Gig reviews

Seeing although I want to go into a musically journalism based career I thought I would review the gigs I’ve been to since living in Cardiff.

INCUBUS - 25th of September - CIA - Cardiff

STANTON WARRIORS - 5th of October - Q bar - Cardiff

BASS INVADERS - 20th of October - Cardiff union - Cardiff.

CAPDOWN & KING BLUES - 27th of October - Clwb Ifor Bach. - Cardiff

KATE NASH - 1st of November - Cardiff union - Cardiff

BEDOUIN SOUNDCLASH - 6th of November - Cardiff union - Cardiff.

GENER8R - 10th of November - Clockwork/Blue mountain - Bristol.

SONIC BOOM SIX - 20th of November - Barfly - Bristol.

PLUMP DJS - 24th of November - Thekla - Bristol

Work Experience - BBC.

I attended a work shop a few summers ago with the BBC which gave me the opporunity to read the BBC news which was filmed along side Jamie Owen and put onto video. I had to read the news off an auto-que and the experience as a whole gave me the opportunity to see how the news in the BBC is put together.

Work Experience - S4C/Autism Cymru.

I did work experience working with S4C and Autism Cymru. It was a snooker tournament which inluded some famous snooker players and other various famous figures in the welsh world such as Stuart Cable. It was all filmed and show cased on S4C.

2nd April Prob-Celeb Snooker Event, Haverfordwest – Autism Cymru in association with Eddies Snooker Bar and Mr Producer. With Matthew Stevens, Steve Davies, Dominic Dale, Stuart Cable, Sarra Elgan, Simon Easterby, Jamie Baulch etc

"What is Autism Cymru?
Autism Cymru is a registered charity (no’423529) and a company limited by guarantee. The sole purpose of Autism Cymru is to promote the establishment of high quality services to people with autistic spectrum disorders in Wales"

Work Experience - Green Ginger.

"Green Ginger makes award-winning theatre for both streets and stage with complementary educational activities to suit all ages and abilities. The company was founded in 1978 to create innovative and accessible theatre for touring throughout the UK and abroad"

When I was studying my ND in college I got the chance to be involved in a Green Ginger project. I did a voice over for a puppet in an animation about the attitudes between old people and young people.

Big City Life From The Eyes Of A Country Bumkin'

My Name is Sarah-Ella Louise Jones even though everybody calls me Ella - I don't actually know why. I'm from a tiny village called Porthgain in the heart of beautifully beautiful Pembrokshire, South West Wales. I'm 19 years old. I have 3 brothers and 1 sister and I'm the middle child.

Why am I studying Media Studies and Visual Cultures at UWIC? Sometimes I ask myself the same thing.
I left at school at 16 to do a performing arts course in college, I don’t even know why I took this route or ever wanted to do this course, I’d been in a few plays before besides the Christmas plays we had to do in school but after finding out I’d have to do a show on the night of a gig I’d already paid for (good to see my priorities are in order) I wasn’t exactly looking forward to my first day and when I walked into the classroom on the first day and looking around at the people, stereotypically loud drama students I actually walked straight out and tried to get onto the ND media course which I’d had an interview for and successfully managed that. - (I don’t regret not doing the performing arts course)
The ND was a practical course with little theory, and a lot of film studies something I am definitely not a fan of. I did however manage, film and edit a a band showcase, make various films, including an animation. I did photography and audio. Script writing and various radio dramas. The theoretical side to the course was subjects such as understanding the media. I then applied for Media studies and popular culture at UWIC but as I never actually finished my ND I obviously couldn’t go to university. I claimed to want to give up on education altogether despite secretly wanting to get a good career in something I loved which meant going back to College. I applied to go back to college to do A levels. I opted for Law, Psychology and Media. At the start of the year I loved law and wanted to become a lawyer but by Christmas I’d dropped law - I’m really not the sharpest knife in the draw. I also didn’t do that well academically in psychology but I loved the subject. The third AS level I took on Media and I absolutely fell in love with the subject and for once in my life I knew I had a chance of making a good career out of it. I finally found passion in education and learned how the media effects our lives. I personally think media may become a compulsory subject in the future but still haven’t found anybody who shares my view on that. As well as doing AS levels in psychology and media I decided to finish my ND as I’d left the course. I spent my time catching up on so much work and probably could write essays in my sleep, with help from my AS media I found doing the ND work easier yet I enjoyed the structure and the content of the subject more on the AS level. With all this work on my plate I worked hard in both my media courses which is probably why I failed psychology. I could have stayed on to turn my AS level into an A level but I was ready to leave Pembrokeshire college so I applied to university, to be honest I can’t remember where I applied for apart from UWIC and Bristol UWE. To get into Bristol I would have had to of gone up to Bristol in the summer holidays to take a test and by this time I still hadn’t managed to get my priorities in order so opted to go to UWIC as I already knew Cardiff as I’m already from Wales. I’ve visited Bristol a number of times since living in Cardiff and do sometimes wish I’d gone there but I’m probably swayed by the fact that Bristol has an amazing music scene and my best friend lives there. I had an amazing summer and was looking forward to a new life in Cardiff. I’d started speaking to somebody who was also going to be doing Media Studies and Visual Cultures in UWIC from a random ucas site and was definitely looking forward to it.
Since coming to university I have struggled adjusting to being here, I didn’t take it like a duck to water as I thought I would but hopefully one step at a time I’ll get myself back on track. I have no idea what I want to do in the future but I don’t necessarily want to be apart of the media business in Britain (I don’t care if Kate Moss’ nail varnish is chipped) I hope to travel after my degree and see the world before settling down to a career musically and media based - music journalist would be my dream job.