If I Don't Have an iPhone...

... I don't have an iPod.  No, I have mp3s on my Desire.
... I don't have my music at my fingertips.  Yes I do.
... I don't have my playlists.  Yes I do.
... I don't have iTunes.  Good, it sucks.
... I don't have access to the AppStore.  What, like Android's?
... I don't have access to the largest amount of apps.  Most of them are crap anyway, there's no app on the iPhone I'd want that hasn't been made on Android.


If I don't have an iPhone, I don't... well, have an iPhone.


Thank fuck for that.  I'd rather have a phone that can actually be used as a PHONE and won't break the bank!

A Tough Few Months in My World of Music!

It started the moment I got back from my late spring holiday to Orlando, Florida in May.  I found out that Ronnie James Dio, Rainbow's real lead singer, died while I was on holiday.

Rainbow have always been right up there with my other favourite bands, Guns 'n' Roses, Tool and Dream Theater (more on them later).  I grew up listening to both Dio-era Rainbow and the later stuff with Graham Bonnet and liked both.  But Rising was always my favourite album and Stargazer has always been my favourite song ever.  With Dio involved, the lyrics were often set in Lord of the Rings-esque fantasy and had a progressive edge to it.  I was saddened by Cozy Powell's death, many years ago, but for me Dio WAS Rainbow (well, him and Blackmore!).

Since his passing, I have been listening to a lot more of Dio's solo stuff.  I had heard Holy Diver before, as I'd come across Killswitch Engage's awesome cover of it on some satellite music channel... probably Scuzz!  I got hold of Heaven and Hell's album and am hoping to get some of the Dio-era Black Sabbath stuff.

Rock music has lost one of the greatest singers of all time.  And the inventor of the iconic horns hand signal seen at every rock/metal gig in the world.  Ever!


In August, Guns 'n' Roses came to England.  Yay!

But noooo, Axl Rose has taken a right bashing.  Now then, I don't condone the way he clearly takes the piss getting his arse on stage.  But people are forgetting he's always been like that... there have been riots in the past because of it.  And it seems these detractors have one sole reason for directing it at him...
"New GNR" are not as good as the original line-up.

Personally, I can tell the difference between the older stuff and Chinese Democracy, as most can, but I like both!  Indeed, Phee had never heard much of the older stuff, bar the obvious songs, and became a proper fan off the back of their latest offering.  Obviously they'll never been the same without Slash, Duff and the guys, but Axl owns the name, the music does sound pretty GnR-ish so he can do what he wants.  And having seen them live before, they are all talented musicians in their own right.  Do people slag Slash off for playing GnR songs at Velvet Revolver or Slash's Snakepit gigs with Axl?  No.

And the insults aimed at him for the way he looks?  Fuck me, that's low.  The guy's almost hitting 50, of course he's gonna be a little rough around the edges!

He needs to be more professional in this day and age though.  He might have ruled the world in the 90's with the Use Your Illusion world tour, but now he has to prove himself all over again, without the old band mates.  Time will tell whether he manages it... but I will be gutted to wait another fifteen years for a GnR album!

All this said, I did see them live last week.  Phee and I went to the O2 Arena in London for their Wednesday night gig.  We sat around the Blueroom for a while, listening to their albums, before catching the end of the support act - I believe it was Sebastian Bach.  Judging by the timings of the support band and how long the turnovers can be at any gig, I was expecting Axl and the boys on stage at about 9:30pm.  They were a mere ten minutes later than that.  Impressive for him!

Once again, people still come out saying he was an hour late.  An hour?!  The door didn't open til half six.  With the support band, safety checks regarding the pyrotechnics and the sound set-up there was no way they were gonna be on stage at 8:30!  No way in hell.

The gig itself was good.  Took a few songs for Axl to warm up it seemed, but when he did I loved it.  We had to leave at midnight, missing all but the first song of the encore.  Bloody trains!

I loved it.  Phee loved it.  Critics can go to hell.

