaaa's for the crowd to join in with and swing-a-long backing, this is one I enjoyed and will probably do again.
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

The Fratellis - For The Girl		NEW SONG
	Year of release: 2006 Peak chart position: N/A - Album Track My second favourite track off the album and one that I've previously sang an acoustic version of. I think I may redo the karaoke version of it though as the la-la-la's are missing from the instrumental and I think it would sound better with them edited in rather than the singer having to do them (not least becuase you need a breath break as it's quite fast!). Besides that, another enjoyable song to sing and funnily enough, another one that I'll do again ;)
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

The Fratellis - Got Ma Nuts From A Hippy		NEW SONG
	Year of release: 2006 Peak chart position: N/A - Album Track This is my favourite track from the album with it's infectiously catchy bass line, crazy lyrics and big build-up ending. It's a story of a guy meeting a hippy in a bar and ultimately losing his virginity in the back of a camper van and could be a rendition of one of the Fratellis real-life experiences? Jon claims not but you never know when he's telling the truth or not! My best song of the night for me and will be done again without a shadow of a doubt :)
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

Arctic Monkeys - I Bet That You Look Good		1st for 2007
	Year of release: 2005 Peak chart position: #1 UK The single that heralded the arrival of the Arctic Monkeys. Released on 17th October 2005 it went straight to the top of the charts the following week due to an enormous amount of [deserved] hype surrounding the band. It then went on to win best track at the 2006 NME awards (although this is of debatable achievment!). I hadn't planned on singing this one tonight but I thought that 3 Frat songs in one night was enough and with 2 other Monkeys songs being sung I just had to level the score, lol! Straightforward song with a great catchy riff that even I can play on the electric guitar :)
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

That's it for another week, until next time, byeeeeeeeeeee...

"I ran from the tide, won't let you hide, won't let you hide" - Kasabian - Processed Beats

Karaoke - 13th September 2007

2007-09-17T23:03:00.000Z

Here we are again and after last weeks fairly decent turnout we go back to being a ghost pub again. I've come to the conclusion that this is now in some way related to being paid monthly as it always seems busy on the last or first week of a month and then dead for the middle weeks. Hopefully I'm wrong and next week will be busy but somehow I can't see it.
Maybe they've all got their savings in a Northern Rock account and are queueing up overnight to take their money out! What is it with them queues?? Do they not realise that they are making the problem much worse? I bet they're the same dithering old people you see lined up outside the post office every monday morning 30 minutes before it even opens so that they can get their weekly money. It'll still be there later on you idiots! Totally went off on a tangent, sorry, must be the wine!

Back on track and a quiet pub means a good dose of songs for us to sing as well as plenty of chat time pre singing in where, as usual, Scott and I disagree on the merit of having David Beckham in the England team. I'm still not sure which matches Scott was watching at the weekend (the Womens world cup maybe??) as he believes that England were crap despite us winning 3-0 twice. In my opinion: we don't miss Beckham, we definately don't miss Lampard, Ashley Cole is crap and wants dropping, Owen does play much better off Heskey (who has now bust his foot!) than any other strike partner and, and this is where I do agree with Scott, Wright-Phillips is like one of those little wind up toys that go whoosh along the floor and then.......nothing, about as much end product as the Portugese police. :o

Song-wise this week and no real stand outs to be honest, it was all fairly run-of-the-mill stuff which was just about right for the subdued pub atmosphere. I didn't even get that pissed either this week, I just couldn't get in the mood for it. The drinking that is. Please! I found out this week what the current plans are for this years New Years Eve fancy dress: either a Beach Party theme or Doctors & Nurses. Not the most imaginative of ideas but with the choice of women wearing bikinis etc or nurses outfits I think I might not complain (Giggsy's words, not mine ;) ) Oh well, either way means I won't be sweltering in a Darth Vader costume this year :)

This weeks songs:

Shaun: Tenpole Tudor - Swords Of A Thousand Men (3)
Scott: Kiss - Strutter (new)
Others: Johnny Rivers - Secret Agent Man (3)
Andy: Dire Straits - Money For Nothing (9)
Tina & Hayley: Macy Gray - I Try (7)
Others: Bob Marley - Buffalo Soldier (3)
Shaun: Crazy Town - Butterfly
Scott: Biffy Clyro - Saturday Superhouse (new)
Others: David Gray - Babylon
Others: The Kinks - Come Dancing
Tina & Hayley: Alanis Morissette - Ironic (7)
Others: Gabrielle - Out Of Reach (5)
Shaun: Dexys Midnight Runners - Geno
Others: Elvis - Suspicious Minds
Scott: Audioslave - What You Are (new)
Others: Ronan Keating - If Tomorrow Never Comes (3)
Andy: Brad Paisley - Ticks (new) (3)
Others: Michael Buble - Feeling Good (2)
Tina & Hayley: All Saints - Pure Shores
Others: Roxette - Listen To Your Heart (5)
Shaun: Luniz - I Got 5 On It (new)
Others: Lionel Richie - Easy
Scott: Foo Fighters - My Hero (new)
Others: Lonestar - Amazed (3)
Others: Blondie - Denis

This weeks stats:

25 songs sang tonight
13 had not been sung previously this year
12 have been sang already this year (1 of which was also sang last week)
There have been 939 songs sung so far this year!

** SHAUNS SONGS **

Tenpole Tudor - Swords Of A Thousand Men		3rd time
	Year of release: 1981 Peak chart position: #6 UK A nice easy one to start the night off with having sung it numerous times before since aquiring the track from SBI (and a very good version it is too). Almost certain to start another night off again sometime.
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

Crazy Town - Butterfly		1st for 2007
	Year of release: 2001 Peak chart position: #3 UK It's been a long time since I last sang this and Crazy Town seem to have disappeared in the meantime. I think it's fair to say that they were a one-hit wonder with this track although they did feature on a Paul Oakenfold track - Starry Eyed Suprise which I may do next week. Still, a nice little number and one that will probably get another run out eventually.
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

Dexys Midnight Runners - Geno		1st for 2007
	Year of release: 1980 Peak chart position: #1 UK Geno!, Geno!, Geno! Not one of my planned tracks but Tina suggested it as I'd not sang it for some time. I remember Dad having the Dexys album many years ago and I used to play this and Come On Eileen over and over again as they were my favourites. Mind you, I used to play Tight Fit - Fantasy Island a lot too which I'm not sure says a great deal for dads musical choice back then (my excuse is that I was only 6 or 7 ;) ). Either way, a great song to bring out once in a while and will be done again no doubt.
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

Luniz - I Got 5 On It		NEW SONG
	Year of release: 1996 Peak chart position: #3 UK Another one that I've dug out from my 'best rap album in the world' compilation CD! I don't think there's many more left to do on it now, at least not that are available anyway (Dream Warriors :( ). Another one-hit wonder but what a classic it is. It's main beat is derived from Club Nouveaus - Why You Treat Me So Bad as so many other artists have also done and is all about going halves with a partner on a bag of weed (naughty boys!!). I really enjoyed doing this track even if it was to a near empty pub so will definately be giving it another go on a busier night. :)
	tonights-rating:	do-again-rating:

And so until next week...

"But in the end, no matter what i pretend, the journey is more important than end or the start" - Linkin Park - ENTH E END

Wooooooooooooootttt!!!

2007-09-16T20:58:00.000Z

Look what I landed today:

ebay link

"Very Rare Instrumentals Album "Costello Music" By "The Fratellis".
Also features 3 additional tracks not on the album, & these are Instrumental Versions. They are tracks 14, 15, 16
This is a USA Import sent out in very limited number's to TV/Media Industry for use in Films, Commercials, etc.
Ideal For People Who Create Mashup's, Remixes, etc."

"Ideal For People Who Create Mashup's, Remixes, etc." - or karaoke tracks :D

can't wait for this beauty to land on my doorstep!

First day at school

2007-09-16T20:44:00.000Z

No, not mine (although I do remember it!), but little Joshie started school this week. Technically speaking it's "reception" but for all intents and purposes we'll call it school given that he has to wear a uniform.

Here he is on the first morning, buzzing with excitement and very proud of his new school bag :)

He pulls one crazy grin whenever the cameras on him! I've told him it'll stick like that if the wind changes :p Anyway, it didn't last long as he was in tears when it came to the crunch time of being dropped off. He soon got over it though (as he usually does) and by the end of the week he was enjoying it. 1 week down, 13 more years to go ;)

Can't post about one without the other so while the camera's out, here's little Amy cuddling up behind a towel. 2 more years and you can join your brother at school!

Kids eh!

Karaoke - 6th September 2007

2007-09-10T23:35:00.000Z

This weeks songs:

Others: Keith Urban - Days Go By (3)
Shaun: Jack Penate - Torn On The Platform (new)
Others: Amy Winehouse - Rehab (3)
Scott: Thin Lizzy - Waiting For An Alibi (new)
Others: Alanis Morissette - Ironic (6)
Tina, Louise & Hayley: Bryan Adams & Mel C - When You're Gone (6)
Others: Green Day - Boulevard Of Broken Dreams (2)
Others: The Pretenders - I'll Stand By You (4)
Shaun: Falco - Rock Me Amadeus (new)
Others: Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive (3)
Others: Train - Drops Of Jupiter
Others: Red Hot Chili Peppers - The Zephyr Song
Scott: Rolling Stones - Satisfaction (new)
Others: Robbie Williams & Kylie Minogue - Kids
Tina, Louise & Hayley: Girls Aloud - Love Machine (4)
Others: Cher - If I Could Turn Back Time (5)
Others: Tim McGraw - Live Like You Were Dying (3)
Others: Womack & Womack - Teardrops (7)
Shaun: Hard-Fi - Suburban Knights (new)
Others: Marshall Hain - Dancing In The City
Scott: Thunder - Low Life In High Places (new)
Others: Foundations - Buttercup (3)
Andy: Take That - Shine (4)
Others: Diana Ross - Chain Reaction (7)
Tina, Louise & Hayley: Chicago - All That Jazz (4)
Shaun & Scott: Linkin Park - Bleed It Out (new)

This weeks stats:

26 songs sang tonight
11 had not been sung previously this year
15 have been sang already this year (1 of which was also sang last week)
There have been 914 songs sung so far this year!

