John Grant - Gig Review Birmingham Institute 9 May 2013

John Grant at Digbeth Institute Gig Review. 9 May 2013.

John Grant is unique. Articulating in words the music he plays is incredibly difficult, but the background to this incredibly warm man is quite amazing, which led me to seeing him at Nottingham Glee club touring his first album, and an easy choice to see him in the Library Room in the Institute. It's good that his show is so brilliant, as following the day I had had at work I was in a reasonable grump when I arrived minutes before he came on stage, chuffed to find Budweiser now on tap.

So why is John Grant unique? Well in a world of pretend pop stars, rich kids in bands going to Brit school and churning out tunes, he's definitely been through the ringer, as an artist, he had been in the Czars in the late 90's, early 2000's, not a band I had heard, but he would have beenin his 30's then. Rumour has it he then dropped out, was homeless and was plucked from obscurity by Midlake (thanks Iain!), who knowing his earlier work encouraged and supported him to record his first solo album, the critically acclaimed Queen of Denmark. Another year or maybe 2 and the follow up album, preceded by the single Pale Green Ghosts was dropped, to rapturous applause from in particular both Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie, and listening to their 3 hour show daily, you got to hear them enthuse a lot.

So what makes the songs unique, well taking the first album, the songs are beautiful, piano laced, heart felt but really accessible as the lyrics are very much everyday language, so a particular favourite will be Sigourney Weaver, with the lyrics

And I feel just like Sigourney Weaver
When she had to kill those aliens
And one guy tried to get them back to earth
And she couldn't believe her ears

This was the first song I think that grabbed me by JG, such an odd juxtaposition of words and music, then Mars, about a sweet shop from being a kid I believe. The other thing hat jumps out from both albums is the regular littering of profanities, F bombs galore, but said matter of factly rather than gangster rappy.

So to the gig, and a cracking 2 hours of John which must have covered most of the 2 albums, great banter in between songs although covering some of the darkest subjects, the suicide (shotgun) of a friend, being HiV positive, homophobia, but all of them delivered in a manner than caused a laugh and allowed you to think about them.

The band were all exotically named Icelandic chaps (with caps) except really for the chap from Coventry, but he got a rapturous welcome. Iceland ring John's adoptive home now.

Got to 10:30 and I was expecting that to be it, what with modern curfews but no, we got a half hour encore. Great value for money, or VFM as the kids would say. Definitely one to get me out of the funk I was in, that and the Budweiser anyway.

So you probably don't know John Grant but I will heartily recommend either album, the second with warm electronics replacing those pianos. Just don't play the tunes with Children round!

Dodgy Gig Review in Cannock

When a band complements the audience on beating Hull to the crown of Dogging Capital of the world, it's going to be an interesting gig, and so a Friday night in Cannock watching Dodgy turned out to be. 

It was a journey back out to that neck of the woods following the brilliant gig at Woodys watching Tom Hingley from the Inspiral Carpets (Blogged here) a few weeks ago. The original poster publicising the gig was a little odd given it gave the wrong venue, and missed the fact that it was a run through of the current and first albums in their entirety but it gave us a clue.

It was reasonably challenging to find out about the gig, resorting to tweeting the band and we were off. With Bob driving we took the interesting approach of him looking at a map on line then driving hoping to remember the location or the venue name when we hit Cannock, and it worked with only one misplacing and asking of passers by for directions.

Walking through the streets of cannock we were first hit with the sounds of Agado do do by Black Lace wafting over us from a venue above Boots the chemist, I was mildly perturbed hat this may be the warm up tunes, but luckily this seemed to be a disco going on.

Walking in, an apologetic front deskier noted the ticket machine had broken, and had to be hand written, to which quick as a flash I thanked her for the 'Dodgy ticket' to which she sighed, obviously having had the same comment from everyone prior in the queue.

Dodgy ticket - Boom Boom

Passing a decent merchandise stall, including sew on Dogging badges in the shape of Northern Soul ones, we entered the venue, (which Bobs little daughter had performed Ballet at recently) and I can hand on heart say I have never been to a venue like it. Nice stage, standing area and then a bank of cinema seats at the back with a DJ booth, with Northern Soul songs filling the venue.

