May - August 2003
May 2003
Not got up to much this month apart from going to watch X-Men 2. Super duper super hero film - bigger than the first film but not better - I think the characterisation was better in the first one - but you get to see more of Mystique this time round - easily the best of all of X-Men! In fact, all of the cast are brilliant - especially Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart - some superb overacting to be seen!
Also took some time to buy the new Bill Hicks Release, Shock and Awe. This really deserves a special mention as there is so little of any note being released of any genre at the moment. The material on the CD was recorded in Oxford way back in 1992 - so the stuff about the Gulf War (the first Gulf War that is) seems strangely up to date whilst being dated - weird! Best line: "..the CIA have a plan for getting rid of Saddam - it's the same they use for all world leaders - but they are having trouble getting Saddam to get on the plane to Dallas!"
The close of the month also saw a return to Leicester Space Centre to see another of the Synth Music Direct gigs. This time Under the Dome (just one Scottish bloke on his own with a nice collection of synths) opened the evening, supplemented by Kubusschnitt (two blokes - one on keyboards, one guitar) in the second half of the show. UTD was superb - he played a rolling set of his own material, playing a Tangerine Dream cover (from Encore - the late 1970's live album) as his encore. Kubusschnitt were also very good - sounding like late 1970's Tangerine Dream - especially White Eagle and Force Majure. They lent a nice touch to the proceedings when they raffled a one off CD of never-to-be-released material that they had recorded the night before - nice one, lads - we did not win this one or the other raffle for the limited edition T shirt. The light show was out of this world - supplemented this time by the addition of several canisters of dry ice - the NSC staff are clearly getting the hang of visuals us synth-saddos demand!
Martin and Barry bought many CD's - including the new Tangerine Dream CD (a copy each). I am happy to note that TD are now sounding a bit more like the band I came to respect all those years ago - even for Martin (a harsh fan-cum-critic of TD), those horrible mid eighties onwards recordings will soon just be a blip!
I took some photos of the event - including one that nearly blinded the KS guitarist (he likes to walk amongst the audience armed with his wireless guitar) - if anyone knows him please tell him that I am very sorry and did not mean to half blind him - I was as embarrassed as he was shocked! These photos can be found on the gallery section of the site.....
June 2003
Started off the month by parting with the old Pearl Traveller Practice Kit. This had lain dormant since the purchase of the famous Roland TD6. The first person to see it in the flesh bought it and I was well pleased to have some more space in the back bedroom (by now redesignated the Drum Room).
With the funds I got from selling the kit, I took a trip to Manchester and bought myself a new bass pedal. This turned out to be a very frustrating experience. You would have thought that it would have been a simple enough task - I had set my heart upon the Drum Workshop 4000 pedal - the reason for which was the big steel embossed lettering with the words Drum Workshop written upon it - people see that and know that you mean business (conspicuous consumption is not a big thing for me - until it is concerned with drum stuff).
I started off @ the Academy of Sound - next to Oxford Road Station. I had a quick look at the bass pedals and got a little bit distracted by the Yamaha electronic kit on display - it was a DTXtreme - with the real-feel mesh heads - and the small shells finished in a sort of wooden effect. I must admit that it was the first time I had played a kit that could be a threat to the Roland range - but the main drawback was that the hardware simply was not up to my poundings - me being a little on the heavy handed side - the second tom kept moving to a vertical position - annoyance factor:10. But still - no DW pedal - but I did notice a few Mapex pedals that would definitely do the trick.
My second visit was to Johnny Roadhouse Music on Oxford Road - if you have never been here then this is a site over several floors with all sorts of equipment that you will be hard pushed to find anywhere else - for instance - the drum department has stocked second hand Rogers, Sonor Vistalite and Staccato kits (all very rare!). Surprisingly, this turned out to be a fruitless visit - they did have DW pedals but can't get hold of them anymore because they are not a main dealer (read as sold out but didn't want to look silly) - and the attitude of the guy who runs the place really got on my nerves - and Emma's as well. In fact, I seem to recall Strat having a fair old sized row with him about the identity of the drums Neil Peart was playing on the Hold Your Fire Tour in the late 1980's (they were Ludwig so 1-0 to Strat me thinks!). Eventually, I tired of Roadhouse and went back to Academy of Sound. I plumped for the latest Mapex pedal - the latest model has a big yellow base plate so you can't lose it in the darkness of the stage - not really a big problem in the drum room - if I start to lose my pedals then I simply turn the light on! I am very pleased with the Mapex and it feels good to have a good solid piece of steel under one's size eight! I was so pleased that I had my photo taken with it when I got home!
