William Goodall's Blog Occasional mutterings

October 24, 2026

My 2024 Music Trips

Filed under: Holidays,Music — William_T_Goodall @ 16:57

On the 15th February 2024 I took the bus to see Poppy (with Wargasm in support) in Glasgow.

I started with a free dinner and a couple of free beers (because there was a rat under my table which the waitresses had to remove)

Then off to the famous venue (I was here before to see The Pretty Reckless in 2022)

Wargasm in support – I’d just seen them headlining in December!)

Poppy

23rd of April, bus to Glasgow for The Warning

14th June – Fly to London to see Lovebites at New Cross Inn.

1st July 2024 – fly to Stockholm to see Hanabie

Spent a few days in Stockholm sightseeing and eating meatballs.

While I was at the 2024 Worldcon in Glasgow I slipped away to see Crypta playing at The Attic.

October 3rd I took the bus to Glasgow to see In Flames and Arch Enemy.

On 13th November I took the bus to Edinburgh to see Wargasm.

And that was it for musical trips in 2024.

October 23, 2026

My 2023 Music Trips

Filed under: Holidays,Music — William_T_Goodall @ 20:17
Georgia South playing bass

On the 24th February 2023 I took the bus to Edinburgh to see Nova Twins at La Belle Angele.

Got a good view of Georgia South playing bass. I like bass.

Had steak and chips and some beer before the gig to fortify me.

Made the mistake of staying in an EasyHotel. Smallest room I ever had.

I flew to London to see Hanabie for the first time, at The Underworld in Camden on 20th August 2023.

It was very packed and hot and I managed to get a reasonable view of the stage but didn’t take many pictures. I managed to get one of the special wristbands for the meet & greet after the show and got a t-shirt and a cd which the band personally autographed as I shuffled along the meet and greet. Drank beer afterwards.

Matsuri on guitar.

Took the bus to Glasgow on 12th December to see Wargasm

at SWG3. There was bass.

Milkie Way on bass. Little did I know that I’d be seeing Wargasm again rather soon!

June 25, 2014

Optical Splitter

Filed under: Music,Television,Unboxing — William_T_Goodall @ 14:28

I got this optical splitter to take the single digital optical audio out from my TV and split it two ways, one for the 5.1 home theatre amplifier and one for the headphones. I also got a D/A converter and a headphone amplifier.

IMG_6117

New Headphone Amplifier

Filed under: Music,Television,Unboxing — William_T_Goodall @ 14:25

Because my TV only has optical out and I didn’t want to plug/unplug the headphones from the front of my Yamaha 5.1 receiver all the time. So I got an optical splitter, a D/A converter and this.

IMG_6128

Package from Singapore.

IMG_6130

SMSL sApII

IMG_6131 IMG_6132 IMG_6133

UK plug for the 24V PSU.

IMG_6136

S.M.S.L sAp II Headphone amplifier. (SMSL sApII)

IMG_6137 IMG_6138

Swiss Army Knife for comparison. The volume knob has some tasteful blue LED lighting behind it. Wired up and working. The sound seems good – a nice tight bass.

June 5, 2014

New Home Theatre

Filed under: DIY,Music,Television,Unboxing — William_T_Goodall @ 15:13

The DVD player in my old HTIB packed in again and since spares are no longer available it was time to upgrade. New 5.1 speakers with an active subwoofer, an amplifier with four hdmi in and one hdmi out and two optical digital in (my SKY box doesn’t do Dolby over HDMI so I need an optical link for that. And my TV doesn’t do ARC over HDMI so I need an optical link for that too.) And a blu-ray player. And 50 metres of speaker cable, fourteen banana plugs and a subwoofer cable. It all finally arrived by yesterday and I spent some hours unpacking and assembling it.

IMG_6067

Three boxes of speakers making HTS201 system.

IMG_6069

Some stands for the rear speakers.

IMG_6071 IMG_6072 IMG_6073 IMG_6074 IMG_6076

100W active subwoofer. 8” down firing ported variety.

IMG_6077 IMG_6078 IMG_6079 IMG_6080 IMG_6082 IMG_6084

Two front towers with spike feet.

IMG_6085 IMG_6086 IMG_6087

Center and two rear speakers.

IMG_6088 IMG_6089 IMG_6091

Rears on stands. The connectors take banana plugs.

IMG_6093 IMG_6094 IMG_6096 IMG_6097

Front speaker with cover off and on.

IMG_6098

Sub with dog hairs. That’s a Tannoy HTS201 speaker system.

IMG_6103 IMG_6104

Sub cable and some banana plugs. Both by Fisual.

IMG_6113 IMG_6114

Amplifier. Yamaha RX-V375.

IMG_6115

Blu-ray player. LG BP325.

IMG_6116

Set up. I actually tidied up all the wiring before I began but I ended up with another mess. The TV, the SKY box and the blu-ray have wired internet connections so it was handy the switch I bought ages ago had enough ports. The blu-ray promptly downloaded a software update as soon as it was wired up.

The system self-calibrated with the included microphone with the sub at -10dB which might be a little low for my liking. I’ll see about tweaking it all after it’s run in a little.

September 17, 2013

Sennheiser PSU

Filed under: Movies,Music,Television,Unboxing — William_T_Goodall @ 16:14

My Sennheiser wireless headphones had taken to cutting out (no lights on the base-station) after several hours of use. Unplug it and leave it and they’d be working next day. Since the cheapest part I can replace is the PSU, that’s what I got for £13.75 with next day First Class post delivery. The new wall wart is a switching unit whereas the old one was a heavy copper transformer. It’ll be a while before I know if I’ve cured it as it was an intermittent problem anyway.

IMG_5960 IMG_5961 IMG_5963 IMG_5964

December 26, 2011

Album of the year, 2011

Filed under: Music — William_T_Goodall @ 15:54

Last year it was this. This year I liked

Straight Line Stitch - Fight Of Our Lives

best. And I saw them play live and they rocked.

November 9, 2011

Lacuna Coil & Straight Line Stitch, Aberdeen

Filed under: Music — William_T_Goodall @ 23:38

Saw Lacuna Coil and Straight Line Stitch at the Lemon Tree. Doors 7:30, I got a front centre standing position at the barrier. 8:30 Straight Line Stitch came on and played an energetic half-hour set. It was being filmed. Alexis Brown was in good form, singing well and bouncing around the cramped stage area like a spring. Near enough to touch (as some people on either side of me did). 9:00 and Lacuna Coil came on and played for an hour before taking the encore break. Then back on until 10:30. Or thereabouts. They had more stage room and slightly better sound than SLS (as usual for the headliner). Cristina Scabbia is very tiny.

November 9, 2010

Motörhead

Filed under: Music — William_T_Goodall @ 17:14

Saw Motörhead at the AECC last night. They played from about 9:30 PM until 11 PM. I didn’t recognise any of the material in the main part of the show apart from Eat The Rich, but they played Ace of Spades and Overkill for the encore. H&S must have taken a toll in the thirty-odd years since I last saw them as I was able to hear normally after the show. I went home and watched Dexter and didn’t even have to turn the volume up.

August 30, 2010

The Pretty Reckless – Light Me Up

Filed under: Music — William_T_Goodall @ 14:04

Reckless

My favourite album of the year so far. The iTunes version has two extra demo tracks.

Powered by WordPress