Been a bit quiet round these parts recently....

...actually,  I've been a bit quiet for quite a while now compared to my previous prolific blogging output. There are reasons for this - mainly financial. The recession has begun to bite here at Dark Towers. In fact it's not so much biting as taking a massive chomp out of my bank (in)balance. Maybe I shouldn't have bought that motorcycle (more on this in the next episode...) or all those guitars and amplifiers? Most of the guitars have seen little use, although all have been gigged - I just have a couple of favourites that I use regularly. I have been thinking about selling one or two of them, and I don't need two basses either - although ironically one of them has seen a lot more gigging use over the last couple of years compared to my 6 string razors. Still, even playing bass is better than not gigging at all so...

The simple truth is that the cost of things like food, beer (particularly BEER), petrol, utility bills, etc. has been rising much faster than my feeble income and something has to give. I have a mortgage to pay as well, and keeping a roof over my head has to take priority over other things. So basically I can't afford to go out much any more. The price of a pint at gigs has risen far faster than anything else over the past few years - certainly far faster than my wages, so I have largely stopped drinking at gigs - apart from the ones where beer is around normal North London pub prices. In fact, I have mostly stopped going to gigs at all - apart from seeing cover bands in local pubs which doesn't count. I can go and see a band in a local pub for minimal (if any) transport costs, not have to pay to get in, and enjoy quality ale at reasonable prices. Even then, I'm not out every weekend seeing bands in pubs either - it has to be a band I like and know are going to ROCK or something new that looks interesting and likely to ROCK. Otherwise I'll just stay in and save some money - with being overdrawn becoming a way of life I'm effectively paying interest on every pint I drink so...

I've had to become used to not going to many gigs these days. I don't like it, but I have no choice but to accept it. That's just the way things are now. I've missed loads of gigs over the last year or so that I'd usually have gone to without thinking. I wouldn't even think about whether to go to see a band I like - I'd just go. I've missed bands I've seen many times and would normally never miss like Backyard Babies, Danko Jones, Supersuckers, KISS, Alice Cooper, Therapy?, Terrorvision, The Darkness and many more. I do miss going to gigs, and although I still have a social life locally I do miss seeing all my rock 'n' roll friends I meet at gigs in town - they know who they are. ;-)

So basically - no gigs means no blogging. Well mostly anyway - apart from the odd rant or bit of other news. However, I have also had one other major setback recently....