[	mood	|	Yellow	]
[	music	|	Me in my studio!	]

Happy New Year.
Resolutions time!
Last year I get 9/10, I loose on the friends resolution as my friends are rubbish :D

This years, brand spanking resolutions are:

1. Helen - Same as last year, but the whole Uni thing is going to make things tough but we will get through it all. It's me and Helen :) I love Helen :)

2. Develop The Band -

• Again, staying together through university (Will better not go).
• More gigs than last year (26+).
• Record at least twice with TimG.
• Play at a bigger venue than Satans Hollow.
• Play with a bigger band than Adequate 7.

3. Improve As A Musician -

• Improve on guitar (get to grade 8 standard, so lots of scales, arpeggios, modes need to be learnt).
• Improve on piano and singing.
• Learn a brass or Woodwind instrument (I'm thinking sax or trombone).
• Write and record my own songs (A little album would do nicely).

4. Get Into Salford University With Good A-Levels - BBC will be great and a BA (Hons) course in pure Music would be great, please.

5. Pass My Driving Test - Nearly there...scared!

6. Be Healthy - Eat more fruit and veg and less sugar.

7. Become More Independant And Teach More People - Time to become an adult, yo.

8. Friends - Be nice, don't be sensitive...be liked

If I do all those this year, it'll be good. 2006.

[	mood	|	Update!	]
[	music	|	BOTAR	]

I got an actual diary now (how manly!?) so there is no point in this but I will update every now and again.

Remember my New Years Resolutions...that'll cover everything:

1. Be healthier - Woohoo go me, I eat a bannanaanaon and an apple everyday and I have tried god knows how many new vegetables...So yay 1 outa 1.

2. Do more gigs than last year (16) -

1. 20th Oct 2005 Jabez Clegg, Manchester
2. 30th Sept 2005 NMS School (w/ Trent Radio)  
3. 25th Sept 2005 Manchester Retro Bar (w/Zen Baseballbat)
4. 17th Sept 2005 Hayfield Sheepdog Trials
5. 17th July 2005 The Eagle, Buxton
6. 8th July 2005 Macclesfield Cricket Ground (w/Rhythmic Coughing & Jolly Not So)
7. 3rd July 2005 The Attic, Manchester (w/The Merry Men)
8. 18th May 2005 Satans Hollow, Manchester (w/Babyboom, Luckfalk - King Prawn)
9. 11th May 2005 New Mills School Concert  
10. 6th May 2005 Chapel Youth Club
11. 29th April 2005 Heaven and Hell, Liverpool 
12. 18th April 2005 Burnley Mechanics Club (w/Nelsons Finest)
13. 7th April 2005 St Marys Hall, New Mills
14. 29th March 2005 Guywood Centre, Romiley
15. 15th Feb 2005  Alma Inn, Bolton (w/Minions of Jeffrey)
16. 4th Feb 2005  Oldham Rugby Club (w/Minions of Jeffrey)
17. 4th Feb 2005  NMS - Tsunami Benefit  
18. 28th Jan 2005 Chapel Youth Club
19. 14th Jan 2005 Guywood Centre
20. 10th Jan 2005 Jillys Rockworld, Manchester

We also have these gigs:

Fri 11th November Guywood Centre
*Fri 25th November Satan's Hollow, Manchester (w/Adequate 7 & Catch-It Kebabs)*
Sunday 11th December Satan's Hollow, Mancehster
8th January 2006  Thatched House, Stockport
June 2006  Miller's Parade, New Mills (Apparently we get £100...yay!)

Our biggest gig ever at Satan's Hollow with Ad7 and the Kebabs on Friday 25th November! So looking forward to that, practicing for our set has begun and yeah, make sure your there. Tickets £7/8 from Roadkill.
We have entered 2 BOTB:
1. Liquidisco - Got thrown out of that for reasons that we are unclear about, the band is not allowed to talk about the matter as the man was threatening to sue our band for £20,000. The final would have been today in Nottingham and we would have had a great chance of winning. We had a lot of press following us about this gig well alot being Buxton Advertiser and The Glossop Chronicle, woo!
2. Rock Idol 2005 in Birmingham - We played a live acoustic set via video conference to a panel of judges, then there was online voting till midnight. Our dedicated fans, parents, teachers, friends but mostly us voted all night and we came 2nd losing by 1%! But in the final judges decision we didnt come 1st, 2nd, 3rd nor did we pick up a comstilation prize.

