Day 215

Howdy people. I have now been sober 215 days. I am feeling good. My new job has been great, although is it bad if I am now resorting to snorting water to try and get some moisture into that area of my face? Yes, the security control room I spend my time in here is quite stuffy, warm and dry. The fan does little to help. Though, that is generally the extent of my worries. There's a stunning view from here of the Belfast City Airport and the mountains. The fact that this place is sort of, out of the way, also means a general lack of tracksuited little hoodlums trying to reak their carefree havoc onto anything not nailed into titanium.

In the unlikely event that I haven't spammed you all to death with my new website, you can have a look at it here: www.martinbyrnemusic.co.uk

I think it looks great and I'm quite proud of my internet acumen in making it look so flashy and nice, in preparation for the tonnes of traffic generated by my appearance on national television tomorrow!

What's that you say? Marty are you going to be on TV, that most distinguished of multi-media portals?

Why yes! Yes I am. I shall be performing a short piece of music alongside a group known as Quire, who are a choir of singers made up of LGBT people (that's Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgendered people for the uninitiated.) The group and I were asked to collaborate on a piece for the BBC 1 TV show Art Space. It's for the final episode of the series and it will be on BBC 1 Northern Ireland, tomorrow night (Wednesday) at 10:45pm. It'll also be on the BBC Iplayer for a week after that.

Working with the choir was definitely a fun experience. We didn't actually have as much time to prepare for the show that I might have liked, but it was understandable considering how many people were involved and how hard it is to arrange times for all these people to play together, when we all have day jobs and other commitments to manage too. However, disclaimers aside, I think the piece we put together was great and our TV performance will hopefully have captured that well.

Watch it, even if only to see me fluff yet another live interview. (I just don't do this whole "speaking" thing very well.)

So what else?

The Qube gig at the Black Box was much fun. I think it was our strongest yet. There was a sense of catastrophe about it, but the performances and playing were spot on, full of conviction and the whole vibe of the evening was relaxed and fun. Qube is about playing challenging music and performances, I felt this gig achieved that really well, without being too uptight or pretentious. And it was great to get my purple dress out of the wardrobe again (it's been almost 2 years since I last wore it.)

YoYo News: First proper night at Slide went quite well. I was having doubts at some points, but at the end of the night, we realised it was definitely a success. We just need to keep getting the word about and getting regular punters down. Slide is a great wee spot, it's a shame more people don't know about it. It's a great venue inside too. Combined with Niall and I's awesome DJ playlists (but of course), YoYo should really be rammed every month. We shall see...

Hexxed news: Dublin gig, Saturday June 12th at the Twisted Pepper.

Other newsy news things of news worthy newsness: Ummm well, covered the new job, the gigs and stuff... Hmm... Yea, that's about it.

Gathering some ideas and forming things of a certain nature, at the moment for future plans, but I don't want to speak of any of this until it's a bit more solid, except to say, that I am very much liking the idea of getting more organised with all things music related.

And sobriety: It all goes well. I really don't envy people who deal with side effects, hangovers and all the pain associated with partying. I don't miss it at all. Of late, I feel I have missed out on some very cool gigs, but that was due to work and money, usual story. Anyway, hopefully with the new job (and a rota that I can plan my life around) and a bit more pay, I can plan to see more of the local stuff going on.

It seems there are a few really cool bands / acts happening in N.I / R.O.I recently too. Yes, I want to be one of the scenster, hipster, cool-as-ferk kids, for a change. Except for the naff haircuts and blood clot inducing tight jeans, it looks like fun!