A summary of recent events!

Hello bloggers, today I have a few topics to indulge in:

First of all, on Friday night, the Ironworks hosted an evening consisting of good sets from Stray Bullets, Cool Kids Write In Blue and Silent Blackout. This event cost a mere £3 and for 3 bands and a night of good entertainment, there really is no complaining. Stray Bullets opened things up marvellously with a fantastically electric rendition of Rage Against The Machine's Killing In The Name Of - a song I could not resist going mental to! Cool Kids Write In Blue were in my view the weakest act, playing covers of Lady Gaga, Enrique Iglesias and New Found Glory aren't things that appeal to me and I was pretty bored. Silent Blackout performed consistently and you know what to expect. Unfortunately I left before the end due to feeling very dehydrated - The Ironworks was sweltering and I was dying for a glass of water.

That wasn't the only thing that made last weekend fantastic - especially from a sporting point of view. This was because we had the Harlequins v Leicester rugby union Premiership final, the England v Norway friendly, the England v West Indies cricket, the England v Barbarians rugby union match, the Crewe Alexandra v Cheltenham League 1 Play-off final, the Monaco F1 Grand Prix AND Soccer Aid 2012! At some points, it got a bit too much as we were so spoilt for choice! I managed to soak up moments of everything and was impressed with the majority - the biggest highlight has to be Nick Powell's stunning strike in the Crewe match, he was the main reason for me wanting to watch that game as there is a lot of talk of Man United being interested in signing the 18 year old attacking midfielder and that goal proved he has a lot of confidence, initiative and can perform on the big stage (the game was held at Wembley). The only disappointment was Lewis Hamilton's performance in the F1, seeing him finish 5th isn't too impressive.

The big news from my point of view today is the release of my rap group - Rat Soup's first song on line!! The track 'Legacy' has been posted on YouTube and can be viewed below. It is the first track we wrote and we are extremely proud of it. Progress with other songs, merchandise, interviews and even a music video are under way! Please tell me what you think of the track and subscribe to us on YouTube if you enjoy!

To finish off, today (Thursday 31st May) is my sister Sophie's second birthday! She's had a set of play food and a cooker to keep her happy and relatives are set to visit to ensure a good day for her and all involved.

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed the track!
-Andy.

Let's get 'Apocalyptic'!

Yo yo yo bloggers! Today, I have some very cool news; the new Slash album is out!!!
This post may be a few days late as the album (and Classic Rock fanpack edition) came out on Monday 21st May but better late than never! I had totally forgotten about the release and would like to thank Jamie McGowan who not only reminded me of it but also accompanied me to purchase it.

The Classic Rock fanpack cost £14.99, for this you get the new cd titled 'Apocalyptic Love' with 2 bonus tracks, a 130+ page magazine dedicated to Slash, the others involved in this album and everything you need to know, you also get a huge double sided Slash poster and a pin badge! I think this all justifies the price as the album alone costs around £10. I am very glad of purchasing the fanpack version and have enjoyed reading the magazine whilst blasting some good rock 'n' roll!

'Apocalyptic Love' is Slash's second solo album and this time, instead of having a dozen guest vocalists to do individual tracks, the man in the hat has decided to team up with Alter Bridge frontman Myles Kennedy as the sole vocalist. I appraise this move - Slash toured the first solo album with Myles doing all the vocals and if you witnessed any of those gigs or have seen / listened to the Slash - 'Made In Stoke' live album / DVD, you will feel pleased about this decision. Myles is a fantastically talented vocalist who has proved himself by performing some beautiful, melodical and old school R'n'R with Alter Bridge - a band I saw live last November and can testify to Myles being a great singer - and to me is perfect for the job.

The album itself is fabulous, tracks that stand out to me are 'Halo' and 'Anastasia'. There isn't a mellow or dull moment, Slash really knows what he's aiming for here - a full out rock and roll record with no hold backs or compromises. It really is a good job that this fella is still kicking around in the world of music these days and saving little bits of our sanity that modern pop music is always trying to take away, so I'm ending this post by saying thank you Slash! If you haven't got the album, I'd recommend it to any Guns 'n' Roses, Velvet Revolver, Snakepit or Alter Bridge fan.
Thanks for reading!
-Andy.

