Dangerous Music.

If you follow this blog you might know that I kind of like music, just a little, following the news of the death of Tina Turner, I got to thinking the artists that I have seen and those I haven’t, why Tina Turner, well myself and some friends had tickets for the UK tour I’m guessing it would be around 1984 there was about 8 of us and we got tickets for the whole of the tour and we didn’t see her once, why I hear you ask, we went to see the support act who was breaking big at the time “Bryan Adams” on his Reckless tour, she must have come on every night and went why the hell are those seats empty, to be truthful we were in the pub getting drunk, do I regret not seeing her perform, nope I get why people like her and she always put a first rate show on, it simply wasn’t my cup of tea.

I did nearly go and see her in 1990 simply because John Miles was her musical director, but I bumped into him at my previous place of work, so I didn’t bother, nice man and always great to chat too. The times I went to see support acts instead of the headline acts could fill a book, I saw the dickies support the Jam in 1980 four times never saw the Jam once, I saw It Bites a few times as support to other bands mainly over in Carlisle never saw the headline act once, saw girl, Diamond head, Anvil, Budgie (nearly as much as other bands who I loved) Samson with Bruce, the list goes on and on.

In the same token I have seen some shite supports as well, the worst and to be honest not their fault, a Greek version of Budgie called Socrates supporting UFO on their making contact tour just as it all went tits up, I actually sat through the entire set as they didn’t speak English so the patter between songs was non-existent, and the songs were…….erm nope! I have seen good bands play shit gigs, I have seen shit bands play awesome gigs, I have seen local bands that should have been huge, I have over time seen just about everybody I want to with one exception being Steve Walsh of Kansas, either solo or with Kansas itself, I saw Tom Robinson do an acoustic when he stomped  after about 5 songs, because it was (shite) in his words “not working” I saw Simply Red on their first tour and I cant remember who they supported we were out for a drink and they did around a 35 minutes, they were killer, I saw them on the next couple of tours and boy were they tedious, with a capitol T.

I have seem many “classic” acts from the 60’s and 70’s and surprisingly they were all great we used to go and see Engelbert Humperdink whenever he toured as we had a mate who was his drummer, who doesn’t want to miss an opportunity to heckle a drummer, he lost the gig after he told us all to “F*** **F, the drummer not the hump, I saw Don Maclean of American pie fame being the biggest cock walking I honestly though the sound guy was going to kill him, The electric boys another great band as a support , headlining they tended to go off into a jam, they were awesome but kind of went of down the wrong path, Bernie Marsden doing a solo acoustic set supporting FM, it shouldn’t have worked but it did and he was just the loveliest man afterwards another great night of pulling stories from the story box, a great night, Angelwitch again in Carlisle, it was a new line up and although I loved the gig the band were horrible, new line up and it was the second gig, a total car crash!

I saw Huey Lewis before he became Huey Lewis, and I saw Dr Feelgood (the original one) play a gig with around 40 people in and they played like their life depended on it, so cool, I saw Squeeze play a gig were Chris Difford was sick into the bass drum and then continued playing as if nothing had happened, I saw Mensi from the Angelic Upstarts fall off the stage and didn’t miss a beat, I saw the Toy Dolls tear numerous clubs to bits and then stand outside talking to the fans like they  hadn’t even started, I saw Twisted Sister play the Mayfair both times and still cant get over how awesome they were, I forget how many times I saw Slade in venues big and small, I even remember seeing the Mighty Hellenbach play Gimpsville in the Freemason's and they did make us feel like Gimpsville was the rock and roll capital of …..well Gimpsville!

The number of support bands we saw at the Marquee  the one that stands out was a band called Ore, they should have been huge, great songs great band, great vocalist, the only  trouble was he had short hair and weighed about 25 stone, he looked like he would eat the band if he got the chance! I saw FM play there for the first time in their snazzy suits, I saw my mate take the piss out of Joey Dimaio of Manowar who ran away with his tail between his legs simply because he couldn’t get a word in edgeways, Geordies talk much hell yeah!

So today I listened to the radio, and it was Tina Turner hit after hit, again do i regret not seeing her, nope not  really as I said simply not really my cup of tea, the name game is and album title and yes I saw this person play with Magnum, support Magnum and play Trillian’s on a Friday night with Sean Harris of Diamond Head in a band called……….LIFE, all great memories , life is too short enjoy it while you can its not a rehearsal until the next one comes along…………………..Toodles

Stagnation.

Its so easy to be derailed while writing, well it does for me, chaos seems to reign, my writing has not only stalled but it has completely stagnated, I wanted to write something about being on a boat and viewing the shoreline from a distance, s in a metaphor for what’s going on in my life at the moment, oh boy it was grim, and if I’m being honest I’m not in a grim frame of mind (well not today anyhow)when the flow is good its really good, but when the well goes dry it goes really dry!

