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Sunday
30th January
Had a great time yesterday at the Strumpfest,
an annual fund-raiser for multiple sclerosis charities. Apparently
last year's total of £1,146.80 was outstripped even before
the show began, and an excellent acoustic set from Thunder brought
a few extra punters into the Borderline.
With a friendly atmosphere and well-organised structure, I'll
be going again next year. Chariot played a brisk early evening
set of old standards and appetisers from the forthcoming 'Behind
The Wire' album, the event being closed by my favourite new
band, Hurricane Party, who just seem to get better and better.
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Saturday 29th January
Well, three weeks later I finally played the Japanese bootleg
DVD of Rainbow that Michael Amott so kindly gave me (see 19th
December). It's amazing to think that the inaugural Castle Donington
gig took place a quarter of a century ago. The 1980 festival
was the only Donington I didn't attend. Mum and dad had forced
me to make a decision - Rainbow, Priest, the Scorpions et al
in Derbyshire, or that year's Reading Festival. UFO, Maiden,
Whitesnake, Def Leppard, Gillan, Pat Travers, Magnum, Samson,
Rory Gallagher and many more; three full days of booze, mud,
debauchery and glorious freedom, or just one. It was, in the
current parlance, a no-brainer.
The DVD is highly edited and a bit grainy, but great. It includes
Graham Bonnet's mysterious mention of mushy peas during 'All
Night Long', and a puzzling rendition of the Shirelles' 'Will
You Still Love Me Tomorrow', plus Blackmore thrashing his Strat.
There's also a bonus feature that set me wondering. In it, Cozy
Powell appears on Tiswas having judged a competition to find
the nation's best new young drummer. The winner was Carl Smith,
then podgy and aged nine, who'd now be 34 years old. Wonder
if he ever joined a band? At the end of his appearance, Cozy
even gets flanned by sex goddess presenter Sally James - something
I'd have died and gone to heaven for if it had ever happened
to me!
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Friday 28th January
Another excellent gig last night. The Inferno Festival at the
Underworld was a showcase for five Norwegian groups. Strangely,
considering they were probably the best act on the bill, Enslaved
opted to go on first. It later turned out they were entered
in a fishing competition, and wanted to get
away quickly (honestly!). These Vikings and their fish... what
are they like? Keeping the food analogy going, Madder Mortem
were perhaps the event's only turkey. Grimfist would have been
a meat BBQ platter; nice 'n' spicy. With their futuristic cyber-riffing,
Red Harvest a microwavable delicacy.
And headliners Arcturus something flamboyant and gourmet-approved.
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Wednesday 26th January
Oh, joy of joys. Just received finished copies of the Status
Quo re-issues. The first six Vertigo Records albums - 'Piledriver'
through the immortal double 'Live' - on CD with at least one
bonus track, and sleeve notes. Truth told, the liner essays
are pretty bland, but the music, THE MUSIC! 'Quo', from 1974,
is actually among the finest of the batch. One the band's best
five or six numbers, it's nice to hear 'Slow Train' in its entirety
instead of live medley form. Even lesser-celebrated tracks like
'Don't Think It Matters', built around one of the meatiest riffs
I've ever heard, had me hopping around the room and strumming
like a grinning fool at that invisible green Telecaster. I might
have to wait till the family go out before returning to 'Live';
maybe dig out the old tennis racket and recite Rossi's song
intros verbatim just like I used to. Ahem... what an admission...
I'll get me (patched, denim waist-)coat.