Looking round though the most bizarre thing was the randomness of the audience, usually at a gig you will get a tribe there, indie kids, rockers, etc and some theme but here it looked like the audience was just a sample of people plucked at random from Cannock shopping centre, lots of interesting people, a veritable giant, luckily seated at the back, line dancers, old bloke in shirt tie and red braces, rumours of a member of the Charlatans in attendance, massive bouncers, I was just waiting for Peter Kaye and the cast of Phoenix Nights to wander round when...

From the sound desk the Paul Weller barneted promoter announced the ability for us to purchase raffle tickets, one prize of a Dodgy signed guitar (cue second Dodgy joke) and to buy merchandise, Dodgy gear on sale in the foyer....boom and indeed boom.

Support act Sam Forrest playing acoustic shit (by his own admission) was prior Nine Black Alps front man, dressed in lumberjack shirt, cartoon mop hair, but good banter, nice tunes, probably a bit narked to have Driven for 3 hours to get there and everyone was chatting loudly over his acoustic songs. Good stuff and got warm applause.

Another break, Raffle drawn, and Dodgy came on to premier their latest album, Stand Upright In A Cool Place,  first in 14 years played start to finish. It's an anomaly amongst recent bands coming back from the Britpop era as it is definitely written from a grown up perspective, the Autumn of the career, and all the better for it. They were very tight at that point, Nigel Clark lead singer looking in rude health, chatting throughout, Drummer and bvs Matthew Priest now sporting an excellent white beard, he always was a larger than life character in the Britpop wars. Bassist wearing well..., guitarist looking like he had had a tough life and not over the moon to be in Cannock.

Highlight for me for the first album of the night was track 2 'What became of you', coupled with lead singer getting told off for swearing to the crowd (you came her to hear the hits, where's f****ng Staying out for the Summer, where's f*****ng in a room, and wheres f*****ng staying out for the summer ) as his cousins lad was in the crowd. I must admit I was thinking the same a little.

Band off, with the promise of taking us time travelling back to 1993 on their return, a specific request for April 11th was made, more tunes, back on, having partaken of a bit of the rider, and launching into a run through of the Dodgy album, their debut. This was typical Britpop, thoroughly enjoyable, and an album I never bought, but will seek out. You got a sense of melancholy from lead singer going through this, a few barbed comments and the tunes becoming a little less tight as the gig went on. Finishing off with We're Not Going to Take This Anymore they merged into back to life back to reality then went off waving to the crowd.

Promoter leapt back into life, encouraging the audience to be cheering on Indie Legends Dodgy, and to stamp our feet. And we were rewarded with a returning band, half full bottle of scotch in hand to do a Ragged if your thinking of me and good enough, both good tunes, receiving decent sing alongs, from the crowd and including in a long intro for Good Enough a jumping into the audience, pushing people forward to dance and launching of water bottle from one side of the gig to the other, danger danger.

That Bottle of Scotch - the Rider!

Great experience, Dodgy great value for money for the 2 albums and wrapping up at 11:45 was a long old gig, we could have stayed for the disco but were probably right to leave rather than cut a rug with the chap in tie and braces. Final announcements from the promoter promised loads more gigs in Cannock bringing more legends, I would hope he promotes them in the future more widely than flyers in Cannock chip shops as this has potential.

Crowd full of pent up excitement for gig (braces dead centre)

The Wall Of Sound A-Z: The Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

The flaming lips are one of a kind, a band who seem just to make music based around the things they came up with on a drunken night out, those exciting no holds barred ideas, and as a result they are one of my favourite bands.

Picking up Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, it's an interesting record, good first couple of tracks, particularly the strings at the end of the second, the sound of feeling in love, then comes Yoshimi, parts 1&2, and what a difference the 2 parts are, first is a beautiful song about these robots - Perfection. The second, effectively a playing of scales up and down, squishy sounds and not really up to much (it's more interesting live with the full experience as I will expand on below).

