And all the peacemaker turn war officer/Hear what I say

Sunday 21 October. More like one Big Second-Place Weekend. After an excellent effort by both players to get to 5-5, Ronnie suddenly seemed to get bored by proceedings and finally crashed out at 6-9. Hamilton came unstuck at Interlagos with an unnecessarily attempt to re-pass his team-mate on the outside into the Subida da Lago corner and ended up in the run-off area. He then skipped out of gear on lap 8. Lewis spent the rest of the race desperately trying to cawl his way up the field, only to be pipped at the post, denied world champion status by 1 point. Ooh, and United Northern got beaten 18-25 by the All Golds. Ho hum.

I won’t be making the Breathing Space album launch on Friday 26 October at the PO Club in Marygate as I have family visiting. Can someone let me know how it goes?

Saturday 20 October. My statement is now signed off but we had to go to the police station for my daughter’s as it hadn’t been typed up correctly and we wanted it to be right. Today is the start of one Big Weekend of sport. Oops, England lost to RSA. Well, it was a good match and I think they did really well to get to the final. Ronnie O’Sullivan is through to the final of the Royal London Watches Grand Prix and Hamilton is in P2 for tomorrow’s F1 race from Brazil.

Friday 19 October. I had the day off work today, but everything that I was going to do was cancelled, so I ended up working on my book. It was productive day in the end. Didn’t go out, so no musical news.

Thursday 18 October. The police came for our statements, now they just have to be typed up and signed. After the policeman left I had to make a trip to A&E to ferry one of my daughters and her family back home. It’s all in a day’s work!

Put up a fight you believe to be right/And someday the sun will shine through.

Friday and I’m not out tonight. I’d taken a flex day off work and spent the day working on my book. Completely cream crackered, so I had an early night.

Saturday I watched ‘Live Earth’ which was a bit average. Some of the acts were good, some sounded a bit weedy and rubbish. Given the serious message that the musicians were trying to get across, I was disappointed that Jonathan Ross didn’t know if they recycled rubbish in his house. Presumably he is too famous to actually throw his own rubbish away. This is probably the death knell for big charity events and I can’t say that I’m sorry.

In the evening the girls (and boyfriends) decided that they wanted to go to the cinema, so off we trundled to Vue at Clifton Moor where we watched F4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. I’m sorry but I’m a bit nerdy and like these super hero films, probably because reading the comics filled much of my mis-spent youth. I really liked this film.

On the way back into town three of us got dropped off and ended up at the Roman Bath where we were treated to a superb set from Barnsley covers band, Vamp (Vintage rock through Valve Amps). Vamp are: Steve Firth (Vocals, Rhythm and Slide Guitar), Ian Wilkie (Lead Guitar, Backing Vocals), Mark “Hutch” Hutchinson (Bass), and David Wilson Jones (Drums/Percussion). They played a refreshing mix of The Faces/Rod Stewart (Stay With Me, Maggie May), Free (Alright Now, The Hunter, Wishing Well), Rolling Stones (Sympathy for the Devil, You Can't Always Get What You Want), Status Quo (Caroline, Rocking All Over the World), Diamond Dogs (Every Little Crack), The Undertones (Teenage Kicks). Needless to say there was plenty of audience singing and dancing going on. Top stuff! Highlight of the night? It was all smoke free!!!!!

Sunday was the British Grand Prix from Silverstone with Hamilton on pole position after a nail-biting during qualifier on Saturday. Massa managed to stall on the parade lap and was reduced to starting from the pits. Although he bravely worked his way back up the field, he never looked as if he was in contention. However, at the front Hamilton was under constant pressure from Raikkonen and after the first set of pit stops he had slipped back into second place. Alonso fought hard and managed to wrest even that from Hamilton, pushing him back into third. Still, nine podium places from nine starts is a formidable record.

It's one o'clock and time for lunch...

I’ve not watched Seven ages of Rock yet, so you’ll have to wait. However, Friday night was fairly awesome. Four of us turned up at Fibbers to witness the last ever gig of The Nicoles. Shame! I turned up at 20:00 so I missed the first band, Milk Round Brown, so I can’t comment on them, sorry chaps. As I settled into the first few sips of Worthington, on came The Becoming Suits, and I can’t say I was terribly impressed, although the lead singer sounded a bit like a very young Byran Ferry. Next upon the stage... Limousine and a different kettle of kittens altogether. A five piece from Blackpool, I really enjoyed this band, in fact I even parted with cash and bought the album and single. Fantastic. Personally, I think they sound a bit like 100 Reasons, but they cite their influences as; Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Motley Crue, U2, Oceansize, Elbow, AC/DC, Faith no More, Jeff Buckley, Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Temple Pilots, The Who, YOURCODENAMEIS:MILO, R.E.M, Queen, Beatles. That can’t be bad, can it?

By this time Fibs was absolutely heaving, it must have been nearly at capacity, and the band we has all come to see, The Nicoles. On the verge of a tour, on the verge of greatness, on the verge just outside my house.... they split, and this was the farewell gig. The crowd loved it and sang along with all the songs. We squeezed about half way through the throng but stopped just short of the jumping, seething mass of youngsters. This was probably the best performance that I’ve seen them give, and for their two encore songs, they invited the audience to shout out what they wanted the band to play, Xbox and Food and Ambulance, firm favourites with everyone.

