Dreams

Today I've been reminiscing my dream. Before I came to University, my life revolved around my friends and music. It still does, but unfortunately, I am restricted in the gigs I can attend these days. It's a hobby which seems to have taken a back seat but is gorged on when the opportunity presents itself.

The stereotypical angst filled teenager is a part of everyone and my outlet which served through these years was in the form of gigs. There is a certain buzz to be enjoyed on the purchase of a ticket to a show, this buzz builds slowly in the months preceding the gig. A particular show I was desperate to attend was abandoned in my fight for a Green Day ticket, I won the battle at a loss of £50. But that means nothing until summer when I will be standing in Lancashire Cricket Ground enjoying the show. However, that £50 disheartened me. It meant that my money in reserve of a You Me At Six ticket was spent.

My dream itself came in the form of music journalism. University courses in Journalism seemed to be centred on the politics of newspaper reporting. I strive to be more involved in the creative side of the spectrum, this is quelled by Creative Writing. But now, I write poetry and fiction with a vigour renewed from my younger days. My music serves to inspire me, I no longer get to read it, I get to expand on it.

I read articles in Kerrang! magazine, how the credit crunch affected music is a feature which has stuck with me even though I can't remember the issue number or even the month. That is the kind of thing I like, not poetry inspired by recession or newspapers branding the government a failure.

Last Friday, walking into the Manchester Apollo, after completing the longest queue I'd ever seen outside, I felt like a failure. I had managed to see Lostprophets here two weeks before; but I hadn't visited for a long time prior to it. Nor had I entered the Manchester Academy for too long. We had to take seats as we were late bookings. My friend Sarah had bought two You Me At Six tickets when I had failed, her brother had changed his mind and the ticket came to me. I was ecstatic to receive it and also to be at the sold out show.

The surprising opener of 'Safer To Hate Her' sparked a run of second album 'Hold Me Down' material punctuated by earlier hits such as Jealous Minds Think alike and Kiss and Tell from the re release of Take Off Your Colours; The Truth Is a Terrible Thing and Always Attract the only unreleased songs from the album to air. After a short intermission, The Consequence revealed a new dimension to the stage, revealing ramps which were mostly trampled energetically by Josh, Matt and Max.

Fireworks and Always Attract showcased Josh as the ballads demonstrate his superb writing talent and performance.

Promotion of Hold Me Down went without a glitch as fans sang back every word to the material, the biggest audience You Me At Six have ever obtained by themselves. However, their last show at the Manchester Roadhouse is the fastest sell out show the venue has ever had. Save It For The Bedroom invigorated the audience to even dizzier heights followed by the finale of Underdog. It makes me wonder, just when will they grace the stage of the MEN as the headliners??

Psychopath parks at a supermarket

As a creative writing student at Edge Hill University, I am taking up blogging as an outlet and an opportunity to hone my writing skills. My name is Kirsty and I am currently living under the illusion that I am a teenager and instead of twenty, I am in fact twenteen! This is the joke used by all of my friends on the turning of their second decade in this world. We are extremely good at kidding ourselves that we are still the innocent youth we once were, when we know that this is by no means true. God knows what we'll do when the big 21 comes around.



Last night, we had a visiting writer in the form of Jen Ashworth. My course friends accompanied me to The Rose Theatre for the compulsory event. However, it felt anything but compulsory. I really enjoyed the writing style of the first person narrator. Jen read some excerpts from the beginning and chapter 13 in particular because it was a self confessed favourite of hers. I found the first person narrator very intriguing, as she was witty and I could relate to some of the domestic situations she was describing. Microwaveable meals are a particular favourite of cash-strapped students eating for one. It was enlightening how the circumstances rang true, despite how different the life of the main character was from my own.


Following the reading, in true student style, we hit the pub. The Buck In'th Vine in Ormskirk is a favoured meeting place for students and teachers following readings. The tradition is yet to be broken as we queued to the bar, then followed through to a rather dark corner at the back of the pub. We took to reading some material from a friend and chatting about anything and everything. The idea of a blog sprang to mind at this point, hence this first post for almost a year. I'll also be keeping posted on the progression of a possible new publishing venture. We are considering creating a blog for writers to submit work to, it could indeed be an extention of this very page.


4th March, Jen was back. We had a seminar split between our usual tutor and Jen. We did a very useful exercise which, in future, will surely cure writer's block! We were given a type of character and a domestic action to perform. Mine was a psychopath parks at a supermarket, the bare bones are down, but it may just turn into a very intriguing story in the near future. Tonight, I plan to start reading my signed copy of A Kind Of Intimacy by Jen Ashworth!!