Dave's Diary
This journal of the comings'n'goings and musings'n'enthusings of Dave Ling will be updated daily
(except after nights of excess)

Saturday 29th April
Here's something cool that I only just found; Rush have begun preparing the follow-up to 2002's 'Vapor Trails' album (being comprised of covers, I don't count 'Feedback' as a proper release). Drummer Neil Peart has posted an excellent diary of the early stages at his website. I love the imagery of three middle-aged Canadians hugging themselves in the snow, getting all emotional about cooking for each other and being absent minded enough to almost have left behind the CD of new song ideas! I also deeply admire the fact that a percussionist as advanced as Peart still has a drum tutor! Can't wait to hear the record, especially as Neil calls the formative ideas "spiritual".
BTW, there are updates in the Ask Dave, Playlist and Quotes sections. The Gallery also has a ludicrous photo from 1991 of myself with Biff from Saxon that I found in an old copy of RAW magazine. Christ! I really liked my kebabs in those days...
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Friday 28th April
Further to yesterday's entry about the English footie team, I'm hearing that British Whale (aka Justin Hawkins) is releasing a World Cup single via The Darkness' myspace page. Titled 'England', it reportedly includes the lines: "We've fought them on the beaches/Now we'll play them on the field". Attaboy!
Still pursuing a combat theme, Paul Di'Anno has launched a stinging verbal attack on fellow former Iron Maiden frontman Blaze Bayley. In a typically outspoken interview with www.MaidenNorway.com, Di'Anno recalled the time in Istanbul that he shared a stage with Bayley. "My God, he's a prick," Paul exclaimed to journalist Pål Johansen. "He came up to do one song and couldn't remember the words! 'Running Free'... [looks stunned]... How hard is that?" How hard indeed.
P.S. Oh no! Messiah Marcolin has quit Candlemass during the recording of a new album. The singer has of course left Candlemass before but is now insisting this split is permanent. I'm absolutely gutted.
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Thursday 27th April
So the Football Association have apparently offered former Brazil boss Luiz Felipe Scolari the chance to become England's next manager. Nicknamed 'Big Phil' (why not 'Big Loo'?), Scolari has at least won the World Cup with Brazil and took Portugal to the Finals of Euro 2004. Though a proven winner, he's known to be outspoken and a bit of a loose cannon. It's an interesting choice, and one that I guess will be made before the big kick-off takes place. What makes it even more fascinating is the possibility of Scolari knocking his future employers out of the World Cup this summer with Portugal... can you imagine the headlines?
As I type, there are now 43 days, 10 hours and 14 minutes until the tournament kicks off. How odd that England are now rated as second favourites - after Brazil. With the countdown well and truly underway, last night Channel 5 screened a great documentary on the fierce footballing rivalry between England and Germany. I'd forgotten about the shame of the English team being forced into Nazi salutes before a game in 1938; at least we stuffed six past them in response - one better than the 5-1 in 2001. What price renewing those age-old hostilities come June, or even early July?!
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Monday 24th April
"How fooking good it is for Saxon to be playing here on fooking St George's Day?" These were the words with which Biff Byford patriotically began a spectacular gig. Saxon had promised to play songs from their first five albums, 'Saxon' through to 'Power And The Glory', but eventually added both 'Crusader' and 'Lionheart'. Byford's between-song patter was hilarious as ever. "As this is an 80s show I was gonna wear my spandex again, but the wife wouldn't let me," he quipped. Pantomime Dame Byford wound up the Astoria by naming other cities and countries Saxon had played in the past few days, or were due to visit. The crescendo of boos grew for Holland, France, Scotland and of course Germany, then Biff began on upcoming UK shows. Wolverhampton was greeted with derision ("There's nothing wrong with Wolverhampton"), as was Norwich ("What's wrong with Norwich, it's a nice place?"), the howls of dissaproval peaking at the mention of Manchester ("Okay, I'll give ya Manchester," chuckled Biff gamely). And how's about this for a mouth-watering set-list: 'Motorcycle Man', 'Backs To The Wall', 'Strong Arm Of The Law', 'Never Surrender', 'Stallions Of The Highway', 'The Power And The Glory', 'Frozen Rainbow', 'Suzie Hold On', 'The Eagle Has Landed', 'Dallas 1PM', 'Redline', 'To Hell And Back Again', 'And The Bands Played On', 'Crusader', '20,000 Feet', 'Stand Up And Be Counted' and 'Princess Of The Night', then encores of: 'Lionheart', '747 (Strangers In The Night)', 'Heavy Metal Thunder', Doug Scarratt guitar solo/'Wheels Of Steel' and 'Denim And Leather'. Props also to openers Blitzkrieg for 45 minutes of rampaging British metal and some quite hilarious wardrobe choices.
