Teenage Kicks...

I don't know if you've seen Amish: The World's Squarest Teenagers on Channel 4? When I first came across it, I was horrified; it sounded like one of those 'point and laugh at the freaks' programmes that make me want to throw things at the telly. However, for once the name of the show doesn't actually do justice to the content. It follows five young Amish teenagers as they come to Britain and spend time with 4 different families; it has been a huge, huge eyeopener. The five young Amish are very engaging and keen to fit in with their host families, and also to learn as much as they can about the hugely-differing cultures. But what is also wonderful to see, especially given the bad press that teenagers in this country get, was the way that the British teenagers hosting them were also keen to engage with themand get to know their ways. It kinda fills you with hope...almost!

Another thing that has given me hope for the fabled 'next generation' was the Palace Theatre Summer Youth Project that I saw today. In nine days, this incredible bunch of kids (aged 9 to 19) pulled together to perform an all-singing, all-dancing version of The Wiz. It was brilliant. You could see how hard they'd all worked (not to mention all the very frazzled 'grown-ups' backstage!) and their sheer enthusiasm and joy at performing was infectious. There are some real talents there, raw talents who one day will be strutting their stuff on the stage in the West End. They can all be very, very proud of themselves for what they achieved, and it's a timely reminder that not every teenager is some knife-wielding hoody drunkenly loitering on a street corner; that there are 'young people'who are prepared to put time and effort into something that they're passionate about. So to Daisymay and everyone else who took part in the show, a huge huge well done. You were all fantastic. xx

"I've Had An Idea..."

If anyone ever happens to be in the vicinity when I say this next, please feel free to give me a good thwack upside the head and scream at me in whichever language you happen to know best. I will not be offended. I may be mildly surprised at first, and may possibly even attempt to assault you with something blunt, but after I have calmed down you can remind me of this post and all shall be forgiven.

See, I'm a great one for ideas. Oh yes, give you a million if you wanted. Unfortunately, they tend to be not very well thought out...my bright spark idea this afternoon was to upload some more songs onto my laptop and then transfer them to my mp3 player. Then I decided to wipe my mp3 player and start again, so that I could put lots of nice new shiny tunes on the system. So what's the problem, I hear you ask; that all sounds well and good to me.

In theory, of course, there is no problem. In theory, it is a perfectly reasonable thing to spend a Saturday afternoon doing. In practice, however, thanks to the fact that I have many more CD's missing from my laptop than I thought, coupled with the fact that my external disc drive is slower than a tortoise with asthma and takes forever to copy a CD, it is taking an age to get to the point where I can start copying things over. I may be here for quite sometime...

On the plus side, however, I have rediscovered some of my favourite stuff that was lurking around at the back of the shelving unit. I also appear to be in possession of a large number of albums that would make people go "eh?" if they were to see them. And you know what? I don't actually care! So hurrah for eclectic, eccentric musical tastes; hurrah for bright ideas and hurrah for the person who is able to figure out a way of doing this quicker...*sigh*

On Hero Worship

There's an old saying that you should never meet your heroes because you'll only end up disappointed. Well, I can quite cheerfully say that I have been fortunate enough to meet 2 of my heroes this year and neither of them has disappointed me. The first was Laura Richards, who I met at domestic violence conference in March. Laura is an absolute hero of mine for her work in the criminal profiling field; she has also worked with another of my heroes in the field, John Douglas, and has devised the new risk assessment that is being rolled out nationwide as we speak. For all this alone, Laura deserves respect...the fact that she was incredibly lovely and generous with her time when I went up to her like some geeky fangirl at a pop concert afterwards is just an amazing bonus. And then she said that if I emailed her, she'd send me a list of books to read since I was so interested in criminal profiling and psychology; this later proved not to be just a throwaway comment as, when I bit the bullet and emailed her, she was as good as her word.

The second of my heroes that I've met, and the one that really means the most to me for deeply personal reasons, is the singer Sarah Jezebel Deva. For years known only as "that woman who sings with Cradle of Filth" (or Mortiis, or Therion, or any other number of bands you could mention), Sarah has recently branched out on her own with an album in 2006 from her band Angtoria and a solo album this year. Last night was the final night of her first solo tour, at the Underworld in Camden, and despite the fact that I felt absolutely exhausted and ill, I was determined to go and see the show; it had already been postponed from May and besides, Sarah's music has got me through some really bad times in the past so no way was I going to pass up the chance to see the lady herself. And I am so, so pleased that I went now, because not only was the show utterly incredible, but I actually got to meet her and she was just awesome.

The story is this: I made a necklace for Sarah as a way of saying thank you to her for making such powerful songs which have got me through some really, really bad times. When I haven't felt able to express how I feel about certain situations, her songs have spoken to me and said the words for me. (And yes, I realise this makes me border on the lunatic-psycho-fangirl-stalker, but it isn't meant like that). After the show - which was completely amazing; she and the band deserve to be playing to a hell of a lot more people than were there last night - I wasn't sure whether Sarah would be waiting for everyone to leave before coming out to celebrate with her friends and family, but she had pointed out her godmother earlier on in the show, and I so I took a chance and, as politely as I could because I didn't want to be intrusive, asked her if she would please give the necklace to Sarah. Well. Her godmother is also a fantastically-lovely person; she immediately asked her daughter if Sarah was coming out, and when I explained the situation her daughter went backstage and returned a few minutes later with Sarah. I was completely and utterly gobsmacked. I was even more gobsmacked when she told me that I was really sweet for making the necklace for her and that she would wear it; when I managed to tell her why I'd done it, she gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek and - despite the fact she probably just wanted to chill out after the show - she spoke to me for a couple of minutes. To top it all off today, after I posted on her FB page about it, she said it had been the first gift as a frontwoman she'd ever received. (Believe me, Sarah, I'm sure it won't be the last!) I am soooo amazed by how lovely she is, and yet I'm actually not at all surprised in a lot of ways because she's always seemed to be very down to earth. It was just amazing and has not only made me feel a bit brighter but has also made me more determined than ever that whatever this thing is (IBS or Crohns or whatever) it is NOT going to beat me. Sarah Jezebel Deva has proved that you can go through really, really terrible times in your life and come out the other side a stronger person; she's inspired me to do so in the past and she's inspiring me again. I won't give up without a fight and I WILL get through this latest problem, no matter how difficult it is. I have a lot of strong female role models in my life, including Sarah, and I look to them as my inspirations and my heroines. On a day when Theresa May, the Home Secretary, scraps a law that bans domestic abusers from the home for 2 weeks to allow their partners time to consider their options and get out, I am eternally grateful that there are still strong, powerful women out there that girls can look to as their role models. Theresa May will never join my mum on my 'inspirational' list, but Sarah Jezebel Deva most definitely will...

On Addiction...

Why is it that I've always been addicted to stuff that's bad for me? Oh, I don't mean the really, really bad stuff - there will be no revelations about illegal drugs here, thank you; I think the hardest drug I'm addicted to is Pepsi - but there are some things that I know will do me no good whatsoever, and yet I have to have them. Unsuitable shoes, expensive vintage clothes (or just clothes in generally, really), books when my shelves are overflowing, CD's and DVD's when there really isn't any room for them...it's just ridiculous! And now it seems that my almost-new-but-slightly-ludicrous addiction is...cookery books.

I know, I know, not exactly rock 'n' roll, is it? But I have a real thing about them, even though I rarely cook anything and am currently undergoing tests for IBS and Crohns Disease (so food is sort of my enemy at the moment, at least until I know what's definitely going on in there and can do something about it. FML...) But there's just something about a cookery book that has a real hold over me; where most people would say the longest book they've ever read is 'War and Peace', I ploughed my way through 'Mrs Beetons Book of Household Management'. Some people get stupidly-excited over a new model of a particular car, I jump and down squealing when there's a new Nigella Lawson on the bookshelves. I have the obligatory 'celebrity chef' cookbooks, of course, for I worship at the altar of Nigella and Jamie, but I also have more interesting cookbooks (stop sniggering at the back - such things are possible!)

Take the book I bought today, for example. It's called 'Falling Cloudberries' by Tessa Kiros, who is the daughter of a Finnish mother and Cypriot father, who lived in South Africa from the age of 4 and is now married to an Italian. This is not so much a cookery book - although the recipes certainly look scrumptious - as a family history; there are stories, photographs, snippets of lore...it's absolutely beautiful. It was the cover that grabbed me first, and when I picked it up I knew it was coming home with me. What can I say, I have the iron will of an amoeba. But it's stunning and will have pride of place on my shelf. All that and I managed to get a cheap paperback copy of the legendary Julia Childs...today was a good day! Right, I'm off to drool over my lovely books and imagine being able to cook everything in them...and eat them with no consequences...ah well.

Sleeeeeeeeppppp...