** NEW SONGS **

Hard-Fi - Suburban Knights

The lads from Staines follow up their smash album "Stars Of CCTV" with the new album "Once Upon A Time In The West" and the first track released is the fantastic Suburban Knights, reaching #7 on the UK charts. I wasn't too sure on this one at first but it's seriously grown on me and is up there with "Better Do Better" which was a favourite of mine from the last album. As with that track though I find myself singing too low at a few points in the song and then find it hard to get out of it until I get to the chorus. Seems to be more and more songs that are getting me like that at the moment, maybe my voice is on the change!! Either way, I will give this another run out in the future . do-again-rating: 7/10

Jack Penate - Torn On The Platform
	Although I'm not too keen on Jack Penates other recordings, I do enjoy this and the start of it reminds me of the Housemartins - Happy Hour (in fact, I swear it's the same riff!) . The third single to be released by Jack it reached #7 in late June 2007. Simple enough to sing and one for the 'do-again' box . do-again-rating: 7/10

Falco - Rock Me Amadeus

I'd always thought that he was a one-hit wonder but it turns out that Austrian born Johann Hölzel, or Falco as he's more famously known as, was actually a huge star across Europe (and most of the world!) back in the eighties. Amadeus was undoubtedly his biggest UK hit reaching the #1 top spot back in1986 and although the follow up, Vienna Calling, reached #10 it is the former record that everyone remembers. Apparently based on the Oscar winning film Amadeus, it made #1 in no less than 13 countries including the US Billboard where it also reached #6 in the R&B charts, a feat previously unheard of by a white male artist!. Unfortunately the lifestyle that Falco chose got him killed in February 1998 when, after a session of drinking and taking cocaine, his car collided with a bus in the Dominican Republic and he died from his injuries at 40 years old. I was 11 years old when Amadeus hit the charts (I remember it well, we'd just moved into our new house) so I've had 22 years practice (and 5 years of GCSE German) in which to get it right. Fortunately, even though the Sunfly lyrics are wrong which doesn't help, I think I managed it pretty much ok and it was enjoyable to do. It certainly got a few stares when the German lyrics popped up on the screen, lol. As a novelty I may do it again, we shall see :). do-again-rating: 5/10

Linkin Park - Bleed It Out

The second track released from the excellent Minutes To Midnight album, Bleed It Out sees Linkin Park reverting to the tried & tested formula of Rap/Rock that Mike & Chester do so well. Unfortunately despite knowing the song inside out I managed to cock it up at the start and got out of sync with the music. Partly this was due to the amount of alcohol consumed (I was a bit drunk to say the least) and partly because I just couldn't hear the music. The start is almost like an acapella and unless you can hear the music over your voice then there are no cues to get the lines right. By the time you notice you're out you literally have to skip a line to get back on track. Normally doesn't bother me but I hate messing up songs that I really like or have always wanted to do :( Perhaps we might give it another go, I'm not sure yet!. do-again-rating: 3/10

until next week, night night!

"Everyone want's a bite, doesn't happen overnight" - Cypress Hill - Rock Superstar

Karaoke - 30th August 2007

2007-09-03T20:59:00.000Z

A very quiet week this week with people either on holiday or not turning up which, as predicted, left me playing billy-no-mates. Unfortunately, it wasn't just our lot that didn't turn up but the rest of the pub too leaving a rotation of just me, Andy and two others (Raymond & Nicky).

At least we don't get any singers in like this next YouTube clip! I don't normally watch this program (NO, I really don't!!) but stumbled upon this clip and couldn't believe it! What a trumped up bitch, lol. "I was good, wasn't it?" - errr, no.

Not got really much else to say to be honest so here's the songs:

Shaun: J. Geils Band - Freeze Frame (3)
Others: Texas - I Don't Want A Lover (4)
Others: Windsor Davis & Don Estelle - Whispering Grass
Others: Dionne Warwick - Make It Easy On Yourself
Shaun: The View - Same Jeans (5)
Others: Bob Marley - I Shot The Sheriff
Andy: Dire Straits - Sultans Of Swing (new)
Others: Cher - I Found Someone
Shaun: Ini Kamoze - Here Comes The Hotstepper
Others: Patsy Cline - Crazy (4)
Others: Will Young - Leave Right Now
Andy: Take That - Shine (new) (3)
Shaun: Gym Class Heroes - Cupids Chokehold (2)
Others: Dionne Warwick - Walk On By (3)
Others: Hermans Hermits - No Milk Today
Shaun: De La Soul - Ring Ring (hey hey hey)
Others: Texas - Black Eyed Boy (3)
Others: Tommy Edwards - It's All In The Game
Others: Steps - Thank Abba For The Music (2)
Andy: New Order - Blue Monday (new)
Shaun: Biffy Clyro - Folding Stars (new) (3)
Others: Fleetwood Mac - Everywhere
Others: Billy Joel & Ray Charles - Baby Grand

This weeks stats:

23 songs sang tonight
13 had not been sung previously this year
10 have been sang already this year (none of which were sang last week)
There have been 888 songs sung so far this year!

** NEW SONGS **

Biffy Clyro - Folding Stars
	Not new to the hotel as it's already been covered by Scott and Russ, but a new song for me to do and a very good one at that. Easily my favourite Biffy Clyro track although I've still yet to listen to the album despite being prompted to many times. May do again although I think I might leave it in the other guys capable hands ;) . do-again-rating: 5/10

Karaoke - 23rd August 2007

2007-08-27T22:17:00.001Z

After the [derided] country theme of last week I decided to take a dip into some of the older rap stuff that I'd not gotten to having a go at yet. For those of you who don't know me, rap used to be my staple karaoke diet and you would usually see me 'singing' nothing but Eminem, Dr.Dre, Vanilla Ice (lol!) & Will Smith etc before my karaoke/music taste diversified somewhat. In fact, the nickname Shaunio came from the first karaoke song I ever did - Gangsta's Paradise by Coolio and stuck ever since that fateful event! It's a genre that I still have a lot of time for although I now prefer the older stuff a lot more than the recent years which just seems to be about money, women and sex exclusively!

Scott in the meanwhile had no time to think about a themed night when he a had a publicly voted tracklist to contend with. The results from his fiercley-contested-yet-fair poll saw Linkin Park's - What I've Done top the chart (yay!) with Bowies - Life On Mars (revived by the BBC1 drama of the same name) in second and Sam Cookes - Bring It Home in Third. Unfortunately he refused to sing the fourth placed song and one time runaway leader, Let's Get Rocked by Def Leppard, much to Tinas disapointment although he has promised that he will do it again (he just didn't say when! ;) ) Let's see what the next poll brings!

All the songs from this week:

Shaun: Will Smith - Miami (3)
Others: Fleetwood Mac - Little Lies (6)
Andy: Squeeze - Cool For Cats (2)
Scott: Sam Cooke - Bring It On Home (2)
Others: Cher - Walking In Memphis (2)
Others: Glen Campbell - Rhinestone Cowboy
Shaun: Nelly - N Dey Say (new)
Others: Burt Bacharach - I'll Never Fall In Love Again (5)
Scott: David Bowie - Life On Mars (2)
Others: Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
Others: Leo Sayer - One Man Band (2)
Tina & Hayley: Bryan Adams & Mel C - When You're Gone (5)
Others: Billy Idol - White Wedding
Others: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Suck My Kiss
Others: The Beatles - Back In The U.S.S.R. (2)
Shaun: Arrested Development - People Everyday (new)
Andy: Dire Straits - Romeo & Juliet (3)
Others: Katie Melua - The Closest Thing To Crazy (5)
Scott: Linkin Park - What I've Done (3)
Others: Zoe Birkett - Get Happy (4)
Others: Will Young - Evergreen
Tina & Hayley: Alanis Morissette - Ironic (new) (5)
Others: Eddie Cochran - Summertime Blues
Others: Elton John - Are You Ready For Love
Shaun: Fun Lovin' Criminals - Scooby Snacks (new)
Others: Bob Marley - Jammin (6)
Scott: Rolling Stones - Paint It Black (new)
Others: Jet - Are You Gonna Be My Girl
Others: Frankie Vaughn - Green Door (2)

This weeks stats:

29 songs sang tonight
12 had not been sung previously this year
17 have been sang already this year (1 of which was also sang last week)
There have been 865 songs sung so far this year!

** NEW SONGS **

Nelly - N Dey Say
	Another rap song I've sung which samples Spandau Ballets' - True, the other being PM Dawns - Set Adrift On Memory Bliss, this one reached #6 on the UK charts in early 2005. The first one of Nellys I've ever sung and a fairly simple track to do. I may well take a delve into some of his other tracks such as Country Grammar and Hot In Herrre now! . do-again-rating: 3/10

Arrested Development - People Everyday

Reaching the giddy heights of #2 in the UK charts in 1992 this is one of my all time favourite hip-hop tracks and one that I've neglected to do for so long. Taking it's chorus from the Sly & The Family Stone song of the same name (although that's pretty much where the similarity ends), the moral of the track as with the previous Nelly song is about 'brothers' attacking 'brothers' and how at the end of the day we're all the same 'Everyday People'. Enjoyed this one and for sure a keeper . do-again-rating: 7/10

Fun Lovin' Criminals - Scooby Snacks

I never really got into the Fun Lovin' Criminals when they were around, in fact the first time I ever heard a track of there's was on my honeymoon in Canada when the self-titled single Fun Loving Criminal came on the video screen in Niagaras Planet Hollywood. To this day that track still reminds of that moment in time! Unfortunately, that said song is not available on Karaoke but I did discover this gem from them when playing catchup on their songs. With samples from Pulp Fiction and Resorvoir Dogs it was always going to win me over cut combined with a funky bass line and simple guitar riff we had a winner. A little bit on the low side for me but manageable if you nearly swallow the mic! Fun to do (no pun intended) and may do again. do-again-rating: 5/10

No Scott & Hayley next week so I'll most likely be on me jack lonesome :( but no matter, I'll hold the fort whilst they're swanning around down Newquay :) Catch ya next week...byeeeeeeeeeeeeee

"Don't pull the pin out, unless you plan to bang" - Outkast - B.O.B.

Karaoke - 16th August 2007

2007-08-20T23:31:00.000Z

"When it's time to party we will party hard!" - Andrew WK

I do like a party but unfortunately this week I partied a little too hard and got a little ill in the process (it just hit me!). Still, what's the point of having Fridays off if not to party and get a little drunk eh? :D

Not too bad a night this week from what I remember and it was certainly busier than last weeks ghost pub. Plenty of singers in tonight meant that we didn't get to do even half of what we sang last week but it's the quality not the quantity that counts (or so they say). A couple of country songs for me this week with an old school rap track chucked in for good measure (can't say I don't vary my stuff) and some classics from Scott including the track from where I pinched the beginning quote from for this weeks blog - Andrew WKs - Party Hard. Normally I'd just link to the track here but this is such a top tune (loved it from when it was in Madden 03) that I'm going to embed it right here.

