John's Blog: Archive

This archive covers my early blog format from 13 March 2004, through to 14 November 2007. There is not too much in this archive, since I was working full time as a lecturer at Sunderland University up until September 2006. By then I had started writing a fairly extensive blog for my local paper. the Sunderland Echo, and my blogging energies were deployed in that direction over this past year. However, I have stopped doing that now (basically, I felt a bit blogged out after submitting some 65 entries to them) and so I am hoping to build up my blog on this site. To do this, I have decided to change the format slightly. Instead of building the blogs up in a table (like this archive page), I shall make clickable links giving each blog entry its own page.

In the table below, the entries are arranged by date (and I use the English date convention: dd.mm.yy)

Date Entry

12.11.07 It has been a long time since I wrote in this blog. Last year I did a blog for the electronic version of my local newspaper, the Sunderland Echo, but after about 65 blogs over the space of a year I felt pretty blogged out with them, so I'm not doing that any more.
I played at the Smugglers pub at Roker beach last night. Mick was running the night and it seemed to be very lively. I had played last Thursday and a couple called Bam and Anne made requests and I promised to play them next time I was down there. So I played “Dying for a smoke” and “Brussels Sprouts Blues”. I also played “The Blob” (which is about the most meaningless nonsense song I have ever composed) and “Fried Eggs for Breakfast”
I went down to the pub with my mate Terry Barr. We got there at dusk but we were able to see the sand and seaweed that had been washed up by the recent high tide. Indeed, when we were playing last Thursday a large council lorry had drawn up by the pub and offloaded some sandbags for them as part of the flood warning procedure. We shared a taxi home so that meant we could both have a pint or three.
Later on in the evening I got into an interesting conversation with Paul Crowe about psychoanalysis. Although when I lectured in psychology I had often been critical of psychoanalytic theory, I found myself defending it last night as providing another lens through which to view our lives, should the common sense spectacles that we have been brought up with become opaque, or even shatter.
The material in my songs, my style of singing and some of my guitar playing techniques are not always what people going to buskers nights in the North East of England expect. It is not infrequent that at least one person takes against it (or me) and sometimes in a rather intense personal sort of fashion. I felt that from a guy at the end of the evening last night. It happened again a few weeks before at The Harbour Lights pub at South Shields. Still, there is no earthly reason why folk should like my compositions, my singing or my guitar playing. Indeed, there is no earthly reason why they should like me. But when I do come across these isolated incidents of people really disliking me or my stuff, it always makes me feel glum. I find it difficult to do the water-off-a-ducks-back thing. This is very silly, because loads of people have told me over and over again that they really like my songs. I should focus on them and not on the minority of people who I piss off.
I'm not sure about playing out this week. I'm having breakfast with my old mate Tom Young at the Bungalow Cafe atop the Roker cliff looking over the harbour, on Wednesday. We might try to find a venue to play at then. Well, I don't know whether I'll get back to writing here again. Who knows, maybe I shall. When I wrote my blog for the Echo, I always used to finish by saying:
Until the next time, I remain…
Your very own,
Enigmatic Pencil

29.01.07 Played at the acoustic night that the Smugglers pub on Marine Walk in Sunderland runs on a Sunday night. Actually, I've still got the music buzzing round my head. I'm home now, at about half-past midnight, thinking about the music and the sight of the white frothy waves rolling in against the inky black sea, as we left. It's a great sight when you step out of that pub onto the beach late at night.
I drove my friends Terry and Ray down to the gig, so I stayed off the beer tonight. Sometimes I like it that way. It was a good night.
I'd like to thank those in the audience who said nice things about my songs, especially the two couples sitting at the table on my left. And good luck to the young man who I chatted to afterwards who is hoping to get up to play for the first time quite soon. I know you need a lot of courage to do that, and we all had our own 'first time up on stage'. I'm sure you will be ok, when you are ready for it. Good luck with the practice!
Hope to see you all again in the not too distant future.

22.04.06 I’ve been out of it for a while due to my fall at Tony & Costello’s wedding reception. I think more or less all of the regular Pond Life musicians were there and Tony and Dave played a live set at one point. This reminds me that maybe I need to open up a Pond Life page. Maybe I’ll do that and include a couple of photos of Tony and Dave playing their set, to start it off. Anyway, I hope to be back to normal by mid May when the plaster comes off my leg.

