Comedy Dickabout

The fabulous Rhod Gilbert hosts a monthly "Comedy Playground" (rebranded by Rhod after only 2 nights as Comedy Dickabout) at The Globe in Cardiff.  The  lovely RoathCardiff.net asked me to write a review of last months show and lo and behold you can find it here!


If you live in or just happen to be around Cardiff. I heartily suggest going!

A Little Night Music

Gerard Way - My Chemical Romance
CIA Cardiff

Well Monday night I went to see My Chemical Romance at the CIA in Cardiff. Terrified I was going to be the oldest member of the audience I emo’d up and after a liberal application of eye liner I felt ready to face the crowd.

As it turns out I wasn’t the only grown up there. There were plenty of us. Granted most of them did seem to be chaperoning their ‘yoof’ but for my own self confidence I neatly ignored that fact.



The Blackout

The concert was very good. Not much interaction with the audience but they came, they performed well and they left. I suppose you can’t really ask for much more. I’m not a huge fan but I do like some of their tracks and if I’m perfectly honest, after a busy couple of months I really needed to let my hair down. So I did and had a cracking, wild night.

The highlight of the night though was undoubtedly Welsh band ‘The Blackout’ who were supporting. They played their wee souls out and barely stopped chatting with the crowd. They even had us all kneel down which is an interesting vantage point for a rock concert!

On a rather different musical note, I’m going to see a singer/songwriter called ‘Teddy Thompson’ at the Glee Club tonight. If I’m honest, I have no idea who he is or what his music is like but tickets were reasonable and there’s nothing wrong with a little bit of mystery on a Wednesday night.

Personally I’m hoping for a mellow, eyeliner free evening. I’ll keep you posted.

Teddy Thompson

The Devil In Me

A couple of weeks ago I had my first ice hockey experience. Cardiff Devils v the Belfast Giants. In fact, not only was it my first time at an ice hockey game it was my first ever live sporting event. That is, unless school sports days count?

I quickly discovered that ice hockey is fast, violent and much to my amazement, sexy!

Men, hitting other men with sticks, windows and pucks. It’s an awesome thing to watch. Seriously, every time a player smashed into the glass it was oddly and unexpectedly, exhilarating. Go figure!

The players are, naturally, all bound up but peeling all that bulk away in my mind I managed to convince myself that they were all beautiful Adonis types under their padding. They are men, big hulking, bonafide men and they were beating the crap out of each other. Wow!

My equally hormonal friend Clare had the same experience although she did put a good game face on when her lovely boyfriend almost caught us rating the players as they came up on the monitors. Oops! And if he’s reading this, just ignore this paragraph ok?

Our fabulous experience was topped off by my hubby being hit by a puck (a good thing in icehockey apparently and rare it seems!) and randomly winning a pizza from the gropey, Cardiff Devils mascot, ‘Lucy fur’, which we ate during the game!

Not only have I already booked for my next game but I’m actively encouraging my husband to take up ice hockey (or at the very least buy the outfit ;-).

Is all sport such a turn on or is it simply that potent mix of ice and passion that makes ice hockey so damn hot?!

Funny Graffiti

Forgive the lack of picture but my shame of photographing random billboards while sat on a bus full of strangers kind of scuppered my plan and I ended up with a blurry mess.
The graffiti in question was on a poster for a clothes retailer. The poster reads, rather naffly in my opinion:

“OMG where did you buy that jacket?”

Some Cardiff vandal has added the following amendment in the form of a speech bubble:

“I didn’t. I swapped it for crack”

It made me laugh rather loudly which is another thing that random strangers on a bus find odd!

A Trip To Florence

Thursday the 10th June saw me, my husband and some friends standing in Coopers field, Cardiff waiting for Florence & The Machine to come on stage.  As excited as a kitten, I'd been looking forward to this concert for quite a while.  

Since listening to the album 'Lungs' at the end of 2009 I've been rapidly falling in love with Florence Welch.  I'm afraid as well as a wonderful ethereal voice and legs that don't seem to end, Florence also has a wardrobe I would give my right eye for.  

The concert was held in a large, open circus tent and it was a little claustrophobic as around 30,000 fans tried to inch towards the stage.  Thankfully we'd claimed our spot reasonably early and had a relatively good view. 

I freely admit to being a bit of an odd concert go-er.  While a view is wonderful, I seem to spend most of my time with my eyes closed just letting the music wash over me.  The sound at Coopers field was, as expected for such a large gig, pretty shite.  However, we were close enough to be able to feel the music and hear it reasonably well.  Anytime poor Florence spoke however, I don't think any of us heard a word.  Still, lets be honest, I wasn't there to hear how she'd spent her day. I was there to hear her sing and sing she did!

The concert kicked of with 'Howl' which is one of my favorites from the album.  A savage song, about carnal lust which I just can't get enough of: 

"The saints can't help me now, the ropes have been unbound
I hunt for you with bloodied feet across the hallowed ground"

This raw, animalistic sentiment is in a lot of her songs and when you consider her porcelain appearance, you'd be forgiven for thinking the concert would be a rather tame affair but far from it, the girl performed with a wild fury that really befits her lyrics.

Florence also performed a new track which sounded fantastic. I think it was called 'Strageness', although to be fair, with the poor sound I could be completely wrong. 

Other personal highlights included, Girl With One Eye, Cosmic Love, Dog Days Are Over and Rabbit Heart.  All of which built to a rather orgasmic climax.

The only negatives of the night were the crappy sound and the claustrophobic heat.  I left craving a bottle of water, longer set list, 2nd album & another concert!