Unfortunately I don't think many people had ever heard it in the hotel which is a shame as it's a real "crank up the volume and party on" type of record. Tempted to have a go at it myself sometime, maybe!

The songs from this week:

Shaun: Brad Paisley - Mud On The Tires (new)
Scott: INXS - New Sensation (new)
Others: Bon Jovi - Living On A Prayer
Louise & Hayley: Lily Allen - Smile (8)
Others: Johnny Rivers - Secret Agent Man (2)
Shaun: Warren G - Regulate (new)
Scott: Rolling Stones - Beast Of Burden (new)
Others: Tom Jones - It's Not Unusual
Others: Meatloaf - Bat Out Of Hell
Louise & Hayley: Louise - Stuck In The Middle
Others: Madonna - This Used To Be My Playground
Others: Tim McGraw - Live Like You Were Dying (2)
Others: John Denver - Thank God I'm A Country Boy (2)
Others: Billy Idol - Rebel Yell (2)
Others: Mariah Carey - Hero (4)
Andy: Dire Straits - Money For Nothing (8)
Shaun: Brad Paisley - Online (new)
Scott: Andrew WK - Party Hard (new)
Others: T'Pau - China In Your Hand
Louise & Hayley: Madonna - Hung Up
Others: LeAnn Rimes - Can't Fight The Moonlight (2)
Others: Frankie Vaughn - Green Door
Others: Matchbox 20 - Real World
Others: The Mavericks - Dance The Night Away
Others: Simple Minds - Don't You Forget About Me

This weeks stats:

25 songs sang tonight
16 had not been sung previously this year
9 have been sang already this year (1 of which was also sang last week)
There have been 836 songs sung so far this year!

** NEW SONGS **

Brad Paisley - Mud On The Tires

You'd be forgiven for thinking I've lost it a little with all this country music I've been dabbling with but I have to admit that I like some of the stuff that the wife has been brain-washing me with (Scotts words not mine :p). In particular, I do like a lot of the stuff that Brad Paisley does with his injection of comedy lyrics to a not too over the top country beat. Having said all that, this is one of his slower songs but it's still a great one and reached the US Country billboard #1 back in 2004. Went ok and may do again sometime, most likely on a Tuesday :p . do-again-rating: 4/10

Warren G - Regulate

Now this is more like old me. Came across this while browsing through some of my compilation albums and can't believe I've never done it before (found plenty more stuff for next week too! ;) ). Straightforward 90's old school rap (reached #5 in the UK in 1994) which you can't really go wrong with. Great track although I do prefer Warren G's What's Love Got To Do With It which I've done previously. do-again-rating: 3/10

Brad Paisley - Online

My second Brad Paisley song of the night (written on my notes as: Online country bollocks shite type music by country bumpkins named brad - wonder who wrote that, Scott!) and this one is a piss take out of people who claim to be something that they're not when online. With lyrics like "I can have a three way chat with two women at one time, I'm so much cooler online" you can imagine what the rest is like. A very funny (but true!) song, currently at #14 on the US Country billboard and enjoyable to do. do-again-rating: 7/10

That's yer lot, so until next week, PARTY HARD!

Karaoke Stats

2007-08-14T20:10:00.000Z

These are now up-to-date as of today. Click here for the latest stats.

Karaoke - 9th August 2007

2007-08-13T18:34:00.000Z

7up! No, not the drink, although it wasn't far off given that I was on-call and driving, but I managed to get 7 songs in tonight. Given that the karaoke slot is only 2½ hours (9-11:30) then that pretty much tells you how ~~quiet~~ dead it was, in fact, once the lady in the corner had done her three songs and left then it was just us lot singing the songs. I think we'll call this week 'Practice Night' and then pray it's not that bad again!

Still it gave us a chance to get in a few unplanned songs that were either new to us or we'd not done for a while. I had an unplanned go at The Enemy's - Away From Here and was glad to find that it was nowhere near as hard as I thought it was (thinking now of trying some of those Muse tracks I've been pondering!) while Scott went one further and did Linkin Park's - Given Up which is one corking, throat-ripping tune. Suprisingly, despite what he may think, it was actually quite a good effort and with a busier pub + atmosphere that would have been one cracking track! Scott also brought up his hundredth song of the year which I handily told him about just after he'd sang the 99th one, Hungry Like The Wolf , which had he known beforehand he says he would have shuffled his selections around. My 100th was a few weeks earlier and was The Killers - Somebody Told Me for anyone who cares :p We're getting close to now to 1000 songs for 2007 and I'm sure there will be a fight to see who get's that song! Or maybe not.

The songs from this weeks Scott, Shaun, Tina, Hayley & Andy extravaganza:

Shaun: The Bravery - An Honest Mistake
Scott: Rolling Stones - Start Me Up
Others: Amy Winehouse - Rehab (2)
Tina & Hayley: Britney Spears - I Love Rock N Roll (9)
Shaun: Plain White T's - Hey There Delilah (new)
Scott: Biffy Clyro - Folding Stars (2)
Others: Yazoo - Only You (2)
Tina & Hayley: Beautiful South - Don't Marry Her Have Me (new)
Andy: Gene Pitney - 24 Hours From Tulsa
Shaun: Reverend & The Makers - Heavyweight Champion Of The World (new)
Scott: Duran Duran - Hungry Like The Wolf (new)
Others: Aztec Camera - Somewhere In My Heart (3)
Shaun: Maximo Park - Our Velocity (6)
Scott: Bon Jovi - Thank You For Loving Me (100th song this year for Scott)
Tina & Hayley: Lily Allen - Smile (7)
Shaun: Erasure - The Circus (3)
Scott: Take That - I'd Wait For Life (2)
Andy: Keith Urban - Jeans On (6)
Tina & Hayley: Sheryl Crow - Sweet Child O' Mine (new) (2)
Andy: Toby Keith - High Maintenance Woman (new)
Shaun: The Enemy - Away From Here (new)
Scott: Linkin Park - Given Up (new)
Shaun & Andy: Heavy D & The Boys - Now That We Found Love
Scott & Andy: Hollies - The Air That I Breathe

This weeks stats:

24 songs sang tonight
13 had not been sung previously this year
11 have been sang already this year (1 of which was also sang last week)
There have been 811 songs sung so far this year!

** NEW SONGS **

Plain White T's - Hey There Delilah
	After reaching #1 in the US, the Plain White T's are now making their way up the UK charts, currently at #6, with this lovely, virtually acoustic song. I enjoyed singing this one and will definately do again sometime. do-again-rating: 8/10

Reverend & The Makers - Heavyweight Champion Of The World
	A funky indie track, Reverend & The Makers peaked at #5 in the UK charts a short while ago. Straightforward enough to sing and one for the to-do-again list. do-again-rating: 7/10

The Enemy - Away From Here

I'd if'ed and are'd about attempting this for a few weeks now, even trying to persuade Scott to do it first as I thought it the 'Away, Away from here' bits were too high for me, but with the pub being as dead as it was I thought sod it and gave it a go. And I'm glad I did. I'm not saying I nailed it but I certainly had a good time giving it a go and it was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. I'll definately be up for this one again in the future. do-again-rating: 7/10

And so that's your lot for another week. Let's just hope that this Thursday has a few more people in!

3D-Tastic Follow-Up

2007-08-12T08:22:00.001Z

Ok, I've found an even better, and totally FREE, renderer which is quite frankly, the dogs bollocks!!! It's called Kerkythea (no idea what it means!) and you can find it here.

The software doesn't integrate into Sketchup (SU) as Podium does but you can easily export your SU model into an XML file that can then be read into Kerkythea (KT) and then this is where it is much better than Podium. Whereas in Podium you are limited to simple Reflection and Light settings, in KT you have way more settings ranging from Reflection to Specularity to Fog to Shinyness etc.... This gives you infinately more control over the appearance of your objects which in turn culminates in much better looking renders. Granted, there is a little bit more work involved but the end result is worth it. There is also no limitations on output sizes either as this is completely freeware (unbelievably given the power it has!).

Fantastic stuff and very addictive although some of the renders can take a long time! I'm still working on the new kitchen design and we've re-jigged things around a little to optimise space. I think we're definately settled on the layout now, we just need to choose the colors. Below are the new design pics rendered in KT.

3D-tastic!!

2007-08-07T00:26:00.000Z

There's not many things that make we go Wow! anymore, but after stumbling across Googles modeling tool Sketchup, I was gobsmacked to find that give it away for free (yep, that's f-r-e-e, free!). They can continue in their quest for world domination as long as they keep giving spunky apps like this away as far as I'm concerned.
Granted, there are limitations in the free version that don't exist in the £315(!) Pro version such as you can't export or import models to or from other 3D modelers but that's it. All other operations are fully functional and for the part time modeler like me who just want to see how his kitchen would look re-arranged it's a fantastic tool.

So, what is it? Well, it's a 3-dimensional modeler aimed at anyone from professional architects to games designers right down to the occasional DIY enthusiasts looking to conceptualise their latest project. I've played around with other modelers such as 3Ds Max, Blender (also free) and various other 'home designer' programs but have found them either requiring too much time investment to learn how to use or limiting in what you can do with them. This is not the case with Sketchup. Within minutes of the install finishing I was up and away creating models with Sketchups easy to use drawing tools and patented Push/Pull technology to manipulate surfaces creating 3d objects. There are also a vast array of styles you can render your models in within Sketchup such as blueprint, watercolor, pencil etc which can give even the most basic of scenes a funky final touch.

The following picture gives you an idea of what you are able to produce with Sketchup:

However, it doesn't stop there. Sketchup supports scripting and plug-ins for third party development and this is where I found my next Wow! piece of software: Podium a photo-realistic rendering engine for Sketchup.

Podium fits snugly into the Sketchup menu system and although its interface is very simplistic looking, the results it produces can be stunning. You simply tell Podium which parts of your model have reflections or lights and then hit the render button to see what were once sketchy 3d models turned into great looking pictures. There can be a bit of trial and error with getting the lighting correct and setting the quality slider high on Podium can lead to long rendering times but the wait is worth it. Best of all it's free, or at least in that there is a monthly free version that is fully functional but only lets you render at 640x480 which is more than sufficient (at the moment) for me. At $180 (around £100) it's a little more than I would like to pay for a piece of software but I'm so impressed by the results that I may well end up buying it for the larger rendering capabilities.

