Results day

Hookay, so yesterday was results day. I was so nervous and haven’t eaten/slept properly for the last few days, but everything has turned out alright! I was one of the first people in my school to receive my results and I opened the scary brown envolope with two other friends. To be honest, I didn’t expect the results I got; I thought I had done worse! I ended up getting 3 A*s, 6.5 As, 1 B and 2 Cs (one of which being in further maths?!?!?!?! And the other was our 16 week course in Psychology).

I’m so happy with what I got, and one ofmy A*s was in art which is a huuuge shock! A*s in art are unheard of, and my teacher kept saying that I wouldn’t get the grade I wanted … I mean, I guess she was half right .. I didn’t get the grade I wanted, I got far better! So yesterday was an extremely good day.

Today, I enrolled at sixth form. I’ve chosen to do REP (Religion, Ethics and Philosophy), English Lit, English Lang and History Modern, hopefully it will get me onto an English course at uni in two years. I was also in the paper today. We were asked to jump in the air with our results (which was highly embarrassing) and then were interviewed afterwards. It’s a lovely write up though, says something like ‘’Abigail Gillibrand, an aspiring Journalist got a string of As and A*s’’ … so proud of my little self!

So yeah, I’m really chuffed with the past few days, things have seemed to run very smoothly which is ace, but all these sleepless nights and early mornings have left me drained. I think it’s a hot chocolate and bed for me!

Night peeps :) xx

Summer Hols 2012

Hey guys, just got back from a holiday in Whitby. It was lovely and we caught the hottest week of the summer so far. I went with my family and we visited all the little villages nearby. From Filey beach to Pickering Castle, it truly is such a beautiful place to see. The first day we stopped off in York and walked along the high street. We fell across a small Viking market which was so cute, they had a room full of outfits that people had worn in films too; Keira Knightley’s dress from The Duchess, Heath Ledger’s  blue/grey outfit from the 2005 movie Casanova. We went to many castles and country houses too, one of them being Castle Howard where Brideshead Revisited was filmed. We saw Whitby Abbey, where we managed to save some newts that had fallen into a grave, and the Dracula experience. It was pretty lame if I’m being honest, but I was so scared! We went round and all it was was a dark walk through, then some guy at the end jumps out at you with a horrible mask on! Yes, I did scream, but it wasn’t that scary! Talking about Dracula, we saw so many bats just hanging from the walls of old buildings and one was chilling on the floor of a museum.

Nearer the end of the week, we all went dinosaur fossil hunting along the beach and actually found some! I discovered a Gryphaea which is kind of like a sea muscle, they’re known as a ‘Devil’s Toenail’ which is pretty cool. My mum came across some shell fossils and my sister found an ammonite. My dad however, well he was quite content with his piece of concrete he found within the first five minutes- Though nearer the end he did pick up some fossilised coral!

On the way home we called off at Leeds and went into a record shop. They said that they could start stocking Woodnote there which is so exciting! It’s going to be in a shop!! I bought a pretty sweet hat, and a few records – Inspiral Carpets, The Charlatans, Blue Monday, The Soup Dragons. They stocked Carter Tutti Void’s Transverse too which was cool; can’t look at it for too long though, makes your eyes go all weird!

Overall it’s been an ace week and I think we’re off to Chester sometime soon too which will be lovely! Then the next big thing will be my results day on the 23rd. I’m so nervous but I’ll let you know how I go on. Thinking of going into journalism so I hope my English and History grades are good!

Fingers crossed xx

Best year ever!!!

A year ago today if you’d have told me what was going to happen in the next 12 months, I totally wouldn’t have believed a single word. From taking all of my GCSE’s and my sister leaving home to go to university to producing my fanzine, Woodnote, and selling it at a Charlatans gig, it has been one heck of a year.
It was the 27th of July 2011 that I first saw Tim Burgess live and got to meet him and Mark Collins. It was a fantastic night, with the support act being Joseph Coward … who would later become an amazing friend; I didn’t think that it could get any better. That summer my sister packed up and headed on out to Leeds uni. It was so sad seeing her go and every time she comes home it’s always tainted with the sadness that she’s got to go back! The day she left, not only did everything change, I felt a change in myself, as if I’d have to be more independent and go my own way- instead of relying on her to guide me through my life. Childhood suddenly froze. The end of an era.

I’d taken art for GCSE and was told to draw and collage in the style of Sandhi Schimmel. I chose to draw one of my huge inspirations, Nik Void. Once I’d completed the piece I sent her a picture of it. The response was amazing! She asked me to draw Gabe and Dom from the band FF too and said that she’d use them altogether. I was delighted with the fact that she’d even taken time to look at my art, let alone ask me to draw some more. To show her gratitude she sent me her CD, a FF T-shirt, badge and a small note signed Factory Floor. It’s such a great feeling to have one of your idols admire your art!

Then, one evening, I don’t really know how it came about, but Joseph Coward suggested that I should start a fanzine. He said he’d help me out for the first issue and provide me with an interview; kind of me helping him out too. And then I guess the next day was the birth of Woodnote. That has been such a crazy ride. Getting interviews from such amazing people, Tim Burgess… Tom Caulfield … Joseph Coward … Nik Colk and Gabe Gurnsey. It’s also helped me meet awesome people too. Asking for reviews and talking to people with the same interest has been so great!

The zine helped me get to meet Tim Burgess backstage again too, and I even got to sell the second issue at his gig. I’m so grateful of all the support everyone’s shown for it, it’s been a hell of a journey, and I’ve only just released issue 3!!

I guess on top of all of this, I’ve completed my GCSE’s! It’s a huge relief to have nothing to do and everything to be over - though I’m quite nervous to get my grades back. I so hope I’ve done well with the amount of work I’ve put into it all.

