It's nearly over

On May 12th I will finally be handing in the last of my work. Technically we have a deadline on May 18th aswell but it's for an Online CV and I'm hoping to get it all finished much earlier than that.

I think, no I know, it will be a huge relief to hand in my Dissertation/Major Project as well as my Life As A Freelance work and Magazine Design work. Just to know that it is the end of my education and I never have to say 'sorry I've got too much work to do.' I'll never have to hear about 2:2s and 2:1s and writing stupid essays about things nobody cares about.

To be honest I don't think I have experienced University to the fullest. I think it would have been good to join a sports team or a society to feel included in something and to make lots of friends. Everyone talks about how they've made loads of new friends at Uni but in all honesty, how many of them are they ever going to see again when they graduate? I haven't actually made that many friends at University, just a small group really and I certainly don't feel prepared for the big bad world out there.

My course hasn't prepared me for what the industry is really like, we haven't been helped or advised on looking for jobs after University either. Of course I've managed to search for jobs by myself but we're being taught by people in the industry who have not shared their knowledge on getting into the industry after Uni. I don't feel I am confident enough to write a good feature and pitch it to a top magazine and I have no idea what I'm doing when I leave Uni.

We seem to have been the 'guinea pig' year where they have tried out various units on us only to find they don't work very well. There's even talk of our course being scrapped..which really fills us all with confidence, not.

So theres my little rant over with. I think it's partially to do with the looming deadlines and the scary black mist descending infront of us but everyone says it will be 'fine' so of course, it will. :\

Easter!!

I haven't written a proper blog in a while have I? So what have I been up to in the week and a half I've already had of the Easter Holidays?

Well, not much to be honest. The first Sunday back I went to Bristol with my sister for some retail therapy at Cabot Circus. I didn't buy quite as much as I was hoping to, I didn't find a blazer or a jacket for the spring but I did buy a new skirt, headband and scarf.








Even though I went all the way to Bristol, I managed to find a few nice things in Matalan where my sister works, including these three rings: (Excuse the scars on my knuckles)







If you look hard enough Matalan have some really nice stuff and it really helps when your sister works there and you can get discount!

I took the first week to catch up on Uni work and I got loads of my Magazine Design work done but now I'm really struggling with my Major Project and Life As A Freelance work. Everyone that I emailed about getting interviews with either didn't get back to me, rejected me or told me to read their books and take stuff from there. Which is plagerism and I'll get in trouble for that!! But, things are looking up a tiny bit now. I've just completed one of my features and although it needs a little cutting down, I think it's ok. I can finally start work on the profile piece as I got some handy links from my Music Journalism lecturer which I'm going try.

This week I've been working every day at Sandbay. I now stink of chips and burgers. It's not a brilliant job but it's money and it will help me survive the last remaining weeks of University, which are fast approaching!

A DAY TO REMEMBER LIVE AT PORTSMOUTH PYRAMID CENTER

A Day To Remember
Portsmouth Pyramid Center
March 15th 2010
Support: Your Demise, Architects

The last time A Day To Remember played at the Portsmouth Pyramid Centre, it was to a crowd that belonged to Sheffield metallers Bring Me The Horizon. ADTR are a million miles away from that now as the popularity surrounding the band has more than exploded, causing many of the dates on the tour to sell out, leaving fans begging for spare tickets outside the venues.

By the time many of the fans had got into the venue, support act Your Demise were already making lots of noise while hurling themselves across the stage. Unfortunately on this night, bad sound quality and at time inaudible vocals meant that ADTR’s crowd were not so enthusiastic about this band and they barely moved through the entire set. It wasn’t through lack of trying on Your Demise’s part, but the crowd didn’t seem to get into it.

Brighton based metal act Architects managed to work the crowd up into a sweat as there seemed to be a good portion of the crowd out to support them. Small circle pits ensued and the flurry of audience members that didn’t know the band too well were won over by their solid, powerful performance.

After bursting into spontaneous chants from ‘The Downfall of us All’ while queuing outside the venue, it was clear what the fans expected the band to play first but ADTR surprised everyone by bursting onto the stage to the sounds of ‘Fast Forward to 2012.’

The band played a decent amount of tracks from their first two albums ‘And Their Name Was Treason’ and ‘For Those Who Have Heart,’ which much of the crowd was thrilled to hear. But it was tracks such as ‘My Life For Hire,’ and ‘Welcome To The Family,’ from the band’s most recent album ‘Homesick’ that really got the crowd singing along and going wild in the pits.

Slowing things down a little, the band unexpectedly performed their cover of The Fray’s ‘Over My Head,’ which features on the latest Punk Goes Pop 2 album. Singing like pros, the cover sounded as polished and well performed as it does on the CD.

After the initial burst of excitement, things wound down rather a lot within the crowd and their support for the band wavered after softer track ‘Have Faith In Me’ was met with an almost silent reaction from the crowd, causing the band to claim they have to perform softer songs “for the ladies.” The band themselves seemed to notice the quietness of the crowd and reacted to it with funny quips but as someone who was part of the audience, it felt extremely disrespectful to the band.

Thankfully though, things picked up again as the band performed huge favourites such as ‘Homesick’ and ‘You Should Have Killed Me When You Had The Chance,’ but it was the set’s encore that really injected the crowd with huge enthusiasm and energy as they had been waiting to hear the power filled ‘The Downfall Of Us All,’ since they began chanting it’s intro outside the venue. Surprisingly, ADTR opted to perform ‘The Plot To Bomb The Panhandle’ as their closing track of the night, proving that the band have made it big thanks to their entire discography and not solely on their latest release.


Review by Cherry Pullinger