Gold at the End of my Rainbow

Where did this month go it’s been a real rollercoaster, not emotionally, just busy, busy, busy, to be honest I haven’t been a fan of busy this month, actually I have never liked being busy, I would much rather simply go with the flow, but hey ho here goes.

So work has just been so fast with so much going on, a trip to Watford (I’m sure that’s Latin for “shithole”) we travelled all the way there, only to be told the next day that the course was cancelled (due to a lack of interest) as the tutor had covid, yes that’s still a thing, thankfully it got rescheduled quickly (guess what I have been doing all this week from home) it went better than I thought, but man I am so shit at algebra and hard maths, I avoided algebra at school(because I was thick/special, you decide) but it caught up with me 40 plus years later and handed me my ass in a hat, did I manage to complete it? Yes, but it was meant to be done in 15 minutes for all the three sets, it took me 35 minutes a set, I know because I spent my nights trying to get better, I don’t think it likes me, as my brain certainly hurts with it.

Thankfully tomorrow I return to the real world, but I’m still working from home as I have a hospital appointment, a follow up to my small procedure back in January, I’m not confident that they will tell me anything new, but I don’t intend to miss it, 7 years I have been suffering with this particular ailment, it cant be that bad as it hasn’t killed me …..yet! music has been played but not to the degree that I would like, simply because of course work, I am way too old to be doing this amount of studying, my brain is fried at the best of times, lol, I need a lottery win, knowing my luck I would win big and then become a paraplegic and have to spend all of the money on palliative care, me over think it, hell yeah just a bit! Do you lot not know me LOL.

The four on the floor blog did really good numbers and that’s my excuse for not doing this blog (the reality is I’m not as clever as I thought I was so therefore work won simply because it pays the bills) I had a couple of ideas but they went nowhere, no matter what I did with them, I simply couldn’t get past the 300-word mark, here I am waffling and I am all ready past the 400 mark, goes to prove I can waffle. Having said that there will be more to come, I just need to play a bit more music, no bus journey this week, so I haven’t really played much at all, the title of the blog is a band I’m playing as I batter the keyboard, not from my favourite album by them, but still a lovely song and the vocalist/guitarist is so underrated I really must get stuck into his solo albums but with 70 or so out there its where to start, and no its not Frank Zappa, he’s English, a Yorkshire man no less, but the band were slightly multicultural, but enough clues google it like you lot normally do when it’s a hard one!

For the four on the floor I am deciding whether to alternate between new and older music or discography’s its still up in the air, watch this space, I also have discovered a number of magazines that my brother gave me in a bag under a table, I feel guilty maybe I should read them before I hand them on, I simply used to devour anything to read, now I seem to wander about like a pissed pigeon, not really knowing what to do with life, damn I feel old. The gold at the end of my rainbow is I have a hurricane warning as the Hurricane (the oldest grandson) is here for a short time, this could be interesting, I’m sure there will stories to be told in the next exciting edition of this here blog! Who knows, not me for sure I’m simply going with the flow, I promise I won’t raise my voice more than once a day, well I will give it a go, I will also say prayers to whichever deity will listen to and answer my prayers (Lucifer?) that we don’t have a huge falling out.

So there you go, I know some people expected this a little earlier in the month, but although I like to run my life by the clock, blog writing doesn’t appear to wish to follow those rules, so with the juices flowing there will be something a little sooner than expected next time round and if you believe that you believed every lie Boris fed about brexit, so tonight I intend to put my feet up and chill I might even push the boat out and have a hot chocolate, hot damn us oldies know how to party and kick the door in, so my nurse keeps telling me, so take care (yes covid is still out there) enjoy the blog try and guess the name without googling it, watch the skies for more incoming, keep spreading the  disease(figuratively speaking) and until the next time…………….Toodles!

Four on the Floor – Volume 1.

So, the intention as always is to do some reviews of albums that I have been listening too, rather than get all serious, I intend to be like a man on a galloping horse and do some small pieces, I will try and do as many new albums as I can but some old ones will surface from time to time, give them a go you never know you might just find something that you might like.

Ronnie Romero – Raised on Radio – 5/10.

