May to August 2005

May 2005

Started the month off with a trip to the pictures and I must concede that after waiting most of my adult life for a film version of what has to be one of the best books ever written, that I feel a bit deflated by the result. Yes, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has at last arrived. For those of you who have not read the books, I will inform you that they are the work of a Cambridge graduate called Douglas Adams who sadly passed away in 2001 before he could see his vision on the big screen (of course he is dead - I was a big fan of his!). I read these books when I was in my teens and was so impressed by them that I ended up reading the entire trilogy (OK - so a trilogy has three parts and the guide has five.... no comment). They tell the story of Arthur Dent who wakes up one morning to have not only his house but his planet demolished, forcing him to go hitchhiking around the universe with his mate Ford Prefect (who is not from Guildford after all) - and that just about covers it. I loved the books because they are the most anti-science fiction science fiction novels ever written, the series mainly being concerned with taking the piss out of the whole genre. If you have not read them I must inform you that you have missed out and should get out and buy them soonest (this should be no problem as they are likely to be everywhere in a massive cash-in type deal - just look for the round yellow stickers that state Now a Major Film from Cashcow™ Pictures!).

As to the film. Well - some bits I was very impressed with (the representation of the infinite improbability drive was well done, the voice of the guide - delivered by Stephen Fry - who was actually a good mate of Douglas Adams, the bits involving Marvin) and some I was not. The pattern that is formed here is that I liked everything that was delivered verbatim from the book and I disliked all of the filler material that has presumably been shoved in so that regular non-Douglas people would have something to keep their attention and make it look like a regular sort of film. I'm all for a bit of artistic license but the extra stuff was not needed... and it was just not as good as anything that Douglas came up with. So really, the book has been bashed about a bit and plays a bit like a sort of intergalactic rom-com that is loosely based on the works of Douglas Adams - When Arthur met Trillian - Douglas Adams for those of you that don't like Douglas Adams?  100% Fat Free Science Fiction? Why not just call it Dude, where's my novel? Get a life, Hollywood and stop putting a dollar sign after every idea someone has - have some bloody integrity - I think Douglas Adams was spinning in his grave. One good point, however, is the cast (but I really missed the original Arthur Dent - good as Martin Freeman from the office was). You should go along and see this film but try and remember that the real vision of a Cambridge genius lies within those pages or on that radio show. Go back to bed, Hollywood, we will wake you up when we are fed up of waiting for that sequel. The sad truth is that like Brian Wilson said, Douglas Adams was just not made for these times - his work is just too weird, honest and full of brilliantly observed detail - qualities that mean you don't really fit into Hollywood nowadays. Sadly, the sequel does not look that appealing a prospect as it once did. Sorry, Douglas - but I wish you had been alive to kick some Hollywood ass - and you dead and Jackie Collins still alive....... where is the justice?

Well usually I use this part of the site to type up things I have done. Well I am using it this month to type up something I did not do. I did not vote - in fact to push the point home I tore my voting slip in half in disgust. When you do this you have to listen to a bunch of people say that it is your duty to vote in a democracy, people have died for the right to vote, would you prefer a dictatorship? (would we notice the difference?). Well, and I am not normally one to fill my site with this sort of stuff but I feel I must. Saying that you have a duty to vote lets the politicians off very easily - it just means they can go on saying whatever they think it will take to get them in power ("Hate! Fear! It's the other party/immigrants/single mothers you can blame!" - that sort of thing - ad nauseam for the last month) and ignore the chances to do any real change to the way this world is run. So when you vote for Labour in 1997 and 2001 (and I used to vote for them when they were really crap and supported every lost cause they could - CND, Union Power - all of that good stuff - I much preferred my Labour Party utterly unelectable) and they go and embark on an illegal war and introduce tuition fees (which both sound a bit like Conservative policies to me) you don't vote for them again. Mind you, I grew up in the 1980's and do recall that the Conservative Party policy towards the working class basically amounted to genocide - so I don't vote for them either. The Liberals - forget it. So here is my position - if voting could actually change anything then the only people allowed to do it would be the CBI, The Daily Mail and Rupert Murdoch. Nuff said: don't vote, it just encourages them.

