Monday, October 29, 2007

Cherry Pie


Ive seen this album pop up a few times recently and I must be honest this record had quite an impact on me at the time of its release. Now I couldn’t give you a review of what it sounds like or even a loosely based opinion on its content, you see I think I only ever listened to it once.
Many years ago I worked in a multiplex cinema and amongst the staff was a couple of Scottish blokes, one of which was an argumentative and aggressive bastard of a floor manager who used phrases like “do what ah tell ya or ah rip ya tits off ya English bastards” to get us motivated. I really felt this guy had it in for me, especially when he found out I had been brought up catholic, I had never experienced sectarian prejudice before and it was a bit of a surprise (“do what ah tell ya or ah rip ya tits off ya catholic bastard”). There was something that tempered things a bit, at the time we were the only two metalheads who worked there (apparently he would get a new piercing every time he saw Iron Maiden but he had to give this up when he ran out of nipples) and with this in mind he lightened up on me a bit (“ya alright ya cath’lic bastard”).
So occasionally we would swap records or tapes and then one day he lends me cherry pie by warrant. That evening after finishing work I was given a lift home by a mate and I left the record sitting on the dashboard on his car, completely forgot about it for a few days until I saw him again, imagine my horror when I get back into his car and find a beautifully curved cherry pie LP, exactly matching the curve of his cars interior. Now I tried everything to sort this record out, I left compressed between big heavy books, I tried warming it and flattening it, I tried to iron it between sheets of tissue paper, I even tired to buy another to replace it but it seemed to have disappeared from all the shops.
I thought, my dad has an LP that he had walked into a chippy with sometime in the early seventies and that still played ok, so I put the record on and it sounded awful, bollocks. I kept hold of the record for months making excuses (“yeh it’s great, I just need to tape then I’ll bring it back”)
There was only one thing for it, own up, he was going to kill me. So with my affairs in order, my goodbyes said I approached the owner of said album and handed it back to him……..and he didn’t even bloody notice, ever.

1 comment:

Bill said...

Great story!! Don't tell anybody but I don't think it's that bad an album - a bit cheesy but I've heard worse. This one's got I Saw Red on it which is a decent ballad and had a nice twist to the saccharine boy meets girl ballad.

My biggest Warrant recollection is seeing them support Dave Lee Roth and the lead singer jumped off stage to get to the girls, landed on a flight case... went through it and broke a couple of ribs but finished the set although slightly embarrassed.

I actually thought about seeing Warrant live sunday night when I was watching Tigertailz play support to Y&T. First time I'd seen synchronised head banging on stage since that Warrant gig I think!!