Building up the hype

I'm off to Spain tommmorow, Altea in fact. Sorry, bad link, try this...

Kate decided to start reading 'A suitable Boy' by Vikram Seth about a week ago. For those of you not familiar with this work, do a search and pay particular attention to the page numbers quoted. I'll wait while you do that...

Along with all the neccessary hair stuff, make-up, 3 bikinis, hand bags, flip flops, change of clothes for every evening, we're now carrying without doubt, the biggest book I have ever seen. Having said all that, those of you who know me well enough will have a good idea which of us will be carrying the big bag.

The idea was to have the EP at the printers before we left for Spain, ready for delivery upon return. Unfortunately this has been delayed a little (lessons have been learnt) meaning that the release has had to be pushed back. Expect to be able to purchase mid Oct. Personally I think this build up is adding to the hype surrounding the release and that can never be a bad thing, can it?

The promo for The Commuter is now complete and I have to say I'm very proud. Thank you Kate, Andy and Ben for making me look less like a weirdo than I ever thought possible. To add to the hype I've attached some stills from the promo to the bottom of this post. The EP comes with the full video and a documentary making of, for which we're going to film an interview. If any of you have a question you'd like asking on tele please email Kate direct so it's a surprise when she asks me. Can someone also email me Richard's brother Simon's blog address so I can see how this blog thing should be done.

I'll be back in a week. Take care

Stunt Man

It's been a while, sorry.

There's been a spot of banter on the comments pages between Phil & Mum with regards to the red & blue halves of Manchester. People have said I've presented a rather one sided opinion on this subject, some even going as far as saying that I've allowed my allegiance to the red obscure the quality, unbiased journalism these pages have come to represent. Therefore in the interests of an objective argument, and to further prove myself as a preacher of fact and not opinion, let us remind ourselves what the match day programme looked like the last time City were involved in the latter stages of a major club competition: Man City.

Glad we got that cleared up.

I'll be honest I'm struggling here. Last night was our house warming party which kept me up till 6 this morning. Please see earlier post for full description of how I'm feeling and why, the photos are good and are here. Most of you will have missed Luke who turned up, god I don't know when but late - very late I think. Anyway, I asked him what he did for a living, as you do, and get this, he's only a fecking stunt man! A stunt man!


Me: "What do you do for a living?"
Mr Cool: "I'm a stuntman"
Me: (to myself) Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeese don't ask me what I do, I couldn't handle it...really. Wonder if he's been in anything I've seen, don't recognise him, but then again I guess in the stunt world, that's kind of the idea.

So then, inevitably, the girls start asking him to do a stunt. Shit, I can't have that. If he goes and sets himself on fire, dives for cover and then rescues the princess in my front room, I'm gonna look like a right plank for being too scared to stand on the top rung of my own ladder. Let's keep him away from the ladies and strike up a nice safe conversation...

Me: "So what films have you been in mate?"
Mr Popular: "Loads; Charlie and the chocolate factory, James Bond, Harry Potter. Oh and I was once a Jedi Knight."

Shit.

Recording of Chav song is now complete after an incredible evening with the lovely Tasha from Hepburn. Please visit her new bands' site, there's talk of them doing rather well and she was a lovely girl so best of luck Tash. Next stage is mastering and then printing and replicating, sold our first advance copy of CD last night too, thanks Pip, your CD's on the way. For those of you into these things, there's a downloadable mp3 file (the chavtone) that I've made for your phone's text message alert. Please download and install and lets finally rid the world of that most annoying text alert noise de de de der der de de de. Incidently, that tone is morse code for SMS in case you didn't know - doesn't make it any less annoying though.

That's that for now, the hangover's getting the better of me. Love to you all.

A misspent youth

Masseeeeeeve shout out to Kate, Mum and Weaver (apologies for using your image without permission), first ones back with a response to the newest blagger, sorry, blogger in town. Special mention must be made to Mum who not only managed to post a comment but also corrected my spelling AND was able to convince herself that City deserved THAT point at the home of great football on Saturday. In honour of this, mum please click here.

I am in a Jubilent frame on mind tonight, a vast contrast to this morning's foul affections. A reverse swing of moods not dissimilar to that of our fine fast bowlers knocking down the Aussies and reclaiming the Ashes for the first time since 1987. Not that I can remember the last time we won, but what a fine year for film I remember it being...

Bad news on the career change by the way. Kate has suffered a shattering pool injury that even my cognitive pool coaching expertise has failed to find a solution to. The problem is centrered around a finger injury and a swelling of the knuckle; any recomendations for cure and/or witch doctery please post in the comments section.

This morning's foul mood can be mostly attributed to a poor night's sleep, which in turn can be directly linked to the beginning of this blog - I have to confess I am enjoying the challenge of writing something that poeple will actually want to read (is there anyone still here?) and it kept me up a little last night. For now I feel like the new boy at school, trying to crack a 'joke' or two to fit in, but in time I hope to use this blog for something a bit more real. And just for the record, if I were that new boy in school, this is what i'd look like:You can make your own new boy/girl in school here. Lets see some entries for the gallery please.

