Whenever you want it, wherever you want it

Well, that was a fun weekend. Its been pretty non-stop but not being the sort of person who likes to sit in one place for too long, it suited me just fine! 

I had a jolly little time drinking cocktails on Friday night and then fell asleep on the sofa watching 500 Days of Summer (even though I've seen it about 782000 times, I'm still gutted that I slept through the end!). 

On Saturday I went into town with one of my buddies to book a holiday for us and one of our other friends... I think the travel agent was almost at breaking point when she asked us where we wanted to go and what we wanted to get out of our holiday as our answer was "Ummm.... the sun?". Eventually though, she did manage to establish that we didn't want to go anywhere that would likely feature on Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents and so we've booked to go to Corfu in August. Its my first proper holiday in a few years so I'm massively excited already. 

Saturday night was spent celebrating my housemate's birthday with lots of lovely people, then Sunday was largely built around a lazy day and a ginormous plate of cheesy chips and beans before I headed out again to see Bombay Bicycle Club play at the O2 Academy in Leeds. I've seen Bombay Bicycle Club a few times over the years (one particularly memorable show was at Leeds Festival in 2012, when Bombay somehow inadvertently became the band that had the most topless girls on people's shoulders in the crowd... surreal doesn't even cover it) and they're one of my absolute faves to see live. They manage to move seamlessly between super-chilled out songs and crazy guitars in others and bloomin' hell it works. The new stuff sounds great and the old favourites were still as awesome to hear as ever. Some bands I'll just never tire of watching, and Bombay Bicycle Club are definitely one of those. Absolute perfect way to round off the weekend. 

Roll on next weekend, its my birthday on the 9th so I've got plenty of birthday activities planned... hopefully it'll be even better than this weekend was! 

Hope you've all had a good one :)

Whenever, Wherever- Bombay Bicycle Club

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!

I give a little into the moment like I'm standing at the edge, I know.

On Friday night, I spent my evening in possibly the best way ever... with my homegirls Haim. The gig sold out ages ago (they were only playing Leeds Met, which if you know Leeds at all you'll know its a pretty tiny venue!) but luckily after many hours spent trawling twitter on a quest for tickets I managed to find some for my housemate and I. 

I've heard mixed reviews about Haim's live performances. A lot of people have said their vocals aren't brilliant live so I didn't have my expectations set too highly. But seriously, I couldn't fault them. They've all got incredible voices and they really know how to own a stage. They're like a new generation of girl power with all their hair swishing and guitar riffs. It's made me want to be adopted as the fourth sister even more now. Plus, they all munch on Percy Pigs between songs... Girls after my own heart right there. 

Anyway, whilst I'm at it rambling on about my ever-increasing love for the band, I thought I'd show you what I wore to the gig. Since it was a Friday night and all that jazz I decided to put a bit of effort in (usually I find myself judging people who treat gigs as a fashion show when they're just going to end up soaked in beer and sweat) so managed to quickly take a few snaps of my outfit before rushing out of the house. I love this Primark crop-ip, it's just the right length for me and I bloomin' love anything velvet at the moment so this was instantly a winner with me.

top: Primark, skirt: Topshop, boots: New Look, necklaces: Joy & Urban Outfitters

Falling- Haim

Fred Astaire's the man for you

On Monday, I took my first trip to what could well be my new favourite place in the world ever. The Belgrave Music Hall opened its doors in Leeds earlier in the month and I'd been itching to take a visit to Leeds' newest gig venue ever since. Luckily for me, San Cisco were playing so I had the perfect excuse to pay the venue a little visit.

San Cisco were pretty decent and their set offered me lots of opportunities to boogie around to a bit of indie pop (something I'm not sure I'd ever be able to resist) and their summery vibes helped me forget the horrible wintery weather I'd left behind outside. Although it was a lot of fun, at times it was hard to forget that I was again experiencing the sinking feeling that I'd inadvertently landed at an under 18's disco. Getting old is tough sometimes and its only when you're surrounded by cool kids who would have only been about 10 when you were there age that you truly realise it. 

That said, I'm glad I'm that little bit older than all the posy kids we were surrounded by. It meant we could fully take advantage of the Belgrave's facilities, they've got a huge bar downstairs playing some awesome songs, complete with a canteen style fish and chips shop and pizza stall (I was eyeing up the pizza all evening... definitely going back for a slice soon) and possibly the best roof terrace known to man, even in the rain it was a great place to sit and take shelter in a cosy wooden shed. 

Leeds, you're doing brilliantly at the moment. I love this city and the ever increasing amount of brilliant places to visit.

Fred Astaire- San Cisco

She may contain the urge to run away so hold her down with soggy clothes and breezeblocks

Hello lovely people! It feels like its been forever since I last posted. I've had a pretty hectic month with moving house and everything else that's been going on (big thank you for your kind comments on my last blog post too- it really meant a lot to read them), and all of that teamed with no internet in my new house didn't exactly mean prime conditions for giving my blog some attention.

My first post was going to be a little tour of my new room now that its finally all sorted out, but it might have to wait a little while as I got back from an incredible weekend at Latitude Festival yesterday so my bedroom is currently buried under a huge pile of dirty clothes, wellies and camping equipment. Instead, it seems very fitting to share a few photos from my weekend (I don't trust myself with even my decent compact camera at festivals so apologies for the rubbish quality of a lot of the pictures but at least you get the idea!).

              

I'd been to Leeds Festival a few times already so was really looking forward to going somewhere a bit different, and was definitely not disappointed. Latitude is such a pretty festival and they really put in an incredible amount of effort to make it a unique and exciting experience with a lovely atmosphere, unlike Leeds where there generally isn't a great deal to see other than the bands and the nightlife.