And to make an ace year even better, I have met some amazing people that will be friends for life. Holding a great x-mas party that is still talked about today, and just having a good set of friends to rely on has been a change to my lonesome school life.

So that’s kind of my year summed up. It’s been crazy, emotional and amazing. Seriously … I don’t think I would change anything right now, things are looking fine!

Magic Mike

I went to watch Magic Mike with my friend the other day, when we walked into the cinema, there were only three other people sat down, and they were all around 70+. We thought we had gone into the wrong movie … Why were 70 year olds watching a film about male strippers?

Anyway, we sat down and the film begun … there wasn’t really a story line and it got off to a slow start. The guy staring in it was Alex Pettyfer which was funny, me and my friend came to the conclusion that he looks just like Joseph Coward (with a beard), which made the film even more awkward to watch! Half way through the film, the old people walked out and never came back! Think it was too much for them or something!

Anyway … I put these pictures together … What do you think? They could be the same person right?

3rd Woodnote ...

Third issue of Woodnote is out very soon; it’s being printed this week. It includes interviews from Factory Floor and Joseph Coward … Tim Burgess and Joey Ackland have done reviews, it looks ace!
E-mail me here – Wood_note@hotmail.co.uk if you’re interested in a copy. Thanks for the support guys! x

Prom

It’s meant to be summer and it has not stopped raining! Apparently we were meant to have a months rain in a weekend, the weekend of prom. The Friday before it hadn’t stopped raining and I thought that it wouldn’t on prom night.
I watched the weather all day, praying for it to hold out and it actually did! I was so happy, it wasn’t particularly hot and was quite windy, but as for the rain … there was none in sight!

I’d not been overly fussed about prom. It’s an evening spent with friends, a gathering to say farewell when we all leave school. I don’t see why we have to make such a huge deal over it and wear dresses. It costs so much just for one night! Don’t get me wrong, my dress was lovely, but all that expense for one evening? I find it all slightly embarrassing too. Getting the dress fitted, people fussing over what make up you should wear or what shoes would go best with the dress. I’m not a girly girl and I wouldn’t say I like to be centre of attention (maybe in the centre .. just without the attention?) so all this dressing up and going for fittings was quite scary for me!

Prom was a good night though I guess. I’d worried about it for so long, thought something would go wrong, the vintage car wouldn’t show up, the dress would get ripped, but it all seemed to go pretty smoothly (Except I broke my sisters bag she’d lent me!) Over all I had fun. Danced all night with my friends and had a laugh! From clambering up to the top deck on a bus in a floor length dress to sitting and eating a meal (which I must say were the smallest portions I’ve ever seen) it was great.

An adventure to find Tim Burgess

Wow, my fist blog in how long? Well I hope I’m back for a while now! All of my exams are over and I’m officially done for summer (except the weather isn’t all too good).
I have so much to tell you guys and may blabble on a bit so bare with me … this is going to be a long blog.

Let’s start from the very beginning. This all seems so long ago now; I left you with the 2nd issue of Woodnote almost being released. Well it was based on The Charlatans this time. I had an interview with Tim Burgess and I’d got a few reviews off friends who’d been to gigs and festivals - like the Hacienda Oiso. Put together it looked ace. I’d informed Tim about it and he told me to bring it to his book signing. So I went along with all of this and took down a fair few copies (saving one in my bag for Tim). Before the gig, Nik Void had sent me a message saying that she’d passed one of her records to Tim to give to me (the perfect opportunity to meet my idol!) It was all very exciting! We arrived an hour before the event and my mum managed to persuade the guy on the door to let me and my sister in to go and find Tim. She said something like ‘’She has a fanzine for him, and he has a record for her,’’ and without even checking if this was true, he opened the door and we set off on our adventure.

This lovely man found us, looking rather lost, and asked what we were doing wandering around and I just replied ‘Looking for Tim Burgess’’. He seemed to be suspicious but then led us backstage. It was like a rabbit warren behind those doors. We ended up all over the place, on the stage, back stage, down many winding corridors and then we eventually ended up at ‘The Green Room’; the sign on the door staring right at me.  I asked my sister what on earth was going on and she just looked at me and said ‘We’re going to meet Tim!’ My heart was in my mouth. I was so nervous! I was going to see my legend in flesh and totally didn’t want to get start struck! The guy knocked on the door and it opened … then he just left us! Mark was stood right in view. The room was bare with a sofa (which Tim was draped over) under the window on the far side. I felt like I was in the film ‘Killing Bono’ where the two brothers walked into a room where Bono was led out on a sofa. Without introducing myself I was greeted by Tim saying ‘Heya Abigail’. It was so surreal I was really taken back. He knew my name! Totally buzzing we spoke about Woodnote for a little while. He said he liked the name and that it looked really good. We asked where we could put a few so people would see them and take them. Tim led us out of The Green Room and back onto the stage where a gathering of people were. He called someone and asked them to bring the record that is for a ‘friend’ of his. Oh yeah! He did it, he called me his friend! It was rather odd, I felt relaxed in his presence even though I was so excited and shaking with nerves. We had photos on the stage as he’d promised and then he left us in the hands of another awesome guy who took us to find a place to sell the zines.

I think I sold around 40 of them that night, and Tim said that he’d must have signed about 20 of them! So overall, Woodnote was a huge success!

We arrived home quite late and I felt like I was on another world. The night couldn’t have gone better if I’d planned it! Then, just to make things even better, my dad offered to take me to the Tellin’ Stories gig in Manc a few weeks after. Who would refuse a proposal like that?

So three weeks later, off we headed again to Manchester to see The Charlatans once more……

My sister, Tim Burgess (with Woodnote) and me!