Someone's put what appears to be a perfectly good suitcase by the bins in my garden. When did it become acceptable to dump your unwanted luggage on other people's property? I guess round about the time it became acceptable to build porches out of old bookshelves and cling film and house foreign workers in a caravan in your front yard. Not that I have any suspicions about which of my neighbours might have done it... Though if it is who I think I'm surprised that they seem to have got rid of something in seemingly ok condition without even attempting to turn it into some kind of outbuilding. I've not dared look inside - bit scared it might be full of body parts or something. Though what if it's full of money? Or chocolate?

Had a pretty nice weekend sitting around watching sport, doing the crossword and playing (and largely losing at) chess, though they called the Cambridge game off which was a bit of a shame because that, combined with Chester getting kicked out of the league, has left them in the relegation places. Bad times.

A few of us from work went down to Bournemouth for a couple of days last week for a load of drinks on the company a spot of minigolf some field testing. Just like this time last year the minigolf course was scandalously closed, and the weather was miserable.

But, like I said last time, I have a bit of a thing for run down closed season seaside resorts, so I took some slightly better photos of a deserted, rainy Happyland and a grey sea.

They have all the stars passing through (I mean Esther Rantzen rather than Chris)

Also, one of Bournemouth's plethora of casinos was right next to the hotel so I managed to get some real life practice in for Vegas. They had a very rigorous vetting process:

"We're going to need some photo ID lads - passport or driving license"

"Sorry - I don't have any"

"Well, a credit card then, not just a bank card"

"Sorry - only got my bank card"

"Aah well, that'll do"

I'm glad they let me in. It was fun. I came out ahead, and I got to meet a nice sample of the kind of people that are out at 3am on a February Tuesday in Bournemouth. The ageing sales reps I expected, but not so much the Dutch chefs or the fathers and sons on male bonding exercises. Or the arabian prince putting hundreds of pounds on each spin of the roulette table. He did not come out on top.

The hotel was surprisingly nice, though I have to question the wisdom of having a glass bathroom door with no lock on that doesn't touch any of the sides of the doorway. At least the glass door means that you're not accidentally going to go in there when you're not meant to. I think that was the reason I managed to get through the trip with my sight intact.

I can't believe I'm spending Saturday night writing this. I was intending to either be out on the razz or recording, but I don't have enough friends these days to guarantee that someone will be around on any given night, and the steam powered computer I do my recording on is being difficult in the extreme. It's ok though - I've had a productive day (booked the hotels for when I go to Chicago and New York in June, recycled a load of old clothes, bought a pot plant and spent a couple of hours coming up with keyboard parts to Dave's songs ready for a gig in a week or two), the second part of CSI: Trilogy is on Channel 5 (it occurred to me when I was watching the first part of CSI: Trilogy last night that I'm going to 2 out 3 of the CSI cities this year - maybe I should try and make it to Miami as well. It seems like the saturation is turned up really high there though and the dialogue isn't so strong) and Severine just sent me a link to Shearwater playing live in France somewhere. I keep looking at their drummer (Thor!) and going "hey, I've got that guy's drumstick on my dining table". It's the one where him and the insanely happy bass player are both playing glockenspiels at the minute. What a great live band. I should probably try the records again.

So, where was I... Sunday was Valentine's Day and I spent it mostly sleeping in and cleaning. I did have a bit of a moment when I found some stuff that needed tidying away to the drawer I keep letters and the like in, and I ended up looking through that for a while. It made me sad, but it's good to remember that people have managed to love me in the past, even if it seems like a different lifetime. You draw a line and you chalk it up.

The working week started badly, when this happened (in slow motion) on my doorstep while I was cueing up some TalkSport clips of the week so I didn't have to make myself angry by thinking about where I was going:

Guess how much it costs to replace what is essentially a small piece of glass? If anyone gets it right I'll give them a small piece of glass - they're worth more than you'd think. Apple are amazing - they actually make you make an appointment at their shop with a "Genius". To be fair, they fixed the phone very quickly. And I am a bit lost without it.

Wednesday night was my first "proper" solo gig of the year, supporting David Ford at the Haymakers.