In the morning of the magicians, is back to a wistful, beautiful song Wayne Coyne crooning in his ravaged voice with beautiful tunes around. Then spacey sounds and it sounds like what flying in a spaceship would sound like universe rushing past, then back to the gentler element again.

Ego tripping at the gates of hell, is an average pleasant canter through 4 minutes, no short tunes on this album. Similarly are you a hypnotist? And it's summertime, these three songs have all been building up to one of the greatest songs ever written.

Do you realise?? Not only is it a beautiful, beautiful song, every line makes you think about something, Do you realise that everyone will someday die being the one that really gets me every time, probably because I have been relatively sheltered to this in my life. It's a song I could stick on repeat, lie back and close my eyes to.

The last couple of tracks basically rattle through basking in the glow of Do you realise.

So overall the album has 2 of the greatest tracks on it, and takes you on a trip for the rest of the album, brilliant stuff. The music mags loved it too, as the sticker on the front of my cd states:

"...even by their standards, Yoshimi is astonishing. The greatest album released in uncuts lifetime" *****

"The bands most delicate and sophisticated work yet" ***** the times

"The Flaming Lips are out there on their own : there is no one quite like them" Daily Telegraph 

"Outstanding" Sunday Times
It's not the songs though that make the Flaming Lips a phenomenal band but the live experience, I've seen them 3 times and each time it's been a draw dropping performance, whether it's the big plastic ball that Wayne walks over the crowd in, or the numerous green balloons into the crowd bouncing them around, or the big hands, random cam, dancing Santas or Aliens, streamers and confetti guns - it's a party not a gig!

The final word for me would probably be linked to the robots, as around this time me and Mrs P had come into the possession of 2 big black wind up robots, which we would then hide around the house, behind the curtains, in the fridge, in the bed etc to surprise each other whenever we could. They are in the loft now, so may be time to bring them out of retirement.

Ash - the end of an Era

Ash was tiny

Returning home on Friday, after roughly 8 hours driving I got the news that our cat had been to the vets for the last time. Now the Internet is full of pictures of cute cats, and I am not going to add to that number, but I will miss Ash (for that was her name) as we had got her when we got our first house together, and she was a day shy of 17 years old on Friday.

Ash was named primarily after the band Ash who burst onto the Britpop scene as precocious 16 year olds, touring in school holidays etc. it did help that Ash was a cute name for a cat too.

Ash have been a cracking band over the years, being able to throw off golden pop singles willy nilly. Starting with Kung Fu where my love of their tunes began, a blistering pop tune, guitars whirling at the beginning, "Chill, Chill" dang dagga dang....Kung fu do what you do to me....

I've had loads of fun following Ash over the years, they remain the only band I've ever heard of to play a gig in Redditch, at the social club, when they asked the fans on the website where they should play. That was a hot and sweaty gig, topped off by my mate wearing the same T shirt as Rick the drummer.

They were also the object of a vinyl obsession of mine, a red vinyl 7 inch limited edition single, with Drew Barrymore on the front. The single was a limited edition cover, doing get ready, given that's a cracking cover version done by one of my favourite bands it was an object of desire, it was gone quickly from the shops and so I remember thinking seriously about buying the single for £35! You can see this was the time before kids, but also a time where getting a song was hard, not like now where you can get it by jumping on iTunes or tapping on google. If I want the single now it's £7 on discogs, cheaper than most things on record store day.

The song 'Girl from Mars' was always special, having been singing under my breathe for a week or song, Mrs P was disappointed to find out I wasn't singing "I still love you the girl from Marske" the town she's from. It's a special song as a result.

I also got a great sampler album of there mini album Trailer, from Reddingtons Rare Records (long gone) but it looked cool, with the gold writing on the front "FOR PROMOTIONAL USE ONLY. SALE OR OTHER TRANSFER IS PROHIBITED. MUST BE RETURNED ON DEMAND OF RECORD COMPANY" all I can say is I hope they don't ask for it back.