The pubs were still open when we left so we chanced our arms at the Old White Swan, just in case Hazzard County still existed. Sadly the Hazzards weren’t there but many thanks to Mike who stumbled across this link http://www.myspace.com/hazzco where I can find out when they will be playing next (13 July at the Old White Swan). Meanwhile, back in the Bat Cave.... we had NZ Dave and Simon Snaize on vocals and acoustics, a chap on a double bass, one on a snare drum, an a lady on violin. They were actually pretty good, but I got a bit distracted by three lovely Geordie lasses. Oops.

Sunday was the French Grand Prix and a jolly exciting way to spend the afternoon. The Ferrari new aero package was enough to give them the edge over the McLarens and Raikkonen zipped past P2 Hamiliton and even managed to get the better of Massa to grab the trophy. Alonso battled bravely back and managed to nick 2 points, even Button scraped one. Albers dragged a fuel hose out of the pits and was forced to retire. I can’t think why Hamilton was on a three stop strategy when everyone else was on two. With a pit stop taking about 27 seconds he would have been in much closer contention with Raikkonen and Massa, but hey ho, he did get a podium finish and he’s still well in the lead in the driver’s table. Can’t wait for next week!

Desperately seeking Tulip51

Friday evening and in a slight departure from the usual we decided to pay a visit to Certificate 18 and check out The Scaramanga Six. We figured that we would be done in time to catch most of the second half of Hazzard County anyway.

Arriving at C18 I took a quick glance at the band list, no names that I recognised, not that that means much! I turned up as the first band were playing their penultimate song. They sounded pretty good. They were Tractor Factory, a five piece from Goole. The vocalist, Mike Redford, looked a bit like a cross between Ian Dury and Robbie Williams and he had a strong voice. I wish I had arrived earlier because they were clearly a class act. The full line was: Mike Redford (vocals), Andy Robinson (guitar), Richard Wilson (guitar), Julian Read (bass), Martin Dobson (drums).

Next up were York band Stop! Motion. Oh dear, I think these boys have been listening to way too much Arctic Monkeys. It wasn’t an original sound and it wasn’t really well executed. There were a few occasions when the drummer and the guitars were slightly out of time. Nul points, sorry. The line up was: Chris Parsons (Lead Vocal/Rhythm Guitar/Occasional Synth), Thom Dann (Lead Guitar/Synth/Vocals), Mike Coleman (Bass Guitar), and Jonty Brown ( Drums).

Band three were the GST Cardinals, formed around 2005 in Hull and featuring: Dave Sinclair (Lead vocals), Matthew Edwards (Lead guitar), Alex (Rhythm guitar), Karl (Bass guitar), and Ollie Boyce (Drums). These were definitely an improvement; rock and roll with a splash of punk and Dave constantly jumping around in the audience making us all feel at home. It was a shame that the crowd were so thin. In fact it seemed as if the majority of the audience were actually the members of the other bands!

And finally, for your delectation, before your very eyes, Ladies and Gentlemen ... The Scaramanga Six! Yes really, they are that dramatic. Sort of, Rocky Horror Show collides with Beastie Boys on guitars. Lead vocals and bass are provided by Steven Morricone, looks like Emperor Ming/Derren Brown on a bad day. Extremely classy crooning and guitar work from twin brother Paul. Over there to the left is a lady, Julia Arnez, on a splangy blue guitar (I prefer my red spangly one, but hey) giving out the occasional vocal harmony. Maraca Gareth Champion (come on, that can’t be his real name) is on drums and hits them as though he’s trying to kill them. Last, but not least, Chris Catalyst (yea right) who picks up and plays whatever is closest to hand, mainly the second set of drums and the synth. He stares fixedly ahead like the mad one from Sparks. I understand that Steven and Paul hail from Weston-Super-Mare although the band in toto comes from Huddersfield. The songs are theatrical, pompous, rock at the very limit of its definition. I remember “Vesuvius” with eyes of magma, and “I Wear My Heart On My Sleeve” (didn’t Rory Gallagher do a track called that?) Deliciously sinister stuff, highly recommended.

On the way out I take the band list. Hey, I’ve had two pints and I might forget who they were, then there would be no blog! We trot down Gillygate and through Bootham Bar to the Old White Swan. As expected, Hazzard County have just started their second set so another round of beers and pin back the ears. It’s NZ Dave (acoustic/vocals), Country John (lead guitar), Tom (drums), and Paddy (bass) tonight.

Saturday. I’m not a well bunny. Something wrong with my ears... nah you don’t want to listen to me whingeing on. Anyway up, it was “Seven Ages of Rock” focussing this week on heavy metal. This is a genre that I started in and then came back to later in life. One of the first albums I ever owned was Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid”, from there I progressed to Deep Purple. I managed to miss the worse of the Glam Metal brigade, Motley Crue, and the rubbishy American bands with their poddle hair. I only hooked upgain with heavy metal when Bruce Dickinson re-joined Iron Maiden. Sadly, this is a genre that spans four decades of music and there was no way that a single programme was going to be able to do justice to the entire range of music that HM has opened up. Perhaps we could have new series just for HM? A forlorn hope. Still the programme itself was extremely good and I’m looking forward to the next one. I bet there’s a DVD in the offing. I bet I buy it!

Sunday’s F1 race was the Canadian Grand Prix from Montreal. During qualifying, Hamilton managed to bag pole position, Nick Heidfeld had a brilliant bit of form that gave him P3 leaving Kimi back on P4. The Montreal circuit is pretty hairy at the best of times but the attrition rate was high and included a blood-curdling smash involving Robert Kubica. Fortunately it appears that he has escaped with just a broken leg. Alsonso slithered all over the place and ended up finishing seventh. Webber had a great race but faded towards the end. The final podium finishers were: Hamiltion first, Heidfeld second, and Wutz in third. What a brilliant and thrilling race.