September to December 2005
September 2005
Started the month off not in the usual manner - i.e our regular trip to Starbucks in one of the town or city centres of the north west. This time myself and Emma went down to Llangollen in North Wales. This is the home of a few nice pubs, a preserved steam railway and a couple of cafes. It was also the home of the Doctor Who and model railway museums but they have left the area! Boo Hoo! I am told that the Doctor Who museum has moved to Blackpool - a travesty! We had a nice drink and a meal and then decided to take a ride on the preserved steam loco a couple of stations up the valley - and such a nice valley it was as well. The train had those old carriages with the compartments - remember them? Drove over to the famous aquaduct that carries the canal over the Dee and had a nice walk and sail over it (but don't look down). Then we drove back over the Horsehoe pass - nice fun. As a foot note, I bought a line for playing your iPOD through the car stereo through e-bay (and it was for a fraction of what it cost from Dixons!) so all of this was done with a Rush soundtrack (you should try listening to Xanadu when you go over the Horseshoe Pass - very atmospheric). You can see the pictures from this day in the galley - the hastily renamed holiday and day out set.
After the excitement of buying a Paragon 20" Crash last month, I saw another one on e-bay that I thought would look nice as well - a Paragon 16" Crash. I did have a plan to allow for the fact that I would be throwing a bit of money around - I decided to go back to e-bay to sell my 14" and 16" Sabian Pro Crashes - one of the cymbals on my kit had already become surplus after the purchase of the 20" so this was quite easy to rationalise! As for the 16" crash, it is a great little performer - certainly a bit easier to control than the monster 20". I have actually played a 16" Paragon before - the house drum kit from Rush Eucon 2004 (property of Tim B) had been fitted with a full set of Paragons as part of a Sabian Promotion so I was already aware that it was a bloody brilliant cymbal. So I am now on FOUR Paragons - I would go for a full set but I am still very smitten with my Zildjian "Special K" and it would be hell to part with it - and buying the Sabian Paragon 22" ride would require a remortgage and a loan from the world bank (plus they hardly ever turn up on e-bay!). As a little stop press - I managed to unload the old Pro Sabians for about £71 - so this has helped to pay for my little e-bay indiscretions.
Finally found something to see at the Brindley. Gee called me and asked me if I would like to pop along and see an evening of Jazz - mainly the music of Miles Davis and Charles Mingus (Emma did not fancy it - the jazz boat left and she was still on the island). This was played by Nine North West - a bunch of guys that I suppose are just between quintet and big band. The music was really good, a mixture of some standards but also some original stuff. In short - they were annoyingly talented and sounded great. The drummer played a very pretty, little kit in the most gorgeous cherry stain - with those ultra cool wooden hoops - plus the inevitable Zildjians (which seem to very popular amongst jazz types). The Brindley is not such a bad venue either - one we can be proud of - not quite Bridgewater Hall but nice all the same.
After changing the drum kit so much during August, I still decided I was not happy with the way things were set up. The main gripe was that the high end toms (the 8" & 10") were just too far to the left and were a pain in the rear to play. I recall having seen pictures of the old Keith Moon kit (and also Clive Burr - the first drummer in Iron maiden) were he decided to have one row of toms mounted above the other - thus saving on space (like he ever needed to with the massive stadia they were playing at the time!). You can see this arrangement on the video to Who Are You - but I digress. I decided to mount the 8 10 & 12 above the existing 12 & 13 - which are mounted so low that it was not really a problem - look see above and check out the pictures in set 02 of the Gallery. Playing the kit in this way is great fun - the closeness of all of the mounted toms makes for easy fills - and you have the choice of moving from the high mounted 12 to the 13 - or from high 12 to low 12 (do you follow?). Pleased with this way of doing things - the Paragons sounded amazing as well.
