My birthday is pretty near Christmas (28th December, less of the Jesus jokes, mine’s a Jack & Coke!). This means that that the end of the year every year generally coincides with me adding a digit, which sends me into paroxysms of reflection and self-analysis, which I’ll try not to bore you with. Nevertheless, given that it’s that time of year again, and that I’ve played my last gig of the year and gone back to Winchester for the festive season, I’ve been thinking about 2005 of late.

Last year, at a New Years Eve party (though I think by this time it was actually well into the 1st of January), my best friend said to me that age 23 was “revolution year” – the year when everything changes, the year when you really reevaluate your life and head down different paths. Well, as per usual the smug cunt seems to have had a point. 12 months ago I was in Million Dead, we’d just about finished our second album, we had release dates, singles and tours lined up and ready to go, we had a fanbase waiting for the record (something very new to me) and everything seemed pretty rosy on that front. I didn’t have much reason to doubt that MD would continue to be the centre of my universe for some time (years) to come.

And now… well, MD came to an end, something which still fills me with a lot of sadness. Harmony No Harmony was released, and we did tour, but things didn’t quite reach the pitch we’d hoped for at the start of the year due to us, er, breaking up. And now I’ve set out on my own. Without wanting to moan, it’s not been the easiest year of my life, shall we say. Reorientating myself towards this new set of goals has been pretty tough, and continues to be, and it’s also fucking scary actually, to be doing this on my own. But I’m starting to build up my confidence, my repertoire, and fingers crossed, to paraphrase James Yorkston, “This year will be my year, it took a long time to come”. Who knows, I’d better ask the smug one for his predictions for age 24.

So in short, bollocks to 2005, roll on 2006! Happy christmas everyone.