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Sunday 23rd April
Well, Palace scraped home against Southampton yesterday by two goals to one, but it was a hollow victory. If we perform like that in the play-offs we'll be murdered. How nice it was to see their 'keeper Kevin Miller again - not. The porksome Miller once stoodly idly and conceded six goals whilst wearing a CPFC jersey in a game against QP-hahaha. It was a shameful display that a lump of lard could easily have surpassed, and Lazy Fatboy later quit the club in a row over money, adding Greed to his impressive repertoire. To say that he was made aware of the fans' contempt would be an understatement...
Getting down to some serious surfing after my week away, I was fascinated by a candid interview with former Journey manager Herbie Herbert at Classic Rock Revisited. In no uncertain terms and using language a docker would be proud of, Herbert explains his role in the band's formation, offering no-holds-barred comments about singer Steve Perry ("A real consummate piece of excrement, just a bad person") and guitarist/keyboard player Jonathan Cain ("A total piece of shit; a fuckin' asshole"). If you're a Journey fan, it's a must-read.
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Saturday 22nd April
The brief radio silence was due to an extended Easter break. I was gutted to have missed Bob Catley at the Underworld on Monday and also a gig by Cannibal Corpse, but there ya go. Was hoping to take in a live gig at the Lings' choice of holiday location but there was nothing going on in Ipswich or Norwich, and although Freddie Starr had a date in Great Yarmouth, I've never liked the sight of hamster blood.
The strains of the new House Of Lords album, 'World Turned Upside Down', were helpful as I spent all of yesterday afternoon opening the post and deleting a mountain of e-spam. The band's last album, 'The Power And The Myth' was pretty dreadful, so it's splendid to hear them playing full-on melodic pomp once more. If you're a fan of Femme Fatale or Vixen, the following might also be of interest. Lorraine Lewis, erstwhile vocalist of the former, has formed a new band called Rocktopuss with ex-Madam X/Vixen tub-thumper Roxy Petrucci. They're calling it "fresh modern rock with melody and teeth", and the rough tracks at their MySpace site certainly have potential. Also been playing Live's new album, 'Songs From The Black Mountain', a cracking collection of tunes.
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Tuesday 18th April
Great news - my favourite new band of the moment The Sword have lined up their debut British tour, including a show at London's Scala on May 14. Won't be missing that one for the world.
One gig that I wasn't able to catch was Dream Theater's 20th anniversary show at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Fortunately, my friend and Classic Rock colleague Rich Wilson just got back and has graciously agreed to share some of the many photos he took. Rich is currently writing a book on the band, which I can't wait to read. Of the gig he says: "With all 6,000 tickets sold, the band had enlisted the services of a 20-piece orchestra for the second half of the three-hour show. The likes of 'Metropolis' and the entire 'Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence' suite were given a whole new dimension. You could tell the band were moved and drummer Mike Portnoy was even close to tears at several points during. For those not fortunate enough to be there, they plan to release a DVD and CD set later in the year."
Another event which belongs under the heading 'great news' is that Millwank, Brighton and Crewe all got their scum-uppance yesterday. The Championship feels a fresher and cleaner place already.
