Tuesday 3 January 2012

Oh look! I'm back in Liverpool.

It's been ages since I last posted a blog. I didn't realise it was 3 months...it's flown by and absolutely loads has changed. I'm no longer living in Berlin for starters, which is quite big news (in the context of this blog). I arrived back in Liverpool on the 3rd December 2011. I think I decided to come home after a visit to Liverpool just before my birthday in October and I made the decision in about 10 minutes and without a great deal of thought. The main reason for me coming back was because I'd spoken to Andy and Rob about starting a new band and initially we spoke about sending tracks back and forth via email and trying to do it that way, but I knew that I would never be able to work that way as I'm far too easily distracted by going out and getting lashed and having fun in Berlin. That was another reason for me coming home...I was just going out and getting lashed and having fun in Berlin way too much and not getting anything proper done. I was doing stuff, no doubt about that, but it was so hickledy-pickledy and skew-wiff and I could never concentrate on anything in particular. It's easy to get distracted in Berlin, especially if you're that way inclined - and I certainly am that way inclined.

Loads of things happened in the last three months though and I'm going to end up skimming over them and probably forgetting a lot because it were so long ago now. Here are some things that happened.

I had a great big party in Klub der Republik for my 30th birthday - a load of my friends came over from Liverpool for it, which was amazing. The manager at the club, Deacon, is one of the loveliest people I've ever met and is a great example of what a club manager should behave like. Always going out of his way to help if there was a problem...one time I had a mega bout of toothache whilst I was DJing there and I asked if he had anything behind the bar that could help - 2 minutes later he comes over with a drink that he said contained most of the spirits behind the bar. he set the drink on fire before giving it to me. Moments later there was no toothache.

I went away, on and off, to Saarbrücken to work on a massive construction site with my friend Seb and a good lad called Simon, who I met in Berlin not too long before this - he played trumpet and sung on the last Silent Sleep EP. It was a big load of fucking hard work - 12 hours a day most days and absolutely hard graft. In a mad way though, although I FUCKING HATED it at the time, when I look back now, I kind of look back on it with fairly fond memories. The three of us had a laugh whilst we were there and we ended up meeting some great people, too. Some completely terrifying people, don't get me wrong, but some nice ones too. One night we went out to the local 'Indie club' or whatever you want to call it and we got lashed and met a group of people on the way out who we got talking to. Cut to the chase, they ended up organising a couple of really brilliant gigs for us to play whilst we were over there and we stayed friends with them after we left.





We had the last Liquidation Berlin just before I left for home. Jules came over and we had a dead good couple of days. The last Liquidation itself was amazing and for the first time in my life I blacked out because of drink. I remember leaving the club with Jules. We were on our way back to mine. Then I'm waking up on a train in a part of Berlin I never knew existed and it's 7.30am and there are parents taking their children to school and there are people on their way to work and there's me, wearing Jules' massive overcoat with no shirt on under it looking like a mad, pissed up flasher. I'm sure I remember kids cowering behind their parents' legs when I stood up and tried to make my way down the train to the door. Cowering and crying. Cowering and crying and screaming. I had no idea where Jules was. I made my way home and eventually, after a load of phone calls and google mappering, Jules arrived back too, wearing my coat, obviously. Turns out Jules can't remember how we got separated either but woke up in a park somewhere.

It was sad to leave behind the people that I'd met over there. I met some absolutely wonderful people who I hope I'll always stay mates with. People who totally reached out and helped me when they totally didn't need to. I'll definitely miss living in Berlin and I'll definitely miss these people.

I've been home 1 whole month now. It's good. It's great to be close to my friends who know me really well again. I'm living, bizarrely, in the same house that I lived in about 4 years ago with Graham and Claire, at the top of Penny Lane in Allerton.
I'm definitely going to continue doing my Silent Sleep stuff - I did think about jibbing it now that I've moved back but I realised that I really enjoy doing it, so I'm going to record the album properly with Rob Whiteley in his fancy studio. I'm absolutely looking forward to doing that. I'm more excited to get started on the band that I (mostly) moved home for though. We've got our first practise on Sunday.

I watched The Human Centipede 2 last night. It's going to ruin the rest of my life if I don't scrub my mind hard enough.