Thank You!

It’s odd to think of anyone reading my thoughts; so I’m really astonished by the positive reaction to my first blog post last night. Thank you! 

Just think, if I had written a piece after seeing Pearl Jam for the first time in 2009, you wouldn’t have been able to understand it for the giddiness! Manchester 2009 was my first shot of the PJ live drug that so many of me and my friends thrive on....and we'll back there in June to see them again. 

Re-reading the post last night and reflecting on that 2010 tour is strange; bizarrely after the total elevation of that experience, I came home to find my job was being made redundant and I was to be redeployed into a new challenging role. The huge high I came home on allowed me to cope with the inevitable low. Unbeknown to me, it was probably for the best, but things are often better on reflection don’t you think?

In the whole reflective mood, I’ve been thinking a lot about how friendships form over the last few weeks for a variety of reasons. I have best friends I’ve known for years, they went to college and uni with me. They knew at my most insecure, cried with me, hugged me and have seen me at my absolute worst. Oddly they maybe haven’t seen me at my best, they don’t do the touring thing, and being honest they’re not over keen on rock music!  It is testament to the strength of our friendships that they still support me, they know this madness makes me happy even if they don’t understand it. 

Beyond them, I have amazing friends that I am lucky to have found through different parts of my life, and then there are Pearl Jam related friends. This latter collective, well they have had a huge impact on my life. Many I met through the forum, through others and through Twitter/Facebook. It’s kind of like we’ve developed a close group of misfits, with this common passion. Some of these are those I toured with in 2010, they’ve not managed to get rid of me yet, and I treasure them. It makes you think that whilst the internet provides us with everything we ‘need’, and it even provides a means to form friendships; it is still the human emotional interaction which makes you (well me at least) smile.  

My experiences in 2010 have since led me to venture across the pond to Chicago/Alpine Valley for a Pearl Jam anniversary ‘festival’ (they called it a 'destination weekend', be honest what the heck is that?) and into Canada for five shows. There will be a couple of posts coming up about these experiences in the near future.

Writing about the past when in the present I am in the midst of planning my 2012 Euro tour (I’m planning on going to Manchester (1&2), Berlin (1&2) and Stockholm, oh and a Chris Cornell solo gig on my birthday - sqweee!). I can't tell you if it will have the same impact on me, but I can tell you that I cannot wait to be amidst that group of misfits and meeting new people, making new friends. 

I’m not sure where this blog will go; it will have an abundance of Pearl Jam related content, but also other musical interests and as it’s my blog, it will no doubt have some rants, mutterings and musings about life in general. I write in a stream of consciousness (you may’ve gathered). This is how the thoughts are in my head, the inner conversation I have about, well, everything.Being inside my head...now there's a scary thought!