And now I need a rewind...for 'twas not just the blogging which kept me up all of last night but also the presence of an all too familiar beast, paranoia: Our flat is ground floor and on a popular street corner which often means that it can feel as if there are several extra additions to our exclusive club, not all of them are the type you'd particularly want to be associated with! Last night, whilst in the throws of a disturbed sleep, I managed to convince myself that one of Newham's vagrants was smoking in my flat. Of course, this meant waking Kate (and her injured finger) to a rather mixed reception. Needless to say, the air was blue.
Jenni Hendrix came for her first guitar lesson on Sunday, complete with guitar in Sainsbury's bag and no fewer than 5 strings! She did really well actually and we're both looking forward to making some serious progress. Ade is making some real waves in the beginners guitar world, while new student Gabby starts on Sunday (hopefully).

Let us not forget the real reason I'm writing this blog: recording of drums for Chav song begins (and ends with any luck) on Thursday evening with mixing hopefully taking place weekend of 17/18 September. From there it's up to Twiggy in Yorkshire for a spin on his very expensive mastering gear before returning to London and into the (optimistically) open arms of the current bun's showbiz page. May we all cast a wish for the Chav.

Staying with music, I simply must mention this morning's bus ride: A young gent from an obvious hip-hop background was using his mobile phone (would you believe it!!!) to address his fellow passengers with the latest in cutting edge and mildly offensive beats from da streets. After a string of obsenities on the third track, imagine my surprise when I heard the familiar dulcet tones of a certain former Genesis drummer/singer/songriter/tw*t, Mr Phil Collins singing the chorus: "I can feel it coming in the air tonight..oh Lord." Oh Lord indeed.

Mood swings, paranoia and a dab hand at pool. Some might say I misspent that youth I'm so fond of.

The good old days

Hi and welcome to my first blog. First things first: Mum, click on this:

click here mum

it tells you what a blog is.

Today is Saturday and I find myself gently recovering from another excessive Friday night. The days of drinking till dawn and being sorted by lunch are well and truly gone - oh to be 19 again. Recent weeks have taken me back to my youth, not least because of the reunion parties/weddings my freinds have held where we drunk our bodyweight in alcohol. Just like the good old days. I took some photos with me phone and put 'emonthinterweb if you'd like a look.

The sun has just come out. Normally this would be a good thing but with England making such hard work of the cricket, I've been prayng for four days of rain. Australia are 202 for 1 as I type - the sort of score to turn an englishmen's bowels to water although I've found solace here through a witty commentary. Those of us without a tele have to find ever more creative way of keeping up with things.

United 1, Man City 0 in the Manchester derby! Radio 5 live for those who are interested in hearing grown men scream with excitement Oh and Rochdale are 2 nil up as well. Despite all these musings, this is not a sports blog and I should probably get on with the job in hand. Before we leave sports completely I must just show off our pool table which has just been installed, Kate is now aproaching a good standard of play and I don't think it'll be long before we have her hustling the East end of London.










The job int hand:

Just to let you (my public) know what's going on in my real life as opposed to the nine to five shit I have to put up with Monday to Friday. The MüVs (moooooooovs) is my stage name (ergh! can't think of a better way to express myself despite how little I want to associate myself with a poncy little phrase like 'stage name') in the same vein as Mike Skinner is 'The Streets" or (can't believe I'm highlighting this comparison) Mick Hucknall is 'Simply Red'. I've spent the best part of a year building up to releasing a 5 track EP and DVD video/documemtry and am now very, very close. This is my unpublished website in progress (feedback very welcome although I am aware of the typo). Shot a music vid on the isle of wite in August which looks beautiful despite my ugly mug (see pictures as evidence, please also see my Mum and John as runners, oh how we laughed)

Been playing live a lot to a rather encouraging response, particularly to 'Chav Song' which is a song dedicated to my blossoming relationship with a Millwall chav who I work with. Man U 1, City 1 - shit! Going back to where I began this blog, been harking back to my youth and in a freak chance occurence bumped into Paul bass player from my Nigel martin smith pop star days Ruston on The Strand a few months back and as a result have a enjoyed a really amazing (non sexual) reunion with him and Barney keyboard player from said band now presenter on CBBC see him here Harwood. Barney has lent his consirable talent to my project by playing on 'Chav Song' and arranging a recording session a girl called Tasha who was the drummer from 'Hepburn' ("i quit, i quit"). EP should be released end of Sep/early Oct.

Also started giving guitar lessons. Jen is a student of mine, along with Kate's mate Ade and her mate Gabby. I only teach girls.

That's all for now really, would be interested to know if anybody's read this far.