Currently I'm using it to re-design our tiny kitchen and you can see how it's going so far below. And this is with only using Sketchup/Podium for around a week!

Original Sketchup renders:

Rendered by Podium:

Conclusion: If you have a little spare time, a creative mind and the urge to trying something new, then download Sketchup now!

Karaoke - 2nd August 2007

2007-08-05T23:07:00.001Z

It was a relatively busy week up the Hotel this Thursday night for a change (even Louise turned up!!) which meant plenty of singers and a fairly decent atmosphere. Unfortunately, the increased number of singers means less trips to the microphone for us :( but more time for drinking!! I was a little bit 'intoxicated' by the end of the night this week, probably more than I've been for a while but you have to don't you!? All I can say is it's a good job we're only there for 2½ hours or else God knows what state I could get in :D

Mr. Sleepy was in again and yet again he fell asleep with his glass of coke (but woke up when it was his turn to sing). Unless I was absolutely rat-arsed, I can't figure how anyone can fall asleep in a pub with [loud] karaoke on or do we bore you that much. If you're that tired, stay at home you !!!! I'm also not sure what went on it the ladies toilets tonight but I wouldn't have like to have been the cleaner... Bring back the smell of smoke if it could mask that god-awful whiff that was going around the pub towards the end of the night, it was that bad! Paul, the landlord went in to take a look and I'm sure I noticed a green tint around his cheeks when he came back out [very quickly]. You had to have been there to know how bad it was. On second thoughts, you were much better off not being there!

Songwise I'd put three songs in although I only got sing one of them. The starter was Andys choice and Faint was Scotts although I didn't mind singing either. It leaves me with a couple of new ones for next week anyway so not too worry. Scott weighed in with the cracking Biffy Clyro - Folding Stars and I'm sure he'll be letting you all know how it could possibly have a been a karaoke 'world premiere' ;) Even it wasn't (you'll need to provide proof!), he nailed it first time and I definately hope he breaks his new songs only rule and gives it another go. As time was running short and it was becoming evident that we might not get a song each in at the end we joined forces (doesn't happen often) and attempted Linkin Parks - Faint, see the report below as to how it went.

This rest of this weeks warblings were as follows:

Shaun: Will Smith - Summertime (2)
Scott: Duran Duran - Rio (new)
Others: Johnny Rivers - Secret Agent Man
Others: Mariah Carey - Hero (3)
Tina, Louise & Hayley: Abba - Does Your Mother Know (4)
Others: Texas - I Don't Want A Lover (3)
Others: Rammstein - Du Hast
Others: Robbie Williams - Let Me Entertain You (2)
Others: The Pretenders - Brass In Pocket
Others: Womack & Womack - Teardrops (6)
Others: Travis Tritt - T-R-O-U-B-L-E
Shaun: Mika - Big Girl (new)
Scott: Biffy Clyro - Folding Stars (world premiere!!!!!)
Others: Burt Bacharach - I'll Never Fall In Love Again (4)
Others: Sister Sledge - We Are Family
Tina, Louise & Hayley: Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star (3)
Others: Tina Turner - Simply The Best (2)
Others: Cher - If I Could Turn Back Time (4)
Others: Billy Idol - Rebel Yell
Others: Tiffany - I Think We're Alone Now (2)
Others: The Corrs - Runaway (3)
Others: Right Said Fred - Deeply Dippy
Others: Pearl Jam - Jeremy
Others: Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive (2)
Shaun & Scott: Linkin Park - Faint (new)
Others: Drifters - Like Sister & Brother

This weeks stats:

26 songs sang tonight
13 had not been sung previously this year
13 have been sang already this year (2 of which were also sang last week)
There have been 787 songs sung so far this year!

** NEW SONGS **

Mika - Big Girl

It's something different from the more indie-ish songs I've been singing lately and fun to do. The song itself was very straight-forward to sing and certainly much easier than the last Mika song I did, Grace Kelly, although not quite as funky as that one. It still managed a respectable chart position of #9 though despite being the third single released from the album. A 50/50 whether or not it gets done again. do-again-rating: 5/10

Linkin Park - Faint

I'm not sure how this one sounded as it was near the end of the night and the words might have been slurring despite knowing this inside out normally. Regardless, I f**king love this song and it's definately one of my favourite LP tracks. Thanks to Scott for agreeing to have a go at this with me even if he did have the much harder part!! If nothing else, it certainly went down well with the group of girls who were sat down at the top end. I think we may have to try this one again sometime ;) do-again-rating: 7/10

Thus ends another week of karaoke. Lets see what fun next week brings us.....next week!

Bikes, Cars and Accidents

2007-08-01T22:49:00.000Z

Bikes
Finally, after about 2 years of threatening to buy one, I've got myself a bike. It's nothing special in terms of value, in fact it was one of the cheapest as I certainly wasn't looking to spend in the hundreds as some of them were costing, but it will do for what I want it for... a bit of excerise now and then. Mainly I intend to use it to get to work (only on nice days! :p ) when we have to start using both cars to get around once Josh starts attending school.

I've been out on it already when I made my first work trek on it on Sunday. There's a canal that runs from the bottom of our estate and it takes you literally right to where I work which is handy. The journey is roughly 3 miles and despite having to get off for a couple of low bridges, it's quite a pleasant trip. I've got to change the saddle though as it's a bit thin and got a bit uncomfortable after a while, was like sitting on a razor blade!. I'll also be adding a bike computer for distance & speed measurement this weekend. They say you never forget how to ride a bike and given that it was around 17 years since I last rode one then the adage is true as I had no problem getting into the stride of the things. The gears are a little bit more complicated than they used to (why on earth do you need 18 gears!!) but I'm totally looking forward to riding this as often as possible.

Cars
With the sale of the old house eventually going through and Josh starting school in less than 6 weeks (doesn't time fly!) it was time to get Lisa's new car.
We were looking for something bigger than the Ford Focus which we currently have and had a shortlist of either a Ford Mondeo, a Volkswagen Passat or a Renault Scenic. After a little while looking around we eventually settled on the Scenic, or to be more precise, an 04 plate Grand Scenic which means that in the boot there are a couple of fold-a-away seats which can turn this into a seven seater!. It's nice car with plenty of space inside and it's definately bigger than the Focus. Unfortunately, this is where things went a little wrong....

Accidents
Our drive way has two brick posts either side of the entrance and because we on the sloping part of the crescent, the drive can be a little awkward to get into.

So, given that you've just driven it straight from the garage, it's been yours for less than 20 minutes and you are now going to park it up on the drive, how do you approach this? do you:
A) Think to yourself "this is a much bigger car than I normally drive so I'd better take it slow into the drive, checking the sides at all times"?
or
B) Think "I've done this a million times before, I know how much room I have, the cars not that much bigger"?

If you think A then pat yourself on the back as you still have a car that looks like it's come from a show room. If you thought B (and I mean really, who would go for B eh?? ) then the above pic is what your car now looks like after being scraped along the drive post by the wife when swinging it in to park it.

I was not a happy bunny. I've calmed down somewhat since it happened and I know it was an accident (albeit an avoidable one) but it doesn't help the fact that as well as looking battered before we've even had it a day, we're now going to have to shell out x amount of pounds to have it all fixed up. You can't really see it in the picture but the wheel arch is totally crumpled up and some of the scratches go right through to the metal. I just hope it can be repaired without costing a lot of money. Still, sh*t happens and what's done is done, and as numerous people pointed out, I'll be reminiscing and laughing about this in years to come. A bit like the time when I threw up all over Lisa's bed whilst drunk when we weren't even seeing each other (She wasn't happy about that at the time either but it get's raised and laughed about once a year or so now*!). I digress...

Anyway, in order to stop this from happening again, I've had some improvements made to the brick posts to minimize damage should contact occur again:
I think that might do the trick ;)

Even the kids are giving advice...

And on that note, I think I'd better head on over to www.makeawill.com as this may be my last blog post!!

All is forgiven now, love you honey really :)

* when Lisa is not around!

Karaoke - 26th July 2007

2007-07-30T19:18:00.000Z

Black Maria - That's what The Webtender says it is called, a half pint of Guinness with a shot of Tia Maria in it. This was my new drink of the night as recommended to me on Tuesday and despite not being overly keen on Guinness I did quite like like this mix. This was of course helped by the fact that it tastes like a Nesquik chocolate milkshake!! It really does!

And so began another night of beer and song, albeit more beer than song (not always a good thing!), mixed with plenty of other singers and lots of new songs to make it a good night.

After first seeing them at the Academy supporting the Fratellis back in February (my review, Capn Jacks review) and despite saying in his review that they 'are not my cup of tea' :p, Scott sang The Enemys - Had Enough which, along with Biffy Clyros - Folding Stars, is one of my current top tunes and it was done well. I've not had enough of The Enemy though and I request that Away From Here is also sang. Consider this a formal request ;) The girls who were minus Louise for yet another week (is that 4 now? perhaps we should send a lifeboat out!) also waded in with another new song to their repertoire in the form of Buggles's - Video Killed The Radio Star. Nice job you two :) As for me, after the drought of new songs in recent weeks I came back with a bang with not one but three new ones tonight. Some will be sang again, others maybe not, but all three were fun to have a go at regardless. See my New Songs review below for further details.