In other band news, we recorded and EP with TimG which can be heard on the new look site that I've been doing all weekend: www.standoutriot.co.uk or if your extra kind we are waiting for 100 EP's to come back from the printers so you can buy one of those next time you see us or www.standoutriot.co.uk/shop for just £3 and then we can go back and record another EP with the genious that is MrG. We have had so much great feedback from this EP and it was great fun recording too.

We are hopefully going to be recording in November / December with Steven Hardy at his church the EP will be called 'The Boner Sessions EP' and will contain every song we have on it. We are recording Guitars, Bass, Drums live and adding to that at our home studio :)

I wrote something for the band which has been used in Foiled For Freshness, which is our latest song. So I need to write more and write a whole song now.

We got a new member Rob too on trombone, and Tessa. We just need Ben Bradley on trumpet to complete this line-up now!

That's all I can think about go to: www.standoutriot.co.uk for more info on the band. It's all great and it feels like we're getting somewhere.

3. Learn at least one song on guitar - Uww I went one better. With Phil (my guitar teacher, hoipefully not ex guitar teacher!) I am learning a jazz song called Misty which is almost done now. I also started to learn the guitar solo from Crossroads. It's 3 pages of absolutly impossible-ness. Taken me 3hours to learn 2 pages! I can play it now but at 1/20th the actual speed. Try and find a recording of it, it's mint!

http://www.mxtabs.net/tabs.php?path=Guitar,s,1306,Steve+Vai,Crossroads+Duel,147343

4. Play the piano better - Well...I'm not great, I can play better than I did. I just play along to BOTAR and I can work out songs alot better. My theory really has improved. So that's great!

5. Get good A-Levels  -
Music = B? I've done 1/3rd of my coursework. My Mozart analysis. 10 pages! But it's good apparently so phew! I've done 4 Stravinsky analysis' I need to do the 5th and then there is only 5 more. They are all good too and hopefully this will help me get a good mark in the final paper in June. I've done performing on my own at the 6th form open day and in front of the class and i was one mark off 100%. I've also started on my compostition which is poo. I've lost it completely!
Media = B? Mr Harboard's lessons are great, so far this year all we've done is watch: Rebel without a Cause, The Breakfast Club, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Mean Girls... But it's good. Mrs Toft is making me a little nervous for the exams, she doesnt seem to be tellin us stuff! and coursework is a huge worry.
I.T. = C/D? Copy out of a book...I've done my analysis (9pages!) and I need to redo my AS coursework too. I like IT. No worries :)

6. Make Helen as happy as she can be - I love Helen ",

7. Get a job and buy ALOT of new clothes with money - Guitar lessons, people keep asking me too so I need to get that all sorted: www.steriot.tk. How sad. I bought a Howard's Alias t-shirt on Wednesday and I have alot of clothes now...

8. Help around the house more - Clean bathroom, kitchen, bedroom...yay! I win!

9. Tell my friends how much I appreciate them more - That's a crap resolution thing. I should have re worded it. What I meant is don't be an arsehole towards friends...that don't deserve it. I don't have much time for friends. Its Helen first, then the band (who are all my closest friends) and then in my free's when I'm not busy is friend time. I'm a Scrooge. Or just unsociable. I meet lots of new people gigging so it's fine.

10. See more bands live then last year(31 bands/10gigs) -

1. 29th January 2005 - Green Day (New Found Glory)
2. 18th February 2005 - Myoho (Marlin, Karma Destination, Zenfo)
3. 17th April 2005 - Streetlight Manifesto (Phinius Gage, Catch It Kebabs, Two Day Rule)
4. 14th June 2005 - Reel Big Fish (Fandangle)
5. 15th June 2005 - Kings of Leon (The Features)
6. 6th July 2005 - Zen Baseballbat (Chris Murray, Catch It Kebabs, Sadies Dolls)
7. 10th July 2005 - Howards Alias (Sonic Boom 6, The Klopeks, Grown At Home)
8. 14th September 2005 - Reel Big Fish (The Matches, Skindred)
9. 17th September 2005 - Stereophonics (The Dead 60s)
10. 14th October 2005 - The Ordinary Boys (Bedouin Soundclash,Band?)
11. 26th October 2005 - Howard's Alias (Sonic Boom 6, Buzzkill, Monkey Shuffle)
12. 28th October 2005 - The Aquabats (Never Heard Of It, Army Of Freshmen, Minions Of Jeffrey)

So 12 gigs and 36 bands! With these gigs still to go:

21st November 2005 Streetlight Manifesto (Uncle Brian)
25th November 2005 Adequate 7 (Does that count?)
14th December 2005 Foo Fighters (The Futureheads)

Yay, great gigs too, Howards Alias dedicated a song to us and said we were cool, the band that is. The Aquabats was one of the best shows I've ever seen in my life! ARGH! COBRAMAN!