Funnily enough, I played at his first ever solo show after Easyworld split up, back when they'd still have me at The Bedford in Balham. I very clearly remember him playing State of the Union (that video is incredible) and, understandably, bringing the house down. I'm sure he doesn't remember my effort. He was doing a long set, and had a tour support (Hannah Peel I think her name was... She was good - did a really nice song accompanied by a music box that she played by having poked holes in a bit of paper well in advance and turning a handle) so I was on pretty early, but a reasonable amount of people were there. As usual when presented with an audience of people I don't know who have half a chance of liking me, I forgot to mention my name, and didn't feel like I could pollute the merch stand with my albums. Long gone are the days of trying to build up my mailing list. I thought I played well though, and wasn't too awful at the in between song talking, and a few people came and bought things off me. I also finally got to meet Joe, which was nice. I was a bit addicted to listening to things on his myspace page for a while. 

Setlist: You Won't Break My Heart, The Ghost of Paddy's Night Past, Watertight, This Place is Dead Anyway, Radio Silence, Magnetic or Rhetorical (this drew a comment from your man, because it's about how protest songs are (with a Chris T-T shaped exception) pretty much always awful, and he does some politicalish stuff), So Finally a Love Song, Edinburgh.

I've just realised that half of those songs are on the CD I'm pretty close to finishing. I wonder if that means that deep down I think it'll be ok, or if my live sets are less good than they used to be.

Ford played his new album in full. I'd checked it out on Spotify earlier in the day, so was semi familiar with it, but I think it was new to most of the people there so the reaction was a little bit subdued. It seems a bit less intense than the other things I've heard of his, but most people don't much like intense, so it's probably a good move. I thought that the encore where he played some older stuff was where things really took off.

When he played State of the Union (which was properly awesome) the guy next to me turned and said "that beats you mate eh?". Ho hum.

I can't believe anyone would call a song that, but they have. I heard it with my own ears.

It feels like I've not stopped since I last wrote. Last Thursday The Travis Waltons played for the 3rd time ever, supporting Hot Club de Paris, and I thought it was easily the best one yet. It was pretty dark in the pub...

Beforehand I did some further research into exactly how far I can comfortably drag my keyboard on foot - narrowing it down to "not really as far as The Portland".

It was our first attempt at doing backing vocals, and I found it a bit stressful - the only times I've ever sung with anyone else I've been doing the lead part and it's been really easy to hear what's been going on. In a loud band situation it's much harder, especially when you have a voice that doesn't cut through things. I think it'll all sound really good with some more practice though. I could hear what Ed was doing, even though he said he couldn't, and that sounded great. I was concentrating so much on the singing that playing pretty much took care of itself though. There was a nice big crowd, what with Hot Club de Paris being a real band, and they were really nice to us - lots of whoops etc. I saw some mobile phone video of the first song, and we looked like a real band too. I watched a few songs of Hot Club, and they seemed great (and really nice guys), but it's not that easy watching other bands when you've been playing. Dan and Ed were still pretty excited long after it was all over... 

Friday was a fairly standard straight to the pub after work followed by a curry kind of thing. The Golden Curry on Mill Road aren't overly clear about the spiciness of some of their dishes.

Nice food though.

On Saturday I got up just in time to go and watch Cambridge playing the mighty AFC Wimbledon, and it was the first really enjoyable game I've been to for ages. It was helped by one of the Wimbledon players coming over and celebrating right in front of us, giving us a handy pantomime villain. Lewis Taylor, what a wanker, what a wanker. Also, Cambridge managed not to lose for the first time since December or something, so that was nice.

In the evening The Morning People played for the first time with our new bass player Fabian, and very well he did too. I'd missed all the practices so was a little concerned I'd struggle, but I didn't. I don't often seem to lately - I think because I'm playing keys a lot more. I didn't much like the atmosphere though - it seemed to be full of the kind of people who still have Che Guevara posters up in their drape-ceilinged bedsits well into their 40s and are incapable of making sense after about 9.30pm. The guy from the headline act (the ones responsible for the title of this post - they were pretty good though, and it's always fun seeing an upright bass) had pretty much exactly the same keyboard as I do, which saved me the trouble of trundling mine over the road. I think it was Chinese New Year, because the sky was full of flying lanterns when I left.

iwantoneofthose.com have replaced the duck hunting game my brother got me for Christmas that didn't work, with a duck hunting game that doesn't work. For some reason I wasn't remotely surprised.

I'm off out now - I'll tell the tale of supporting David Ford at some point over the weekend - I'm doing bugger all. So ronery...

Haha Stephen Fry just accidentally called Sue Perkins "Mel". I miss Mel.

