May to August 2004

May 2004

Started the month by unloading some of my considerable buildup of drum spares on e-bay. Due to the purchase and conversion of the DW stand, I was able to unload the Remo floor tom stand - and it went for nearly as much as I bought the Remo tom with the stand in the first place - so that was a good result - along with both of the Tama tom arms that have now been retro fitted with a DW shaft - I was even able to discover someone who could find a use for these things! Thanks must go to Barry and Jen who were able to photograph the things in the first place (serves me right for my refusal to have a digital camera), without which I would have got no bids at all...

Well, given that the kit now all fits together as one set (see the April 2004 Diary to see the saga of the DW Tom Stand), I decided that the living room should serve as a test bed for the extended kit. So I set it all up and took some photographs for your entertainment - in case you are worrying about my neighbours, I didn't play it. Doesn't half look huge and impressive - but the extra drums are still the wrong finish - so that will have to be sorted out. But for the record, my kit is now 8" & 10" concert toms, 12" 12" 13" 14" 15" mounted toms, 16" floor tom, 22" bass, 14" wood snare, 14" & 16" Sabian Crashes, 20" Sabian Ride and 14" Sabian Hi-Hats............ Bloody hell. I realised the only way I could mount the kit together with all these drums was to angle the toms a bit steeper - so that is why it all looks a bit Nicko McBrain circa Somewhere in Time or Lars Ulrich circa Master of Puppets. I have taken another pic from the 'cockpit' position and this is in the drum kit development gallery within the Arizona Bay Gallery.

E-bay delivered again - I have been bidding on the Neil Peart DVD - A Work in Progress for months and months but some bugger always outbid me. Well - I have at last won the thing. I was watching it this morning and I have at last heard the great man speak (apart from him counting in Animate on the first track of Counterparts)The DVD takes you through the Test for Echo CD track by track and just shows Neil drumming away for the whole track (with occasional shots of his double bass drum technique using an extra camera). Neil explains his approach to each track and how he came up with the drum part - it's superb to watch, but it all makes you feel so ordinary! It's a great way to learn  as Neil talks you through how each of the drum parts is constructed - he just takes lots of quite simple tricks and threads them together - he uses the analogy of having tricks in your toolbox  - which I have heard before in another context. Perhaps I will learn something - if only I could master that traditional grip. If anything, the DVD shows the forward thinking of Neil - a 30 year veteran taking drumming lessons? He gave the reason that he did not want his style to become stale - that from a drummer who does not exactly make the word stale spring to mind! Having said that, I don't care how simple he makes it sound, it is still impossible to play like him. He is simply operating on a different plane to the rest of us. The only way any of us will better him is to make a pact with the Devil and hope he does not require much else in return (he might only ask that I appear in Emmerdale, Fame Academy or Big Brother - surely Satan's darkest and most evil contributions to culture).

Emma has her own musical stuff to put on the site this month (well - I'm putting it on anyway). The 24th is her mum's 50th birthday, and on the 22nd there was a party for her in the Parish Hall in Burtonwood. As an added bonus there was musical treats as well (and there was a top buffet as well). Mark on the guitar, Emma on vocals and Gee on flute (Mark's better half - I won't insult her by providing yet another variation on the correct spelling of her name!) did a superb cover of Travelling Soldier by the Dixie Chicks (the song that upset the establishment at the Oscars) - my missus is very talented! (and the other two are as well!). Mark and Glen (of Coventry) added a version of Duelling Banjos - but instead did it on the guitars - Duelling Acoustics! Oh - Happy Birthday Gilly (E-bay Sorceress).

It's always quite nice to sit back and watch the end of the world, so that's what we did on the 27th. The Day After Tomorrow is the latest - we-are-all-going-to-die disaster movie and I must admit to really enjoying watching it. People of my generation will by now have seen New York destroyed on film several times now - Deep Impact, Armageddon (OK so it got only slightly damaged in that one) and Independence Day. Out of all of them I would say that Deep Impact edges it, but it was pretty amazing seeing a storm surge run through the streets of New York. I must admit to feeling a little ashamed that I really enjoyed seeing Los Angeles get flattened by a gang of angry twisters - Capitol Records coming in for some extra special attention and the Hollywood lettering getting rearranged. I get the feeling that this is their way of having a go at Hollywood - perhaps I am reading too much into it. Like most Summer Blockbusters this is a bit of an effects festival - but it is enjoyable enough - as long as you are not expecting to see an Oscar contender.

