Candid Article 30

30 Seconds To Mars - Love, Lust, Faith & Dreams

For my latest article, a review of the latest 30 Seconds To Mars album, click on the link below:

http://candidonline.com/review-30-seconds-to-mars-love-list-faith-and-dreams/

Winter Sounds...

Xfm's Winter Wonderland

Yesterday I got a text off my friend Mike asking if I wanted to go to Xfm's Winter Wonderland, and obviously I jumped at the chance! Unfortunately I was working until 7.30pm, but I drove straight there, so we arrived just in time for Delphic's set at 8pm. They were really good, and proper got the venue pumped up ready for the night's festivities. As there were a few different artists on they only got to play a four song set, but it included Doubt, so that was all that mattered!

Next up were Everything Everything, who I was particularly excited to see. They too played a small set of five songs, but ended on Cough Cough, which was so good live! I'm looking forward to the new album coming out in early January even more now. I was surprised at how young they all seemed, the bassist in particular looked like he should still be at school! Great talents, and they formed at Salford University, so you could tell they were pleased to be playing to a home crowd.

Next up were Maximo Park, who performed for about 45 minutes. The lead singer, Paul Smith, was crazy as ever, diving about the stage and putting on a great show, and they played 'Books From Boxes' which is up there with one of my favourite songs ever, so it was great to see it live. The last time I saw them was at Benicassim in 2009, which I can barely remember apart from the fact that it was rather tame, so it was good to see the band play in the high spirits they are famed for!

The final act of the night was Bloc Party, who have been on my 'to see' list for as long as I can remember. They played a really good mix of old and new, well known and less known songs, including a few from their latest album, which sounds a lot heavier than previous ones, I will definitely be getting hold of it after hearing a few samples.

The night finished at about 11pm, and we headed back to the car (which we had sneakily managed to find a space on the road for free!) and I drove us both home. Not bad for a last minute gig and free ticket!

Autumn Sounds...

The Vaccines

Last night I went with my friend Rick to watch The Vaccines at the Manchester Apollo (now known as the O2 Apollo). We had a few drinks in the bar beforehand, so didn't see the support acts, but of all three I hadn't heard of a single one! The band came on quite late I thought, at 9.45pm, but it worked out well for us as we had only arrived at around 9pm.

I saw them at Benicassim this year, but being rather drunk at the time, couldn't remember much apart from that they were really good! It was cool to see them again being slightly less intoxicated. They played a good mix of songs off the old and new albums - Wreckin' Bar (Rarara), Tiger Blood, Wetsuit, Post Break-Up Sex, If You Wanna, No Hope which they opened with, I Always Knew, Teenage Icon, A Lack Of Understanding, All In White, Blow It Up and a slow one that I don't really rate so I went to the bar during it!

They played about a 40 minute set, but then took a while to come back on for the encore, which left us feeling a little uneasy as to whether there was one... luckily for me it included Bad Mood (my fave off the new album) and Norgaard, another classic. Overall a top gig, and I bought a really nice vest top for a tenner as well - looking forward to wearing it!

Weekly Update!

Breakups, Morrissey & Hungover Flying!

This week has been pretty stressful to be honest - after work on Monday I went to Lydia's for a chat as I needed talking to! On Tuesday I broke up with Sam, which was horrible but definitely for the best. We are still going away to Turkey together which could be interesting; but I guess I'll just have to deal with it.

On Wednesday I babysat until half eight and then went to see the Dark Knight Rises (see next post) with Lydia, Tasha and Abi which was really good - although it finished at nearly 1am! On Thursday after work I went into Hale for a few drinks which was nice. We started in Hogans, but there was an event on that made us feel like spare parts so we quickly moved on to the American Bar after one. We only stayed until midnight as we had work the next morning, but Lydia came round to mine afterwards and we shared a bottle of wine, so it wasn't as early a night after all!

On Friday I had my nails done and prepped ready for my holiday on Sunday. It was my last day at work so I said goodbye to Aum and then drove home to get packing! My bag was 2kgs over, but I chanced it as I couldn't cut anything else out! 

I worked at the pub on Saturday, and then went into Manchester to see Morrissey, as I had got free tickets from my dad's friend Phil. I took my ex Chris and his friend Jess, which wasn't my best choice in hindsight, but the gig was great and I met up with Mike, Benn and Grey from Beni afterwards (after a wild goose chase!) so I ended up having a really good night.

The following day I was rather worse for wear, so spent the day sleeping before grabbing a shower and having a roast dinner ready for my flight to Tenerife. It wasn't until 7.50 so the worst of my hangover had subsided, but it wasn't my best flight! We arrived about an hour ago completely knackered, but excited for a week playing in the sun!