Wiley

Wiley- the godfather of grime. If you are unfamiliar with what grime is, its basically the main genre from UK underground hip hop. Grime is otherwise known as eski-beat which was a term invented by Wiley because of the way he felt his music sounded. (eskimo dance, for the mixing tunes)
Wiley (a.k.a Eskiboy),Richard Kylea Cowie was born on 19 January 1979 in Bow East London. Since he was 15 he began touring and rapping in local clubs and was very quickly recognised and appreciated as an important grime artist.

So aswell as basically create the genre of grime today, he was also one of the founding members of the Roll Deep Crew which contains other grime artists such as Dizzee Rascal, JME & Skepta are a very renound rap group and they have released a few albums which have been succesful. However to promote himself as a major grime character, he often played on East London pirate radio stations where he gained many fans. In his career he released three albums, Treddin' On Thin Ice, Da 2nd Phaze, Playtime Is Over, Tunnel Vision Volumes 1-7, many other grime compilation and all of the Roll Deep Crew songs.

However despite all of this, when Wiley was at the peak of his career and was seen as the most important figure in Grime, on the 22nd January 2007 he announced that he was retiring from rapping. Although it was a huge upset to the UK hip hop scene, but it was well respected because he basically felt that he was 28, he didnt see things going too much further, and he felt he had much bigger responsibilities than grime because it is a hard industry to be in, constant feuds and 'beefs' with other rappers, he always felt that he would get stabbed or shot when in clubs." Wiley had lyrical rivalry with Dizzee Rascal, Durrty Goodz, Bashy, Lethal Bizzle, More Fire Crew, Ghetto, Scorcher, Jimmy Neutron, The Movement, Sharkey Major, Sniper E, Devlin, Crazy Titch, Aza T & Wretch 32)He decided to leave all this, because he wants to be with his family more and look after his baby daughter.

However he is continuing to be one of the main producers in the grime industry and is still mixing tracks, he just feels that his 'Mic' days are over. He also announced that he is releasing some music dvd's and will hopefully have occasional tours.

His retirement was quite gutting for me because I have been listening to his music a lot and he has became one of my favourite artists, I particularly like His new album 'Playtime Is Over'- especially the tracks: 50/50, Bow E3 & Getalong Gang.

If interested visit the website- http://www.2step-garage.co.uk/mc_profile/wiley.htm

Finally!!!!

I have been applying and waiting for ages to get a part time job, but I had no success for quite a long time. However just yesterday Somerfield phoned back concerning my interview, and they decided that they were keen to employ me to work for the company.

So no more weekends being broke!!! Also it will be good to structure my week a bit more, and have more responsibilities which in time will hopefully greater my independance.

Nick

New Cats

For all my life cats have been around me, so I am very fond of them and enjoy having them as pets.

I have two cats at my dads, kelly and frankie, they are about 3 years old now, so I have seen them grow up and change personlities. They are quite funny to have around the house because they are very friendly but they often fight each other which is pretty comedy to watch.

However at my mums house, two days ago my mum got two new kittens, brothers. One of them is very friendly but the younger one is well nervous, was quite funny, I walked into my vestebule to get my shoes and the cat started hissing at me and getting well panicy, but I'm sure he'll return to normal.

I will get some photos and a video up so you can see what they are like.

Nick

The Outlaw Josey Wales

Yesterday night I was out at my mums house out in the country, and as per usual there wasnt very much on tv.

However at about ten o clock my step dad changed the channel and a country western film came on. I was curious as to which one it would be because I use to watch them a lot with my grandad. Of course it was Clint Eastwood, but I hadnt seen this particular one, The Outlaw Josey Wales(Clint Eastwood).

Basically the story goes like this (take into account its about the Civil War)........ In the opening scene, the Union (otherwise known as Redlegs) torch down Josey Wales's house, killing his son and his wife. In retaliation Josey joins a group of pro-Confederate Missouri guerillas to try and get revenge on the Union. However all the Confederates get captured by the Union and are savagely gunned down, Except from Josey who trys to save his Confederate partners, however has to flee due to being largely outnumbered.

