Owen's Blog

Wow, what a weekend. Glastonbury is the best weekend ever, everyone should go.
The site is gob smacking in size, it’s the size of a small town, and with 200,000 people there it felt as busy as a small town, got there on the Thursday and managed to find a spot to pitch our tents, then we got some food and found the organic wine tent which was going to prove to be our most popular venue for the weekend, on the Thursday there was not much official entertainment on but most people were finding some dance music around to chill or dance to. we didn’t I’d spent the day helping my brother plumb in a new bath so I was knackered and wanted to get a good day in on the Friday so i went back and slept.

Friday was great saw loads of stuff including The Darkness who’s set yet again kicked ass, especially considering they started at 10:15am! also saw Inspiral Carpets who weren’t particularly my cup of tea, John Otway who is now a two hit wonder and was very funny in the comedy tent, also saw Roksopp who’s music didn’t suit the occasion but was greatly played, then headed over to REM who were as expected great.

Then got drunk and went to sleep again (i seemed to do that a lot)

Saturday was one of the more anticipated days, with Radiohead headlining. It was hot and sunny and i was aching all over from sleeping on the ground, I could also feel my neck buring slightly but never the less I headed to the main stage in the afternoon to see Polyphonic Spree got there too early and sat in the middle of the ground while Jimmy Cliff played and promptly fell asleep only to wake half way through the Polyphonic Spree set, which seemed to be doing well but I had missed most of it. Doh, ah well back to the Organic Wine Tent But I did see the best performance ever by Miloko. I loved it, it was such an upbeat performance and really got the crowd going. Then it was over to Radiohead and another great headliner it was, they played all there classics bar Creep, (but luckily it wasn’t going to be a song I wouldn’t see)

Sunday was another hot one with occasional showers. I saw Asian Dub Foundation who were good, also saw a bit of Signor Ros who’s songs were brilliant if all very similar.. But then it was the best performance of the weekend, by Moby. The set was fantastically paced; he’d read the audience and played a brilliantly upbeat rave set that just blew you away, also the fact that I was about ten people from the front, in a crowd of 90,000 must have helped. But he left us wanting more and came on for a single song encore which turned out to be a slightly dance version of Creep. Still wanted more but that’s how your supposed to leave an audience I guess.

All in all a fantastic weekend and I’m definitely going next year.!!

PS. on a worse note found my e-mail box stuffed with 5234 emails when I came back all of it was from someone who had used an iouk.com email address to send spam, so I got all the reports where e-mail wasn’t sent. and a few angry e-mails from people to whom it was sent. Bloody spammers! kill them all.

Ok so I’ve realised it’s been quite a while since I last did a post and as my audience is quite temperamental I thought it might be about time to post another interesting insight into my life

Well it seems a lot of people thought that the previous post was from the graduation ball, but I have to say is it not obvious from the date that’s not true? The grad ball was on the 12th people. Anyway it’s enough to say that the ball was pretty shite. The food was bland and boring, the bands were anything but uplifting (oh ok they weren’t bad as such it’s just who thought hiring a Beatles tribute band was a good idea for a grad ball? All we wanted to do was get drunk and dance, which is hard to do to “sergeant pepper”). Well anyway nuff said the do was a bit crap, but it was good to see people I haven’t seen in ages.

I’ve left Newcastle finally and at the moment I don’t miss it. As I said before it felt right to leave and that I’d “had a good innings” as my late grandfather would say. Anyway I left having found out my result (a slightly disappointing 2:2, but hey what’s new I never seem to do myself justice!) and am now back in sunny Penarth (a town outside of Cardiff) with my parents, but at least the sun is shining brightly and I am starting to get a tan.