Actually got some meaty stuff to put in here - the sort of stuff that would be in here if I actually had something drumming related to put in! I saw a message on the bulletin board at work (in fact, Andy Wallace of the Spinnin' Lizards saw it and pointed it out to me) that a guy with his own rock covers band needs a drummer to replace his existing one who has gone on to pastures new. I thought I would mention my name to him and on the 22nd I popped south to darkest Cheshire to play. Phil and his son practice in a room in their house with headphones mixed into a desk - great for practicing without the usual death threats from outraged neighbours. He has bought himself a Roland TD8 (the electronic kit with mesh heads!) and this plugs in to the desk as well. I introduced myself and was invited to pick out a song from their play list. Nervously, I had a look at the list and picked out Black Night by Deep Purple - so we just went for it. In fact, I think I was not that bad - especially when you consider that when I had a regular seat with a band there was a Conservative Government. One major gripe - the snare head on the TD8 made it sound like I was missing beats - annoyance factor - TEN. Had a go at any on the list I thought I could do:
Great fun, somewhat ruined by the fact that I did not have my camera with me to put it on the website. Oh well - you will have to make do with the picture of the Cheshire Cat that I found! I was well impressed with my fellow musicians for the evening - very slick.
October 2005
Not a great start to the month when one of my fave blokes of all time shuffled off this mortal coil - I seem to be typing about my late heroes quite a lot. Ronnie Barker was a perpetual presence on the box when I was growing up (will we ever have television as good as we had in the 1970's?) - on the Two Ronnies or Porridge or Open All Hours. How can he be dead and Terry Wogan still be alive? I think I have made this point before. Talk about a double whammy. Porridge is one of my fave programs of all time (the opening speech is my text message tone!) and despite its obvious age (I don't think a comedy about a prison nowadays would be as fluffy and cuddly) it shows what is possible with great writing and great actors - I hope his passing reminds us just how good british telly once was and encourage us to abandon The X Factor, Ant & Dec, Big Brother and anything else that is currently stopping us from evolving. These are not idle thoughts - these are facts.
Went to see an ace film at Manchester Cornerhouse. It is rare that a documentary hits the spot like this but I came away from the film knowing that I had seen one of the best documentaries ever released - right up there with the work of Michael Moore. School of Rock (forget the Jack Black film and the Gene Simmons television series - and especially the very lame television series that used to be on BBC2 in the 1980's) is about Paul Green and his School of Rock Music in New York. Here he teaches kids how to play Rock Music - pretty simple premise. He pushes them hard (and swears a lot!) and gives them the most difficult stuff to play he can find - like entering them in a German Frank Zappa Festival attended by ex Zappa musicians and Zappa fanatics (and they play Inca Roads which has to be the most difficult of all Zappa tracks that even Frank's 1970's band had trouble playing!) This was a great watch - laugh out loud (especially at the two heavy metal lads who must be all of about seven years old and have the guts to tackle Black Sabbath, and the girl who joins the Quaker Gangster Rappers), inspiring and uplifting. No point in me saying that you should go and see it as this was the last day it was on in Manchester - buy it on DVD maybe.
Picked up the latest Drum Magazine for October 2005 - mainly as there was a massive Neil Peart article in it. DRUM! is an American publication that you can pick up virtually nowhere - but Borders stock it. This was a retrospective of his drum kits over the years since he joined Rush: The Slingerland, The Tama Mahogany, The Tama Candy Apple Superstar (perhaps his best known and loved kit), the various Ludwigs from the early 1990's (one and two bass drum sets) and finally the move into Drum Workshop. There are all sorts of secrets - like the fact that when he first started using electronic drums he had no revolving drum riser like he has now - so he had to play the electronic tracks (Red Sector A springs to mind) with his back to the audience, or his reasons behind his various changes over the years. Great article and real eye candy for Peart acolytes - mind you, a bloody expensive magazine.
