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Quitting the booze


Flex

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Every time I've tried to give up caffeine, the headaches have destroyed me to the point I've stopped trying! Plus I'm a right cranky b**ch in the mornings until I get my coffee!

 

Yeah, I used to struggle when I went to The States. I can't stand coffee and you can't get anything like a decent cup of tea over there. Solution was to take Tea bags, sugar and a heating element that fitted into a cigarette lighter socket with us and buy some local milk. Not perfect, especially in Colorado which is way over 5,000 feet in elevation and consequently water boils at a lower temperature. Sure, I still drink loads of soft fizzy drinks when I'm over there but nothing is as refreshing as a nice cuppa :)

 

Pete

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I agree with the everything in moderation. Ok, well maybe not the masterbation bit but my excuse is its good for the prostrate and if you don't keep it active, then that's when you get problems. An expert on prostrates told me that. So lots of masterbation, lots of tomatoes and limit the amount of dairy and red meat :)

 

I've never found anything addictive. Could smoke and then just stop and drink and not feel the urge to keep drinking. Ive have period in life where everything revolves around drink and I've seen a lot of friends become obsessed with it and it's ruined things for them. They simply can't leave the house without at some point stopping for a drink. Ended up resenting them as they ruined and wasted so much.

 

I don't drink much but enjoy the odd Guinness, some Jap beers and whisky. I tend to drink whisky to relax and help me sleep but it got to the point where I would be drinking a pints worth and nothing happening so I gave up that idea. Probably went back to wanking :)

Brilliant.

I can confirm he has well developed forearm muscles ;)
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I say well done to Flex if you needed / wanted to give it up and you did - good on ya for making the effort and kudos for seeing it through :thumbs:

 

I have never been a "big" drinker but if the situation lends itself I will have a drink, last years alcohol intake for me was 2 glasses of port at Christmas and I think I may have had about 3 bottles of cider this year so far :scare:

 

:lol:

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I say well done to Flex if you needed / wanted to give it up and you did - good on ya for making the effort and kudos for seeing it through :thumbs:

 

I have never been a "big" drinker but if the situation lends itself I will have a drink, last years alcohol intake for me was 2 glasses of port at Christmas and I think I may have had about 3 bottles of cider this year so far :scare:

 

:lol:

 

I think you need help :lol:

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I agree with the everything in moderation. Ok, well maybe not the masterbation bit but my excuse is its good for the prostrate and if you don't keep it active, then that's when you get problems. An expert on prostrates told me that. So lots of masterbation, lots of tomatoes and limit the amount of dairy and red meat :)

 

I've never found anything addictive. Could smoke and then just stop and drink and not feel the urge to keep drinking. Ive have period in life where everything revolves around drink and I've seen a lot of friends become obsessed with it and it's ruined things for them. They simply can't leave the house without at some point stopping for a drink. Ended up resenting them as they ruined and wasted so much.

 

I don't drink much but enjoy the odd Guinness, some Jap beers and whisky. I tend to drink whisky to relax and help me sleep but it got to the point where I would be drinking a pints worth and nothing happening so I gave up that idea. Probably went back to wanking :)

Brilliant.

I can confirm he has well developed forearm muscles ;)

 

Ambidextrous also so both arms get a work out. I'm good with my hands ;)

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I agree with the everything in moderation. Ok, well maybe not the masterbation bit but my excuse is its good for the prostrate and if you don't keep it active, then that's when you get problems. An expert on prostrates told me that. So lots of masterbation, lots of tomatoes and limit the amount of dairy and red meat :)

 

I've never found anything addictive. Could smoke and then just stop and drink and not feel the urge to keep drinking. Ive have period in life where everything revolves around drink and I've seen a lot of friends become obsessed with it and it's ruined things for them. They simply can't leave the house without at some point stopping for a drink. Ended up resenting them as they ruined and wasted so much.

 

I don't drink much but enjoy the odd Guinness, some Jap beers and whisky. I tend to drink whisky to relax and help me sleep but it got to the point where I would be drinking a pints worth and nothing happening so I gave up that idea. Probably went back to wanking :)

Brilliant.

I can confirm he has well developed forearm muscles ;)

 

Ambidextrous also so both arms get a work out. I'm good with my hands ;)

 

Shoulda said you need to use both hands!

 

I need three, one for the magnifying glass and 2 to find it!

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I agree with the everything in moderation. Ok, well maybe not the masterbation bit but my excuse is its good for the prostrate and if you don't keep it active, then that's when you get problems. An expert on prostrates told me that. So lots of masterbation, lots of tomatoes and limit the amount of dairy and red meat :)

 

I've never found anything addictive. Could smoke and then just stop and drink and not feel the urge to keep drinking. Ive have period in life where everything revolves around drink and I've seen a lot of friends become obsessed with it and it's ruined things for them. They simply can't leave the house without at some point stopping for a drink. Ended up resenting them as they ruined and wasted so much.