It goes without saying that the change from the day out was spent on a trip to Starbucks - I owed Emma this after she had walked around in the blazing sunshine with me in pursuit of the ultimate bass pedal (and had to watch me give the Yamaha kit a good thumping) - it was a very warm day and you really have to see Oxford Road to believe the length of the bloody thing!
This was a big month for Miles Davis - on the same day that I bought my new bass pedal, I got hold of a copy of Neferreti in the mini-LP cardboard sleeve format (very limited edition - I also have some Genesis CD's in this format). The end of the month also saw me get hold of Around Midnight (1956) and the latest Miles Davis CD - Live at the Blackhawk, San Francisco - this album was released in several parts in 1961 - but we had to wait until 2003 to get hold of a single volume edition with loads of additional tracks - this a quadruple CD set for God's sake! Emma bought me this (she is very good to me) and I am well pleased with it - another Miles artifact! I was also able to get hold of a copy of Sunflower by Milt Jackson - a vibraphone player - accompanied by the best of the CTI musicians - Billy Cobham, Freddie Hubbard, Ron Carter etc - a real discovery - and very, very rare!
Friends Reunited delivered again this month. Andy Hiscock - you can see him on the Misc Pix section of the image gallery - was found using the said website (that just about everyone must have heard of by now). Andy was prompted to visit my site and remains confused by the whole thing. He is also a bit disappointed with the picture I used of him - well, Andy, that Armani Shirts shoot that you did for Esquire Magazine must have got lost in the post I'm afraid! What was he expecting?
July 2003
July always marks the passing of another year in my life - and as you can see I have tried to cram as much as I can into the month of the passing of my.....33rd year!
My big birthday prezzie was a trip to see Yes @ the Liverpool Summer Proms, held, as always, at the Kings Dock Liverpool. Every year, the traditional orchestral proms are augmented by the addition of a few bands to liven things up under the big top. Emma, the missus, had laid plans to surprise me with tickets to see Yes on the Saturday preceding my big day. However, Emma panicked when she could not find Yes in my CD collection - she thought, horror of horrors, that I did not like them. Little did she know that most of my Yes collection, pre 90125, is on vinyl - but before I could explain this the damage had been done and Emma had confided what she thought was a mistake.
Some mistake - Yes were on top form and played a very old-school set. Apart from the new material that has been released by the band in recent years, there was a massive black hole in their material from 90125 through Reunion - it was as if those years had never existed. I thought this was a very brave move - no matter how many people had discovered Yes (as I did) through 90125, the audience got a predominantly 1970's set - padded out with some of the longest tracks in the back catalogue - take it or leave it! This decision was reflected in the classic lineup - Rick Wakeman on keyboards, Chris Squire on bass, Steve Howe on Guitar, Alan White on Drums (the only really constant member of Yes being as he has been a member since the Topographic Oceans tour in 1976-77) and Jon Anderson on vocals. The sound was incredible (including a real monster of a Chris Squire bass sound - I should imagine that it was mainly thanks to his Rickenbacker 4001 being played through two enormous bass cabinets and a few AKG Compressors), Rick Wakeman did his immortal moog solo, Steve Howe switched effortlessly between pedal steel, electric and acoustic guitar (sometimes within the same song!), Alan White provided a varied masterclass in drumming (including percussion instruments) and Jon Anderson even found time to squeeze in a harp solo!
I have collected a few pictures from this gig in the images section of the site (don't expect anything earth shattering!). As a really annoying footnote to the Yes gig, I later discovered that a former co-worker of mine shared a taxi on the way on the way to Glastonbury with a certain Chris Squire - and she did not know who he was! To protect the innocent I have left out her name - no - bugger it - her name is Janey and she works for Biffa Waste in Bromborough, Wirral - Janey - hang your head in shame!
Other prezzies included the entire Six Feet Under 1st Series on DVD (a prezzie that I am finding myself harping on about all the time - I cannot stress enough that you MUST SEE THIS SHOW!). Emma also bought me a mega bright shirt (very 1970's) and Mum and Dad were badly let down by Amazon with the books that they ordered for me - as I type this in mid July Amazon have still to bother delivering anything!
Mid-Month Emma and I went to visit her dad. He was in the Lakes on sabbatical and was spending the time in a superb cottage overlooking Hawkshead. It was a nice break to get away from Runcorn and work and spend some time (though not enough!) in relax mode. On the Sunday morning we went for a walk in Ambleside and discovered a brilliant exhibition of football photos called Homes of Football. These pictures have been taken by a certain Stuart Clarke over the years at various football matches - from Barrow Town to the World Cup Final. What is good about the collection is that they are not just pictures of the vastly overpaid players but very human pictures of the fans, the grounds and the various happenings outside the ground. A good example of the kind of stuff I am on about can be seen below - a superb wide angle shot taken at Blackburn the year of Man City's escape from the First Division...... just what the bloke at the front with the crutch is doing is beyond me - perhaps it belongs to Veron!