They are still going strong too, no doubt because they are innovative (as seen by the above tour), such as coming up with the A-Z singles releases (a release of a single every fortnight for a year) and accompanying uk tour, visiting a town starting with every letter of the alphabet (Queens Park, London, Ventnor, Zennor, Exmouth were the tricky ones they got)

So to my Ash, she was the runt of the litter, we got her from a Squat in Walsall through a friend of a friend, her tail was broke at the end so it never grew properly and she would never get too friendly with anyone, even if purring you needed to watch out for the swipe of viscous claws. But I am sad now she's gone, she's been a huge part of my life always pottering around, never being any trouble, and the 2 other cats we have, big boy cats, we're clearly scared of little Ash, as they have now started getting on the sofa, they obviously didn't dare before.

My favourite Ash songs, top 5

5. Orpheus - love that Mexican kick off

4. Jack names the planets - played at every gig, on the Trailer album no one else had, good stuff

3. Shining light - interesting fact, covered by Annie Lennox

2. Girl from Mars - for Mrs P

1. Kung Fu - never bettered in my eyes, especially for having the picture of Cantona launched into the crowd as the single cover, classic.

Hong Kong Phooey!

Wistfully reflecting (V Festival)

Its been a week when I've struggled to put pen to paper (how quaint that sounds) for the blog due to the pressures of work, it's been a crazy week. This has been driven partly by the volume of work but more so by the fact that my best mate at work will, next week, be off to Hong Kong for a couple of years, fantastic opportunity but one that will mean the antics of last year, when he was my regular accomplice to any venue to see many eclectic bands is very challenging to say the least.

Why does my mate going to Hong Kong make my work life hectic, because of leaving do's. He is a very popular chap, witnessed by the fact he has been entertained every night and a number of lunches, to which I have been to many and Brum's loss is definitely Hong Kong's gain.

We have been plotting visits, in fact this was the main topic of Mondays Cheltenham Organising Committee Meeting, held in the Meaty BBQ world of Rodizio Rico. The topic was not so much whether we would be going over but more how we would be able to obtain what amounted to the most challenging pass out in history from our respective Missuses. Most favoured was a slow diversion of funds each month, as this will be the only way one of our number will be able to raise the funds due to the unique joint accounted way to which he is funded (his other half being of the accountant variety).

How does my mate vanishing link into the world of music and hence the physical product? Well it may be tenuous but he very much is one of the few people in the world who loves his music as much as me, and has carried a quest if searching out new music past his teenage years. As such we have a vast wealth of things to share.

We have different tastes in music, he knows my unhealthy obsession with female vocalists (the regular discussion going something like, fancy going to see Band X, don't know them, what are they like, oh blonde singer, funny that....) and I enjoy his bands choices I would not come across, for example getting out to see Cry Baby last year at the Hare & Hounds would never have happened without his diligence in the new music scene. It sounds as if his main nervousness about Hong Kong is the local music scene, as having his locations on Song Kick set to Birmingham and Hong Kong provides a clear proliferation of gigs in his present location, although a great opportunity of a music festival in Hong Kong - excuse to travel???

So to wrap up I will just run through some of my favourite moments of the last 13 years that we have shared, ignoring the mini napster service we operated between each other and a memory stick.......

10. Being out on the ales together and texting his Missus (Flapjack) about our progress during the evening, far too graphically, astoundingly I didn't get a restraining order for harassment....given the number of nights this occurred on.

9. Attending last years V festival, being stood for theStones Roses finale (suitably sustained with Ostrich burgers) and being hit from quite song distance by a warm bottle launched from the nether reaches of the field. Unperturbed by the mild concussion we still got to see the fine set by the Roses, lesser men would have wilted. Gig photos were always first class, as witnessed by the people behind him watching the close ups of the band on his camera screen rather than the big screen as it was better quality, now that's a camera!

8. being a connoisseur of the  finer things in life, as witnessed by the regular jaunts to such Michelin starred restaurants in Brum as Purnells, allowing me to hear about this without being made to feel that I was inferior in my not being into those things. A sign of a true gent, and a true gent who met the Duke of York for his supporting of local enterprise (he does a lot of work for charity but doesn't like to talk about it.......as someone once said)

7. Fancy dress parties, by being my right hand man on our group, the opportunity to dress up as Elvis Presley was never far away and one of the finest things in life has got to be walking down broad street late at night, dressed as Elvis, flanked by many of the dodgiest looking 70's reprobates on our was to our private party at Flares.