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Sunday 16th April
I'm an extremely pissed-off budgie. Yesterday's erratic performance against lowly Crewe was a microcosm of Crystal Palace's 95/96 season, convincing me that we've no chance in the play-offs. At times we played like it was an exhibition game, passing the ball around beautifully and thanks to the returning Marco Reich looking dangerous with just about every attack. 2-0 up at half-time, the result should've been a formality but a breakaway goal and then a silly penalty contrived to hand two precious points to one of the most inept teams I've seen in a very long time indeed. Humphh...
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Saturday 15th April
According to Bonnie Raitt, who last night played an excellent Hammersmith Apollo gig, "spring has finally sprung". Yes indeed, warmer weather and the World Cup are just around the corner - 55 days and counting as I type - and having seen her opening for Eric Clapton a while back it was great to finally catch one of Raitt's headline shows. A great slide player with a powerful and rich voice, it's hard to believe she's in her late fifties. Jeez, she's like Sheryl Crow with talent. The early part of the 100-minute set focussed on Bonnie's current and 18th album 'Souls Alike' album ('Unnecessarily Mercenary', 'God Was In The Water' and 'I Will Not Be Broken'), but many of the night's most enjoyable tunes were written by other artists, notably a livewire rendition of 'I Believe I'm In Love' by the Fabulous Thunderbirds and a so-laid-back-it's-almost-horizontal cover of Sippie Wallace's 'Women Be Wise' that first appeared on her self-titled debut back in 1971.
On a completely different tangent, Grumpy Old Men has to be one of the best programmes on British TV. For those unfamiliar with this gem of a show, it features men of a certain age (including Rick Wakeman from Yes) moaning and bitching about modern society's terminal decline. Subjects scathingly addressed last night included mobile phones, the postal service and the utter toss that passes for music and cinema these days. My favourite part of the show was toff actor Nigel Havers losing his rag over expensive bottled water, tap water being (supposedly) free. "I'm buggered if I'm going to give my money to some... to some.. French arse. Yes, a French arse," stammered Havers, his trademark sophistication forgotten in a wave contempt for Gallic entrepreneurs everywhere. Top marks, posh fella.
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Friday 14th April
Loads more interesting albums have been arriving. Gotta admit, I was a little disappointed by the blandness of Saga's new opus, 'Trust', though of course I'll still be checking out the veteran Canadian pomp supremos at London's Garage on May 24. Was never too much of a Creed fan (to put it mildly), but that band's ex-singer Scott Stapp's solo debut 'The Great Divide' is way better than feared, as is 'Free', the second release from Dream Theater sticksman Mike Portnoy's side project Office Of Strategic Influence. And how cool it is that five of Warrior Soul's albums are being re-issued by Escapi Records (the exception being 1996's swansong, 'F**ker'), all complete with bonus tracks. I hadn't heard 1990's debut 'Last Decade, Dead Century' for many a long year... Jeez, it's stood the test of time magnificently.
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Thursday 13th April
The postman has been especially kind this past few days, and aside from my luvvly re-issue of UFO's 'Strangers In The Night', the Ling Towers Death Deck has rumbled incessantly to the joyous strains of Roadstar's 'Grand Hotel'. Full of rousing choruses, this is probably one of the best hard rock debut albums of recent years; not a bad song to be heard. I've had a rough CD copy of it for quite a while, but the newly tweaked track-listing is a huge improvement.
The excellent Gotthard also have a great live CD called 'Made In Switzerland', complete with rather silly sleeve. If you like the idea of a band that crosses latter-era Whitesnake with AOR tendencies, this is an album/DVD (though I've only heard the audio) to snap up when it hits the racks on April 28.
Over in the land of extreme metal, but still with a Swiss passport, Celtic Frost's new 'Monotheist' is a stunningly dark and malevolently brooding piece of work. The promo has sat on my desk for about a week, and to be honest I was put off by the horribly intrusive bleeps that the label have inserted to prevent it from being pirated ahead of a May 29 release date, but put them from your mind and 'Monotheist' is one helluva comeback disc. Oh... and to show I listen to more than just heavy metal, 'Rollback', the new album from Irish veterans Horslips hits the spot, too. I'm also looking forward to seeing blues-country icon Bonnie Raitt at the Hammersmith Apollo tomorrow night. This rock music malarky is a broad church!
