Check out the rest of my photographs on Flickr Last week I made the pilgrimage, on my bike, in the rain to the Futuresonic conference and festival. Not a huge pilgrimage to be honest as it takes place in Manchester down at the Contact Theatre, but an important event nonetheless which collides the worlds of technology, music and art. read more...

My friend and mentor Alan Scott died on Thursday 16th October 2008. This came on compounded sadness as his long time partner Gail Braybon had also departed this earthly life after a long battle with cancer back in August. read more...

The other week Scott at work asked me how I manage to find out about interesting gigs to go to - and the answer is that it's mostly through hanging out and getting to know people and getting invited to stuff - however for the slightly more organised gigs I also find trawling the listings on last. fm pretty handy. read more...

Toward the end of last week I went for a second outing with my beloved Korg. It has been years since I did anything properly musical but recently I've been getting my oar back in, playing piano and synth at various jam nights including Matt & Phreds and The Noise Upstairs. read more...

I've just got back from what I reckon is one of the best gigs I've accidentally walked into in quite some time. Olivia Moore (for this is the name of the lead fiddle player) and her band were playing at Matt and Phreds tonight where I ended up after the regular jam night at the Kings Arms. read more...

I went out the other night and quite by accident came across a band called Monkeys in Love. A three piece with instrumentation consisting of a small casio keyboard, some effects pedals and one of those toy megaphones with red LEDs round the edge of it. read more...

There is some kind of unwritten law of live music - you go to see a gig and it's really really good, the atmosphere is electric, the performance outstanding but you get rather dodgy seats. Next time the performer comes round you excitedly book top price seats only to find that some essential piece of the magic is missing. read more...

For some reason I have got round to tidying up the Bellerophon website a bit. I'm not skiving, honest. read more...

Life isn't all star-star-star war-war-wars. We started working on Strangeways Riot Reunion which is a kind of concept album in progress. read more...

Yes it's that time of year. the evenings are stretching out, the birds are singing, lawns are getting mowed, the sun is even trying to shine. read more...

I spent a little time while on the train to Bangor the other day sorting out Missmyheartbeats. The site is now resplendent with new colours and the vast majority of my musical works from the past few years in nice, high-quality mp3 form. read more...

Hilton has featured on Flat Four radio in a very excellent manner along side some other very nice bits of sound. I am very pleased that Dan found it quite so unpleasant and wanted to go outside ;) Jackie and I are now consoling ourselves by listening to Dan's Open Space EP which is most pleasant. read more...

I've been at the Open University in Milton Keynes this week, where I stayed in a delightful Hilton Hotel. They had nasty plastic flowers, dodgy plumbing, no internet and for the money were seriously lacking in a number of other areas including the potty department. read more...

Jim Friend of Batman is doing a gig this Wednesday (the 21st of April) at the Green Room on Division Street. We need to get Jimmy White along if we can. read more...

Someone called Salim emailed me to remind me that I once wrote about The Hellebore Shew in connection with the other person called Dan. Then I realised that it was Tuesday. read more...

I found a few lurking Missmyheartbeats tunes which I realise did not feature on the website. This has been fixed. read more...

"Wonky" is always a promising description for anything. In this case it is provided by Dan and refers to a radio show called Hellebore Shew on Resonance FM which will hopefully be airing a track or two from Mouthpeaks on a Wednesday afternoon. read more...

There is a Gamelan orchestra being played by schoolkids in the lobby today as part of the Sheffield Childrens Festival. Just walked though on my customary half-elevenses break and was greeted with magical zen goodness. read more...

For my friend Dan's birthday party there was music and laughter and really wild things at Jacksons Lane Community Centre on Saturday night. Aside from some unfortunate domestic shenanigans it really went very well. read more...

You've seen it before but it's still quite funny: GAY BAR by Electric 6. Thanks to Robbles for the reminder. read more...

From the nu-metal band's website. Oh dear. read more...

Last night, Jackie and I went to see our friend Jim wearing his bra for The Ape Drape Escape at the city hall ballroom. Hooray. read more...

Pleased to spot as I walked past the pop museum that the radio station contained within is on FM for 3 days under the banner of Festival FM. Which reminds me that I've written a scheduling system in php for their website - but due to time and energy and shed painting haven't got it running yet. read more...

I managed to get my arse in gear a little the other day with musical stuff. Apart from having tidied up the "blue room" a little and installing new shelving (a very good thing given the proliferation and co-mingling of bits of paper and wires) I uploaded my radio show tunes to the place where they go. read more...