Throughtout the story he is on the run from the Union and gets joined by various people, an old Indian man and young women, an old lady and granddaughter from Kansas. They get into all kinds of problems with Union members, Mexican bandits, Indian tribes, obviously as the story progresses they get closer to the final battle at the end

.....................However I fell asleep twenty minutes from the end and woke up at the credits..................gutted!!!!! So if you are interested in western films, especially revisionist westerns and Clint Eastwood, you should check this film out.

Tomb Raider:Legend

Been a bit short of cash recently but always keen for a new 360 games. The new release Assasins Creed got me pretty excited but its too expensive, so instead I decided to go for a cheaper adventure game..Tomb Raider.

I used to be a fan of the games when they were released on playstation, but I hadnt played a Tomb Raider in about 9 years. I was fairly impressed, I've only played it for about an hour, but completed the first mission, which is basically Lara Croft (main character in game, featured on the right) searching through an ancient tomb in Bolivia, which turned out to be where her mother had been killed. I though the way you could interact with the enviroment was pretty clever and over the game is pretty well made. If you have any advice or tips on the game (achievements etc), feel free to leave me a comment..

Hello there Mr Doyle, you must be fairly excited after the release of your first published novel 'A Study In Scarlet', can u tell me a little bit about it?

Well to tell you the truth i'm slightly anxious about the matter, hopefully the novel will be a success. Basically 'A Study In Scarlet' is a detective murder mystery where a corpse is found in Brixton, London with 'RACHE' written on the walls in blood, the detective Sherlock Holmes and his friend Dr John. H Watson try to unveil the mystery of this murder.

Sounds like a very interesting story, have you any background of writing novels?

I have had some experience of writing, yes, I published several short stories in magazines such as London Society, but writing the novel was a slightly new experience to me as it was a lot more time consuming overall.

Obviously you are hoping that the novel will be a big success, but how do you think 'A Study In Scarlet' will compare to other newly released novels?

To be honest I think that the book will be successful if the readers have an interest in the murder mystery stories, but only time will tell and I can only hope for the best.

A very modest response, do you have any plans of writing more novels?

Of course, I have been writing for a long time now and I'm hoping that with time, I'll be able to write some great stories, whether it be a novel or a series of short stories, there will be more to come.

Thats very promising news, thankyou very much for your time and I hope to see more of your books in store soon.

With a bit of luck!

Shambala Page 7

After departing the Monastry, I headed on route to the beautiful city of Shambala. All I could see before me was miles and miles of baron land, it was going to be a long journey. After many hours of travelling in solitude and silence, i gazed upon what must have been the mighty gates leading into Shambala. http://andrew5017.blogspot.com/2007/11/shangri-la-is-amazing-buildings-are.html

Little Cream Soda

Also during the October holiday I played the guitar a lot... had been a while since i'd learnt anything new. I was listening to the new White Stripes album Icky Thump and the one song that stood out more than the rest for me was 'Little Cream Soda', quite an easy song to play, but if you've got it on the right settings on your amp, it can sound pretty good, obviously can get the tab from either http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/w/white_stripes/icky_thump_album_album_tab.htm.

SKATE.

The October holiday were pretty good considering it was only a week off, nice break from college, but as expected nothing very eventful happened. However my mates and I got very involved in the new EA release Skate. on Xbox 360. Sessioned! We mucked about playing 'Party Play- Spot Battle' 4 player, in my opinion the three best spots to skate on are 1. 30 stair rail- very long 2 kink hand rail, multiple flip tricks on rail, good for getting multiplier up etc. 2. X games- this is well fun because you can do huge grabs, rotations and flip tricks (Quad Kickflip 900)-lol, however we always found it funny to try Coffin Backflips( Down(left stick)LT,RT,B), often had funny bails. 3. Mega Compound- This is similar to X games as it has a big ramp where again you can do huge grabs etc. Doing 'Spot Battle' when lots of mates were there was always fun, but the game is so much better when you playing career. I really like how you get sponsored by companys like Nike SB and Supra and the video shooting in the game is always pretty cool. However the game is extremely frustrating... One particular Pro Challenge that I recall taking a million attempts at, was 'Nollie 360 flip to grid, then ride the hubba', on this little ledge down a 10 set(approx). I had no idea how to 360 Flip never mind Nollie 360 Flip so I had to spend time learnin the trick then attempting the challenge...........but I really couldnt get the hang of it. We gave up trying to perfect the trick, and just went for the challenge, must have played for about 40 mins attempting it over and over again, then randomly I got the flip perfect, to the grind..boom! (pretty sure it was total luck, but still was glad it got done!). We sessioned the career mode to the bone in the space of two days, some footage still to be recorded, but we got the achievement for doing all the tricks in the game, which is pretty fun to attempt. So basically if your looking for a really good game to occupy some time, Skate is definately a good option, even if you arent fimiliar with skating, you would still enjoy the game. Heres the Flip Trick list if interested...

