2009 - A Year In Review

As we are entering the last day of 2009, it's made me think about everything that's happened this year. 2008 for various reasons was a bit of a crappy year, but looking back on 2009, 2009 has been the best year of my whole life. Here's a brief rundown of what made 2009 so damn cool.

10. Christmas

I'm very much a Christmassy person and do love the festive season (not to be confused with the festival season, more on that later) unlike some of my friends who bear something of a resemblance to Scrooge McDuck around this time of year. We were very lucky in that we were able to visit my parents and both sides of Jayne's family, and avoid any major holdups in travel and managed to dodge the snow and ice of the last 2 weeks into the bargain. All of Christmas has been great. And Christmas this year really has been summed up by the (UK) Xmas number one. Hold up your hands if you thought a month ago Rage Against The Machine would be Xmas number 1. No, me either. If you're saying you did know, put your hand down you lying so and so! Fantastic.

9. Arsenal

As usual, I've been priveleged to go to several games at The Home of Football, although not as many in previous years due to saving for the wedding and not quite having the spare cash of times past. Nevertheless when I have got there, as always there's been some blinding football, some great goals, mulriple attempts to walk the ball into the back of the net, and some stunning performances from RVP, Cesc, Arshavin and Co. Unfortunately I was also present at the Champions League semi final with Man Utd, one of the most soul crushing games ever, but we won't dwell on that, or getting thumped 3-0 by Chelsea in November in the absolute pissing rain (sorry honey!). That traitorous lump Adebayor was shipped out for an enormous profit (good work Arsene) but it was sad to see Kolo Toure leave. However it has ultimately been to our benefit as Thomas Vermaelen has been a defensive and goal scoring revelation and formed a nice partnership with William Gallas. The most improved player is undoubtedly Alex Song, who's transformation from "a bit of a useless lump" or "why the f**k is Wenger piocking Song AGAIN" to being one of the first and most useful names on the team sheet every week has been a revelation. With Chelsea being inconsistent and United not being half the team they were without CR7 to bail them out time and time again, we head into the last game of the year 4 points behind Chelsea with a game in hand. Come on lads, we can do it!!

8. Journalism

I've always enjoyed writing about things in general, particularly the gigs I go to as anyone who comes here more than once will know. A combination of Twitter and this site has enabled me to meet some very interesting people, particularly the people at Rocksins.com who are very cool and have opened the door to me on metal journalism. I can already hear people shouting what's the point in doing it for free. 1) I enjoy it. 2) I'd more than likely be going to the shows anyway. 3) As a result I've already met some very cool people, such as the guys from Sylosis and had some experiences I would not have had otherwise. So I'll be very happy to continue this into 2010.

7. Gigs

2009 has been an exceptional year for live shows in the UK, one of the best in my 7 years of regular gig going. January - March time I kept the shows to an absolute minimum with the Wedding incoming at a rate of knots, but still saw 2 absolute corkers in The Priest Feast at Wembley with Megadeth just shading Rob Halford and Co on the night and 36 Crazyfists turning the Electric Ballroom into a Warzone the week before my Wedding. I also saw Bruce Dickinson watching his son's band Rise To Remain support Five Finger Death Punch at the Bar Academy Islington on a very snowy night in February.

Things were very much quiet on the gig front over the summer (The festivals notwithstanding) but the last 3 months of the year have produced some fantastic shows with rarely a duff one among them. Progressive Nation 2010 was just absolutely incredible, probably the best I've ever seen Dream Theater (and I saw them do Pink Floyd live) and Opeth were their usual awesome selves. Devildriver & Behemoth tore up the newly refurbished Garage, while Lostprophets failed to hit their usual heights in Kentish Town. Bowling For Soup and friends put on one of the most fun shows ever at the wonderful Roundhouse, and Paradise Lost & Katatonia delivered a Gothic Rock masterclass in Islington.

Rounding off the year, after 5 years I finally saw Shadows Fall on a tour, with the also excellent Five Finger Death Punch (making their 2nd appearance of the year). The week after I went to a show by myself for the first time ever and was SO glad I did as I saw Insomnium who I'd been waiting to see since 2004, and then the year rounded off nicely by meeting the Sylosis boys before watching their biggest ever headline show with Savage Messiah and co.

There's some great looking shows coming up in 2010 already, but they'll have to go some to top this year.

6. Download/Sonisphere

Download is always traditionally one of the highlights of my year, this year being absolutely no exception, and indeed surpassing most of the previous Download experiences. 2009 Was the finest Download for many years on all aspects, from bands to campsite experience, easily the best Download since 2006 and possibly even better than that.

So imagine how pleased I was when another Rock and Metal festival popped up on the calendar, in my old Hertfordshire stomping grounds no less, and with Metallica and Linkin Park headlining to boot. It was such good news I got my lovely wife and some of my extended family to come with me, and they all had such a good time everyone is coming again next year, woohoo!! Bring on the 2010 festival season.

5. Stag Do(s)

Much has been written elsewhere about my stag do, if you want more of the gory details follow this link. It was one of the best weekends I've ever had, even if I was the target for nearly all of it. I'm just lucky I had such an awesome group of mates who came along and planned it all, thanks again guys!! (I just wish I could remember more of the night out in London lol).

4. Rome

In late July was the first year anniversary of my gran passing away, so Jayne decided she wanted to do something nice for me. Nice was a very large understatement. She booked us on a surprise weekend to Rome, complete with the "Angels and Demons" tour of the city. Anyone who goes to Rome and is a fan of the book simply must do one of their tours. It is an incredible way to see some fabulous parts of the city in a short space of time. We also went inside the Vatican and St Peters, which is a building that must be seen to be believed, no words do it justice at all. This was a wonderful surprise from my fantastic, amazing wife, who I really do not deserve in any way shape or form. So Jayne, if you see this, thank you, one more time :)

3. Family

Seeing a large part of my American family who I'd not seen for 6 1/2 years was just brilliant, I'm very grateful for everyone coming all the way across the pond for our wedding and just wanted to say thank you yet again. We'll endeavour to make the return journey an soon as possible.

2. Honeymoon

If you can afford to do so in your lifetime, please please please go to Mexico. It was two of the best weeks you could ever possibly ask for and a whole load of memories and fun times that will stay with us forever, from haggling over Sombreros to swimming with Dolphins, it had absolutely everything. The El Dorado Royale is an absolute palace, and the people there are the nicest, friendliest, most genuine people I've met on holiday anywhere. I would recommend staying there to absolutely everyone. I promise I will get that section of this website up running properly soon!

1. Wedding

The best day of my life. Anyone who was there knows how fantastic it went from start to finish. I could have never asked for anything better for the two of us. And I wouldn't have ever found a more lovely, kind, generous, gorgeous girl to be my wife if I lived to be 1,000 years old. I don't think anything will ever top March 21st 2009 in my whole life. Thank you to everyone who came and shared our day, couldn't be there but wanted to be, sent cards, bought us presents, provided services or helped to host the wedding, it was absolutely perfect.