I've just got back from the FAC251 Launch gig!

This is how my night went:

My ticket said it started at 7pm, Facebook advised a 7.30pm start so I rushed to get there and got in the queue at about 7.10pm.

TV crews were all over the place, rushing around, getting panorama shots of a queue, filming signs. It looked like dull work.

A reporter from Key103 came down the line and asked us all our thoughts on the FAC251. I couldn't really think of anything meaningful so I just blubbered out a few incoherent sentences about how Manchester would have great expectations of a venue with a background like this ones. I went on to speculate as to whether this would be the Hacienda of the nouties...

At about 8pm the line was really getting quite long but we were finally ushered in, had our printed out digital eticket (with 2D barcodes) scanned and had our hands stamped. FINALLY, we were in.

The stage!

On the ground floor we have the live space. It's quite a nice live space in my opinion. It's fairly small, intimate, friendly.
The stage basically fills the opposite end of the room to the end you come in through. There is a stone/concrete floor, a bar at the opposite end of the room.

Hooky!

I managed to get right at the front at the barrier, but the amount of people with SLRs or commercial-grade video cameras was almost stunning for me.

At times, I couldn't work out whether it was a press conference or a gig I was at.

All I had was my Nokia N900, no 3G and only 1/2 my battery!
It kicked off and I immediately realised that as I was behind the main speakers, I wasn't getting the sound quality I might have expect had I been stood in the middle 3 metres back. However, with people squashing me from 3 directions, the last thing I was going to do was move to get better sound quality!

Guitar!

Throughout the evening, I was microblogging persistently and my followers and subscribers had taken quite an interest. Some people's response was along the lines of "Lucky Git" where as others remembered The FAC51 Hacienda. Some felt that FAC251 would just be full of chavs where as others were really happy to see something rise out of the ashes of the Hacienda...

The crowd were loving it!

For me I think there were two highlights from a musical perspective - two times when I thought the music was absolutely outstanding (not including The Blue Monday Song).

When Rowetta started to sing (confusingly a Joy Division cover! )I was mesmerised. Although she only did two songs, it was clear by the crowd reaction that I wasn't the only one enjoying listening to her.

Hooky mentioned, that, before Joy Division's Ian Curtis killed himself, the band had been working on a song that had been left unfinished.
Hooky went on to explain that him and some others had gone away and finished the song and then proceeded to debut it to the wider world.

I couldn't believe how good it was. It really was all there, fantastically delivered vocals, catchy guitar riffs, a driving tempo. Yes, I'd quite like to hear that song again whatever it was called...

Rosetta and Hooky

They finished off the set with the pace getting ever faster. Finally, as an encore, the played The Blue Monday song. As New Orders probably most iconic track, it turned the the group of SLR wielding yuppies crowding next to me back into headbanging teeny-boppers again. Memories, hey!?

I really enjoyed the gig, and the subsequent club night, however details of the club night will have to be another post, as I now desperately need to go to bed.

Creative Commons

All my photos and videos of the FAC251 Launch gig are available on flickr.

Please reuse and remix and remember to attribute Tim Dobson as the photographer. :)

Any links to tdobson.net are always appreciated! :D

All content was taken on my Nokia N900 mobile phone.

All content is be licenced under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.

More than ten years since the legendary Fac 51 Haçienda closed it's doors and almost three years after the death of Factory Records boss Tony Wilson, you would have been forgiven for thinking that Manchester's "Madchester" era had all but died out.

However, it would appear this is not the case!

Peter "Hooky" Hook from legendary Manchester bands New Order and Joy Division is launching a new club with help and support from the Gary Manny "Mani" Mounfield (Stone Roses/Primal Scream) and former members of the Happy Mondays.

FAC251 as it will be known, is based in the original Factory Records headquarters on Princess street.

There is a slight bit of irony involved. In October 2009, Hooky released a book entitled "How not to run a club" detailing his experiences running the Hacienda and swearing he'd never run a club again!