---------------------------------------------

So that's the Resolution things, in other news:

Driving - 28th November = Theory Test - I passed today by 14 marks in my hazard perception, woo! So completly passed it, yay! 22nd driving lesson on Thursday, AT NIGHT! argh...too Buxton...should be fun. I still get scared before every lesson and it's really annoying. The one bad thing in life.

Tommorrow - Work Ex at New Mills Primary, yay going back - little scared but should be fun.

4th November - MUSIC LIVE 2005! YAY!
5th November - Bonfire Night at High Lea!
7th November - Dad's Bday
11th November - Guywood gig
14th November - Dentist
21st November - Streetlight gig
25th November - Ad7 and us
26th November - Bolton open day
28th November - Theory test
1st December - ADVENT! (Holy crap!)

And that is it, me thinks.
Love Ste
xxxx

[	mood	|	Yay!	]
[	music	|	Mars Volta	]

Biology
BYB1 (Core Principles) - 45/90 = D
BYB2 (Genes and Genetic Transport) - 32/90 = E
BYB3 (Physiology and Transport) - 59/120 = E
Coursework = D

136/300 = E (104 off an A)

ICT
ICT1 - 61/90 = B
ICT2 - 48/90 = D
Coursework - 60/120 = D

169/300 = D (11 off a C)

Media
MED1 - 59/90 = C
MED2 - 59/90 = C
Coursework - 108/120 = A

226/300 = B (14 off an A)

Music
MUS1(Listening and Essays) - 76/120 = C
Composing - 63/90 = B
Performing - 85/90 = A

224/300 = B (16 off an A)

So, before anything Helen was with me all today and she is great, I love Helen more than ever, she was there to give me a hug and hold my hand and just be there being Helen, I love Helen :). So IT...dissapointment but nothing a simple retake cannot fix to get it to a C. Biology can fuck off...all that work, haha oh well. Media is ace, hopefully I'll get that up to an A next year and same with music, given me a nice start on those 2 subjects next year especially because they are both so close to an A. Just work a little harder next year and get A A C. I'd be chuffed with that.

Anyway enough about me. Lots of 'U' and 'E' grades, people leaving 6th form now, bye Nat :( some people were being very silly indeed. Martyn, John, Daz... all not so good, so I am very pleased with what I have done. Anyone who thinks A-Levels are getting easier please feel free to take an A-Level and get back to me :)

Maybe a very big update soon who knows...who cares :) Hope everyone is good and stuff, just reply and let me know if your still alive and stuff...

Results slip?

Love Ste xxxx

[	mood	|	nostalgic	]
[	music	|	Chris Murray	]

It was good.

[	mood	|	happy happy happy	]
[	music	|	Voodoo Glow Skulls	]

Monday 11th - Buxton Park with Helen
We went to Newtown and got the train into Buxton. We walked around some shops then we went to the park to eat our dinner that we had made in the sun. We then went into the Pavillion place and then went around more shops in Buxton. Saw a boy throwin up and went in the very cool music shop there (They had RX Bandits DVD!). On the way home we got off at Furnass Vale and walked back to Helen's, surprisingly only takes 10minutes longer than if we got off at Newtown...I walked Helen to dancing and we stopped off for Calippos!

Tuesday 12th - Sheffield with Helen
We went to Central but a lorry had hit into a bridge near Manchester so we ran up to Newtown very fast, Helen wasn't happy:) but we got there with 10minutes to spare, and got the train into Stockport with Les Battersby, we then got a train to Clethorpes, which went straight to Sheffield, very fastly and went under Ben's bridge! Which we always stand on, yay! In Sheffield we went into the big John Lewis' and around Sheffield shops and had lunch near the skatepark, mmm chips swimming in fat. We then chilled at the fountains in the boiling hot sun and got the train home and Helen walked home with me and I made tea.

Wednesday 13th - Manchester with Helen
We went to Central and did the usual stuff in Manchester, Afflecks, Triangle, main shops and I ordered some really great shoes! They should be there today. I bought a book to write in when I go on holiday and Helen bought one too and a Zen Micro! Helen came back to mine after, and I put loads of songs on Mr Zen.