Best post-set comment ever. I'm still fairly clueless as to what the guy was getting at, but at least he bought me a pint. I liked Rick Astley at the time. So yeah, I went to the Folk Club on Friday and played "Magnetic or Rhetorical" again and "Cold Case". It was a nice night, though conversation was pretty preoccupied with descriptions of Cambridge United defender Brian Saah's freak injury, followed by a lot of wincing and leg crossing and saying of "NINE stitches? Seriously? Big boy!". Alias Grace did a half hour set, and it was really lovely to see them. It's been far too long.

Saturday was a case in point about not giving up drinking for the month before the weekend that contains a televised Merseyside derby that kicks off at 12.45 in a town where there are pubs that shut at 3.30am. Feast and Famine. Good times though. There was some mid-afternoon darts, which, disappointingly, my arm still hurts from.

On Sunday I did a shortish, moderately hungover set at The Cornerhouse (new hangover improver - a shot of tequila followed by a kiwi and grape J2O) with a particlarly out of tune guitar and noisy hand drier as accompaniment. I wonder at which point getting a tuner that I can only be arsed to take to 'proper' things robbed me of my ability to tune things by ear. I thought my voice sounded really good though, so that's something. I did: The Ghost of Paddy's Night Past, You Won't Break My Heart, Watertight, This Place is Dead Anyway, A Folly or a Fortress.

There was a great act later on, whose name I've annoyingly forgotten. Two guys in their early 20s dressed as Richie Sambora and Nikki Sixx circa 1987 - as well as some originals they did "Every Rose Has it's Thorn", "18 & Life" (did I ever tell my Skid Row story about the turd on the Victoria Line? Probably) and "Livin' on a Prayer". It's heartwarming to see the tradition living on in the younger generation. It made me think seriously about getting back up to speed on my soft metal guitar solos.

First Travis Waltons show with backing vocals tomorrow. I'm a bit nervous I'll bottle my bits. I've only sung in harmony a couple of times before and I've always been doing the main part. We're spporting Hot Club de Paris, and I think there'll be quite a lot of people there...

God, Hollyoaks is really stabby these days.

They've spoiled The Borderline. I can't believe it. I've been going to gigs there for 15 years without it ever visibly changing, and out of nowhere it's been given a really half arsed facelift. Gone is the Mexican style tiled roof on the front of the bar, gone are the weird wooden doors to nowhere on the back of the stage, gone is the cage around the sound desk, gone is the dirty wooden floor, they've even binned the posters on the way in which detailed notable people who'd played there in the past. In their place are some tacky spotlights, some deep red drapes, some cheap wood effect boards and some smelly white paint. Admittedly also gone is the stench emanating from the gents, but I even kind of liked that. Despite all this, the gig I was at, David Bazan, was incredibly good. Which is just as well, because during yet another tidying spree at the weekend I put the tickets in a "safe place" and haven't seen them since. I had to buy some more the night before, meaning that I effectively paid three times for my one. It's also just as well it wasn't sold out.

The support act were Postdata from Nova Scotia. They started off sounding less than great, and then the singer/guitarist broke a string and had to struggle on with 5, but after a few songs they started to sound great. I meant to check them out further today, but forgot. The synth guy had, by some distance, the nicest sounding melodica I've ever heard - inasmuch as it actually sounded good (I wonder where he got it). I also suspected from a distance that his beard was stuck on, or at least waxed or something, but I bumped into him at the end and it looked normal close up.

However, as usual with this kind of thing, David Bazan was a league above them. I reckon he played about 2/3 Pedro the Lion stuff and 1/3 his solo songs, all of which was brilliant. He's such a presence on stage and has such an amazing warm voice. And the songs are just so good. He also took questions from the floor, and though requests seemed to be given short shrift he was pretty frank about his faith, or lack thereof. Dan asked a couple of things, but I don't recall what. It was so great to hear songs like "Priests and Paramedics" (what a song to open with!), "Transcontinental" and "The Poison" live. We even got to Kings Cross in time for me to have my first McDonalds of the year. I'm suffering slightly today from there being a rail replacement bus service, but it was worth it, and at least it was replacing the 11.15 rather than the 12.06.