6. Or organising, with JT the first Christmas party at Reflex, breaking in the group to fancy dress through school disco theme and being offered one of the most drunken, enthusiastic events on record, quite why their was a dancing pole in the middle of the venue I don't know but it meant we were presented by a cross between St Trinians and....well I don't know what but everyone enjoyed it. It may be outlawed now in our Diversity training I suppose.

5. Helping me transform our away job (Leatherhead, Rotherham, Glasgow) from the most hated job in the office to one of the most sought after to work on, with competitions, trips to London, pub quizzes, banter and general 'Work Hard, Play Hard' mentality. Seeing a bunch of random team members from all over the world sprinting round a laser quest centre being kids again, and heading off to see we will Rock you were 2 highlights that spring to mind very quickly. As dies going to see a film with the team and one of our number walk into a lamp post whilst texting... Priceless.

4.  Friendly football banter, he supports the Villa, I don't at all! But despite this we have had loads of good banter about what's been going on at our respective clubs, it's been largely good natured banter about things such as money laundering qualified accounts, relegations, McLeishs defection, relegations, promotions, crap football, cup wins, relegations. The banter is always fun and there is never a needle, a gent.

3. Being up for an incredibly fun annual event at Cheltenham, along with various planning meetings (as better described HERE)

2. Holding a below the radar Sports Day at work, an impromptu get together in the sun next to his house, which held in half term, on a school field allowed the managers in the group to bring along their kids prove they were human, and create the best working relationship I have known at work. The BBQ from Flapjack was first class too.

1. Filming the below video one work morning. Getting our minis together for a jaunt round Birmingham was the brain child of a drunken Christmas party, written down and booked in the diary for 4 months later. More amazingly when the day came round we just planned it and went for it. The result was one of the most fun days I have had in my life, I wonder what the new starter we booked for the day to film thought about her intro to her professional career. Fantastic.

This was an easy top 10 to come up with, it's not definitive by any means, there are many things I have missed but that just shows what Hong Kong's gain is.

I suppose the thing I will miss the most is the support, someone who, whether it's work, life or music will give me the opportunity to bounce ideas back and forth and give me the confidence to try for that little bit more. He is the dictionary definition of ACE.

Wall of sound A-Z: E : Elastica Elastica

Wall of sound A-Z: E : Elastica Elastica

Starting off with spiky guitar riffs Line Up must be the only debut song on record that kicks off with a song with what sounds to the untrained ear to be 'retching' all the way through, and despite this its a cracking tune. Onto Annie, and we are into a lively tune Britpop romp, over in 1:14 barely time to write a sentence.

Now connection is a TUNE as I believe the young folks say, this is the sort of tune that got me into Elastica at the time, amazingly I don't think I was aware that Justine, the lead singer and guitarist was ex Suede and had committed the cardinal sin of swapping Brett Anderson for Damon Albarn in the Beau stakes. How anyone can be cool enough to snag both of them lot I don't know, but very impressive. So rather than Elastica being listened to because of Suede links (step forward McAlmont & Butler) it was a favourite CD on merit.

Being released in 1995, it fell nicely in the era when I could go out with a paypacket and purchase the latest tunes, still having to eek out a bargain (starting on £9,000 pay with a first class degree!). The albums pretty instantly listenable to, punky songs, only 4 on the album stretching over 3 minutes in length, they don't overstay their welcome.

Not sure they were a band that Mrs P enjoyed but I did manage to drag her out to Digbeth Institute to see them, a venue that was to obtain for many years a magical nostalgia as Elastica were the only band I had seen there before it shut for a decade. It was a lovely old building, smoky to say the least and rammed with sweaty students. Tall sweaty students to be honest which meant that I was going to get an ear bending from Mrs P if I wasn't careful when the support band came on, as she couldn't see anything. However we were in luck,  not sure whether they were a recent invention or not but the drinks in the Institute came in the most robust plastic pint glasses ever, allowing the ever resourceful Mrs P to balance precariously on 2 for the gig, me chasing them round on the odd occasion a wobble got the better of her.