And so, all the songs in order this week were:

Others: Tracy Byrd - Better Places Than This
Others: Shania Twain - Any Man Of Mine (4)
Shaun: The Holloways - Generator (new song)
Others: Elvis - Bossa Nova Baby
Scott: Duran Duran - Union Of The Snake (new song)
Others: Alison Moyet - That Ole Devil Called Love (2)
Tina & Hayley: Atomic Kitten - The Tide Is High (5)
Others: The Killers - For Reasons Unknown (2)
Others: Sara Evans - Suds In The Bucket (4)
Shaun: The Hoosiers - Worried About Ray (new song)
Others: Leo Sayer - One Man Band
Scott: The Enemy - Had Enough (new song)
Tina & Hayley: Beautiful South - Rotterdam (new song)
Others: Womack & Womack - Teardrops (5)
Andy: J. Geils Band - Centerfold (2)
Others: Biffy Clyro - Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies (2)
Others: Savage Garden - Affirmation (3)
Others: The Killers - Read My Mind (6)
Shaun: My Chemical Romance - Teenagers (new song)
Others: Michael Buble - Feeling Good
Scott: Robbie Williams - Something Beautiful (2)
Tina & Hayley: Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star (2) (new song)
Others: Bob Marley - Jammin (5)
Others: Abba - Waterloo (2)
Others: Alannah Myles - Black Velvet (7)
Others: Gary Nichols - I Can't Love You Anymore (2)
Others: Lonestar - Amazed (2)
Others: Richie Valens - La Bamba

** NEW SONGS **
The Holloways - Generator - My first song of the night and I can definately see me starting a night or two with this one again. Originally released in 2006 and charting at #30, it was re-released in July this year and reached a much healthier #14. This was helped in part by it being used as the intro music for Radio 1's Song Generator. A keeper for me. - do-again-rating: 8/10

The Hoosiers - Worried About Ray - Currently at #5 in the charts and I love this song although it is slightly a little bit too high for me. Having said that, it didn't sound too bad (although the beer was starting to affect) and when the tickle on my throat finally goes away I may have to have another go at this. Apparently, and this is for Scott, their song Goodbye Mr A has been agreed with by EA to be one of the main tunes on Fifa 2008, so there you go! - do-again-rating: 6/10

My Chemical Romance - Teenagers - I always wanted to do The Black Parade by MCR but found it just too difficult once the chorus screaming kicked in. I thought this was easier but after virtually going voiceless towards the end of the song I'll rethink that one! Still, a cracking song and I'm glad that I gave it a go, I just won't be doing it again (although did I hear Capn Jack say he was going to give it a go?? ;) ) - do-again-rating: 1/10

And so ends another week which was so exciting for one guy that he fell asleep in the corner (he soon woke up when it was his turn to sing though...) so thanks for coming and see you all again soon :)

How karaoke CDG disks work!

2007-07-24T19:01:00.001Z

If you've ever searched the internet trying to find out how CDG works then you'd be suprised as to how little information there actually is out there. I know! I invested quite a lot of my time a few years back doing just that when I set out to create EditCDG, an MP3+G CDG file editor, so I know how rare such information is.
The best piece of specification I found comes from Jim Bumgardners excellent CDG Revealed document which has been around now for quite some time, although unless you have a bit of a technical/coding background it will probably look like gobbledigook to you, and that's what this post is for, to try to explain it in way that you can understand! :)

This first picture to the left (click to enlarge) is something that you're all familiar with: the graphics screen that displays our words to sing to. This screen is made up of a set of pixels (or tiny squares if you prefer) and there are 300 pixels across and 216 pixels down. Not all tv screens can show the entire picture so there is a 'safe' area defined inside this set that measures 294 pixels across and 204 pixels down which can be displayed by all. This is where all our graphics take place and the outside border left is used as just that, a border.
This graphical area is then split down again further into blocks of 6 pixels across by 12 pixels down to give a grid of 49 by 17 blocks. In computing terms these are strange numbers as we usually keep our figures at least divisible by 2 or as a power of 2 e.g. 48 by 16, but hey ho, ours is not to question!

So, knowing what the screen is made up of we now need to figure out where the data comes from to display the graphics. The data of course, comes from the CD! But how come we can play the CD on a normal CD player and it sounds perfectly fine and not like ye olde ZX Spectrum tape data loader? The answer lies in that a CD is made up of sectors and each of these sectors contains 2448 bytes (pieces) of data. Of these 2448 bytes, only 2352 are used to store audio information which leaves us with a remaining 96 bytes per sector to store any additional data known as the Subcode. The most common data stored on audio disks is CD-Text which is how some CD players can tell you what the current track and artist is. It is also used to provide the player with information such as what the current track number is and how far into the cd we are etc... and finally, it is where we can store our CDG data that can be converted to displaying graphics on the screen. Standard CDs read 75 sectors per second and we can fit 4 CDG graphical instructions into each sector's subcode as they only take up 24 bytes each so this gives us 75 * 4 = 300 CDG instructions a second.

Although we only have just 24 bytes in which to get our graphical instruction to screen, the CDG specification does a pretty good job of squeezing everything it can out. The image to the left shows how the data in each 24 byte block is represented. The first byte is used to tell the player whether this is a CDG command or not and if it is, then the 2nd byte will tell you what kind of instruction to carry out. In display terms these instructions range from painting a single 6x12 block, defining the current colour palette or simply clearing the screen. Once the player knows what the instruction it then uses the values in the data section to determine how to carry out that instruction. For example with a Clear Screen command, the data in the first two data bytes will determine what colour to clear the screen to. A Paint Block command will use the first two bytes to determine the background colour, the next two bytes for the forecolour and the remaining 12 bytes to say whether each pixel in the 6x12 block should be set to the foreground or background colour. CDG can only have a maximum of 16 colors on the screen at any one time although those colors can be changed at any time. This is how Easy Hits disks manage the fade in/out on their karaoke disks, they simply change the colors to be progressively lighter or darker dependant on the fade direction.

And in laymans terms, that's pretty much all there is too it. Hope you found it interesting and feel free to ask any questions or point out any inaccuracies!

Karaoke - 19st July 2007

2007-07-20T21:57:00.000Z

The night started early with me going out for a meal with co-workers from the development and tech support departments at a local Italian restaurant, Portofinos. It's not the cheapest of places to go to but the food is pretty good although I expected my 'bouef brochette' to be a little more than just beef & chips, literally! I have to say though that the beef was very very nice. I tried anchovies for the first time in my starter and was pleasantly suprised to find that I quite liked them. I also discovered the Italian lager Peroni (as recommended by Steve) which went down well and at 5.1% it wasn't too many bottles in before I could feel it starting to affect me!! Will have to see if they sell them at Sainsburys :)

After finishing the meal and leaving my work colleagues , I caught a taxi up to the hotel to find it totally packed outside. Upon entering I think it's safe to safe there were more outside than in (although inside wasn't dead either)! Scott had thankfully been noting down the tracks pre my arrival and we seem to have upgraded from using the back of song request forms to an actual proper note book. Amateurs eh! :p
No new songs again from me tonight though this will be definately be rectified next week with at least two news ones and maybe three if my throat/cough clears up. Still suffering a little from the virus I had the other week with a cough and slight sore throat. I thought it was going to give up on me when I did Blurry tonight but it just about held out.

This weeks playlist:

Scott & Andy: Abba - Does Your Mother Know (3)
Scott: Aztec Camera - Somewhere In My Heart (2) (new song)
Tina & Hayley: Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (10)
Andy: Stray Cats - Stray Cat Strut (3)
Scott: Biffy Clyro - Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies (new song)
Others: Maximo Park - Our Velocity (5)
Tina & Hayley: The Bangles - Manic Monday (4)
Others: The Beatles - All My Loving
Others: Eurythmics - Thorn In My Side (4)
Others: Womack & Womack - Teardrops (4)
Others: Brad Paisley - Ticks (2)
Scott: The Fratellis - Ole Black N Blue Eyes (2) (new song)
Tina & Hayley: Macy Gray - I Try (6)
Others: Robbie Williams - Come Undone (2)
Others: The Corrs - Dreams (2)
Shaun: Puddle Of Mudd - Blurry
Scott: Mick Jagger - Old Habits Die Hard (new song)
Others: Frankie Valli - Can't Take My Eyes Off You
Others: Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star
Andy: Keith Urban - Jeans On (5)
Others: The Commitments - Try A Little Tenderness (2)
Shaun: Garth Brooks - Ain't Goin' Down Till The Sun Comes Up (4)
Others: Madonna - Material Girl
Others: Robbie Williams - Angels (4)
Tina & Hayley: Yvonne Elliman - If I Can't Have You (new song)
Scott: Rolling Stones - You Can't Always Get What You Want (new song)
Others: Kaiser Chiefs - Modern Way

A new song tonight from the girls which I didn't expect and they did it very well too :) Scott added yet another new Rolling Stones song to the list although I'll let him off after he also sang Ole Black N Blue Eyes to help maintain the Fratellis lead at the top of artists charts (Question for Scott: Who sang the Maximo Park track??). I've updated the stats charts on the right hand side link up to this week. If it still shows a previous date then press CTRL & F5 on your browser to force the page to refresh as it seems to be having a problem with it caching old pages :s

Off topic, we finally sold our old house today too, woohoo!! We haven't lived in it for around 9 months and after putting it up for sale in February this year and getting an offer within days it still took an unbelievable 5 months to complete the sale! Still, done and dusted now and we'll be looking for a second car with the money we made from it as when Josh starts school in September and Lisa dropping her hours down to suit school times, having just one car is going to be difficult unfortunately. I shall be getting a new pc out of it too :) Not that there's nothing majorly wrong with this one (custom built a couple of years ago) but it's starting to struggle with newly released games as in it either won't run them or I have to have the gfx settings so low that it ruins the game.

Ah well, that's it for another week so until my next posting, see ya!

Karaoke - 12th Jul 2007

2007-07-15T22:25:00.000Z

A little quieter up the hotel tonight than it's been for the last few weeks but enjoyable nonetheless.
At one point I'm sure there were more outside having a cigarette than there were inside which also means that, yes, despite being labeled 'Smoke-on-Trent' (full story here), the Hotel has thankfully stuck to the smoking ban.

There was a good selection of songs from across the board tonight, many of which I've not heard in a long time. Thanks to Scott for having a go at Linkin Parks' - Numb and Andy finally gave in to Tinas wishes for him to do Bodyrockers - I Like The Way. The latter song really needs a parody version as some of the lyrics could easily be substituted for more 'fun' ones ;) One new one for me tonight plus a couple I'd not sang yet in 2007. I'm currently working my way through Andys book to check all the songs I've ever sung from it so far but not done in a while as there are some forgotten classics in there I'm sure!!

Tonights playlist went as follows:

Others: Eagles - Hotel California
Shaun: Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out
Tina & Hayley: Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (9 times)
Scott: Foo Fighters - Times Like These
Others: Shania Twain - You're Still The One (5 times)
Others: Queen - Too Much Love Will Kill You
Shaun: Arctic Monkeys - Flourescent Adolescent (brand new!!)
Tina & Hayley: The Bangles - Manic Monday (3 times)
Scott: Linkin Park - Numb (brand new!!)
Others: Gabrielle - Out Of Reach (4 times)
Andy: Dire Straits - Money For Nothing (7 times)
Others: Chris Rea - Road To Hell
Shaun: Green Day - American Idiot
Tina & Hayley: Savage Garden - Affirmation (2 times)
Scott: Hootie & The Blowfish - Let Her Cry (brand new!!)
Others: Foundations - Buttercup (2 times)
Others: Texas - Black Eyed Boy (2 times)
Others: UB40 - Food For Thought
Others: Cascades - Rhythm Of The Rain
Shaun: The Fratellis - Baby Fratelli (5 times)
Tina & Hayley: Blondie - One Way Or Another (3 times)
Scott: Take That - I'd Wait For Life (brand new!!)
Others: Katie Melua - The Closest Thing To Crazy (4 times)
Others: UB40 - Homely Girl
Others: Mariah Carey - Hero (2 times)
Others: John Denver - That God I'm A Country Boy
Andy: Bodyrockers - I Like The Way
Shaun: Maximo Park - Our Velocity (4 times)
Scott: Eagles - Desperado (brand new!!)