However, I would have preferred going the following night.  Not only were the Murderdolls supporting, but Duff McKagan joined in!  I'd seen Izzy Stadlin' play with them at Download in 2006 and was gutted I didn't get to see Duff up there with Axl.  I almost wet myself with excitement when I found out!  And Duff quite liked it too...


Finally, comes the news last month that Mike Portnoy has left Dream Theater.  This is devastating news, although not surprising when you read his statement.  He has long been one of the best drummers in the world of any genre, but particularly of progressive music.

It was time for him to take a break from the band and I wish he'd been able to work out a compromise with the rest of them.  Tool take years between albums, so most DT fans would have waited for the next album and tour til he'd recovered from the burn-out.  But no compromise was forthcoming.

And now he plays for Avenged Sevenfold.  I'm fine with that.  After the Rev died, they needed a decent drummer and they got the best, in my opinion.  They'll be better for it.  I like them too.  The criticism levelled at Portnoy and at A7X is ridiculous!

You have to follow your heart in this life.  If it's not in what you're doing, move on...

Cheats! Football Cheating Takes Many Forms...

I find myself incandescent with rage at the way certain footballers conduct themselves.

The particular incident that most pisses me off right now is the current complaint being lodged in the Farnham and District Football League.  Chawton Athletic, the team I play for up here, had got a very hard earned victory in the semi-final of one of the many cups we play.  This is the first cup final for the Yellows.  And it came after a penalty shoot-out, that I could not participate in as I'd been subbed.

So what do CSL Hartley Wintney do after they trudge off the pitch?  Fucking complain!  They couldn't take losing to a lowly team like us, so they lodge a complaint with the league using the very dubious reason that the referee only played twenty minutes of extra time, instead of the regulation thirty.  This, after it had been agreed before the extra time began!

I really hope they laugh at their sore-losing faces at tomorrow night's meeting.

Notice they play in green and white!  Okay, I'll stop about that...

Another thing that annoys me... DIVING!  And Niklas Bendtner bloody did it for Arsenal tonight.  Stay on your feet if possible, but never throw yourself to the floor like a dirty cheat!  Eduardo looked to have done it last season, Emmanuel Eboue has a reputation for it.  I wish Arsenal would just play their slinky football with out resorting to falling over!

And the fake card giving.  Why?!  Why the hell do you need to tell the ref how to do his job?  Are you a qualified ref?  No.  So stop trying to be one and just get on with the game.  They should dish out yellows to ANYBODY who flashes the imaginary card.  That'll stop them... or make games an interesting 7 v 7 affair!

2009, Wulfy's Year in Music.

Music never dies... it's always everywhere.  It's always on the radio... when there aren't adverts or Chris Moyles talking away it is!  It's on our TVs... live music, music quizzes, X-Factor!  And everyone has an opinion on it!  But this is what music I've been listening to this year, either voluntarily or not!

X Factor

Now, I'm not the biggest fan of The X Factor.  2009's show has been more about making money for Simon Cowell than talent or music.  Point in case is "Jedward", who have no singing ability what-so-ever, remaining in the competition when the rather more talented, and infinitely hotter, Lucie Jones (looking mighty fine, to the right) was sent home.  The show turned into a farce, albeit a farce that raked in the viewers!

It was good to see a singer on there with a more "rock" sound, in Jamie "Afro" Archer.  But he was never destined to win the show.  And I didn't care for the final two either.  Olly Murs definitely is like Robbie Williams... not the best singer, but does like to put on a show.  Not my cup of tea.  And the winner, Joe McElderry, has quite a bland singing style.  He'd be pretty good in musical theatre, maybe, but as a pop artist he doesn't cut it.  So much so that Rage Against the Machine's infinitely better "Killing in the Name of" pipped him to the Christmas number 1.  Awesome.

My Musical Taste has Progressed
Lovely play on words, that.
This past year, I have been listening to some new bands and (obviously, perfectly legally) downloading a discography or too.  Mostly, this has been in the progressive metal genre.