As Emma is still working on her dissertation, I decided to give her some space and go to the pictures once again. This time it was to see Kingdom of Heaven. This is an historical epic based around the crusades and it truly is an epic. Ridley Scott has taken this on and has done pretty much the same job that he did for Gladiator. In fact the entire opening fifteen minutes is so much like Gladiator that it looks like it was filmed at the same time and place. Orlando Bloom stars (he who women around the planet go a bit swoony over whenever he is about - Legolas from LOTR in other words) and he is surrounded by serious actors left right and centre - Jeremy Irons, Liam Neeson and the beardy one off Braveheart. I must say that I quite liked it - but then I have a bit of a weakness for historical epics. The computer technology that was used to create the battles of Helm's Deep and Minas Tirith in Lord of the Rings has been put to use and anyone can nowadays put together a film charting just about any battle from history that you would care to watch. It was just a good historical epic (and surprisingly sympathetic to the Muslim point of view - which is a bit refreshing nowadays) and let us just leave it at that (the siege of Jerusalem is worth the price of admission on its own).

Going to see all of these mainstream movies I thought it was about time that I got along and saw something a bit different for a change. Cue a documentary about Arnie (yes - that Arnie - the Terminator) winning the election to become state governor of California in 2003 - if ever there was an event worthy of a documentary then I think this was it - especially in the light of our recent farcical election. For those of you that don't know, in 2003 the Republican Party used a 100 year old state law to recall  the Democrat state governor Gray Davis (..... erm no comment about his name...) - obviously prompting thigh slapping puns about Total Recall and all of that stuff. As their trump card they wheeled out Arnie to basically just deliver the goods - in the USA this involves keeping your candidate away from the media (apart form the ones who say what you want them to - like Fox Network for instance) and just delivering the same speech over and again to loads of grinning crowds (this was a tactic perfected in the election of Ronnie Regan - the last actor to be the state governor and he used the same ploy in getting into the Whitehouse).

This is a really clever little documentary by the documentary maker Alex Cooke and it follows a lot of the same ground that you may have already seen in the likes of The Corporation, Fahrenheit 911 and the Yes Men. I suppose this is further evidence that documentaries are the new rock and roll! Now I know that I am a bit of a sceptic about democracy (my missus will tell you that I am about everything), but I suppose that some people somewhere in the world must be feeling the benefit of it - it's just that none of them appear in this film. In fact, it is possible to see some parallels with some of Arnie's films - in the Terminator he plays the part of a robot designed to blend into the populace that is employed by an evil organisation that takes over the world and enslaves mankind and in reality he plays the part of a robot that blends into politics and helps the republicans and the right take over the planet. In the Running Man he plays the part of an unwitting star in a game show that is part of a media empire that helps to keep the populace stupid - and in reality he uses the media to keep the populace stupid so he can take part in a political race that has been trivialised to the point that it might as well be a game show. Go and see it - if only to be depressed to the point of suicide about the possibility that one day Arnie may make it into the White House (there are currently moves to allow naturalised Americans to become president - even ones that invited Klaus Barbie - a renowned Nazi - to their wedding reception). Be afraid, be very afraid - the Fundamentalist Right are in the driver's seat - where are we going and what are we doing in this handbasket?

Going to Borders in Speke and I picked up an issue of Modern Drummer - the top American drumming magazine. I quite dislike reading it - it is full of adverts for stuff we hardly ever see over here - and always at superb prices due to the exchange rate - but we cannot buy any of it. I had got a tip off from Dan Shooter himself that he had got his kit onto the back page of Modern Drummer. MD run a feature where you can send in a picture of your own kit and tell them how you have built it up over the years - and that is just what Dan did. But - he was on my website before he was in Modern Drummer - just remember where you saw him first!

