My band Creepy Cool went to London on Sunday with a friend who was traveling there to a festival in Hyde park. Bands such as The Killers & Starsailor were playing there with a final 3 hour set by Bruce Springsteen. He played a storming set at Glastonbury the night before which I saw on TV.
Anyway, we got there by around 2.30pm. We actually traveled there to do some busking somewhere near the festival but it proved more difficult than we first thought. We caught the underground at Epping in North London to get to Marble Arch and there was a busker playing in the tunnel. As soon as we got out the station, we were met by those wretched ticket touts trying to charge 80 quid for the festival tickets when the real price is only 40 this later turned out to be a scam. We found Marble Arch and set up & played there but the traffic from the road was too noisy, meaning that people walking past didn"t hear us properly and we only got 2 pounds in 1 & a half hours. We also had someone taking pictures, poking their long camera lense in our faces and didn"t even ask our permission. If that wasn"t enough they didn"t even put any money in our guitar case which I thought was very underhanded.
We then made our way over to Hyde Park and met the busker from the underground who looked Chinese with long hair yet spoke realy posh & he told us of the best places to play. We managed to find somewhere in Hyde Park which wasn"t too loud with the music coming from the festival & it was much better. We had a woman"s daughter singing a song on the mike which was great. The woman said it"s a pity more people didn"t play like us but busking is still seen as a down & out occupation & the authorities make it difficult. Security people there saw that we were collecting a bit of money & said that wasn"t allowed in the park because they said that people don't want to be hassled for money but they knew we weren"t doing that - we weren"t exactly holding people at knife point to give us money. We closed the case after that but opened it again a while after they"d gone. This is the good thing about busking, people choose to put money in because they like you & people liked us and we still managed to get about 20 quid.
Although Bruce was a bit loud, we ended up playing until 9.30pm. We were supposed to be meeting our friend at Tottenham Court Rd after the show. As it happened he turned up behind us at marble Arch station. Anyway, the train turned up and the others got on but people pushed in front even though I was carrying a heavy keyboard bag and a stool which is sure to slow you down. This stopped me from getting on the train & it went without me, I was livid. You would think that people would slow down and give way a bit on a Sunday but hey this was London and no-one bats an eyelid for anyone else. It"s not the kind of culture I would put up with for long.
Luckily I managed to get on the next one a few minutes later and met the others at Tottenham court Rd. and we traveled back to the car park at Epping and set off back to Boston.
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Tuesday, 30 June 2009
Friday, 26 June 2009
The "king of pop" dies
Micheal Jackson: 1958 - 2009
I was just flicking through channels late last night on TV when a newsflash came up and reported that the king of pop Micheal Jackson had died in Los Angeles at the age of 50. I must admit I wasn"t a huge fan ( apart from the Thriller song & video) but a shock all the same. My aunt is actually here from America at the moment because her sister is having an operation & she"s a fan of his. It seems bad luck that he was supposed to be performing in London in July at the O2 arena & people had bought tickets. There was actually a busking band who had booked a smaller hall in the arena months ago which had been arranged on the same day as the Micheal Jackson concert. Micheal & his crew wanted to use the room for their after show party but this relatively unknown band refused (They had a single in the charts in 2004) they won"t have to move their show now.
I bet there"ll be loads of M.J. nostalgia now just like after Elvis"s death but at least it will take every body's mind off all the normal boring news as he was a remarkable character, surviving everything that the newspapers & the TV channels threw at him until now.
Friday, 19 June 2009
trials & tribulations - Hundreds of applications
On Tuesday I went for an interview for a part-time job at QD stores which has taken over the old Woolworths store. There were 600 applicants for 25 jobs - an indication of the dire job situation in the area. The interview went pretty well though as I was interviewed by a nice blond women so I should have a better chance than I would have done.
I"ve just started an ad words add campaign on Google after they sent me 2 Adwords vouchers worth 125 pounds. I"m trying to get more visitors to my Cult & tv reviews sister site which I"ve had up and running for a few months now. Up untill now, I"ve mostly posted articles on Ezine articles and Hubpages with my website url included. I also use banner exchange & a few other site promo directories but with limited success so far.