My month off the booze came to an end a few hours early on Sunday (I decided at about 7pm that it must be February somewhere) because we had another Travis Waltons gig, this time at the Haymakers. It went pretty well I thought - everyone seemed a bit more relaxed than last time, though I did balls up my first lead bit. People seemed to like it anyway. I managed to walk there with my keyboard without too much trouble. Google says it's a bit more than a mile, so I reckon I have a range of about a mile and a half on foot with keyboard in tow. It was quite fun listening to the different noises the wheels make on various surfaces. The sound on the bridge that Tesco paid for to allow people in Chesterton to get to the shop more easily is particularly good. In another display of conversational genius (remind me again why I'm single?) I was telling someone or other about it and they suggested recording them all and turning them into a song. Hmm.

I've been in a pretty miserable mood ever since I stepped daintily off the wagon. I wonder if it's a coincidence.

Not done much else. Stupidly went to the football on Tuesday in the cold with one guy who'd never seen a goal in English football and another guy who'd not seen Cambridge win all season. Can you guess what the score was?

If every weekend could somehow be as nice as the one just gone I might have to stop complaining all the time. I think part of it might have been that I've started drinking much better coffee since buying a cafetiere last week while gripped by the same whim that led to me getting a tablecloth I'll almost certainly never use. I'll make someone a lovely wife one day.

Also cheering me up has been The Bugle podcast which has been occasionally making me laugh rather too loudly while walking along Mill Road at lunchtimes. Thankfully Mill Road is full of nutters so, if anything, I've actally been less conspicuous by doing that. Check it out - apart from anything else it features the first recorded incidence of someone from Birmingham saying funny things since Jasper Carrott finally retired his routine about accidentally trimming too much off his bathroom door so that it was more of a saloon style, allowing everyone to see him on the loo when walking up the stairs.

Anyway. On Friday I did a few songs at the Folk Club, getting a bit more practice in at the old playing while sober malarkey. The conclusion I'm coming to is that it improves my singing (though arguably it'd be tricky to make it that much worse) but affects my guitar quite badly because my hands get all nervous and start doing stuff on their own. I played The Ghost of Paddy's Night Past, Magnetic or Rhetorical (a new song! It was going to be called "I Really Don't Care What You Did With Your Trust Fund", but I decided that was a bit obvious. It seemed to go down well, though I'm worried it's slightly cheap) and Edinburgh cos I cocked it up last week. People were very nice to me, even though I didn't finish until really late. Kate did a longer set a bit earlier on and was really good. I also made use of the evening to do some experimenting with soft drinks, and have decided that all of them have drawbacks. Lime and soda is cheap, and would be perfect if people always got it right, but it's a risk because it's pretty awful if over-cordialled. Kiwi and grape J2O is really nice, but can't be relied upon to be present, even if the other, inferior, J2Os are, and is a bit pricier. Orange juice and lemonade is good, but you can't drink more than a pint or two of it. In the interests of science I also tried diet pepsi and alcohol free lager, both of which are beyond disgusting. So there we go.

I was up bright and early on Saturday for a last minute same-day-as-the-gig practice with The Travis Waltons, which sounded great, and then went off to watch Cambridge outplay but lose to York City, and then went to The Portland for soundcheck, and to make the best of my day off my dry month. 

I dread to think what I'd have been like if I had been completely sober, because my hands were shaking for our entire set as it was, but it went really well for a first try and I didn't let anyone down I don't think. There were plenty of people there and they clapped and cheered nicely. I didn't really watch any of the other bands, which is a bit naughty, but they were all loud and angry and there were nerves to deal with before we played and adrenaline to deal with after. Later I ran into a few people who solved some of the mystery of New Years Eve - I was apparently seen pulling myself along the handrail of the bridge round the corner from my house at 7.30 am, and part of what happened in the intervening hours has been cleared up, much to my relief...

On Sunday I went to The Junction 2 to see Midlake. It's the second time I've seen them, and the second time I've seen them because someone else has dropped out. I'll get my own ticket next time - they were brilliant. A full, complex and fairly haunting sound. They seem to have sprouted a couple more guitar players in the last few years, as well as a lot of Fleet Foxes style facial hair and retro shirts. I guess they don't sound all that dissimilar to Fleet Foxes actually (ethereal, wouldn't have been out of place 40 years ago, very good at harmony etc. etc.), but there's a lot more depth in the songs (i.e. they aren't overtly shit). There are also more flutes... There is a bit of a niggling feeling that the whole band is being done as an academic exercise and they'd all rather be playing jazz, but when it sounds so great who cares really.