Support that day were also pretty special in Powder, Pearl Lowe's band. Its been quite interesting to read over the years about Pearl Lowe's exploits in show biz, in fact having just reminisced about her, I have now purchased her book 'All that glitters' on ebay for 99p, I reckon that will be interesting. But on the musical front Powder produced a couple of cracking tunes, Shave me and Aphrodisiac which have received regular spins over the years.

The main event is something I can't remember too much about, I bumped into my later best man (now nicknamed the shadow as he has vanished from view) sporting his Ultra cool John Travolta in Pulp Fiction haircut (he was a drummer in a band, Crystal Injection maybe??). Hadn't seen him for years so it was a good spot, and being seen at Elastica must have done my street cred some good. I do look back incredibly fondly on the gig there and would put the feeling right up there if you know what I mean.

In my opinion, the best song on the album though is Waking Up. Cd single (remember them, brilliant, all up in the loft) purchased to kick off my love of Elastica, helping them get to a respectable #13 in the charts. The funny thing is though that Elastica had to settle out of court with the Stranglers for plagiarising 'No more heroes' with this song. I thought this was a bit harsh given Britpop was the world of the plagiarising artist (step forward Oasis (Beatles) and Blur (Kinks)) but no it was good old Elastica.

Actually having listened to Vaseline, how much is that like Blondies La La La on Sunday girl, I believe the years of listening 6 music may have opened my ears a bit more to the plagiarising. Right I am going to go back to no more heroes (a song I love) to spot Waking up....... oh, 18 years its taken me to spot that. I'll get my coat. What's that you say, its Wire songs too that are ripped off.

Well despite the album now turning into an album of almost covers, I do have an amazing fondness for the album, and Waking Up is still a fantastic song. Coming to the penultimate tune, 'Never here' its a song about Brett and Justine's break up apparently, what will I glean from the lyrics, well, sounds like they were typical student types, too much curry, Brett's lyrics were a bit ropey (they didn't scan indeed) and sounds like that was the end.

Going forward Elastica waited a good 5 years to do a follow up, with a significantly changed line up, down to substance abuse, or not finding any more tunes to slightly tweak, and I saw them again at Wolverhampton before the break up. Justine's an artist or summink now. Elastica are just a blistering punk pop band I love.

Adam Ant Gig Review Leicester Academy 24 April 2013

Adam Ant: Leicester Academy 24 April 2013

I don't know quite what it is about Adam Ant, but his gigs are electric, it may be because of the 2 drummers, it may be because of the incredibly catchy tunes, it may be the swagger of Adam front and centre, it may be the foxy backing singer, it may be the warmth from the crowd but every gig is electric. That's 4 times now I have seen Adam Ant, crack through just short of 2 hours of blistering tunes, and every time I have come out of the gig on cloud 9.

I think however it may be the memories evoked from the songs. Tonight I went with one of my oldest mates (not old old, but I have known him since the first day of school) and in between songs we were reliving the memories that the songs evoked, listening to the albums in our bedrooms, taping albums off record players whilst being incredibly quiet (and having a Mum shouting did we want a drink on tape) the listening to Lady surreptitiously due to its lyrics commenting on a naked lady.

A great memory was of the old C90 that my Dad got me with Friend or Foe on it, sadly it had Shaking Stevens on the other side, but I can still recite every word on the album. My mate also recalled the gatefold sleeve he had with Adams ankle looking deformed as it was on the fold.

Tonight's gig was littered with a sprinkling of the new songs, with most sitting very well, particularly the Bob Dylanesque Cool Zombie. Pretty impressive for a guy who must be comfortably in his 50's at least.

Going back to the Burundi Drumming, why hasn't Anyone else done anything like this over the years, it's so powerful, really enjoyed the Prince Charming with both drummers stood up, 2 big gong sticks in hand going dum der dum der, dum der dum der......