Anyway, I've managed to get tickets to the official launch event which is tonight, .

Apparently this is what I'm going to be looking forward to:

PETER HOOKS 'THE LIGHT' Live gig

A special one off performance featuring PETER HOOK joined by MANI (Roses), ROWETTA (Mondays), HOWARD MARKS performing RARE AND EXCLUSIVE Joy Division and New Order tracks plus a WORLD DEBUT from Hooky and Mani's new project FREEBASS..

Should be good! Stay tuned to me on identi.ca and twitter and watch my flickr page for live updates!

The Don't Disconnect Us campaign around the Digital Economy Bill just made me aware of this video:

See more awesome Don't Disconnect Us videos on the winners page.

On Wednesday I'm going to the Manchester Werewolf Chapter again.

If you've not heard of it before, Werewolf is a game. A social game. A game about how to lie, how to tell when someone is lying and how to drink and do the previous two things.

It's a bit wacky but everyone is really friendly and it's sooo funny! :)

Anyway, here's the details:

Manchester Werewolf Chapter

7 – 11pm, Wednesday, 3rd February

Pure Space, 11-13 New Wakefield Street, Manchester

As I now live in the centre of Manchester, and being cooped up in a flat is certainly not enjoyable for a dog, Bess, our well loved Staffordshire Bull Terrier currently lives at home with my parents.

Recently they had an incident that was a very close call, so I asked her if she'd be willing to write an account of it for my blog.

Here it is.

When you've read it, please consider leaving a comment.

My mother writes:

As some of you know...

I was 60 years, 11 months and 27 days old last Thursday 7th January 2010. I was a fit, outdoor and morris dancing grandmother. I still am, but I'm different, too!

At that time, probably 9 inches of snow had fallen, but with drifted snow from the barren moors of Bleaklow, in Old Glossop we were now under a foot or more of snow. We had spent the previous two days ~ first, 'holed up' in the house; and then, next digging ourselves out. So Bess, our 8 year old brindled 'Staffie', had had make do with walks in Manor Park, and up the Doctor's Gate track to the sledging fields of Mossy Lea.

Thus on the third day of the Snow, I decided it was time for a bit of outdoors, with a proper walk for Bess. Bess loves snow and goes quite loopy in it (she was a 3 month old puppy the first time she encountered it, and it seems to trigger in her memories and behaviour of that age), even now. At least to start with.

So I decided on our 'usual' ~ up the Cock Hill track, diagonally across the Lower Blake Moor to the far gate, round the end of the Lower Shelter Belt, then back across Middle Blake Moor to the Cock Hill track again, and back down Charles Lane. Normally it would be a short hour, but given the conditions, I expected a long two hours ~ good for dispersing 'festive fat'!

It was fine up Charles Lane. It was tough but exhilarating up the Cock Hill track. It was...ooooh ..such deep snow ~ thigh deep at the bottom of Blake Moor! I floundered, and Bess sank! She is a very thin, tall, leggy 'Staffie', (she has all the Manchester Terrier part of her breed's heritage). So, though she slices through snow up to 10 inches ~ deeper snow, and she sinks! Did we turn back? No!

In a discussion on the Geekup mailing list about a particularly stupid bit of Government legislation, I came across this:

Robert Burrell Donkin wrote:

It would have been wiser to invest in a couple of islands and some yachts....

Caius Durling wrote:

Any room on there for another (possible) expat? :)

Simon Ward wrote:

If we manage to find some islands, it seems we’ll already have thriving geek community. :D

I tried to imagine how a desert island occupied by hardcore geeks would work..

"Ah I'd love to rescue you from that quicksand, but can you just wait whilst I download the iphone app to do that"

"Guys, Guys, guess what!"
- "what?"
"I've already sold an e-commerce site to a Monkey I met in the jungle!!"
- "You fool you should have killed it for food?"
"I couldn't eat a client!"
"..."

