The Furtheron Review of the year.

So 2009 – the end of the noughties... I’ve hated that title for this decade, oh crap what’ll the next one be the teenies? please I hope not.
So this year has been one hasn’t it. The biggest recession in my lifetime which I have to say luckily has largely passed us as a family by so far.

Quick summary then...

January

January was a sad month with some tragedies for including the sad loss of the great great John Martyn. Gives me an excuse to point you to spend 5 and a half minutes of your life just listening to this – if you want to get close to the emotion of the man. I found out I know John’s cousin which provided some amazing insight to him.



Also I acquired my PRS CE22 in January – still now my principle “go to guitar” when I plug in the amp.


February

I was told that my old job had gone away and that I was “redundant”. I went frankly into a bit of a tail spin... I had no Plan B, I frankly had bugger all Plan A. In retrospect I probably should have taken the cash and gone off but rereading some of these things show me the turmoil I was in at the time and the panic of both not getting any job anywhere (since in my head I’m a useless twat) and secondly just simply becoming lazy and unemployable once not working.

I did put a couple of videos up including Gypsy




March

Much mention of still remembering the great John Martyn as there were tributes on the BBC. Also I was into career continuation mode – and went off on a course about that which was useful but frankly I should have put more effort into afterwards I think.

One quote from a post on guilt hit me looking back over this... “Probably the biggest critic of my behaviour is me.”

On the music front Mrs F and I went to see Snow Patrol and the U2 CD came out... that reminds me I must do the Furtheron music awards for 2009 post as well.

I posted on the Karpman Drama Triangle – one of the biggest search hits still on this blog. :S

Oh yes and here is a video that made me very proud to post that month



April

I got offered the new job at the company and even then I was not in a good space over it. As I said earlier in this retrospective I should have thought longer and harder and worked on it more and come up with a better route that I had more control over... too late however I accepted the job and moved on with it.

I had a bunch of guitars at the repairers – the Peter Cook Bass which subsequently has moved on to a new home, the newly acquired PRS having locking tuners re-installed and my old beloved classical my Mum got me as a teenager having new tuners and a scratch from a disaster in the music room repaired. That appeared in some classical videos at my youtube channel. However I also posted this video of one of the greatest songs ever.




May

Was a nondescript month it seems reviewing my posts. Losts of random catchups. My old Nunostrat (home made bitsacaster) underwent some work and is better than it’s ever been before. I started making that with my Dad when I was a teenager so it has some of his DNA in it as well as mine.

I celebrated my 5th anniversary of sobering up which seems something of a milestone given five hours was a problem in the old days.

I’d discovered the great “Some Grey Bloke” so I was posting this sort of stuff.




June

We lost our daughters guinea pig unexpectedly.

Had a great time at the London International Music show with son-of-Furtheron.

The new job was really getting to me and many of the posts were me angry at myself for being in a bad space with it all and then it all in smacked into my face with the story of the Puttick family who you may remember were two lovely parents who had a very ill child who when he died took his body to Beachy Head in a back pack and jumped to their deaths. How tradgic – these two people gave so much to their dear little boy and were worth much more to this world than many people who simply take from people around them and the world and give nothing back. A reminder I should aspire to be more like them and less like me.

I didn’t post a video at all that month... so have this... CLASSIC early Fish era Marillion!



July

I bought the amp! Bloody great Hughes and Ketner Dual 6L6 – it’s still brilliant by the way even though I’ve gone all unplugged. We’ll see in 2010 I still have some idea about a band maybe.

Son-of-Furtheron was declared best student of his year!!!

There was a lot about health which was not good and really hinted at what was to come really.

I won a great competition over at Guitar Noize!

Gigs a plenty with Jools Holland in the storm, Jeff Beck at the Albert Hall and Sonisphere, oh hell the best gig of the year is going to be difficult!

Here’s the amp being demoed but someone who knows their stuff...





August

Was dominated by the Sonisphere festival experience... guess what the boy is on about going this coming year as the mighty might Maiden are headlining. Hmm... I’m not bloody camping!!!!

Also the holiday to the USA and the first issues with the vertigo which led me to have several weeks off work and the ripples of this still continue as it’s still a problem although I’m living with it better I think

Here is a TV appearance by my great friends The Sue Menhart Band that we also got to see live whilst in their neighbourhood on the holiday.



September

Was dominated by not being well and I was in and out of work and then returning on reduced hours. I’d also been looking at getting a band together through some ads on Partysounds etc. just before the holiday and I tried to follow them up but I didn’t really find anyone where stuff clicked and given I wasn’t physically or mentally not that well the band idea sort of fell by the way side.

No videos but there is a link as I posted photo off my phone of Gary Moore from a gig in April so here is Gary live this year from Brighton...



October

Another year done and I turned 47 – no escaping it I’m late 40s now without any doubt!

I was slowly getting better during this month, increasing my hours back at work.

Also one of the biggest things for me this year, I asked Toby Burton over at Rock-til-you-drop if he’d consider giving me a slot on the November bill of his Sunday Acoustic sessions and he said yes and booked me in for the November one. Suddenly the acoustic was being grabbed every night and a set list was taking shape including some old self penned numbers that I was dusting off.

Here is someone else who was 47 this year...



November

I did the gig! It was a success, i.e. I turned up, I played some people clapped, I didn’t die on my arse and I actually enjoyed it. Four Dinners deserves a special mention as he not only came along to support he asked me for recordings to play on the legendary Drunk Punk show he hosts. That meant I dug out the recorder and started recording for the first time in years. But I enjoyed it and it has really taken me in a new direction and motivation on the music.



December

So here we are at years end

I went the USA on work for the first time in ages which was useful meeting all my team face to face for the first time. We had snow... a lot of flipping snow and the UK travel chaos was complete. Luckily with a little bit of planning and care I seem to avoid it and get Son-of-Furtheron home for Christmas from Wales and to from work as I needed to.

More songs were recorded and some more written. I got a gig lined up for March where I’ll be live on the Scooter Forums Radio world tour as long as we figure out the technical nonsense.

I set up a reverbnation page which is hosting my music and gigs.

Here is my good friend Giles who is stunningly talented!



So for next year?

Music – more new songs hopefully then a focus on the gigs in Feb and March. I hope to line up some in Kent as well etc. I might look for some musicians to join a “band” but very much using the set list and the current set up as the starting point. We’ll see.

Job – I have some plans in my head. If there is a chance I might take the redundancy as I have an idea on retraining to then take up a new career. Getting the pay off would allow me to get into that with the safety net of some money to keep the wolf from the door. However if the redundancy option isn’t there I’ll have to rethink whether I can just take the plunge as I really do think it is time to move on.

Family – Daughter of Furtheron needs to pick her GCSE options, we’re nearly there on that I think already but just some last decisions. Son of Furtheron will continue to work hard at uni I know as he always does. It will be my brothers wedding in August and I’m the best man believe it or not! And just before that Mrs F and I celebrate our silver anniversary which I’ve already booked a short break for back to where we went for our honeymoon. So here’s to 2010.