11.04.06 It feels as though a lot has gone on this past month. I've put two new poets up on the poetry page. I've put one disgusting pic up on the Photagraphs page. I put about three or four new podasts up and I've had enough feedback to know that if you are on broadband on PC (maybe not Mac) you should be able to download my Podcast files.
I've also put some downloadable snippets of my songs in my repertoire. It is not possible for me to offer pay by song downloads at present. I hope you are enjoying the site. Do please email me at john@lewismusic.co.uk with any thoughts, feedback, or ideas. Thank you.

29.03.06 I’ve put a Poetry Page up today. Fay Smith (no relation) sent me some of her poems and we discussed the possibility of getting them up on this site. So, I’ve done it. Hope you enjoy them. I have several so I could maybe change them round from time to time.

23.03.06 I've put a podcast up about the gig last night at the Black Bull, Frosterley. At the end I mention a BBC Radio Three programme that I was listening to on the way back in the car: it was Late Junction presented by Fiona Talkington.

22.03.06 The gig at the Black Bull, Frosterly:
It was a good pub. However, three inter-connected bars poses something of a challenge as to where the stage actually is.
Some fine poetry was heard by all. I felt a bit nervous about the whole thing, but it could have been a lot worse.

21.03.06 It really is two years since I first thought about doing this. So, my behavioural prediction is another entry in March, 2008. The pace is very slow on this site, which I take to be an entirely good thing. Indeed, it is something of an antidote to the more youthful sites that abound with all those flashing images and Dream-Bloody-Weaver-ish pretensions. Paaah!
This past year has been one of a plethora of plectra; I just could not settle down. Plastic, nylon; big, small; Dunlop, Gibson ~ I wondered whether the obsession would ever end. I blame it all on that lovely little Zen Guitar book.
I've had a lot of trouble working up my song about English post boxes (the red ones that stand in the street) but my friends Tony & Costello helped when they suggested it needed a bridge (although perhaps not over the River Kwai because my partner Deborah hates it when I whistle). That song is nearly 'off book', as the actors say.
I haven't been playing out much, apart from the Pond Life (music collective) gigs and John's pub in Sunderland (The Rosedene). Although we have done less of that lately. Have to see how the gig at the Black Bull goes tomorrow night.
Btw, I'm going to try to get some pics up in future.

