The Gig.

To Shepherds Bush today with Kevin & Paul to see the great 'Saxon' in concert! Sadly Tara didn't come with us as she was unwell. A terrible shame and it wasn't right without her :(
Met Paul at the Defectors Weld pub for eats first. Kevin & I arrived first & got chatting to a nice fella from Massachusetts called Charles. Strangely enough we got talking to him about beer, Kev & I both had a pint of Young's bitter which was good but a bit light, Charles was drinking a darker ale & I asked him which it was, (Battersea Rye 4.5% a good tawny brown colour with a smoky after taste) . Conversation thus struck up we chatted for a while, Paul joined us and we ordered food  all of us going for fish & chips, unfortunately there was only one portion left & rather than arm wrestle for it Kev had ribs and I had steak pie with mash and greens. it was very tasty!
The Shepherds Bush Empire doors were opened half an hour early tonight possibly because the gig was a sell out, I'd found out Girlschool would hit the stage at 7pm, the venue was only a short walk from the pub so we were there in plenty of time. 
It's about 35 years since I've seen 'Girlschool' & I have to say they did not disappoint, they were absolutely brilliant  & also had good banter with the crowd. They actually seem like a really nice bunch but were not on half as long as I think they should have been! They played a good mix of old barnstormers like 'Race with the devil' & newer tracks off their latest album like 'Come the Revolution' & 'Take it like a band,' everyone a gem & played with mucho gusto. Great stuff!
Second support was 'Fastway' featuring Fast Eddie Clarke formerly of Motorhead, they were good but some of their tracks were abit pedestrian, abit samey, the rockers they played were good but I can't really understand why they were above 'Girlschool' in the billing.  
I should say it was definitely a sold out gig, we'd got unreserved seating in the balcony & whilst we certainly weren't late it was filling up fast.
To the main act then which was 'Saxon' and of course they were great as you'd expect, they played for about two hours so very good value as well. The Empire accommodates 2000 people, small by some standards and all the better for that. Plenty of banter from Biff Byford & of course plenty of singing from us. The title track of their latest album 'Battering Ram' got us underway with the great singalong tracks of 'Strong arm of the law,' Never surrender' & of course 'Wheels of steel' following on They played two encores the first one being rather special as Fast Eddie came back out and together they played 'Ace of Spades' as a tribute to Lemmy who both 'Saxon' & 'Girlschool' should have supported last year before his demise they then played the ever popular 747 (Strangers in the night).
Paul left just as the encore started to make sure he got his train back OK, we knew our trains were OK so stayed to the end, as the final chords of 'Princess of the night' finished and the band bid us farewell, Kev & I joyously picked up our ears and headed home.
Another great gig & I will happily see them again! I took afew photos with varying results, some of the effects of not using a flash were quite good so I offer a selection here, also a set list of what the bands played.
Girlschool.  Demolition Boys/ Hit & Run/ Come the Revolution/ Take it like a band/ Future Flash/ Watch your step/ Race with the devil/ Emergency.
Fastway.   Misunderstood/ All fired up/ Another Day/ Deliver me/ Telephone/ Heft/ Feel me, touch me / Easy Livin'.
Saxon. Battering Ram/ Let me feel your power/ Sacrifice/ Solid ball of rock/ Never surrender/ Crusader/ Stand up & be counted/ The Devils footprint/ Strong arm of the law/ Killing ground/ The eagle has landed/ Queen of hearts/ And the bands played on/ Dallas 1pm/ Wheels of steel.
First encore. Ace of Spades/ 747(strangers in the night) Second encore.  Denim & leather/ Princess of the night.

My dinner of steak pie, mash and greens.

Paul and his dinner of fish and chips.



Kevin and his dinner of Spare ribs.

Girlschool take to the stage.

Girlschool  Jackie Chambers, Kim McAuliffe, Enid Williams with Denise Dufort at the back on drums. 

Kim McAuliffe  sings!

Fastway

Fast Eddie Clarke of Fastway

Saxon

Three old headbangers waiting for the next act!

 

 

Encore of 'Ace of Spades' with Fast Eddie back out on stage.

Final farewell!

 

Paul Quinn lead guitar with Saxon.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Remembrance.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Remembrance.: Armistice Day, Remembrance Sunday are both rapidly approaching. Strangely more is being made of remembering the world wars now than ever it ...

