Tag Archives: Jack Matthews

Not Your Everyday Rocker

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The guy sitting across from me looks every bit the identi-kit rock star, from his designer stubble to his need to wear his aviator shades indoors. However, he hides a dark secret. Not only is he a family man, but he also fronts a Christian rock band.

Dave Griffiths has provided the vocals and guitar to Bosh since he set up the band with his brother Mike when they were only 14 and 11 years of age respectively.

Their earliest release Excuse me, we’ve starting showed little to nothing of what they would be about in their modern incarnation.  An instrumental-only EP, it sounds like it was recorded in a tin boat. In fact by Dave’s own admission, “it was extremely low-fi and not in the cool way”.

The Bournemouth based band went though more line-up changes than an 80s metal band (see Ratt, for details) in their teenage years, but its current members have been together since 2004. This stability has allowed them to tour properly, gel as a unit and write the songs that would form their first full studio album Sound the Alarms.

The current line up is made up of the founding members Dave now aged 26 and Mike Griffiths as well as James Grant, Matt Gainsford, David Evans and Felix Page who they met though their local church which they still attend every Sunday.

I felt compelled to ask Dave the clichéd question about the bands that had influenced him, but was surprised when he answered: “Wilco, Foo Fighters and Them Crooked Vultures”.

I had expected him to list Christian acts such as Casting Crowns or even Cliff Richard.

This answer became odder still when he told me the reason they stood out above other Christian acts.

“We’re a British band and that really comes across in our music.”

Now, considering the influences he listed were solely American, bar John Paul Jones on Bass in Them Crooked Vultures, this strikes me as strange. And I also found myself struggling to come to terms with some of his other influences.

 “People often say we sound a lot like the Foo Fighters,” Dave keenly told me.

Was I hearing right? To me, The Foo Fighters’ music has always appeared to be about delivering interesting verses followed by loud anthem-riddled choruses.  Bosh’s tunes may be catchy, but this is a whole different ball park.            

Judging by the lyrics to Filth in/filth out and Police Helicopter from Sound the Alarms, the main concerns of Dave Griffiths seem to be that the modern media is destroying our souls. In short, this makes their album perhaps the happiest sounding prediction of the rapture to date.

Currently, the members of Bosh are gearing up for their first video shoot, set to take place in Bournemouth Square.

“The aim of the event is to get a flash mob together of 200 to 300 people who can all blow bubbles together at the same time in an effort to coat the square in a storm of bubbles,” Dave told me with a grin on his face.

The event is set to occur on Saturday, July 10th between 2pm and 3pm and the footage will be used for the debut music video for the song Touch Somebody.

The band will be looking for volunteers to help with the event and Dave ensured me that, “we have 500 bottles of bubbles and we will be handing them out to anyone who wants to get involved. Our music has always been about hope and I think this event will encapsulate that.”

The track Touch Somebody comes from Bosh’s EP The Gloaming Hour which was made from the tracks that didn’t make it to Sound the Alarms.

Dave got the idea for the event when he was playing with his two children in their garden. He hopes the event would break the world record.

However, it’s a tall order. The world record for the largest group of people blowing bubbles at the same time was set at a West Ham match in 1999 where they got 23,680 people involved.

With a facebook group currently rocking up with 70 members, a big push will be needed to achieve world-record status.

So anyone looking to get involved is encouraged to turn up on Saturday, July 10th and further details can be found at the event’s Facebook group or on the band’s website.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=127277060634550&ref=mf

http://www.boshmusic.com/

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My Night Of Open Mic

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The Winchester pub has run a comedy open mic night for ten months now, but the people who went there last week were about to see something wholly alien to the venue, the comedy stylings of me.

When I first heard about the event I decided it would be fun to get involved with it. This was a decision I regretted as I arrived at the venue to find a stage lit by a red hue awaiting my performance.

I was selected to go third in the pecking order, a choice that would allow me to consume a drink or two to help calm my nerves.

While consuming my first drink, I managed to talk to a fellow comic Paul, who informed me that when it comes to your routine, “It’s not the words, it’s how you say them.”

We then discussed the topic of hecklers and the possibility of bombing on stage. He told me that he had done ten gigs in total and that in the first five he had been heckled off. At the time we laughed this off, but little did I know that later I would witness why.

