On Chuck Ragan.

Yes, yes, I'm well aware that I've been neglecting this blog, so I hope this long post makes up for it.

The following is adapted from a post on my other blog, which can be found here: http://danblogs.tumblr.com/post/1373374491/128

The videos and photos below are ones I took at the gig.

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On Wednesday, I went to see Chuck Ragan, frontman of seminal 90's hardcore punk band Hot Water Music play a show.

Though my friend and I didn’t know where we were going, we managed to stumble our way there, thanks to the maps on my phone, and a bit of guesswork. The Windmill, in Brixton, initially seemed to be a nice little place. I had assumed it would be an actual music venue, but when we got in (though, we had to eat our sandwiches outside), I could see it was essentially a pub.

As we were there an hour early, and I didn’t want to wait outside in the freezing cold, we stayed inside. Some guy came to check we had tickets later, and said there wasn’t a problem with us being inside. When we entered, I could see Chuck soundchecking. The bar was practically empty except for us and the musicians who would be supporting him.

When he finished soundchecking, and walked past where we were sitting, I made sure to catch his eye and smile at him. He said hello to us. I stood up and shook his hand, offering to buy him a drink. I figured since this was probably the only chance I’d get to talk to someone whose music I genuinely love, I’d better make the most of it. Unfortunately, I turned into a babbling schoolgirl, awestruck by the man with a minor cult following standing before me.

But Chuck was a brilliant guy. He was so down to earth, and had the patience to put up with me telling him how great I thought he was. He seemed really flattered when I told him my band used to cover one of his songs (even though we could never do it justice), and eventually, took me up on the offer of a drink. He was only talking to me for about 5 minutes, but that was pretty much all I needed. I was walking on air.

It must seem odd to him. He playing a show is his day job, something he does for a living, but for me, just him taking the time to acknowledge me made my day. Chuck Ragan has supported some of my favourite artists, Alkaline Trio and Frank Turner for example, and he’s currently on tour with The Gaslight Anthem. I would kill just to spend 5 minutes talking to these guys like I did with Chuck.



Naturally, when the music started, I moved to the front and centre. There was no stage to speak of, so I stood in front of the main mic. The support acts were all lovely, the first one closing with a great cover of Social Distortion’s ‘Story Of My Life’. Sam Russo also supported. Russo’s is a name I’ve been vaguely aware of for some time, but never bothered to check out. I really liked the stuff he was playing, and I’m glad I’ve seen him now. Weirdly enough, his friends from Apologies, I Have None were in the audience, though being as big a fan I am of them, I didn’t realise untill after I had left.

When Chuck came on, I had been standing up for so long, my back had already started to hurt, but I didn’t complain, and belted my way through the songs. He didn’t really have a setlist, but just asked the audience to shout out songs for him to play (he played ‘Glory’ when I shouted it out, which is one of my favourite songs by him).  He also played about 5 new songs, from various different projects he was working on. A few were from his next solo album, some were from his split record he is currently writing with Brian Fallon of The Gaslight Anthem. Finally, he also played ‘God Deciding’, probably the best known song by his old outfit, Hot Water Music.

Chuck ended on ‘California Burritos’, and by this time, everyone was dancing and singing along. I can honestly say that this is one of the best gigs that I’ve ever been to. The atmosphere was so warm and friendly, I would have probably jumped up and hugged someone if my legs weren’t on the verge of collapse.

On Harry Potter.

On Test Audio.

This is a test to see if audio will play on the blog.

TheRecruitingSargeant by DSmith12

On Introducing My Blog.

On Radio (and Richard Herring).

I managed to get out of my lecture around half an hour early yesterday, as apparently going to a comedy show aids my journalism degree. Still, I wasn’t complaining, and took a direct train to London Waterloo then took the tube to Oxford Circus. Arriving at broadcasting house 15 minutes later than I was supposed to, my friend and I joined the back of the (very long) queue.

As I am a country bumpkin, the very concept of going to the city excites me. Where I came from before, Hereford, and where I am now, Farnham, are somewhat similar, though Farnham is the prettier town. This means that whenever I go to London, I get scared by people on the tube, and intimidated by all the tall buildings. This is of course, a joke, but not too far from the truth.

Entering Broadcasting House was also an experience. I was somewhat expecting to be frisked upon entry, but I was just sent through a metal detector, and despite the large number of metal objects I had on my person (keys, money, belt, etc) I didn’t set it off. We were seen through to the canteen, which was small, and already cramped due to the number of people being herded inside. Still, prices were reasonable. I was almost expecting to be able to say ‘Look, there’s him off the telly!’, but it struck me later on that I was at Broadcasting House, not Television Centre, and the chances of seeing a person from the television was between slim and none to begin with.

I’ve always loved the BBC as an institution, and Murdoch and co’s attempts to damage and criticize it is only going to end up damaging News Corp. in the long run. Though, BBC’s hospitality to us didn’t really do much to help their reputation.

Eventually, we were sent through to the room where the show would be recorded. It was just like any theatre, though, one with microphones dangling from the ceiling to pick up audience reaction, and I imagine the sound box behind the seats was a bit more professional than the ones used in theatre. On the stage itself were two large microphones, and a wooden contraption with a light on the top. This device, I later learned, was for audio cues, and would flash when it was time for the performer to speak.

The producer introduced the star of the show, Richard Herring, and explained the concept to the audience. The show, titled Richard Herring’s Objective, aimed to take items that had been vilified and reclaim them for society. Last week was the Hitler Moustache, this week, it was the turn of the Hoodie.

Even though the recording lasted an hour, the show itself will be broadcast as a half hour show, sometime in late October on Radio 4. The first 15 minutes was taken up by Herring warming up the audience, and the last 10 or so were filled by re-takes. The show itself culminated in the conclusion that if adults like something, kids won’t. He then produced a Radio 4 branded hoodie, and insisted that everyone over 40 should buy one. Problem solved, hoodies are instantly uncool.

Having seen Richard Herring perform several times before (and have had the pleasure to interview him), It was clear to me that this show was his standard affair. And for me, that’s all it had to be. I’m a massive fan of his, and have seen nearly every piece of work he’s ever done, so naturally, I wish him every success with his radio show.

On Blogs.

My first real lecture was about how to set up a blog. I would have found this substantially more interesting if I hadn’t been writing a blog for nearly the past 100 days now. We were asked to use Blogger, a platform which I haven’t used for years. I first used Blogger when I was new to the concept of the Internet itself, and back then it felt stale.

As it turns out, my blogging prejudices were somewhat unfounded. In the many years since I last used Blogger, it has changed quite drastically, yet still retained the basic layout that I remember ever so faintly, and because the interface had changed, I have been effectively learning to use a new website.

Like when I signed up for Facebook, or Twitter, it was initially daunting, but spending an hour or so exploring all the settings and the workings of the site, I felt accustomed to it. I even managed to set up an RSS feed an link it to my twitter account, so (hopefully) anything I post should appear on my feed. I still prefer Tumblr, naturally, as I am more used to it, and I still feel it is more accessible and customisable than any other blogging website I have seen.

That said, this is my course blog, so I feel obliged to provide it with a regular stream (or a trickle, at least) of content. Though, it won't be as regular as my daily blog, I will attempt to post any work I feel is relevant here.