Save the Golden Cross

Yet another of the few remaining live music venues available for local bands annd unsigned bands from around the country is under threat.  

Due to the (in)actions of the previous owner The Golden Cross in Coventry has lost it's entertainments license A pettition has been set up at http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/savethegoldencross

Usually there are live bands every Thursday and Saturday and an Acoustic night every wednesday, for the time being the band nights have had to be stopped and the acoustic nights are still running  but completely unplugged. This is actually ridiculous as I normallylook after the sound on wednesday nights, last week the enviromental health people were there setting a limiter on the PA for recorded music(or rather getting someone else to as they appear completely clueless as to even the basics of how a PA works). They are actually quite happy for us to play recorded music through the PA at volumes far louder than I would want to, however we are not allowed to plug in an acoustic guitar and a vocal mic, such is the stupidity of the law.

Lee Davis : 22 Nov 2007 12:52 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

New Car

Well after the recent irritation with the car I have gone out and bought a new(er) one. Pick it up thursday Lunch time. It looks something like this:

Got all the toys I want (and 1 or 2 that I can do without). Means my bank account is going to look a bit sick for a little while as I have cleared out all my easily accessible cash, but with the increased fuel economy, lower road tax and a few years before things start wearing out it is worth it. Fortunately changing the insurance only cost an extra £26 till the renewal in December which isn't bad since it is worth 20 times the value of the old one.

Just need to waste 1/2 tank of diesel in the old one before thursday now ;-)

Lee Davis : 02 Jun 2007 18:24 |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Tomorrow

Writing about web page http://www.myspace.com/covfest

Tomorrow I will be downstairs at the Golden cross looking after the sound for the Acoustic acts.

Should be really good, I suspect Sunday I will mostly be sleeping ;-) 

Lee Davis : 30 Mar 2007 11:41 |  Tags: Music |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

hmmm

The card reader for the Pay at Pump  at Tesco ate the magnetic stripe off my credit card. I have no idea how, but where the stripe was is now clear plastic.

Lee Davis : 25 Jan 2007 10:48 |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Another Moan

I got home this evening to find a letter Saying I hadn't paid any national insurance contributions for 2004-2005 and would I like to pay them £371.80 . Well obviously I wouldn't, however that isn't the reason for my complaint. What does annoy me is that this letter was originally sent to my parents despite the fact that I have lived here for 13 years, paying tax and national insurance.

When I phoned to complain I was informed that the tax people don't notify the national insurance people of your address so the only way they know where you are is if you tell them. This strikes me as being ridiculous, espcially since they are actually both parts HM Revenue and Customs. 

Presumably the only reason they had my parents address is from when I signed on briefly after graduating otherwise since it was back in the days when students could claim income support during the summer holidays this potentially vital corespondence would have gone to my student house up in Bangor, never to be seen again. No wonder people can go years without realising that their NI contributions are actually being credited to someone else.

I'm no great fan of the governments idea to freely share data between all and sundry, but you would at least expect the Tax and NI people to share this basic information. 

Lee Davis : 18 Jan 2007 19:07 |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Some Videos from Saturday

Writing about web page /leedavis/entry/knackered_1/

Writing about an entry you don't have permission to view

In the unlikely event anyone is actually interested here are some videos from last Saturday’s all dayer (thanks to Annie). There are more here.
It all went surprisingly well considering I had no idea what was going on most of the time until it happened, and over £1300 was raised for the teenage cancer trust.

Natasha started things off. She only found out she was playing half an hour before , filling in for Kristy who had cut her finger badly the night before so couldn’t play.

Next up was (one half of) Beneva + Buckechi

Jamsons Nook (at least half of them) were up next

Lost the Plot, first of the full bands

Shadowplay followed, the vocals actually came out a lot clearer on the video than I thought they were at the time, the guitars were turned up so high on stage that I didn’t have much to play with.

After that I had a bit of a break while Myke took over for The Treehorns, King Hermit, DBMA, Little Girl Screaming and most of A dear investment, until his hangover from the night before got the better of him.

Sun, zoom spark were next

Followed by The Decades

Finally Fancy Nancy, who had brought along a whole horde of fans finished the night off.

By the end of their set I’d had more than enough for the day and couldn’t wait for them to finish. I finally managed to escape shortly before 1am.

Lee Davis : 29 Dec 2006 12:29 |  Tags: Music Video |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Dammned insurance salesmen

It’s that time of year again when my car insurance is due for renewal. Usually I try about half a dozen websites to try and get the best quote, this years renewal isn’t that much more than last year so Having got a singkle additional quote from More Than, which wasn’t any cheaper I decided I couldn’t be bothered.
However since then I have had 5 or 6 calls from an 0845 number which when I answered had no-one there, until just now, and guess what its royal sun alliance (for who More Than arew a front). So after tling the chap I wasn’t interested since their quote wasn’t any cheaper I then went on to point out that I wouldn’t touch them anyway due to their silent calls, unfortunately he hung up before I had a chance to point out it was also illegal.

Lee Davis : 29 Nov 2006 19:44 |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Deafened

Just had to pop down to the Golden Cross to help sort them out as their PA had died again with the bands ready to go on. Looks like their mixing desk has blown up again, fortunately someone came up with a replacement desk. Unfortunately it is a metal night and despite escaping as quickly as I could once I was happy the system was working ok my ears are still complaining, I knew there was a good reason I avoid metal nights.

Lee Davis : 13 Nov 2006 23:17 |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

New TV

Well after my main tv died a few weeks ago I went shopping this weekend and got a replacement. Needless to say I didn’t quite get what I was intending to.
The plan was to get a 26” LCD tv as my lounge sin’t that big. What I actually ended up with was a 32” one which was cheaper but had more features than the one I was originally looking at.

I can even use it as a computer monitor, though there isn’t much point.

If nothing else it’s great for playing on the ps2, unfortunately it still doesn’t make up for my complete lack of skill and co-ordination

Lee Davis : 13 Nov 2006 20:04 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Decisions

Hmm well I’ve got another few busy days (or at least evenings) coming up, though I haven’t quite decided yet on exactly what I’m doing.
Tonight , being wednesday I’m down the Golden Cross doing the sound for Justine as usual.
Thursday night I can’t decide whether to go down Taylor John’s House or The hope and anchor Friday night I might have to have a night in as I’m getting too old to go out every night, but I’m tempted to go down Taylor John’s House”:http://www.thetinangel.co.uk again if I don’t make the Hope on thursday.
Saturday again is a difficult choice,either Taylor John’s House yet again or The Graduate as I think Kristy is great, first time in ages the union has put on a series of affordable events that I would actually make an effort to go to.
Sundays I nearly always go down The Tin Angel as it usually a good open mic night, and everyone is really friendly there.
If my body and wallet can stand it the above pattern will be repeated for the next 10 weeks, I think the cat might start to feel abandoned though if I manage to keep it up.

Lee Davis : 04 Oct 2006 15:00 |  Tags: Music |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem