Run run run run run

Got back from Birmingham this afternoon. I came home to read the papers and generally not be so hardcore as to go straight back to the office, only to discover that tennis has indeed returned to my television set with the advent of Stella Artois at Queens. I’m a little bit worried that I won’t go to the office again for the rest of June now that there’s tennis to watch from my sofa. When I was at school and the tennis was on I’d wander off to the caretakers’ room to sit with John and Danny. We drank tea and cheered on Andy Roddick. All kinds of fun.

Birmingham was good. The band were in good moods and played great too. Looking forward to the Mean Fiddler tomorrow night so they can show their wares to the folk of London.

This evening I had an excellent bacon sandwich before going for a run at about 10pm. That’s the latest I have ever been running, and I quite enjoyed it. For some reason I didn’t really run out of runnygy (I just made that word up. Running energy. Ya dig?) so just kept on trucking with Silent Alarm by Bloc Party as my soundtrack till it stopped feeling sensible. And I also worked out – this is a bit gross – that one of the things I love the most about running is the sweat behind my ears. It makes me feel a bit like a cat. Or something like that.

Technorati: Birmingham, Bloc Party, tennis, running, GoodBooks, school

Thanks to mum, dad, God, Rowntrees…

I got back from my run (oh, running. Starting to run again after getting the cast off my broken wrist feels like the beginning of a new romance. But that’s another day) this evening to find emails from GoodBooks with all of their ‘thank yous’ for their album sleeve. Reading it over – and calling them back to check about adding in people here and there – triggers off thinking about all of these people and what they’ve done in the past two years (and more) for the band. The document runs onto two A4 pages with the collective band thanks and individual thanks – just goes to show, I suppose, how many people there are behind the scenes! It feels crazy to think that we’re at this point now of doing the credits in the album – feels like something of an end point to the making of this record. Of course it won’t be done until the artwork’s all put to bed and we’re holding the stock and discovering the typos really. They’ve spent so long, though, working on the actual record that it’s cool to get to a point where we’re just packaging it up and making it look as special as it sounds.

A few years ago I really wanted to make an album, but that was pretty much mostly because I wanted to write a thank yous list. I’m pretty sure I spent more time thinking about that than the actually making songs – so I’ve been quite jealous this evening reading all of theirs! One of the perils of starting off as their friend and not manager is feeling at times like I should share in all the perks that they get (writing thank yous, free clothes, free Playstations, all that jazz) – it’s a good reminder when I don’t that there is a distinction between where I end and they begin. Boundaries that are necessary and welcome…I don’t think I’d like being in a band.

Tomorrow I’m off up to Birmingham to see GoodBooks and will catch up with a couple of old friends when I’m there. Should be good I hope. I have a feeling this week might be a bit gruelling, but I’m quite looking forward to that – recent conversations with those close to me have made me feel a bit more gung ho, all militant and full of the “Yeah!” spirit, so if I can keep on acting like that (new motto: Be more hardcore) then good things should happen. And good things happen when good things happen.

Technorati: album, Control, GoodBooks