June 2004

It really was a case of history repeating itself after I finished nights on the 7th. I had to do a few extra hours and decided to stay in Warrington Town Centre and have a Starbucks for my breakfast (I'm so predictable) - and also to guarantee that I would not collapse through fatigue. It was one of those decisions - as I'm only going to get a couple of hours sleep anyway, I might as well stay up all day! (I think it was Larry Miller that said that when you do that, the sun is like God's flashlight).I decided to pop into Dawsons for a quick look around on the way back to my car. The first thing I noticed was the Tama Artstar drum set that had obviously been traded in against something newer (how could anyone part with a Tama Artstar?). It was superb - I think the finish is called Tobacco Sunrise or something like that, high end concert toms and shallow mounted toms (what get referred to nowadays as fast toms), two floor toms and a shallow bass drum - as well as a steel snare (Tama were famously slow in introducing a snare that befitted the quality of their high end kits - they just used to put a steel snare with them - Neil Peart famously used his old Slingerland snare - albeit recovered - when he went over to his legendary Custom Tama Artstar in Candy Apple Red). It was not a case of love at first sight - it would take some kit to replace the Mapex Hybrid.

I then saw a sight that I have not seen for some time - the old fashioned PAISTE black logo (much beloved of John Bonham - I have helpfully circled the logo on the B&W photo up above). What? A black PAISTE logo - I thought it might perhaps it might be a more recent PAISTE range - perhaps the 1000 Series or something. I had a closer look at the stamped trademark and there it was - the Swiss Miss of cymbals - PAISTE 2002 TRADE MARK - MADE IN SWITZERLAND - the more recent 2002's (i.e from the early 1980's onwards) have the red logo, so any of the old 2002's are a real find. I picked it up to learn it was a 22" Ride - it was like pulling Excalibur from out of the stone. You must understand that this is the drumming equivalent of discovering an old master at a car boot sale. Well - I had to have her - bang goes the sticking to one brand of cymbals plan - it's just too bad! Now the Sab's will have to share their space with a PAISTE. £65 - roughly the price of a very average budget ride cymbal, so I think I have done OK. The Sabian Ride will have to find its own way on E-bay I'm afraid. History repeating itself? Well, I purchased a PAISTE Coloursound Ride from the very same shop when I was in my teens - and that was second hand too - spooky.

Still, it was the end of the line for the Sabian which departed these shores via e-bay. This helped to pay for the PAISTE - so it was not much of a financial hardship to trade up to the bigger and better ride cymbal. Some lucky guy got the Sabian for £41 (a real bargain), I got my beloved PAISTE and really only paid a real cost of £24 (which I covered by selling some other old flotsam out of my loft on e-bay) - so a result all round for all involved in my book - even the guys who bid on my old RAF uniform and my old DC Superheroes RPG collection!

As a footnote, I stripped down the Premier APK tom of its covering. I learnt that the horrid vinyl recovering was actually just the start of it - there was another layer of lighter wood effect fablon underneath - and that was before I got to the original white vinyl. I took the lot off and got down to the base wood. It was even worse - a horrible plywood sandwich! I suppose this reminds one of just how much more you get for your money nowadays. One look inside my budget Mapex can show me that they are real grained wood - OK - so it is cheap basswood, but it still looks better than the horrid old 1980's plywood.

I have since started to refinish these drums using the Ronseal Grain Paint. It gives a nice blue grained effect to the shells - and two coats of varnish complete the effect. I am planning to give the shells a nice interior gloss of some kind - will keep you posted on this project.

Well, E-Bay giveth and it also taketh away - or it also taketh away but it also giveth - whichever side of my wallet you are looking at. I decided have a quick bid on a PAISTE COLOURSOUND 400 12" splash - and bloody hell - I won it. I have always had a massive soft spot for the coloursound cymbals so I was well surprised to see one turn up anywhere - god knows where they all went in the 1980's but I managed to rescue one of them. This baby is black and has the legendary PAISTE logo on it - along with the coloursound logo alongside it. I'm well pleased with it - nuff said. It certainly cheered me up to welcome such a rare item into my collection - it almost completely blew away the dark cloud that formed over my life when England were knocked out by Portugal in Euro 2004....... OK - like the ref, the cymbal is Swiss.......