As a fan of progressive metal kings Dream Theater, who's "Black Clouds and Silver Linings" triple CD set I got this year, I decided to try some other bands of the genre.  The first band I got into was Porcupine Tree.  They are a four-piece from the UK and have only recently been leaning towards progressive metal, having originally been more psychedelic.  The first album I got was "Deadwing", which is a masterpiece concept album, like DT's "Scenes from a Memory".  The album tells a ghost story, which has been planned as a film for ages!  The two stand out tracks, "Arriving Somewhere but Not Here" and "The Start of Something Beautiful", have been in my car ever since!

The next album, "Fear of a Blank Planet", is just as good.  It's heavier than the previous album and deals a lot with mental illness (which I've been dealing with myself, recently).  And the new album, out this year, is the two-CD "The Incident".  I've not really got into this as much yet, but I'm sure it won't take long.  Check out the band's videos at their website, including "Something Beautiful"'s Tool-esque stop-go animation video!

I have been listening to some other progressive bands.  Amongst these are The Mars Volta, Stream of Passion and the classic prog band from Canada, Rush.  I've known about Rush for many years, having heard "Spirit of Radio" in my Mum's car when I was young!  But I've obtained their back catalogue and I can hear the influence they had on Dream Theater!

The final band I have mostly been getting into this year is Anathema.  I had one of their songs on a magazine compilation, so I bought the album it came from: Judgement.  Much like Porcupine Tree, the album (or most of it) has been a permanent fixture of my car's CD multi-changer.  Click here from the haunting "Parisienne Moonlight" on YouTube.

It's a very atmospheric album with tracks that blend into each other.  Some say it's a tad depressing, but then again that's often what I listen to. It's not surprising from a band that started as doom metal!  The older music is okay, but not entirely up my street, but their more recent (more progressive, slightly gothic) albums are equally as good as this first CD I have of theirs.

I am looking forward to their next offering, currently titled "Horizons" and slated for a release this year.

Final mention for the music I've listened to this year is for one of my old favourites, Guns 'n' Roses.  Although it was technically released in 2008, I didn't get "Chinese Democracy" until last year.  It differs a lot from their previous stuff with Slash et al.  There's a greater range of sounds and some new twists, all of which I have to say I like.  Very catchy and right up there with my favourite albums of the last year (or so).

Dance the Night Away
I have also been listening to non-guitar orientated music this year.  As well as new music from The Prodigy and Pendulum, I have been listening to two DJs in particular.

The first has been around for some time and played some of the biggest clubs in the UK.  Deadmau5, who usually wears a huge mouse head when playing live, had hit singles featuring vocals from Kaskade and Pendulum's Rob Swire.  I haven't quite gotten around to buying his albums yet... really should do that!

The other DJ is an up and coming turntable master from Exeter.  Okay, he's my evil twin (Gofer) in DJ form.  RichieB has been playing his dirty funky electro-house since late 2008.  His debut gig (I think) was at our joint 30th birthday party last January (less said about that night, the better).  Since then he has played many of Exeter's biggest dance event of 2009, with Pams House/PHunky and Digital Passion with a residency at EX4 and regular slots on the Terrace at the Phoenix Club.  Hopefully, 2010 will be an equally big year for him!


And so on to my favourites list, a kind of Wulfy's Music Awards if you like:

ALBUM OF THE YEAR:  Black Clouds and Silver Linings - Dream Theater
NON-ROCK ALBUM OF THE YEAR:  Lungs - Florence and the Machine
SINGLE/EP OF THE YEAR:  Live, Consume, Drive - Sanguine
SONG OF THE YEAR:  Stargazer - Dream Theater
NON-ROCK SONG OF THE YEAR:  I Remember - Deadmau5

MOST LISTENED TO ALBUM:  Judgement - Anathema
MOST LISTENED TO TRACK:  Arriving Somewhere but Not Here - Porcupine Tree

CLASSIC ALBUM OF THE YEAR:  Permanent Waves - Rush

DJ OF THE YEAR:  RichieB and Deadmau5 (tied!)


2010
There are a few albums I'm looking forward to this year; I've already mentioned Anathema's new album.  Avenged Sevenfold were to have a new album out too, although it remains to be seen if it does get released soon due to the untimely death of The Rev.  I'm also interested in hearing (possible) new albums from My Chemical Romance, Stone Sour, Rage Against the Machine and Deftones.