I"ve just started an ad words add campaign on Google after they sent me 2 Adwords vouchers worth 125 pounds. I"m trying to get more visitors to my Cult & tv reviews sister site which I"ve had up and running for a few months now. Up untill now, I"ve mostly posted articles on Ezine articles and Hubpages with my website url included. I also use banner exchange & a few other site promo directories but with limited success so far.
Wednesday, 27 May 2009
Trials & tribulations - Things looking up
A lot"s been happening lately, what with the bank holiday weekend and the weather"s been good for a change. Anyway our band (Creepey Cool) played in the Indian Queen Sun evening. My friends came down but the landlord wouldn"t let one of them in which was a bit unfair because he hadn"t done anything wrong either now or in the past. The crowd was ok but it wasn"t as good as last time as I hardly recognised anyone there. We were the very last to play but we didn"t have a bass player so I covered that on the keyboard which turned out very well.
Last Thursday, we went to the Standard newspaper to see if they"d do a piece on us {Creepey Cool) because we will soon be busking for cancer research. It"s actually being sponsored by Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart & Fender Guitars of all people. so the paper want to interview us in the town centre which is great publicity for a good cause and us.
On Bank holiday Mon it was another sunny day so I thought I would pop down to a car boot sale held at Somerfield car park. Anybody who knows me would know I like a bargain. First I came across a set of pristine Coca cola coasters & a Carlsberg ashtray for a quid each. I then bought 4 DVD"S for 50p each & 3 for five quid so that averaged out at a quid each. My biggest bargain though has to be the cassette tapes (remember those?) I was trying to decide which ones to choose but couldn"t make my mind up, so the man said I could have the whole lot for 4 pounds. I thought yeh but how will I carry them as there were over 200 so I said I"ll be back when I"d finished looking round. I went back and said ok & he said 3 quid will do & tipped the tapes into huge plastic bags which weighed a ton. When I got them home, I wasn"t disappointed as there were nearly 140 albums & 75 singles on tape and the great majority is decent stuff. I even had 8-10 of the albums on LP vinyl & cassette already. The music was mainly a few from the 60"s 70"s, more from the 80"s & 90"s and some more recent tracks on cassette singles/ep"s. There was very little rubbish which is very unusual for a job lot and the great thing is that I"ve found enough storage for them all.
Last Thursday, we went to the Standard newspaper to see if they"d do a piece on us {Creepey Cool) because we will soon be busking for cancer research. It"s actually being sponsored by Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart & Fender Guitars of all people. so the paper want to interview us in the town centre which is great publicity for a good cause and us.
On Bank holiday Mon it was another sunny day so I thought I would pop down to a car boot sale held at Somerfield car park. Anybody who knows me would know I like a bargain. First I came across a set of pristine Coca cola coasters & a Carlsberg ashtray for a quid each. I then bought 4 DVD"S for 50p each & 3 for five quid so that averaged out at a quid each. My biggest bargain though has to be the cassette tapes (remember those?) I was trying to decide which ones to choose but couldn"t make my mind up, so the man said I could have the whole lot for 4 pounds. I thought yeh but how will I carry them as there were over 200 so I said I"ll be back when I"d finished looking round. I went back and said ok & he said 3 quid will do & tipped the tapes into huge plastic bags which weighed a ton. When I got them home, I wasn"t disappointed as there were nearly 140 albums & 75 singles on tape and the great majority is decent stuff. I even had 8-10 of the albums on LP vinyl & cassette already. The music was mainly a few from the 60"s 70"s, more from the 80"s & 90"s and some more recent tracks on cassette singles/ep"s. There was very little rubbish which is very unusual for a job lot and the great thing is that I"ve found enough storage for them all.
Monday, 11 May 2009
trials & tribulations - Google Success Kit is A SCAM
A few months ago I was looking at these work at home business ideas a. I"m sure many of you will have received loads of e-mails with these offers to make money online. There is one in particular that I"ll be naming and shaming today and its called Google Success Kit. What happened is that they offered the kit on CD for just $1.or 67p. I thought yep! this seemed like a great deal. It also seemed to be from Google who are obviously among the best known brand names on the Internet.