Couple of encores, roof raised, a rocking cover of Get it on(bang a gong), acoustic sing along to Prince Charmings, 'Dont you ever, don't you ever, lower yourself forgetting all your standards'

Early start for the gig meant I missed support band New Killer Shoes but the charms of my mate obtained a signed CD from them, each so I will relive their set at my leisure.

Georgie Girl

Walking back to the car, my mate confirmed this was one of the best gigs he has ever seen, and he's seen some legendary gigs like Stone Roses at Spike Island. Final comment, its funny to see backing singer Georgie Girl in the flesh knowing that she was the cause indirectly of Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross's Radio shows (she being the focus of Sach's gate, his granddaughter), anyway I blame the outraged daily mail readers for that one, 'Outraged from Surbiton, they should be sacked, hung, drawn and quartered'.

I would recommend Adam Ant to anyone, no one at this gig, of any age, left without a smile on their faces, the highlight for me, Ant Invasion - I have always loved the tension in that track, brought out tonight by Adam & guitar playing the chords throughout.

Here comes the sun - what a difference 2 years make!

I will always be a marathon Runner!

Its funny this morning as I get ready for my little sisters wedding, its a very different Sunday to what the pair of us were up to 2 years ago when we were currently trudging around the London Marathon course wondering why on earth we had signed on for such a mad enterprise. 

Funnily enough today I am chuffed to bits to see the Sun outside, weddings are always a little challenging in the drizzle or even worse snow, but contrast this to 24 months ago, the hottest day of the year bought disaster to many marathon runners plans. So to mark my sisters Wedding and our not running I am going to reference my favourite Beatles tune for the day, and consider its contrasts.

and this is what it felt like to run a marathon if anyone wonders! My post from 2 years ago:

It's now Monday afternoon, and my legs are beginning to seize up as todays dose of Ibuprofen wares off. While the marathon is (painfully) fresh in my memory I thought I would jot down the gory details, and also to reflect on what I will take away (which seems to be this years buzz word).

So I completed the marathon, and it was bloody hard. The weather yesterday was glorious, for everyone spectating. The view from the runner was that I could have done with a little more of the glorious weather being saved for when I had the opportunity to enjoy it, the bank holiday weekends spring to mind.

The experience was really interesting, went down to London early on Saturday, registered at Excel and went round their exhibition of all things running related, this got me all the more excited for the following day's event, listening to motivational speakers galore. Afternoon was a bit of pottering round London, enjoying international record store day and cursing my blackberries slow internet access as I followed Birmingham's excellent victory over Sunderland. In the evening I got together my final preparations, realised it was going to be sunny and so had to decide whether to wear my running vest or my running top, rather than both. Top won out as the vest was a little snug and when I tried it on the outcome was a little camp for my liking. It was probably a good job as writing my name on my running vest with a permanent marker left the vest with a decidedly hallucinogenic effect when trying it on, and then when I tried to wash the smell off it turned out that the permanent pen was anything but (the Hilton sink had a very black tide mark as a result). So the decision was set, I was running in an old Blues shirt, I had a good meal of Pizza to stock up on carbs and went to bed suitably nervous but excited.

And then yesterday, the day of the Marathon, everyone in London seemed to be wandering around with red virgin plastic bags, and we congregated at the starting point. Due to my pessimism when signing up 6 months ago, my starting position on the grid was at the back, right at the back, I started running next to Brian the snail from the magic roundabout, a fire engine and an 8 foot tall pink nurse called Rob.

9:45 came and off we set, I knew that it was warm, so I set a pace for myself with my lovely new Nike plus watch that was slower than my half marathon paces, to try to take this into account and spent a few miles taking in the atmosphere, I could feel it getting hotter, but I kept thinking that was fine as I had put in the miles in training, was taking it relatively easy and drinking at each drinks station. However at about 10 miles I realised that perhaps the heat was going to be quite a big factor for someone carrying a decent amount of timber! I had been sweating quite a bit, and the joy of sweat laced with suntan cream stinging my eyes must have made me look like I had begun crying very early in the race, but I carried on, and getting to tower bridge at half way was a real boost - having to run less than I had run already is normally a massive psychological boost for me, but in this instance it was not the greatest, as I just felt knackered. In fact I felt really empty, as if I had burnt up all the fuel in my body, so I had a little panic for half a mile, and came up with a plan.