Feel free to add comments regarding your own favourite music of 2009!

The New Motorway Speed Limit: 50mph!

A trip to Hull and back this weekend, a round trip of almost six hundred miles, reminded me of some of my pet peeves on the road!  And yes, I'll leave the new "Mini" alone this time...

The first thing I was not really surprised to encounter was roadworks.  But it was the sheer amount of them that really made the journeys longer!  I swear I spent more miles at in "average speed camera" marshalled 50 mph limits than on roadwork-free roads!  And most of them didn't even have anybody working on them!

Of course, I understand the need for road improvements and the like, but surely the whole M1 doesn't need repairing?!

One three junction stretch of the M1, spanning a good five to ten miles, appeared to be down to one lane so they can put more overhead information boards up.  With cameras.  Always with the cameras!  Speed does not kill... irresponsible speed kills.  The autobahn in Germany seems to work perfectly fine, bring it in here I say!

The traffic on the roads was also it's usual pain in the arse self.  You had the normal twattish driving from almost all BMW drivers.  Driving right up your exhaust pipe, too impatient to wait for you to get out of their fast lane, even though you're doing ninety!
You had the normal "I own the road" attitude from anyone in a 4x4.  Cutting you up because they forget how ridiculously big their tanks are.
And you had the normal lorries overtaking lorries... when will bloody HGV drivers realise they are all speed limited?!

It's also been noted (by me) that the price of petrol has been slowly creeping up to extortionate levels again!  And we can't blame the 2p rise in tax this time!  A global recession, yet the price of fuel has gone up by 20p  (equating to about 20%) in the last six or so months.  It now costs over £70 to fill my bloody tank up!!  I know... my own fault for having such a big car!

Why is nobody else concerned?  I haven't seen any complains about it recently...

That said, I still love driving.  It helps that I still really love my car, despite the constant "French tin" abuse she gets from the girls at work.  Black leather seats, awesome aircon/heating, good sound system... exceptionally good for those six hundred mile roundtrips.  And let's face it, with my family in Devon and Phee's in Hull, there's a lot of driving to be done!

New Season, New Housemates.

Ah, gotta love Autumn! It means football's back with a bang!

In the professional game, my teams are having mixed seasons.

Arsenal have started

well, despite not really strengthening the team. Kolo Toure was replaced by Thomas Vermaelen, who looks pretty awesome, but Adebayor was not... time will tell how important that decision will be. Through to a fairly easy group in the Champions League and only beaten by a lucky Manchester United team in the league means we have set a good found

ation in the first few

weeks.

The diving issue reared it's ugly head though. I hate diving. I am actually happy that Eboue got a yellow card for it and that Eduardo got a two match ban. I am really irritated that Wayne "Shrek" Rooney has gotten away with it. He was practically on the floor before Almunia got near him against Arsenal and was at it again with England tonight... although his shirt wa

s tugged by the Slovenian, another foul that is under-punished.

I have had the pleasure of visiting the impressive Emirates Stadium this week. Absolutely amazing place. My brother, Tim, and his wife, Julia, bought me the tour for Christmas and I chose to go on my 31st birthday. And my lovely Phee bought me a personalised Arsenal shirt too, to make it a birthday to remember!

Exeter City have just been enjoying life in League One. They managed to pick up their first win all the way up in Carlisle United, but have found other points tricky to come by and now sit just above the relegation zone. It's going to be a tough season, but I am confident they'll stay up with Paul Tisdale at the he

lm.

It's good to see the League One highlights on the BBC. They're doing a good job! I know I'm biased, having starred in the adverts for it. The day out in London filming the ad was great fun... in fact, being a mascot actually is great fun! And it's such a good bunch of people. Everybody gets on with everyone else, like a big family (and I know all about them!).

