Friday 12 June 2009

I get a kick out of you

There are lots of things I could write about today. Firstly, there are the news story that beggar belief - you know the sort, how a footballer can be worth £80million, how MPs stretch the truth to breaking point and beyond on their expenses, how Big Brother is somehow back on our nation's screens (a story I will not dignify with a link). And then there are the appalling news stories - a female nursery worker arrested for various forms of child abuse (I suppose I should add "alleged" somewhere here), children being killed in knife attacks, husbands disposing of wives in wheelie bins... I could go on and on, the list of bad news stories is endless.

I have opinions, strong ones, about all of these stories, what they say about society in the UK, and a lot more besides but...

...but it's a beautiful sunny day, I have cause for some moderate optimism in my life and, for now, my world is a predominantly good, positive place. So I don't want to rant and rave, don't want to moan, don't want (for once) to think about all the bad things we have to contend with every day in 21st Century Britain. Instead, I want to talk about something cool. It's called SongKick.

SongKick is, I suppose, sort of like a social network but unlike Bacefook, MyArse, Twatter and the rest it's a network with a purpose, that purpose being to track your gig-going habits and (potentially) link you with people who went to the same gigs. An ever expanding, user-contributed archive of gigs with photos, reviews, posters, support acts and set lists is available, from which you can select to proudly declare "I was there!" As someone who keeps all his gig tickets in an old Oxo tin, I have to say I think that this is a brilliant idea.

As with any new website, there are teething troubles. Firstly, there seem to be a few errors, with gigs listed under more than one entry, or headliners listed as support and vice-versa. And the same venue is listed more than once but with slightly different wording... but these aren't problems that can't be resolved. I’m still working my way through my gig list (I'm between houses right now and the aforementioned Oxo tin is buried in a box somewhere, and my memory's only so good when it comes to dates...) but why not start your own gig history? Go on - you know you want to... and, if nothing else, it beats "poking" people or writing banalities like "thanks for the add"...