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Wheatus Live: The 15th Anniversary Tour at Manchester Academy 3

By Friends & Family, Gigs & Shows, Happiness & Joy, Music & RadioNo Comments
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Wheatus Ticket

 Recently a friend and I went to see Wheatus at Manchester Academy 3.

The warm-up bands varied in quality. The Hipstones were terrible. Gabrielle Sterbenz as a three piece girlband had charisma and a good stage presence. Mike Doughty I just remember being rather annoying, tall and bald. After about an hour of warm-up bands, it was time for the main event.

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Warm Up Act 1 – Gabrielle Sterbenz.
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Warm Up Act 2 – Mike Doughty

Brendan B. Brown was superb. He hit all of the high notes in the songs with precision, despite a chest cold that he’d apparently caught in Ireland. Rather than a setlist Brown encouraged the audience to shout out the tracks that they wanted to hear.

The audience were not shy, shouted out and Wheatus played. The audience started out with head nodding as the band played. The alcohol flowed, more familiar tracks were played and the audience responded by properly rocking out.

Here are some Wheatus photos from the gig:

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Time For Wheatus!
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Wheatus – Taking song requests from the audience.
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Wheatus – Singing one of their classics (1).
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Wheatus – Singing one of their classics (2).

Wheatus played all of their tracks on their self titled album, including: A Little Respect, Sunshine, Truffles, Hump ‘Em N Dump ‘Em, Hey, Mr. Brown, Leroy, Punk Ass Bitch, Love Is a Mutt from Hell and Wannabe Gangstar.

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Wheatus about to sing the finale – Teenage Dirtbag (1).
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Wheatus about to sing the finale – Teenage Dirtbag (2).
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Wheatus about to sing the finale – Teenage Dirtbag (3).

The finale was of course being their iconic song Teenage Dirtbag. Teenage Dirtbag was released in 2000 and quickly a number one in most of the charts across the world. Since then it has been covered many times, but you can’t beat seeing Brown play it live. My friend and I had a great night. Wheatus are well worth seeing, hearing and enjoying live.

Blog soon,

Antony



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Saturday 10 October 2015

A Night of Improv Laughter – Nina Conti, In Your Face Live at The Lowry, Salford Quays

By Gigs & Shows, Happiness & JoyNo Comments
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Nina Conti Live Ticket

 Comedian Ventriloquist Nina Conti has recently embarked on her first fully improvised tour, entitled In Your Face. No script what so ever. For any performer this is brave and no doubt requires a lot of courage.

It also means that each show in the tour is a totally unique experience. Simon and I went to see her at The Lowry, Salford Quays. Nina did exceptionally well and had the audience laughing aloud often.

Manchester audiences are notoriously difficult on an audience participation front, generally having the attitude that they’ve paid for the ticket now want to be passively entertained. Audience participation is an essential component of all of Nina’s performances and she demonstrated her skill at engaging audiences by engaging and involving the audience from the off.

Nina’s longstanding puppet Monkey was the only puppet to come on to the stage with Nina. Monkey says what he thinks, which makes him and Nina hilarious. At one point, he even put Nina in a bag on stage, so that he could talk to the audience alone.

I missed Nina’s Daughter and Inner Child, mainly because of the ‘My Face Hurts When I Play Guitar’ song. But I wasn’t to be disappointed as Monkey did a rendition. Simon missed Gran, I think it was just because of her perky attitude. These puppets, along with others that Nina has used in the past were replaced with more face mask/moving mouth puppets for audience members.

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Nina Conti Live at The Lowry, Salford.
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Nina Conti Live: The Set.

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Jumper Puppet, Me and Simon during the interval.

 What I loved about the show, was that even Nina herself didn’t know what direction the show would go in at times. It was an evening of fun, good humour and childlike play. I loved the childlike play and I think it something we all need more of in our lives. So Thank you, Nina for allowing us an evening of playfulness.

Simon and I were both inspired by the first half of the show, that during the interval Simon created a puppet using my jumper. This resulted in even more laughs.

Nina missed an opportunity, by having no merchandise being available to buy before, during or after the show. I would have liked to have bought a mug.

Unfortunately Nina’s tour is limited and in most places she is only doing one date. But if you’ve missed her this time round, make sure you catch her next time round. You can find information around Nina’s live dates here.

Blog soon,

Antony



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Monday 5 October 2015

My Yearly Review – 2014

By Friends & Family, Happiness & Joy, Life, Nature, PaganismNo Comments

This year I did very little in the Spring, a lot in the Summer, bits in the Autumn and Winter. Here’s what I’ve been up to this year, click on any photo for full size image:

March

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Sye & Me at Barry Humphries Show

 Sye and I went to see Barry Humphries: The Eat, Pray and Laugh Farewell Tour. We had a great time. Here are some photos:

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May

Penrhos Cottage near Corris Adam and Andy's cottage

Simon popping his head out of The Lovely Cottage

 Simon and I went to Mid-Wales to The Lovely Penrhos Cottage for the weekend. While there we took the time to relax. The Saturday it was gloriously sunny and hot, so we went to Aberdovey Beach. On the Sunday we went to King Arthur’s Labyrinth.

I published my short story The Good Teen. The Good Teen is a modern-day telling of The Good Samaritan parable, with a hint of magic. I wrote it after I saw a call for submissions from the BBC Radio 4 ‘Opening Lines’ programme. Unfortunately it wasn’t accepted, but it’s still a good story – even if I do say so myself.

June

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Rivington: A Gorgeous View

 I spent several days walking around Rivington. I feel fortunate to have such a beautiful and gorgeous natural place close by.

My at-the-time boyfriend and I went to Blackpool to the Sealife Centre and Madame Tussauds. We saw various fish and waxworks respectively.