I like some of the projects that Ronnie has done (Rainbow, Lords of Black, The Ferryman) but I think that he is starting to spread himself just a little too thin and this album kind of proves it, the backing band is the usual suspects from Frontiers supporting team, and although its well-played and well sung, there’s not tons of life in it, I mean he was even part of this year’s Eurovision contest, I was impressed when I stalked him on YouTube when he was announced as Rainbows latest singer (go check it out there’s some great stuff out there) but it has been ever decreasing circles since, he seems to be the go to vocalist at the moment, he’s good just not great on this, I do like the eclectic nature of the choices, I don’t know if he chose the songs or frontiers did, I enjoyed the Grand Funk Railroad cover(its an album of covers in case you didn’t know) I like the Survivor track, he also does the unexpected route with Bad Company and Kansas songs, Brian Howe version and the John Elefante version, so yes marks for taking the lesser know route, towards the end he strays back to the predictable tracks from bands that was to be expected and to be honest I’m sick of them Led Zeppelin (shock Horror) Uriah Heep well played but again he should have gone for a deep cut rather than the track he did, and a certain Bob Dylan track that’s been covered by just about everybody. The best track is a Russ Ballard cover, he should do more like that It’s not a bad album, but to be honest its not a great album either, if this was his school report it would be a case of “can do better”.

Ann Wilson – Fierce Bliss – 7/10.

I’m not a huge Heart fan, I like the odd track from the earlier albums, I still don’t think that they have bettered Barracuda, and I know the band can play just by the calibre of the artists that have played in the band, but for me it got a little safe after Passion Works, good but I had to be in the mood for them, this is not what I expected at all, first the bad news, I didn’t care much for two of the three covers (Queen and Jeff Buckley) but her version of a well known Robin Trower song is lush and suits her voice, I think the rest of the album is original material and is all good her voice even at her age is incredible and the album is a pleasant surprise, if you want a pleasant surprise and a little bit of a curve ball this is a great album to do that, oh and while I am on this, if Jimmy Page wants to tour he should take this lady out because she could sing the living crap out of his back catalogue and would have fun doing it!

Scorpions – Rock Believer -6/10.

This is a good album (ignore the scoring for a minute) its like classic scorpions (think Lovedrive/Blackout) however it just misses the mark as the production is very……..Polished, it somehow manages to miss the magic, will I play it again hell yeah I will, but I would play the two aforementioned albums first if I have them on my MP3 player before this, there are riffs galore, thunderous drums and Klaus Meine doing what he always does, however there is just the sprinkle of fairy dust that seems to be missing, I read somewhere that they intended to work with Dieter Dierks that might have pushed them to the former heights that they had hit, do I like it yes I do, there is much to love but there are a couple of tiny niggles in the back of my head saying its just not quite there, it still rocks like a hurricane and there’s an additional 5 extra songs on the deluxe addition that takes the album over the hour mark, maybe if they had picked the best 10/11 songs that little bit of polish would have been there.

Aldo Nova – The Life and Times of Eddy Gage. 6/10.

I have a love hate relationship with Mr Nova, I love his first two albums, drifted a little with the third and hated what he did with Jon Bon Jovi, then he drifted into making money with Celine Dion, came back with a really good instrumental album and then shot himself in the head with a recording of his debut which sucks, I played it once and deleted it as soon as I possibly could, never have I hated something that I previously loved so much, I get why bands do it, they don’t own the copyright and so don’t make money but there’s a few bands out there that have done this and have come in pretty close to the original, close but never quite getting across the line, if I had wrote this last week as planned it probably would have been an 8, however I have played it a few more times and the annoying things have outweighed the good, he has allegedly had over 150 songs to choose from……..hmmm it is actually a good album well played some guitar parts that wouldn’t go amiss on a Joe Satriani album and in some parts he sounds like Buck Dharma (always a good thing) but he ends the album with a piano led instrumental that meanders along the way, I’m sure if you have 150 songs you could have closed the album with a better one than this, it reeks of B-side, actually as a B-side it would have worked much better, will I play it again, depends on my mood but yes I do believe I would, now lets go and play the original version of the debut album and kick some serious amounts of BUTT!

 

And there you have it, the new formula for me to impart my words of wisdom regarding music, I have played, with more to come, enjoy and as always until the next time Toodles!