On the 26th I took Emma to see the Cooler at Cheshire Oaks, Ellesmere Port. Now once upon a time this would have been a Warner Brothers Cinema but now it's called Vue. Why? I don't know or care. But back to the movie. The Cooler is a really rare breed - a good story, a good cast, good acting and a really good film. Not that many of you would even be allowed to be aware of its existence - being as most cinema screens in the country will be showing the latest Harry Potter Film (Poor man's Lord of the Rings if you ask me!) or Shrek 2!

Well anyway, before I rant too much, the word Cooler refers to that mythical being who works in Las Vegas casinos  in order to bring bad luck to people playing the tables there - I say mythical but I listened to a programme on BBC Radio 4 wherein it was alleged that  these guys were actually employed in casinos but I still think that it is an urban myth. William H Macy (the guy from ER and Fargo) plays this cooler, and he works in the old school mob casino run by Shelly (Alec Baldwin). The cooler walks in, works his magic (just standing near the table or playing a hand does the trick) and makes sure that the house always wins - a bit corny - almost supernatural. However, when he falls for a waitress at the Shangri La (a reference to the classic Capra movie) he loses his touch - people start winning left right and centre - the casino loses millions. OK - so that is a very weak story to most people but it makes for a superb film. This is quality film making - I really liked it a lot - lads, it's the love story you don't have to be embarrassed to like. Go and see it - ignore the wizard hatted one.

July 2004

Well I have successfully made it onto another year - I am now the awkward age of 34! I certainly feel a year older - but then I am typing this at 0800 hours in the morning and everyone feels a year older at this time of the morning. Very much like last year, mam and dad got me another series of Six Feet Under on DVD (brilliant) and loads more goodies - Emma's mum and dad got me a Starbucks voucher - so I got a pair of massive logo mugs - my sister bought me a wicked Hamnett shirt, M&G got me vouchers - with which I got a nice travel book  - and more Starbucks stuff, Emma bought me another wicked River Island shirt (how loud?) and Cold Mountain on DVD. Notable amongst these gifts from Emma was the latest Rush project, Feedback.

Yes, you wait for ages for a Rush album and then a load of stuff comes along right on top of one another. This CD (more like a mini album) is full of cover versions that they used to play in their formative years (even before Rush came along or they had even met each other). It's really weird to hear Rush playing other people's stuff - there's all sorts of stuff here - Summertime Blues (closer to the Who version), The Seeker (also by the Who) and Crossroads (an old Blues standard that was covered by Cream during the 1960's UK Blues Boom). Of the whole CD, Crossroads is the highlight - a very fast and powerful version of what was a brilliant track anyway. I was reading an issue of Classic Rock the other night and it turns out that Rush are incorporating Crossroads into their live sets on their latest tour. The only criticism I could find is that it's a very short CD - it's over far too soon. Perhaps they could find time to do Feedback Part 2 with a few more Who tracks on it?

Nice little trip to the cinema - to see a documentary of all things. I have always been a big fan of Michael Moore - in fact when I was at University he sent me an e-mail when I had sent him one asking him when his new television series was on - so I have a claim to fame apart from meeting Zoro at Drumfest this time last year. If you are not familiar with his work then I will tell you that he mainly specialises in pointing out or having a go at most of the things that upset him about politics, social justice etc. He first came to light when he released a film about his home town of Flint, Michigan being turned upside down by General Motors and their decision to close down the car plant there - at a time when they were making record profits.

This has resulted in some fantastic television - such as TV Nation, and along the way he also found time to release some brilliant books that are less than complimentary about the way his home country is run (Downsize This! Stupid White Men and Dude Where's My Country?). Most people will remember him for returning 9mm bullets to KMart - that were still lodged inside the body of one of the victims of Columbine (most British people were simply thinking "they can get 9mm bullets from the company that own ASDA?").

His latest film, Fahrenheit 911 is yet more dangerous work , guaranteed to upset just about everyone - but especially George W Bush who really incurs his wrath for virtually all of the film. It is basically a record of events that we are all familiar with - the 2000 US Election, followed by 911 - and our journey into oblivion since then. It should make very uncomfortable watching for just about all of the establishment in its portrayal of the murky business dealings of the president and the events leading up to the situation in Iraq - not even our Tony Blair escapes unscathed! MM even finds time to quote from George Orwell towards the end of the film (from 1984). This is a great piece of work - I liked it a lot. Guess I'm a subversive. I don't know who it was, but someone said that a true patriot is a man prepared to defend his country from his government......

