Mental Health - The Ginger Quiff

Jim McCulloch – When I Mean What I Say – album review

June 1, 2021 By neilho27@sky.com

I’ve never had the good fortune to meet Jim McCulloch, but I’m willing to bet he’d be one of life’s good guys. I’m also willing to bet that the vast majority of music fans will own or love at least one song featuring the talents of McCulloch the maestro in their collection. Whether they know it or not.

I may be wrong, but he gives the impression of being a quiet unassuming genius who just loves creating and playing music. Keeping his head just under the parapet focussing on what he loves and producing some timeless, unforgettable records in the process.… Read the rest

Mindful March

March 4, 2021 By neilho27@sky.com

Let’s not sugar coat it. January was shite. If anything, February was worse…

I’m willing to bet I’m not the only person that in any “normal” year hates the early months of a new year. The promise of a buoyant New Year seen through the haze of a Hogmanay dram, usually fades to a miserable grey thought as the realisation hits. It’s January.

I mean, January and February are normally a barren wasteland of dark mornings and dark evenings. Days and nights of nothing much happening after the hustle and bustle of December. 2021 has added a whole new dimension of shite to the mix.… Read the rest

Cup & Nuzzle Productions

January 31, 2021 By neilho27@sky.com

I feel it is very remiss of me not to have featured this podcast production company before now, but as the saying goes, better late than never.

Ok, so there is an element of nepotism here. Cup & Nuzzle is a production company co-founded by BBC6 Music presenter, and drummer from Menswe@r, one of my favourite bands to rise out of the awfully named Britpop “scene”, Matt Everitt and of course, and perhaps more importantly, my talented cousin, Graham Hodge.

I know of several people who have spent a large proportion of the last 12 months furloughed due to the worldwide pandemic.… Read the rest

Pick of the Pops – Xmas songs 2020

December 14, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

I’m hoping many of you won’t have been in the same position as me, having had the misfortune to hear three monumental fuck ups of Christmas singles. The words-fail-me-how-bad-it-is cover of the greatest Christmas song of all, Fairytale of New York by Jon Bon Jovi, talent vacuum Gemma Collins (I’m hoping most of you don’t actually know who she is, your life will be better for not knowing) duetting with Darren Day. Finally, the cheeky chappie that I wouldn’t tire of smacking in the face with a shovel, Robbie fucking Williams, and his Christmas song, the lyrics of which seem to have been written by a chimpanzee who has an extremely limited vocabulary and has learned most of their words and phrases from watching a succession of idiots on daily COVID 19 briefings, cobbling them together clumsily in a vain attempt to create a song.… Read the rest

Lockdown Ramblings

December 10, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

I recently almost killed the Ginger Quiff website. I had reached a point where it wasn’t giving me any joy, it wasn’t serving the purpose I first started it for. It felt like a chore and I was putting myself under stress and pressure to get some content up. I began to see it as an unimportant “nice to have”. And in many ways, it is. Nothing I write is going to change the world or have a massive effect on anyone’s life. Well, that’s not entirely true, it has made a massive difference to my life since I started writing.… Read the rest

Bob Vylan – We Live Here – album review

June 8, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

I have been angry, truly angry. But ultimately, I know my heart is full of love.

In the last week or so my mental health has taken a dip. While I thought I was dealing well with the current situation, it would appear otherwise. I can’t put my finger on one particular trigger, the low point I reached was the culmination of several factors.

Anger (is an energy?)

I was an incredibly angry version of myself last weekend. So much so that I received a very scathing and personal direct message – accusing me of having “a lot of anger” and having “no love in me”.… Read the rest

The Destination

May 29, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

Even the recent past felt like a lifetime ago. Life had been unrecognisable for so long, being out on the streets was disquieting. On previous occasions when he had ventured out, he had flinched every time another human approached. He wasn’t really sure why, or what he was expecting them to do. Maybe he’d watched too many zombie movies and the eerily quiet streets had unearthed visions of a dystopian future. The words “go for the head” kept repeating over in his mind.

Hearing anyone approaching was a challenge, what with having headphones in and walking along hands plunged deep in his pockets staring at the ground to avoid eye contact with the world around him, the refrain of the song he was listening to – “anytime, anytime, anytime, anytime….illuminate… Read the rest

Lockdown ramblings…

May 12, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

I’ve being doing a lot of internal reflection on the back of the latest seemingly ill thought out random series soundbites and subsequent bumbling backtracking and mixed messages coming from Downing Street, apparently without any real plan or substance to back them up. While I feel that many of us with some common sense have been able to live by the guidelines up until now, these new messages have just caused confusion amongst many. This isn’t really a political post though. The statement and subsequent fallout were merely a trigger.

Home Truths

It brought home a few realisations and home truths.… Read the rest

Carol Hodge – Savage Purge – Interview and Review

February 28, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

Roots

Ahead of the release of her latest work of genius, Savage Purge on the 30th of March, I had the privilege to catch up with fellow Hodge, Carol. I don’t often meet other Hodges, so I had to ask about her roots and whether she had ever investigated her family tree…

Yeah, well, funnily enough my mum did, she was into genealogy for a while, so she did our family tree. I was born in Greenock, we lived in Port Glasgow when I was a kid. All my family comes from around there.

Then going back far enough, from Ireland, it was maybe like the 1700s when the first Hodge came over.

… Read the rest

Caroline Flack – a reflection

February 16, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

I don’t know much about Caroline Flack. I don’t watch Love Island and I haven’t been aware of much of the fall out of recent events. This weekend’s tragic events are no less affecting despite my lack of knowledge. I’m not going to pretend I know all the ins and outs of what led to this young woman taking her own life, but I’ve read enough to know that there were probably several contributing factors.

Kind of hypocritical as I’m sharing this via social media, but a combination of vile red tops creating exaggerated salacious press stories combined with vicious trolling via several social media outlets surely would have had an impact on her state of mind.… Read the rest