2013 in music

If you're a regular visitor to Sunshine Days, you'll be fully aware that music plays a mahoosive part in my life. Looking back, I've been to some bloomin' brilliant gigs this year (above is a little snapshot with some rubbish quality photos... I'm far too busy actually enjoying the music at gigs to watch it through my phone screen!) from little gigs like The Family Rain who played the Brudenell Social Club to a mammoth expedition down to Suffolk for a weekend of fun and vodka at Latitude. Other highlights included HAIM, an Old Skool Cribs gig a few weeks back and stumbling upon a tiny Pigeon Detectives set in Leeds Trinity and ending up on the front row (even though we don't really like them all that much...). 

While I'm thinking about music of 2013, I thought I'd put together a list of my top tracks of the year. I did this back at the end of 2012 too and its a great way to look back and remember songs from a particular time in your life! Last year I narrowed the list down to five songs, this year I just couldn't whittle it down to any less than ten. Miss Indecisive 2013 right here.

Why'd you only call me when you're high? Arctic Monkeys

My Number Foals

 The Wire HAIM

Lovesick Peace

 Hearts Like Ours The Naked and Famous

Biblical Biffy Clyro

 Trust Me... I'm a Genius The Family Rain

Wasting My Young Years London Grammar

Best of Friends Palma Violets

Youth Daughter

What have been your favourite songs of the year? Hope you've enjoyed some of my top ten too!

Roll on 2014- its already shaping up to be a good one for me music-wise... so far I've got tickets for Foals, Bombay Bicycle Club and *ahem* McBusted (not ruining my indie street cred at all there...).

Also, for once I've not used song lyrics in my post title- yet more proof of how indecisive I am... I couldn't pick one of the 10 songs above as the most worthy of the title! I was discussing with my friends the other day that I really should get an app or something that will make all life decisions for me!

There's something inside you, its hard to explain

Christmas in our family is usually a fairly quiet one. We spend Christmas morning running around catching up with all of our extended family before we all separate off to our own houses for Christmas dinner; when I'm left with just my Mum and Dad for the rest of the day. I love our little family Christmas day- we play a lot of scrabble, eat far too much food and see who's first to fall asleep in front of the telly, but as soon as Christmas Day is out of the way we need a bit of something to escape the house (and keep us away from the Quality Street for a few hours). 

And so, yesterday we ended up at Chester Zoo. Its somewhere I go quite often when I'm at home as its only a few miles away, and I could never ever get bored of it. This time, the tiger cubs were the main attraction- we watched the two of them fighting over a bone and tricking each other into letting go of it... its great to see that family arguments come as standard at Christmas across the whole of the animal kingdom!

Believe it or not, this was one of the cubs... slightly bigger than your average kitten!

We had a great little time, and it was nice to get out of the house and have a bit of a wander about to clear the cobwebs before returning to our scrabble board and tins of chocolate in the evening. Tis the season and all that!

Nightcall- London Grammar

Maybe I'm wasting my young years

As usual, I've had a very cake filled Sunday with another Iron Cupcake competition- Death by Chocolate was the theme this month and even though I only managed to sneak a few little slithers of cake after the judges had passed their verdict (it was a very busy one this month!) I still felt like I was going to end up in a sugar coma. I'll probably do a post about it soon as if you happened to see my instagram feed earlier then you'll know there were some awesome designs amongst the entries!

Other than that, this weekend I had a pretty lazy one after a night out on Friday with some of my favourites. I wore my new favourite dress which made for lots of fun swishy dancing- great entertainment to liven things up since what has been my favourite club night for years was sadly lacking in any sort of atmosphere. I think I need to find a new favourite indie venue to satisfy my Dad-dancing needs. As well as buying myself a new dress, I'm having a bit of a jewellery buying phase (yes, I have added another moustache to my ever expanding collection... considering founding a moustacheaholics anonymous group if anyone cares to join me). I'd been hunting for a K watch for ages after seeing almost every other letter in Topshop. After months of trying I decided getting a T was the next best option, teamed with my scrabble ring it spells out my initials quite nicely.

dress: Topshop, shirt: Forever 21, shoes: Primark, scrabble ring: Vintage fair, watch: Topshop, bracelet: c/o Haus of Deck, moustache ring: c/o Haus of Deck

Hope you've all had a good weekend!

Wasting My Young Years: London Grammar