Aaagh! Horrible. Emma talked me into watching Eurovision - I am assured that people have Eurovision Parties when it is on and I was roped into attending one at M&G's house. I would just like to say that it was horrible, horrible, horrible. I would feel worse, in the words of Spinal Tap, if I was not so heavily sedated at the time. It is like the antithesis of my CD collection - and not unlike watching a car crash. Mind you it was a chance to see how much everyone hates the UK - we were nilpwa for quite a while. The rest of the field seemed to go for one or two variations on girls not wearing a great deal of clothing or people hitting drums (well - miming anyway) (I think Dawsons had a special on drums that week) - in fact some of them decided to have both options and went for a nubile girlie wearing about enough material to cover a letterbox and have a set of grinning bozos miming on some drums behind her - at that point not even the memory of Cheryl Baker having her skirt ripped off during Making Your Bloody Mind Up could beguile me from thoughts of throwing myself off something tall onto some steel railings whilst mainlining Lemsip into a major artery with a dirty needle - it really was that bad. And why was everyone so good looking - this was not a million miles away from what Adolf Hitler was trying to do. Truly horrible - and we still have Big Brother to come this year - the long dark summertime of the soul is about to begin for me.

Waited until the end of the month before I actually had something concrete to put on the site (i.e - not talking bollox about films or general elections). My co-worker, Andy Wallace (3rd from left on the pic above), and his band, Spinnin Lizards, were appearing at the Quayside in Runcorn so I thought I might pop along. Andy's band play guitar orientated stuff and sound very good - the songs were well written and I was rather impressed with my co-worker and his mates. The Quayside is not such a bad venue either - but the place was packed out with millions of teenagers that all looked like Vicky Pollard. Andy told me that his band did not really fit in - the band that followed them sounded like a guitar in a giant blender whilst someone sawed the lead singer of Napalm Death in half with a swordfish - gawd they were young and heavy, but it was nice to see someone playing their own rock music for a change - god bless 'em. These pictures are to be found in the gallery set 03 in the main gallery index.

June 2005

Went to see that latest Star Wars film at the start of the month. Well, first the earth cooled and the dinosaurs all died. Then Star Wars came out. For those of you too young to remember it is difficult to relate to you what it was like to see Star Wars for the first time back in 1977. Those of you who were old enough will share with me just how dark the world became when he ruined it all with that Jar Jar Binks (a few months ago I was shown the latest Star Wars shoot em up on the PS2 but I misread the whole concept and spent the whole game running around in the guise of a battledroid blowing the hell out of all the Jar Jar non combatants - it was bliss). You see, George Lucas is the film equivalent of Clive Sinclair - the man who made a fortune on the home computer and then ruined it all with the electric car - George did a similar job with Star Wars. You see there was never any need for these prequel type things - the trilogy was perfection as it was. The three films released from 1977 to 1983 showed what one man with a load of stolen ideas (from Flash Gordon to Seven Samurai) could do. The remainders are just poor shadows - especially that Phantom Menace which is so bad that given the choice to spend eternity watching that or Fame Academy I really would have to think about it.

It's not that the latest episode is not that good - it would be quite good on its own. It's just that it is very, very poor when compared to the first three originals. Having said that, the visuals are rather good and the budget is all up there on the screen. I think that Harrison Ford once said to George Lucas of his dialogue "... you can type this shit, George, but you can't say it..". I suppose that has remained true for all of the films. I will say that the bit where Obi Wan and Annakin finally face each other down next to the lava flow is truly horrific and does not belong in a 12A film by any stretch of the imagination - there will be lots of kids of the future spending time in therapy as a result of this film. Go and see it to complete the trilogy and for no other reason - though Natalie Portman looks quite nice.

Took a day off work to go to Leeds with Martin and Baz to see another round of synthy gigs. The attitude of B&M was such that I think that it will be unlikely that we will go to Leicester as Leeds is just so much closer and cheaper. Waiting for us inside a very Phoenix Nights type club were The Omega Syndicate and Radio Massacre International (yeah - them again). Both bands played largely improvised sets - RMI played one massive piece. I must say that I rather missed the Leicester Space Centre - especially the nice visuals that you can get - but it was a very short drive and much cheaper to boot. There are pictures of this gig residing in the gallery under set 03.

