Guitars and Life

So that was 2008 was it. Well nearly about 12 hours still left. Rubbish year on many fronts, the global financial crisis, continuing conflict in too many areas, again exemplified by the Gaza fighting in recent days. I watched a Michael Palin programme with him trying to trace some crew he sailed with 20 years ago, he went to Mumbai and visited several of the places subsequently attacked in the recent attack. Why so much violence? Anyway - at least for me another sober one under the belt, as long as I don't drink at all today, unlikely as I'm at an AA meeting this evening. Music - lack lustre year in some ways. But CD of the year is either Elbow's Seldom Seen Kid or Kings of Leon Only By the Night - one day one next day the next... :-) Best live album defo Jeff Beck live at Ronnie Scotts. Best rock album Metallica Death Magnetic. So here's to a better and hopefully more peaceful 2009.

Well folks this is the very last post before Christmas 2008. So happy Christmas to all of you. Did anyone see the Rab C Nesbitt Christmas revival special last night? I’d forgotten just how brilliant that show was. I was in stitches throughout – esp. his discussion with the server in the coffee shop about his Tall Latte. Here are a selection of my favourite Christmas tunes for you to enjoy.

On Saturday Mrs F and Son-of-Furtheron headed off to the Bodyworlds exhibition at the O2. Daugther and I had passed on this, largely as I don't think daughter would have liked it. Mrs F said it was fascinating and glad they went - my son said the whole thing about embryos to children's challenged his thinking on abortion. I'd stupidly in a moment of not thinking/listening properly had apparently agreed to take Daughter to Bluewater as she had a voucher still from her birthday burning a hole in her pocket. She is to shopping what I am to guitar ogling; an obsessive. We headed there early with her moaning and me saying in typical grumpy Dad style - "there'll be queues already". There weren't :-( I've never had such an easy exit of the A2 and into the place, this of course accompanied by a daughter in complete "told you so" mode next to me. Anyway we hit the shops then had a Chinese lunch before heading for the exit as the after lunch hordes des...

Well not really but I have been asked to pen a post as a guest blogger on Jemsite a community site with focus on Ibanez Jem guitars plus other stuff. My post is about my guitar collecting obsession and is called in search of the perfect guitar . Funny since penning this last week for them I've since bought this months Guitar Buyer magazine which has a PRS flavour. A PRS catalogue, DVD with endorsees talking ad nauseam about PRS's (I get the point that they "stay in tune dude") and many shops highlighting their PRS stocks throughout the magazine. So now I'm thinking 513 ... I played one a while back and really loved it but that was a rosewood neck one that was really silly money - as if the new mahogany necked one at £2199 is a bargain heh? Or maybe a CE Alder - different, interesting woods and bolt on neck. I'm thinking sort of souped up strat sound. Stop it!!!

With great sadness I heard of Davy Graham's passing this week. Davy was one of the great pioneers of the British Folk scene in the 1960s along with the likes of John Renbourn and Bert Jansch. Bert Jansch is known very much for his rendition of Anji which was written by Davy Graham. I was introduced to that piece by my first guitar teacher and that was when I first came across him. From my perspective he's a name I've known and respected but really it was the people he influenced who've subsequent been influences on me, Gordon Giltrap, John Martyn and Jimmy Page. Here is some Davy Graham to remember him by. And here is Gordon Giltrap playing Anji(e) in his own stunning style.

I watched most of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year shindig on Sunday night. The two best awards for me were the young award that was given to Eleanor Simmons for her stunning gold medals in the Paralympics. It was so good to see a paralympian wining an award where she was head to head with able bodied athletes – a great message for our country I thought. Her beaming face and great spirit are one of the best memories of this year. But the most poignant for me was the award to Alastair Hignell who was awarded the Helen Rollason award for ‘outstanding courage and achievement in the face of adversity'. In 1975 I was on a school trip to Twickenham to watch the varsity match – we saw history as Hignell scored 60 points that day for Cambridge. He’d already moved positions from scrum half to full back so that he stood more chance at an England place. He’d made his debut in club rugby and also for England already. He went on to be a memorable England full back. Not only that he ...

I drove over 600 miles in 24 hours to pop over to Wales and return with Son-of-Furtheron, a good proportion of his belongings, a ton of incomprehensible Physics lecture notes he needs to revise for his exams in Jan and a somewhat bizarre range of books needed by a friend of ours doing his masters who’d come home on the train earlier in the week. Frankly with the weather this weekend the driving stank, on the M1 on Sat it was laughable to watch these idiots trying to weave through the traffic. After every 30 miles or so you’d pass them again as they’d got stuck in the outside lane and they’d be off again. One of my flipping headlights failed on the drive up. So I thought “No problem I’ve some spare bulbs in my box of crap in the boot I’ll replace it”. Open the manual; I’m un-usual I normally do read the manual I generally find it helps. Once when I was support for a leading dealing systems provider I used to do front line support for some of the top financial institutions in Europe – ma...