Playing wise, I ready for it! I have been playing 5-a-side for the Pit Club side in the Sidmouth Indoor League randomly over the summer. With that and going to the gym (let's not mention the treadmill incident), I'm kept my fitness right up. And with the 11-a-side kick off this weekend... it's all systems go!

Rockbeare Rangers, the team in Devon I'm President of, got under way this afternoon and started with an excellent 3-1 victory at the newly named Silver Lane Ground. The awesome Bryn Lister got the final goal... and I always enjoy seeing him on the score sheet. He's been a great player for the Rooks over the last two seasons and it's good to see some of the original squad still in the team... Rob, Matt S, Matt D, Si, Mike F and Ed are all still involved.

Chawton Athletic start their Farnham Sunday League campaign tomorrow morning. We will be hoping to do better than last season, where we finished bottom with three wins all season. It looks like I may well be starting on the left wing, in front of the gaffer's brother Paul Ireson... a full back who rarely runs forward. This suits me down to the ground, as I can concentrate more on attacking!

My aims for this season are to be on a winning team (I didn't manage it at Chawton last season!) and to get on the scoresheet at least once. I will take the lead and go for all penalties and free kicks if I can... my dead ball shooting is pretty good, certainly better than most I've seen at Chawton!

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This weekend saw some of the new housemates move in and I'm hoping to be better accepted this year. After the antics of last year and all it's ignorance and hypocrisy, the signs are good. Jamie has moved in and Phee and I have been getting on well with him, even sorting out the brief power cut Farnham seemed to have!

Erin also popped round to move some of her stuff in, before finally moving in next weekend. Again, we all seemed to get on like a house on fire. This year is going to be a definite improvement on the last one, enjoying the company of people who are easy going. We might even get to hang out at the UCASU without me feeling like a leper... (although I feel duty bound to point out that Phee's closest friends, Abbie and Rebecca, never made me feel like that).

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On a final note... I have found a darts team! Woo! The practice night for the Alton Cricket Club darts team is Friday 18th September, with our first league game of the season the week after! Thanks to John and Jamie at work, I have my board up in the house so I can get some practice in and not look too out of sorts. This first season is all about getting to know the side and enjoying myself... with the games will come the scores, hopefully, and the wins.

I Hate Revision.

Really, I do. Three exams towards my ACCA qualification coming up next week. I almost didn't get in as my application was lost in the mail...

Corporate Law scares the living crap out of me. I just can't cram it all in! I'm hoping I scrape a pass, as I should be okay with Taxation and Performance Management.

Time will tell... wish me luck!

A Mini Rant!

What is the deal with new "Minis"? They are just so bloody common now!

Phee's friends at Uni all seem to be getting them, with three of her little circle of friends having "bought" them in the last year. They're just bloody everywhere! And the both the cars and their drivers annoy me.


First, let me start on the cars themselves. They are just not Minis! For a start, the inherently British icons of the motoring world are now German! And for a German car, they apparently have quite a few known faults. I mean, don't get me wrong, the Germans and Japanese make awesomely reliable cars on the whole!

And it's just not diddy enough. It's too big looking. It doesn't even have diddy wheels! This picture shows that the newer version is bigger. And just doesn't have the cute appeal:

And as for the drivers... well, they drive just like any other BMW driver: like a fucking wanker. No Mini EVER, will own the road. So why the drivers of them seem fit to try, I dunno! The tailgating bastard up my arse is now a BMW, 4x4 or a new "Mini" driver... basically, these silly cars are just BMWs for women!

And all these people go on about is how cute their car is. No it's not, it's bloody huge! And they normally have those ridiculous stripes now them. Or a silly roof!

If you want a Mini... get a REAL ONE!

The State of English Football!

So, what can be said about Steve MclAren's reign and the way it ended on Wednesday night? Whatever I say about it usually involves a few expletives!

We can all look to Wednesday night's game against Croatia at Wembley and say we lost that and that's why we aren't going to Austria and Switzerland next year, but in truth that's not it at all! The whole campaign has been rather shit. Drawing to teams have of England haven't even heard of, let alone know where they are! The main problem we've had is not scoring goals when we need them most.