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Tuesday 11th April
There are three great pieces of news this morning. Firstly, congratulations to my old Classic Rock mucker Jerry Ewing, who became a father at 5.29am - which must've been unusual as that's the time he's usually trying to find the door to exit the Crobar. Baby Roxy weighs in at a healthy 7lbs. Given the way that Monsewer Spewing has come out in sympathy with long-suffering partner Adair via a pregancy of his own, I suspect he'll make a kind and considerate dad.
Secondly, Anthrax's gig at the Astoria last night ruled. As a big fan of the John Bush line-up, like everyone else I'm flummoxed by Scott Ian's stubborn refusal to explain why the band would've folded had Joey Belladonna and Danny Spitz not returned to the fold. But as an exercise in pure nostalgia, I'd not witnessed anything better than this since Maiden's 'Ed Hunter' tour in 1999. The band played just about everything you could've wished for - 'Among The Living', 'Metal Thrashing Mad', 'Got The Time', 'Caught In A Mosh', 'AIR', 'A Skeleton In The Closet', 'Antisocial', 'Efilnikufesin (NFL)', 'Medusa', 'Indians', 'Be All, End All', 'I'm The Man', 'Aftershock' and 'I Am The Law' - and there was also a rousing opening set from ex-Priest singer Tim 'Ripper' Owens' new band, Beyond Fear.
And lastly, I'm getting a tax rebate. Hallelujah! Yes, the Inland Revenue say that I've overpaid them this year by the princely sum of £3.24. That almost but not quite covers the copy of Babe Ruth's 1976 album 'Kid's Stuff' that I unearthed at the Record & Tape Exchange last night.
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Sunday 9th April
I'm still fuming at Palace's appalling display up at Leicester on Friday. Key refereeing decisions might have changed the result if they'd gone our way, but despite Iain Dowie's claims that the Eagles "dominated the second half", we never looked like winning. Thanks to yesterday's defeats for Brighton and Scumwall, there can be no way back for either club. With Scumwall announcing that sections of their ground will be closed next season, and attendances already as tiny as the brains of their fans, relegation might just end up sounding their death knell. Given that their motto is: "No-one likes us, we don't care", you could even say the wounds are self-inflicted.
Further cheer arrived yesterday morning in the shape of promos of Whitesnake's first three albums; 'Trouble' (1978), 'Lovehunter' (1979) and 'Ready An' Willing' (1980), all complete with bonus tracks and sleeve notes from Geoff Barton. The timing was most apt, as I'm currently transcribing an interview with Bernie Marsden for a career-encompassing anthology to be released this summer.
Thanks also to my good friend Nigel Glazier, who emailed some very cool photos he took at the Judas Priest/Scorpions gig at the Albert Hall and has allowed me to share them with you HERE.
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Friday 7th April
Once more the fabled cry rang out around Selhurst, "Stevie Coppell's Red 'n' Blue Army". Yes, last night Sir Steve led out a Palace XI to compete with Manchester United (confused? See yesterday's entry). Unfortunately I missed the exact moment of the teams' appearance as I was reminiscing about the original 1990 match with Harry James from Thunder. I had no idea that Harry wasn't at Wembley on that legendary day; playing a gig at Keele University instead.
The score was 3-1 to United, Ian Wright volleying a peach for Palace and sprinting the length of the pitch to kiss his shirt in front of the Holmesdale stand, but the game was a lot closer than the score suggests. John Salako ran his socks off and Richard Shaw, who still plays for Coventry, looked scarily like he did as a Palace player. The same couldn't be said for Andy Thorn or Andy Gray, who both appeared to be hiding medicine balls under their shirts - but much respect for giving it their best anyway. One of the night's biggest shocks was a decent performance from Simon Jordan, who seems a better crosser of the ball than some of the club's players. Maybe he should get himself an agent?! It said much for the event's spirit that Coppell sent on goalie Perry Suckling to replace the knackered Wright. Around 15,000 fans turned up, which was just about respectable. On the other hand, Thomas' next charity endeavour is the world's toughest endurance cycling race - 3,052 miles across 14 US states, non-stop night and day from West to East coast, with a time limit of less than 10 days. God bless him.
