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.

heavy metal knitwear

At some point in the early 1990’s the jumper seemed to become the must have item for any self respecting metalhead, I don’t know if this was just a south east of England thing or if it was more wide spread. One friend of mine believes this was inspired by the biker look but I disagree. While the biker look has had major influences on the heavy metal look I believe the whole jumper thing was more of a grunge influence, I do not remember seeing any jumpers before this point and then suddenly every body was into knitwear, like all the aunties in all the world went mad.
One thing my knitwear opponent and I agree on is the strange phenomenom of detecting somebodys music taste by their choice of knitted garments.

Chunky heavy misshapen and black – male metalheads
Loose baggy cardigans – indie fans (pre Britpop)
Long black or dark green baggy cardigans or long loose (netlike) knit jumpers – Goth male or female (occasional female metal fans too)
Fitted green (dark) or black cardy usually worn with long skirt and docs – female metallers (some Goth influence here methinks)
Tight knit jumper or cardigan sometimes striped but almost any colour usually worn with a wasted stoned expression – grungers
Striped (and I mean seriously striped) many coloured (Joseph would have been proud) of almost any shape but preferably made from hemp – crusties

I still have my(second) black shapeless jumper (my first was disposed of by my wife when I said I would wear it for the births of all my children) and I also have a back up jumper just in case. In fact I have a lovely grey and white jumper that looks like a Britpop influenced heavy metal jumper, it looks a bit naff but its lovely in its own jumpery sort of way (and it was a Christmas jumper and that makes it special).

To be honest I think the very first time I came across heavy metal knitwear was probably 1989 on the alpha metalhead in Stanford , I think he wore it in his getting shitfaced capacity and seeing as he almost fitted in the Goth category it did not seem out of place, but I swear it was not until late ’92 that knitwear really made an impact( if you can describe it as such).

Written with the aid of Bells scotch.

p.s. 56% of readers of this blog prefer jumper to (44%) cardigans

RIP Pepsi

Having a bit of a trawl this evening I have come across the sad news that Pepsi Tate of Tigertailz has died after losing his fight with pancreatic cancer.
While I have a good laugh listening to the Tailz I still enjoyed their music and metalvillage would be a much duller place without them.

My condolences to Pepsi’s family and friends.

Some little fuckwits broke into my shed last night and stole my mountain bike, they will probably sell it for something ridiculous like £30, but it’s going to cost me £350 to replace it plus another £50 or so to replace the extras. Bastards.
I hope they get terminal boils on their collective arses the wankers.
I use my bikes like most people use their cars, I get very attached to the them and this is the second one I’ve had stolen in the last few years.

Farewell old friend

I have been very busy of late, not only have I finished a lot of home brew (I have something like 6 bottles of black berry wine, 6 bottles of kit red, 3 bottles of apple wine and 10 bottles of cider sitting in my shed) I have recently come into the possession of the diary of my great great grandfather whilst he was a love struck 25 year old on board HMS Raleigh in 1874. I am transcribing the diary and hope to stick on another blog. Like many other people I have caught the family history bug and have so far managed to trace some lines back over two hundred years. The diary is supposed to one of three but over the years the other two have gone missing.
Genealogy is very addictive so beware.

The kids have finally gone back to school, my eldest son starting secondary school a few days ago and already suffering stress from the homework overload. Poor sod. However, my daughter is happy with our new digital package because she can now watch kerrang TV, this is causing several conflicts within the household (cartoon network v kerrang v cbeebies v eastenders), personally I would rather read a book.

Back on the kerrang TV thing, I noticed that when they show the video to Greenday’s Jesus of Suburbia they pixel out all the cigarettes but openly show teenage sex, vandalism, domestic violence and drug use, how does that make sense?

For your education and entertainment the full on version

this did inspire me to try to figure out the whole "concept" behind the album, after several hours of rereading the lyrics and listening to the album I came to the conclusion its about disaffected youth and rebellion, well thats a no brainer, its a punk album.

pot kettle black

Funny article over at blabbermouth, appears EMO fans have got their knickers in a twist over Machine head winning best album at the Kerrang awards.
As with most news articles on the web I like to read the comments section, these I find are far more telling than the news item itself. the response of the anti-emo crowd seems just as juvenile as the My Chemical Romance supporters on the Kerrang forum.
Can the grown ups please come back the children are getting unruly.

Oh but it did make me laugh.

birthday

I missed it on friday but it was the blogs first birthday