I then started running at the side of the course and grabbed any good sources of nourishment offered from the crowd that I could. I have never been so over the moon to see a small child handing out jelly babies or an old dear with her bowl of opal fruits. Funnily enough this, coupled with the handing out of 'lucozade gel packs' (basically this seems to be refresher sweets in gel format) gave me a renewed lease of life and I continued for another few miles, having slowed my pace accordingly.

Until mile 17, I turned a bend and felt a squelch in my foot, which I knew from experience was a blow out (or great big blister exploding). So I was now knackered and in pain, and decided to slow the pace down, well I didn't, my body suggested I might want to. I passed a young lad handing out jaffa cakes, and was reminded of a recent Dave Gorman piece on his radio about what was the right way to eat them, (separating the orange bit and letting it dissolve, or full moon, half moon, total eclipse) the answer I found was ram it into my mouth as quickly as possible, barely stopping to chew.

I was now playing mind games with myself, as the need to walk a bit in between running kicked in at about 19 miles, games like walk this song and then start running, or walk until a mile marker and then run the next mile, it was challenging to say the least. In addition I had some merry battles with the 8 foot tall nurse Rob, a couple of Rhino's, a chap covered in poppies, a tiger and a bloke dressed in pink with a tutu and a bucket. It may sound stupid, but when walking and passed by any of the above it does spur one into action, slow action I will grant you, but action non the less.

And then I was in the final 3 miles, which I ran all of, and it was tough, my mind flicked to loads of different things, but quite often to the huge amount of sponsorship from people and how I wanted to do people proud in that respect, I reckon so far I am at about £2.5k in sponsorship money which exceeded what the Miscarriage association expected, and which has made me feel really humbled by the support.

Into the last mile, then 800 yards, 600 yards, 400 yards, turn the corner, game face on, 385 yards, smiling at the first official photographer, 200 yards, arms aloft for the next 100 yards and in arms raised triumphantly (having checked that on either side there was noone who would make me look stupid in my official photo, I am not ashamed to admit that I ran significantly faster on that element of the run because of the bloke wholly atired in pink with a pink bucket and tu tu mincing down the mall, and the chance that he would be in my official photo.) My time, 5 hours and 8 minutes, the longest 5 hours and 8 minutes of my life, and most painful.

and it was over, I was handed my medal, got my bag, slumped to the ground and then ate everything edible that they provided. I called Claire (Mrs P) and got an excited Dylan and Evie shouting 'well done daddy down the phone' (they had watched the coverage running round the lounge in circuits Dylan being me, Evie being Auntie Lynny (my sister who some of you know who also ran, and ran a good steady pace throughout, she ran the perfect marathon in my opinion! )

Me and Lyn went to her charity get together after, had some pasta and a well received sports massage, well received by me, I think that the masseur would have been less than enamoured to have a less than fragrant brummie struggling to get onto the massage table. Onto the train to come home, which was a little painful (steps at Euston anyone) I cracked open a warm can of London Pride - not my drink of choice, but one of the nicest alcoholic drinks I can ever remember after my recent abstinence.

I dutifully updated my facebook page to let my friends know I was alive and then was inundated and personally overwhelmed by the response, so many people said such nice things that I began walking very tall (although with more of a John Wayne gait due to blisters and stiffness) and wishing that I could have had those people around the course for the last 13 or so miles for support. This has continued, today at work everyone had stopped and asked me how things went, lots of praise, and the inevitable question, have you been bitten by the bug, and the answer to that is no. Thats it, its been a long road since I started training (2 years) and 16 weeks of full on training, giving up time with the family (and drinking) so I have achieved my ambition, raised a money for charity and have a warm glow.

So I am a marathon runner, and always will be.

Thanks for all of your support, it really has meant a lot to me.