Thursday 14th - Went to Helen's house
I made Helen's Zen Micro work on her computer and we made lunch and then walked to dancing after sitting in the sun in the park.

Friday 15th - Helen came to my house
We made Jazzles! So cool, we melted milkybar chocolate and got lots of hundreds and thousands!

Saturday 16th - Helen's dance show
I went to see Helen's dance show and I walked down with Francis, cause Sarah and Hannah were in it too. When we got there I realised I was right at the front inbetween a Grandad and a Mum, I tried making friends but I think they were thinkin "what the hell is Ste doing here?!" The dance show started and Helen was in the first dance, Fame. Helen is a great dancer and I was smiling alot, hmm the Mum next to me defo thought I was wierd...
Helen danced again towards the end of the 1st half and it was great again. Aww also Helen's students that she teaches were dancing SClub which was cool and Helen was at the side of the stage helpin out. At the interval I went out to meet francis and bumped into Helen, she was busy though so I went and got some water cause it was so hot. In the 2nd half there was a dance which was abit boring, but all the rest were really good. The ending of the show was a little sad as the older class were leaving for Uni and some were crying and it was the Dance teachers 20th anniversary and so she was emotional. After I met up with Helen and her Mum gave me a lift home.

Sunday 17th - Gig at Buxton with Fair! Helen was there too :)
Good gig, lots of fun. Dodgems were great, Myoho recommended us:) Helen was there, sunny...50th gig! All good, very good, we went down very very well. An oldish guy even approached us and then followed us and he wants to be our manager. Danny from Myoho said the we were a band to look out for during there set and Myoho's manager gave us a contact for the Globe in Glossop and said that he wants us to support them sometime...Yay!

(Today) Monday 18th - Meeting up with Helen
Yeah, not got much of an idea about today :)

Tommorow - Trafford Centre with Helen
Yep...

Love Ste xxxx

Great gig, everyone who didn't go missed out, we rocked pretty hard but not as much as The Merry Men. Great gig, scary drug communities outside. Needed that gig lots, next gig Friday with Rhythmic Coughing, miss this one and you are a big big fool. Stand Out Riot are sounding very good (not to sound too big headed, but you know, we've worked hard to sound like this).

Hope all is well, I FINISH YEAR 12 ON FRIDAY, wooohooooo!

Love Ste xxxx

[	mood	|	happy and I know it*clap clap*	]
[	music	|	Coronation Street	]

I've decided I need to make my UCAS look alot better so I have set myself tasks / goals to do by next year, and I'm already working really really hard at them:

-Grade 8 Electric Guitar
I have to learn lots of scales and chords, be able to do an improvised chord sequence, improvised solo and a piece(s). I'll update when I have a better idea of the exam. Phil, my guitar teacher said he thought I could do it, so yay! :)

-University Audition Piece (Misty - Guitar solo)
I've already started this piece and can play the first 4 bars, I copied it all out into Sibelius yesterday during the HUGE thunder storm, eek scary stuff. It's really complicated and uses lots of very wierd chord shapes, mainly jazz chords, the hardest ever. The piece is grade 8+ and will look really good if I can pull it off for my auditions. :)

-London College of Music & Media - Grade 5 Electronic Keyboard
This maybe a bit ambitious, as I'm going to teach myself. Will has leant me to books which I've started to look through, when I get a bit longer I am going to pick my 4 pieces, 2 of which I need to improvise using modulations and solos etc. Guitar is the main focus, then this keyboard stuff. Gonna start learning these pieces shortly too.

-ABRSM Grade 7 Music Theory
I have a book and test papers already, I started it with Rob ages ago, but it was too much to take during GCSE's, maybe it will be too much this time too, I need to learn; http://www.abrsm.org/?page=exams/gradedMusicExams/theory.html#7 and it's harder than it sounds :( poo! Grade 6 was hard enough!

-Maybe even try Grade 8 drums if there is more time but I may not or may not be able to do them rhythms, Ben said that he thought I might be able to do it, so thats a start, but grade 8 drums is what I will probably aim for after the above 4.

If I get all those qualifications, I will be so happy, I need to get into Salford / Manchester or somewhere near and the entry levels are high so I need to get better, fast.

-Lots of new band songs on top of this too, it's all good :)

Driving tommorow already very scared it's been a month, lovely work yesterday followed by very scary thunderstorm, Josh's and my brother's birthday tommorow too (I'm skint), lots of gigs to look forward too playing and watching. That's it I think...

Love Ste xxxx