Went to the pics in Runcorn to see Serenity. This is a rareity in that it is a sci-fi film that got a good write up in Empire so I decided that I would be seeing it ASAP. For those of you that don't know, and I must admit that I did not have a clue myself, this continues from a television series that was cancelled after only one season - Firefly, and it is by the bloke who did Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Again, news to me. This is a very good slice of science fiction - more like a sci-fi western than most sci-fi flicks I have seen. It has loads of historical overtones (as Empire pointed out it is basically the story of the American Civil War), in-jokes (like the hover car from Blade Runner) and great action sequences. It is stylish, fun and perhaps even a little sexy (think of how sexy some episodes of Buffy were and you are just about there!). Worth noting - it is better also than Hitch-Hikers Guide - but then most films are.
Waited a bit late in the year to have my holiday...... to Ireland. My big brother has lived in Ireland for a few years now - if you rewind the 'blog to August 2003 you can see the last time Emma and I went out to see him, as well as his missus and his neices, when he lived in Killaloe (near Limerick). The last time I went out is worth a special mention - this was in the middle of 2003. You see then I was working at Castle Cement in Mold and did not like it a great deal (despite the nice money). When I left (escaped more like!), I handed my notice in and they ejected me from the site - but payed me for the rest of the month. So when I went out to Ireland in 2003 I was effectively getting paid to do it! I remember sitting in west Coast Coffee, near to the Ha'penny Bridge, and realising I was getting paid by the hour to drink coffee and walk around in Dublin. Bliss. Anyway, back to this time. It was just a short break - had a day out in Waterford and also in Kilkenny. Waterford is worth noting as it contains the best Bookshop I have ever been in...... but I can't remember it's name... sorry. Had a nice few days away from the UK. Actually flew this time - but will not be getting the coach for the final part of my journey next time.... much preferred the train. Had a nice hour in Dublin waiting for the bus - paid my usual visit to the GPO (scene of the Easter Rising) but it was covered in scaffolding. Photographs from Ireland now in Gallery under set 09.
When I got back from Ireland there was a nice surprise in the shape of the DVD of the Rush Idol heats (see the diary for August) - containing little old me pounding the drums! Well - I was hidden behind Wullie and 2112's keyboard setup for most of the performance of Working Man - but you could tell it was me. The less said about the others - the Freewill footage mainly focused on the guitar solo - but then it is a very nice guitar solo, and I cannot even bring myself to watch The Trees as I know my own performance was....well.... arse. Yes I do hit them a bit hard. Well pleased and thanks to Jon of TNMS for sorting it out.
Emma took me to see the new Wallace & Gromit film - yes they have now made it onto the big screen. If you have been living on another planet for the last decade you may not have heard of wallace & Gromit. Well - it is the adventures of two plasticine characters that were mainly commissioned for the BBC for Christmas Day. Got it? The film version deals with the arrival of a Wererabbit just prior to the big vegetable competition. I loved the film - it is full of detail for the observant and the extra budget gained by making a big screen version is all up there on the screen - like loads of characters (including the Peter Kay voiced local bobby and the voice of Helena Bonham Carter). Go and see it.
November 2005
Those arty and serious Germans have done it again. I went to see another German film (another war film) at the Cornerhouse, Manchester - Sophie Scholl - The Final Days. This one covers similar ground as Untergang (see last couple diary set entries) as in it covers WWII history that many Germans may still find uncomfortable - this time it is the execution of members of the White Rose organisation. For those of you who are not familiar with the story of Sophie Scholl and the White Rose, they were a bunch of students who put out leaflets that denounced the war and dropped them all around Munich University. This all took place in 1943 (not long after the awful truth about the defeat at Stalingrad started to filter out) - long before the plot to kill Hitler and long before the inevitability of defeat became clear - a very brave thing to do.
I must say that it is another really good German war film - and I hope they do some more as it looks like that they really know what they are doing. Half of the cast from Untergang turn up (indeed the main star Julia Jentsch was in Downfall - albeit briefly - and she is a dead ringer for the real Sophie Scholl - see above) and like Untergang, very little artistic license is used (interviews, official documents and the transcripts of her interrogations were used to build the script). One criticism by Empire Magazine is that the judge at the trial was portrayed as a fanatical lunatic - one look at the footage from the trial of the 1944 bomb plotters (see the appropriate episode of World at War) should show you that the judge as portrayed in the film was right on the money - so wind your neck in, Empire Magazine. Despite being good - it was a little on the depressing and claustrophobic side, but the makers kept it a bit less graphic than Untergang to secure the PG rating.