Trouble was, I completely forgot about it. It was only months later when I checked my bank statements that I was debted not only for this amount but about 8 quid (give or take a few pence) every month. On top of this, I was charged for so called identity Security for nearly 7 quid a month and if this wasn"t enough I was also charged for so called Fraud protection for about 3.40p a month. All of this seemed to be triggered by the initial $1 purchase of the kit which I incidentally never received.
I also realised that its nothing to do with the real Google after googling the kit and found that people have complained about exactly the same thing happening to them. I"ve now reported it to the F.B.I via their website. I"M also writing to BBC watchdog.
I"ve also found the 3 separate websites responsible for these illegal transactions courtesy of one of these other people. These are listed below:
www.quickcashsupport.com
www.fraudprotectionhelpdesk.com
www.idthefthelpdesk.com
There are also phone numbers which are free but only to those in the US and some people have had their money back from there but what about people outside the US?
I"ve reported it to my bank and if any of you have any ideas please comment below.
Click Here to visit the FBI website to report this type of fraud if you have no joy with the above
Trouble was, I completely forgot about it. It was only months later when I checked my bank statements that I was debted not only for this amount but about 8 quid (give or take a few pence) every month. On top of this, I was charged for so called identity Security for nearly 7 quid a month and if this wasn"t enough I was also charged for so called Fraud protection for about 3.40p a month. All of this seemed to be triggered by the initial $1 purchase of the kit which I incidentally never received.
I also realised that its nothing to do with the real Google after googling the kit and found that people have complained about exactly the same thing happening to them. I"ve now reported it to the F.B.I via their website. I"M also writing to BBC watchdog.
I"ve also found the 3 separate websites responsible for these illegal transactions courtesy of one of these other people. These are listed below:
www.quickcashsupport.com
www.fraudprotectionhelpdesk.com
www.idthefthelpdesk.com
There are also phone numbers which are free but only to those in the US and some people have had their money back from there but what about people outside the US?
I"ve reported it to my bank and if any of you have any ideas please comment below.
Click Here to visit the FBI website to report this type of fraud if you have no joy with the above
Friday, 1 May 2009
What"s happening to the world? Now we have swine flu.
The title of this post brings me back to the comment I wrote in my profile page when I started this blog back in November last year. Yet it ha never been so relevant as it is today. First with the credit crunch and now with this swine flu outbreak. Confirmed cases are being reported from several continents throughout the world which have so far killed 160 people in Mexico and 1 in America.
Has anyone ever heard of swine flu before? I certainly haven"t. Will it be as bad as a Survivors type pandemic? (from the BBCTV series of the same name}. This is highly unlikely because, according to reports, the swine flu virus is easy to dissinfect. Even washing up liquid aparrently kills the virus if it"s used to wipe contaminated surfaces. The problem starts when humans catch it. Like ordinary colds or flu, it can be spread just by someone sneazing without a tissue. Face masks are being produced in their millions but according to TV doctor Dr. Hilary Jones, face masks only give limited protection. In a recent TV inteview he said that as you breathe into the mask, it becomes moist within a few hours making them porous which allows particles to get in. Only people such as health professionals who come into contact with lots of people will need to use them. -- more on this topic later:
Has anyone ever heard of swine flu before? I certainly haven"t. Will it be as bad as a Survivors type pandemic? (from the BBCTV series of the same name}. This is highly unlikely because, according to reports, the swine flu virus is easy to dissinfect. Even washing up liquid aparrently kills the virus if it"s used to wipe contaminated surfaces. The problem starts when humans catch it. Like ordinary colds or flu, it can be spread just by someone sneazing without a tissue. Face masks are being produced in their millions but according to TV doctor Dr. Hilary Jones, face masks only give limited protection. In a recent TV inteview he said that as you breathe into the mask, it becomes moist within a few hours making them porous which allows particles to get in. Only people such as health professionals who come into contact with lots of people will need to use them. -- more on this topic later:
Saturday, 18 April 2009
Trials & tribulations -- What a weekend!
