Crank it up

A long, long time ago I remember The Rods being played on the Friday rock show (Yes I know a radio show, how old am I?) and simply being blown away by them, then I found out that they were a three piece and I simply couldn’t believe the power that they put out, it was like an atom bomb going off instead of a hand grenade.

I managed to talk my brother into buying it, a bit of reverse psychology saying that he wouldn’t like it, he bought it as an import and I waited until he went out and I taped it(oops) I liked it so much I taped on both sides of the cassette so I could play it back to back on whatever journey I was on, boy did I love that album, I then discovered that they were supporting Iron Maiden and myself and Big G decided that we should make a trip to see them, tickets purchased for the Number of the Beast tour, we knew this was going to be fun with a capital F! although I was working a menial job, I knew I wasn’t going to be allowed a holiday as the guy hated me and all long haired youths with a passion so on the day I was (cough cough) not well enough to go juggling chainsaws (I was working for the NCB at the time) so I had to blow the shift.

So off we went to the big city (OK so it’s a small pit village in the north east compared to some cities but at the time to us Yokels from Gimpsville we thought it was big……...what did we know)  as The Rods were doing a couple of meet and greets (Virgin and Volume or listen ear or whatever it was called at the time…..it was a long time ago…I’m old!) in Newcastle and Durham, they hadn’t been very well organised and there was only a slack handful of us, they were great and a number of photos are out there with me and a few other’s (I’m sure that’s where I met Nev and Marty for the first time) a good time was had by all and then me and Big G discovered they were doing another meet and greet at another location (mentioned earlier, come on keep up) and there was less people there but they were happy to see us and again it was more joyful times.

They disappeared off too Durham for a third meet and greet but we sloped off to the pub, these meet and greets take it out of you, we mooched about until the time of the gig not wanting to miss the band only to find that the doors were chained shut as Iron Maiden were shooting the video for The Number of The Beast so it kind of over ran , we finally got in with G carrying a huge bag that had a rather large tape deck well they were large back in the day, The Rods hit the stage and literally ripped the city hall a brand new arse. Iron Maiden came on after and were bloody good, but they simply weren’t a match for the Rods.

Later that year they released the Wild dog’s album and when it came out and they did announce a couple of gigs but as much as I tried to get to a gig life seemed to bite me in the arse on a regular basis, it was simply work, work, and then some more work on top of it. More albums of declining quality and less UK tour dates the world kept moving and life simply got on with it. Although I did play the debut album on a regular basis and Wild dogs from time to time it was generally with a slight whiff of nostalgia, they were indeed great times.

Leap forward quite a few years and it would appear that The Rods are going to be playing Newcastle supporting Dio’s Disciples (I think it was I didn’t stay to watch the whole show as we all recreated the photograph of some thirty years earlier (with only Nev Looking as young as he was back in the day and yes he was wearing the same bloody Rods T shirt that he had worn back in the day!). The band again were as tight as they had been 30 odd years earlier, now I understand why they didn’t become as big as what they should have been, but I don’t know anybody who saw the band who didn’t fall in love with them live they were smoking hot, as it happens me and mrs were making a weekend of it as we were booked into the Vermont Hotel in Newcastle we had been tipped off that whitesnake were staying there and we enjoyed the company of the band and road crew, ( thanks SMOR) we even swapped rooms with Mr Aldrich because our room had WI fi and his didn’t.

Good times and friendships were struck with Brian Tichy putting us on the guest list to seem him playing Vamped in Las Vegas with Sass Jordan a couple of years later, on the night of the Rods we ran out of the stage door with the whitesnake members into a taxi back to the hotel, we lived the rock star life style for all of 30 seconds, it was fun while it lasted.

The moral of the tale would I go and see the Rods again, hell yeah although I would go on an empty stomach, the last time we saw them it was the beginning of my ails of woe with my health and literally anything I ate no matter how light developed into toxic gas of atomic levels , I’m hoping that’s the reason  that they haven’t been back, And not because I gassed the rhythm section after the gig, Gary Bordanaro’s face was a picture ha-ha that’s the breaks allegedly!

So, another hysterical I mean historical blog the last one did good numbers out the doors, and now I have done another rambling epic quite soon after, they are a little like buses they do come in quick succession, a lot of good comments after the last one hopefully with me getting back on the saddle for writing, keep them coming, so keep spreading the disease, watch the skies for incoming, until the next time…….Toodles!