the newts.net

Further to me Glastonbury pics in this post, meet Johnny:

Johnny & Co. were there, up close and personal with the music and the weather. He sent me a link to his pics of the experience, and they are quality. Take a look.

His blog’s worth a look in too, it’s rather good.

www.jonathanstewart.co.uk

A notice at Notting Hill tube station. Quality :0)

found by gaz.

So I read this article in the old Evening Telegraph. Its a proposal for a permanent site for travellers and romany groups (otherwise known as Pikeys and Gyppos).

I’m all for these travellers integrating into the community, sharing stories and cookery tips. You could turn it into a tourist attraction, maybe the group will be as illustrious as the pigeons of trafalgar square, where the family turn up and feed the gypsies. Oh it will do wonders for the local economy as well.

David Hasthorpe’s not too keen on the idea, but then again, he’s probably so inbred there’s been no talking to anyone outside of Lincolnshire over the past 5 generations. Surely for a Parish Council, they should be promoting living in harmony with thy neighbour. Not very christian-like is it? :P

Well, its obvious they want to come home and be with their own kind isn’t it? Obviously Mr Darby feels that they’ll be right at home with the rest of the healing population and fit right in with the pikey-at-heart gang. :)

Newts will be discussing ways with them to to ‘releive’ old dears of their hard earned cash. Bov could talk for hours discussing the finer points of tarmaccing driveways and repairing roofs, and as for the travelling round the country hawking dodgy goods, well, look no further than FCR! :)

PORCUPINE 1 - PIT BULL 0

Local indie rock *legends SOUTH PARADE have returned from their Nottingham adventure better men. Armed with memories of appearing on the same bill as Tom Hingley and the Lovers (previously of the Inspiral Carpets), singing live with Tom on one of their favourite songs Saturn 5, and surviving he journey home with crazy man Tim behind the wheel. What more could 4 unsuspecting Grimsby lads wish for?

Well how about appearing on the same site as Liam Gallagher & Big Brother Bez? How cool is that!

Liam Gallagher here. ~~~ James & Oli here.

You can read South Parade’s review of the gig on their rapidly expanding site here.

*Anyone who appears on the same site as band members of bands who have 2 albums in the all time top twenty best albums in the whole wide world ever automatically assumes legendary status. (New rule on the newts.net)

OH MY GOD! I’m really gob smacked about this one. It’s like 8 escapees from the local asylum singing Tina Turners ‘Simply The Best’. And don’t take my word for it when I tell you it’s the worst singing you are ever likely to hear if you lived your life 10 times over, check it out for yourself and see. But what makes this truly amazing is that these 8 tone deaf nutters aren’t sat at home singing to the karaoke, they’re not even in the local youthie entertaining class 4b, no some bright spark in upper management with a killer sense of humour had the foresight to get these dudes to stand in the middle of a football pitch at half time and sing live to 50,000 people. In-fcuking-credible!

Check the guy pictured above with the teeth. HE GOT DA MOVES :0)

This’ll brighten up your day…

Simply The Best —> Streamed from the Media Library.

Morning dot netters.

In response to the terrorist attacks, London transport will have to temporarily increase fares to cover the expenses of rebuilding the damage.
Tube fares will cost an arm and a leg and bus fares will go through the roof. :|

Seriously, I think its disgusting that these terrorists plant themselves into countries they don’t belong killing innocent civilians (including children), and cause fear and destruction in the name of (their) God.
But enough about Bush and Bliar in Iraq.

What gets me is that most religious texts promote mercy, compassion, love and peace. Isn’t it wierd how the most fanatical christians or muslims are more than happy to throw these basic fundamentals out the window for a spot of killing.

In any case, I’m a bit cynical that 1 hour after the explosions old Tones was saying ‘its all the hallmarks of a terrorist attack’ etc. If it was Al-Queda, who lets face it are a bunch of death crazed AK toting nutters, surely it would have been better (for them) if a bomb went off the week before at Live8? It could have been G8 protesters, but then they wouldn’t have wanted to disrupt the G8 proceedings just in case a miracle does happen. Similarly, it could be the French Secret Service in Olympic revenge. They have got previous for blowing up the rainbow warrior which killed Fernando Pereiro, but thats a more Sun reader’s xenophobic attitude.