Went to see the latest Batman film. Now when I say latest I am being a bit loose as this one is set before any of the other films take place - in fact you could say that it is lifted more or less intact from the pages of the legendary Frank Miller graphic novel, Batman - Year One. I recall reading this about fifteen years ago and I was so impressed that it stayed more or less in my memory ever since (but it didn't stop me from unloading it on E-bay a couple of years ago!). In Year One there is no camp super villian, only Batman turning up in Gotham and a little known detective called Jim Gordon starting in a corrupt Gotham City PD. The film keeps with these traditions - but has transplanted the Scarecrow Villan and Raz El Gul into the script to make it all a bit more exciting - so that was a bit of a blow as the Year One storyline was strong enough as it was. Having said that, many elements of Year One made it - including the iconic, high angle shot of young Bruce Wayne with his murdered parents (as you can see above from the ever so rare DC Comics Batman no.404) and the legendary showdown with the SWAT team in the derelict apartment block. I must say that this blows the other cinematic incarnations of Batman off the screen - it is simply far too good to be spoken of in the same breath as the others - especially the George Clooney version which is more or less accepted to be the one of the worst films of all time (the camp 1960's version does not even warrant a mention - sorry!). Be prepared though - the supervillan in this is about 200 times more scary than any fantasy screen villain - all of a sudden, the Jack Nicholson Joker seems about as scary as the grandad from the Werther's Originals advert. Go and see it - really good mainstream films are very rare nowadays.

When I was at work on Monday I got a phone call from Barry asking me if I wanted to pop along to Borders in Speke where a friend of his was doing a "thing" on the acoustic guitar and Barry had told him he would pop along to lend some moral support. I thought I would pop along - music, books and a bloody great big coffee seemed like a good idea at the time! Jay is a wargaming pal of Barry's (think 40k & Warhammer) and some of that group came along as well as Jay's missus and his daughters. I must say that Jay was very good - he plays acoustic guitar & vocal material. He plays his own material (but included Solsbury Hill by Peter Gabriel), has a great voice and I was very impressed with him. Mind you, the seal of approval from me might be a blow for his career. When I left I bought two copies of his EP and got him to sign one for Mark and one for Emma - you never know - he might be turn out to be the next David Gray (I should have got him to dedicate them out to E-bay). On listening to the CD (which has a backing band added to his gutiar) I must say that I was most impressed - hope he does well. Pictures are in set 03 of the gallery..... as a strange co-incidence, Andy Wallace of the Spinnin Lizards (see the last entry for May 2005) knows Jay very well and has even jammed with him - it's a small world but I would not like to paint it.

July 2005

Well, there was a strange start to the month. Most months I am content to start them by a trip to the pictures or to the Limelight Club. So I have no idea why I decided on a working holiday to Gleneagles Golf Course whilst it hosted the G8 Summit! So I really was on the world stage! Well - not quite - I did not quite rub shoulders with the great and good of the G8 - but I did watch George Dubyah's helicopter (Marine 1 - as any regular pub quiz competitor will tell you) come in and I did see Tony Blair's more modest chopper (ooer!) come in to land. It was a strange week - and I was reintroduced to the concept of 0400 starts - something I thought I had left behind a long time ago. Sadly, events in London stopped the week from being entirely enjoyable. Photographs can be found in set 09 of the gallery (OK - so it was not a holiday but it was the only place I could think of to put the bloody things).

July also saw the passing of my 35th Year. Marked this in usual style by a trip to the pictures, and this time it was to see War of the Worlds at the Trafford Centre. I would like to tell you about the film but the cinema was evacuated just as it was starting to get good. Due to events the same week in London, everyone was a bit freaked out by the evacuation and it was a bit hard to go back into the cinema and carry on watching the film after the alert was over. As a result I will have to keep you posted as, when and if I make it back to see the film. On the brighter side of the news, Emma bought me an Apple iPOD as my main prezzie. The problem was that the software you get with it is not too keen on systems that have multiple CD Drives.... so I had a bit of a problem until I hit on the idea of disabling the DVD Drive. This made the little thing work just fine - so I have filled up the memory (well about half of it) with Rush and nothing else - the first track I played on my little iPOD was Distant Early Warning from the Grace Under Pressure CD. I can't believe I did without one for so long - in fact now I can go to the gym and actually do some exercise whilst not getting bored of having to watch MTV with the volume turned down (not that I care because - remember where you read it first - MTV is utter shite - not an opinion but a fact. If you have ever sat through the MTV awards or Cribs, pimp my motor..... do you see it now?). Thank you, Mr Wozniak and Mr Jobs (but mainly my Emma) for helping me to avoid MTV and get fit at the same time.