** NEW SONG **
Arctic Monkeys - Flourescent Adolescent - I'd better not sing this one too much as it's a bugger to type!! This is my favourite song from the Monkeys new album and I really enjoyed singing it. I was hoping that it would knock Rhianna off the top of the charts this week but alas it only charted at number 5 which was a little disappointing given that that totally shite Kate Nash track is at number 3. The charts today eh? :p I've no doubt that this one will make an appearance again. do-again-rating: 9/10

Next week I'll be going for a meal (Portofinos - Italian restaurant) with my friends and colleagues from work who I hopefully can persuade some of to join me up the hotel after the meal is finished, although depending on how much drink I've consumed it may be them persuading me to go somewhere with them! We shall see and so until then, goodbye.

Linkin Park Chester: I sick when I sing!!

2007-07-15T13:47:00.000Z

Now I'm glad that I can't sing like Chester!

Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington has revealed that his singing makes him sick.

"Every night when I sing, it kind of pisses off the hernia. Last night I was vomiting when I was singing."

He is to undergo surgery for a hiatal hernia, a condition that occurs when part of the stomach slides above the diaphragm, allowing stomach acid to flow freely into the oesophagus. It follows the mysterious stomach complaint that hospitalised Chester and forced the band to cancel its European tour back in June.

Not only did it teach him to appreciate life, it made him yearn to be a better person.

"You kind of figure out that your entire existence can be flipped upside-down in a matter of minutes and no one is safe. When I was in the hospital, I was thinking to myself, 'Oh, man, I'm upset with one of my family members, And that could have been the last time I talked to him. I don't want that to happen again,” he told MTV, referring to the stomach complaint, rather than some life-threatening illness.

"I'm kind of queasy all the time," Bennington added. "I'm basically gonna be sick to my stomach until I have the surgery done.”

Hiatal hernias are fairly common, causing burning pain and nausea. Most of the time they can be controlled with antacids, diet regulation and inclining of the head and shoulders. But sometimes, as with Bennington, they require surgery.

"Food doesn't stay in my stomach. It comes in and out whenever it feels like. So when I'm singing and I'm actually using my whole body to sing, things get forced out while I'm performing.”

Full Article here

Karaoke - 5th Jul 2007

2007-07-11T22:19:00.000Z

When I woke up on Friday and felt a bit off I thought that it was perhaps the effects of Thursdays nights drinks binge, but unfortunately not, it was instead the start of some goddamn virus that has kept me feeling like utter sh#te for the last week. Now that it's finally clearing up (I'm not feeling queasy and my head doesn't hurt as much!) it's having it's last throw of the dice by leaving me with a nasty cough. Grrrr!! Not had anything this bad for sometime and it seems to be making it's way around work too... I blame the air-con for that.

Anyway, It's not kept me away from the computer but I didn't have the energy or brainpower to muster up the enthusiasm to blog and so that's why this weeks is so late! I'll bring a note from my mum tomorrow.

After all that, last Thursday up the hotel wasn't too bad. No Tina or Louise so just Scott, Hayley and myself in our corner although we were joined by some of the Tuesday regulars yet again (you'll notice this by the upturn in the number of country tracks sang tonight!! ;) ). Someone suggested I should have a 'I've been mentioned on Shaunios blog' T-shirt to wear up the hotel, so Russ, are you gonna buy one? :p

Some new songs for me tonight ranging from dire to ok. Certainly nothing that I could say "yes, I really enjoyed that" too but I guess if you never try then you never know (and we'd all be singing Words and Angels week in week out). After last weeks little stats update, Scotts taken it as a challenge to get the entire Stones back catalogue sung up the hotel and he weighed in with no less than three more tonight. I have to admit to knowing none of them! Not sure why I seem to not know many of his songs just lately. Probably because when most of them came out I was heavily into rave (happy hardcore!) or rap/hip-hop back in my earlier years and totally ignored the indie/rock/pop scene pretty much from 1985/86 to the late 90's. Even now I sit here listening to Jack N Chill - The Jack That House Built on my recently acquired 6 disk Ultimate Rave Album! Quality stuff :) Nowadays my taste is a lot more varied (thankfully!) and I still like to dig out some of the old stuff and reminisce although there is still so many great songs out there from time gone by that I've yet to discover too.

Here's a random question for the day: Can you remember what the first ever song was that you sang on karaoke? For me, it was Coolio - Gangsta's Paradise back in around 97 I think (although may have been later) and Thursday nights have pretty much never been free since.

Forward a decade later, and this is what we're singing nowadays:

Others: Travis Tritt - Trouble
Others: Pussycat Dolls - Sway
Shaun: The Fratellis - For The Girl (acoustic)
Others: Texas - I Don't Want A Lover
Scott: Big Country - King Of Emotion
Others: Gary Nichols - I Can't Love You Anymore
Others: Sara Evans - Suds In The Bucket
Others: Alannah Myles - Black Velvet
Shaun: The Fratellis - Ole Black N Blue Eyes
Others: Whitney Houston - The Greatest Love Of All
Others: Elvis - Love Letters
Scott: Rolling Stones - Mixed Emotions
Andy: Jake Owen - Yee-Haw
Others: Brad Paisley - Ticks
Others: The Killers - Read My Mind
Shaun: The Pigeon Detectives - I'm Not Sorry
Others: Diana Ross - Chain Reaction
Others: UB40 - I Got You Babe
Scott: Rolling Stones - You Got Me Rocking
Others: The Killers - All These Things That I've Done
Others: Lonestar - Amazed
Shaun: Yello - The Race
Others: Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl
Others: Burt Bacharach - I'll Never Fall In Love Again
Scott: Rolling Stones - Wild Horses
Others: Zoe Birkett - Get Happy

** NEW SONGS **

The Fratellis - For The Girl (acoustic) -I couldn't resist doing this having had the acoustic instrumental in my possession for some time now although despite knowing this song inside out, I managed to cock the la-la-lala bit up near the end as I just couldn't hear the guitar over my voice and with it being an acoustic, there was no beat either to time to. Still, enjoyed giving it a go though very unlikely to do again unless it's the proper album version. do-again-rating: 0/10

The Fratellis - Ole Black N Blue Eyes - The last single (EP) released from the album and I think this was a thumbs up to a fans vote on the official forum who voted this as there favourite Fratellis track. I can' t find the thread currently but I remember Creepin' Up The Back Stairs was second and Baby Fratelli third. Now, if I can just convince SBI Global that there is a demand for Creepin' then I would be very happy. Nice and easy this one although a little lower in parts than I expected. Can see it being sung again. do-again-rating: 7/10

The Pigeon Detectives - I'm Not Sorry - Nice track and quite easy to do, not much to say really. May get sung again or may disappear into obscurity, who knows! do-again-rating: 6/10

Yello - The Race - Much as I like this record, I wish I'd not even considered attempting this. Even though I was totally pissed by the time I got up to do, I'd have had a hard job making it sound any better sober. The version Sunfly have put out is spot on so credit there, but it really doesn't lend itself well to karaoke and I'll take Scott up on what he said as I made my way back: "Dont' do that again!". do-again-rating: -1/10

Overall, not a great week for me but it means that things can surely only get better (frantically touches wood and crosses fingers!). See you next week (or maybe earlier :) ).

PS: Oh, and don't forget to vote for Def Leppard - Let's Get Rocked here. Each vote for this track saves a kitten!

Karaoke - 28th Jun 2007

2007-07-01T22:53:00.000Z

Back to the Hotel this week after last weeks mini-break and first off I'd like to point out that we're now at the half way point of 2007 which means that I've been blogging about our Thursday night singing for 6 months now.

I don't think I've ever stuck with anything for so long (I'm still 'playing' the guitar too!) so if you've been following events this year, thanks for sticking around and if you're reading Jamesco, you started this . Don't forget to also read Captain Jacks Tracks as well as he writes a lot more stuff than me, some of it interesting , and deserves a pat on the back for some of the time he put's into his mini-essays!

On to the night and yet again there were no new songs for me. I sang three that were for the first time this year but none that were new to me. I had intended to have a go at a couple of Linkin Park tracks but after having a go at them in the car on the way up I decided that I'm no Chester Bennington and the people in the hotel wouldn't have deserved such a verbal assault! There is a new Sunfly out now and so hopefully I'll try a couple of tracks from that (maybe Pigeon Detectives, The Twang and Yello) but other than that I'm struggling to find inspiration for new stuff at the moment. Time for a delve in the old Now That's What I Call Music collection me thinks. Any suggestions also will be taken on board.

Tina, Louise & Hayley decided to 'celebrate' a certain event this week by singing Stop! by..... the Spice Girls. Yes, they've reformed for a reunion tour and it's a pity that they didn't take heed of this song and STOP RIGHT THERE!!!! What on earth is it all about. Surely they don't need the money so it can only be for some sort of sadistic kick to see if they can get any of their singles back into the charts, or get the now grown up teenagers who once idolised them to part with a weeks wages to go see them given that they no longer need their parents permission to go to a gig. Why, why, why....

Another event that's taken place is the ban of this: Yep, this week was the last time we'll be singing in smokey pubs. I'm kind of glad in a way about the ban because there's nothing worse than a smokey pub and the hotel does occasionally get pretty bad and as an ex 20+ day a smoker for over four years you do notice it. I do feel for those who now have to stand outside in all weathers for a fag though and yes, you may say that they can go without or quit, but it's not that easy. I just hope that it doesn't stop people coming out and enjoying themselves as all the doom and gloom merchants predict, although having driven past the hotel this morning and seen the umbrellas put up outside (I guess for the smokers) they're not going stop the driving rain or bitter cold come later on in the year. It will be interesting to see how the year progresses now that the ban is in force.