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Tuesday
25th January
A
cracking show from Napalm Death and Mistress took place at a
sold-out Underworld last night. Beforehand, the press had been
invited for a few beers and some nosebag as Napalm's new album,
'The Code Is Red... Long Live The Code' (due on April 25), was
previewed. The band were happy and confident, and their album
justified the positive mood. Present among the early-birds was
Jeff Walker, ex-frontman of Carcass, who appears on one of the
record's tracks and joined the band onstage. As well as confiding
that he's now working on a country and western album (yes, really),
Walker delighted in winding up the politically correct Barney
Greenway with a joke - "What's the difference between a
feminist and a dustbin? The dustbin gets taken out at least
once a week!" - but sadly, although ex-vocalist Lee Dorrian
was in the house, he could not be persuaded to join in the fun
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Sunday 23rd January
Somewhat
sore-headed today after yesterday's amazing 3-0 home victory
over Spurs. If Palace can play like that for the rest of the
season we'll have no problems. Perhaps the most enjoyable moment
came a few minutes from the end when Gabor Kiraly, the Hungarian
who's having a brilliant season between the sticks, gesticulated
to a fan in the Holmesdale Road stand as if to say, 'Here mate,
you go in goal'. After the whistle blew I nipped up to the Underworld
for an excellent gig by Polish black-death band Behemoth. I
like to keep a clear head if I'm reviewing, so saved the joyous
celebrations till after the gig. However, it might've been an
error to have consumed 1.5 litres of vile Budgen liebfraumilch
piss - the only thing I could locate with a screw top - on the
tube journey home.
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Saturday 22nd January
Last night I headed down to Croydon to check out Statetrooper
and Lionsheart. The Cartoon's a friendly little club but the
experience made me glad that I'm a journo and not a muso. The
attendance was feeble; I felt sympathy for Gary Barden - who'd
been in with a shout of real stardom during his days with Michael
Schenker - when he expressed pleasure at seeing so many punters,
stating that Statetrooper will back again soon. He probably
should've gone to Specsavers. After Lionsheart's set, Steve
Grimmett told me that he'd come pretty close to throwing in
the towel a while back - till the rejuvenating arrival of ex-Killers
bassist Gavin Cooper, in fact. I'm so glad that he didn't, as
he's a lovely geezer with a golden set of David Coverdale-esque
tonsils. Too bad that Blaze Bayley got the Maiden gig ahead
of Steve, who I believe also auditioned. I was pretty unkind
to Lionsheart's 'Abyss' album in the pages of Classic Rock.
Hearing some of its contents belted out on stage made me realise
it's nowhere near as 'Abyss'-mal as first feared.
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Wednesday 19th January
A promo of 'Angel Of Retribution', the new Judas Priest album,
has just arrived... Nurse, the screens! I'd already heard five
tracks (see diary, 20th December), but the album in its entirety
is just... just... well, as unrelenting and merciless as I'd
hoped. 'Judas Rising' must open the live shows in March, and
every track is worth its place on the disc. The closing song,
a thudding, bludgeoning 13-and-a-half minute epic about Loch
Ness (the chorus goes: "Loch Ness/Confess/Your terror of
the deep"), is arguably the most ludicrous thing that Priest
have ever done. Given that the band are vying for a younger
audience, its inclusion is pretty brave. But get saving those
pennies for a real treat on February 28th.
P.S. Please don't ask me to burn MP3s or cassettes of the Priest
album, as a punch in the face or being told to fuck off is often
likely to offend.
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Sunday 16th January
As
anyone who knows me'll attest, I've always loved a bargain.