I've just come home from my day out at the Sonisphere music festival in Knebworth, so I am tired, achy and pretty deaf in both ears thanks to placing myself far too near the speakers. But happy? Ohhhh, yes...It was an absolutely awesome day out, despite my paranoia about health 'issues' (and kudos to the man in Boots at Liverpool Street who didn't look at me as if I was a total maniac), and I had the most epic time. The bands were, for the most part, fantastic (more anon), but what made it so amazing was the fact that I got to spend the time with my friends Ray and Hannah, who are among the most brilliant people in the world. Not only did we hang out at the festival all day, they also very kindly let me crash at their place last night so that I didn't have to worry about missing the last train back, and it was so much fun. hence why I'm so knackered now: Hannah and I ended up having a proper girlie sleepover (why are they called sleepovers? No one sleeps!) and talked all night. I'm lucky - I came home early this afternoon and can go to sleep on the sofa if I want to. Hannah's still at Sonisphere because she and Ray had tickets to all three days; she is a trooper and a treasure! So: Ray and Hannah, thank you again for making the weekend such brilliant fun, for letting me stay over and for being such fabulous people. Love you lots! xx RA RA!

Onto the bands...well, the ones that I saw, anyway...Sabaton were amazing, as always, and I can't wait to see them on tour later this year. Lacuna Coil seemed to have a few technical difficulties which was a shame; I'm not a huge fan but the odd song of theirs is good, and it would have been better for them if there hadn't been any issues. Ah well. Next up was Soulfly - seeing Max Cavalera 'foook shiiiit oooop!' before playing 'Roots Bloody Roots' was awesome! :D Apocalyptica made me squeal like a teenage fangirl at a pop concert (eat yer heart out, JLS) and bust my eardrums because we were so close to the amps at the front. It's a tough job, but sometimes a girl just has to do it...We headed back to the main stage to briefly catch up with a friend but as Good Charlotte were playing my ears were bleeding (and not in a good way) so we headed back to the second stage for the awesome Skunk Anansie. As a young teenager, I hero-worshipped Skin (while being slightly afraid of her) because she was - and is - such a strong, powerful woman. In the flesh, she does not disappoint...awesome lady, phenomenal singer, blinding show. Well, what we saw of it...

You see, Corey Taylor, the talented (and not unattractive) singer of Slipknot and Stone Sour was performing an acoustic set in the tent, so to make sure we got there in time we left Skunk Anansie three songs in and made for the tented stage. Just as well we did, really, because when he came on stage, the place was absolutely rammed. Before he came on we caught the set by a band called Sick Of It All, who were not my cup of tea at all, but then when they left we managed to stand to one side and listen to Corey sing. It was magic. I shed tears. He had played 'Give My Love To Rose' by Johnny Cash, which is one of my favourite Cash songs ever; then, when he played 'Bother' and dedicated a version of the Slipknot song 'Snuff' to the late Paul Gray, one of the members of Slipknot, the tears started. It was moving, it was beautiful and it was a fine tribute from one man to his friend, and from the fans to a musician they respected, as almost everyone was singing along. In short, it was one of my highlights of the day, so thank you Corey...

Next up was the mighty Motley Crue. I love Motley Crue. I don't care how many people tell me they're rubbish, I've been devoted to them since I was a teenager and, having seen them in a tent at Download festival a few years ago, there was no way I was missing this. I was, however, on my own, as I am the only Crue freak on my gang. So while Ray and Hannah managed to get awesome positions at the main stage for the headliners, I perched myself at the side of the stage and sang and danced like a total maniac to my beloved Crue. It was a fantastic show (although there were a few technical hitches along the way), but they pulled out some of the real old-school stuff and made me incredibly happy by doing so. Just do 'Primal Scream' at the next one, guys, and I'll be on cloud 9!

Which brings me to the big finale. After Crue finished, I dashed to the main stage and found myself a nice little spot on the grass at the back of the arena so that I could sing and dance my little heart out all over again to the utterly brilliant, utterly mental Rammstein. There are no words to describe how epic this show was. The lights, the pyro, the fireworks, the boat over the crowd...Till Lindemann and the rest of the band were just fantastic. Stone cold sober, I danced like a lunatic burlesque-performer-come-pole-dancer throughout the whole set and loved every second of it. The only worrying thing is that there was a camera crew wandering around and started shooting me during 'Du Hast'. I live in mortal dread of the footage ever surfacing...But it was utterly, utterly fantabulous and I loved every second of it. By the time I met up with ray and Hannah again and headed back to their place, I was shattered. And yet still Hannah and I managed to stay up (after we'd all decided at 3am to stop talking and go to bed) and talk the whole night through. Oops.

In short, this was one of the best weekends of my life. I can't even sulk too much about missing my beloved Turisas on Friday (along with Alice Cooper) or not seeing Iron Maiden and Iggy and the Stooges today; I was with great company, saw some phenomenal performances and haven't laughed so hard in ages. I'm definitely already up for next year, as long as I can go with my friends again (and maybe stay over again, if they'll have me back...)

next gig, however, is next Thursday, when I'm seeing another one of my heroines: the phenomenal Sarah Jezebel Deva. That woman is an inspiration and a legend and I can't wait!