Before we lost 2-3 to Croatia, we'd only let in four goals in the whole Qualifying Campaign! Not bad. My Rockbeare Rangers side would have been proud of a record like that! So it certainly wasn't defensively we've struggled... with John Terry and Rio Ferdinand at the back we have one of the best centre back pairings in the world (obviously Kolo and Willy Gallas are better!). With Micah Richards coming through and other able deputies proving they can move up to the next level, like Nicky Shorey at left back, English defending has rarely looked stronger...

...until Wednesday night!
Back then, when you shove a 22 year old goalie between the sticks for his competitive debut in a MUST-NOT-LOSE game, that's a helluva lot of pressure! And fucking up the first thing he had to do probably didn't help. Was Scott Carson to blame? Not in my opinion... it's McLaren's fault for gambling in such a crunch tie. David James wouldn't have let any of those goals in.

On a plus note, I loved Crouch's volley. I was calling for Becks to come on (I love him, in a completely heterosexual way) and he did what he does, pings a superb cross in. And ol' Lanky did the rest.


Everyone now is going to blame the decline on English football, as they usually do, on foreign players at English clubs. Bollocks. If we had good English players coming through, and if the prices for home grown talent weren't so extortionately high (how much for Gareth Bale?!) then Mr. Wenger, who usually gets the brunt of the stick, wouldn't have to nick half of Barca's youth team!

Trying to limit the amount of foreigners that can play for a club is against everything the E.U. stands for these days and is never gonna happen. If bloody Exeter can fill up with bloody Poles who run off owing you £400 (that's another story), then Arsenal can have a few French blokes and Chelsea can have all the nationalities under the sun. Of course, Man Utd should never have been allowed that diving, crying, whining little fuck.

The English CLUB game is the best in the world. Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea are amongst the elite clubs. We have overtaken Italy and Spain as the club footballing world superpower and Arsenal's football in particular is a joy to watch!


So fuck it. England's national team and McLaren himself got what they deserved. Nothing. We'll go on the come third in a home nations cup next year (behind Scotland and Northern Ireland!) and I'll carry on watching Rockbeare Rangers steam up the local leagues...!

Long Distance Relationships: Can They Work?

It's been said, that long distance relationships do not work. That view may be changing though, due to the rise of instant messengers and social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace.

I feel that I, more than most, can comment on this as I've had both good and bad long distance relationships. A lot depends on how you both feel, whether you are both willing to make the extra effort needed...


My current relationship started online. On occasion, usually late at night when I'm bored and am finding any excuse not to sleep, I frequent a chat site - lovingly referred to by it's users as shit-web. I would usually just sit there, offering random shards of wisdom and watching the roleplayers fight in their Final Fantasy kind of way! But I got talking to a girl who was already in a long distance relationship with a bloke she'd only ever met online. Her screenname I forget (she uses Phee mostly these days) and her name, as most of you know, is Sophie.

After a few months of sporadic chats, we exchanged MSN addresses and talked to each other on an almost daily basis. We would talk about how our days had been, what we enjoyed doing and, increasingly other more intimate subjects. This lead to the exchanging of mobile phone numbers and our daily instant messages became daily (nightly) phone calls. You can get to know someone fairly well without having met them... if they're being honest.

There is a growing trend on news sites and bulletins on TV whereby they constantly warn of the hazards of chat rooms and other internet based services. True, people must be vigilant as there are some strange people out there and bad things DO happen. But you never hear about the good things that can happen if done in a safe manner.

Just before the winter holidays, Sophie came down to Devon (from her home in a village just outside Hull) to stay with me for christmas. A lot of people thought it was strange/dangerous and, to an extent, there was an amount of risk attached to it. But it was worth it.

Since then we have spent six of the nine months we've been together with no less than 100 miles between us, as she has now started a university course in Surrey. Yet our relationship is far stronger than most others I know. We both love each other a great deal. We make sure the time we do spend together is spent wisely, doing things we both enjoy. We appreciate each other more!


So yes... they can work and they are becoming more common. With more and more of our lives being lived online, soon it'll be the only way to have a relationship!