Shame about the G8 though. A pittance in aid increase, forget the free market and global warming? Bush has his sponsors to think about. You haven’t heard? Ah, I wonder why. Maybe its the blanket coverage of the bombings from the media, when the same stuff is happening all over the world. This morning, a car bomb killed 9 iraqi soldiers north of Bagdhad. Yesterday 20 people were hurt in a bomb attack in Turkey.

In any case, I suspect that the support for the badly thought out ID cards has risen somewhat, even though Charles Clarke has said that it wouldn’t have prevented thursdays attack anyway. Good job we’ve got all those new anti-terror laws though in the UK to stop this sort of thing. Whats that? They haven’t worked? I know, how about finding the causes of terrorism like poverty and oppression, and try and stop that? Nah, lets get some more anti-terror legislation through, and quick!

Last night we wandered across the road from work to go and watch Shaun, Tim, James and Oli ~ aka ~ South Parade play at the Fiddler in Cleethorpes. I had the good fortune to miss the first band on stage, because apparently they were a bunch of pissed up layabouts who couldn’t even finish a song. South Parade however are just improving gig after gig. I’ve missed the last few gigs due to not being able to get the time off, so their playlist was somewhat more polished than last time I heard them live. Same great songs, just with a little more technical infill or shall we say, icing. The sound guy did a great job too. Loud enough, clear enough and vocals audible over the music. One of South Parade’s downfalls in the early days of the Solid / Winter Gardens gigs.

Fingers Freeman was technically very sound on bass, he always is. And his harmonies add another, richening dynamic to the songs. I don’t know how he gets that high though? G-clamp on the bollocks? Girlfriends thong? Unfortunately he was sporting a pot on his foot so a mad cap shindigg-esque stage performance was never on the cards, but hey, this is sensible Shaun we’re talking about here, is it ever?

Jimmy T-Bird wasn’t pissed - a good start. The lead fills of the songs are coming on so much that they are starting to take on a certain familiarity. There’s always room for artistic license live on stage but it’s got to be a good idea to hone the basics first. His performance felt somewhat more confident in that the time the band has put into rehearsing is obviously paying dividends. I think another factor that added to James’s, and as a consequence the band as a whole’s performance, was the recent addition to his armoury of a number of quality effects pedals. I specifically liked his use of wah-wah pedal. It’s tempting when you start amassing a collection of effects pedals to use them all the time. Two at a time, echo on distortion with a tad of cry baby thrown in for good measure etc. I know, I’ve done it myself. James used the wah wah to great effect. Not too much, in the right places and well executed. I liked it a lot. Quality performance.

Timpani Tim was spot on the beat, again he always is. The driving force behind the live performances and technically each song seems to be more tailored in style as opposed to a standard rythm if you know what I mean. I can only imagine how good he could get if he actually turned up for practice when everyone else did!

Oli thenewts jr. also put on a fantasic performance. Quality guitar work and like james, good use of his new effects pedals. A lovely strong voice and not a note out of place. I tremble when I know the high notes are coming but he nails them every time. I don’t know how he does it, we’re form the same beginnings but I could never sing that high. The hours of practice that they all put in is starting to bear fruit. The band are gelling very well. Certainly the most professional and polished performance I have witnessed from South Parade to date.

Criticisms? The only recognisable area for improvement I think is in their harmonies. I must say that they are much much better than the early days, but I know they can improve on them further. It’s not a question of ability, all those involved can reach the required notes. I think it’s a question of practice, practice and more practice. I know they can do it so well, I’ve heard the bands studio recordings where they’ve had a guy in the booth getting them to do it over and over again until it’s right. And when it’s right it stands out so much, it gives such a professional veneer to their work. Obviously it’s easy in a studio with no audience, no bright lights, no external distractions and as many goes at it as it takes to get it right. As opposed to being live on stage trying to hear yourself through stage monitors. That’s what’s required to ascend to the next level though, and that small area of criticism is what I think, if worked on and mastered, will step them up several rungs of the Rock and Roll ladder in one go. Of course this is just my humble 2 cents worth.