You may have seen on the news last week that Oliver Postgate has passed away. A man who had a gentle but still massive influence on myself and my family. For those readers who’ve never heard of him Oliver Postgate made short animation films for the BBC. His films were for kids. I well remember as a child myself loving Noggin the Nog which was the first one he made with Peter Firmin under the moniker of Smallfilms. These were introduced like an old Norse saga. Oliver Postgate provided the narration as well as the storylines. Last year we went to the British Museum and I sought out the Lewis Chessmen which inspired the look of the characters and set. Actually I love books about Vikings and historical novels, I wonder whether there is some influence there, it wouldn't surprise me. Later Smallfilms made Ivor the Engine. This was always my personal favourite. Again the animation was homespun and quaint, the storylines gentle and narrated by Oliver. This was the brilliant stor...

Anyone remember Mud’s Elvis rip off from the 70s? Firstly what happened to good old Christmas novelty number ones? Come to that what simply has happened to good old fashion pop music? There’s a lot of good music out there still but there is a lot of guff as well and the radio isn’t what it used to be. This post is in danger of becoming something from Grumpy Old Men at Christmas. I was at an AA meeting last night and Christmas was, not surprisingly, one of the topics of sharing. What was surprising however was how many people honestly shared that they really don’t like Christmas, it disrupts the routine, it costs you a load of cash you can little afford and for many it isn’t really a time of celebration with families fractured or moved away etc. However one thing we were all agreed on I think is that a sober Christmas will be a thousand times better than a drunk Christmas. I used to be one of the big organisers of Christmas nights out etc. in my drinking days. One I remember was a pub c...

Hardly Oklahoma I know. Whilst the temperature is distinctly demanding a woolly hat it was beautifully sunny and clear today on the drive to work - so clear in fact I could see to France on the drive down the hill. Also believe it or not - Gillingham are still in the FA Cup. Yes I know! And cap that it was an away win, a massive rarity in itself, but also an away win in a replay. Against Stockport who are in League One. What is going on? We've now got Villa at home in January. Holy Cow! STOP PRESS - the Villa game is going to be on ITV. The Gills full 90 mins on top telly against premiership opposition. I think I've just enter an alternative reality.

I don’t live up a really high mountain, I live in Kent and whilst I am some way up the shallow slope on the northern side of the North Downs so hardly a region noted for its high altitude. The reason I’m pondering this is that the weekend seemed to flash past quicker than Lewis Hamilton on a final lap burst for pole position. I watched a Horizon programme about time last week and was reminded that the closer you are to a large gravitational body the slower time travels, therefore if you are up a high mountain time must surely go quicker. Hence my puzzlement as to whether the contours on the map about my house are correct or not… Enough of the waffling basically the weekend came, the Christmas decorations came out the loft and went up, after having to fix one set of lights, I cooked a Chinese for Mrs F, Daughter-of-Futheron, my brother and his girlfriend, we put the kitchen back together which is always a big job once I’ve been cooking (I ran out of oven space, bowls, spoons everythi...

I’ve tarted up the blog a bit as you may notice. Along with the seductively reclining Les Paul on the header there are some lists as to music I’m listening to and books I’ve been reading on your right that I’ll endeavour to update regularly. Please feel free to comment on anything you notice in there… Mrs F got an early Christmas present last night as I took her to see Simply Red at The O2 on their Greatest Hits tour. Simply put Simply Red are Mrs F’s favourites above all others so she is sad that they are calling time on their career and that this is the final tour. This was the fifth time I think we’ve seen them, once about second album time at the Docklands Arena (does that still exist?) and I remember them having loads of technical issues that night. At Wembley Arena I think on the Stars tour. Brighton some time later on the Home tour and a couple of years back at an open air gig at Leeds Castle in Kent just after Blue came out. So anyhow – very very good gig. We were up in the god...

Health is a relative term isn’t it? Are you healthy? Am I healthy? Well I feel pretty good at the moment. Firstly the problem in my upper back / neck that was giving me pain in my arms is a lot better than a few weeks back. However as regular readers will know I hurt my lower back two weeks back. It made a remarkable recovery I think given how I felt the 48 hours directly afterwards. It is still twinging a bit but not bad at all. I went back to swimming for the first time since then this morning and it was pulling a bit but was okay really. I need to do the funny exercises a physiotherapist gave me some years back. I’ll not go into detail but I look like a deranged cat in most of them – there that’s got some peoples imaginations working overtime no doubt. I had a cardiac risk assessment done recently, when I drank for years I had hypertension (high blood pressure) and was on treatment for it. As soon as I stopped drinking it came down. Now I’m “a little over weight” and my ...