Massive Attack & Croyde (Sam turns 30)

It's a picture frenzy again...

Friday night. Massive attack in Hyde Park. Incredible...

You know how sometimes, when you listen to an amazing piece of music, you get a rush of adrenalin that shoots through each of your arms and down through your legs, and leaves a strange tingling sensation on the back of your head? A kind of musical orgasm.

I've never been to a gig where that has happened to me so many times. Not least when Horace Andy graced the stage to sing 'the hymn of the big wheel'.

Of course, they played 'unfinished sympathy' for their encore, and the place went nuts. I was too busy going nuts at the time to take any photos of everyone else going nuts, but here's one from earlier in the set, when they weren't quite as nutty.

The last train from Paddington got me home at 2am, so I decided to make a late-morning run to Croyde on the Saturday, however this turned into an early afternoon run after picking up Benny and making a vital supermarket mission. Road works then turned a two-hour journey into three and a half hours, so Ben & I arrived at the beach just as the majority of the group had made their way back to the campsite. I asked Ben to pose for this photo...

Mark, Wendy, Dave & Anna were still there so we managed to catch some late afternoon rays with them and destroy the Pyramids & Sphinx with Mark's football. Great fun (although sorry again to Ali for taking your Sphinx's head clean off, just in case you're reading).

The campsite was lovely...

Sam didn't have long to achieve anything from his list of things to do before you're 30. I'm not sure whether getting badly sunburned was one of them...

Or indeed, learning how to play cricket...

Mind you I'm not sure he achieved that one anyway...

All very civilised really. Cricket in a campsite. Great fun though, especially as everyone joined in. Admittedly, we thought we might be there for the long haul when the girls took centre stage...

Ended controversially by Sam in a run-out. This one went to the third umpire...

Decision: Out. Bat clearly not grounded. Although were the bails dislodged?

After the game, Anna made the mission for fish'n'chips and everyone stuck their thermals on as the temperature seemed to drop from 25c to 5c in a matter of minutes. With the darkness came the inevitable drunken shenanigans, culminating in Benny eating a chocolate caramel digestive, a piece of cheese, and some French saucisson in one mouthful. I think I managed to capture the exact moment when he realised what a mistake he'd just made.

As the clock turned midnight, Sam said goodbye to his youth with the symbolic extinguishment of 30 candles.

Sam passed around pieces of the pinkest cake we could find, and opened his cards. This one, from Moe, reads "Happy Birthday Gappy!"

I'd like to say that everyone enjoyed their piece of pink cake...

But I'm really not sure that was the case...

Thankfully the birthday boy came up trumps with the Champers, which accompanies pink cake so nicely.

Especially when drunk from a beaker or mug, or in my case, the bottle.

Anyway, congratulations to Sam. Or should I say commiserations?

Beverley's finest moment

Not surprisingly, my recently deceased car Beverley's finest moment did not occur on the road. No, it was in fact in the middle of a field in South Wales, when we decided to go camping on the coldest, wettest, windiest August Bank Holiday weekend in recent years.

It all started innocently enough, when a few of us took shelter from the elements. Notice our celebrity friend David Gray in the back, who seems to be working on a new tune in his head...

For a while, everything was nice and cosy...

Until that is, the beast of the Gower reared his ugly head...

With that slightly twisted, hyperactive drunken tomfoolery that only evil cider can bring...

We could only fight him off for so long. There clearly wasn't any room left in the car, but that didn't seem to matter...

Suddenly it turned into a contest to see how many people Beverly could hold before the suspension caved in...

Including Kim's hand, I can count seven in this photo, and I'm sure there are a couple more behind Jonny as well. Note that the foot belongs to Mike, who's nose also features...

Ironically, Beverly got through that ordeal unscathed only for me to drive over a pothole on the way back home and damage both the off-side wheels. Thankfully only the front tyre punctured so she made it home without the need for a tow, but that was the start of her demise. A couple of weeks later someone left a huge crater in her door while she was parked outside of my ward, but although she had a good few years left in her she only survived another one and a half. The rest is history, as they say.

Thanks to Jonny for those photos, but while I'm on a nostalgic trip here are a few of my favourites from the same weekend...

Spot the ball result

Congratulations go to Mike, who correctly guessed that it was D.

Well, that was fun.

The end of Beverley

Three weeks ago, my car was stolen from the street outside of my house by three 13-year-olds from Patchway, and recovered by the police the following night after a chase from Nailsea to Brisol, involving a helicopter. Three days ago, I finally received a call from my insurance company's engineer to confirm that the car was a "total loss".