The biggest irony of all is that history IS repeating itself. I can hear you all saying "that's a little harsh and loony lefty, Graham...". Well - I could always tell you about the story of the octogenarian who was dragged out of the Labour Party conference for denouncing an illegal war and also the story of the old West-Coast-hippy peace campaigners in the USA who got infiltrated by the FBI. It was also quite ironic that I saw this film in the week that the bid to detain people without charge for 90 days got defeated (despite the protests of the scum tabloid press who showed their true colours once again as government lap dogs when the chips are down). Sounds dodgy comparing our current situation to Nazi Germany, but it's the same process by different means -"you are either for the war or with the Red Hordes" has become "you are either for the war or with the terrorists - there is no middle ground"....... just planting little seeds (hands up who thought this was just a drumming website).
We all went mobhanded (me and em, mark and gee and emm and Mark's mam - a formidable band of quiz mercenaries) on the 16th to take part in the Traveller's Rest Pub Quiz - AND WE WON! That's a first prize of £25, folks! I think we made a rather formidable quiz team - my own personal highlight was remembering the name of the socially challenged barman in the old, worn out BBC sitcom about a single decorator, called Brushstrokes. In case you are wondering I will tell you that it is Elmo (maybe I should get out more?).
You can see that it is a bit of slow news month on the site in November. So I will pause and remember the late George Best by asking the question..... Yes, but was he happy. Possibly he was. I just think the problem may be that he had some great years (including bedding Miss Worlds, having great nights in the Casino and being adored by just about everyone), but it would have been nice to remember some of them. Apparently, he was quite good at football as well.
Finally, after several months of total satisfaction with my iPOD, I decided it would be time to start using it a bit more - I left half of the memory empty after I had put my fave Rush tracks on there! I have now supplemented it with great big chunks of Pink Floyd, Genesis, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Travis (strange but true) and Led Zep. The good thing about the software is that you can link tracks into one big track - so you can join First and Second Home by the Sea (Genesis), Money & Us and Them and & Any Colour You Like (Pink Floyd tracks that have to be played together). This is a great feature as you can get them to appear as one track when you have it on shuffle play. Oh, I love my iPOD!
December 2005
Waited a bit late in the month again until I had something worth typing to put on the site. Emma took me to see The Chronicles of Narnia - which many of us already know as The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. I must say that I did fear the worst - usually Disney have a habit of translating stories into American so as to not rock the boat. This film escaped that by getting the LOTR treatment and comes out more or less intact. Emma is the real Narnia expert - I never read the books or watched it on BBC1 (I was always either reading the Hobbit or listening to Iron Maiden - sometimes both at once). The good news is - C.S Lewis was a good friend of JRR Tolkien - the two often used to compare notes. C.S Lewis, I am assured, buried lots of religious symbolism in the text - just as many people still insist that Lord of the Rings is a metaphor for the rise of Nazism (though JRR insisted it was not). If you liked LOTR, then you are going to enjoy this - the battle scenes are a bit less bloodthirsty but are still good to watch - it's just a bit more cuddly than LOTR. Good film (certainly not as suitable for kids as you may think) - so go and watch it.