Yesterday I took a trip up North to see Palace's game against
Manchester City - a mere £11 return on a National Express
coach and all the whippets you could eat. Alas, I seemed to
spend far more than the fare in the pub before the game, becoming
so inebriated that at half time, with Palace trailing 1-2, I
was under the impression that the game was over. If only it
had been - we eventually lost 1-3. A depressing trip home followed,
tucked up in bed by midnight, scarf lost somewhere along the
way. Waste of a friggin' day, and three more valuable points
lost. Eeek
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Friday 14th January
An album I received today that made me feel ancient. 'Soft
Rock Anthems' is a Telstar-style compilation that cobbles together
perennials like 'More Than A Feeling' (Boston), 'Africa' (Toto),
'Dead Ringer For Love' (Meat Loaf), 'Can't Fight This Feeling'
(REO Speedwagon) and 'Eye Of The Tiger' Survivor). Except this
one is a double, which is more interesting 'cos it also includes
such extras as 'Music' by John Miles (an absolute drop-dead
classic), 'The Logical Song' by 'Supertramp' (which made me
want to whip out the timeless 'Crime Of The Century' album)
and Foreigner's 'Urgent' (which reminded me that I really should
post my Classic Rock story of the '4' album some time). Why
do I mention this? Well, it also featured the original version
of 'Ride Like The Wind', first recorded by Christopher Cross
but a song I've heard Saxon perform so many times that I'd almost
forgotten it was actually a cover. Can time really play such
strange tricks on one's perspective?! Apparently they can. I
was also horrified to find myself enjoying 'Hey Little Girl'
by Icehouse, a band I'd considered utterly foul till now, despite
having had the gross misfortune to see them live. Now here I
am thinking that they sound a little bit like Roxy Music-lite
and making a mental note to look out for them in the £1
rack at the Record & Tape Exchange. Oh dear.
I'll tell you this in advance: If anyone ever sees me preparing
to buy a Simple Minds or Chicago album, please do the decent
thing and fucking shoot me!
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Thursday 13th January
After weeks of promising, we finally took our two fine lads
to see The Incredibles. Even for grown-ups it's an excellent
film, though it was extremely disconcerting to note that the
fictional lead character (Mr. Incredible) was the spitting
image of the real-life Mr. Incredible, Palace manager Iain
Dowie. Funnily enough, there's also a lookalike
of Br***ton & Homo Al**on manager Mark McGhee in the Big
Brother house at the moment. It's a funny ol' world, eh?
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Sunday 9th January
I never like it when Palace lose, but yesterday's game,
which saw us exit the FA Cup up in Sunderland, didn't elicit
the usual feelings of rage or frustration, nor that awful tightening
knot in the stomach. Apparently the team played awfully and
deserved to come home empty-handed. I really don't care - that's
one defeat and pub team performance which might otherwise have
taken place in something important like the league.
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Thursday 6th January
Yesterday my Classic Rock pal Jerry Ewing and I visited
a studio in Fulham for a preview of the new Porcupine Tree album,
'Deadwing'. We secretly felt the band would struggle to top
their last album, 'In Absentia', but what we heard delighted
us. Before unveiling the track 'Arriving Somewhere But Not Here'
in 5.1 surround sound splendour, Steven Wilson grinned as he
asked: "Do you want the uber-prog epic first?" It
was 12 minutes long, incorporating all the elements for which
the band have become renowned, even featuring a guest spot from
Opeth's Mikael Akerfeldt. The title track was also hugely impressive,
also boasting a contribution from Adrian Belew of King Crimson.
The first single, 'Shallow', was far rockier and more instant,
while the hauntingly spiritual 'Lazarus' was stunningly arranged.
Due on March 21, to these ears it's already in the running for
the best album of 2005.
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Tuesday January 4th
What a difference 48 hours makes. Still recovering from
Palace's great victory over Aston Villa yesterday, a faith-affirming
2-0 win that restored my belief in bouncebackability. Bumped
into Harry James, Thunder and Magnum's drummer, just before
the kick-off. He had his little daughter with him. The proud
look on his face suggested it was a great moment for him, though
his cute little offspring seemed far less enthused. Wonder how
she felt afterwards? I know that my boy Eddie was thrilled to
see the team win after several draws and defeats.
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Sunday January 2nd
Sad to say, yesterday might just have seen the wheels come
off Palace's bid to stay in the Premiership. We could and should
have got a result away at Fulham, but turned in a shameful second
half performance, losing 3-1.
Afterwards I'd planned to head onto the Cartoon in Croydon for
a gig by Laurence Archer's Nineteen (funnily enough, my calculations
suggest that the former Stampede/UFO/Grand Slam guitarist is
a wee bit older than that), but it was cancelled at the last
minute. It never rains but it bloody pours, eh?
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