Remembrance.

Armistice Day, Remembrance Sunday are both rapidly approaching. Strangely more is being made of remembering the world wars now than ever it seems. I know there are all the World War One  100th anniversary commemorations and I suppose the poor sods still getting killed aboard has given it a new focus.
Interesting to see that more civilian organisations take part in the Remembrance Sunday march past at the Cenotaph and rightly so, they too bore the brunt of  losing loved ones not to mention homes and livelihoods etc.
A chap I know has a Flickr site called 'The home fallen of the Great War' where he and others (including me) photograph Commonwealth Wargraves  where they are situated in UK graveyards and cemeteries and add them to this site, personally I also like to do some research into the person with varying degrees of success, if you want to have a look at it follow this:  https://www.flickr.com/groups/homefallen/  it's very interesting, further to this I visited the cemetery in Hatfield Road in St Albans recently, they have about 90 WW1 graves mainly soldiers who died of wounds having been transferred back to Blighty to Napsbury Hospital  in St Albans ( a former 'lunatic asylum' cleared to take war wounded) .
The first soldier to be buried here was an Aussie, 4442 Private William Martin Gillin 22nd Bn Australian Imperial Force. He was only 21 years old and from Melbourne ,Australia, he'd been a labourer in civilian life. He enlisted on 2nd February 1916 and arrived in France on 29th March 1916. He was probably wounded and evacuated during the battalions part in the Somme action at Pozieres, a battle that cost them 683 killed and wounded. His fate was to be severely wounded in the upper left thigh causing a hemorrhage, his leg was amputated  but he died of shock and hemorrhage. He was buried with full military honours  with a Royal Artillery gun carriage from Luton and troops from the Army Veterinary Corps and Royal Flying Corps doing the final honours. He was buried on 22nd August 1916. In 1918 an area called 'Soldiers Corner' was designated in the cemetery and he was exhumed to be reburied in this area, though an error was made on his headstone as it now reads that he died in 1918.
The cross of sacrifice that stands in this and many other cemeteries throughout the UK and abroad came about when Edwin Lutyen, Herbert Baker (both architects) and Charles Aitken Director of the Tate Gallery were brought in  to design memorials to the 'Glorious  Dead' of the Great War. Lutyen wanted a more abstract symbol rather than a cross, the others argued that most of the dead would have been Christian so a cross was appropriate. This was probably true but there would have been an awful lot who weren't Christian, the thousands from the Indian Army for instance and in London The Royal Fusiliers had three battalions made up of Jewish volunteers, it wasn't their symbol their!
All the graves are the same regardless of rank, regiment or creed, next of kin were allowed to have a short inscription added though it seems most do not, its just name, rank, number, regiment, age if known and date of death.
They are melancholy places really and if you start to look closely at the ages  you cannot help but feel sad, particularly as our boys are similar in age, but they do hold a morbid fascination for me. I haven't visited any of the really big Commonwealth Wargrave cemeteries in France or Flanders though I'd like to. There's a cemetery near La Boiselle in France near where my Grandads 2/Middlesex went over the top on 1st July 1916, they lost 260 men mostly buried in one cemetery, that's one I'd like to visit as my Grandad must have known some of the soldiers buried there.
Not all the troops died of wounds sustained at the front, there are two burials here of pilots in the Royal Flying Corps who died due to accidents. Lieut ER Mackay DCM was killed in mid air when his aircraft collided with another. An eye witness at the coroners enquiry said he'd seen seven or eight aircraft in the air and two came close together and collided dropping like a stone a verdict of Death by misadventure was returned.
Another, 2nd Lieut James Lionel Andrews was executing a number of stunts in the air and appeared to not be able to pull out of one of them and crashed into the ground. He was 31 years old and left a widow and two children, another death be misadventure verdict returned.
There's a grave I found in another cemetery which flies in the face of the 'Glorious Dead.'  he'd only been in the army afew months and was discharged, his records stating that he was 'Congenitally unsuited to being a soldier, he threatened to bayonet a sergeant,' yet when he died a few months later he was afforded  a war grave! They'll always be 'anomalies' I suppose.
They are interesting places to wander round and all the more interesting to find out just a little about the individuals but there is and always will be a great sadness to these places.

Cross of Sacrifice  next to Soldiers Corner in Hatfield Road, St Albans.