I then spent some time with Dano the chav comic, who would be the act that preceded me. Dano used to be a postman by trade and drew on his personal experiences to create his chav alter ego. I told him my opening joke, which made him laugh. This helped calm my nerves further as I’m more of a smiler than a laugh slut.

So, after Dano warmed up the crowd with a very entertaining routine, it was my turn.

I weaved though the crowd’s sea of applause and leapt onto the stage.

I opened with a world cup joke that was my only real attempt at writing a joke.

So have you noticed how they abbreviate all the team names in the World Cup. Some of them are rather unfortunate like Nigeria’s is NIG. I really hope they don’t play Germany.

It was received by an uproar of laughter from the audience and set me in good stead for the rest of my routine that revolved around dirty jokes and stories I had told before in my life.

Frankly, the whole routine was over in a flash and will be best remembered by me as staring into a light with a laughter track.

Of the acts that followed, the standouts for me were a man teaching a pizza hut employee how to do his job properly and the closing act, who had everyone laughing as he imitated his balls being put on ice.

Louise, the bar manager, informed me that she thought I was the third best act of the night, which is pretty good for a first-timer, and suggested that I should come again.

She also invited me to interview the dancers for the burlesque night they would be holding a few weeks time. Double Score.

The Open Mic night is just one of a number of events run at the Winchester Pub. The next one is set to take place on July 7th.

Who knows, maybe I’ll be warming up the crowd for you?

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53978194847&v=info&ref=ts

http://thewinchesterpub.co.uk/

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Residents Petition Against Muscliffe Park

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Residents of Muscliffe Park fear that plans for a new development in their area will lead to anti-social behaviour from youths.

A petition signed by people living in 100 of the 108 houses that neighbour the park opposes plans to redevelop the site. They fear that troublemakers, who already hang around there, would meet more often and that they would misuse the new equipment.

The petition also questioned the logic behind the plans as one of the stated aims is to tackle obesity. Susan Phillips, who presented the petition to Bournemouth Borough Council last night, asked: “how will a nest swing help the obese?”

Mrs Phillips believes that the development will stop people from being able to use the park for kite flying, bike riding and dog walking.

She added that the scheme feels “very rushed and underhand” and claims many residents were only consulted late in the process and that many have not received leaflets asking for their views. Mrs Phillips also questioned the wisdom of spending money on a park at a time when all government departments are being asked to find cuts in expenditure.

“The park appears to be a case of fashion over income,” she added.

Councillor Anne Rey, an independent who represents Throop and Muscliffe, questioned the real motives behind the petition.

“The petition is clearly one of self-interest,” said Cllr Rey at last night’s meeting of the full council.

Other councillors at the meeting were not so dismissive.

“If they’ve made the effort to get a petition together then we owe them 15 minutes of our time,” said Labour Councillor Ben Grower.

Councillor Claire Smith, a Liberal Democrat, added that all too often people who brought their views to the council were ignored.

“All we do is greet them with silence and then fail to address their issues,” said Cllr Smith.

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Bournemouth Bubble Bath

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Volunteers are needed for a bubble-blowing event set to take place in Bournemouth Square.

The aim of the event is to get a flash mob together of 200 to 300 people who can all blow bubbles together at the same time in an effort to coat the square in a storm of bubbles.

The event is set to occur on Saturday, July 10th between 2pm and 3pm and the footage will be used for the debut music video for Bosh’s song “Touch Somebody”.

“We have 500 bottles of bubbles and we will be handing them out to anyone who wants to get involved,” said Dave Griffiths, lead singer of Bosh.

“Our music has always been about hope and I think this event will encapsulate that.”

The track “Touch Somebody” comes from Bosh’s EP “The Gloaming Hour” which preceded their first full studio album “Sound the Alarms” released in 2008.

The world record for the largest group of people blowing bubbles at the same time was done at a West Ham match in 1999 were they got 23,680 people involved.

Anyone looking to get involved is encouraged to turn up on Saturday, July 10th and further details can be found at the events facebook group or on the band’s website.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=127277060634550&ref=mf

http://www.boshmusic.com/

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Young Talent On Show At Art Exhibition

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Gallery doors opened today for a new art exhibition set to showcase the best in new artistic talent.

The show, which takes place at the Arts University College, Bournemouth, is a brilliant opportunity to see the creative product of many of its students.

“It is a fantastic chance for people to see work from some of the country’s top up and coming talents,” said Lucca Messer, a photographer whose work is on display at the exhibition.