The picture below is perhaps the pick of the bunch. This one dates from 1990 and was taken in Stockport at the time of the World Cup Finals in Italy. I have chosen this NOT FOR THE BIRD'S LEGS - but for the details - the packets of crisps in the mum's hand, the hastily found blue shorts that are clearly not part of the kit - and there is a MkV Cortina in the background as well - result! I wonder if this lad - who must be approaching his twenties by now - is aware he is immortalised on this picture? Other great pics of John Motson, Hamburger Concession Girls, Sunday League matches can be found at the exhibition - if you are a fan of either football or photography then you should pop along for a peek! You could always pop along to their web site here if the Lakes is a bit far for you.
Emma also found time to check things out at the exhibition and here she is totally failing to grasp the basics of operating Subbuteo goalies - you are not allowed to waggle the goalie rapidly from side to side to prevent a goal - it says so in the rules - I still scored past her anyway! It should be noted that Emma is suitably attired in the 1970's Liverpool top (complete with Hitachi sponsor!) - as ordered over the net from http://www.toffs.co.uk.
At the end of July (busy month!) I took a day out to Birmingham to attend the Drumfest 2003. After hunting down a Starbucks (I always seem to find one!), we sped along to the hall and took up our seats! This took place in the rather plush surroundings of Adrian Boult Hall. The drumfest is basically what has become known as a drum clinic. A drum clinic can best be described as drummers doing their stuff and sharing pearls of wisdom with the audience about the sorts of skills, rudiments and tricks you should be adding to your repertoire if you want to one day grow up and join the big boys.
For the purpose of this exercise the big boys were as follows:
The clinic was run by House of Drums (a big Birmingham Drum Shop) and they had a stall out in the foyer - along with some stuff by Mapex (for it is they who sponsor Greg Bissonette) - and I had barely been in the foyer myself a few minutes when I was right in the face of a certain Zoro who was easy going enough to shake me by the hand and let himself have his photo taken with me (I wonder if he would had he known he was going to turn up on this weird web-site!) - later on I got him to autograph my ticket (which you can see above). This was my first real brush with greatness ever - unless you include saying hello to Phil Neal and sharing a train carriage with Mark Bright (both late of Liverpool Football Club).
Jason Bowld was the opening drummer and it was here that one truly works out what a bad call sitting in front of the PA System really is (they looked like the best seats at the time) - it was just so loud that I really thought I would be cramming bits of my ear drum back into my lugs! He played along with some tracks that were left behind from Pitch-Shifter - and also his own compositions, built using a sequencer, that he uses to demonstrate his prowess on the drum kit. Jason is a superb drummer - and a little on the heavy handed side! Jason played a superb Pearl 4 piece.
Next up was Pete Zilderman. His set revolved around two solos on what has to be the best sounding drum kit I have ever stood near - it was tuned to perfection - and miked up perfectly. Pete is big on playing around with timing and he explained and demonstrated his tricks before he launched into his last solo. He played a Gretsch kit that was made of up of very small tom sizes.
Mark Mondesir was next. Every clinic should have a jazz drummer - and Mark is one of the best the UK has to offer. He played two very technical solos (that was when I realised he was ambidextrous!) and did a Q&A session in between. He played a Yamaha kit.
Zoro, for me, was the highlight of the show. He did his own intro rap before moving on to do a presentation (with the aid of a slide projector) about the best of R&B drumming of the last 40+ years, using DAT's to play along with the real tracks. This was a truly original way to do a clinic and went to show that sometimes it is not about how you can solo but how you should concentrate on holding everything down. One of the tracks that Zoro demonstrated was Harvey Mason's top funk beat on Chameleon by Herbie Hancock - much more difficult than it sounds (especially when you play a small drum fill at the end of every bar like Zoro does it!). Zoro played a tiny DW kit - but with nicest finish I have ever seen on a kit - a sort of marble effect (I won't mention the disco ball hanging off the hi-hat stand). Best of all was Zoro's attitude to the audience and those who said hello when he was in the lobby - I will say that he made a lot of new friends and admirers that day - well done, mate!