Anyway, enough waffle and onto this weeks songs:

Shaun: Will Smith - Getting' Jiggy Wit it
Scott: Rolling Stones - Jumpin' Jack Flash
Andy: Tone Loc - Funky Cold Medina
Tina, Louise & Hayley: Bryan Adams & Mel C - When You're Gone
Shaun: Wyclef Jean - Perfect Gentleman
Others: The Pretenders - I'll Stand By You
Scott: Robbie Williams - Come Undone
Tina, Louise & Hayley: The Bangles - Manic Monday
Others: Womack & Womack - Teardrops
Others: Do You Know The Way To San Jose - Dionne Warwick
Shaun: The Killers - Somebody Told Me
Scott: Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun
Tina, Louise & Hayley: Spice Girls - Stop
Others: Oleta Adams - Get Here
Others: Alanis Morissette - Ironic
Others: Roxette - Listen To Your Heart
Others: Weather Girls - It's Raining Men
Others: Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girls
Shaun: The Fratellis - Henrietta
Scott: A Better Man - Robbie Williams
Tina, Louise & Hayley: Savage Garden - Affirmation
Others: Katie Melua - The Closest Thing To Crazy
Others: Carly Simon - You're So Vain
Others: Candi Staton - Young Hearts Run Free

Some changes in the stats this week with Britney Spears' - I Love Rock N Roll and the Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams taking over as joint most sang song with The Fratellis' - Whistle For The Choir now pushed back into third place. The Frats are still holding firm at the top of the artists chart and although the pack is bunching up underneath to make a challenge I think they will hold out for the year

Other random stats from the Thursday night song chart:

There have been 652 songs sang on a Thursday night in the Birches Head Hotel in 2007
441 of these songs are unique. That means that on any given night you won't have heard roughly 2 out of every 3 songs sung before in this year.
73 of these were Scotts, 69 mine, 27 Andys and 22 the girls.
On an average night, 25 songs will be sung
The first song sung this year was Abba's Voulez-Vouz by Louise & Hayley. It has not been sung since.
Elvis and The Beatles have the highest number of different songs sung from their catalog with 11 each.
For Scotts benefit, the Rolling Stones are next with 9 different tracks.
The most hated song is Boyzone - Words

Ok, so I made the last one up, but you know it's true

So, here's too another 6 months (and beyond!) and until next week, Me.SayGoodbye(True)

Karaoke - 21st Jun 2007

2007-07-01T21:55:00.000Z

As I was away on my rain soaked holiday this week, there's no write up from me, but you can find what went on over at Captain Jacks place here.

Thanks to Scott for noting the songs down and here they are:

Scott & Andy: The Beatles - Love Me Do
Scott: Rolling Stones - Street Fighting Man
Others: Mariah Carey - Hero
Andy: Dire Straits - Money For Nothing
Tina & Hayley: Britney Spears - I Love Rock N Roll
Others: The Corrs - Dreams
Others: Pink - Get The Party Started
Scott: Aerosmith - Big Ten Inch Record
Tina & Hayley: Lily Allen - Smile
Andy: Golden Earring - Radar Love
Others: Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams
Others: Nikki French - Total Eclipse Of The Heart
Scott: Bon Jovi - You Want To Make A Memory
Others: Beautiful South - Perfect 10
Tina & Hayley: The Bangles - Manic Monday
Others: Dusty Springfield - Son Of A Preacher Man
Others: Whitney Houston & Ce Ce Williams - Count On Me
Scott: Aerosmith - Dream On
Others: Robbie Williams - Let Me Entertain You
Andy: Sugarhill Gang - Rappers Delight
Tina & Hayley: Stephy - Chelsea
Others: Whitney Houston - I Wanna Dance With Somebody
Others: James Morrison - Wonderful World
Others: Neil Diamond - Forever In Blue Jeans
Scott: Rod Stewart - Tonight's The Night

Karaoke - 14th Jun 2007

2007-06-24T20:28:00.000Z

After a week away on holiday down rainy Devon, yes, I do take time off occasionally, I'm back to the real world (which has internet!!!) and catching up with what happened the week before. Hopefully Scott will be filling me with what happened while I was away :)

There were no new songs this week for me as I had a really bad throat. I probably shouldn't have sang at all, but after a few pints it felt alright. I regretted that decision somewhat in the morning and it's probably a good job that I had a week off from the karaoke as it still feels a little coarse even now :( It was fairly busy up the hotel though so was nice to get up and sing with a few in. Because it was busy I even managed to persuade Scott to do Linkin Parks - What I've Done again despite his policy of not repeating himself this year. :)

Songs sang this week were:

Others: Meatloaf - I'd Do Anything For Love
Others: Scorpions - Wind Of Change
Scott: Poison - Unskinny Bop
Others: Carly Simon - You're So Vain
Others: Bon Jovi - It's My Life
Shaun: The View - The Don
Others: UB40 - Kingston Town
Others: Annie Shelton - Lay Down Your Arms
Tina, Louise & Hayley: Girls Aloud - Love Machine
Others: Genesis - I Can't Dance
Others: Johnny Cash - A Boy Named Sue
Scott: Therapy - Screamager
Others: Pink - Just Like A Pill
Others: The Beatles - We Can Work It Out
Shaun: Maximo Park - Our Velocity
Others: Cyndi Lauper - Time After Time
Others: Kylie Minogue & Jason Donovan - Especially For You
Others: Rolf Harris - Court Of King Caractacus
Others: Robert Palmer - Bad Case Of Loving You
Scott: Linkin Park - What I've Done
Others: Whitney Houston & Ce Ce Williams - Count On Me
Tina, Louise & Hayley: Dido - White Flag
Others: The Killers - Mr. Brightside
Others: Shirley Bassey - Big Spender
Others: Neil Diamond - Forever In Blue Jeans
Shaun & Scott: Linkin Park - In The End

I'll post last weeks (21st Jun) songs up once I get the list from Scott and then after this Thursday we'll be back into the swing of things again. I'll probably blog about my holiday sometime this week if I can find some inspiration from somewhere. Mind you, there's still plenty of beer left in the fridge from the poker night I had round here the other week so maybe I'll try that, lol.

See you soon... ta ra

Karaoke - 7th Jun 2007

2007-06-10T21:06:00.000Z

Parity was resumed this week with everyone back off their holidays. Glad to hear that all had a good time and now it's just me to go when I'm off 'darn sawth' for a week in Devon later this month.

The hotel had a reasonable crowd and there were a few singers in. I managed to catch the bus up again (oh, how coincidental that it was just coming around the corner...again!) so there was plenty of drink to be had. No unplanned trips tonight though :)

Songwise and I've got to give a thumbs up to Scott who had a crack at Linkin Parks' - What I've Done. I've got plenty of time for LP and Scott certainly did this one justice. Would love to sing their songs myself but I can't get anywhere near Chesters vocal range without my throat seizing up! I did take a shot at a Killers track that I've wanted to do for now and enjoyed singing that track (see below). There's a few movers in the charts this week too with Elvis moving into a clear second in the artists chart (Fratellis still holding firm ;)) and the girls now hold two songs for joint first in the most sung with Britneys - I Love Rock & Roll and the Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams. Must be time for a whistle in the old choir next week!

This weeks songs:

Shaun: Will Smith - Summertime
Others: Bobby Vee - More Than I Can Say
Scott: Rolling Stones - It's Only Rock & Roll
Others: Tiffany - I Think We're Alone Now
Shaun: Will Smith - Switch
Tina, Louise & Hayley: Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams
Scott: Thin Lizzy - Dancing In The Moonlight
Others: Atomic Kitten - The Tide Is High
Others: Elvis - Don't Be Cruel
Others: Spice Girls - Viva Forever
Tina, Louise & Hayley: Lily Allen - Smile
Others: The Corrs - Breathless
Shaun: Ok Go - Here It Goes Again
Others: Elvis - Always On My Mind
Scott: Linkin Park - What I've Done
Others: Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes - I've Had The Time Of My Life
Others: Carly Simon - You're So Vain
Tina, Louise & Hayley: Britney Spears - I Love Rock N Roll
Others: Katie Melua - The Closest Thing To Crazy
Andy: Dire Straits - Money For Nothing
Others: Alannah Myles - Black Velvet
Others: Boyzone - Words
Shaun: The Killers - Read My Mind
Scott: David Bowie - Starman
Tina, Louise & Hayley: Chicago - All That Jazz
Others: Texas - Black Eyed Boy

** NEW SONGS **
Will Smith - Switch - I've done quite a few Will Smith songs but have missed this out until now after Russ mentioned it on Tuesday. It's not bad but needs a real party atmosphere and big crowd to work IMO and so in all honesty it sounded a little flat tonight. One that I'm unlikely to do again unfortunately. do-again-rating: 0/10

Ok Go - Here It Goes Again - Came across this song on YouTube as it is one of the most viewed videos on there. A good track but an even better video which just goes to show you don't need an expensive budget. And to make sure you have no excuse for not watching it, here it is:

It was a fun song to do and although I'm not sure that many people know it, it's one that I can see myself having another dig at. do-again-rating: 8/10

The Killers - Read My Mind - I've been wanting to do this for a while now and despite putting it in twice before and not getting to do it, I finally got my chance tonight. For me this is the Killers best song, with Somebody Told Me just behind, and I thoroughly enjoyed singing it. I think I did ok but it was one of the last songs and I was a little tipsy by then. Will have to put it in again but earlier in the order to give me a better guage ;). do-again-rating: 9/10

And so ends another week of drunken singing so until next week.... Näkemiin

Home Improvements

2007-06-04T22:47:00.000Z

In the last week or two we've finally got around to making a few improvements to our house since moving here late last year.

The Garden
Firstly, we wanted somewhere that the little uns could play safely and although the back has a nice raised and fenced area, the ground was completely paved with pinky looking slabs. So the decision was made to take it all up and to replace it with a grass lawn which should provide the ideal playing area for the kids come summer. The work was started a couple of weeks ago, took a couple of days to complete and now looks great.
Here is the transformation:

1)2)3)4)

1) The back how it was when we moved in. Nice pink slabs!
2) Slabs removed, ground soil laid and the turf being placed. It was a very dreary and rainy day and certainly didn't make for pleasant work I guess.
3) The garden immediately after being laid.
4) Three weeks later looking lusicously green and being used for what it was intended :)

The Bathroom
The second most needed change was the bathroom with it's ugly sit down shower bath thingy-ma-jig (you need to see it to know what I mean), it's broken shower and the ridiculously small basin shoved in the corner. We decided that it would be best to completely gut this room and so all bar the towel radiator was replaced. The work was completed by a builder who handily lives just 5 doors up and took around a week to complete. Once completed I painted the untiled areas a new color and finished off with a new roller blind. We're very pleased with how it's turned out.
Pics of various stages:

1)2)3)4)5)

1) The bathroom when we moved in. Stupid bath...
2) The walls had to be replastered as the tiles seemed to have been put on with crazy glue resulting in the wall coming apart when they were removed!
3) Bath and basin out. The floor we thought was lino was actually mosaic tiles. Looked like lino to me, lol.
4) Walls boarded and bath installed.
5) The finished article and straight in with the rubber ducky :)

So, two of the biggest jobs now complete and we'll probably leave it for a little while now before undertaking further change which will either be the kitchen or the windows/doors.

