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Sunday 27th February
Were
there two more inebriated individuals in the entire country than
myself and Mrs L after yesterday's fine victory over Judas Bruce
and his bedraggled Brummies? I doubt it. It would be a significant
understatement to say that one or two glasses of wine were consumed
in SE6 following Andrew Johnson's two goals. All was good in the
world as I sat in my office post-game, the excellent new Rush
tribute album (starring Kip Winger, Seb Bach, Vinnie Moore, Jani
Lane) blaring. Then I receieved an email in which Bruce had the
audacity to call AJ a diving cheap. I quote: "He goes into
the box, and does very well at falling over. He does it remarkably
well." My response to this disloyal, despicable, fat, whinging
colostomy bag on legs (cut and pasted from a mail sent out immediately
afterwards): Suck my motherfucking
CCCCCCCCCCCCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCKKKKKKKKKKK!!
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Thursday 24th February
Mountain
gigs are bitter-sweet experiences for me, and so it proved again
last night. Leslie West always delivers onstage, but enjoyable
as his gigs are, I end up thinking about the guy that turned me
onto the band, my old mate Paul
Samson. Leader of the NWOBHM group Samson, poor old Paul used
to waffle for hours at a time about Leslie's prowess as a guitarist,
till Paul died of cancer in the summer of 2002. A Mountain gig
always makes me remember him. Fittingly, the band played a blinder
at the Underworld. They'd been stuck in a bit of a rut of late,
but changing the set-list around worked a treat, and the jamming
and extended solos really livened things up. I'm sure at one point
I saw Leslie break into a smile!
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Wednesday
23rd February
Having
been unable to attend last week's Nazareth gig in Croydon (it
clashed with Waysted), last night I headed North to check them
out in Milton Keynes. What fun and japes. Stayed with my friends
Simon and Gry, who live round the corner from the gig, and several
bottles of white were consumed before, during and after the show.
Dan McCafferty's voice is still awesome, and to top it all Palace
didn't drop into the relegation zone as West Brom could only draw
with Southampton. Result!
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Tuesday 22nd February
Back
to a packed Mean Fiddler (again) last night, this time for Dragonforce.
Who'd have thought a UK-based power metal act could enjoy such
popularity? It doesn't seem so long ago that the Dragons were
mere unsigned kiddies, opening on these boards for Rob Halford
(although it was almost four years ago - ulp!). Without a plastic
sword to wave, an instamatic camera or the rest of the crowd's
compulsory short hair, I felt a bit out of place. It was an enjoyable
gig, though a little on the long side. The band's energy and levels
of musicianship do them credit, but when play so many of their
songs one after another they sometimes sound a little interchangable.
Opening act, Brazil's Angra, were making their London debut. Adding
progressive rock into the mix, their 65 minutes suggested that
the UK will open up for them in time.
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Saturday
19th February
Last
night's Waysted gig - their first public appearance in more years
than anyone can care to remember - was a lot of fun. No, make
that a LOT of fun. They played just four songs ('Toy With The
Passion', 'Love Loaded', 'Night Of The Wolf' and the newie 'Garden
Of Eden') in 25 minutes, going on before the Quireboys. It was
an early start, and not having time for anything to eat I went
into the Sainsburys next door to the Mean Fiddler to pick up a
sandwich. Who should be hovering about but Pete Way, deliberating
upon a purchase of his own. "I've been told to behave, but
I've crept out to buy a bottle of wine for the soundcheck,"
he confided, looking over his shoulder. Some things in life never
change. Pete is one of them. The Quireboys sounded good, as did
the other band, the Tokyo Dragons, but by then the white wine
was starting to take hold. So my pals and I headed around the
corner for a top-up at the CroBar, where who should we find but
Batttttty enjoying the attentions of two toyboys... and drinking
orange juice! Hold the front page!!