Ian Paice arrived and it was obvious from the response he walked out to that most of the drummers present had turned up to see him. Ian did a few solos as well as a Q&A session - that also included demonstrating a few Deep Purple drum parts. This part of the show turned out to be quite distressing for one fan who had spent his life certain that Fireball had been done with just one bass drum and was a bit crushed to find out that Ian had made use of a 2nd bass drum to make the incredible super-charged back beat on the intro (double pedals were just a distant dream!). Ian also demonstrated the single stroke roll that has become one of his trademarks over the years. I will never attempting one as Ian warned out that all of the pressure is on your forefinger alone - making it a bit dangerous! Ian played his trademark set up (now Pearl rather than Ludwig) in silver sparkle with classic 1970's and 1980's PAISTE 2002 cymbals.
I was a bit boring and we sped off to miss the M6 traffic before we could catch Greg Bissonette - but we did find time to marvel at just what a strange set of buildings are in Birmingham - all curvy concrete and town planners nightmares from the 1960's!
Please go to the gallery section of the site to check out the pictures of this event.
I had been a good boy for most of the month and treated myself to a Mapex Drum throne - with a leopard-skin finish - it kind of looks like some hunter has shot Bet Lynch as she was walking away from the Rovers Return and turned her into a drum stool - the final indignity for Bet! Above, you can see me just around the corner from the Post Office Car Park (£7 for five hours!) with my new purchase.....perhaps I should see if Mapex would take me on as an endorsee!? Mapex - if you are reading this - the throne is very comfy and looks the part......... can I have a free top of the range kit and a t-shirt please?
So, all in all a very busy and enjoyable month. Thanks go to Emma for following me around to these events! The icing on the cake was my goodbye to the transport industry and took on a new career.
August 2003
After the mayhem of July, I was looking forward to a nice relaxing lie in the sun for the month of August.
Having been on shift recently, I was a bit miffed that I had missed most of the Manchester Jazz Festival, so I took some time to spend the first day of August walking around Manchester seeking out Jazz to watch before the festival came to a close on the Sunday (in fact it was Emma who reminded me). I found some in the shape of Jon Thorne's Oedipus Complex who were performing for free in an ante-room inside the rather magnificent Bridgewater Hall (the first time I have ever been there). JTOC were very good - piano, double bass, drums, trumpet and saxaphone;
They played very complex compositions (a set entitled "Strange News From Another Star") where the double bass sometimes acted as the melody - a weird concept! I was lucky enough to get some photos and these are to be found in the gallery.
In case you are wondering - we had a Starbucks first!
Later that weekend I took Emma to see Terminator 3. Having loved 1 & 2 so much, I was very confused as to why a third film was needed - Terminator has to be one of the best films of the 1980's (especially as it was shot on a budget of next to nothing), Terminator 2 has to be one of the best films of the 1990's (especially as it was shot on a budget equal to that of the military budget of a large superpower). Sadly, T3 will not be getting added to this list - it just failed to reach the standards set by its predecessors - a bit like taking over the striker role after a retirement. Most ridiculous of all is the utter lack of security around top secret installations - the Skynet Control Centre proves to be particularly easy to breach - even when all three of you are armed to the teeth (you know - little things like AK47's and RPG's) - and the total lack of security around Diamond Peak (unless you count a fence with a KEEP OUT sign on it) should be a concern to the post 9/11 world. James Cameron can rest easy - he had nothing to do with it! Lesson for the day - some films should be left alone!
Before I changed jobs, it was impressed upon me that I really must think about taking a holiday sometime. After having a quick look at the options, I went for a five day stay with my Big Brother, his missus and two daughters in Ireland. Emma, as one would expect, was also coming along for a break. Basically, I love Ireland - it really is one of the most agreeable places on earth - very similar to Holland in its outlook (i.e - a bit laid back!). After getting the fast ferry from Liverpool, we walked through Dublin to Heuston Station. This of course included my usual stop at the GPO which I always make a point of visiting when I am in town (well - I did the only other two times I was in the area) - you see this is the place seized by the Republicans during the 1916 Easter Rising - there are paintings all around the inside depicting the stages of the battle - and historical places are a weakness of mine. Thus, it is really a historical landmark - a sort of Alamo for Ireland I suppose!
The GPO is also handy for buying stamps to send postcards - and this I did - about 26 of them all told! For all of my postcard people - I'm sorry but Postcards are another weakness of mine!
After walking past the Four Courts (also played a large role during the Easter Rising and the Civil War) and along the Liffey (see photo above), we got our train from Heuston to Limerick. This was a really nice journey (despite not having a seat most of the way!) and Ireland should be very pleased with their rail system - it has a lot more going for it than the horrible 3rd world UK one - cheap coffee, cheap tickets - and get this - free travel for the over 65's! My sister-in-law had warned me about the lack of investment and generally poor state of Ireland's railways - she didn't realise that I used to get the train into Liverpool every day (most recently when I was getting my First Aid Certificate) - so you cannot scare me one bit! In fact, I think she painted it a bit blacker than it actually was - it was not bad at all!