In what is becoming an annual event, I took time off to go and visit the South West again. Once again I met up with Abe, Tim and Martin Ware, but also Greg - who was an SAC the last time I saw him in the RAF, now he is a Sergeant! Well - it just shows that the promotion board can get it right sometimes (but only rarely). I again had my photo taken in front of Calne Library and their famous - face-on-its-side installation art (I have put last year's pic of my encounter with the head on the right - we must have had a better summer last time round) It was really good to see the guys again - and also to see Swindon - the last time I was there must have been 1998 - and before that I visited to graduate from Swindon College. The old place really has changed a lot - for the better. Mainly..........

Right in the heart of Swindon, the old Great Western Workshops are now an outlet village - they have just put the shops right underneath the girders in a final nail in the coffin sort of way. It was always a shame to see those acres of empty workshops, that must have supported thousands of jobs (once upon a time), only to see Nike, Next and Starbucks move in (actually I was not too bothered about Starbucks - they can move in any time they want!). Well - I suppose it is better than the wrecking ball taking it all apart - and they had took the time to preserve things like the K Shop Roll of Honour plaque and put it in its correct place - as well as open a museum dedicated to the Great Western. Not entirely a disaster, but still sad, like all unemployment and closures (My - I am very subversive this month). I have helpfully included a picture of the operational factory above - along with a sticker that represents the current use of the plant. Nearly all of what you can see below no longer exists - the factory closed its doors in 1986. Please note - yes, I am a hypocrite - my distaste for the current use of the building did not extend to turning down the chance to pick up a nice Next paisley shirt for only £4.99.

Also made a few trips to places I have not seen for a while. The Cherhill White Horse, just down the road from Tim, is one of the many white horses carved into the chalk below the Wiltshire soil. I decided we might take a nice long walk up this (mainly steep uphill as well - phew!). I have assembled the photographs of my Wiltshire jaunt into their own little gallery - go to set 4 to have a look at them.

Rounded off my visit to the South West with a trip to the pictures with Tim (in Swindon). After arriving late we decided to go and see Around the World in 80 Days - the latest move into the big time for a comedy hero of mine, Steve Coogan. Well, for anyone not to know what the basic story of Around the World in 80 Days involves seems unlikely. Mr Fogg, challenge, long journey, wins. Well - it's a bit more complicated than that - it is a very fun version of an old story with some enjoyable bits and a weird cast; Arnie with a shaggy perm, Jackie Chan, Jim Broadbent, Ewan Bremner (Spud from Trainspotting). And you can also play spot the famous person in the many cameos that take place  - Owen Wilson, Macy Grey, Richard Branson etc. Well - it was OK. I suppose watching F911 in the week has made me too demanding.

Before I went back oop North, Tim could not resist taking me into the big old RAF Lyneham base. We, along with all of the guys I reunited with this weekend, served here during the 1980's and 90's (Tim still works there as a civilian and Greg as a SNCO). I departed from there in 1996 and have not looked back since - I bloody hated the place and much preferred life later on at University. It was really weird seeing the old neighbourhood again - including the miles of racking (I was a supply person), the new C-130J series, the old accommodation block and poor souls still having to do gate guard round the clock, the subtle changes (still they add buildings when the bloody place is due to be closed down in nine years!). Well, I left Lyneham (again) without any regret at all. It was still the right decision.

The refinishing of the drums began to gather pace - the first finished drum rolled off the production line this month. I must admit I had my doubts until I put the hardware back on the newly painted drums. I have prepared a sort of Blue Peter here's-one-I-prepared earlier display above. The refinishing has been a triumph for cost cutting - the whole project has thus far been cheap - especially as I was able to pick a little sample pot of emulsion for the interior of the Remo and Premier for as little as 18p. I now have three drums finished and the effect looks good - I thought it was a disaster when I painted the first drum, but now I am warming to this new finish.