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Thursday
16th February
Hear
ye, hear ye, hear ye. I've never been too fond of Germans (save
for a handful of very notable exceptions - hello Goetz, Oliver
and the rest!), but from this day forwards Mille Petrozza of Kreator
is granted status as an Honourary Englishman. Supported by Dark
Tranquillity, Mille's band played a set of quite wonderful old-school
thrash metal at the Electric Ballroom last night. Christ, my neck
still bloody aches. This morning, tendons sore and groaning in
protest, I went over to Sanctuary Records to meet Bruce Dickinson.
I'm writing the biography for his new solo album. I can't give
way too many details at this stage, but I heard about three-quarters
of it, and it's immense and very, very heavy. Hot off the Judas
Priest album, Roy Z has done a great production job, and it picks
off right where Bruce's last outing, 1998's 'Chemical Wedding',
left off.
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Wednesday
15th February
Glenn
Hughes was in amazing form at the Mean Fiddler last night. On
paper, it seemed a suicidal move to have thrown out many of his
vintage tracks in favour of material from the new 'Soul Mover'
album, but it worked. The audience had absolutely no complaints
about the content of the set, and there ain't many too people
who can legitimately encore with a song from both Black Sabbath
('The Seventh Star') and Deep Purple ('Burn'). However, I wish
I hadn't worn my Palace scarf to the show. What part of, 'I don't
want to talk about the f**king football' is it that people don't
understand? Two nights ago it had been Gooners 5, Eagles 1. F**king
gutted. It was of little consolation that Arsenal had scored three
unstoppable goals, strikes that no team on earth could've prevented.
Our own performance was well below par. I'd consumed three bottles
of white wine whilst watching the game on TV, but Dougie Freedman's
own inept performance suggested he'd been drinking more than me.
Unacceptable.
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Sunday
13th February
Nightwish
are an awesome live band, but I find them very frustrating. Last
night they had a sold out Astoria rocking in the aisles, but stunned
the place by announcing at just gone nine o'clock that the next
number would be their last. The set was eventually stetched out
to about 75 minutes (even including a cover of Pink Floyd's 'The
Division Bell' track 'High Hopes'), but for a group with so many
albums under their belt I consider that even less generous than
Simon Jordan's CPFC transfer window budget. It felt like a bit
like coitus interruptus. Nightwish deliver quality, that's undeniable,
but with a little more quantity they'd be unstoppable.
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Saturday 12th February
Yesterday
was busy. Interviewed the Brain
Surgeons in the afternoon. Featuring ex-members of Blue Oyster
Cult, the Dictators and Manowar, they had lots to say. Soundcheck,
including a rousing 'Godzilla', was also very cool. Unfortunately
their debut London gig clashed with The Sweet's return to the
Underworld. My plan was to watch most of Sweet, jump on the tube
and catch the end of the Brain Surgeons. Due to a bombscare I
ended up watching all of Sweet's gig instead. They were a bit
under-rehearsed, but the set-list was incredible. One song ('Everything')
from 'Sweetlife', and the rest hard-rock/bubblegum classics. Get
this: 'Hellraiser', 'Burn On The Flame', 'The Sixteens', 'Cockroach'
(dedicated to the journalist from the Daily Mail), 'Lost Angels',
'Wigwam Bam'/'Little Willy' (ahem!), 'Teenage Rampage', 'AC/DC',
'Love Is Like Oxygen', 'Action', 'Blockbuster', 'Fox On The Run',
'Peppermint Twist', 'Set Me Free' and 'Ballroom Blitz'. Wow. On
a personal note, the girl who'd complimented me in the bar on
my classic T-shirt from the 70s turned out to be one of two daughters
of Brian Connolly that were in the house. In the bar after the
show she said some nice, moving things about her dad.
