Work in Progress

I've had a bit fiddle on with the blog. The eagle eyed among you will notice that there's now a button labelled Dave Stuff at the top of the page, which leads to a page from which you can navigate to various writings and drawings without trawling through endless blog archives. You may not necessarily want to, but the option now exists. There's a few bits and pieces of additional content there, which I'll be adding to over time. This addition, which I imagine most people would find ridiculously easy, has taken me a silly amount of time, proving once again that I have the same aptitude for computers as lungfish do for major league baseball. Still, God loves a trier. It's very much a work in progress, so apologies if it's all a bit scrappy looking at the minute. I'll get there in the end, even if I take the scenic route.


Was rather surprised to find that Gruff Rhys - he of the Super Furry Animals - was back in town yesterday, playing a free gig at the behest of Frankie and the Heartstrings. You may remember from my Split festival review that I didn't even stick around to listen to the Heartstring's set, deeming them a band I couldn't really get away with. While I stand by my opinion (I likes what I likes) my somewhat snotty comments shouldn't detract from the band's status as the Good Guy Greg's of the Sunderland music scene. In addition to being one of the more prominent groups round these parts, they also run Pop Recs Ltd, a record shop, cum coffee house, cum arts venue on Fawcett Street. The place helps keeps alive the traditional record shop, brings a bit of life and culture into a part of town that can feel a bit down at heel and provides a platform for up and coming artists. So, y'know, all good stuff. If you find yourself in Sunderland for whatever reason, please pop in and maybe give them money in exchange for goods and services.

Naturally, me and wor lass had a look along. Gruff Rhys was, again, fantastic and, again, I would recommend checking his new stuff out. Also, as a result of the gig, I now know the Welsh for 'happy birthday to you' - pen blewuth happis ET (quite possibly not the correct spelling). I shall file it alongside 'croeso y Cymru' and 'lechyd da'. A few more phrases and I shall be fluent. You can watch a recording of his solo album's  title track on the Sunderland Echo site if you fancy. True to form, I found myself stuck behind the pillar you can see to the right of the shot. Also, because I feel slightly dickish about my previous dismissal, below's a video of one of Frankie and the Heartstrings tracks. Please make up your own mind as to whether they're worth listening to,

Managed to knock out another page for Rag and Bone. That's five whole pages. Don't act like you're not impressed.

Love and Fishes

Dave Denton