Happy new year all

So the year is at an end, cant say from a personal point of view that it has been spectacular but then I cant say it has been bad so no complaints there.
Good points: still alive, always a good thing. My daughter seems to be on her way to school genius (slight exaggeration but not to far off). I have learned to produce my own alcohol (what do you mean you’ve never tried, do it). My little sister got married.
Bad points: my wife and brother in law have both been ill with nasty illnesses. My bike stolen. Down to my last bottle of home made cider. From a music point of view I’m in no position to judge releases from 2007, most of what I’ve been listening to has been older, sometimes much older. I suppose the most listened to albums of 2007 are probably: Manic Street Preachers Send Away The Tigers, which while not a metal album by any means certainly appealed to me; New Model Army’s High which was almost a sure bet for me and; The 69 Eyes Angels who are a new discovery for me and both my daughter and myself think this album is brilliant, well recommended to any out there who have not listened to it.
Most listened to old stuff has to be (in no particular order), Tigertailz, Dogs D’armour, Black Sabbath and Little Angels.

By the way, I was in Sainsbury’s on Christmas Eve and I saw Father Christmas (Santa) and when I say that I mean the real one. He had waist length white hair and a big straggly white beard; he was dressed in a green jacket and knee length trousers with white stockings and brown shoes. None of this had the look of costume about it, his whole getup looked to well worn and used, nothing fake, he also had a look on his face that if you spoke to him he would rip your tits off, like an old angry hippy. So now you know, old Chris Cringle lives in the Chafford Hundred housing development in Essex England.

need to know

Is Robbie Rotten related to Johnny Rotten?
Why do we pay more tax on biscuits than cakes?

Ok so I am a bit slow on the uptake but I have just found out that Wolfsbane have reformed and are supporting the Wildhearts tonight at the Astoria. So the news has been knocking around for about two months but nobody fucking told me!
All my planned gigs have had to be cancelled this year but I think I would have really made the effort for this one but it now clashes with the works Christmas party. I will have to get doubly drunk now just to make it up.

nothing but a good time

There I was, singing along to an ad for the xbox 360 when suddenly two things occurred to me 1; I was singing along with a jingle and 2; even though I don’t think I had seen the advert I new the words, then it was gone and thought I new the words I couldn’t place them.
It took several occasions of watching the advert before it came to me, it was Poisons nothing but a good time sung by what sounds like a school choir.
So two questions, first, did they sing all the lyrics? And second, isn’t it all slightly wrong?

Everybody is pleased when they get a good deal and rightly so, but I think my wife wins deal of the year when she bought Catatonia’s international velvet on Amazon this week for the grand sum of 1p. Yes ladies and gentlemen 1pence. Postage and packing was £1.24 but we’ll let that pass, she also bought their greatest hits for £3.48 which I thought was a bit pointless given almost everything you could want would be on the first purchase.
I always had a thing for Catatonia or to be honest I should say Cerys Matthews after seeing them live at Reading in ’99.

As promised here is a picture of me dressed in an attempt to look like Mr A Cooper, I thought I looked sexier than this but my illusions have been destroyed, I have also learned the hard way not to mix beer and absinth.

hallowe'en

I am not really inot the whole Hallowe'en thing but here is a picture of a pumpkin carved by the kids which (witch) I thought was quite impressive

However I am going to a late party on saturday and will dress as Alice Cooper, hopefully a picture will be posted (if it doesn't look to shit).

I know as Hallowe'en costumes go it is a bit lame but I just want to dress up in chains and belts and have long hair again if only for one night.

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.

Hobgoblin

I thought I would try something a bit different and do a beer review, and because I like the advert I tried hobgoblin.

So I opened a bottle while thinking how I was going to do this and before I know it its gone, so I have to open another to review but I’m now getting distracted by ….well beer I suppose. Now I’m on to the third bottle and I really can’t be arsed to review it, buy it yourself I’ve got some more drinking to do.

If I could lead the life I please then I would be a....

yesterday I reached crusty perfection, I have produced and more importantly drunk my own cider......and it aint to bad.

PS if anyone has a copy of the Levellers 1992 performance at Glastonbury could you let me know, I lent my copy to my brother in law and never saw it (or heard it) again.

Diamonds unlocked

I won the Axel Rudi Pell cd diamonds unlocked over at rock of ages and Bill asked for my opinions so here they are
1. The Diamond Overture pompous intro, like this but in an ironic sort of way
2. Warrior (Riot) do not know this one , but after listening to this I found it on youtube and I think I prefer the original, this version was a bit too over the top for me , could have been a bit rougher.
3. Beautiful Day (U2) just the look of horror on my wife’s face was enough to justify this song, and I also liked the direction taken.

4. Stone (Chris Rea) another I’m not too familiar with but with the help of youtube I would be happier listening to this.
5. Love Gun (Kiss) not familiar with this either(limited kiss listening),youtube again to the rescue, I like the original and while this is an alternative approach I don’t particularly like it

6. Fools Game (Michael Bolton) I have a natural aversion to anything bolton, so while I’m not to keen on this track its still an improvement in my mind
7. Heartbreaker (Free) ok but would still listen to original given the choice
8. Rock The Nation (Montrose) haven’t got a clue who Montrose are but I do like this track, it seems to fit nicely with my current late eighties early nineties listening which I am torturing my family with at the moment
9. In The Air Tonight (Phil Collins) while I don’t dislike Mr. Collins I wouldn’t say I like him either but this is probably my favorite track on this album, great.
10. Like A Child Again (The mission) well at least one track had to make me angry, round about ’92-’93 I was quite heavily into the mission so I had a fairly high standard for this, the intro with the piano was ok but once the vocals kicked my disappointment spilled over. This version sounds like it was written for Jon bon Jovi’s blaze of glory album. Sucks.
11. Won’t Get Fooled Again (The Who) like bill said, makes you want to go listen to the original, but enjoyable all the same.

I must admit to a weakness for covers and though a lot of this was unfamiliar to me I may just check out the originals in more depth, I have a discovered a lot of music this way.