Memoirs of a Roadie

Run With The Wolf

Posted on 31st July 2017

Over the last 2 years since The Big Hoot, numerous art sculpture projects with animal statues placed in open spaces around cities have really taken off. This year, Ethne and I have hunted Hares, Bears and now Wolves. 

The Wolves In Wolves project has placed 30 wolves around Wolverhampton, one of which being a mobile wolf and moved to a different location each week. If we'd followed the routed detailed in the map, we would have walked roughly 4.5 miles. However, due to taking an outer then inner circle route, and a bit of back tracking too, we ended up walking 10 miles! It was a great day out, and we have to thank @wolvesinwolves and a couple of City Centre Ambassadors for pointing us in the directions for a couple of wolves. 

One disappointment was not being able to see Old Gold, the Wolverhampton Wanders FC wolf, up close as he was in the gift shop, which wasn't open when we walked the trail. However, the biggest disappointment was seeing the damage done to Flame (in honour of the West Midlands Fire Service) outside the Express & Star offices. It is really such a shame to see vandalisim like this, when these works of art are there to help raise money for charity, and to be enjoyed by everyone. As we walked around a man told us that Flame was hopefully going to be repaired, so I hope he is restored soon and left alone this time.

There were several wolves we thought were our favourite, until we saw the next one! Having said that, the one that really touched me when we saw it was Support Life. A very thought provoking design. All the designs were superb, and there wasn't one we didn't like, so congratulations to all the artists and designers who put all the effort into making the wolves.

One thing that was great about the project for us was that the exhibition of the little wolves, design by various schools, were all collected within the Wolverhampton Art Gallery in the centre of the city. 70 fantastic designs all in one room, together with the first two large wolves, saved a lot of walking and hunting. In another art project the location of little versions of the animals has proved far too time consuming and has distracted from the fun of hunting them.

Ethne and I had fun taking selfies (thank you to everyone who liked us on Instagram) of all the large wolves, as well as enjoying a good trek around the city. My pedometer told us we'd walked 10 miles back forth around the city, and while we could have taken some short cuts, I think we got to see more of the city on our route. We met quite a few people on the hunt for the wolves, with lots of young children eagerly hugging the statues.

It's a great day out, so if you're stuck for something to do with the kids during the summer, and fancy a day ambling around Wolverhampton (you really don't need to take as long as we did!), Wolves In Wolves is heartily recommended. There is also an extra mini-game for kids to play as they find each wolf, as several have a gold star with a letter on the plinth placque. Unscramble all the letters and you could win a prize of a mini wolf.

If you get stuck looking for Claude, the mobile wolf, check out the WolvesInWolves Pop-Up shop in the Mander Centre, or find a City Centre Ambassador to give you a hint. Apparrently he's usually close to the city centre, so you won't have to walk too far to find him. 

A little aside on our day was riding the tram from Grand Central to The Crescent. The station announcements on the tannoy system was read by Ozzy Osbourne. It was quite a nice surprise to hear him. It also made me wonder whether Wolves In Wolves might have missed out a few wolves, celebrating well known people from the city and surrounding area. Aside from many sporting heroes, there's Slade, Judas Priest, Robert Plant, Meera Syal and Caitlin Moran (author of Made In Wolves). Perhaps we'll see some of those on a future public art trail the city puts on :)

Breathe

Posted on 15th February 2012

Cold Air

I am just air
A breeze of coldness
Hold me if you dare
I have travelled far, I am breathless

This a poem written by Ethne, aged 7.

Considering she had no help with the words, it's quite a profound first poem. She wrote it on her MagnaDoodle, so Nicole managed to preserve the effort before it got erased :)

Well done Ethne.

New Scientist

Posted on 20th May 2010

As mentioned in a recent post, Ark are back. They are currently putting the finishing touches to a new album, Wild Untamed Imaginings, which is now planned for a September 5th launch date. However, despite the band working on all the tracks for the album, there was one song that needed something a little extra. New Scientist has a school yard chant in the song, that in the original was handled by the band themselves. For the new recording they wanted to make it sound a little more convincing.

With all of us now having families, the idea was broached about have our kids do the backing vocals. Very quickly the idea of a Kids Chorus gained hold, and one sunny Sunday afternoon in late April we all (well apart from Tony and Tim) descended on John Jowitt's abode in Stourbridge, for an afternoon of recording. The kids were pointed at the garden and told to make friends, which they did with ease, almost as if they'd known each other for years, while the adults enjoyed food, drink and chatted about how long it had been since we'd all seen each other.

Midway through the afternoon, Mark and John prepped the mic and got all the kids together to record the chant. Originally they were going to do an indoor version and outdoor version, but the outdoor version went so well, we didn't need the other. The kids threw themselves into it and all had a lot of fun. After recording the chant, we let them loose on the garden again. However, unknown to any of the kids, Mark had left the microphone recording to take in some ambient sounds of the kids playing. Not quite sure whether they'll use any of it, but there'll be plenty to chose from :)

Pete, having missed playing with the Arkie Boys Football Club, tried to drum up enthusiam to form an adults versus kids football match. With John's house backing onto the Park, they decamped using trees, coats and jumpers for goal posts, with Pete, John and Mikey on one side and most of the kids on the other. My Dan was delight to score against the grown-ups, but in the end it was 4-1 to the Arkie Boys. A rematch has been suggested.

Click here for just a selection of photos from the afternoon. I'll be adding more to the Ark Appreciation Pages in the next few weeks.

Down In The Park

Posted on 6th April 2008

Ethne & DanDan

After waking up to snow, we took the kids round to the park to throw snowballs and build snowmen.

Snowball fight!

Up on the hill it looked like a few people were even venturing down the slope on sledges. Seeing as it's a steep hill, they obviously felt quite brave. Some kite flyers were also having a good day up there too.

Meanwhile, DanDan made a snow angel and four snowmen, while Nicole and Ethne made another. Ethne made us laugh by adding a bum to her snowman, although it looked more like a pronounced tail. Should have added long ears and called it a snow bunny :)

Boat On The River

Posted on 10th January 2008

It seems that Nicole and I have a bit of talent on our hands. These two pictures were painted yesterday by Ethne at her playgroup. Apparently she's painted an even better one, which is currently hanging up in the room they use.

Considering she will only be 3 in a month's time, yet can manage to paint a recogniseable snail and a boat on the sea (complete with sun), is quite staggering, or maybe that's just my parental pride coming out. Either way, Nicole's artistic talents have obviously come out strong in Ethne, as she's always loved drawing and painting ... especially on herself!

Seeing as I don't have a cubicle at work in which to hang my kids pictures, adding them to my website will have to be the next best thing :)