No one knows my plan.

This is a smash and grab blog simply to set out yet another cunning plan going forwards, this is not the blog intended as I let my notes in my (new) locker at work, D’oh! I really don’t want to do it from scratch so you only need to wait until next week and it is going to be a musical blog, and the blogs will once again be starting to ramp up as it is without a doubt a great help when I have a certain “Black Dog” visiting me.

Now it will not be loads and loads of blogs, but I would like to do one every 14 to 21 days (hopefully) and the intention is to be a mix of shite in my head and some musical one and hopefully a couple of hysterical I mean historical ones, and if all goes to plan I will be a monkey’s uncle, I start with good intentions, that’s not to say that it will be successful, we can but try.

The blogs numbers have been through the roof over the last couple of weeks, someone has been reading blog after blog, someone needs therapy (that’s why I write them) but there has also been some good feedback, and some small interaction regards content, all good and constructive, advice that I shall heed going forward. But the seed of inspiration has been sown and the saplings are bursting into life, now if I can only remember to bring the bloody notes home, I usually have a book on me to write any burst of creativity, which seem to be growing all the while, is this a good thing time will tell.

The name game is in play and whilst I’m not exactly a huge fan of the band I worked with somebody who would play the bloody thing over and over again, and that’s this one done, I’m not expecting big numbers on this one as it’s a stop gap measure until the next one which will be called…….” Four on the floor” and they will be numbered (told you I had a plan) small reviews of stuff I am listening to at this moment in time. Some old some new you will get the picture when it pops up, there will also be a new “Now Hear This” blog coming as there has been a flurry of questions from around the world, thankfully no rednecks as of yet! If you don’t know don’t worry about it, its not really as exciting as it was, I’m too old for this cack.

I’m on holiday at the moment I should be listening to even more music, however the freezer in the kitchen is trying to die, and its louder than a motorhead concert, thankfully the man is coming tomorrow the rest of the weekend shall be me lying around like a loppy dog doing as little as possible, unless I feel the urge to write!

So, there you have it, I’m like a man on a galloping horse, I was going to go for a walk, however I would be as wet as an otters pocket, the rain is that heavy, there is no such thing as bad weather just the wrong clothes, I will see if it will drown out the noise of the freezer grinding away! So watch the skies there will be more incoming as soon as I can get my notes, I don’t intend to go to work to pick them up, until the next time stay safe and stay alive, keep spreading this   disease………………….Toodles!

You Don’t Have to Be Old to Be Wise!

But it certainly does help, its funny that you only discover that as you indeed do get old.

This is the blog I have been threatening people with and its just as well as I have been playing tons of music both old and new, music has helped, as I’m definitely on an up trajectory, lets see how long before I crash and burn, so let’s go back in the mists of time to a time when Judas Priest was starting their ever upward climb to success.

I have seen Judas Priest every time that they have played in Newcastle since the stained class tour in 1978, damn I feel old, who knew that would happen, they always had good support bands, the sign of a great band is that it takes out any band, it just makes you up your game, and they always brought their A game. Some of the support bands including Iron Maiden, City Hall and Mayfair, white heat although I don’t remember any of their songs I did watch them, Quiet Riot, Accept who were great for the first two songs then they got Udo Dirkschneider’s microphone switched on LOL ,Queensryche who were dreadful, a band I thought I would have loved (the first EP yes then less with each passing album) and they were terrible every time I saw them, at the arena I had no option as I was on the guest list and it would have been churlish to spend all of their set in the bar, Bonfire, Annihilator, they are the ones I remembered.

I have met them a few times usually at my former place of work, I did try to go to see them at a signing at Volume Records however it helps if you turn up on the right day, D’OH! All of them were lovely even KK Downing who played the rock star to the hilt, me and a friend had some inside information for the painkiller tour as to what hotel they were staying in, so we waited all day outside and we thought we had been sold a puppy as they didn’t turn up, well they did but after the gig not before D’oh! I nearly broke my neck to meet Rob Halford, he ducked into a coffee shop at my former place of work and sat and laughed as he and a friend watched my antics as I searched for him he had been on the first floor and I was on the ground floor, he had seen my reaction when I had spotted him and he knew I was going to give chase, at least I amused him for thirty minutes (in a non-sexual manner LOL)it was a time before mobile phones and he was shocked that I didn’t even want his autograph I just wanted to thank him for the gigs I had seen, he was a down earth bloke and a true gent.

I was suffering a massive hay fever splurge on the Ram it Down tour ,it was so bad a friend had the bootleg of the gig for the support band and all you can hear between songs is me sneezing that was a fun gig….NOT! and I was in the balcony and the bootleg was recorded in front of the mixing desk downstairs, The best opening I saw was when they had Accept opening for them, they opened with Solar Angels from the Point of Entry album and I thought the album was a tad poppy, live Solar Angels was amazing and then KK and Glen came upon towers from behind screens great effect, but it was only used  for the opening, must have cost a fortune for 20 seconds, I enjoyed it. My favourite drummer will always be Les Binks who stayed outside the city hall for more than hour to chat to fans, Dave Holland was ok but got annoyed that we only ever wanted to talk about Trapeze, and Scott Travis is simply a machine and a nice guy, I never got to see them with Ripper but I love both studio albums with him and again I have seen him out of the band but another gent and a true fan of priest their music and their fans.

I’m sure at one of the gigs I lusted after my (now) wife I simply can’t remember the tour it was on and I cant find the ticket to confirm (we tell the same tale and we both look at each other and are amazed) it. I nearly had to walk home (15 miles) from the Painkiller tour, thankfully someone who I vaguely knew took pity as they passed me and got me to Gimpsville, I only had to walk a mile from the town centre to where I was living at the time, I soon moved to Heaton as it made more sense. I remember Halford nearly being dragged into the audience when he cracked his whip above the audience’s heads at the city hall, I bet he never did that again and yes he lost the whip, my brother had a great tape of the bands sound checking that he lifted from the sound desk from the Mayfair, again years before tape to tape facilities and he was trusting  and lent to a person I always thought was shifty and he never got the tape back, we both stopped trusting people at that point!

I think its funny that its nearly 10 years since they last played in Newcastle I know they were meant to support Ozzy but the tour kept getting pushed back further and further I doubt I will ever get to see them again, but you never know, mind you the state of my knees and now I have an issue with my hip, all tied in with my knees, so there you go I can keep a promise, a historical (not hysterical) one, the blog has been doing nice numbers sometimes good even but not what they have done in the past, and I can live with that, I may start doing it on a more regular pace as my mood is lifted after I do one, I might do the odd musical review one as well nothing major just some little blurbs who knows what tomorrow brings, I certainly don’t !

So onwards to the next one and I haven’t decided what it will be, or even when it will be, it all depends on my mood for the day, I have a couple gestating, just not sure if they are where I wish to go, I might go totally native we will just have to wait and see, so as always watch the skies for incoming, please keep spreading the disease as people are still “discovering” the blog so I must be doing something right, I simply don’t know what it is, so until the next time…………………..Toodles!

And for once no the name game is not in play, you don’t have to be thick to work it out…..or do you?