The support act Sarah Jaffe was very good too - a bit more straightforward maybe (not that that's a bad thing), but there were a couple of really killer songs. I intended to buy a CD if there was one, but didn't get round to looking in the interval, and then was too blown away by Midlake. Both acts were sharing a keyboard player who had a keyboard not unlike mine, and I got a bit obsessed with the nosies he was making and trying to figure out how he was doing it. As usual when I've played a couple of times that have gone well and then gone to a great gig I'm all enthused and wanting to play all the time. Which is good because I've got a fair amount of that kind of thing coming up in February.

Other than that I've not done much. I destroyed my friend Ben at squash last night - the not drinking thing seems to have made me fitter. Saying I'm like a cat is probably going a bit far, but I'm certainly better at moving about and hitting things really hard than usual. It has also made me hungrier. On which note, I have some Gu mini desserts in the fridge calling to me. They're small so I can have two.

I've started measuring time in units of "She Sends Kisses" by The Wrens. The Alexandra Arms, for example, is 1.3 She Sends Kisses' walk from my house. The working day is about 98 She Sends Kisses, assuming I don't listen to it during my 10 minute lunch hour. I've had the album it's from (The Meadowlands) for about a year, but for some reason hadn't noticed how good it is - I think because I couldn't really understand what the words were (I almost cried when I finally looked them up). It really is very good.

The not drinking thing is still on course - I even managed an entire 5.30-1.30 night out on Friday drinking only orange juice and lemonade. It was pretty tough watching everyone else get their beers just before we got our dinner but I survived. I'm still using virtually all my new-found energy cleaning, tidying up and throwing things away (and honing my blackjack skills). Feels weird but good. I've made a fairly long "things I need to do to sort my life out" list and I'm making myself do at least one thing a day. Yesterday's task was taking all the carrier bags that were slowly rotting in my kitchen to the recycling thing at Tesco. Tesco had thoughtfully roped off the entire area it's in because someone was painting a tiny sign vaguely nearby so I ended up just throwing them away anyway. Don't blame me if the world ends. I tried though, so I ticked it off. God, I'm lonely.

I'm giving myself the night off not drinking on Saturday because it's my first gig playing keys for The Travis Waltons (the practices have been sounding HUGE) and (as I proved once again at The Cornerhouse the other night by forgetting the words to Edinburgh because I was too clear headed and started thinking about how I hardly ever forget words instead of about what the words are) playing while completely sober is not a viable option. I'm looking forward to it gig quite a lot, although I think we may be slightly out of place on a fairly angry sounding bill. Still, if you're stuck for something to do in Cambridge on Saturday...

The recording I was on about last week hasn't progressed any, but I can't wait for it to be finished so I can get on with some stuff that I think might be quite good. Though actually, I do seem to like listening to these songs too. Maybe I'll do some tonight. If only there wasn't 3 hours of CSI on Channel 5. Why is there so much CSI? It's amazing anyone ever gets anything done.

11 days into the new year and I've still not had a drink, despite Jo at the Cornerhouse prodding me every few minutes last night and waving funny coloured spirits under my nose. I thought it might be harder than this. Christ, I've even had a J2O. It was actually pretty nice. I'm a bit surprised, but I feel noticeably livelier and healthier for it all. I'm sure that didn't happen last time I did this. The only downside is that I don't get to sleep as quickly, so I have to lie awake pondering the state of things, which is always unhelpful. I'm starting to think the trick to a happy life is to try and get quietly to the end of it without really having paid attention.

I also seem to suddenly have a lot more time (partly because I've barely been out apart from to go to work - I'm scared of snow now that I seem incapable of not falling over on it - and partly because I've been up in the mornings at the weekend) so the house is cleaner than at any point in the last 3 years, and I think I'm getting closer to finishing a new CD, for what that's worth. Just a few bits of singing, some harmonium/accordion and a drum part to go (Barnes, if you read this, return my text messages). Then it's just the dreaded editing and mixing process, but I don't think I'm going to be nearly as fussy this time. It's just a few really old songs that didn't fit on the last one but I want to have recorded properly, and some newer ones that aren't sad enough for the next one. I wonder if that'll mean people actually like it? As per, I've been procrastinating and trying to make the booklet instead of finishing the recording. If I manage to make it look ok it's going to be the lyrics in my spidery child-like handwriting on scrunched up bits of paper that have been unscrunched (as if they've been retrieved from the bin). But they were still too scrunched up to scan properly when I unscrunched them, so now I'm re-flattening them under some heavy books. Finally my PhD has served some practical purpose other than wasting my mid twenties.