My song of choice… Well it’s nearly always “BE” because that one’s so well rehearsed and has great harmonies on it, but I must say that me and a few others we spoke to really liked the rock n roll number “You Don’t Know What You’re Doing To Me”.

A great performance that we didn’t want to end. Good luck to the band who are travelling down to Nottingham today to support The Lovers, the brainchild of Tom Hingley who was the lead singer in The Inspiral Carpets.

I have video of several songs and Shaun’s got the recording off the deck for the performance so we may marry the two together and make available a video for download. Watch this space! Or possibly even this space.

Update:

The mini disc recording didn’t happen but here’s a couple of clips straight from the video cam…

[LOVEBUG] [NORTHERN SOUL]

What with all the Star Wars hype just lately, this just tickled me.

Wonderful news as London wins the race to host the 30th Olympiad in 2012. Congratulations to Lord Seb Coe and his team who took over the bid at a late stage and managed to land the worlds biggest spectacle for England. A huge amount of much needed investment and redevelopment will be made in Stratford, where the heart of the games will be, including the Olympic stadium and the athletes village. Venues across the capital will host parts of the games including Wimbledon, The new Wembley Stadium and Lords cricket ground. Football stadiums across England will host the Olympic football affording the chance to for people all around England to experience the Olympics without having to go to London. The games, last hosted in Britain in 1948, will leave a world class sporting legacy not just for London, but also for other areas across England as some of the sporting venues will be dismantled and moved to other parts of the country after the games.

And what makes the victory that little bit sweeter? It’s a momentus 2 finger salute to that pompous French arsehole Jacques Chirac. (Jacques Ass)

Who’d want to go to France to watch the Olympics anyway? It’s full of French people. The same thieving bastards who charge you £35 for 6 halves of coke! But that’s another story :0)

And this, well this is just pure genius hummus…

HA HA HAlf price! Quality ;0)

found by wez.

We were kindly invited to by Terry & Steve Smith to their Saab golf day at Grimsby Golf Club this Friday 1st July. The format was pairs playing in fourballs with the the pairs adding their stableford scores together to get a team total. My fourball consisted of me paired with Garry and Bov was paired with Saab’s head of fleet sales Mark Scott.

We started off the 10th and for the first 9 holes Garry and I were playing solid and scoring steadily, but Bov was playing fantastic and was well ahead of us. It was only after a kiss of death meeting with Terry on the course that Bov’s game suddenly started to slide and we started to gain on him and Mark.

The hole to remember must be the our last, the 9th. A long par 3 on which you can have a steady swing with a driver. Gaz was first up and hit a pearler that ran right up the front of the green giving him a chance of a birdie two. I wasn’t far behind him just off the front edge of the green, with Bov and Mark needing to chip on from distance.

So with the chance of a 2 for 4 points on the final hole Gaz settled over his putt and confidently sank it. We ended up carding 61 points. A respectable total, but probably some way off the leaders. We were thinking close to 80 would be a winning score, and when we got back to the clubhouse there were rumours of a team in with 71 points. Still it was a wonderful days golf, and I probably played to my best standard yet, so I was more than happy not to be winning anything.

After a delicious meal and a free bar provided by Terry & Co. The prize giving ensued. A whole host of gorgeous prizes came and went for nearest the pin, longest drive, best lady, best man etc etc. Then came the overall. First the runners up were anounced with a combined score of 60 points. 60 points? Bov looked at me and said you’ve won it! No, that can’t be right. Someone’s got 70 odd there must be a mistake. Maybe that’s 3rd place and me and Gaz have come second. Then Terry anounced the winners as me and Garry. I was speechless. My first win and it was totally unexpected. We collected the marvelous Saab trophy to hold for a year, and a beautiful Waterford Crystal carriage clock each to keep.

A couple of bottles of champagne helped with the celebrations of my first ever golf trophy. One to remember for sure.

A debt of gratitude is owed to Gaz who played so well, especially when it mattered, and to Terry, Janet, Steve and Kate Smith along with their staff at Humberside Saab who hosted such a memorable and well executed day.