Steve and I went watching The Lady Boys of Bangkok in Manchester. We were both slightly disappointed with the Lady Boys to be honest, but it was still good to get out and we even managed a few alcofrolic drinks afterwards.

July

Manchester Museum Gorgosaurus Skeleton

Gorgosaurus Skeleton

 I watched After The Dark (The Philosophers), which became my favourite film of 2014.

My at-the-time boyfriend and I went to Lancashire Science Festival 2014 which was both educational and intriguing. Plus it had free parking!

My at-the-time boyfriend, his housemates and I visited Manchester Museum. I loved the dinosaur exhibit.

August

light-michael-grant-book-cover I had my blog Theme Redesigned by TRH Development. I started Being Creative Everyday and sharing some of the results on the blog.

I felt saddened at the unexpected death of Robin Williams and began thinking about the importance of good mental & emotional health.

I read and reviewed Light by Michael Grant, which was the last book in The Gone Series. I thoroughly enjoyed The Gone Series which was about kids being trapped in a Dome without adults and developing powers.

September

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Animalarium: Lemur

 I got some Amazing Illustrations from the Talented Sye Watts for my blog. I am so lucky to have such a talented friend.

A friend and I went to stay for a weekend at Penrhos Cottage and visited the Animalarium, which is Borth’s Zoo on the way home. There where some lovely animals there that looked well cared for.

October

pagan-stone-circle-large Chrys, Simon, others and I celebrated Samhain!

November

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Various Magical Creatures.

 My at-the-time boyfriend and I broke up.

I made small Charitable Donations to JDRF, The Human Rights Campaign (US), The Brain Tumour Charity (UK) and to make a film about the sell-off of the NHS.

Mum and I went on a Trip to London where we shopped and visited The Making of Harry Potter Studio Tour.

December

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Some Presents I’ve Wrapped for Christmas

 Christmas has been relaxed, enjoyable and fun. I have celebrated it with family and friends. People have kindly bought presents for me:

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Presents Kindly Bought For Me.

But the best thing was the opportunity to spend time with people that I love.

Next year I’ll be spreading out activities, experiences and goals throughout the year. So keep an eye out for my Goals & New Experiences for 2015 blog post.

Blog soon,

Antony

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Friday 26 December 2014

The Gay UK Article – My Come Out Reactions

By Creativity, Friends & Family, Gay, Journalism, LifeNo Comments
gay-world-large Some of you know that I regularly write for The Gay UK. I recently wrote an article under the theme of coming out for their Tridigital magazine (available to buy on iTunes App Store and Google Play Store) about people’s reactions when I came out gay. I enjoyed writing the article and thought you might enjoy reading it. So here it is:

I’m out to everybody. These days I rarely need to come out and say that I’m gay, but it wasn’t always like that. Over the years I’ve come out to family, friends, work colleagues and even my GP. There’s been mixed reactions from people when I’ve told them that I’m gay, but most have been positive. In this article I’ll share some of the most memorable with you.

Family
Coming out to my mum was one of the best things I ever did. I knew she would be supportive, as one of her best friend’s is gay. She acted as a proxy, telling other members of the family and family friends that I was gay so I didn’t have to. Some years later she did tell me that she was worried that I would have a more difficult life as a gay man as ‘people can be so cruel.’

The funniest reaction from a family member was when my mum told my Granddad. He told her that I ‘just haven’t met the right girl yet.’ This wasn’t homophobic, just a lack of understanding and naivety of the gay world. This naivety is wonderful and one of the many reasons I love him immensely. He used to work on the tills at what has been dubbed The Gay Sainsbury’s in Manchester. He never realised (and still hasn’t!) that all the gay couples are actually together.

When I came out to my older Brother, a sporty lads lad, he said: ‘You’re still my brother. And I still love you.’ This acceptance from him meant the world to me and it still does.

Friends
My friends and I don’t really remember me coming out. That means that it wasn’t really a big deal. It was said, accepted and then we moved on. But there’s always that one friend isn’t there? When I came out to him, he said: ‘Me too.’ We’re still friends today and our same sexuality helped to build the bonds of a lifelong friendship.

Work Colleagues
I’ve had many work colleagues over the years, all in different settings and the vast majority coming out has been done by answering the questions: ‘So how was your weekend? What did you get up to?’

However I did have one Born Again Christian work colleague who said: ‘I accept that this is how you feel, but it’s not part of gods plan. It says so in the bible.’ This was a face palm moment and I rarely spoke to him after that.

At one workplace a closeted lesbian work colleague saw the overwhelmingly positive reaction to me as an out gay man and this gave her the courage to talk about her life and her partner openly. Prior to me arriving she had avoided conversations about anything personal, but after seeing how our work colleagues reacted to my talk of gay pride and my relationships she became more open at work and seemed happier for it.

GP
I had gone to see my family GP, an older Asian man, about something and decided to disclose my sexuality to him. I think I was at the stage in coming out where you want to tell the world that you’re gay. He said: ‘it’s unnatural.’ And then resumed talking about what I had gone to see him about. This hurt. Said by a supposed non-judgemental professional. Whenever I hear someone say ‘unnatural’ it takes me right back to that consultation room and makes me feel really uncomfortable.

My coming out reactions have been in the vast majority positive. I have been accepted for who I am. But that’s not always the case. Gay people coming out face the fear of rejection, actual rejection and in some cases abuse or violence. If someone can’t accept you for who you are and recognise that your sexuality is an important part of who you are, you have to ask yourself a serious question: do you really want this person to be a part of your life? I know what my answer would be.

Blog soon,

Antony



I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


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Thursday 2 October 2014
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