Took Emma to see War of the Worlds (again) - this time we were banking on making it through the first five minutes without the cinema being evacuated. I have always had a soft spot for War of the Worlds after Mr Leedham - my teacher way back in 1978 (ish) played us Jeff wayne's musical version - thus making himself the coolest teacher who ever lived by about four miles. I can recall not being able to sleep very well for days afterwards! If you are not familiar with the Jeff Wayne version it is a rockband with just about every synthesiser known to man at that time combined with the might of the London Symphony, Richard Burton and Phil Lynot. There was a 1950's film version made but many see this as a metaphor for the cold war - veiled references to the RED Planet. This is also remembered for the decision to save on budget by having the aliens not on tripods but hovering around instead. It is also shite - I'm almost glad that HG Wells never got to see it.

Well - this brings us to the modern version - Spielberg, Cruise and some CGI. As I find myself saying when defending a film - "well......the special effects are good....". Well this could have been written for this film. It is not that bad - in fact there are some bits that are little more than white knuckle material (like the hiding in the cellar bit - or the ferry crossing bit) - it is just that you feel that the whole thing feels a bit rushed - there are way too many scenes that rely totally on the CGI - there is not much chance for much acting. It is difficult to go in too hard on this - it is science fiction after all. Just think of it as exciting eye-candy - in fact very gory eye candy - not really a 12A after all. And why all the product placement? What we really need is a mega budget version based on the musical version by Jeff Wayne! There's a thing - why is Tom Cruise contractually obliged to run towards the camera in every film he is in? (see above - and also The Firm, Far and Away, Top Gun, Mission Impossible etc).

As the end of the month approaches, the end of single life for my friend Barry also approaches. He elected for a low key stag night, being as it was a night out at the old dog track at Belle Vue in Manchester - we are obviously not very good at hell raising. I used to go to Belle Vue in the 1980's to watch the Manchester Spartans American Football team - I found it hard to decide if it was more run down then or now. The idea is really simple - you put some money on and see if your greyhound wins - fairly simple (or you can go for guessing the order of the first three home or something like that). The biggest hoot of the night for me was watching the girls leading the dogs out so the punters got to see them - and they all had MP3 players and iPods playing in their ears (the girls not the dogs) - strikes me that the job is not really stimulating them all that much (I doubt very much if any of the girls are sad enough to have packed their player with wall to wall Rush like I have). I won sod all by the way - which explains why there is not a entry below detailing my subsequent purchase of loads of Mapex gear. Not yet, anyway.

I found out that there was a truckfest on near Chelford in Cheshire. Well pleased to hear that Emma's mum had a stall there so we managed to get ourselves in as her little helpers. I knew there would be loads of monster trucks with the fantastic paint schemes - the ones that always beg the question why a lorry driver from Huddersfield feels the need to display a Confederate States flag inside his cab. What I really went for was the classic trucks that I remember from the 1970's - the Scammels and ERF's that mark a time when we actually used to have factories for assembling things rather than just call centres - I got some nice shots of a Scammel Routeman (as driven by my dad in the 1970's for ICI -see above - you can find the same pic of him in the misc pictures section a bit bigger) as well as other classic British trucks (now a dying breed). I did get rained on something chronic - but stayed dry long enough to take some photos that have been put in Gallery Set 09 - go and have a look.

Well, it is nice to have a new experience now and again. Barry asked me to be best man at his wedding to Jenny - so that involves speeches and standing about taking care of rings and having photos taken on the pitch at Widnes Rugby League Club. It was an honour being the best man but I must also say that it was also the best laxative I have ever known. Did the speech off the cuff as well - which strangely enough I do not recommend.

Waited until the last day of the month to take Emma the pics to see Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. As the War of the Worlds entry above proves, it was Emma's choice this time (which means the next film will be my choice and typically involve stuff getting blown up). If you have actually been alive at any point at all during the last thirty years then you may well have seen the Gene Wilder version on our screens every x-mas/bank holiday. Well now it is back and new and improved - Tim Burton (he of Edward Scissorhands, Batman and Ed Wood) has decided to deliver a very dark version - and he has got Johnny Depp in to deliver another perfomance that is as completely OTT as he was as Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. I must say I quite liked it - the new and improved Umpa Lumpas do not freak me out as much as the orange skinned ones did in the original, it is almost a noir Roald Dahl - very dark. He also finds time to squeeze loads of film stuff into it - the Dawn of Man sequence from 2001 gets messed around with a little and the shower sequence from Psycho - and there are a few in-jokes - the Edward Scissorhand and Ed Wood in-jokes are a bit obscure for the target audience to pick up on. Not bad - but he gets a few extra points for having Helena Bonham Carter in it.

