Just when you thought Flickr couldn’t get any more addictive or time-consuming, the bastards have added a video function which is amazing. They’ve limited things to 90 secs to give the Flickr videos a feel of moving photographs and give an excellent place to upload stop-frame animations or quick movies you might have filmed on your digital camera.

I put a load up today that have been clogging up my hard drive:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sumlin/sets/72157604455376098/

Obviously it’ll bury Flickr under the weight of German Fetish Porn in about a fortnight but it’s a good idea nonetheless.

http://sumlin.muxtape.com/

There you go, couldn’t rename the tracks as it keeps telling me there’s an error so here’s the tracklisting:

• Neil Young – Cinnamon Girl
• Jimi Hendrix Experience – Killing Floor (live)
• The Sonics – Have Love, Will Travel
• Oneida – Doin Business In Japan
• MC5 – Looking At You
• Ike & Tina Turner – Untitled
• Yardbirds – Stroll On
• Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band – Diddy wah diddy
• Sebadoh – Flame
• The Elastik Band – Spazz
• The Buffalo Springfield – Mr. Soul
• Howlin’ Wolf – Wang Dang Doodle

Just got back from a week in a van with Bilge Pump and the other Lords. I’ll spare you a lengthy tour diary and instead point out that if you want to see 8 people slowly crumbling then I’ll stick a few photos up every day over here at my Flickr site:

www.flickr.com/photos/sumlin

If you took any pics of any of the gigs then let me know or email me them or something and I’ll stick them up.

Guitars are funny things. They break a lot. It can be very upsetting to say the least.  Taking it into your local Enormostore isn’t exactly the best idea and you don’t often find quality guitar repairers in the Yellow Pages.  Luckily for you, if you live within a few hundred miles of Nottingham, luthier and general life-saver Andy Farrell has finally got with the 21st century and has a website so you don’t have to go through the strange Masonic rituals that I had to go to to to find him when Wolves Of Greece were going through a guitar every 2 months.

Andy’s a rare commodity in the guitar world. As anyone who has ever gone into a guitar shop will tell you it’s possibly the only area of consumer goods where the old saying “the customer is always right” doesn’t apply. Most people who work in the world of guitars are either frustrated musicians, former Guitar Institute students, snobs or arseholes. Or a delicate combination of all of the above. Andy, on the other hand is as far removed from that stereotype as possible. And what’s more he once chinned someone in Academy Of Sound which puts him at the top of my estimations anyway.

He’s done countless repair jobs for me as well as for pretty much everyone connected to the Gringo Records label. He’s done work for nearly all of my guitar-playing friends at some point or another even managing to permanently re-assemble the infamous Telescopes guitar where others had failed when it snapped for the 4th time. He should really put on his website that he restored the Telecaster used by Franz Ferdinand from a right old shitty state a few years ago.

So, there you go. Loads of you play guitar, it’s hard to find someone who doesn’t sneer or talk down to you and can offer you good impartial advice and make your gear work as well as it can.

So looky here: www.andyfarrell.co.uk

I got a new point-and-shoot digital camera for Xmas. I was always a little shutter-happy anyway (my Flickr page has far too many photos on it) but getting to grips with this one has meant a couple of day trips in 2008 already and it’s still winter.

Wollaton Park in Nottingham: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sumlin/sets/72157604088758388/

Rutland Water: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sumlin/sets/72157604054833088/

Sam McPheeters has a Flickr page full of his 0.33 megapixel cameraphone snaps. Here are 3 at random:

Quaint Drive Vs. Obvious Roadrunner Gag

Satan Demands To Know Why You Thought You Could Trick Him

Watermelon Opts Out

http://www.flickr.com/photos/15087810@N02/

Hamburger-throated vocaliser Rick Froberg (Pitchfork, Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes) has a new rock & roll band call OBITS. If you ever wondered what Creedence Clearwater Revival would sound like doing ‘Commotion‘ with an absolute bloody-raw yelper on the mic (I have; often) then this band is for you. Not only that but Rick has a website set up of all his glorious artwork designed to make so-called ‘illustrators’ like me hang our heads in shame. Excellent!

Invisible Garfield

Dark.

HI

March 2008 sees a minor price hike for The Speeding Train. Increased print and postage costs means my profit margins are dwindling and it’s about time, after 3 years, that I went with inflation.

So from March 1st 2008 it’s going to be £5 per poster and my deal is now £12.50 for any 3 (plus postage).

BUT!

I am re-stocking in March so take the opportunity to buy a shitload of my old stock off me at the old price of £4 per poster and any 3 for £10 (plus postage) and I will throw in a minimum of 2 randomly selected used posters of my choice too. More likely I will throw in about 4 or 5 as I have tons. I’ll try and pick something you might like too.

Basically, all these are genuine gig posters, they’re printed up and used to promote gigs. I print the ones for use on lighter glossier paper and the ones for sale on heavyweight matte finish A3. I have piles of the glossy promo ones in my house and I can’t move. So if you order any of the posher ones from me I will chuck in some of the glossy ones too for you. They might be a bit creased or have some staple holes or whatever but they’re free, what’s your problem?!

So have a look here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sumlin/sets/72157594212951999/

and email me to check what I have in stock. This offer only applies to what I have in at present and it ends on Sunday 2 March.

Contact me on honeyisfunnyATfastmail.fm

I accept Paypal, cheque or lovely smelly cash.

There are over 100 to choose from…go see go see…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlY_6DTzWm4[/youtube]

Supremely rare footage of a 4-piece Nation Of Ulysses tearing it up without the suits and without Steve Kroner, opening for Fugazi somewhere by the look of it and right before they broke up too at a guess. An ex-Ulysses member told me Kroner went to a medical facility to do some tests for cash around this time. They also said they had no idea what happened to him afterwards or where he is now. The phenomenon of internet blogging really is just a widespread spewing of misinformation so I’m pleased to play my part in the rumour mill.

1 minute 56 by the way…