 

I don't drink much but enjoy the odd Guinness, some Jap beers and whisky. I tend to drink whisky to relax and help me sleep but it got to the point where I would be drinking a pints worth and nothing happening so I gave up that idea. Probably went back to wanking :)

Brilliant.

I can confirm he has well developed forearm muscles ;)

 

Ambidextrous also so both arms get a work out. I'm good with my hands ;)

 

Shoulda said you need to use both hands!

 

I need three, one for the magnifying glass and 2 to find it!

 

Well the hand print size of one is smaller and closer to a female hand size so if I close my eyes, I can pretend it's anyone :) Last week I was J-Lo and the week before that I was Michelle Jenneke ;)

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I was teetotal from the age of 17-18 ish right up until about 30 years old. I really didnt like myself when i had had a drink (drunk) so decided it wasnt for me, it also seemed to stop being fun when you got legal at 18, anyone else find that? Also i liked to have the freedom to come and go as i pleased, so if i ended up on a night out, party etc i could leave without having to rely on a taxi or mate for a lift.

 

I havent been drunk since that time but do have a (1 or 2) cider/beer of an evening.

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Can't lie, booze and substances were a pretty big part of my life until about 3 years ago, I went a bit wild in my mid twenties. To be fair for the most part I had a fantastic time and as cliche as it sounds it really gave me a different and interesting perspective on things and "opened my mind" etc. I've spent a decent bit of time traveling around playing gigs and was quite heavily involved with the music scene which was how I became involved in everything else.

 

Since meeting my partner I've calmed right down and rarely even drink let alone do anything else anymore, for me "quitting" just happened naturally, I basically grew out of it, it was never a conscious choice.

 

I've never been a big drinker tho, ironically it always got me in a way bigger state than anything else ever did.

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Can't lie, booze and substances were a pretty big part of my life until about 3 years ago, I went a bit wild in my mid twenties. To be fair for the most part I had a fantastic time and as cliche as it sounds it really gave me a different and interesting perspective on things and "opened my mind" etc. I've spent a decent bit of time traveling around playing gigs and was quite heavily involved with the music scene which was how I became involved in everything else.

 

Since meeting my partner I've calmed right down and rarely even drink let alone do anything else anymore, for me "quitting" just happened naturally, I basically grew out of it, it was never a conscious choice.

 

I've never been a big drinker tho, ironically it always got me in a way bigger state than anything else ever did.

 

This is similar to me. We used to get a rider from the venues we played at as well as a £25 per diem from the record company when on tour. The thing is the venues used to feed us as well a lot of the time. We were not allowed to carry the £25 per diem over so we just spent it on booze, fags, mags and sweets :) Our tour bus was like an off licence most of the time :) When in the studio, we had our own chef so food was covered so again booze and fags. When the chef wasn't in, we would eat and drink at the local pub, again courtesy of the record company. None of us lot got involved in hard drugs, or not that I was aware but a lot around us were. You can see how easy it was to become addicted to it as well as many other things :)

Edited by Linus27
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I never realized you were a musician Linus! The reality is it's very hard to avoid this sort of thing when you play in a band, especially if you travel and tour etc. Non of our band got involved in the hard stuff either but we pretty much hammered everything else, similar to your situation the people around us were doing harder drugs, I've lost two good friends to heroin and one to suicide. In the end the partying became more important to everyone in the band (apart from myself) and making music became almost impossible due to the constant state of everyone. The last straw was a very embarrassing festival gig where we stumbled through the set because everyone bar me hadn't slept in days. The drummer left and that was that. Sad really, we had potential to make a living out of it but the band couldn't get their act together.

 

Some of my best memory's are of that band, when it was right, it was brilliant. Their's something empowering about traveling and playing live music, especially with your best mates, it's just very easy for it all to spiral out of control. I'm currently converting the loft in my house and making a home studio, got all the gear already, so for now that will keep me sane, will probably look to get another band going at some point but I'm enjoying the quiet life at the minute :lol:

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I don't know if you found this but it was more the people around us that were doing the harder stuff. The band as such were a bit more controlled although the booze was still an issue at times. We were very hard working and focused so stayed pretty true to the music most of the time. We didn't really have much choice as the record company would kill us and we had too much riding on it. I must admit the first time I went on TV I was stoned off my face but the band covered it thankfully :) Our singer had a few personality issues (don't they all) and would be a total nightmare sometimes. Most of it was an act but some days it was just so counter productive and frustrating.