I'm desperately need sleep but here it is:

There is a new, larger, Snowcock.

If you are fast enough to Norfolk Square in Glossop you may be able to get a photo of it. If it's not been demolished yet you cannot miss it, it's about 14ft tall, built in less than 2&1/2 hours by a loose knit team of nine at the peak brought together by this Facebook campaign- http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=236840413990

Since my last life update, lots has changed...

Over the last six months I've been really involved in lots of stuff:

• I got a new Desktop Computer (four core AMD @ 2.6Ghz, 8GB RAM)
• I organised DFEY to visit and stay overnight in London for Young Rewired State
• My time as contracted systems administrator for the BBC was extended until early February.
• I videoed a lot of sailing and windsurfing at Glossop Sailing Club
• I moved out, I now live in the Peter's Fields area of central Manchester, Close to Gmex & Deansgate Locks.
• I went to a multitude of awesome Barcamps - Brighton, Bath, Blackpool.
• Working with Samantha Bail, I helped put in a bid to Becta to build an informal learning platform with free software.
• I went and saw geek-rock legend "Jonathan Coulton" and Gypsy-Folk-Ska-Dance crew "3 Daft Monkeys" live at Manchester Academy
• I attended and filmed the legendary WLYC Southport 24 Hour sailing race, but did not participate.
• I helped organise Barcamp Manchester 2, with Ian Forrester & Andrew Disley.
• I gave a talk at WYLUG and Oggcamp on "Engaging young people in technology"
• I started my own Creative Commons and independent music podcast, (Dobbo's) "Mashup".
• I started work on super secret project one
• I launched Pokebook, a webapp guaranteed to become more popular than Facebook or be bought by Google by Q1 2010.
• I got a new phone for my birthday - a Nokia N900
• I spent time in Glossop with friends and family over Christmas & New Year
• I attended Northern Digitals and CING for the first time.

What's on the cards?

BUPA 10KM Run

Somehow, my colleagues at DMC managed to talk me into doing the Manchester Great Run. I'm not quite sure how they managed to get me to think it's a good idea; it's a 10km street race round Manchester.
I've never been someone who was good at running, I've never enjoyed it; I've never wanted to enjoy it. I have, however, been one of those who perceivers.

I remember back in the old days at High School, being told by the PE teacher that my aim, was to finish the 1800m run without dropping to a walk. I was undoubtedly one of the slowest runners and least fit people in the group. I remember as I jogged round the grass track, in the blazing sunlight, passing people who could surely do it as well, but simply weren't going to try as hard as I was. I finished the run in a painfully long space of time, but was congratulated for trying, not giving up and making it to the finish.

This is my aim for the BUPA 10km. Finish the race, without dropping to a walk, ideally as fast as I can.

I'll be training 2-3 times a week from January until May, and that, hopefully, should bring me up to an adequate level

I think I'll be running for charity, specifically for the digital rights experts - The Open Rights Group - I really support what they are doing, I can see with my own eyes the difference they make and so they have a personal connection for me. I hope you'll consider sponsoring me on their behalf.

FOSDEM

I really enjoyed visiting FOSDEM (Free and Opensource Software Developers Europe Meetings in Brussels, Belgium, last February, even despite losing a borrowed laptop I'd taken there.

Last year, I had a cracking time.

At the Friday night beer event, I sampled the famous (and rather tasty) Belgian beers, happened to meet Russel Bryant from Digium and OEJ, another famous Asterisk developer. I also managed lose my bag containing my (brother in law's) laptop and the subsequent morning developed an enviable hangover!

That however didn't stop me enjoying the insightful and enjoying talks, and chatting with interesting people doing cool stuff.

On Saturday evening, a group of Italian Debian developers took me under their wing and later that evening, Steve MacIntyre and the #Debian-uk IRC channel introduced me to the game of Mao - much fun and many "rules" were broken.