Thought a nice trip into Liverpool may be in order - I always like a good walk around there now and again. This trip was mainly to check out the new location of adc drums. They have moved from the city centre out to Dale Street - opposite the old Merseyside Police Bridewell (imagine the jail off the start of Porridge and you are just about there). This is the spiritual home of drum shops in Liverpool and was, until when I cannot recall, the location of Acme Drums. It was here that I bought the old Supreme kit back in 1986. It was nice to see the adc lads settling in so well and I had a good look around - the drum kit room and the cymbal room. The cymbal room has the most impressive range of cymbals that you are likely to find anywhere - particularly the famous Paiste RUDE range. You can find my tribute to these beasts on my essential instruments page. I talked at length about these and even had a chance to blat one with a stick.... have you ever seen that episode of the Simpsons when Bart stuck all of those police megaphones together and sent a shockwave across Spiringfield? Well that is the effect that the RUDE cymbals give you - I got the ringing out of my ears just as I was getting on the train. Made a single note in the diary - must get one of these buggers.

Thought another trip to see a film might be in order as well. Especially as Spiderman II was due out - and you know what a fan I am of Superhero movies. Now sequels I am always a bit suspicious of, but I was so keen on the original Spidey, and indeed his real counterpart in the comics. I was always more of a Superman kind of a guy myself, but Spidey, and the works of Stan Lee have always interested me. The film was OK - but then I think that X-Men 2 set the bar a bit too high for any future hero movies to reach - unless they are really good. This is a good film, but certainly not really good enough to trounce X-Men. Performance of the film for me (same as last time) was JK Simmons as the editor of the Daily Bugle, J Jonah Jameson, who hams it up brilliantly. Theres a thing, Stan Lee once lamented that his memory was so bad that he was reduced to using the same letter for the initials of characters in his work - thus Peter Parker, Steve Strange, Reed Richards, Sue Storm - see?

Anyway.......... but you should go and see it - but is it just me (and Emma), but am I the only person who did not think the special effects were as good as last time? Well, if they make any more (and you just know they will), I'm hoping the next villan to face Spidey is Kraven the Hunter - now there is a bad guy (This would also be a great chance to try out the black uniform!) It was certainly good enough to warrant a third movie..... just on the subway train fight alone! Just a word of warning - if you are planning to take kids along to see this, there is one moment in particular that is not at all PG - the operating table scene...... there will be plenty of kids having nightmares during July!

As if there was not enough cymbal stories to tell you about recently, but I got a shock when Dan Badonis  from Canada sent me a Sabian Neil Peart Paragon 19" China Type Cymbal! Also lurking in the box were a huge collection of Dan Badonis Drumsticks, a CD of Dan's band, a book of Rush Drum Patterns and a Drum Magazine with a massive Neil Peart feature in it! What a guy sending me all of these goodies!

The Neil Peart cymbal range is the pride of the Sabian range at the moment. This baby has the famous Sabian logo, along with the Paragon logo, picked out on the cymbal in rather tasteful gold-leaf type lettering. The china type is of an extreme variety with the flat edge making up almost a third of the cymbal striking surface (all china type cymbals tend to be mounted upside down to take advantage of this). It is a truly magnificent beast and I am in love with it!

My latest framed drumstick was yet another Dave Weckl jazz drummer stick - but with a different finish than the earlier one. Sadly - this was another end of an era moment. You see, I have been buying prints from Frog and getting them framed in the same walnut for the best part of four years now. sadly, this walnut finish is now deceased and no longer sold by the manufacturer - or is anything similar. Well, it would have been the end of an era but I had already bought a pair of Steve White Vater sticks that I will be framing in a sort of distressed oak type wood. You can see my (very large!) framed stick collection from the gallery page.

August 2004

And so it goes. Well I did make plans for Martin to come with me to Crewe Limelight to see Unknown Pleasures - a Joy Division Tribute Band. Well Martin could not make it so I went anyway. I won't be able to type much of a review I'm afraid - I know very little about Joy Division or New Order (or even Warsaw or Stiff Kittens for that matter) - I could really do with Martin's input here. Most of what I do know is drawn from the film Twenty Four Hour Party People - which has to be one of the best films about music I can think of (apart from Spinal Tap obviously) - certainly one of the best British films ever made. Also, when I was busy listening to Iron Maiden or Yes with Strat in the Heath School 6th Form Common Room (circa 1985-6), there were a few Joy Division fans who commemorated the suicide of Ian Curtis by sticking an A4 note to the notice board telling us what ignorant and ill informed bastards we were for not knowing this was the anniversary of his death - remember this was the 1980's - being miserable was a fashion accessory.