We spent hours wandering around the site catching glimpses of so many unexpected things from a hot air balloon moon floating above us to multicoloured sheep grazing down by the lake aswell as floating around on a gondola and a strange experience of witnessing a huge crowd waving reeds that they'd pulled from the lakeside at a 2am DJ set, meaning that there was never a dull moment in between watching loads of brilliant performances. Alt- J, Foals and Daughter were some of my absolute highlights, I can't believe I hadn't seen Alt-J live before- I'll definitely be jumping at the chance next time they're playing in Leeds. 

We also got to see so many hilarious things in the comedy tent (another thing that makes Latitude so unique as they had some really big names from the comedy world) largely due to the crazy heatwave that we experienced for most of the weekend. I don't tend to watch much stand up on telly as I find it easier to get into when its live, I found myself crying with laughter on a few occasions across the weekend because everything seemed so much funnier when I was surrounded by hundreds of other people all laughing hysterically!

Anyway, I'm off to get dressed now (and yes, it is now 2pm. A whole day of travelling yesterday in horrendous heat whilst feeling sorry for myself after a night of dancing, running around the festival site and drinking too much vodka meant that a lazy day today was very much deserved and highly essential for my survival).

Breezeblocks- Alt-J

(My festival buddy and I had this song in our heads for the rest of the weekend after seeing them on Saturday night). 

I wanna get lovesick with you

I love bank holiday weekends. Especially this one as living in Leeds meant that I could spend the weekend surrounded by lots of my favourite bands at Live at Leeds festival. Buying a wristband for the Saturday gets you into all of the main music venues in the city centre where an endless list of bands are playing throughout the day. I went last year and saw more bands than you can shake a stick at, this year we didn't manage to see quite so much, partially due to not waking up until lunchtime (we were really sensible and went on a pretty heavy night out the night before...) but also because both The 1975 and The Pigeon Detectives attracted  huge queues that I don't think the organisers had quite anticipated which meant that there was a massive backlog of people who were forced to queue for miles to get into the venues for the acts that were later on in the day. Inevitably we ended up stuck in all of these queues since all of the bands that we wanted to see were inevitably playing at those venues later in the day. 

But really, its quality over quantity at these things (at least that's what we had to force ourselves to believe during our hour long wait to get into The Cockpit) and the acts we did manage to see put on a brilliant show. We managed to catch Backyards who are a great little band that we went along to support because one of my friends is good friends with the drummer plus they're a really talented bunch, Tribes (who I've seen about four times now but still really love the energy they have on stage every single time), Swim Deep (singing along to their songs after our horrendous Cockpit queuing experience was exactly what I needed) and Peace. Peace were the absolute highlight of the day, I've loved them for ages and have been dying to see them live after missing out on seeing them at a tiny little venue in Leeds way back in October and they completely exceeded my expectations. They're still a pretty new band, their album hasn't been out for long at all but they've really exploded in popularity lately and so the venue was absolutely rammed with fans singing back every word of every song. Plus, they snuck in a cheeky few lines of Daft Punk's Get Lucky (which forces me to dance like a loony every time I hear it!) and sent the entire room crazy. Perfection. There's no way they'll be playing a venue as small as Cockpit again from now on, they're destined for far bigger things! 

After another night out and a much needed Nando's to recover, we discovered that The Pigeon Detectives were playing a free set in the tiny Made in Leeds shop in Leeds Trinity. After missing out on seeing them the day before we decided that the chance to see them playing in a really tiny venue would more than make up for being caught out by the enormous crowd. Somehow we ended up on the front row, close enough to see the beads of sweat dripping off the lead singer's hair...sometimes being so close has its downfalls...

To top off our weekend, we had tickets to see The Vaccines playing in Millennium Square in Leeds so after our little encounter with The Pigeon Detectives (and a stop off for a few bottles of cider and a slice of cake) we headed into the arena. The sun was shining and there was a great atmosphere because of it, it felt like we were at a real festival but with less mud and more buildings around us. The Vaccines were bloody incredible. I didn't think I liked their second album quite as much as the first but seeing them playing all the songs live completely changed my opinion and made me love some of the newer songs just as much as the first. If you ever get a chance to see them live then go, go go- they know exactly how to make the crowd have the best time watching.

My photos aren't exactly the best I've ever taken, I was mostly relying on my phone as there was no way my SLR was being let loose in the thick of the crowds I'd been stood in, but also because I was too busy singing until I lost my voice to be bothered about watching the whole show through my camera lens. In fact, it gets on my nerves when people do that at gigs... just enjoy the show and focus on the music rather than missing out on a good boogie for the sake of a few pictures.

Lovesick- Peace

And this is how it starts

Earlier this week I took a trip to Cockpit in Leeds with my friend who had a spare ticket to see The 1975. It feels like absolutely ages since I last went to see a band live (think it might have actually been Leeds festival...  very unlike me not seeing anybody live in so long!) so it was nice to have the spark for live music ignited again inside me, especially as Cockpit is such an intimate little venue which usually has a great atmosphere. 

However, despite giving me loads of motivation to find more gigs to go to over the next few months, this particular experience also filled me with a weird feeling that I'm getting OLD. We walked in and were hit with a strange feeling that we'd accidentally wandered into some sort of underage club night, with the girls running around squealing and whispering at each other because the fitty from their school just looked at them.  I think this was largely due to the fact that both support acts had  come from local high schools  and had filled the venue with their school bus groupies. And so a strange thing happened. We became part of that sensible group of old people who stand between the middle and the back of the room, enjoying the music without the risk of some swishy haired 14 year old knocking over your pint as she clambers onto her friend's back. 

And actually, I think I'm ok with that. 

(definitely helped by the fact that with such a young crowd filling up the front half of the room, for once we  had a near perfect view of the stage because none of the kids in front were quite fully grown yet!).

Sex- The 1975