I intend to go again, this year, it's on the 6th and 7th of February, again in Brussels as it is every year. I'm slightly panicky now because I have no valid passport or anything booked. eeeek!

A Real Holiday

I desperately need a "real" holiday. I guess I should carefully define what I mean by "real" because it's not quite so clear...

I need to go on holiday to somewhere but not because there is a tech event there so this does not count Barcamps/Conferences/etc.

I'm not that fussed about how relaxing per se it is by the traditional definition of the word. I don't think I'm like to go to the Canaries and lie on a beach for 7 days and do absolutely nothing. I think I'd get exceedingly bored bring my laptop onto the beach, which defeats the point and isn't what I want.

Tim being bored = Bad

One of the things I've been thinking about is going to one of the Sunsail Beach Clubs on the Mediterranean right at the beginning of the season (no need to ramp the price up more than necessary!). The idea of spending all day every day high performance sailing dinghies on a warm, tideless sea appeals to me, though perhaps it does also still feel a bit boring and unremarkable.

Another idea I've been thinking of is spending a week crewing on one of the tallships - old fashioned sailing vessels with squarecut rigs. I'm not sure about that, but it's still a possibility.

I've been scouring wikitravel for unique things to do, places to go but am yet to find something that really totally catches my eye.

Again, I'm looking for something enjoyable, exciting & different, not necessarily sunny, "relaxing" or easy going.

Anyone got any ideas?

Please leave a comment.

DOWNLOAD the podcast in MP3 format

DOWNLOAD the podcast in OGG format

I've finally got together, Mashup! Episode Two. My hopes of trying to be roughly regular about releasing this have, perhaps, been dampened a little, however, I will certainly try to keep bringing episodes out. I'm still perfecting this art, so any feedback or ideas on how to deal with rubbish mics or what to get would be appreciated!

Chiron Beta Prime - Jonathan Coulton - CC-BY-NC 2.5

Battle Swing vs. RSB - Glorystrokes - Licence Unknown

ZOE - JPMOUNIER - CC-BY-SA 2.0 France

Exclusive Live Set - DJ Digital Italic aka DJ Cubicgarden - Licence Unknown

The Elephant in The Room - Sonic Real Estate aka Dan Lynch - CC-BY-SA 2.0 UK

Balrog Boogie - Diablo Swing Orchestra - CC-BY-ND-NC 3.0

Track to download

Broken Stereo (Acoustic Version) - Sean Fournier - CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0

Download Broken Stereo (Acoustic Version) - licence

Thanks for listening, I really hope you enjoyed the show.

Let Me Know What You Think:

Let me know what you think about the music on the show or pretty much anything else. If you are someone who makes music, or know people who do, by all means, feel free to send me suggestions or tracks. I'm very happy to listen to new music and share it with people. If you've got any fantastic awesome ideas, please do let me know.

Send all feedback and suggestions to – mashup AT tdobson.net

You can also find me on Identi.ca and Twitter.

Music Sources and Licensing:

A few of the tracks in this show are from the artists own personal websites and don’t contain licensing information. That’s why they are listed as unknown. The individual licenses are listed next to each track, where known. If there is no license listed you must assume all rights are reserved on that song.

Mashup! by Tim Dobson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Update!

See here for info and photos of the second Glossop Snowcock!

(This post is mainly about the original one)

As some of you may be aware, the town I live in, Glossop has been experiencing quite heavy snow fall over the past few days.

Glossop is famed for being mildly bizarre, a stereotype exacerbated and exploited by dark comedy series, The League of Gentlemen, filmed in the nearby village of Hadfield

In Norfolk square, right in the centre of Glossop, the formal square where the war memorial is, a snow sculpture was erected. This was not any old snow sculpture, it was not a snowman.

This was an 8 foot model of a penis...

Not a bad sculpture either. Whilst some did not see its artistic merits, this was an expertly crafted masterpiece, complete with testicles, veins etc, right there in the centre of Glossop for all to see.