I seem to be seeing a lot of foreign films this year. Well, this one is not strictly speaking a Foreign film - it is a euro co-production - dialogue being in German, French and English. Merry Christmas is about the legendary Christmas 1914 truce that took place during the first Christmas of the war on many places around the front. It was a story that had sort of dissolved into myth until testimonies and photographs emerged proving it did in fact happen. If you don't know what happened then the story basically goes that German, French and BEF troops met out in No-Man's-Land and called a very unofficial cease fire. In some places this even extended to exchange of gifts and dinner in each others trench. You may have also heard some versions where a game of football was played. This event has seeped down into popular culture, turning up in a Paul McCartney video, Charley's War (brill British comic book from the late 70's and 80's) and Blackadder Goes Fourth ("...I was never offside..."). Taking place in 1914, the uniforms are unfamiliar (the Scottish regiment has yet to adopt the familiar tommy helmet, the French have colourful uniforms that would not have looked out of place at Waterloo and the Germans have yet to discard their famous Picklebaub helmets), the wholesale slaughter has yet to begin in earnest. The sector in the film is staffed by a Scottish and French unit, facing a German unit across a very short no-mans land.
It has to be said that this must rank alongside Downfall, another foreign language war film that I raved about to the extent that I ended up seeing it three times. Whilst there is not a great deal going on in terms of action (apart from the opening French attack which is as horrific as the opening act of Saving Private Ryan) it has real emotional punch to make up for it. This is a very moving film which should have got a proper release and not be hidden away in art cinemas up and down the country. Hollywood - please wake up and learn how to make films rather than release dates.
Whilst in Manchester I bought a lead to connect by iPOD to my Roland drum kit. Fellow drummer Andy Hewitt mentioned that he played his own MP3 player through his Roland and played along to it. This has proved to be a real revelation - now I can play along with my idols when I want to work on my style. Some stuff is quite straight forward - but I abandoned some attempts to play Rush tracks out of hand - e.g One Little Victory - you must be kidding! Top tip - Won't Get Fooled Again by the Who (off Who's Next) is actually quite an easy track to play - but I did break a stick whilst doing so.
Christmas comes. Once again I decided to approach Christmas in a typically mercenary fashion and worked - sorry, but I need some new tyres. I was well pleased in that I was able to present Emma with an iPOD Nano so she could sample the delights of iPOD ownership. She is well pleased with it and has already filled it up with her fave stuff. When she first started using it (on my computer) she accidently filled it up with Rush, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Free etc. Guffaw! Sadly, my attempts to turn her to the Prog Dark Side failed when she found out when she found out how to delete tracks! Emma bought me the Rush R30 DVD - superb.
I am very impressed with this - it has all kinds of extras for Rush nerds on it - including the Tsunami Relief spot they did when they performed Closer to the Heart in a studio with the guy out of Bare Naked Ladies and Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys. Other noteworthy prezzies: Animal (Animaaaaal!) who now hangs off my Roland drum kit, lots of Jelly Babies, Ringers DVD (top documentary about LOTR fans) and a Marshall Amplification shirt - that goes up to eleven. Emma also bought me some little jackets for the iPOD - which was nice.
I also treated myself to the another Rush related DVD - Jamie Borden showing you how to drum to various Rush Tracks. He has chosen what he believes to be the tracks that demonstrate his art properly - all from the early 1980's. Jamie is clearly a superb drummer and he does each of the tracks beat perfect. However - I would have preferred it if he had used a proper Neil Peart kit form the period - though you could argue that the kit he uses is more appropriate (a 7 piece DW kit - tuned to perfection) for us mere mortals on a budget. Also included are CD version of the tracks without drums so you can make a fool of yourself trying to copy the master himself. Jamie himself is quick to point out that he has tried his best - particularly in the closing section of Red Barchetta - and that not all of the stuff is up to Neil standard.
I was so impressed with Jeux Noel that I took my big brother and his missus who were over for Christmas. I don't think they were as impressed as I was when I first saw it. Well, I came away convinced I had still seen a really good film (again). The rest of the population was no doubt watching blockbusters.
The new year came - and guess who was working..... Well I got to watch a nice firework display in Stockton Heath village centre. Emma ran a quiz for her folks and guests - but I did the picture quiz for her. The plan was for me to download one for Emma to use - but this would have cost so I decided it would be more fun to do my own using Powerpoint - though I had to sneak 2001 and Spinal Tap into the film section. Well, I hope you all have a nice 2006.
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