 

When we went to record the album, the producer tricked us. We lived at the studio in Wales for three months and the very first day he asked us to just set up all the gear in the live room, do a quick test to get the mic's and lines ready and that's it, go to the pub and have the night off. So, we ended up getting very drunk with the locals, playing drinking games, getting in to fights, borrowing peoples bikes from their gardens, moving all the road signs and generally causing havoc across this poor sleepy Welsh village. We rolled in at about 3am and crashed to then get woken up by the producer to come to the studio and play through the entire album. It turned out he wanted us to get totally pi**ed so we would then play through the album very loud, very badly and not give a @*!# so he could get all the levels set rather than us being typical musicians and be overly critical and fussy on the songs sounding perfect. He never told us the reason until after but we were very drunk, very confused and I think naked judging by some of the photos :) Totally hilarious :)

 

Still, I consider myself to be the luckiest person alive to have lived my dream. It was the best period of my life and I have the most amazing experiences. Going on tour was such a happy time for me, being free, going to new exciting places, meeting new exciting people and playing music. Nothing comes close to it. I still remember going to London to sign the record deal. The band were discussing the should we/should we not sign and we came to the conclusion why not, it could go wrong down the line but if we didn't sign, we would regret it for the rest of our lives and always be haunted with the what if. So we signed, went to the pub, bought the biggest cigars possible and got very drunk hahaha Typical musicians lol

Edited by Linus27
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I can only imagine how satisfying getting as far as you did would be! What was the name of your band? I'll understand if you don't want to disclose it.

 

That's a funny story about the album production, in hindsight not a bad idea from the producer either :lol:

 

I've had a taste of it, we've supported some "famous" bands, I've played on some big stages and we were getting recognition from various magazines etc, I've met a few people I used to consider idols, in a sense I lived my dream too, it just ended way to soon unfortunately and it felt like it ended just as we were getting somewhere. Had my band learnt how to control themselves and focus on the music instead of partying like rockstars I'm confident things would have been different.

 

Do you still make music now?

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Yeah, it was amazing, a dream come true and certainly life changing. HAHA no problem naming the band, we were not big :) The band was called Inter but I would say we were not well known in the grand scene of things. We were part of the Brit Pop scene or post Brit pop scene with bands like Symposium, A, Midget, Bennet, Jocasta etc. Probably the worst time to be in a band as the record companies had no money due to all the piracy. Still, lots of TV, radio, NME, two John Peel sessions, festivals, live XFM and Virgin sessions, song used in an advert to advertise Casio watches and Q gave us 4 out of 5 saying we were a mix of Radiohead and Ash :) I still get spotted occasionally, last time was in the queue at a post office collecting a parcel :) Anyway, here is all the info on us if you fancy a read.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter_(band)

 

Yeah, it was a smart move but he was a top producer so knew his stuff. A guy called Mark Wallis who did the Travis stuff as well as REM, U2, Talking Heads, The Primitives, The Smiths, The Levellers etc.

 

I tell you what though, its bloody hard work. It's two extremes, on one hand you get all the fun of doing what you want to do but on the other hand, you get no time to stop and its easy to lose track of your own existence. Travelling to Liverpool for a gig, then Dundee, then Manchester, then London for a photo shoot, then an interview, then a radio show, then back on the road to Brighton, then Scotland again, week in week out. Considering, what you going to wear at the gig, what songs to play, what to say etc. and on top of that, managing a relationship with your best mates whilst being on the road and having to put up with each other. No wonder we all turned to drink :) I remember going to the shops for the first time after being locked in a studio for two months and being incredibly paranoid, thinking everyone's looking at you as you've not really seen many people or been in a crowded place for months. Very weird feeling :)

 

Yeah, still doing music but not as much now. A few years a go I was in a band that went on tour supporting Paul Weller which was ok. We also recorded at his studio and he played some bits on a few songs. I also nearly joined New Model Army :) Did an electronic album with a friend and I'm just recording my own stuff at the moment. The music scene has changed so much from when I was doing it full time and I'm too old now to join an original band and enjoy it. Might consider some kind of function band as a fall back plan when retirement closes in :)

Edited by Linus27
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I won't say anything about your 'long haired' earlier musical career then Linus27......although they are still some of my favourite songs ;)

 

Hehe can I make up for it by saying that I then had my hair like the singer from New Order after seeing them on Top of the Pops singing True Faith ;)

 

Glad you like the songs though, means a lot to me 😎

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  • 2 months later...

Paul Weller, one of my Hero's ! Our band got lined up to support Erasure but unfortunately their first single O'lamour charted in France so they cancelled the UK tour and went to promote the single out there. I guess that was our missed opportunity. Great times :)

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