There are one thousand blogs in this one; literally, I could write these all day.
For any of you who are new to this or relatively new, you will have missed the fact that one of my (musical) heroes is Frank Turner.
Turner is a singer-songwriter who used to be in a thrash metal band called Million Dead but then became a solo singer-songwriter in the kind of punk/folk genre (weird, I know, but common).
I've followed Frank for a long time and, in fact, just realised it was 10 years ago this year that I attended the 2000th show at Rock City.
From his early stuff, when I first caught on to Frank Turner, he inspired me to be a better version of myself.
Some of his early songs just spoke to me, motivated me and pushed me forward, most notably the song 'Photosynthesis' with the line "I won't sit down, I won't shut up, but most of all, I won't grow up", I think for people that know me well, it probably sums me up.
Over the years, though, this may have dampened down, and the edges might have been worn off a little bit, but I can always return to Frank, and he can always teach me what to do again, remind me who I was before and who I should continue to try to be.
The reason there is a blog number at the bottom of this blog is also because of Frank Turner because every time he stands up at a show, he reels off which number show it is, and as I said, almost 10 years ago, I was at his 2000th, but on Sunday night, I was at his 3016th show.
It was at Rock City again. He's played Rock City 9 times (31 times in Nottingham, he told us), but I think I've been at 4 of the of the Rock City shows now.
The joy of 3016 was that Callum and I went together.
So before Alison would come to Frank Turner gigs with me, and she likes Turner, but she doesn't love him but when we were all at Glastonbury as a family last year, we managed to catch him on stage there, and all three of my children were transfixed by Turner (I was really proud of that).
Callum has become an almost obsessive fan, and he was so delighted to get tickets to see him at Rock City for his Christmas present from Alison and I.
And so off we trotted into town; Callum and I went to a really cool little independent pizza place in Nottingham for dinner; I had a couple of beers and headed up to 3016. It didn't disappoint.
When you go to something like this, and you share it with your kids, and you end up a little bit drunk with your 17-year-old son with your arms around each other, screaming out the lyrics to one of your favourite guys, it really is something extraordinarily special, it made me think a lot through the gig about different things (I always get this at Rock City).
I wanted to write about Photosynthesis and how I refuse to sit down and shut up and will never grow up, but I also wanted to talk about recovery, and I wanted to talk about understanding when you've been through hard things and when you get to better things and then you go through hard things again.
Turner's very honest and very open when he talks about things; he clearly struggles with various aspects of his life, commitment, weight, and ageing (he seems to have died his hair a bit black), but I like that, and I like the authenticity, and that's why I continue to follow.
But in the end, it was just about being together as a community.
As I stood there in Rock City just before the gig came on, they advertised loads of different bands that were coming up and gigs that were coming there. It was prolific.
Turner calls it the best venue in the world, and he has a piece of the previous stage on the wall of his house. So many amazing people have played there, and Alison and I, and now Callum and I and the rest of the kids, have seen amazing bands there.
But what struck me about this was that almost all the gigs that I was looking at, even for guys from long ago, were sold out at Rock City.
There's a band called The Clone Roses, a brilliant tribute band; they're sold out; The Waterboys ( a favourite of mine and David and Brenda Nelson's now) are sold out, Primal Scream are sold out; so many bands from my past that are coming back around again and playing venues like Rock City.
Live music is alive and doing fine, just as long as people get off their arse and make an effort to go to where it is and stand and watch and pay the money for a ticket.
The community of Frank Turner concerts are amazing; every single age group. Callum's 17, there were guys there that were 70, there were husbands and wives together, people with their kids, mates, all types, all faces, all tribes, it's hugely inclusive, and he has two rules for all of these gigs that he always shouts at the start.
Rule number 1 - don't be a dickhead.
Rule number 2 - if you know the words, sing along.
It's important for me this, in the middle of trying to be this or that, trying to run a business or be a dentist or whatever other titles or hats I seem to have or wear, is to go back to the basics again and understand that in a lot of ways, I just need to be more frank.
Blog Post Number - 4133