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Thursday 10th February
A
bit Mega-deaf this morning. Guess who I saw last night? Mr Mustaine
and his latest hired hands, playing what's promised to be their
last ever UK show. I'd heard less than encouraging reports of
previous dates, but what I saw was throroughly enjoyable. On the
downside, the band played at uncontrollably loud volume; bits
of the show were crystal clear, others so distorted you had to
strain to recognise the songs. But besides lots of tracks from
'The System Has Failed', we got a veritable greatest hits. 'Skin
O'My Teeth', 'Symphony Of Destruction', 'Wake Up Dead', 'Hangar
18' and 'Peace Sells...' all ruled, and there was also a killer
version of 'In My Darkest Hour'. Diamond Head, complete with new
boy Nick Tart (perfect name for a singer!), did a better than
expected job of warming up a Astoria crowd that included Merv
Goldsworthy, formerly of DH and the mighty FM.
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Wednesday
9th February
Yesterday I went to the Marquee for the launch party of this
year's Download
Festival. It was a lot of fun, with Ozzy Osbourne among those
in attendance. Alas, the free bar ran out earlier than expected,
and the rumoured live set from Billy Idol (who also plays the
festival in June) didn't materialise. Afterwards I met my mate
Paul Newcomb for a drink with Micky Moody. What a nice fella.
The white wine was flowing, and I ended up falling asleep again
on the train and missing my stop. Hic!
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Tuesday 8th February
I'm getting pissed off at having my favourite TV programme
interrupted by progress reports of Ellen MacArthur and her round
the world yachting exploits. Okay, she shaved a day off the record,
but couldn't she have done something more worthwhile with the
time and money? Let's not even consider the wasted resources of
the rescue services that were standing by. Last night, the BBC
News seemed to think it was a bigger story than a possible peace
deal in the Middle East. The radio bulletin that awoke me this
morning called MacArthur "Britain's greatest ever sailor".
Hello? Have these people never heard of Admiral Nelson? Sir Francis
Drake? John Inman? Malcolm Dome?
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Monday
7th February
Even
48 hours afterwards I'm still at a loss to comprehend how Palace
managed to lose against Bolton on Saturday. We had just about
all of the match, played with class and confidence and still those
f**kers stole the points with a hotly disputed 'goal' that didn't
seem to cross the line. However, Everton's injury time equaliser
against Southampton - thundered into the roof of the net yesterday
by ex-Eagle Marcus Bent - was celebrated with utter jubilation
here in Catford.
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Friday
4th February
This
evening I did phone interviews with James Young and Chuck Panozzo of
Styx. Both were interesting conversations, but the latter was particularly
poignant. For those that don't know, Chuck was a founder member of Styx,
though these days he plays with them on a sporadic basis. To say the
poor fella has had 'health issues' is like saying Eric Cantona is a
mildly dislikable individual. Having seen his younger twin brother (and
Styx drummer) John die in July 1996, Chuck was diagnosed with AIDS two
years later, and has had the bravery to come out as a gay man in the
ultra-macho world of heavy rock. To top it all, he recently won a battle
with testicular cancer. Panozzo may make some guest appearances on Styx's
long-awaited UK tour in June, but - guess what? - he's now recovering
from painful leg surgery (all of this with a dodgy immune system). For
a lesson in just how bloody lucky you are, go to Chuck's website.
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Tuesday 1st February
Today
began exceedingly well with the arrival a promo of Porcupine Tree's
'Deadwing' album. It's bleedin' awesome. The relief of last night's
dramatic injury-time equaliser for Palace by Aki Riihilahti is still
sinking in. To have lost against West Brom after leading for so much
of the game, and playing the bulk of it with 10 men, would have been
a bitter pill to swallow. Thanks, Aki! I listened to the commentary
in a Camden Town boozer before going into the Underworld to check out
Adler's Appetite, a new band formed by ex-GN'R drummer Steve Adler,
and singer Jizzy Pearl (Love/Hate, Ratt). So late was Palace's leveller
that I was under the impression we'd lost... till a 'bouncebackability'
text enlighened me! Shame to report, Adler's Appetite were good - but
not really what you'd call great.
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