Videos and shop links

Happy Christmas and New Year! I'm having a very chilled out Christmas break which makes a lovely change, and I'm looking forward to getting a few new things happening in the new year.

I'm in a couple of TV shows available on the internet at the moment. Firstly, I was in the recent episode of Casualty as a barman sporting a lovely sailor suit. It's available for another few days on the BBC iPlayer at www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00gg3hz. I'm in the party scenes starting at around 40 minutes in.

I've also been doing some filming for a new series, Being Human, which will be starting on BBC Three in the new year. I've got a small part at the start of the show where I get eaten by a werewolf! That will be available in glorious HD, but we also recorded a lower quality version which is now available on the internet. The part I'm playing in the show is being played by someone else in this clip, but in theory I'm the guy being the camera with the American accent. I'm actually visible (and this time it's really me!) at around 4:40 looking a bit worse for wear (or were?!) following the attack. Check out the video on the BBC Three site at bbc.co.uk/bbcthree and click on the Being Human: George link. It's also on YouTube - check it out below:



I've been doing some filming for a couple of other shows too - Lewis and Torchwood - which again should be on at some point in the new year.


And in other news...! I've now been included as an artist on Emubands, the online distribution company for the Octagon album sampler. They've included links to some of the sites you can buy or stream the EP from. Check it out at emubands.co.uk/bands.php?band_id=861. Most of the links require Internet Explorer so don't worry if they won't load using Safari, Firefox etc. The prices across the sites vary with some allowing streaming as well as downloads. In general I'd recommend iTunes but if you're using a PC then why not try the Oxfam Music website which will donate money to Oxfam with every purchase?

Gig tonight

Just a quick one, but I've had a glance at the recent blogs today and realised that I really ought to blog more! However, I'm always micro-blogging via Brightkite and Twitter so that's the best place to check for more regular updates - www.brightkite.com/people/dayvedean or twitter.com/dayvedean.

I was out playing with the majority of the band last night (Dan was busy recording his radio show and it was a drum free venue in any case) in Birstall near Leicester. Not the biggest turn out for us or the other band of the evening, but good fun and great to be out playing live again.

We're out this evening too, slightly closer to home. We're hosting a jam night at The Woodlands, Shady Grove, Alsager, Cheshire where we'll be playing several songs from Octagon and Another Christmas, some covers (including our newest cover, REM's The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite!), and also joining in with any other singers and musicians who are up for it. So if you fancy a fun night out, either to join in or just to watch, come and join us anytime from around 9pm.

Plane Stupid at Stansted

I've been watching the BBC News Channel reports about the Plane Stupid protest at Stansted. While I'm not suggesting that breaking the law is a good idea, it's been very interesting to hear the reactions to the protest.

There has been a lot of comment that people have been disrupted and that flights are a necessity for business and people going on holiday. There have even been complaints about the action by a group of delegates on their way to a conference about climate change in Poland.

Firstly, I can't help but think there's something ironic about catching a plane to a conference on climate change. Surely the best way to do this would be through technologies such as teleconferencing which would eliminate the need to travel at all. Or if not, Poland is pretty easily reachable by rail (check out /http://seat61.com/Poland.htm to find out how). I travelled to a gig in Hamburg this way earlier in the year and it's a really nice way to travel, both relaxing and allowing you to see a lot more than you are able to from a train.

I also wonder how many of the flights were as necessary as people seem to think. I'm very often surprised and disappointed how many people that I meet at various get togethers have travelled by plane, particularly if coming from Scotland to the south of England. While a high speed rail link could very well help to cut a lot of these journeys, and could easily be paid for if the money being proposed for airport expansions were used for this instead, I find it's the opinion of trains compared to planes which needs to be addressed.

Christmas

If the lights up around town are anything to go by, it's heading towards Christmas time again!

It seems hard to believe that it's nearly a year now since the Another Christmas EP was released. If you don't already have a copy, it's available as a download on various sites including iTunes, Napster and CD Baby. I'm looking into getting a handful made as physical CDs too so watch this space... Another Christmas is also available on the new album, Octagon.

I had a good time performing with the band last Saturday at the Oxjam Unwrapped gig to make money for Oxfam. It was our first time performing all together and it seemed to go pretty well. We didn't have the video on for this one but for photos, check out the event's website at oxjam.dayve.co.uk or keep an eye out on my Flickr feed at flickr.com/dayvedean. You can find out more about Oxjam at their website at www.oxfam.org.uk/oxjam or check out the Oxfam website at www.oxfam.org.uk.

It's looking as though our next gig is going to be on 20 December at The Woodlands in Alsager. It's a jam night - so feel free to come and join in - but we'll be doing a fair bit of playing as well. We're going to be working on a number of covers and Christmas songs for the night so if you've any requests in advance, send them in to mailinglist@dayve.co.uk or contact via the blog comments or message boards at dayve.co.uk/forum. And if you're not already on board, why not join the mailing list - sign up from pretty much any page at www.dayve.co.uk?

It's the time of year that people send out Christmas cards, and I'm never really sure how I feel about this practice. At a basic level, I like to receive them as it's nice to hear from people that maybe I don't often hear from and I like the idea of sending them. I rarely actually get around to it though for several reasons, including not knowing people's addresses and running short of time. There's also the ethical argument to contend with. One one hand, it's a terrible waste of paper and resources especially if they're not made from recycled materials and recycled or reused after Christmas. On the other, charities are able to raise funds from the sale of the cards so good causes can greatly benefit. Maybe a solution would be to send ecards (but then I never know anyone's email address!) and either donate the money saved to charity or buy gifts such as Oxfam Unwrapped. I'll see what I end up doing this year.

In the meantime, I've come across some cool cards at a favourite company of mine, Howies. You can check them out here - http://www.howies.co.uk/product.php/1593/18/. They're recycled and donate to charity so maybe that's another solution.

Have a great Christmas if I don't get around to blogging again before then!