Author: Phil Lengthorn

Boy Mandeville

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 1 Comment

The band grabbing the ‘B’ in the A-Z of New Music, thanks to @nembow, is Boy Mandeville…..

A miserable rainy day outside has not stopped Boy Mandeville from transporting me into the summer. A great indie-pop outfit that creates a truly summer sound thanks, in part, to fantastic calypso sounds, take a listen to ‘Steel Horse’ and you’ll either be on a beach in the Caribbean or at the Notting Hill carnival (without the knives of course). Their last single, released last summer, ‘Gorilla’ is definitely worth a listen, as is ‘Killing the Work’. But my favourite, given that I’ve only been listening to them for the morning, would have to be ‘Christina’, an example of a slightly more ‘indie’ Boy Mandeville. So if you fancy listening to some afro-beat and wonky pop then Boy Mandeville should be your first stop….

Boy Mandeville overall grade a B – for me a bit too much calypso….

Today’s blog has been brought to you by the letter B…

Allo Darlin’

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 2 Comments

March’s project, with @davidmarples in mind, gets off to an indie pop feel – although I also like the idea they have been described as ‘twee poppers’….may I present……..Allo Darlin’….

A great start to March’s project!

Allo Darlin’ are a great little band, their self-titled album Allo Darlin’ (which I downloaded after listening to a few tracks on myspace) is packed full of fun little melodies, using ukuleles and tambourines, in a Noah and the Whale styley. ‘The Polaroid Song’ would have to be my favourite, closely followed by ‘Woody Allen’ and ‘My Heart is a Drummer’. Although some older ‘stuff’ is well worth a listen, ‘Henry Rollins Don’t Dance’ is a catchy little number.

I’ve now added them to my must see gig list. Take a look….

Allo Darlin’ overall grade A* – top of the class!

Today’s blog has been brought to you by the letter A……

 

 

March’s Project….

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 5 Comments

A-Z of New Music

After much deliberation March’s project has finally been decided…..’Phil’s A-Z of New Music’.

“What is Phil’s A-Z of New Music?” I hear you shout. Well after various ideas from various people: painting, swimming, model making, photography, star-gazing, to name but a few, I wanted something quite relaxing to do throughout March. And thanks to @ladymarples the decision has been made.

February was an interesting month, learning to play the ukulele was not as easy as I first thought, I didn’t seem to pick up the uke as often as I should have. Suffice to say: I’m no expert. Although if Noah and the Whale’s ukulele player suddenly dropped dead, I could probably manage to accompany them on ‘5 years time’ for at least the first 10-15 secs of the track. In a nutshell: I’m no George Formby! (although @kem27 did manage to get him confused with Norman Wisdom!).

So, March’s plan, to listen to and blog about ‘New Music’. Although when I say ‘new’ music, I actually mean ‘new’ to me. I hope to cover a range of genres, so there should be something for everyone!

If you have some some ideas of artists/bands I should listen to feel free to comment….

March?

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ Leave a comment

February’s plan to learn to play the ukulele didn’t go too well. Although I can definitely play it better than I could 4 weeks ago.

I’m still not entirely sure what March’s project is going to be….

  • One idea was to borrow Amy’s posh camera and try my hand at some fancy photography.
  • Another was to learn to swim better – but after the physical efforts of janathon that may have to wait until the summer.
  • It has been suggested to do some sort of art/painting project.

A decision will be made by the end of the weekend……

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ Leave a comment

Here’s a great blog – if you fancy a good day out in London

lindalengthorn's avatarFreedom Ladies

Tuesday 14th February – sixth walk of 2012

This week we went to the Museum of London to look at the ‘Dickens and London’ exhibition which commemorates 200 years since his birth. We planned to meet at Cannon Street but by coincidence meet each other at London Bridge when changing trains.

As it was a nice, sunny, bright day we decided to walk to St Paul’s Cathedral for a coffee on the way to the Museum.  The protesters were still there and the whole area was full of tents and, in fact, had a village feel with library, lounge rooms, food tents and even a piano!  Unfortunately, due to the protesters, the Crypt Cafe was closed. We were really disappointed and decided to carry on walking straight to the Museum and there made the cafe our first stop for coffee and cake!

We purchased our timed tickets for entry into the exhibition. Entry into the Museum is free but the…

View original post 213 more words

Busy Weekend

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 2 Comments

The end of half-term has appeared incredibly quickly this time, and coincided with a very busy weekend.

First up was a trip to London late Friday evening to stay at Mums for a family gathering on Saturday. Brother Paul is home from China for a few days and my niece is visiting.

Saturday morning I went to Norman Park in Bromley to take part in my first parkrun, a free timed 5km run. It is a great idea and the race was great fun, three laps of Norman Park – finished in a time of 20.53. After the event you even get a text with your time and details of the race:

“Bromley results for event #130 – Your time was 20.53 – Congratulations on completing your 1st parkrun and your 1st at Bromley today. You finished in 41st place and were the 37th gent out of a field of 298 parkrunners and you came 5th in your age category VM40-44.”

AND they sent me a £15 off voucher I can use for my next pair of trainers from Sweatshop. Apparently these events take place all over the country at 9am on a Saturday morning. However, it would seem that my nearest ‘home’ parkrun is about 30 miles away! If anyone fancies running a parkrun near me, feel free!

Later in the day my niece came for a visit……

Grace is doing fantastic! I hope she enjoys ‘Discovery Bunny’ that we bought her. I drove back Saturday night to be ready for this morning’s Sleaford Half-marathon.

Initially I was not going to run this event but with the cancellation of the last two races due to snow, plus all the mileage I did in janathon, I thought I should go and run it. Firstly, let me just say it was a cold and very windy morning, when I say windy, think….

The Sleaford Half is an event I’ve done a number of times. A rural course, slightly undulating, and because it begins at RAF Cranwell, very open. So the wind was a big issue especially over the first half of the course. Finished in a time of 1:42.06 – pretty happy with that.

Next event up is a club 5-miler Frostbite followed by the Grantham Half-marathon.