There is not much musical content to mention - I failed to see a drum shop or a drummer of any kind whilst over there. I did see a traditional band (not to be confused with folk I am told - so probably not a good idea to mention the Corrs or Clannad!) who played in the corner of the Killaloe pub I was drinking in (for the record it was the Quay!) - they were brilliant and made a superb sound - but they had no drummer - and I did not have my camera with me! For the record, they were a violinist, two guitarists - one of which also played the banjo.
There were lots of Bodrhans for sale (old Irish hand drum - pronounced bowron or something like that - I always thought that was the thing that killed Gandalf in Lord of the Rings!) but I never got round to buying one - difficult to incorporate into an electronic kit! But to cut a long story short, if you have yet to go to Ireland then you really should think about doing so!
On our return, we (being Emma's brother and his missus, two young Russian types - guests of Emma's Mam and Dad - Emma and Myself) went along to the pix (in St Helens) to see American Pie 3 - The Wedding. Now after the rant I typed above about Terminator 3 it may seem a bit weird if I give this movie a half decent type up - but this movie does exactly what it says on the tin - if you want something as thought provoking as Citizen Kane then you really should get along and see Citizen Kane. American Pie 3 is as brainless and funny as one would expect - although it is not as half as tight as the first movie - it just seems like it is the result of a couple of script meetings and movie focus groups. No I didn't like it that much - although it is funny and I did hurt myself laughing a few times. Hollywood - stop making sequels (apart from anything to do with Lord of the Rings - for this I will accept as a necessity), get your collective heads from up your collective backsides and start using your imagination rather than just using what might have been good ideas three years ago as a cash cow (too angry? please advise....).
Towards the end of the month (20th), I popped along with Barry and Martin to indulge in a little bit of Golf Driving - and I don't mean the Volkswagen type. I am only including this as it is a bit out of character for me - me playing Golf? A small threat to my working class sensibilities. Our local driving range is the True Fit next to the famous landmark of Fiddlers Ferry Power Station. They have recently installed automatic tees - that means that your tee is reloaded after each hit (or attempted hit in my case). A fiver buys you 120 balls - but sadly most of mine ended up only ten yards from me (in fact I could have saved a fortune and just walked out and got these - thus saving me about 50 balls!). However, I must have done something right as I did whack a few 200 yard plus babies - if I could do this every time I could turn professional! But really - a large part of me is very satisfied and reassured that I am crap at golf - I don't think I could face my friends if I ever got half good at a sport I profess to hate!
I spent the first part of the Bank Holiday in Wiltshire. This was a catching up session with a few lads I had been in the RAF with during the 1990's - namely Tim and Abe - plus a surprise appearance from Martin Ware - not the one from Heaven 17 in case you were wondering - this one I used to do nights in the priority cell with when I was an RAF delivery driver - back in 1991! After a very easy drive down (the Highways Agency has made a few changes since my first forays up and down to Wiltshire throughout the 1990's), I popped in to see Tim's nice new house in Calne. After a few listens to various CD's (The Wall, Wish You Were Here etc.) to appreciate how they sound on a £16,000 hi-fi system (no that is not a typo!), we popped to my fave Wilsthire Pub - in Avebury Stone Circle. Nobody believed me that there is in fact a pub in the middle of a stone circle - but please do. Avebury is 450 yards across and is the largest stone circle in Europe - and we had a pint each within it! Above you can see me on the edge of the circle - Solsbury Hill is not far over my right shoulder.
Later on we went for a drink and caught up with old times - when none of us were civilians - and all of those people we knew whilst we were in. Many a swinging lamp story was to be told! The weekend was a nice trip down what Robin Williams called Amnesia Avenue - it really was strange driving past RAF Lyneham and seeing those poor buggers doing gate guard in the beating sun after spending most of my twenties there!
I could not leave Calne and not have my photo taken with the recently built Calne Library - the architect seems to have seen Planet of the Apes more than a few times (the proper Charlton Heston version and not that poxy modern version). Just have a look below and you will see what I mean.
Big event in my life: I got a mention on Jazz FM - live on the air. I had sent an e-mail to Helen Mayhew - she who does Dinner Jazz at around 20:00hrs every night. I had asked her the identity of an artist she had played one night and she gave me a mention on air, wishing me luck in my new career. Of course - my first mention on the air and I did not hear it - Emma was back in St Helens driving at the time and nearly crashed the car when she heard it. If Helen was a real pal then she would have gave the website a plug on the air.
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