View  of Soldiers Corner.

Information sign installed by the CWGC

Close up of the inscription on the Cross of Sacrifice.



Lieut ER Mackay DCM killed in a mid air accident.

2nd Lieut LJ Andrews also killed in an aircraft accident.

    

4442 Pte WM Gillin 22/AIF. First war dead to be buried in the cemetery.




































































       


















  

An idiots guide to an Idiot: A long drive and a flat tyre.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: A long drive and a flat tyre.: Up in the wilds of North Wales and Shropshire again , first stop was Porthmadog, a scenic if long drive there but that's what I do! Hour...

A long drive and a flat tyre.

Up in the wilds of North Wales and Shropshire again , first stop was Porthmadog, a scenic if long drive there but that's what I do! Hour or so in the account, returned to the car to find the rear offside tyre flatter than a flat thing from Flatown. Bugger!
Luckily it was a nice day & I was parked in an easy place to change the tyre, put me back of course, then alot of road works on the route out & eventually got to my next appointment that was miles away in Ludlow, another very pretty town that I haven't had a chance to look round properly.
However a decent stop over to look forward to at The Lion Hotel in Shrewsbury. A pint of the excellent 'Butty Bach' from the Wye Valley brewery ( 4.5% of amber loveliness) helped to do my emails, couldn't really be bothered to move so stayed in the bar and had dinner there, a nice sirloin steak , cooked rare, with  tomato, mushroom,chips and salad. Very nice. Two more 'Butty Bach's' later I retired. Lets do it all again tomorrow! I know because I did!

Dinner.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Buckingham

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Buckingham: Very pleasant night away with the Memsahib in Buckingham last night, stayed at the White Hart which is an 18th century coaching inn. Bit of ...

Buckingham

Very pleasant night away with the Memsahib in Buckingham last night, stayed at the White Hart which is an 18th century coaching inn. Bit of a trial to get to our room as it was on the second floor and being an old building  the floors were rather uneven & the stairs shall we say were quirky!
An interesting beer on tonight called Frankenstein by Greene King. It's one of their seasonal specials  along the lines of a Hoegaarden, a cloudy beer with a hint of coriander with a nice citrus after taste, it was very nice and my tipple of the evening and at 4.2% not too pokey! Tara had her fave of bitter shandy (with IPA) and a Baileys later on.
Dinner was good and for a change a little more choice for Tara. That is to say  two items to choose from rather than one!  For starters Tara had nachos and I had chicken strips. For  mains Tara had a five veg super salad with a baked camembert  and I had good old fish & chips (fish was cod) with mushy peas of course!
Tara had ice cream , the only choice of pud she could have & I had another beer mmm.
Time went all too quickly, Tara & I have always enjoyed each others company & always find lots to talk about, it's just how it should be. It was a very good mini break , always enjoy time away with the Memsahib. Here's' to the next time!

Tara with our beers.

Bitter shandy with a pint of Frankenstein in front.4.2% of loveliness.

Fish and chips, an English classic and very good.

Five veg super salad and baked camembert. Yum!

An idiots guide to an Idiot: A Military Medal on the Somme, 23rd October 1916.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: A Military Medal on the Somme, 23rd October 1916.: On the 23rd October 1916 my Grandad's battalion (2nd Bn The Middlesex Regiment) was in the vanguard on an attack at 'Zenith Trench&#...

A Military Medal on the Somme, 23rd October 1916.

