Sunday 30 December 2012

Goodbye 2012

Since this year is coming to an end and I am yet to know what to expect from 2013 I have decided to do a blog post about all the wonderful things I have done this year. Whether its going to gigs/festivals, spending time with friends/family, having brilliant sleepovers or going to Disneyland Paris for a school science trip; 2012 has truly been a wonderful year and even though it may have had its downsides here and there, I wouldn't change it due to the amount of fun I have had this year.




January


 Paris Trip

 (Eiffel Tower, Paris)




February

Ypres Trip

(war memorial in Ypres, Belgium)


March 

McFly Gig

(left-Tom Fletcher, drums-Harry Judd, right-Danny Jones)

Mothers Day

(me and my niece Megan)




April

Easter - Farm Visit 

(me and my niece Megan holding a rabbit)




May

Nicole's Alice in Wonderland Themed Party

(left to right; Katherine-cheshire cat, Me-queen of hearts, Jodie-absolem the caterpillar, Georgia-mad hatter)


June

Hengistbury Head Geography Trip

(left-Me, right-Courtney)


July

Blissfields Festival

(King Charles)

August

Charleigh's Birthday

(Me trying to be cool)

Glastonbury

(a wall that I liked the look of; "too much of a good thing can be wonderful")

September

Sister's Birthday Meal

(my sister and her friend; left-Grace, right-my sister Alice)

October

My 16th Birthday

(awful quality, sorry. left to right; me, Jodie, Georgia, Charleigh, Chloe)

Dog is Dead gig, Bristol -31/10

(clockwise left to right; Trev, Rob, Paul, Harvey and Joss - featuring me and Georgia)

November

Ben Howard

(awful quality again; Ben Howard)


December

Christmas!

(my cat, Ruby, showing off this years Christmas Decor)

I truly have enjoyed this year and I'm really looking forward to 2013, hopefully it will be even better because I have so many new things waiting to happen;



Gigs
Exams (boo)
Leaving secondary school
Blissfields festival
Summer holidays
Starting college
My 17th birthday

All photos have been taken originally be me or a family member/friend.

Saturday 13 October 2012

All Our Favourite Stories


We've all been waiting months for 8th October and on Monday the big day finally arrived; the release date for Dog Is Dead's debut album All Our Favourite Stories.

Everything I though it would be, it is. I am in love with it! Before the Cd arrived I was listening to Lucy Rose's debut album Like I Used To non-stop but I have listened to nothing else since Monday and I love it!


The album is just full of a great range of upbeat - soft and mellow songs to fit your change in mood. Dog Is Dead have really done it. Track One of the album is Get Low which is a great opener to the album as it shows off the whole Dog Is Dead package (brilliant harmonies, talented instrumentals and powerful lyrics). The album continues on with some of the more 'famous' songs such as Glockenspiel Song, Two Devils, Talk Through The Night and Hands Down. My personal favourite track is Do The Right Thing. I'm not quite sure as to why it's my favourite because I love all the songs on the album but this one just stands out for me and when I heard it for the first time, even from the beginning of the track I could tell it was going to be a great song. I'm currently using Do The Right Thing as my alarm to get me up for school in the mornings which is a lovely way to start the day. However, I do just lay in bed until the track finishes singing along to it (usually with a croaky, dying-cat sounding voice). 


All in all, I give All Our Favourite Stories 10/10. They're my favourite band at the moment, but unusually there isn't one song on the album I don't like, or didn't like on hearing it the first time. My opinion may be slightly biased as I am so obsessed with them in general at the moment, but I truly do recommend this record. 



Monday 24 September 2012

Festivals


Festival season is now over which I'm sad about. But luckily I managed to go to one festival this year, Blissfields. I went to Blissfields once before in 2009 with my mum, two sisters and their boyfriends. Last year, one of my sister's went with her boyfriend and this year she asked me if I wanted to go with a friend. Obviously, I accepted the offer and had a wonderful time. I love festival atmosphere, it gives off such a great vibe!

Blissfields isn't a huge festival like Reading/Leeds or Glastonbury etc. but it was a great small festival. I didn't get a chance to try out much of the food as my friend and I brought quite a bit of snacky food that we would just eat whenever we wanted. But on the last night we had a burrito, which was good except from the fact is had a herb (which I've forgotten the name of) inside it that gave it a soap taste, so I ended up throwing some away. Also there were a few clothing/jewellery stalls at Blissfields, one of which was a vintage style stall selling lots of lovely vintage bags, clothes, jewellery and shoes. There was a satchel-styled bag that I intended on buying but I thought it was quite expensive, bearing in mind that the buckle on it was broken. But there were gorgeous necklaces and earrings.

The music at Blissfields this year was amazing. So many good new artists, a lot who have only recently released their debut album, or their debut albums are coming up with in the next couple of months. For example, Lucy Rose (album released today- 24th Sept), Dog Is Dead (8th Oct), Jake Bugg (15th Oct). Before arriving at the site, I had only heard of a couple of bands/singers; I already knew The Noisettes, Charlotte Church, Sixnationstate and I'd heard a few songs from The Novatones, Dog Is Dead, Emily and the Woods and King Charles. However, I was blown away by every band/singer I saw, everyone performed so well. My favourites were The Novatones on the Thursday night, Emily and the Woods playing an acoustic set sat down in the audience because she had a technical difficulty and she decided to sit with us to play, which was amazing, and Dog Is Dead. I loved Dog Is Dead, they played Teenage Daughter and the whole crowd were dancing around mad. They finished on Glockenspiel Song (my favourite) which was filled with brilliant harmonies and the lovely sound of Trev's saxophone. After seeing them, my friend and I then went back out to the main stage to watch the end of The Noisettes set, who were great as usual. 

All in all, my festival experience this year was good, and I think that Blissfields 2012, may be the best festival I have been to so far, due to the fact that I was older this year as my last festival was in 2009 and I was 12 at the time, so I didn't really appreciate the music that was there, which is a shame because I went to Bestival in 2009 and Florence and The Machine, Elbow, Lily Allen, MGMT, Little Boots, Jack Penate, The Horrors, Friendly Fires and Bat For Lashes played and I don't really remember any of it. Also I think I preferred Blissfields this year because it was the first year I had a friend with me, and even though we came with my sister we were in a separate tent and we went off and did our own thing and saw different bands which was really nice.

Goodbye Festivals, see you again some time.