Nicky's Journal

22 songs for 2022

arcmorality — Sun, 04 Sep 2022 21:55:19 GMT

It's been a vintage year for new music..

Bullseye

arcmorality — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 13:32:48 GMT

RIP Jim Bowen!

A Northern legend, super smashin great!

Ring those bells

arcmorality — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 18:37:51 GMT

Have a good hogmanay everyone, whatever your doing tonight.

The Wanderer

arcmorality — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 21:26:13 GMT

Big news for all you fans of lost... I hear the big guest star for next season will be...

Steve Fossett!!

sorry!!

The Mix

arcmorality — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 06:48:24 GMT

So the summer seems to be sailing away into the midnight sun. Its been quite the summer eh? Lazy days at the beach have been fun, look forward to that next summer.

Big update though.. I have a social security card!!!!!

Hopefully its a nice weekend. Got so much lined up.. Friday is the brit-expat meetup, I also get to go get my state ID, now I have the social card. Saturday will be the pain that is watching Newcastle Utd. Then we're off to celtic fest (please please pretty please let there be haggis & irn bru there!!!). Saturday night its Lindsay's huskers at a huskers bar. Sunday is Lindsay's big day with the marathon, so I will be down there cheering her on.

We watched U2's PopMart DVD this evening, I was in a U2 mood for the first time in a long while. Looking at @U2, it seems like the album isn't going to be out this year? Can't say I'm gutted, my excitement levels for new U2 isn't all that high. If they don't release something that is actually something new & exciting and not a rehash of a sound they have done before, I believe they will be finished as a contemporary band (if there not already!) they will join the Rolling Stones as being a big money making tour band where everybody goes to hear the hits only. Its highly unlikely I will be seeing them on the next tour, my life is in a different place now. Paying anything over $50-75 for a concert ticket is not on the agenda. Priorities next year will be visits back home to the UK & Nebraska.

Love it..

arcmorality — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:00:09 GMT

golden oldie..

arcmorality — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 16:49:12 GMT

Dinner with the rents!!!
A girl asks her boyfriend to come over Friday night and have dinner with
her parents.
Since this is such a big event, the girl announces to her boyfriend that
after dinner,
she would like to go out and make love
for the first time.

Well, the boy is ecstatic, but he has never had sex before,
so he takes a trip to the pharmacist to get
some condoms. He tells the pharmacist it's his first time and
the pharmacist helps the boy for about an hour.
He tells the boy everything there is to know about condoms and sex.

At the register, the pharmacist asks the boy how many
condoms he'd like to buy, a 3-pack, 10-pack, or family
pack. The boy insists on the family pack because he
thinks he will be rather busy, it being his first time and all.

That night, the boy shows up at the girl's parents
house and meets his girlfriend at the door. "Oh, I'm
so excited for you to meet my parents, come on in!"

The boy goes inside and is taken to the dinner table
where the girl's parents are seated. The boy quickly
offers to say grace and bows his head.

A minute passes, and the boy is still deep in prayer,
with his head down.

10 minutes pass, and still no movement from the boy.

Finally, after 20 minutes with his head down, the
girlfriend leans over and whispers to the
boyfriend, "I had no idea you were this religious."

The boy turns, and whispers back, "I had no idea your
father was a pharmacist."

ITS HERE!

arcmorality — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 02:18:15 GMT

Great to finally see an X FIles 2 trailer! Even better to see Billy Connolly in it! In true billy fashion.. get fucking into them!! He'll kick all the aliens to death without the need for the fbi..

Trans Europa-Express

arcmorality — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:05:00 GMT

How awesome is that?

KK

arcmorality — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 13:25:19 GMT

The whole Kevin Keegan thing is just ....ing crazy eh? Brings back so many emotions from 11 years ago.. its hard to believe its that long ago.

I can't wait to be back home and feel the atmosphere. Will he make much of a difference? I know he will, whether he will actually win something? I have my doubts but it would be fairytale stuff if he does.

Weather hasnt improved much here. Ok well that's my 2 Euros up...

dublin

arcmorality — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 10:10:38 GMT

Damn I'm almost home again after an amazing time in the US. Probably the best time me & Linds have spent together. We didn't do a whole lot which was the beauty of it really. We had a blast in Nebraska with some wonderful people. Pics to follow.

In Dublin right now waiting for my ryanair flight which doesnt leave til 3. I'd head into town but its chucking it down (note: this computer wont let me ....ing swear! lol)

I'll post more later, we have our wedding plans now set in stone with the date, venue etc. Will reveal all later.

Any chance the next 5 hours will fly by? (awful pun I know) :p

OMD video

arcmorality — Sun, 27 May 2007 19:41:52 GMT

OMD Electricityeeee Dublin...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vFpvydGObA8

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ANuX0xWJoO0

That's mine from Dublin too.

The next lot are random ones from the tour that I love...

Maid Of Orleans

http://youtube.com/watch?v=89dneVCVXMk

The New Stone Age

http://youtube.com/watch?v=EP5gQd8-sT8

Georgia

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ItZxz6IRb60

jesus

arcmorality — Mon, 07 May 2007 22:16:07 GMT

They want to hurry up with this snooker!! I'm at work at 6am.....

Messages

arcmorality — Thu, 03 May 2007 23:19:01 GMT

http://youtube.com/watch?v=TjG8VBQjx9k

Classic! Hmm I doubt 100 people in Birmingham on Sunday will be able to recreate that, but nothing stopping us from trying eh? :D

Have a great weekend all. Tho I doubt it will be as good as mine ;D

Sad day

arcmorality — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 10:10:58 GMT

RIP Alan Ball.