I have been reading the new Harry Potter book, which I got delivered to me by those friendly chaps at Amazon. And I have to say to people it’s not a scratch on the Goblet of Fire. It’s very slowly paced and the characters are slow to react to anything, it’s mainly full of filler and as for the person who dies, well you can’t say he’s as major as everyone made out. The most grating thing is the over doing of Harry’s adolescence. (Yes I think he’s starting to reach puberty, we are told this because suddenly a lot of Harry’s words are IN CAPITAL LETTERS!) Well having said all that the story is somewhat compelling and you still want to read all of it to find out what happens as with the others. All in all I can’t say I was as disappointed with it as I was with Hail to the Thief, Radiohead’s new album. To me it’s a very backwards step, while none of it is bad (man it would be impossible for Tom Yorke and the rest of the band to produce something that was bad) it’s not anything new. Amnesiac and kid A had moved the band on, they were progressing in their sound, up until this album no album quite sounded like the others, where as this is a backwards step towards albums such as OK computer. This isn’t itself a bad thing just that they are never going to hit the chords (metaphorically and literally) that their previous albums have unless they keep re-examining their sound and moving, this is just a bit too bland for me to love. A 7/10 album I’d say!

Well hope that satisfies my fans out there

P.S. Off to Glastonbury this weekend so hopefully Radiohead will prove me wrong and show me how their latest creation should be appreciated.

The butterflies have taken me,
They are taking me on rides I’ve never been on,
Around the corkscrew and over the drop,
I don’t know how far the end is,
But please let me off this ride.

I’ve finally figured that I’m done with Newcastle I’ve had enough. The turning point is reached and I need to move on. It’s now or never to define who I am to become, what I am to do with the rest of my life and Newcastle aint in the picture.
As much as I have loved the place I have called home for the past 3 years, I finally feel my stint is at an end. It’s over, caput! There is no more for me here I have to leave and redefine who I am, the past three years have taught me a lot but I still don’t know who I am or what I want to become. That is something I need to find. No amount of friendship can help me, and that’s what scares me. I won’t have support any more; I will be doing things on my own. No more flat mates, no more people exploring the same path as me.

I’ve just walked home across Newcastle and I found myself sat in the park slowly shedding a tear, I will miss this place, the place I have grown into who I am.

It is TIME.

Just to say congratulations to Dave, Will and Neil who had a party on Saturday to celebrate their 21st birthdays. Also good luck (A bit belated) to Dave who had an interview for Al-Jazeera this afternoon. Hope it went well.

Anyway, still not decided what I want to do with my life!

Uni friends are one of a kind. The friends I built at School were different to those I know here. Of those I knew at school I keep in contact (actively) with about 3 perhaps 4 of them. My school life was a desperate attempt to “fit in” with the crowd. I felt contempt for those that got where they were through being popular or good at sports. I was brainy but that meant nothing to my peers. (Now I realise I was just arrogant but you can’t change the past). But I never wanted to keep in contact with them. I wanted to get away and be myself, not that I really knew who I really was (I still don’t). I’ve never been comfortable with me; I latch on to things way to easily, but have very few convictions. I don’t know how to motivate myself or know how to keep myself interested in anything beyond the short term.
But anyway I ramble; I really wanted to get away from who I was. I was a dork, a geek and a person not really knowing how to fit in (as much as I tried). Anyway, I came to Newcastle and here I have found people who realise what it’s like to not know what or who you are. I have friends who will stay with me no matter what happens. I have people I can talk to about everything. I really couldn’t ask for more! I’m really gonna miss them all.

On another note, how come I always seem to pull mingers? (Barring my last girlfriend, she’ll shout at me for mentioning her but it’s complementary and this is a drunken rant.) I don’t get it. Ok I’m…… well I’m portly, but the only girl who tried to dance with me tonight was not great looking if you know what I mean (don’t worry no pics) but at least I didn’t let it go anywhere, I just ignored her. Well anyway I’m off to bed now, to sulk. HE HE HE

Well it’s all over, all the exams are done, my projects and coursework are all handed in, so now i’ve just got to hope and wait. Think they all went well (well all bar one, which i think my result will be between 20% and 80% cos i blagged most of it).

Download was brilliant. Got to see Audioslave live and it pissed down during zwan, so all in all a perfect festival day.

Cheers to all those people i have known in Newcastle by the way. I can honestly say they have been the best set of friends i have ever had.
(hey look at me getting all wussy!)