Some artists feature more that others like the Manic Street Preachers. I would definitely like to own everything they released at some point. Most of these were picked up on eBay, I wait for them to not release and album for a while and the prices drop. They are touring now so interest in them is high which means prices are a bit steep for me.





Lots of my other favourite bands feature too so there's lots of Suede, Bowie, The Maccabees, New Order and The Cure but there's always room for some Taylor Swfit. Not going to lie, 1989 was totally my album of 2014. My record collection definitely isn't about investing and making money and it's not about being cool. I buy what I like, pick things up for cheap in charity shops or support the new artists that I like by buying their music.




If you want to start collecting, it's important to remember to never stack your records. Always store them standing up vertically in a dry and cool place. When you stack records, you run the risk of the vinyl warping, which will distort the sound. If a record warps, it cannot be fixed.

Do you still buy music? Do you know any good record shops I should check out in the UK?

The past couple of weeks have been very hectic and I have to admit I'm looking forward to a lie in this week and a few Christmas blogging events close to home. I've been to London, Birmingham and Dorset in the space of two weeks, phew! I'm going to bore you with photos from my weekend in Dorset over the weekend but for now I'm sharing a few snaps from my trip to London and Birmingham.

I was originally going to pop to London just for an evening to attend the AX Party but I thought I would make a full day of it so headed to London early in the morning to make the most of my time there. I headed straight for Bond Street to do some shopping in Forever 21 and Selfridges where I treated myself to a few accessories and went a bit mad at the MAC makeup counter.

I spent most of my day at the wonderful Wallace Collection which Alex recommended to me. For those not in the know (like me before my visit) The Wallace Collection is a national museum which displays works of art collected in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by the first four Marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace, the son of the 4th Marquess. It was bequeathed to the British nation by Sir Richard's widow, Lady Wallace, in 1897. It's set in a lovely town house really close to Bond Street station and Selfridges so you could pop in for an hour or so when you're in London doing some Christmas shopping.

I'm so glad I took the time to visit because the house was breathtaking:




I was really excited to see three portraits of one of my favourite historical figures, the poet and actress Mary Robinson (Perdita). She was a family friend of the 2nd Marquess of Hertford and the Prince of Wales gave the family one of the portraits. She was quite the trendsetter in London, introducing a loose, flowing muslin style of gown based upon Greek statues that became known as the Perdita. She was the mistress of the Prince of Wales and in addition to poems, she wrote eight novels, three plays, feminist treatises, and an autobiographical manuscript. Very accomplished! I recommend reading Perdita by Mary Byrne if you want to find out more.


After hitting Patty & Bun for a tasty burger lunch with some London based friends I headed to the AX Party to see the wonderful AX Paris party dress collection and hangout with some of my favourite blogging ladies.





I was a little nervous about seeing Suede. They are one of my favourite bands along with the Manic Street Preachers. I was far too young to watch them back in the early 90s at the height of their fame and wondered if it would be best to never see them play live and not ruin the notions I had about them. They released a brilliant album called Bloodsports this year which I fell in love with so I decided to get tickets. Seeing them play new material made it feel like I wasn't wallowing in nostalgia and it was my favourite gig of the year so far. New songs like It Starts and Ends With You felt like classics and I enjoyed singing along to old favourites like Trash and So Young. Brett is really charismatic and it was nice to be at a gig where I wasn't surrounded by teenagers filming the whole thing on their phone.


You can see lots more photos from my trips to London and Birmingham over on my flickr account.

I'm going to be driving down to Bestival this year instead of getting the train, well not me because I can't drive but I will be sitting in the front of my friends car hogging the CD player as usual. I always make the party playlists, make a mix CD for a road trip and spend hours perfecting Spotify playlists. I spend more time listening to music than I do reading or watching TV so when I was asked to take part in the moneysupermarket.com Ultimate Summer Driving Playlist feature I knew I was going to have fun compiling my songs.

I'm heading to Bestival with my friends Harri and Laura who I've been to Reading and V with previously. All the songs on my playlist are by artists that I've seen at festivals in the past 8 years and some of the songs on this list have certain memories attached to them and the final four were chosen because they are on the line-up for Bestival 2013.

    


Seeing New Order at Bestival last year was such a special moment for me. I was pretty gutted because I  thought I wasn't going to Bestival and New Order are one of my favourite bands but I was very lucky to be invited to go by Echo Falls and spend the weekend with some of my favourite blogging ladies.

Still Life is becoming a bit of a festival anthem for me, I've seen The Horrors play this song over ten times live and it always leaves me feeling really uplifted.

I mainly listen to music by bands who split up years ago or who have members who are no longer with us so festivals can be a little tricky for me. I feel like the whole Disclosure type of music that fills festivals now is past me but when bands like The Maccabees headline a stage it fills me with joy. I've seen these lads move up the bill over the years and they are so genuine they make me smile whenever they take to the stage.

Feeder will always have a special place in my heart, I can't say I've ever loved this band but I've seen them play at festivals so many times now and some of the founding members are local lads so I kind of grew up listening to Feeder and going to see them play in Newport. My favourite Feeder memory is going to see them play with Harri after getting bored by Kasabian, drinking a little too much rum and covering the crowd in glitter. We met people who we named Essex and Guernsey and sang our hearts out.

If Oasis never reform I can say that I saw them play together for the last time.They played a set full of all of my favourite songs at V 2009 and there was no hint of trouble but they had split up by the next day and didn't turn up for the V down south. Any child of the 90s has a place in their heart for some Brit Pop I think.

This week has been very busy again, I'm really starting to miss working part time. I feel like there's never enough hours in the day and taking any photos for the blog is becoming impossible because my official photographer (my reluctant brother) also has a full time job now. Time to invest in a tripod? Enough of the moaning though, it's been very busy but also a rather lovely week.

I thought I would share what I've been doing in work all week as I don't talk about my job on here that often. It can be a little dull sometimes, with the same routines everyday but I like to get stuck in with the fun marketing initiatives in work. We wanted to gather feedback about the libraries from the students but also promote our collections and make the students aware of the history of Wales.

Apparently St David's last words were 'Do the little things' so we asked the students what little things can we do to make a big improvement to the libraries? I handed out free mini Welsh cakes to bribe the students to leave feedback on a post-it note and I made a little display about some famous Welsh people and displayed some lovely books from our Welsh collection.


I also bought copies of some new releases this week like the Bastille album and the Christopher Owens one, I'm loving both. I try to make an effort to buy dircect from the bands so they get more of a share of the profit and you benefit too because they usually sign them or include some free gifts. I've always bought my music online but I popped into Spillers Records to pick up the Christopher Owens album and managed to get loads of free music mags to read on the train home.