August 2005

I have been to see it, namely The Downfall, three times now. The latest time was at UCI Warrington with Martin - to whom I have been raving about this film since I first saw it. Having had a chance to see it for the third time I am still convinced that it is quite possibly one of the best films ever made - certainly one of the greatest war films (too bad that Channel 4 recently did a vote on the 100 best war films and this was just too new to be included). Having said that, the only way to truly experience this film is up on the main screen at the Cornerhouse, Oxford Road, Manchester - they have the expertise (they don't get the reels mixed up like VUE or cut off some of the subtitles like UCI) and also the superb sound system that tried to move the Cornerhouse off its foundations every time that the Red Army shelled the streets outside the bunker. I suppose now that it only remains for me to purchase the DVD when and if that comes out (go back to diary for April 2005 to see my first review of this film). This is a great film and you should not have missed it - so buy the DVD when you see it (out late September apparently).

It barely seems five minutes like the last launch of a Marvel Super-Hero franchise and then another one comes along. I was a DC Comics man myself and thus missed out on a lot of the classic Marvel titles - my friend JP was the real Marvel expert and I have no idea what became of him. I must say that this was not perhaps the Fantastic Four but the just above average four. I think that Superman and Superman II (Come to me, Superman. I defy you! kneeeeeeeeeeal before Zod! Zod!) are still the high water marks for Super Hero films - well the X-Men series is good and Batman Begins was good too - so it does pain me a little to see this. Basically the story revolves around four astronauts who are exposed to radiation in space and return to earth with ridiculous powers - and that just about covers it. When you consider that Marvel was well known for adding a human element to the heroes it portrayed, this was a bit limp - mainly concerned with getting as much product placement into their allotted 1hr40mins as they could (and a fair old bit of eye candy). It was just OK (certainly not fantastic) and let me leave it at that - despite the fact that they found Stan Lee a cameo role and had the female star running around not really wearing a great deal.

The 6th marked the annual Rush-Nerd love-in that this year was taking place at Leeds University Student Union. In fact this has been a bit of a nightmare time for TNMS putting the whole thing together after the plug was pulled by the original venue (Boo! Hiss!). The day followed the usual pattern - Rush Idol, Raffle and then a tribute band - this year the headliners being 2112. The Rush Idol was great fun - and this year I decided to have a go at a few tracks: The Trees, Freewill and Working Man (there was not exactly a glut of drummers). Usually a special kit is brought for the contestants - but this time, mainly due to the last minute organisation of the whole thing, the drums were provided by the drummer of 2112 (also called Graham!). This was a top line Yamaha kit with a whole host of expensive bronze - not to mention the Mapex Black Panther snare drum (Excalibur!). I must say that the drumkit was set up just right - the cymbals were well positioned for a start. As usual - everyone had a bloody good go at playing what is, after all, very difficult music (especially when you are doing it pretty much off the cuff). My performance on The Trees was Poor, Poor, Poor - in fact I will even go so far as to say that it was Nilpwa. It really is a tough track and I should have left it for someone else. I was more pleased with my chops on Freewill. I was surprised when I found that I really enjoyed Working Man - which myself and the guys basically did as a partial salute to the version that was on All The World's a Stage. In fact our version was so long that it became what David St.Hubbins of Spinal Tap referred to as a "Freeform Jazz Exploration in front of a festival crowd". I was even more surprised when we were joint winners for the Rush Idol bit! The icing on the cake was when I won a Neil Peart DVD, some of his sticks, his cycling book and a cap in the raffle! You can find pics of this event in the gallery in Set 03 (grouped together under one icon).