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Thursday 6th April
Awoke at 5am this morning and couldn't get back to sleep with excitement. Tonight at Selhurst Park, former Crystal Palace and England hero Geoff Thomas is putting on an ambitious re-staging of the club's most famous game of all time. Back in 1990 the Eagles made the FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium for the first (and only) time in our existence. It turned out to be a fairy tale experience. Firmly cast as underdogs, despite having despatched the 'mighty' Liverpool 4-3 in a nail-biting Semi Final, we were 2-1 down with an hour gone when manager Steve Coppell took a last throw of the dice. Still recovering from two broken legs, Ian Wright came off the bench to net a pair of wonder goals. I admit, I was beside myself with emotion (even though I was in the ManUre end... long story!): Palace were finally gonna win the FA-fuggin'-Cup! There were eight minutes to go when that Welsh cocksucker Ma*k Hu**es shattered the dreams of Eagles fans with an undeserved equaliser. The replay was a non-event; you only ever get one bite at the cherry with such crucial games, and so it proved.
Fast forward to 2003 and Geoff Thomas is given three years to live after being diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukaemia. A bone marrow transplant later he is in remission, but makes it the rest of his life's work to raise funds for leukaemia research. Incredibly, Thomas generated £170,000 by completing the Tour De France in 2004. With all proceeds going to charity, Sir Steve Coppell will lead Palace out again tonight, Alex Fergiescum doing the honours for the Reds, and virtually all the stars of the original game have pledged to appear, including Wright, Mark Bright, Nigel Martyn, Eric 'The Ninja' Young and John Salako for Palace; Iain Dowie and chairman Simon Jordan also joining the CPFC squad. Hughes, Dwight Yorke, Gary Pallister, Mickey Thomas and the vile Steve Bruce will be among those turning out for the Mancs. The result is immaterial, of course, but with Dermot 'Palace Hater' Gallagher refereeing you can bet there'll be a 12th man to beat. No matter.
Amazingly, tickets are still available (adults £20, kids £5). If you're a fan of either club, or a footie fan with a heart, the only acceptable excuse not to be in SE25 tonite is if you're having a bone marrow transplant of your own.
Back to music... Yesterday morning I spoke to Jaz Coleman from Killing Joke. His band's latest album 'Hosannas From The Basements Of Hell' is quite extraordinary, and what an amazing fella. His comments about last year's support tour with Mötley Crüe were hilarious ("their collective IQ barely touches room temperature") and could easily have filled a page of the mag on their own!
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Wednesday 5th April
Did an enjoyable interview with Joe Elliott about the splendid 'Yeah!' yesterday. I hadn't twigged that the Steve Priest imitation on 'Hellraiser' is by none other than Justin Hawkins from The Dorkness, or that it's Phil Collen that sings 'Stay With Me'. Music chat aside, the poor deluded fool is still convinced that Sheff Utd will seal automatic promotion to the Premiership. When I reminded Joe that I support Palace, who must still play his beloved Blades on the last day of the season, the singer's bluster remained undiminished. However, he did tell a great story about having sat next to actor Sean Bean at 1997's Wembley play-off final. David Hopkin's injury time curler restored Palace to the top flight that day with pretty much the match's last kick. "Sean didn't say a word all game, then the ball hit the back of our net and he went, 'Foookin' 'ell' and left. Now that was a cultured opinion," Joe recalled with a laugh.
Just before our interview, the postie delivered a prize goodie - a re-issue of UFO's immortal double live album 'Strangers In The Night' on CD, complete with re-mastered sound, extended booklet and sleeve notes. Bit of a fuggin' result, I'd say.
