68169989

I'd like to meet:

About me:

Single Dad, 2 kids

Favourite bands: Abba, The Fall, Rush, The Beatles, The Clash, Wolfmother.
Favourite new bands that aren't famous yet and should be: Wes Finch And The Dirty Band, Bukechi, The Satin Dolls, Merge, T-Mart and The Raiders, Knockout Ned, Dialog, Prince Harry and the Lap Dancers, Kazoo Funk Orchestra, Cherry Blackstone
Favourite food: home made apple pie
Favourite Beatles album: Abbey Road
Favourite drink: Weston's organic cider
Favourite city: Birmingham
Favourite pub in Coventry: The Golden Cross
Favourite season: Autumn
Favourite football team: Worcester City
Favourite Rush album: Signals
Favourite Fall album: The Light User Syndrome (1996)
Favourite herbal tea: Nettle
Country I'd most like to visit: Iceland
Favourite word: aardvark
Favourite Christmas song: It's clichéd to be cynical at Christmas, by Half Man Half Biscuit
Favourite Biscuit: Chocolate Hob-nobs
First gig: Moonlight Drive, Worcester Labour Club, 1980 or 81.
Favourite horse-drawn travelling theatre: Horse and Bamboo Theatre

Music - Availability

Currently available for bands looking for keyboard player. Professional and/or unknown bands considered. Influences: Rock, punk, prog; church music, gospel; folk, jazz, blues.

Climate Change

Most people think that global warming just means you will get a better tan, or not have to scrape ice off your windscreen, but actually climate change is a real crisis.

Sooner or later the ability of the world to produce enough food and water for all the people in the world is going to collapse due to global warming. Maybe not in your lifetime but probably in your kids' lifetime. Most of the world's population will not survive this (which is a f---ing lot of people to all die at once). A lot of countries will fight over the reduced amount of water and fertile land. Some of these countries already have nuclear weapons.

We don't like the idea of this happening and it goes against our wishful thinking that everything will be fine, but really everything will not be fine. We can either bring the plane down gently or do nothing and wait for it to crash. I suggest we try to bring it down gently.

Like
Dislike

Real beer Curry Football Music and films that are a bit out of the ordinary Nice people Silence Long walks, cycling and fresh air Geri Halliwell Sleep Cool, cloudy days Watching cricket Looking at the stars Apple and blackberry crumble Relaxing People who are different Dinosaurs Space

People playing crappy music really loud on the bus or train Mayonnaise Automated phone menu systems Chewing gum/ bubble gum Dumbing down Overheating Drivers complaining about the cost of petrol Piercings Bigotry Cosmetics Sleaze Conformity Stress

Things I'd like to do (but probably won't)

Live a low-impact lifestyle. Live in a commune or one of those eco-houses in the woods. Teach GCSE maths or science. Go to every Worcester City game in a season. Play keyboards or bass in a band. Learn to play cricket. Do climate change campaigning. Play badminton competitively.

Favourite Abba songs

17. Move On
16. On And On And On 08. The Piper
15. Our Last Summer 07. I Have A Dream
14. Gimme Gimme Gimme 06. I Wonder (Departure)
13. Arrival 05. Voulez-vous
12. Summer Night City 04. Eagle
11. Dancing Queen 03. My Love, My Life
10. Name Of The Game 02. The Way Old Friends Do
09. Fernando 01. I Let The Music Speak

Favourite Quotes

I'm a big admirer of myself - Brian Clough
Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money - Cree Indian saying
Annual income twenty shillings (etc) - Mr. Micawber

Top 5 songs about the suburbs (not in order)

Welcome to Suburbia - Buketchi
Sweet Suburbia - The Skids
Subdivisions - Rush
I Want to be Free - Toyah
Sound of the Suburbs - The Members

Best gigs I've been to How well do you know me? Try out my amazing quiz!!

Gigs that get you really excited, the ones that you remember for years afterwards. Most recent is listed first. Sometimes it's just one amazing performance and other times it's several really good bands combining to make an amazing night - and at those times the band that really makes it might not even be the band you came to see.

Bukechi A Dear Investment + Somnus + The Satin Dolls + Dialog The Kevin Ashcroft Band + LP45 + Copious + The Capital + Bleed The System Ikara Colt John Cooper Clarke + The Fall Arab Strap Motorhead Thin Lizzy Hank Wangford The Trudy + Here And Now Chuck Farley

Unfortunately you have to log in after you've done the test, which is a pain in the arse, but just enter any old fake crap, no need to give them real information :-)

Latest Reviews (see blogs for my other reviews)
Welcome To Suburbia - Buketchi ***** Si Hayden (Tin Angel, Coventry)    *****
Exquisitely produced album which perfectly captures Buketchi's beautiful live sound and promises much more from Buketchi to come. (more to follow)

Amazing guitar stuff (more to follow)
Covfest 4 The Rooters (Beer Engine, Coventry)
Have I really only been to 3 gigs in a whole year? OK I'm going to start going to gigs again, no excuses.

