The Place I Love ... The Cookie, Coffee Shop & Music Venue, Leicester

New blog section today ... 'The Place I Love ...' will be all about places here, there and everywhere that, well, I Love, and that mean something to me, on this journey we call life, and this road we call living. Title taken from one of my favourite songs, on one of my favourite albums by one of my favourite bands of all time, 'The Place I Love' from 'All Mod Cons' by The Jam. You Beauty !!

Anyway, first stop on this tour of people, places and faces, The Cookie, Leicester, my home from home in my current home town. Looking forward to being back there performing again, it having been a little while, this Saturday for Matt Henshaw's Peace, Love & Tea Birthday Party with The Strangler Figs, Elizabeth Cornish and the DMU Gospel Choir !!



So, for the place itself, situated on High Street in Leicester City Centre, it's a prime locale for tea and coffee and fantastic grub, and some of the musical highlights in the city of Leicester in the evening. A place for all the beautiful people of Leicester to hang out, be entertained and guaranteed good times !!

Someone said to me quite recently, and I wish I could remember who it was, that The Cookie is so great because everyone knows what they're doing, from the food to the bar staff, sound engineers to the door staff, promoters and the owners. And wonderful people they all are too.

The owners know what they're doing for sure, and The Cookie will keep on getting bigger and better, before it takes of legendary status in Leicester City Centre and the midlands. When a place is ran by a lady straight out of Tallahassee and a gentleman so enthusiastic, bordering on obsessive with the independent live music and comedy scene, you know the coffee (and the tea) and the food is gonna be good, and you know the line-ups of bands, artist and comedians is gonna be second-to-none for a small city in the East Midlands of England !!

It's won a Dave's Comedy Award, hosting some bigger and bigger names, and I'm sure it will for many years to come ... board games and a pot of tea on the terrace ASAP would be my number one recommendation ...

Keep up the good work everyone involved, and hope to see loads of you beautiful people from LEicester and beyond this Saturday for my birthday party, it's gonna be one great night amongst many !!

Peace, Love & Tea, MHx



---===DOWNLOAD LINKS===---
DOWNLOAD & STREAM 'YOUR EYES ARE MADE OF GOLD' NOW !!
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/your-eyes-are-made-of-gold-ep/id904335049
https://play.spotify.com/user/11100320251/playlist/7CJI4WcomJKYozyujcN4hK
DOWNLOAD & STREAM 'ALWAYS IN THE WAY' NOW !!
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/always-in-the-way-ep/id875188981
http://matthenshaw.bandcamp.com/album/always-in-the-way-ep
https://play.spotify.com/user/ilsonowl/playlist/2tHGjyz7EpEZpvgc8HpuRm
DEBUT 'IT AIN'T EASY/MY LIFE - EP' !!!
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/it-aint-easy-my-life-ep/id814589358
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aint-Easy-My-Life-EP/dp/B00I8ZDJZC/
https://play.spotify.com/album/733AAcf7c2KcZ75SUFlpi3
http://matthenshaw.bandcamp.com/album/it-aint-easy-my-life-ep
http://www.emusic.com/album/matt-henshaw/it-aint-easy-my-life-ep/14753983/
http://www.7digital.com/artist/matt-henshaw/release/it-aint-easy-my-life
http://www.rhapsody.com/artist/matt-henshaw/album/it-aint-easy-my-life-ep
http://www.napster.co.uk/artist/matt-henshaw/album/it-aint-easy-my-life-ep

An Open Letter to Sheffield Wednesay FC & Sheffield Wednesday Fans ...

Now, I don't usually do this but this evening I found myself embroiled in a debate on a Sheffield Wednesday fans' forum, as a short-term facebook user something like this was bound to happen eventually, it was noted that an article had been written about the possibility of sacking Dave Jones and replacing him with, possibly, Paolo Di Canio, and names have been thrown around like Ian Holloway, Alan Curbishley or the return of Gary Megson ... I'm sure there may have been some one step away from suggesting Ron Atkinson ! So, I considered a response, and for about 30 seconds decided whether it should stay in my head or allow myself to transcend my thought via my fingers, keyboard and through to the world wide web ... I did it ! And here's what I had to say ... would love to know if there's any Wednesday fans, football fans or generally anyone with an opinion out there who agrees or disagrees with me ...

" It would be foolhardy to sack Jones at this stage, what's the real alternative? All the names mentioned would cast Hillsborough as a circus big top like it was in the late nineties/early noughties, and we all know how that turned out, are we still feeling the affects of Wim Jonk's wage bill ?

Anyways, I hope we can stick with Jones and turn it round, the Championship is always about a string of results completely sending your season one way or the other, I take a tiny glimmer of hope in the fact that most games have been draws and not losses, and we've managed to score in every game bar one, maybe I'm clutching at straws but I don't see any major issues, with any particular players, management or Milan, not that they're all great either, but Wednesday fans always are quick to forget the not too distant past and forget that we're still a fairly newly promoted club, and whilst we have a grand history, it was only automatic promotion due to the rapid decline of the other team in the city as late in the season as April 2012, under a new manager - the man in question - and without the massive investment seen at some other clubs and whilst attempting to rectify financial stability at the club. We managed another season and had a real good push towards the play-offs towards the end.

I hope I'm not eating my words come the new year, but there's always a notion with Wednesdayites to look back through rose-tinted spectacles to this golden era of the nineties, when in reality it was predicated on a similar structure of instability that saw the socio-political spiral [system] into chaos a few years later, debt, complacency and lots of it! The clubs that have survived and flourished since that time are the ones that have progressed, built solid foundations, been more business-like and rational in their decision making rather than fiery and, indeed like I said, foolhardy. Now, I wouldn't want our beloved club to be as boring as Stoke or Fulham but I'd love to support a Premiership club again ! Up The Owls ... the only way is up right now though isn't it !??"

So, there it was, my first foray into the world of football forums, I hope you can forgive me, and/or perhaps but me forward for a job at the Guardian's sports desk ... wouldn't mind going in the pod with James Riachardson, or failing that, having a chat with Lord Hillsborough and the chaps over at The Wednesday Week ...

Let's get behind the club, their current manager and raggle taggle squad if you're a fan, and if you're a romantic you know you want to see one of the oldest, most famous and most titilatingly titled English clubs out there back up in the Premier League ... where they belong.

I'm even appropriately dressed for the occasion sat, as I am, on my Sheffield Wednesday bean bag ...