Nothing else to report really. I've pretty much either been working, cleaning, scrawling then scrunching and unscrunching, recording, playing scales in front of the telly or practicing blackjack on my phone ready for Vegas in a few months. I'm doing the "right thing" about 95% of the time now. Still losing massively though.

I started the new decade by accidentally (somehow) getting drunker than at any point in the past decade. I woke up covered in bits of twig and small brown leaves, though I had managed to take my shoes off. This is why the old licensing laws were a good thing really. I've been feeling pretty sheepish ever since. The rest of the week (before and after) has been spent catching up on a year's worth of missed sleep and cursing iwantoneofthose.com for having a customer services department that closes between boxing day and Jan 4, despite being a website that must have Christmas presents as 90% of its business. Seriously, take the whole of April off or something. I know nobody's going to buy anything right after Christmas, but if you're going to sell stuff that doesn't work, people might want to get in touch...

It's time for the traditional review of last year post I guess. Didn't really make any resolutions for 2009, other than to try to be happier (hasn't especially worked, though I am slowly coming to terms with not being allowed to have music as a Thing That I Do so much any more, mostly by not thinking about it and trying to retain some small amount of self worth despite being told on an almost daily basis that I'm a computer programmer now) and to try and see a number plate with 22 on (I'd be looking for 32 now if I could be bothered - turns out my attention span for silly games isn't quite as long as I thought). This year I've got loads, but they mostly involve getting round to buying stuff (a bike, for example, and a new suit) and making my house nicer. I'm going to give up booze for January again like I did the other year too. And I'm determined to go to Las Vegas. Seems like everyone else in the world has been. I guess buying stuff doesn't count as a resolution. Maybe it's how you word it - "this year I resolve to become a person who has been to Vegas".

Quite a lot of fun things happened though: I went to Paris twice, got an amazing keyboard, went to Sweden, went to Japan, saw two England international cricket matches and one rugby one, my album 'came out' (with something of a whimper, and it seems like a lifetime ago), did a few really good gigs (in particular getting to support Chris T-T, Heidi Talbot and Jackie Leven, and getting to play in Paris was also pretty ace) and a lot more fairly dispiriting ones (I think I need to either play a sensible amount or just call a halt to it, but I'm always saying that), went jousting, won some pub quizzes, watched a fair amount of football and saw a lot of bands. Speaking of which, here's the list of "proper" bands I saw - I've expanded my list of adjectives slightly since last year, but not that far. Only 65 different bands this year, which I think isn't quite up to last year, but isn't bad going.

Frank Turner (x2 one a bit disappointing, one ace), Chris T-T (x3 I think, each time great), Emily Barker (at least three times, great), James McMurtry (x2, a proper legend), Woomble, Drever and McCusker, Heidi Talbot (x2), The Dawn Chorus (x3 barnstorming), Elvis Perkins, The Wave Pictures (x2, but I'm tired of them now I think), The Levellers, Jeffrey Lewis (wonderful), Snuff, NOFX, My Latest Novel (wonderful), Tyketto (I loved it, most might not...), The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Beth Jeans Houghton (meh), Alela Diane (x2, double meh), Regina Spector (incredible), Bon Iver (x2, one incredible, one not quite so incredible), Emmy The Great (really good, but seemed in a bad mood), Vivian Girls, Band of Horses (soaring and brilliant), Florence and the Machine (meh), Robyn, Wilco (awesome), Arctic Monkeys (surprisingly good), Echo and the Bunnymen (doing Ocean rain with an 8 piece string section - incredible), Vampire Weekend (great), Amadou and Marian (not my cuppa), Basement Jaxx (even further from my cuppa), Lily Allen (rubbish, but I'd forgive her anything), Teddy Bears (genius), Mumford and Sons (great - not so keen on the album), David Thomas Broughton (dire), Shearwater (great), The Low Anthem (I think I like them now), Darren Hayman (about 5 times at the End of the Road, all but one by mistake), Motel Motel (bit of a curate's egg), The Boy Least Likely To (I wrote that I liked them - don't remember them now), Broken Family Band (x3 so, so good), Malcolm Middleton, Okkervil River (x2 you all know how I feel about Okkervil River...), Efterklang (spectacular I thought - not liked the records so much), The Leisure Society, Tallest Man on Earth, Bob Log III (great this time), William Elliot Whitmore, Magnolia Electric Company, Steve Earle (I can't stress enough how good this was), Neko Case, Richmond Fontaine, The Hold Steady (pretty great), Wye Oak (great), Mark Morriss, The Pony Collaboration (x2 at least, really great), Otis Gibbs, Green Day, Boo Hewerdine, Manchester Orchestra (worth the wait), Dar Williams (beautiful), Kevin Devine (brilliant), Vanilla Pod, Leatherface, Coco's Lovers (x3)