Prom, music and books!

So, in myprevious post I forgot to indulge about the events of last Friday (4th May). This event was my school prom! It was hosted at the Lion Quays out of town and went on for about four hours. I was escorted there and back with my friend Declan in his Dad's Nissan GTR sports car - basically a very quick and flashy car (bottom left) . Here are four photos, as you can see I rocked a grey suit with a red bowtie (hard to make out from these pictures). I had a really great time reminiscing with people, dining and dancing the night away! My favourite photo out of these four is the top left, I am on the right with my science teacher in the middle and Jack on the left. If given the opportunity, I would definitely do it again; time whooshed by!

More recently, last night (Saturday 12th May) I accompanied my Nan and Uncle-in-law to the St. Martin's music festival 2012 at the Cross Keys pub. We arrived at about half seven and saw three good acts, the first band being The Kaya's who played original material and were quite rocky but were rather overlooked, the second band who I think were called Dischord played a set full of covers, but it was perfect for the occasion; they opened with Thin Lizzy's Jailbreak and I thought the singer was destined for a night of murdering songs as he wasn't too convincing with that effort. Following was Lenny Kravitz' Are You Gonna Go My Way and immediately my thoughts were reversed - it is a song I quite like and the vocals were superb! From then on, the night got better and we were gifted songs by Bad Company, Queen, Bob Dylan, U2 and others. My favourite by far was their cover of Led Zeppelin's Rock and Roll - they totally nailed it on all parts, the crowd by this point were up for it and everyone was having a great time. They ended their well recieved set with the Foo Fighter's All My Life. Splendid! The last act were called The Decades and have performed at William & Kate's wedding so the standards were high, their set was more pop lovey style songs so out of choice I prefered Dischord, but to be far to The Decades they performed very well and their female vocalist was excellent, not so sure about the man though.

To finish this post, I am proudly displaying the weekend's personal success, 5 books for 50p each!! These books were obtained from various sources: Sherlock Holmes at an Oswestry Market stall, Hammer of the Gods, Aerosmith What It Takes and How Black Was Our Sabbath at The Works and History of Latin America from a car boot sale! Very pleased and they will keep me going! Thanks for reading!

-Andy.

School's Out For Summer!

So today, was my last EVER full day of compulory school lessons at The Marches School! This is because as of tomorrow 'revision school' kicks in. 'Revision school' is our study leave and it means that we only have to attend lessons where we haven't done final exams in or finished courseworks, subjects like PE and Citizenship where there is no coursework or exams we are no longer doing!

For me, I only have Drama, English, Science, History and ICT left! My drama exam is next Friday (18th May) and Friday's are also the day of my ICT lessons so after next week, Friday will provide the early weekend! If you're reading this and aren't jealous yet, now is the time! My final exam is on the 25th June and after that date I'm a free man!

That's pretty exciting news but also, in the summer (starting 23rd July) I'm attending the National Citizen Service Engage 4 Life course for six weeks, the first week we go away and do activities including archery - a childhood dream and an opportunity I cannot pass away, mainly inspired by Robin Hood -, rock climbing, kayaking and others! The other weeks we are working on less exciting but equally important things like meeting business leaders and figuring out a way of giving our community something back! The best part is, at the end of the course as a celebration there's a free gig! The course costs £30 and if you stay all the way through and attend the 'graduation' (gig) you get £25 back!

After those six weeks of madness, education and creativity, I'll still have 6/7 weeks of the summer left! Times are looking good right now! Sorry for not posting for a while, I had some problems with the battery life of my laptop which my uncle Ian was able to sort out - thanks!! I've also been busy on Fifa 12, such an addictive game, reading about Che Guevara's Cuban Warfare Reminiscence and writing lyrics for an exciting project that shall be revealed soon!
Thanks for reading!
-Andy.