Thank you to all of the lovely people who thought that I was in a bad place, I wasn’t I was simply perturbed, I was not sure if I did indeed do something wrong, I still haven’t had an answer to my query as too how I breached the terms of the site? I still don’t think I had, me overthink things, maybe just a little bit! I wasn’t in a bad space, and I’m still not in a bad place, I just seem to have gone a tad dry, not with ideas but with being able to express myself in a fulfilling way!

I have oodles and oodles of little bits and pieces but trying to expand on that original thought and its like a river in central Africa at the height of the dry season, the year started so well with so many cunning plans, it feels like someone has put a stick through the spokes of my bike and I have simply gone head over the handlebars and I’m lying in a heap on the pavement, well only figuratively speaking, so many people have come back and thought I was in a deep dark hole, honestly I’m not, I have a lot going on in the background I’m as good as I can be honest!

I do intend to try and doodle a little bit more because I know once I do something I like it will break the dam, and ideas will pour down like the rain, it is all about the metaphors, there has been some minor negativity regarding the four on the floor blogs, but its just that, minor, and yes I do agree with some of you, however I’m writing it for myself to start with, its music and that makes this old boy Happy so I probably won’t dial it back to a dull roar, I mean I have only a slack handful, if I was being a major pain I would be doing one every other day! Now there’s an idea…….only kidding!

There’s so many social occasions and friends that we are missing because of this thing called life, we simply cant be away from home for anymore than two hours at a time, even when we do our weekly shop, I have taken over and its like Germany invading Russia, it’s a total blitzkrieg, its taking us 35 minutes to the weekly shop for the two households, give me a task to complete and I will make sure it happens, even though my body is falling to bits there seems to be very little that I can do but soldier on, oh to win the lottery and to pay to see a physio every day of the week, just to get my weary bones back into shape,

As I keep saying, and if I say it often enough, I’m hoping that some of the doubters just might believe, yes  there’s stuff going on in the background, thankfully it means I simply  have to be supportive, that I know I can do, and I will do it to the best of my intention, as  I always do, no I wont go into details its personal and its private no doubt when it reaches its natural conclusion there will be a blog regarding the whole ghastly bloody nightmare, that is something I can promise.

So for now keep yourselves safe, I’m hoping that there will be another blog soon, the numbers are indeed going back up, so that’s a positive step in the right direction, yes the name game is in play, not my fave band or even their best song but it popped up as I started to scribble my thoughts and as a title its quite apt, but I do intend to do more and do better so keep an eye out you never know what might float in with the tide, until the next time, please keeping spreading the word…………………Toodles!

My Own Reality

I haven’t been in the frame of mind to write anything, I’m doing this blog simply to let people know that I am indeed alive and kicking, there’s some kicking I would like to do but it appears that I’m not allowed to.

The last blog was complained about, and I was informed by some faceless wonder that it doesn’t conform to the standards expected of the host site, I have trying without much avail to find out what the issue was but no the great and mighty Oz has decreed,, I didn’t think it was bad, there was no swearing, acts of violence, nudity, or anything that anyone could take umbrage at.

If anything it was quite short it had been done on the fly, just to keep interest in the page, once the notice went up , it was like it hit a brick wall, no new hits other older (more salacious) ones were still ticking over, but the last four on the floor it was like it had been shot in the back of the head and rolled into a ditch, I was annoyed, if there was something offensive I could understand, ok I know there was an Ian Gillan album reviewed but surely even that couldn’t work out what the issue was, this had happened once before but there was interaction with the site.

This time nothing just silence, and if I am being honest it made me question what I have been doing these last 15 years (because that’s how long I have been Blogging in all its forms).

Do I have an answer no I don’t, I’m still not sure what I should do, the last blog was the worst read blog in 14 years, by a long way, and although I still love this kind of one sided communication, I don’t know where I go from here, I had a new surge of intensity, I was enjoying my writing, I had big plans ( cunning plans as always) these had been bogged down by what is going on in the background within the family, serious illness and the wife trying to tend to the sick, but this has literally taken the wind from sails, my mojo has gone or for the want of a better way of saying it my boat has been holed below the waterline.

I’m missing my muse, if I’m lucky I might see the wife for an hour every other day, I need her insanity in my life for me to realise actually I’m ok, so I’m here but I don’t know what the future holds in store for the state of the blog as soon as I know you lot will be the first to know, so until then……………………..Toodles!

Oh and yes the name game is in play, its not the original title but when I discovered that the original one had over 12 different songs of the same title I thought I better change it, and as I sit and listen to the album this has come from I’m kind of glad I did!