I wonder who's left on my list of people to see at the moment. Springsteen, The Gin Blossoms and Ballboy off the top of my head. Maybe that should be a resolution too. I hope the Gin Blossoms organise some more dates - Beavercreek Ohio seems a bit out of the way...

I knew the snow was going to be a bad thing. I stacked it no fewer than 3 times on the ridiculous gritless streets and pavements of Cambridge. The first two falls did some damage to my right shoulder and the final one landed me very heavily on my arse. All of that still hurts - I think a promising snooker career may have been cut short. The day after that I went to a stag do in Birmingham, of which the manly activity (recently the trend for going abroad for a few days for a stag do seems to have given way to going to a city beginning with B to take part in a manly activity followed by spicy food and a heavy drinking session) was five a side football. I'm a pretty ordinary football player at the best of times, but what with being in a fair bit of pain whenever I started or stopped running I was comfortably the worst there. It was like being at school again. Ho hum. On the plus side the aches from the football took my mind of the injuries from falling over for a few days. And the train ride back was really pretty.

The day after we did a band gig at The Cornerhouse. We were playing with 2 acts who'd come up from Deal (long way to come on the Sunday before Christmas, but I'm glad they did), both of which I enjoyed. The first, Will Varley, had a some nice clever lines about the state of the nation, and a great voice. There was a slightly unfortunate moment when he went from a really loud bit to a really quiet bit just as Dave, for reasons I only half got to the bottom of, was forcefully saying the word "enshittenator". At least it didn't happen to me for once. We were on in the middle, and I was a bit dopey from having been wandering round our Second City until 4am looking for a cashpoint so my intersong banter was rubbish. I mostly enjoyed the playing, though it is a bit weird when the audience is 90% people you go to the pub with most weeks. We did: Muscle Memory, 60 Miles with a Slow Puncture, Watertight, Cold Case, The Forked Tongue and the Blind Eye Turned, You Won't Break My Heart, Soaked to the Skin and maybe something else.

It's the 3rd time I've seen the headliners Coco's Lovers and they seem to actually be getting somewhere, based on other places they're playing. And good for them. They make a joyful kick drum and banjo strewn million part harmony hoedown kind of noise (not so unlike Mumford and Sons, but with more instruments and some lyrical depth) and it's brilliant to watch. And they're extremely nice people. The front man Will remembered having a conversation with me about how I was going to see The Ashes after the last time I'd seen them, which is significantly more than I remembered. They were missing a few members this time, but I didn't think it made any difference to the sound of things.

Christmas has been nice. Andy and I (and another guy from school, Devang) did our traditional Christmas Eve drinks in Barkingside and Ilford, and it got messy even by our own standards. Andy moved us onto the JD and cokes in The Great Spoon, which is far earlier in the evening than I'd have thought sensible. It's interesting to see the place you grew up in change every year. I suspect that Ilford now has the highest density of pound shops this side of Great Yarmouth. And the worst Oirish entertainers this side of, well, anywhere. However, I did work my way even further into credit with Charlie Boorman's By Any Means. And it was all good fun.

My nephew is here this year, aged one and a bit. He's a remarkably happy baby. And babies smiling at you is a pretty amazing thing. As far as presents go I got a hedgehog habitat for the garden (my garden is turning into a right nature reserve) a Lego board game and a duck hunting game where you have to shoot a plastic duck/plane thing as it flies around the room.

I was really quite shocked to hear about Vic Chesnutt's death. I wasn't a massive fan or anything (though I did play his song "See You Around" at my first "proper" gig and I liked everything I heard) and I probably don't know enough to comment, but from what I've read it does seem like an unfeasibly tragic situation.