Unknown Pleasures do a very good impression of Joy Division - all of the right stuff is there - the ultra low slung Peter Hook bass guitar, the manic Ian Curtis stage presence etc - it could have really done with John the Postman jumping on the stage to recreate the atmosphere of the Russell Club. The close-your-eyes-test certainly works - close your eyes and you are listening to Joy Division. They were very good indeed. I was very impressed with the drummer - he had a lot of self discipline to play those almost machine-like rhythms - the drummer of Joy Division, Stephen Morris, kept his patterns very regimented - meaning I would not be much help with my love of Neil Peart - Ian the drummer went whole tracks without touching the cymbals and I know I could not manage that! Replicating these tracks and not throwing in your own fills must be a very hard job. I salute you....... but Love Will Tear Us Apart really needed a keyboard backing (other than that they were right on the money). And so it went.... pictures from this event are in the gallery under set 03.

As it is the season for the Summer Blockbuster, I thought I would pop along to check out a bona fide Summer Blockbuster - I, ROBOT - in company with Emma, Gee, Emma's mam and dad - and their Eastern European guests - the same young guys who came to American Pie II with us last year. If any of you are science fiction nerds then you will be able to tell me that this particular blockbuster is based loosely on the work of Isaac Asimov - who is no doubt doing cartwheels in his grave as the film is being shown. Basically, the film is set in the future (2035) and revolves around the arrival of robots as everyday appliances in the home.

Obviously there is a bit of a conspiracy angle to it and this is perhaps why the film plays like a reworking of Minority Report that has somehow been crossed with Blade Runner - only with more blatant product placement  - I mean, in Blade Runner the adverts for Pan Am and Atari on the sides of the buildings served a sort of continuity to make the future believable, in IR, the quite blatant act of hawking Converse Basketball boots really made the whole thing stink a little bit - like those old Soap ads from 1950's US television - In a word - INEXCUSABLE. I agree with Bill Hicks when he said (and I am paraphrasing here) that if you advertise a product, you are off the artistic role call, and every word you say is now like a turd falling into my drink.

Will Smith plays the wisecracking detective (a role he has virtually cornered as his own) on the case of the rogue robots but the real star is the CGI - that no film seems to be complete without nowadays. Yes I did like it - for a summer blockbuster, the film is very cerebral indeed (which means you have to do a little bit of thinking) - not at all what we are served up this time of year. So despite the quite horrible hawking of products that goes on in the film, the liberties taken with the Asimov source material, I quite liked it. You wanna see a Sci-Fi film featuring Robots? Blade Runner - still years ahead despite the non existence of CGI in 1982 - and the neon hordings for Pan Am, Coke and Atari can hardly be described as intrusive....... so get that instead (particularly the director's cut) and save yourself a journey to the cinema.

On the 11th I again went to see a Summer Blockbuster, King Arthur - but this time only with Barry. Now I am deeply cynical about any film about King Arthur - the art was perfected way back in 1981 when John Boorman made the quite brilliant, Wagner soundtracked Excalibur - the final word in the cinematic version as far as I am concerned.  There need not ever be another film about Arthur (only just nudged out of the top three of fantasy films by the Lord of The Rings Trilogy). It was once said that each generation comes up with its own interpretation of the myth - so the last one I can recall was First Knight in the 1990's - the truly woeful Richard Gere, Julia Ormond and Sean Connery version. (including the sins of a telegraph pole in shot, truly terrible Star Trek uniforms instead of suits of armor and setting the bad guy's fortress in a slate mine!). This generation would not be looked on well if that was our version that was remembered. You could of course have a look at Monty Python's Holy Grail...... you silly king, or the Hallmark Channel made for telly version, Merlin. Avoid the 1960's musical version, Camelot - it's bad enough to make you eat Excalibur.