Music Interest- Favourite Artist

One of the most influential bands to me, has to be Metallica because the powerful riffs by James Hetfield and the motivating solos by Kirk Hammet really inspired me to play the guitar the way i do today.


In my personal opinion, I think that as time has progressed, Metallica have unfortunately gotten worse, The first album "Kill Em All" was released in 1983 by the original Metallica line up, James Hetfield, Dave Mustaine, Lars Ulrich and Cliff Burton. It was a major success and really kickstarted their career. The following two albums "Ride The Lightning" and "Master Of Puppets" were also very succesful and contained probably their most recognised songs.


Unfortunately on September 27 1986 the basist Cliff Burton died whilst on the "Damage Inc" tour. This was a major upset to the band and also all the fans. However very shortly after his death, the band held auditions for the bass position, this was taken up by former basist of Jetstam Jason Newstead.
Also by this point Dave Mustaine had been kicked out the band (planning his comeback band-MEGADETH) and Kirk Hammet had taken the role. The new band line up was impressive, and the album produced in 1988 "....And Justice For All" was a huge commercial succees. The "Black Album" was the next album produced by the new album containing huge single hit Enter Sandman (which in my opinion isn't that good).

The following Albums: "Load", "Reload", "Garage Inc", "S&M" and "St.Anger" were a flop in my opinion, the music had changed and it almost seemed like the band spirit was lost. A slight factor to this happening in my opinion was when the basist Jason Newstead quit the band and Robert Trujillo took over the role, the band style was different and the main thing that got on my nerves, was the for "St.Anger" Kirk Hammet doesn't solo at all, which is what he is renound for.

Overall, I still see them as one of my favourite bands, still enjoy old school thrash metal. Also for about a year I was in a band called "Souls Of The Sinister" with my friends, and Metallic songs were frequently covered by us as we found them overall as a band, very effective to play. We released a demo, with four songs, which was a very enjoyable experience for me and made me want to get more involved in the music industry.

Thats just a bit about my music interests, however i have a wider music taste than just metal......I also enjoy Drum & BASS, which I will post about soon!

RADIO 1

The Beggining
Radio 1 was launched at 7 a.m. in 30th September 1967 as a direct response to the offshore pirate radio stations such as Radio Caroline. This was the beggining of hugely popular British national radio station operated by the BBC, playing some of the best and newest music around and also keeping people up to date with news etc

The Producers
One of the main producers at Radio 1 is Will Kinder, however there are more than one type of producer. For example Andy Parfit who is the radio controller.

The DJ's
On the Radio 1 show, each DJ has a certain set that they get maybe each day, this is a very good idea I think because you can find out when your favourite DJ is playing with your prefered music type. One of the first Radio 1 dj's was Tony Blackburn. My favourite Dj would have to be Fabio and Grooverider from Radio 1xtra, they host the Drum & Bass set on a saturday night from midnight-2 a.m.

Playlists
In Radio1 they have certain playlist catagories a week that each song comes under.
Play List A is 25 to 35 (tend to be the most popular songs)
Play List B is 10 to 20 (usually average songs that people don't min hearing)
Play List C is around 5 (either new songs just out, or songs that aren't very good)

Reporters
My favourite reporter on Radio 1 has got to be Andy Brown, he tends to do random interviews about whats happening on the streets etc.

Hello bloggers...

Hey reader, welcome to my blog, although the page isn't very good yet, it is my first one so hopefully i'll be able to update it quite soon. I'm Nick, a student at Aberdeen College studying Computing and Information Technology at int2. My main interest is playing guitar and music in general. Thats just a little bit about me, but hopefully you'll enjoy my blog and i'll will post again soon! !!!Nick!!!