Every cowboy sings a sad, sad song

Friday 2 January - I'm all behind like a lamb's tail at the moment as my PC at home is giving me the dreaded BSOD. Anyway, Christmas is over, we've rung in the New Year and music is a little thin on the ground in York this weekend, except...

Wild Messiah (and on FaceFriend) are playing at The Roman Bath. We've seen these before and been very impressed by them. Four young chaps from Barton-upon-Humber: Mark Williams (Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar), Martin Shepherd (Bass Guitar), Glen Brown (Lead Guitar, Vocals), and Brad Brown (Drums, Vocals).

They played a mixture of covers and their own material all extremely well delivered, although I thought that they could have done with a little more volume on the lead guitar. The timing between the bass and the drums was much improved since we saw them last. Since I have the memory of a..., nope forgotten it, I blagged the setlist although they may have slipped some extra songs in and discarded a few along the way. Of the ones I didn't recognise I'm not sure if the track was theirs or a cover, but I've credited the songs to them. I hope I got title/artist right and I'm happy to be corrected if not.

I Wanna Rock (Twisted Sister), Breaking The Law (Judas Priest), Gimme All Your Lovin' (ZZ Top), Sweet Emotion (Aerosmith), Live For Today (Wild Messiah), Alright Now (Free), Won't Get Fooled Again (The Who), Miracle (Wild Messiah), Sweet Child Of Mine (Guns n' Roses), You Really Got Me (The Kinks), Beat It (Michael Jackson), Rocking in the Free World (Neil Young), Black Night (Deep Purple), Feel Like Making Love (Bad Co.), Nothing Wrong, Just Moving Along (Wild Messiah), Every Rose Has A Thorn (Poison), You give love a bad name (Bon Jovi), Fallen Angel (Poison), Detroit City Rock (Kiss), Unskinny Bop (Poison), One Wild Night (Bon Jovi), Love Hurts (Bon Jovi)

Wild Messiah are playing The Roman Bath again on 6 April 2009, and 20 July, but do check before turning up as The Bath is well known for switching acts at the last minute.

Monday 5 January - Christmas is not quite over yet. Oh yes it is. Oh no it isn't. Tonight was family night at the pantomime, so that's nine of us (seven adults, a teenager, and one child) watching Berwick Kaler in Dick Turpin, his 30th pantomime production at the York Theatre Royal. As always it was hysterically funny, barely a plot-line in sight, loads of ad-libbing, slapstick involving a water tank, a video (this year featuring Harry Gration), and a UV light and puppets sequence. Berwick was great as he always is, the villain (David Leonard in his 21st year in the role) was brilliant, but for me the best performance came from Suzy Cooper (as Alma Turpin) who gave an awesome mad routine that reminded me of QE1 (Miranda Richardson) from Blackadder II, except she was even madder and shriller!

Against the sky/Streams of light/Call out to me and you

Friday 15 August –Apologies for the radio silence but I've been on holiday for the last two weeks. Let's rewind to the disastrous evening of Friday 1 August where, due to monumental stupidity, I managed to miss a great evening out with The Druid. I was panicked into believing that Chris Johnson would be playing at The Punchbowl, starting at 20:00 (in fact he started at 21:30). Of course, when I arrived at 20:15, punters were still eating their tea and there was no sign of Chris. There was a big queue at the bar so I didn't hang around to find out what was happening and immediately when to Plan B. Sadly, I had forgotten my mobile 'phone so couldn't contact The Druid. Plan B was The Roman Bath and I waited in there until the band was about half an hour into their set before calling it a night. It turned out that The Druid had been dogging my heels as I moved around town, desperately trying to contact me. Talk about ships that miss in the night! I've learnt my lesson, I take my mobile with me now.

I enjoyed the holiday, two weeks with my five-year old grandson. In the first week we travelled to London and stayed at a hotel in Kensington. It was the first long distance train journey that he’d undertaken and I was very impressed that he never got bored or whiney as you might expect of such a young child. We stayed for two nights in London and took in the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum. He is particularly into dinosaurs at the moment so he thoroughly enjoyed himself. As an added bonus we watched a Dinosaur film on the Science Museum’s IMAX screen in 3D. Fantastic. We spent the second week at home making a holiday scrapbook, writing and printing a small magazine, visiting York Art Gallery and the Minster, and making and painting miniature figures (he's a geek like me).

So, that's everyone up-to-date. The holiday is over and Friday it was back to normality with three of us paying a visit to The Roman Baths where the band de jour was Wild Messiah (and on MyFace, thanks Ian.). The band consisted of four frighteningly young chaps (their combined age about equal to mine!) the bass player wearing black PVC trousers and playing semi-naked, a bit like Sid Vicious I guess. The front man had modelled his look on Billy Idol. They hail from Barton-upon-Humber and consist of Mark Williams (Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar), Martin Shepherd (Bass Guitar), Glen Brown (Lead Guitar, Vocals), Brad Brown (Drums, Vocals). I arrived just as they started a cover of Michael Jackson's Beat It. During the rest of the evening they played a mixture of covers and their own material all played extremely well. The bass was mixed a little too loud and the timing sometimes faltered slightly, I couldn't be sure if that was down to the drums or bass as the effect was so minor. The singer had great presence and a good voice. The lead guitarist was proficient although he sometimes took to wearing a pink feather boa. Combined with his curly hair it put me in mind of Marc Bolan. Here is a list of the tracks they played. Of the ones I didn't recognise I'm not sure if the track was theirs or a cover, but they definitely did at least four of their own.

Beat It (Michael Jackson), Big Girl (You Are Beautiful) (Mika), White Wedding (Billy Idol), Brand New Start (?), Rocking in the Free World (Neil Young), Detroit City Rock (?), Walk Away (?), Have A Nice Day (Wild Mission), Won’t get fooled again (The Who), Gimme all your lovin' (ZZ Top), You give love a bad name (Bon Jovi), All right now (Free), Whiskey in the jar (Thin Lizzy), Nothing to lose (LA Guns?), Without You (?), Pour Some Sugar On Me (Def Leppard), Fallen Angel (?), You Really Got Me (The Kinks).