13.03.04 Played at the Royal George, Old Shotton.

Date	Entry
12.11.07	It has been a long time since I wrote in this blog. Last year I did a blog for the electronic version of my local newspaper, the Sunderland Echo, but after about 65 blogs over the space of a year I felt pretty blogged out with them, so I'm not doing that any more. I played at the Smugglers pub at Roker beach last night. Mick was running the night and it seemed to be very lively. I had played last Thursday and a couple called Bam and Anne made requests and I promised to play them next time I was down there. So I played “Dying for a smoke” and “Brussels Sprouts Blues”. I also played “The Blob” (which is about the most meaningless nonsense song I have ever composed) and “Fried Eggs for Breakfast” I went down to the pub with my mate Terry Barr. We got there at dusk but we were able to see the sand and seaweed that had been washed up by the recent high tide. Indeed, when we were playing last Thursday a large council lorry had drawn up by the pub and offloaded some sandbags for them as part of the flood warning procedure. We shared a taxi home so that meant we could both have a pint or three. Later on in the evening I got into an interesting conversation with Paul Crowe about psychoanalysis. Although when I lectured in psychology I had often been critical of psychoanalytic theory, I found myself defending it last night as providing another lens through which to view our lives, should the common sense spectacles that we have been brought up with become opaque, or even shatter. The material in my songs, my style of singing and some of my guitar playing techniques are not always what people going to buskers nights in the North East of England expect. It is not infrequent that at least one person takes against it (or me) and sometimes in a rather intense personal sort of fashion. I felt that from a guy at the end of the evening last night. It happened again a few weeks before at The Harbour Lights pub at South Shields. Still, there is no earthly reason why folk should like my compositions, my singing or my guitar playing. Indeed, there is no earthly reason why they should like me. But when I do come across these isolated incidents of people really disliking me or my stuff, it always makes me feel glum. I find it difficult to do the water-off-a-ducks-back thing. This is very silly, because loads of people have told me over and over again that they really like my songs. I should focus on them and not on the minority of people who I piss off. I'm not sure about playing out this week. I'm having breakfast with my old mate Tom Young at the Bungalow Cafe atop the Roker cliff looking over the harbour, on Wednesday. We might try to find a venue to play at then. Well, I don't know whether I'll get back to writing here again. Who knows, maybe I shall. When I wrote my blog for the Echo, I always used to finish by saying: Until the next time, I remain… Your very own, Enigmatic Pencil
29.01.07	Played at the acoustic night that the Smugglers pub on Marine Walk in Sunderland runs on a Sunday night. Actually, I've still got the music buzzing round my head. I'm home now, at about half-past midnight, thinking about the music and the sight of the white frothy waves rolling in against the inky black sea, as we left. It's a great sight when you step out of that pub onto the beach late at night. I drove my friends Terry and Ray down to the gig, so I stayed off the beer tonight. Sometimes I like it that way. It was a good night. I'd like to thank those in the audience who said nice things about my songs, especially the two couples sitting at the table on my left. And good luck to the young man who I chatted to afterwards who is hoping to get up to play for the first time quite soon. I know you need a lot of courage to do that, and we all had our own 'first time up on stage'. I'm sure you will be ok, when you are ready for it. Good luck with the practice! Hope to see you all again in the not too distant future.
22.04.06	I’ve been out of it for a while due to my fall at Tony & Costello’s wedding reception. I think more or less all of the regular Pond Life musicians were there and Tony and Dave played a live set at one point. This reminds me that maybe I need to open up a Pond Life page. Maybe I’ll do that and include a couple of photos of Tony and Dave playing their set, to start it off. Anyway, I hope to be back to normal by mid May when the plaster comes off my leg.
11.04.06	It feels as though a lot has gone on this past month. I've put two new poets up on the poetry page. I've put one disgusting pic up on the Photagraphs page. I put about three or four new podasts up and I've had enough feedback to know that if you are on broadband on PC (maybe not Mac) you should be able to download my Podcast files. I've also put some downloadable snippets of my songs in my repertoire. It is not possible for me to offer pay by song downloads at present. I hope you are enjoying the site. Do please email me at john@lewismusic.co.uk with any thoughts, feedback, or ideas. Thank you.
29.03.06	I’ve put a Poetry Page up today. Fay Smith (no relation) sent me some of her poems and we discussed the possibility of getting them up on this site. So, I’ve done it. Hope you enjoy them. I have several so I could maybe change them round from time to time.
23.03.06	I've put a podcast up about the gig last night at the Black Bull, Frosterley. At the end I mention a BBC Radio Three programme that I was listening to on the way back in the car: it was Late Junction presented by Fiona Talkington.
22.03.06	The gig at the Black Bull, Frosterly: It was a good pub. However, three inter-connected bars poses something of a challenge as to where the stage actually is. Some fine poetry was heard by all. I felt a bit nervous about the whole thing, but it could have been a lot worse.
21.03.06	It really is two years since I first thought about doing this. So, my behavioural prediction is another entry in March, 2008. The pace is very slow on this site, which I take to be an entirely good thing. Indeed, it is something of an antidote to the more youthful sites that abound with all those flashing images and Dream-Bloody-Weaver-ish pretensions. Paaah! This past year has been one of a plethora of plectra; I just could not settle down. Plastic, nylon; big, small; Dunlop, Gibson ~ I wondered whether the obsession would ever end. I blame it all on that lovely little Zen Guitar book. I've had a lot of trouble working up my song about English post boxes (the red ones that stand in the street) but my friends Tony & Costello helped when they suggested it needed a bridge (although perhaps not over the River Kwai because my partner Deborah hates it when I whistle). That song is nearly 'off book', as the actors say. I haven't been playing out much, apart from the Pond Life (music collective) gigs and John's pub in Sunderland (The Rosedene). Although we have done less of that lately. Have to see how the gig at the Black Bull goes tomorrow night. Btw, I'm going to try to get some pics up in future.
13.03.04	Played at the Royal George, Old Shotton.

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