Photographic pieces on show range from: the adorable, with cat montages and elaborate costume play on show.; to the thought-provoking, with pieces displaying the war torn streets of Bosnia and the state of OAP care in South Africa; to the downright macabre and disturbed with people pulling at their skin and damsels tied up on the seafront.

The exhibition is also housing more conventional artwork with fantastic pieces made from postcards and to elaborate fashion designs. There really is a huge pool of talent and imagination on show.

One visitor said: “I am surprised by the quantity of quality pieces on show; it really does make you think.”

The Exhibition is free to attend and is open until 4:30pm Sunday May 30th

Displays are at the Arts University College, Bournemouth Room A24 and the Photography Corridor

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Youngsters Encouraged To Design The Park Of Their Dreams

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Children have been asked to help design a new playground for Queens Park.

The task was part of a wider programme being adopted by the council under the Play England Scheme.

As part of the “play 4 life” new park scheme for Bournemouth, kids mainly of ages 8 to 12 had been asked for what they would want from the new play park.

The council says the aim is to ensure that the park is designed with everyone’s interests in mind so that it doesn’t fall into the category of the identi-kit park, with the same swing and slide combination that is seen all too often.

“The scheme has been very successful where we’ve used it on other parks, one has gone from seeing three people tops on it to at least 20 every time I’ve visited it on a weekend,” said Brian of Bournemouth Borough Council.

The task has brought up some surprising results for the council with a lot of children liking shrubs and plant life. This is linked to what is called “imagination play” and goes hand in hand with “adventure play” which is very popular in Europe where play apparatus is designed around rocks and grass banks.

The scheme is set to cost £75,000, which makes it among the most expensive park plans being considered in the borough.

But with one item such as a Bucket Swing costing £7,000 it can be used up fairly quickly.

The initial design for the play park should be displayed by the council in about a month’s time at the reception of the council building in Queen’s Park.

For more information contact 01202 437812

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Hope FM Live Event Set To Rock The Square

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Whatever you are doing on Saturday 22nd May, you may want to cancel it as it may not be as good as the Hope Fm Live Event.

From 11am to 6pm the Hope Fm van will be parked in Bournemouth Square and provide the platform for  DJs Alan Turner-Ward, Emma-Kate Rickard and Paul Woodward to host a variety of acts sure to send the crowd into a frenzy.

The acts on show will range from the Pure Funk street dancers to Bournemouth’s very own Bosh who will be headlining the event.

The event should also prove popular with families with activities such as face painting and Caledonian dancing being on offer as well as performances from the Bournemouth Community Choir, Tom Whitman and Djembi.

There will also be an opportunity for the crowd to improve there fitness as well when the Total Body fitness troop demonstrate how to best improve you quads and biceps.

Emma-Kate Rickard said: “It is a great opportunity to have fun and see some awesome bands.”

The event marks the community radio station’s 3rd Birthday.

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The Election Night For Me: 85% A True Story

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Usually when you write a story you try and have an angle, this isn’t one of those. Sometimes a mistake or anecdote helps you; I don’t really have that either as I lost my notepad. So without further a do here is a list from my memory.

21:00
Check out my local polling station, Winton East Methodist Church. There were no voters.

21:30
Buy cigarettes and chewing gum from local newsagents in case the Tories get in. Also feel more legitimate as a reporter.

21.45
Get into Daily Echo building after excellent phone work from one of my friends and Tom.

21:46
Andy instructs me to write down everything that happens on the telly and gives me cheese cheddars for sustenance.

22:00
Exit Poll comes in with “surprising” result. Conservatives 305 seats, Labour 255 seats, Liberal Democrats 61.

22:15
Lib Dem Treasury spokesman Vince Cable tells the BBC that the exit poll result is “very strange”. But he says such polls have been “horribly wrong” in the past, not least in 1992 when a Labour win was predicted but failed to materialise

22:20
Let Becca into the Echo Building, lend her a notepad as I’m a gentleman. Explain what swing and seat voting system are, feel smart.

22:30
It emerges that people have been unable to vote in certain constituencies. Places like Sheffield Hallam, Chesterfield, Leeds and Birmingham have either had to turn people away or lock the door on them.

22:33
One woman says the failure to allow people to vote is disgraceful and makes a comparison to Afghanistan. Bit of an oversell in my opinion.

22:40
One returning general blames the voting fiasco on students turning up without being enrolled, I feel personally attacked.