2112 came in to close the show - the only one of the big three tribute bands that I have not seen up to this event. They were certainly worth the wait - musically they are spot on. The bass player packs a genuine pair of Rush icons - the Rickenbacker bass guitar and the Moog Taurus Bass Pedals - which must be very hard to get hold of. The drummer played a superb Yamaha kit that I suppose was similar to the interim kit between Roll the Bones and Counterparts. There was some electronics in the form of an Octopad and some other Roland goodies. The guitarist played two icons - the Les Paul (where would we be without them?) and a Charvel (see the Show of Hands video for evidence of Lifeson use - the Charvel is a very 1980's guitar). The whole band played together brilliantly - tighter than a very tight thing. The highlight for me was the Old Medley (a medley was also used by Rush to open their recent shows - "they never play Bangkok".) and Circumstances (obscure enough? It's on Hemispheres). 2112 come as a four piece and I must say the vocalist was spot on as well. All in all a great band - I hope this means that they will get themselves down to the Limelight now and again! Once again, pop along to set 03 of the gallery and look inside the Eucon 2005 set wherein you will find the pictures of 2112.

It was around this time that the webcounter reached and breached the magic 5000 mark (spookily, as I type this, it spells out fifty one twelve - and when I logged on the other day it was 5151 - so nearly a Van Halen album as well!) - it might have been something to do with all of those people from The National Midday Sun being made aware of the pictures by my blatant plugging on the forum dedicated to Eucon! Thanks if you helped made this possible.

I looked back at recent additions to the website and worked out that it is a fair few months since I put my drums together. Since I have bought quite a few extra gubbins to make the whole thing fit together a bit better, I have spent my spare moments trying to visualise how I should be setting the kit up (whilst I was supposed to be working). I was a bit embarrassed by having the spare 12" tom to my left like Neil does - it just seemed silly. Whilst Emma was away I decided that on the morning of 18th to put it all together again. So using the Tama omniball double stand I decided to first put the 12" and 13" toms just to the left of the bass drum - the stand meant I could have them both quite low. I had hit on this idea after having real trouble with the high positioning of the toms that the 2112 drummer used on his kit (he was a lot taller than me so this is certainly no criticism). I then added the extra 12", 10" and 8" to the left of this - but was still able to have them a bit low. The 14" & 15" go in the normal place and I have put the percussion rack over the 15". The electronics have been put around the kit in various places. I decided to have a blast - the new positioning really helped but the hi-hat stand will need butchering before it will really work (with a junior hacksaw). So a productive morning of work - and I even found time to do the hoovering, go for a Starbucks and start my x-mas shopping (every year I seem to start it earlier!).

Bit browned off to hear of the death of Dr Moog - father of the modern synthesiser (apparently you pronounce it mogue - although nobody actually does apart from the real synth anoraks). It was he who made the mini moog a reality (a keyboard that you did not need your own team of roadies or power station for) and introduced the world to electronic music - and gave Geddy Lee, Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, Jean Michelle Jarre and Tangerine Dream something to play around with (see the tracks Hoedown by ELP, Xanadu by Rush and Starship Trooper by Yes for best use of the Moog). Due to his rather good innings, I'm not as upset as I was at the death of John Peel or Tommy Vance - but it is still a shame to see him go. I would have traded his life for the life of whoever it was who invented the Yamaha DX7 - a truly horrible synth that turned up on just about every eighties track (I bet Stock, Aitken & Waterman had one).

E-bay has delivered again - literally! I saw a Sabian Paragon Neil Peart Model 20" Crash cymbal - and it came today (the 31st). I am so in love with this cymbal. Apart from the obvious fact that it is part of the Paragon range and is thus endorsed by Neil Peart, it looks superb and it is VERY LOUD INDEED. I had a quick hit and it is totally overwhelming - almost up there with the infamous Paiste RUDE range for sheer making ear-drums bleedability. The Paragon is great cymbal range - the visual impact of the gold logo, the hand hammered bell, combined with the fact that they are Neil's cymbal makes them cymbal pornography as far as I am concerned.

It was a very nice moment when it turned up - I nearly bought an identical cymbal in Canada but backed out due to the complications of getting back on the plane with a 20" cymbal under my arm (if you look at the furthest right on the little sequence of my various cymbal discoveries you can see that painful day when I had to leave the Paragon behind in Canada). Now to work out where to put it on the kit and what to move in order to make room for it (it's a bit huge), closely followed by a bit of overtime to pay for it (in fact I have already been working on that).

Click here to go back.....