He asked how much I thought it was worth. I said "maybe six or seven hundred". "You'll be disappointed then", he replied. He offered me £225. Apparently, they don't take into account the fact that there were only 55000 miles on the clock, and instead value it like any other K-reg, which would have an average mileage of more like 155000. The fact that it has an automatic gearbox means nothing either.

This evening, I went to the compound that it had been recovered to, to remove any personal items. I was hoping to collect about twenty cassette tapes, a bluetooth headset, a maglite, some maps, and my cup-holder. None of them were there. All that remained was a Brighton & Hove Albion ashtray that Jonny had bought me for my birthday, just one week after they had dived their way to victory against Bristol City in the play-off final. I left it in the car.

So, in the end it was a pointless journey, although it was good to see the car again for one last time and immediately obvious why it was a write-off. I knew that they'd forced the ignition with a screwdriver, but it turns out that they also smashed the front end in, no doubt at the climax of the chase. I wonder if i'd be entitled to any royalties if it ends up on "Police, Camera, Action".

They also put another big chunk in the driver's door, to join the one that appeared after a shift at work about 18 months ago. I'm really glad now that I never got round to getting that fixed.

I was never very emotionally attached to the car when it was alive. Jonny, H & Kim once named it 'Beverley', probably because they wanted 'Bianca' to have a friend, or something. I refused to concede that my car should be called Beverley, or even that it should be a 'she'. However, after seeing it sitting there helpless in the drizzle, ready to be sent to the breakers to be crushed into a tiny cube, it somehow seems more appropriate in her death. So, here's a picture of Beverley in the prime of her life, at the Gower...

To be honest, I'm not really that disappointed, as a red automatic Ford Fiesta was never my first choice for a car. I've owned it for the last four years because my generous Grandmother gave it to me when my last car died. Well, guess what? My very generous grandma has come up trumps again. When she heard about my plight she saw it as the perfect excuse to go out and buy herself a 'smart car', which she's been hankering for for some time. So, yet again, I've been lucky enough to inherit her car. It's the one in the foreground...

And yes, you've guessed it. It's an automatic.

Breakout's return

Well, it wasn't without its problems. Firstly, I got far too drunk during the England game, which didn't really help when it came to the nightmare of sound checking, as Bev's laptop did not want to play audio through the sound system. Instead we all got more and more frustrated listening to the laptop's hard-drive hum through the speakers, and nothing else. Eventually we had to give up on the idea of doing our 'four channel scratch set', and I walked home to burn a CD that we could use on their CD deck, as we didn't have enough vinyl on its own either. Not to worry. We weren't due on the decks until 1am so there would be plenty of time, and plus which it gave me a much needed chance to sober up a bit.

When I returned soon after 11 everything seemed to be going well. 60 people had come through the door, and at least half of them were already bopping away on the dance floor. It was great to see Will making an appearance, and much respect to Chew Ali and Steve for also turning up on a school-night.

Unfortunately, the influx of people we had hoped for between 11 and 12 never materialised. In fact, only another ten people came in all night, which is a real shame because with a few more (well, maybe twice as many) it would have been an amazing night. Having said that, those that were there seemed to enjoy themselves, and they were all crying out for more at the end. Bev & I got loads of good feedback for out set too, even though it was nowhere near as good as it could have been with a working laptop. Potential badboy rocked (and he really was a nice guy).

On the whole then, it was a great night but unfortunately made quite a significant loss, which has obviously put it's long-term future in jeopardy. That will all depend on how we get on with our July event, which we have already arranged, so there's no backing out of it! We need 150 to turn up in July for us to break even again. Looks like Bev and I are going to have to come to terms with the fact that we need to spend our coming weekends standing outside of clubs and flyering. I really can't be arsed with all that any more though, that's the trouble. I just want to turn up and play to a packed room of adoring fans, without any of the hassle. One day...

While none of you will have heard of him, next month's artist, Benny Page, may be quite a coo in the drum'n'bass scene. We're the only people to bring him to Bristol, and his latest tune "turn down the lights" has been in the top five drum'n'bass 'rollers' for weeks. In fact, Bev & I dropped it last night, and it went down a treat. We're just hoping that enough people are liking this new, slightly alternative reggae drum'n'bass style as much as we are, and are willing to pay £4 on a Thursday night to come and see him. What do you reckon?

Yoga anyone?

Spot the ball