Classic

arcmorality — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 14:28:50 GMT

The most hopeless Top of the pops "performance" ever!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLc8_cUF3HM

Its well worth watching just to see Andy chin the mic!!!!

arcmorality — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 20:15:27 GMT

arcmorality — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 19:17:53 GMT

First time in my lifetime Berwick have won a trophy!

This is hilarious

arcmorality — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 19:49:08 GMT

How NOT to rob a convenience store...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3WC7FxcjLQU

Brilliant!! Home alone anybody?!!

Not the 9 O'Clock News...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=j2GFfpgTBt0

LOL

arcmorality — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 18:11:29 GMT

Most bizzare numbers game ever on countdown...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=RI10VCZYjas

Quality! RIP Richard Whitley too eh.

arcmorality — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 19:47:10 GMT

Brilliant...

Busted!!

Book of Lightning

arcmorality — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 23:21:42 GMT

Got the shock of my life when I picked up the sun at work yesterday... A MIKE SCOTT INTERVIEW! Fuck me, there certainly giving this album a right push.

Book of Lightning is getting rave reviws everywhere....

5 stars The Guardian

4 stars - The Sun

"a masterpiece" The Telegraph

The Sunday Mail

4 Stars - Belfast Telegraph

Plus all those rave reviews I've already posted in the last few weeks..... I don't think I've seen so much Waterboys press during my short time as a fan. Its rather cool. Its wonderful to see everybody saying Mike has it back again (tho he never lost it for me, he just went a different direction last time) no doubt he'll do another out of this world album next time! :)

So yeah don't be a mug, go buy the album Monday!!!

Can't wait for the live shows in May.

OMFG..

arcmorality — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 19:40:39 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcJz3KWt1uM

Is that the funniest thing ever?!

Ohh whilst I'm at it.. I hear Pakistan are going to give-up playing cricket and instead they're
going to take up bobsleighing.

Sorry! :p

Waterboys official video..

arcmorality — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 23:25:27 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK1xrCG7pYc

That just rocks my socks! Waterboys 2001 tour footage.With Steve's classic American accent!

Lovely review

arcmorality — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 21:22:48 GMT

The Waterboys, Book of Lightning

**** It's been a long time coming. Graeme Thomson hears the big music
trailblazers evoke the brilliance of their glory years

Sunday March 18, 2007
Observer Music Monthly

Mike Scott possesses one of the great rock voices and has been
responsible for a wondrous, sky-scraping catalogue of music over the
years; therefore we're well within our rights to expect brilliance
from the Waterboys. Over the past decade, however, on record at least,
such expectations have not been met. Their last album, 2003's
Universal Hall, was a decidedly rum affair, hamstrung by the overtly
spiritual subject matter and too many half-realised musical ideas.

The good news, then, is that Scott finally seems ready to climb back
into the ring and make something approximating a great Waterboys album
again. With Steve Wickham's spiralling fiddle to the fore, Book of
Lightning contains thrilling echoes of the band in its many previous
guises, referencing everything from the early Big Music to the
mythical raggle-taggle years, indulging Scott's ever-present desire to
rock out along the way. Thus it pulls off the neat trick of creating a
fresh, vibrant brew from classic ingredients.

'She Tried to Hold Me', for instance, takes the wide open, loping
country-blues beat of 'Strange Boat' from Fisherman's Blues and
introduces it to a Dylanesque lyric about a troublesome lass in powder
blue pyjamas who 'lingers like uranium'. It rolls on and on like a
cross-country train and is utterly fantastic.

There are other, more direct links back to vintage Waterboys. Two of
the best songs here - 'You in the Sky' and the joyous, fiddle-driven
'Everybody Takes a Tumble' - were written over 20 years ago during the
endless Fisherman's Blues sessions in Ireland. The fact that they've
been dusted down and re-recorded for Book of Lightning would be due
cause for posting a missing persons alert on the current whereabouts
of Scott's songwriting muse, were it not for the fact that it's in
such obviously robust shape on most of the other songs. 'Love Will
Shoot You Down' is the pick of the rockers, a litany of kiss-off
sentiments spat out over the stammering crunch of distorted guitars,
although the opening 'Crash of Angel Wings' runs it close.

Admittedly, though, a couple of tracks shine less like lightning and
more like a dodgy 10-watt bulb, particularly 'Nobody's Baby Anymore',
which suffers from an overly theatrical vocal. Scott has changed the
way he sings as he has aged, often favouring a breathy,
over-enunciated delivery that doesn't hold a candle to the
open-throated roar of yore. It's a recurring niggle, but thankfully we
get to hear his voice in all its full majesty on 'Sustain' and
'Strange Arrangement', a pair of stunning ballads. The latter is a
knotty existential drama, a kissing cousin to the similarly
spiritually disorientated 'Something That is Gone' from 1990's Room to
Roam, while the former is scored through with dark imagery - 'All her
bones were haunted' - and deeply moving, borne up towards brilliance
on the wings of Roddy Lorimer's soaring trumpet. It could easily have
graced This is the Sea

For the most part, this is uncommonly beautiful music, filled brimful
with poetry, melody and humanity. The Waterboys are approaching
greatness once again.

Download: 'Sustain'; 'Strange Arrangement'; 'She Tried to Hold Me'