22:43
Houghton and Sunderland South target declaration time goes by.

22:45
Becca informs me of witty twitter banter from fellow “up to speeders”. I make a note to check it out and to plug it later. Check.

22:52
First result in, Houghton and Sunderland South is held by Labour.

22:55
BBC go to a cruise boat populated by celebrities for their opinion on the result. David Baddiel makes a joke about them being really fast…no one laughed.

23:30
Best news of the night, the pizzas are here. The meat option proves vastly superior to the vegetarian one.

24:00
Northern Ireland results led to confusion over party and place names, sadly not for the last time that night.

00:29
“The one certainty is that Gordon Brown has to be removed from Office” Kenneth Clarke, my local MP tells the BBC what he thinks should happen should Labour fail to win a majority. He later wins back his seat, I didn’t vote for him.

00:49
The first big casualty of the night Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson is defeated by a very excited middle aged woman.

01:35
Gordon Brown manages to hold onto his seat in Kircaldy. One of the guys standing there is running for the “land is power” ticket, he dominates Brown’s speech by holding his fist up in a “black power” way. He generates much laughter in the newsroom.

02:00
It becomes increasingly clear that my place name pronunciation is terrible. Andy, the Editor cheekily suggests geography lessons.

02:25
Speaking of cheeky, Lembit Opik loses his seat in Montgomeryshire with the 13% swing to the Conservatives being described as “a asteroid hit” by the BBC’s Nick Robinson

02:30 to 03:50
Results come in thick and fast making me develop Adhesionoteletophobia, more commonly known as a fear of post it notes.

04:00
The paper deadline draws upon us cue a lot of frantic copy and pasting from titanic post-it monsters. In all likelihood we probably over ran this but I’m prepared to give people the benefit of a doubt.

04:10
Sugar is delivered into the newsroom in the form of donuts and sweets leading to a violent frenzy.

04:15
I talk to Jack Quaddy about his night. The two things I remember from the chat was that he was covered in Jelly Baby dust and that he was angry at the Oxford Liberal Democrat’s loss as he had contributed a fiver to his campaign.

04:45
Walk back home with Becca, discussion covers rape alarms, Zoe’s failure to text Becca back and the fact that Becca’s mum once dated Jeremy Paxman and that her dad reads his books in bed.

05:15
Turn on laptop.

05:52
Caroline Lucas wins Brighton Pavilion for the Green Party giving them their first ever seat in the House of Commons. I wonder if she’ll make a difference.

06:00
Stay up to make sure Nick Griffin doesn’t get in for the BNP. Labour hold onto Barking with 24,628 votes. Labour lady says something witty about packing your bags.

06:10
Go to bed…Knackered.

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Zombies Attack In Bournemouth!!!

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Photographer Lucca’s latest shoot out on the streets of Bournemouth has raised the question can Zombies be glamorous?

This however was not the original intention. What Lucca first set out to do was glamorize something that wasn’t, in this case the hordes of the undead would in fact be the drunk masses of Bournemouth out on a Saturday Night. As Lucca told me, “the Zombie concept came later. Drunks just look that way.”

Lucca’s first experience with a camera was on a holiday with his father in Italy, where his dad spent most of the two weeks explaining to Lucca the techniques of taking great photographs and ever since then Lucca has been well and truly bitten by the photography bug. By age 17 Lucca was already shooting weddings, a scary experience he took in his stride. All this helped give him the confidence to go out and tackle any challenge possible.

Lucca managed to get eight good shots from the shoot, which he informed me was good under the circumstances. However the guerrilla-style fashion shoot was not without problems.

First off Lucca had to deal with the difficulty of getting the lighting right as a contrast of light was important for the look of the shoot. The solution, get an accomplice to run up to the participants holding a portable light.

The second issue was that it was important to get people in the moment, as many were keen to pose at the sight of a camera. An issue Lucca may try to address the next time he goes out on the town by shooting people at a distance although that is likely to bring new problems such as getting people in focus.

People were generally very receptive to the team, no doubt keen to see the town glamorized as apposed to demonised, although them being drunk may have had something to do with it. The team only received abuse from one lady referred to as “Queen of the Zombies” by Lucca’s Video Editor Roman.

So can Zombies be Glamorous? Well a picture paints a thousand words.

Lucca’s Work can be found at

http://luccaphoto.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lucca-Photography/218835947529

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