This version is the strangest take on the legend I have seen, but the one that most historians will agree is the closest to the original spirit of the Arthur Myth. This time the legend starts as the Romans are leaving Britain (Romani Aunt Domus - or however it is you spell it!) and Arthur and his band of knights are employed as colonial cavalry. The collapse of the empire means that the knights must go one last mission on behalf of their Roman masters - whilst the Saxons are turning up on our shores and generally not being very nice to anyone (later on they go to form a heavy metal band or something). The original dwellers of Britain have a chap called Merlin as their leader who also has a Guinevere as one of the meanest female warriors who has ever lived (Keira Knightley - not wearing a great deal of clothes) - so all of the characters and props - such as the sword Excalibur - are there. Also present is the battle on the ice (as also included in the Merlin TV movie). Some essential Arthur stuff is missing - the affair between Lancealot (Ioan Gruffud) and Guinevere (Keira Knightley), so devastating to the Round Table and essential to the many incarnations of the story, is reduced here to a bit of flirting and sideways glances. The huge collection of Knights has been worn down a little (but they have a smashing big round table so there's room for recruitment) and Merlin seems to have not been on his spell casting course yet. But still well worth watching - I did like it - despite the trashing that Empire Magazine gave it. Just remember as the lights go down, the 1981 Excalibur version is the definitive article and you have no need to be here - so once again, save your money and watch that instead.

August also saw the return of a long lost Rush tribute, The Spirit of Rush. I was only aware that these existed after I stumbled upon a review of one of their gigs using a search engine. After losing a drummer they were forced to shelve the band for a while, but came back this year. Not wanting to go to Crewe Limelight on my own I recruited Gee (Mark's better half) to come along with me (no doubt she will have been brainwashed into buying the whole Rush back catalogue). Before the gig kicked off I managed to get a few close up shots of the drum kit and a chat with the drummer. He has put together the strangest drum kit I have seen for ages - it is a Yamaha hip-gig, a kit designed for intimate little gigs or those with a not a great deal of space. If you look at the visitor gallery, you can see that Dan Badonis has been using one of these for little jazz gigs over the years. Here the hip gig has been expanded with a couple more toms being added to the really strange bass drum (actually a 16" floor tom mounted on its back!). There a few cymbals (including a china type that projects  like crazy) and a large collection of electronics - a Roland Octapad type thingy, some TD6 pads (like mine) and a Roland kick drum pad - it was really nice to see such an original kit - pictured above.

Anyway, what do the guys look, sound and perform like? Well the first thing that has to be said is that TSOR have the guts to tackle the tracks as a three piece - something that proves to be a struggle for most Rush bands who end up having to bring at least one extra member on board. The main difference is that the guitarist handles the singing duties whilst the bass player has the very difficult task of bass and keyboards. The guitarist (who looked suspiciously to me like Ray Parlour of Arsenal) was superb and really had spent every hour practicing the licks - as well as getting the vocals as close to Geddy as one can without actually being a chipmunk on helium. They must have been a true band of displaced lookalikes because the bass player, to my eyes at least, looked like a bearded Neil Peart! He did a really good job - despite the keyboards going chips and letting him down a few times. His bass playing was superb with a hint of mega-fast typewriter bass about him - he did lose it during one of the YYZ bass runs but I will forgive him that. The drummer did a brilliant job as well - I feared his hipgig would implode during the drum solo... the hardware looked like it was not going to be equal to the task.

Together the lads proved to be the better of the two Rush-bands I have seen. Like the real thing they worked together as a team and were a joy to watch. If you need any more proof then you should have seen them during Marathon. Marathon is one of the greatest of all time Rush tracks and I was hoping they would play it. The song contains four distinct difficult bits - the intro, the ridiculous drum beat during the verse, the very hard indeed bridge to the chorus, the chorus itself and the quite impossible interplay between bass and drums during the guitar solo. Each of these sections is awash with keyboards and bass. This was easily got round by the drummer actually playing some keyboard lines (using his Roland Octopad type thingy) during the intro, the guitarist using some pedals to recreate keyboard bits as well as the bass player putting down keyboards as well as pedals. Had there been a price of admission then this song alone would have been worth it. All in all, a damn good gig - YYZ have got serious company. Photographs of this gig are in Gallery Set 03.......

I had built some time into my schedule to go to a book signing in Ellesmere Port by my fave footballer of all time, Norman Hunter, late of Leeds United and master of the very-hard-indeed-tackle. However, Norm's agent had dropped a big hairy one and scheduled the signing for the wrong night - a night where Norman acts as match summariser for BBC local radio for Leeds United matches. So he was not there! I had set off with my classic Leeds United smiley shirt for him to sign so you can understand how pissed off I was. Mind you, I did get a chance to start the x-mas shopping and buy a copy of Roger and Me by Michael Moore on DVD (that I did not know even existed in this country). But if you are Norman Hunter's agent - Booo hissss to you!

Click here to go back.....