Frank Crow

A couple of highlights from a week in the life of me

Duke Special concert
This was my first concert in months and I really enjoyed it. Hadn't heard much of his stuff before hand, just a couple of tracks on the internet, but he was really good. Managed to get his album for a fiver a couple of days later (despite every other copy being £12.95) and it's great. Normally I find it difficult to enjoy concerts if I'm not familiar with the songs but you can very quickly get Duke Special's songs. He reminds me on an Irish Badly Drawn Boy (before he went a bit shit) crossed with Ben Folds. Highlights were Last Night I Nearly Died and Everybody Wants A Little Something which isn't as smutty as it perhaps sounds. I did realise a few things during the concert:
1) Bars at concert venues are a rip off which admittedly I already knew. However £3.50 for a small coke and a bottle of water is just ripping the piss, just because it's festival time in Edinburgh it doesn't mean that everyone should be paying tourist prices. Consider yourself warned Liquid Room.
2) Support acts are in the main rubbish and there is often very little point turning up to see them. Some mince band called The Ghost Frequency were the support and I really have nothing positive to say about them. It's always a concern when a band has more keyboard players than guitarists. It would be better if support bands were actually similar in someway to the main act rather than being completely different and alienating the audience. Perhaps that is a ploy to make the main artists seem even better. However you do occasionally get a gem of a support act, I remember being really impressed by Longpigs supporting Sleeper many years ago. This means I do keep going along to see support bands in the vain hope they may actually be good.
3) You know you are getting old when you hope the concert is finishing soon due to the fact you can't be bothered standing for much longer. This wasn't helped by my knackered ankle which meant I couldn't put my weight on one foot which lead to a sore leg and back.

Musselburgh Races
You can have a really good night out at the races although this does depend to a certain extent on the weather and on betting success. Unfortunately it pissed down for the whole night. The weather had been dull but dry all day until we actually got to Musselburgh when it started to rain before getting heavier and heavier. It's the lowest crowd I have ever seen there, even the bookies were going home early. Spent the whole meeting standing in the bar at the top of the stand, only really venturing out to put on a bet. We could see the races from where we were but in hindsight it would have been cheaper to just go to the pub and watch the races on the TV. Despite that I did have a good night. I ended up even for my bets which isn't too bad after a poor start. I ended up getting my first win at Nottingham before winning on the 5th race at Musselburgh although it's a bad sign when you have to start betting on the away course.
The one problem with spending the night in the bar was the I didn't get home until 1am so I wasn't feeling the best at work the next day. It's just as well I don't have much work to do at the moment.
On a connected matter, the proposed revamp of Musselburgh racecourse has been rejected by the council in their infinite wisdom. There were plans to create an all weather facility which would have resulted in a greater number of race night of a better quality. This would have been great for Musselburgh itself due to the extra revenue that would have been brought in. However due to the objections of a few local residents and despite the fact a number of their scare mongering rumours about the revamp were proved to be false, the revamp was turned down. There was also political games at play here, Labour initially approved the plan but the Lib Dems/SNP then gained power and turned it down, partly to get back at Labour. Overall I feel it was a short sighted decision which will cost Musselburgh in the long run.