Karaoke - 31st May 2007

2007-06-02T22:44:00.000Z

Although we were missing most of the Thursday night regulars in Scott, Hayley (both on holiday), Tina & Louise (no excuses :p), tonight wasn't too bad at all as some of the Tuesday crowd (hi Russ!) turned up to make up numbers.
I arrived at the hotel a little earlier than usual because just as I got to the end of my street to make my way up, along came the No.38 which I know drives past the hotel and well, why not, I caught the bus despite the hotel being only about three quarters of a mile away (it's mostly all upbank in my defense! :( ) And it cost me 95p. 95 pence for less than a mile. Last time I caught that bus it was only 40p to get to Hanley (double the distance) although mind you, I was only 15 at the time ;)
Still, early to arrive means more beer to get through during the night and I think it's safe to say I was a little 'intoxicated' when I left. I don't remember much of the walk home (no buses at that time of night) but I certainly remember taking the dog out for a walk singing to (or attempting to) the Frays How To Save A Life on my mp3 player, blissfully unaware of the other guy out walking his dog too about 10 steps behind me. I'm not sure whether the look he gave me was one of amusement or a 'shut the f**k up' look. oops!
Unfortunately sometime during the night my body decided it was going to stop processing the rest of the excess alcohol and rudely awakened me from my slumber to make the dreaded trip to the loo to eject said toxins :s Not been that drunk for a while!

Not to worry though, it's all in a good cause (or so I tell myself), and without further stories of my drunkeness, here are the songs sung tonight:

Others: St.Etienne - He's On The Phone
Others: Travis Tritt - Still In Love With You
Shaun: Keith Urban - Jeans On
Others: The Pretenders - I'll Stand By You
Andy: Charlie Daniels Band - The Devil Went Down To Georgia
Others: Whitney Houston - Saving All My Love For You
Others: Shania Twain - Any Man Of Mine
Others: The Killers - For Reasons Unknown
Shaun: The View - The Don
Others: Fleetwood Mac - Dreams
Others: Lynn Anderson - Rose Garden
Others: Elvis - One Night
Others: Shania Twain - Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under
Andy: Elvis - Viva Las Vegas
Others: Tim McGraw - I Like It I Love It
Shaun: The Fratellis - Flathead
Others: Katie Melua - The Closest Thing To Crazy
Others: Eric Clapton - Cocaine
Others: Lonestar - I'll Die Trying
Others: MercyMe - So Long Self
Shaun: Maximo Park - Our Velocity
Others: Diana Ross - Chain Reaction
Others: Chuck Berry - Memphis
Others: Boyzone - Words

** NEW SONGS **
The View - The Don - The fourth single to be released by the band and although it only reached no.33 in the charts, it is in my opinion, just as good a 'feel good' song as Same Jeans which reached no.3 back in January. Really enjoyed having a go at this one and it will definately feature again. do-again-rating: 10/10

The Fratellis - Flathead - I have to admit that as much as I love the Fratellis, I just didn't get the same buzz from singing this track as I have the others. It's a shame in a way that this was the one chosen by iPod for their adverts when there are much better, more funkier tracks on the album that maybe could have been better choices (and thus made their way onto Karaoke ;)). I currently have an instrumental version of the For The Girl acoustic track which I'm sorely tempted to put together as a cdg track... we'll see. Aynway, back to sum this one up: It was ok but nothing special. do-again-rating: 2/10

Back to normality (hopefully) next week with everyone back, so until then.....Do svidanja

Karaoke - 24 May 2007

2007-05-25T21:51:00.000Z

With Andy (the regular KJ) being on holiday and Scott & Hayley off to see Magnum (the band not the P.I.) I made the trek up to the hotel on my own this week (everyone say awwwww!).

I wasn't even sure that there was anything on but luckily they had splashed out on a replacement KJ who I think may be the one who does the Sunday lunches. Even luckier was that he was an up-to-date KJ, bar the last Sunfly, and so the choice of songs was pretty much to my liking. After pondering through his brick like book (why do some KJ's insist on listing only about 25-30 songs per page? Save some trees and print more per page, you CAN do two columns!), I finally put my songs in. No new ones for me though this week, just some of my favs from the year.

The hotel was actually busy for the first hour or so as the bowlers (there's a bowling green next to the hotel) stayed around until around 10:30 which is unusual. It was also unusual that some of them were actually getting up and singing as well. Someone must have spiked their drinks I guess!

The replacements KJ's sound system wasn't as good as Andys and it was very tinny on the background music. Singing on the system wasn't too bad but I wish he'd have turned the music up a little bit. I would say that the mic volume was nearly twice as loud as the backing which I wasn't too keen on and there was no changing either volume or adding any reverb/chorus to compensate once a singer started, something which Andy does have a knack for in getting some of us to sound a little better than we probably are! :p Ah well, musn't grumble, it wasn't too bad and at least there was something on.

This weeks songs:

Others: Ronan Keating - When You Say Nothing At All
Others: Louise - Stuck In The Middle
Shaun: The Fratellis - Whistle For The Choir
Others: The Rubettes - Jukebox Jive
Others: Alannah Myles - Black Velvet
Others: Hank Williams - Your Cheatin' Heart
Others: Abba - Dancing Queen
Shaun: The Fratellis - Baby Fratelli
Others: Patsy Cline - Crazy
Others: Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2U
Others: Nancy Sinatra - These Boots Are Made For Walking
Others: The Carpenters - Top Of The World
Shaun: Razorlight - In The Morning
Others: Meatloaf - Paradise By The Dashboard Light
Others: Robbie Williams - Angels
Others: Elvis - D'ya Ever (Have One Of Those Days)
Others: REO Speedwagon - I Can't Fight This Feeling
Shaun: The View - Same Jeans
Others: Donna Summer - Hot Stuff
Others: Boyzone - Words

Service half returns to normal next week with Andy back in control and Scott & Hayley jetting off on holiday (have a nice one if you read this before you go).

And so until then, buenos noches!

Karaoke - 17 May 2007

2007-05-23T21:07:00.000Z

Oops, a bit late this week but it's just been one of those weeks where I've just been distracted with others things.

Still, here now and to make up for it here is, as promised, Sue & Mike "performing" Mikas Grace Kelly. Note to Sue: See, no You Tube ;)

I've got some other bits and bobs lying around that may make it up here sometime soon too. I won't be using Google video again though as it took nearly a week for that video to get processed. You Tube videos are usually up within an hour or so!

I thought I'd lost the tickets with the songs on his week but fortunately found them at the bottom of my inside coat pocket. This is how I write the songs down each week, on the back of slip tickets:

Given that it's nearly a week since the karaoke night I may have a couple of them wrong. A couple I'm not sure of are the very bottom left one which I have marked as 'Most Beautiful Wrong' which I've assumed is 'The Most Beautiful Girl In The World' as I think I vaguely remember that being sung. Also 'Memphis' in the middle right of the first ticket. I'm sure it wasn't Walking In Memphis so have gone for Chuck Berrys Memphis although to be honest, considering I just put Morrisey for one of the songs it could quite frankly be anything! Beer was playing it's part it has to be said!

So, correct me if I'm wrong, but here's this[last] weeks songs:

Others: Robbie Williams - Angels
Scott: Electric Light Orchestra - Turn To Stone
Others: Motorhead - Ace Of Spades
Shaun: Garth Brooks - Ain't Goin' Down Till The Sun Comes Up
Others: Englebert Humperdinck - After The Lovin'
Others: Englebert Humperdinck - The Most Beautiful Girl In The World
Others: Fleetwood Mac - Little Lies
Tina & Hayley: Britney Spears - I Love Rock N Roll
Others: Johnny Cash - San Quentin
Scott: Dave Edmunds - Girls Talk
Others: The Smiths - This Charming Man
Shaun: The Fray - How To Save A Life
Others: Jam - Going Underground
Others: Billy Joel - Just The Way You Are
Others: Alannah Myles - Black Velvet
Others: Bobby Darin - Beyond The Sea
Tina & Hayley: Macy Gray - I Try
Others: Bob Dylan - Just Like A Woman
Others: Girls Aloud - Love Machine
Shaun & Andy: Sugarhill Gang - Rappers Delight
Scott: Def Leppard - Hysteria
Others: Billy Paul - Me & Mrs Jones
Others: Diana Ross - Chain Reaction
Others: Zoe Birkett - Get Happy
Others: Bobby Darin - Clementine
Others: Chuck Berry - Memphis
Scott: Rod Stewart - I Don't Want To Talk About It
Others: John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John - Summer Nights
Tina & Hayley: Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams

** NEW SONGS **

Garth Brooks - Ain't Goin' Down Till The Sun Comes Up - I said I'd have a go once I'd heard it a few times and so I did. I'd never really paid any attention to this song until I'd heard Andy have a crack at it a few times and have to say it's grown on me quite a lot. Was fun to do on the karaoke too and I thought it went ok. I'll definately be having another go at it sometime, probably on a Tuesday when it's country night ;) do-again-rating: 9/10

The Fray - How To Save A Life - Another songs that had avoided my attention for a while for some unknown reason. I really like this song and despite being a little low on the verses it was very enjoyable to sing. Another keeper! do-again-rating: 8/10

Sugarhill Gang - Rappers Delight - It's not often that you see me and Andy on the mic at the same time, but after saying on Tuesday that I would give this a go with him, Andy was not about to let me off making good on that promise. And I'm glad he didn't!! Was great fun to do , although I must apologise as in my drunken state I veered off slightly into the NWA version of lyrics "if that b*tch starts f**king up, I'll just f**k her friend" as I actually knew that version BEFORE I'd even heard the original! I think that Andy and I will be doing this one again on a quiet night :) do-again-rating: 7/10

There's no karaoke with Andy this week unfortunately as he's swanned off to the Costa Del Sol, or somewhere abroad anyway, and I'm not aware of anyone covering for him. I'll be taking a trek up on the off chance that there might be some entertainment on but not counting on it.

I'm sure I'll find something else to blog about though. Maybe. Possibly...

Until then, Sia Nara