Also received an email from Jakob Herrmann, the editor of Drummer's Digest. In case you missed it last week, I took a sneaky potshot at them, suggesting that drummers are so stupid that they pay their techs to read to their illiterate employers. "Actually, they do it for free," reveals Jakob, happy to set the record straight. "Roadying for drummers is charity work, didn't you know?" Thanks for that, now please paradiddle off...
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Tuesday 4th April
I've been hearing so much good feedback to last Friday's Royal Albert Hall charity fund-raiser. The show apparently ended with all the bands taking to the stage to join in a version of Priest's 'Take On The World' in a 'We Are The World' stylée. Sounds corny on paper, I admit, but there were more than a few moist eyes in the crowd. This morning I received an email from Barbara Schenker, enthusing about the event and Ian Gillan's "fab new body shape" (?*!), closing with the line: "My brother [Rudolf, of the Scorps] and I missed you. Everybody was there, but youuuuuu!" Hey... rub it in a little more, why doncha??!!
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Monday 3rd April
Wow, never had Mike Portnoy down as a man for Scott Weiland-style rants, but Dream Theater's drummer has finally snapped at Queensrÿche singer Geoff Tate's baiting. "Geoff Tate is a two-faced douche bag. Since he has begun doing 'Operation: Mindcrime II' press, he's been consistently bashing Dream Theater and even me personally in the press... (why, I have no idea?). But I'm tired of biting my tongue when he obviously can't," says Mike. "His new name should be Geoff Taint. Screw him... he's now on my shitlist."
This past weekend had its fair share of ups and downs. On the negative side, a fox wiped out all our chickens on Sunday morning. Yes, it's RIP to Jerry The Chicken. Taking her cue from Ted Nugent, Mrs L has invested in an air rifle, so the fox'll get a new arsehole bored should it ever return to Ling Towers.
On a happier note, Leeds and Sheff Utd both failed to win on Saturday, and Br***ton's win at Scumwall leaves both clubs in a worse predicament than ever, League One football now all but unavoidable. Hurrah! My mood was brightened still further by an email from Alexa Anastasia, she of Paul Sabu-produced album fame. Alexa's self-titled debut was well received when it came out in 1989 and is just about to be re-issued by MTM Music. Her disappearance was almost as mysterious as that of the Mary Celeste; one minute soaking up great reviews, the next impersonating Lord Lucan. "I'm still around, still rockin!" she reveals, even attaching a photo to prove it wasn't a wind-up. Alexa is "ecstatic" that the album is to be available again. "Thank you for the cool review," she says of a critique that's just about to appear in Classic Rock. "Oh and the dancing naked bit, Dave... you're bad." Hahahaha... you know it!
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Saturday 1st April
Well, last night's victory over Watford brought three more very welcome points for the mighty Eagles. And I'm still laughing at CPFC superemo Simon Jordan's rant about the Birmingham Shitty's boardroom ("They sell dildos for a living. That gives you a judgement on what they may or may not be. If Birmingham go down, am I going to shed a tear? No. Because the best thing about Birmingham is the road out"). Couldn't have put it better myself.
As the Watford game proceeded, my mobile kept buzzing with texts from friends watching the Judas Priest/Scorpions gig at the Albert Hall. "Ze Bad Boys Are Running Vild", was a choice one from Jerry Ewing. Apparently I missed a blinding evening, which none other than Bruce Dickinson introduced. In Gillan's line-up of friends included Roger Glover and Thunder's Harry James, plus Steve Morris and Dean Howard, while according to Malcolm Dome, Priest and the Scorps were both "outrageously good". You may not believe this, but a few alcoholic beverages were sunk afterwards.... never! Anyway, all is not lost - I'm sitting here with a watermarked promo of Def Leppard's long-awaited covers album, 'Yeah!' (out on June 5) and it's stonking good, especially their versions of 'Hellraiser' by The Sweet, Blondie's 'Hanging On The Telephone', 'Waterloo Sunset' by The Kinks and the rampant closing strains of 'Stay With Me' by The Faces. The perfect party soundtrack...