A Restless November

 So far this month has been pretty non-stop, even with being off work for a bit - I had a fair bit planned including gigs and Alton Towers. Before that though, last month marked the start of a couple of things... As a band we agreed we wanted to get something out soon so we have made a decent start on the recording process. I've dug out the old MIDI drum file for Book Of Nothing to build up from and redevelop, Fluctuate too. I need to create some more as references for Dan but I'm in no rush to stress over it. I'm hoping to get some bass recorded over the next few days but would prefer to restring my bass first. The Weather has been really shitty the last few days, heavy rain is making me think twice about travelling into town since there's risk of flooding today. I have debated just popping into my local music shop  (Zebra) but I always feel awful going in because I hardly do (shameful, I know but I usually go to The Music Inn - whom I also need to pay a visit to soon.) The other thing - Secret band No. 2 is in the works.

I guess I got a few days to myself being while away from work. Originally I was going to see Marty at Rough Trade. This was a rescheduled gig since the previous one in October was cancelled last minute due to bad weather - I had literally just made it into to town when I found out and I remember traffic bad. I guess the bands originally booked were double-booked and couldn't make the new date as we ended up being offered a support slot which we were very excited for. This marks our first time playing Rough Trade, Nottingham which was both a fantastic opportunity and experience. Marty are more pop-rock, certainly much lighter than us not that we are in anyway a heavy metal band. It's all fuzz and distortion. I think we still went down very well anyway and that's what matters. I noticed a few people I had spotted at other gigs, fans of mutual bands if you like. I wore out my shoulders and arms carrying gear though town and the following morning I was off to Alton Towers for the day so that was fun.

In all seriousness, Alton Towers was great as always... I was just a little worn out already but I still managed to survive a full day somehow. I set off around 8:30am to pick up Chantelle then set off. It was just us two going this year which admittedly made things much easier in terms of planning the day and navigating around faster yet still at our own pace. My first ride of the day was Nemesis. It had to be. It was the penultimate day before closing for re-tracking and she still feels just as good as the first time I was persuaded to get on in 2011. Nemesis is the same age as me - built in 1994. Not bad at all. I recall giving the coaster car I rode in a couple of taps and saying, "Not bad, you've still got it" as I was about to disembark and the ride photo really says it all. I had to this one on my own but after we both went on the Pirate ship opposite (Blade) then Air/Galactica (It's still air to me, especially now there's no VR) - unfortunately we didn't get a photo from this one as they had to reboot the system and our photo seemed to just not be there when we got to the automated kiosk which is a shame as it was Chan's first time riding and she actually enjoyed it - I think. We walked back though past Dual which was suspiciously closed - hopefully not for good. There were signs up saying the property had been repossessed, which for a haunted house can only be good news. Somehow, I don't think Merlin have gone bankrupt since it was a sold out day. (28K people) I can't remember where we went next but I remember riding Hex, Oblivion the Congo River Rapids and Wicker Man before it was time for fireworks which really isn't bad going for a sold out day! Margining on impressive. I'm not gonna talk massively about the fireworks as they were amazing as expected but I will mention that they also had drones this year which I wasn't expecting. I've uploaded videos to my YouTube channel anyway (STKMY) 

After the fireworks, we were kinda stuck in a sort of big holding pen for half an hour as they got the rides ready again for the last two hours. I had decided beforehand that I wanted to go on the Smilier - I hadn't been on it for years since the queue times are usually ridiculous 70-90 min mark. It was a horrible experience when the flood gates were finally opened. People were pushing people that couldn't move. When we got to the end of the path past Spinball it opened up a little and people started running to the ride they were after. I was that irritable at this point I stopped a young gal from queue jumping by putting my arm in the way. I was here now. Experiencing The Smiler in the dark was certainly something. I wasn't waiting too long either - roughly half an hour I think, maybe a little longer. It was so nice to finally experience it again. We went to the gift shop (again) before leaving. I bought my friend Bekkie that now lives in Finland a Nemesis scarf (she loves Nemesis like me) which has since been delivered as her mum went to visit recently. I also bought myself an Alton Towers Christmas jumper that looks like its trying to be a band tour shirt and I love it - it has all the big rides on the reverse. The drive back was a bit of a nightmare, lots of heavy fog coming out of the village so I daren't go over 30mph because I couldn't seen 2m in front of me. Even my fog lights didn't help all that much. We made it back ok though in the end.

I had a few days to recover after this, although I did decide to go to a gig the night after and met some new faces. It was at The Old Bus Depo in Nottingham. It was my first time going and I rather enjoyed it. Saw a few familiar faces too - Sam and Emily from Alice's Ants, Mark from Labyrinth and the Marshall AVTs on the stage which were definitely ex Clarendon. Absolutely had to be. Line up was Paste, Kynch and A Void. I had seen A Void last month in Derby but their sound was so much better at this venue and it was a much more intimate experience. I got chatting to the bassist a little after the show which was interesting. I had seen Kynch before too but it was quite a few years ago. They're drummer reminds me of Michael Ives - one of our past drummers. Drums so hard (and well) that the kit shuffles forward constantly and attacks the front man. This ended up being a later night than planned as I went to Percy's with Sam & Emily afterwards with Martin from Confyde.

Originally we planned to have a second jam with secret band No. 2 on the Wednesday but a certain someone forgot to book it which lead us rescheduling and costing more pennies yesterday. On Thursday 10th November I went to see Deaf Havana at Rock City which I'm still blown away by. I really love their new sound. Very Alt-Pop with dark themes and some lighter wholesome nods. I'm so glad they played some of my favourite tunes including "Sinner" which I think went down best with most singing along. I definitely want to see these guys again if I can, wish they opened the balcony up though - there was a few of us that wanted to go up there.

I still haven't stopped. As I briefly mentioned, we had another jam session yesterday toying with more ideas. I shared a few new riffs again and we managed to develop one into a full song structure in an instant which is just ridiculous. I'm really enjoying playing guitar again though, not that Kill the Moon has taken a back bench or anything it's more that we're not busy at the moment (gig wise) I definitely need to resting my guitar soon too though, I've been using my Washburn KC-40 for these sessions, such a fun little superstrat to play, I don't think I could ever part with this one. Exciting times for sure!

RIP Aaron Carter

 I was in shock when I heard the news but then if I'm honest with myself, almost immediately not surprised. I remember checking up on what he work he had done more recently and not really being impressed. It's sad really. I used to listen to his early music as a teen on a daily basis. It would play on my mp4 player on the way to school and later college. More recently, I found that mp4 player - it's a Sony Walkman something-or-other and it still holds charge really well and works brilliantly. Which means I found myself listening to these songs again. I still knew the words. They hadn't fell out of my head all these years later. It's a shame no one could help him out of habits and push him back in the right direction. 

I listened to some of his brothers music too. Was never big on The Backstreet Boys but some of Nicks solo stuff was great. I think it's important to note that I discovered these artists in a different time - before streaming was a thing and illegal downloading and torrenting was in. I did own an Aaron Carter CD eventually but I bought it from a Music Magpie outlet - Can't remember the name of the store any more but I used to love it. For CDs, it was like Cex on steriods. Some crazy offers on bulk stock, some priced at 99p, multi-buy offers like 3 for £5 or £1.99 each. I miss that. I can't remember how much I would have paid for Aarons CD but it wouldn't have been much and he wouldn't have received a penny for it with it being resold on stock/pre-owned.

Hopefully he's in a better place now, away from his demons. Somewhere that he's cashed out his NFTs and just spending unlimited money with no troubles. That seemed to be how he liked to live his life in recent years. So young too. RIP Aaron Carter.