Never Growing Old

I couldn't help but giggle today when I was cleaning up my room and found the last book I bought. I'm still finding the time to start it though. The book is 'Peter Pan' by J.M Barrie. For anyone who knows me, ‘Peter Pan’ is by far my favourite children story. For being nearly 20, I’m too obsessed with the children’s story for my own good. The book blurb says “Step into Neverland with this magical timeless classic”… I think I stepped into Neverland a long time ago and I’m not sure I ever found my way back.

I’ve been this way for years. I was one of the few people over 12 for the Peter Pan movie release a few years back, which I now proudly own on DVD. I ran to Waterstones on the day the official sequel “Peter Pan in Scarlet” was released last year and I even have my own Peter Pan teddy that sits proudly in my room, along with a few Tinkerbell cushions and my own framed Peter Pan screenshot from the Disney cartoon that hangs over my bed. But now, with my own J.M Barrie novel, I’m pretty much set.

Buying this book has made me want to share something with you all that I’ve never told many about. For my GCSE Music composition piece, I based my study on Children’s Lullabies. I had to write my own lullaby including lyrics. Funny enough, it was before Christmas of my GCSE year and when Peter Pan the movie was to be released, so the hype of the movie ended up influencing my composition. My Children’s lullaby, entitled ‘Neverland’ is the first (and pretty much only) song I’ve ever written and recorded. I wrote and performed all the music for the track, including the vocals. It turned out really well in my opinion and I ended up with 94% in my composition part of my coursework, which (as you can imagine) I was over the moon about.

I’ve never let anyone listen to the track but I’ve decided to share it with you all. I’ll admit the vocals are a little bit off in places as I only took one take to record them, but other than that, I’m actually quite proud of the track. I hope you enjoy it and maybe in the future, I might start writing a few songs that won’t put you to sleep!

Some Good News for St. Patrick's Day!

Hey everyone! Before I begin, I would just like to wish everyone a very happy St. Patrick's Day and I hope you all have a great one!

Basically, being from where I'm from, you can imagine that St. Paddy's Day has a bit of a meaning for me. Well, to be honest, I've celebrated the famous Irish holiday more since I've arrived in Sunderland that I ever did when I was back in my homeland. It's funny how Sunderland makes this day (or whole weekend) an excuse to be 'Irish', have a few pints of Guinness and try to dance along to a few Irish Jigs. All in all, it's great fun.

My weekend was spent between my 'local' The Royalty and of course Paddy Whacks. What did Sunderland do before Paddy Whacks opened I do not know! From Friday, right through the weekend, the music has been amazing. From traditional Irish Folk songs to live Bands from Ireland, Paddy Whacks has not disappointed. It was hard not to get into the spirit of things.

It was also great to meet a few Irish people who flew over especially for this weekend. I had the honour of meeting a few from Limerick and they have already stressed that Sunderland is the place to be for St. Patrick's Day and that's including back home. I couldn't agree more.

I'd like to take this opportunity to mention a band called Good News from Dublin who have flown over to play in Sunderland this weekend. I managed to catch them in Paddy Whacks on Friday and I was amazed. They weren't the traditional Irish band, but more like a rock band with an Irish twist (obviously the best kind). Normally when you think of a rock band, you think of hardly any melodies, hard to hear lyrics and perhaps a lot of shouting. Sometimes that is great. But for a weekend like this, it needed to be different. Good News played an amazing acoustic set on Friday, with amazing covers from the likes of U2 along with their own material. The harmonies between the two vocalists were amazing and despite only having two bongo drums to work with, the drummer managed to keep the rhythm going.

I had a good chat with them after their set on Friday and again in Paddy Whacks on Saturday and they told me that they managed to get this opportunity to tour here by being spotted by Seamus from Paddy Whacks when Busking in Dublin. They haven't been together long, but have had quite a few gigs in Dublin and Belfast. But Sunderland has been their first overseas mini-tour. Check out their myspace and bebo pages with all their latest material. I must say that I love their music as it is fresh and not exactly the mainstream sound you are used to hearing from this genre. Here is my favourite song that I couldn't help but download. It's called Feel That You Own It.

I made this music player at MyFlashFetish.com.

If you fancy a good starting point for your ultimate St. Paddy's Night, I suggest heading to Victoria's Bar just down past The Lambton Worm and Baroque where Good News will be playing their last gig of the weekend. It should be a good one so I really recommend at least stopping by.

Well that's me for now. Have a great St. Patrick's night and enjoy all the Traditional Irish music.

Home is where the heart is

Hey everyone, Hope you've had a great week!

This is just a quick post to update you all on what I'll be getting up to this weekend. Basically I'm over the moon as I'm flying home tonight to see my family. Not many people know this, but I'm extremely close to my family. I'm very proud of that, but at the same time it makes it more difficult to spend so much time away from home. Instead of boring you with long and endless paragraphs on my family, I thought it would be fun to post a 'vodcast' for you all, not only telling you but showing you all about my family. Hope you enjoy.



What I'm hoping to do this weekend is give you a full insight into what my musical inspirations are. That will most probably be looking through my dad's mountain of a music collection, picking out what has inspired me over the years. Also, I'm planning to spend time with my best friend and his band to see what they've been doing.

Home is where the heart is by no doubt. I'll tell the truth, I've missed it. I might not be doing anything of any importance, but it's still great to just sit about with the family for a chat. All I've been listening to all week has been 'Home' by Michael Buble, with the Westlife cover thrown in there too. In my opinion, the Michael Buble version is hard to beat. I am hoping you heard of Michael Buble at some stage. If not, please check him out on his myspace page or his website. His music is great for the ultimate chillout.

I've been that obsessed with the song 'Home', I've decided to get the guitar into play and learn a version of my own. I've incorporated elements of Michael Buble and Westlife's versions. It's one of the first songs I've learnt and it means a lot to me because of the fact that I miss home a lot. So here's something a little special for you all, my own version of 'Home'. I apologise for the shabby quality though and sometimes the flash player takes a few seconds to load. But other than that, I hope you enjoy.




I made this music player at MyFlashFetish.com.