This Easter weekend"s been really great with lots of stuff going on in the town and I was in the thick of it. First we resurrected our old band after nearly six months and renamed it "Creepey Cool" - (misspelling is deliberate) a much better name that The Fezz which you may remember from an earlier post). Anyway, we practised for the first time in the lead singer"s flat - the first time we"ve been able to do so as his new neighbours love music unlike his old one. This was in preparation for a gig at the I,Q. in Boston which is also a first for us. We were meant to"ave played there several times before but the gigs fell through.
On Saturday, although it rained we managed to find cover and busked outside near the market stalls for a couple of hours and even flogged a T shirt with the new band logo. We also played a new song that the lead singer had just written which went down really well. The true test of course was yet to come at the I.Q. (Indian Queen) on the Sunday night. I"ll come back to that later.
I nearly stayed in that Sat night but thought "what the hell" after getting a call from another friend and went out to the Axe & Cleaver ( another well known local pub & live music venue) He was telling me that a barman there got his ear bit off the weekend before by a crazy Irish bloke and had to go to the hospital in Nottingham to get it stitched back on. Apparently, he was trying to stop this bloke from causing trouble in the pub. I actually saw him that night but couldn"t tell whether the hospital succeeded in doing so because he always wears a cloth around his head.
We then ended up in "The moon under the Water' a Wetherspoon pub and we met a girl & her auntie who I"d known for a few years. I remember us telling them that we"d been to the local strip club 2 weeks before & the girl said to me "next time you go just ask for me and I"ll give you a free one." I was amazed, I didn"t know that she worked there but I"ll definitely remember that.
I then went to the I.Q. and met yet another friend. There weren"t many people there although there was a band playing, the punters were obviously saving their pennies for the Sunday event. We then went to the White Heart hotel bar - not the sort of place I usually go to - I ordered my first drink which was one pound fifty. I gave the barman a tenner but mistakenly he gave me more than that back. I thought "what has he given me?" I got back to the table and without thinking blurted it out to my friend. I said that I wanted to return it because I could not work out how much more they"d given me. The friend, who is a born again christian said you must do or else it would be dishonest.. I realised that he"d given me a ten instead of a five pound note and returned the money to the bar.
On Saturday, although it rained we managed to find cover and busked outside near the market stalls for a couple of hours and even flogged a T shirt with the new band logo. We also played a new song that the lead singer had just written which went down really well. The true test of course was yet to come at the I.Q. (Indian Queen) on the Sunday night. I"ll come back to that later.
I nearly stayed in that Sat night but thought "what the hell" after getting a call from another friend and went out to the Axe & Cleaver ( another well known local pub & live music venue) He was telling me that a barman there got his ear bit off the weekend before by a crazy Irish bloke and had to go to the hospital in Nottingham to get it stitched back on. Apparently, he was trying to stop this bloke from causing trouble in the pub. I actually saw him that night but couldn"t tell whether the hospital succeeded in doing so because he always wears a cloth around his head.
We then ended up in "The moon under the Water' a Wetherspoon pub and we met a girl & her auntie who I"d known for a few years. I remember us telling them that we"d been to the local strip club 2 weeks before & the girl said to me "next time you go just ask for me and I"ll give you a free one." I was amazed, I didn"t know that she worked there but I"ll definitely remember that.
I then went to the I.Q. and met yet another friend. There weren"t many people there although there was a band playing, the punters were obviously saving their pennies for the Sunday event. We then went to the White Heart hotel bar - not the sort of place I usually go to - I ordered my first drink which was one pound fifty. I gave the barman a tenner but mistakenly he gave me more than that back. I thought "what has he given me?" I got back to the table and without thinking blurted it out to my friend. I said that I wanted to return it because I could not work out how much more they"d given me. The friend, who is a born again christian said you must do or else it would be dishonest.. I realised that he"d given me a ten instead of a five pound note and returned the money to the bar.
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