The Coventry music scene seems to have shrunk since Covfest 3. Only two venues, and slightly more up-market ones at that. New bands are a bit thin on the ground. But at least there was less walking as Dogma and Escape are just round the corner from each other.

Highlights for me: in the Rock tent, Redfoot - quite a lot of variety, we went from REM-ish to a big chugging bass, to a slower more driving style in a minor key. There's thought and imagination in their music and probably just about the band of the Covfest for me. Then there was Momma's In The Kitchen - blues-rock, slightly ZZ Top ish, very bluesy, and none other than Si Hayden on the keys, is that guy in every band in Coventry? Ten minutes earlier he was in the acoustic tent accompanying, um, I've forgotten the guy's name, and ten minutes later he was back in the acoustic tent supporting someone else! Then he pops up again in another rock band!! Is there a slight shortage of good keyboard players in Coventry? Back to Momma's, was that Libby from WF&TDB on backing vocals - not sure if she looked quite like Libby but she really sounded like her.

The Satin Dolls were sounding good as usual - and Julie looking amazing, well they are a fine looking crew really - and some good new songs.

No shortage of pissed-up comperes either - the guy at Dogma (who looked like the beggars that hang around Cov station) could hardly talk - not coherently anyway although unfortunately that didn't shut him up much. He couldn't remember Wes Finch's name, and Wes wasn't going to help him out, so in the end he settled for "Somebody Finch, er I think it's Warren... yes it's Warren Finch!!" Wes on bass was accompanying Garfield (the singer, not the cat), who was good, and he (Wes not Garfield) is also in nearly every band in Coventry (and they all know each other as well), he popped up in deep-south American style country band Matt Lakey and the Whatevers - very good they were and funnily enough sounded a lot like Wes Finch And The Dirty Band.

Finally for me was The Pockets - another rock band who have put some thought into their sound with subtle change of tone here and there. For me rock music really needs variety to keep it interesting and The Pockets provided something a bit different.

If you ever wondered what happened to all the rockers in the 70s, the answer is that they went to the Beer Engine and never came out again. Consequently the place is full of old-timers with long grey hair and big bushy grey beards and wearing Motorhead and Rush T-shirts to hide the expanding waistline.

The Engine cleverly caters for the overlap between the beardy rocker community and the beardy CAMRA type community by providing several good real ales (and one rather rank one but most of it was excellent).

Add Rooters to the mix and you've got a classic throwback to the early 70s when Deep Purple, Led Zep and Black Sabbath were the big names in rock. And Status Quo - and it's been a very long time since I heard Quo played over the sound system anywhere.

Rooters Rooters are your genuine 70s heavy metal experience, including covering some songs from what was a great era in rock music. Even in the 70s there was a shortage of really excellent vocalists, but the singer of Rooters is excellent and really packs some power into the voice. We had two really strong sets of outstanding quality 70s hard rock with excellent style and musicianship all round. Scary moment at the end when they started to play Hi Ho Silver Lining, but fortunately after about half a verse they cleverly morphed it into a superb cover of Freebird. Great song to finish on and a really really good gig and a great night all round.

*****
Garfield/ Wes Finch and The Dirty Band (The Anker, Nuneaton) The Voices/ The Shackletons/ Wes Finch and the Dirty Band (Flapper and Firkin, Birmingham)
One thing about The Dirty Band is you can't moan that they only play stadiums. Last week the Craven Arms was so packed I couldn't even get in the door, and that was with about 5 people. My garden shed is bigger. My f--king rabbit hutch is bigger. Anyway at least the Anker has room for about 12 people (including bar staff and band).

Garfield Acoustic bloke with guitar, keyboard and some kind of rhythm box. Would be better if he dropped the fake American accent (why do people do that?) (assuming he's not American that is) but a good musician and a listenable and enjoyable acoustic set. The best part was when he went jazz for a really nice Ray Charles cover.

***½
Wes Finch and The Dirty Band Fantastic. lovely songs with beautiful country harmonies. I get the impression that the line-up is somewhat fluid as the band had a drummer this time but were sans banjo, harmonica and mad blonde singer/ dancer/ bundle of energy. Anyway I refer you to my blog for further details but these are a wonderful, wonderful band and you should totally see them if you can. And... well I will pitch it to you straight, that Lucy is so good-looking it's unbelievable.

***** Well the old Flapper and Firkin is going downhill if the attendance is anything to go by - a couple of years ago it would have been heaving on a Friday night, now it was frankly rather sparse. I hope it's not the beginning of the end for the old place as I have had some good times there.

Bit of a delay in doing the write-up so I've forgotten most of it but hey!

The voices 5 piece rock band. Light and bouncy with lots of harmonies. Cleverly done as nearly all the songs were in minor keys yet the music was upbeat and happy and uplifting.

****½
The Shackletons Rock with a grungey vocal. Not that much to distinguish them from the crowd, and far too loud.

***
Wes Finch and the Dirty Band Great stuff, the same lovely harmonies you get from Wes and the band. Performance was just a little bit flat that night though.

****