I’m dreaming, I feel like screaming/I won my woman just before she died

Saturday 26 January – Australia Day, and the sun set in a blaze of colours like wild Alaskan salmon steaks tumbling through red-hot embers, slowly to be replaced by an unseasonably mild gloom as the shoppers deserted the streets of York and the Night-people started to emerge. Narrowly avoiding a bunch of yahoos pouring out of the Mana Restaurant, I plunged through the doorway of the Roman Bath and into a solid mass of bodies. It was very crowded, probably all here for same reason as me, to see one of my favourite York bands, Freeway.

Two lead guitars, a bass, a singer, and Howard the Drummer. They played an awesome set of classic rock covers, kicking off with Thin Lizzy’s Jailbreak. In a gig of two halves we were treated to the likes of; Whitesnake (Slide It In, Crying In The Rain), Black Sabbath (Paranoid), Judas Priest (Breaking The Law), Queen (Tie Your Mother Down), Cream (Crossroads), Free (Wishing Well), Bad Co. (Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love), a medley of Deep Purple (Hush, Strange Kind Of Woman, Black Night, Woman From Tokyo), more Lizzy (The Boys Are Back In Town, Rosalie). For Led Zep’s Rock ‘n’ Roll we were treated to the vocal charms of Livvy, daughter of Howard, on vocals and wearing a leather mini-skirt and thigh-high boots. That went down a treat! Tantalizing glimpse obscured by a guitar. Oh, and a drum solo from Howard. And for the finale we had a brilliant version of Guns ‘n’ Roses’ Sweet Child Of Mine, with Livvy sharing the vocals.

Oh, Mostly Brian was Hardly there.

Soapbox - Residents 1st Weekend in York, so what’s that about then? Well, as a York resident I remember previous years when the council threw open the doors of many of the tourist attractions in York so that it’s own residents could appreciate, for free, what makes our city such a magnet for visitors, and to raise awareness of our historical heritage. I was looking after my 5 year-old grandson over the weekend and was looking forward to showing him Clifford’s Tower. Except, it wasn’t free. Even with a York Card, as a resident I still had to cough up £1. And because my grandson was five, and had no York Card, I had to pay £1.50 for him. I was spitting feathers! Now I’m not complaining about the cost per se, it’s just that I was under the impression that these attractions were supposed to be free. How wrong I was. Looking over the promotion material for this year I can now see that a good many of the attractions were charging. Mind you, I guess they have to charge as much as they can at Clifford’s Tower as they have to pay the salaries of two people to man the entrance booth which is clearly only big enough for one. Hey, here’s a thought, sack one of the miserable toads and you could save enough to allow the residents in free for one weekend a year.