On the 23rd October 1916 my Grandad's battalion (2nd Bn The Middlesex Regiment) was in the vanguard on an attack at 'Zenith Trench' near Les Boeufs during the battle of the Somme which had been raging since the 1st July.It was here where I believe he won his Military Medal for bravery entitling him to use the letters 'MM' after his name. Not that he ever did. In fact because of the depression of the 1920's he had to pawn all his medals, four in total, he was never to see them again, but that story for another blog I think.
The 2/Middlesex had endured a terrible mauling on the first day of the Somme and didn't move too far from that sector, in late October they marched up through Trones Wood and on the 22nd were in 'Spectrum Trench' waiting for the off. From the 21st the Germans had endured a heavy artillery barrage  and at 2.30pm on the 23rd the 2/Middlesex and 2/Scottish Rifles of the 23rd Brigade followed behind a  creeping artillery barrage onto Zenith trench. There was fierce hand to hand fighting but the trench was taken , by 3.45pm both battalions were through Zenith and 400 yards beyond. The brigade to the left of the 2/Middlesex (the 25th brigade) failed to get as far as the 23rd exposing the Middlesex flank so defences had to be thrown up at the junction of Gusty and Spectrum trenches as well. Here for the next four days they suffered heavy German artillery bombardment and counter attacks. My Grandad told me, in a brief conversation about his MM that they were in German trenches and using the Germans own bombs against them. They were to retire on the night of the 27th.
 The diary describes it thus:
'Oct 23rd. The attack was initially successful accept that the left flank of the Battn was left exposed (owing to failure in the next Brigade) and a new line was established about 200 yards beyond the old hostile front line. The Brigadier complimented the Battn on its success. Casualties- Officers killed 2/Lieut FO Kemp, 2/Lieut LW Smith,2/Lieut G Hall. Officers wounded 2/Lieut HC Hunt MC, 2/Lieut KLN McCulluch,2/Lieut AL St John-Jones. Other Ranks killed 62,wounded 117,missing 47.Total 226.
Oct 24th to 27th.  The positon gained was strengthened and consolidated. Further casualties Capt TC Kidner, RAMC killed, 2/Lieut H Hess, 2/Lieut E Evans wounded. On the night of 27th the Battn was withdrawn to camp near Montauban arriving in the early hours of the 28th.'

The Battalion reached the camp exhausted after such an ordeal they spent the day cleaning up and at noon on 29th marched to Mansell Camp then Meaulte on the 30th.
It is very difficult to ascertain how many bravery medals were awarded for this action but on the 3rd December after church parade the battalion was drawn up for the 8th Division commander Major General Sir Havelock Hudson KCB,CIE to present gallantry medal ribbons, amongst them my Grandad. The General presented another 6 MM ribbons, 1 Military Cross and 1 Distinguished Conduct Medal on this parade. The actual medals followed later.
Grandad's award was published in the London Gazette of 6th Jan 1917. All honours and bravery awards have been published in this way right up to today.
There is a very good book by Howard Williamson I have consulted in trying to pin down when my Grandad got his MM,  there's three volumes all quite weighty tomes, about all medals and awards from the First World War. He is an undoubted expert in this field & has worked out that MM's that appeared in the London Gazette on 6/1/17 were for actions around October 1916 in this area, so the evidence all points to this being where and when Grandad won his MM.
As a slight aside, when he went on leave & told his family, his younger brother scoffed, saying he'll have an MM in six months, about six months later S15174 Private Arthur Edward Gowers 3rd Bn The Rifle Brigade  was awarded an MM!!
Regarding the war diary and it's language, it is a great irritation to me even 100 years on that those who gave the so called 'ultimate sacrifice' are still divided by class, the officers being named Other Ranks not. Whys should a captains name be any more worthy than a corporal?

Battalion war diary from 20th 31st Oct 1016.

Battalion diary detailing parade on 3rd Dec 1916 for gallantry medal ribbon awards by GOC 8th Division. 

My Grandads Military Medal, British War Medal & Victory Medal. (1914 Star missing)

An idiots guide to an Idiot: More travels round Kent and Sussex.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: More travels round Kent and Sussex.: As well as Spike Milligan's grave the church of St Thomas in Winchelsea is quite interesting. There are three tombs thought to be member...

More travels round Kent and Sussex.

As well as Spike Milligan's grave the church of St Thomas in Winchelsea is quite interesting. There are three tombs thought to be members of the Godfrey family set in the wall and now lit up , though I don't think you can see that from my photos. The stained glass windows designed by Douglas Strachen part of a gift to the town by Lord Blanesburgh. There are two war graves in the graveyard one of 36801 Sergeant George William Cook. He'd served in the Royal Sussex Regiment in world war one though I can't find any record of his medals then he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps changing to the Royal Air Force. He had a heart attack in 1943 and buried at St Thomas's, his local church.
The other is an unknown Royal Marine from HMS Ariadne. She was a Diadem Class ship launched in 1898, converted to a minelayer & torpedoed off Beachy Head on 26th July 1917. Thirty eight were killed in the resulting explosion, amongst them the unknown Marine. How he remained unknown I don't know but his washed up body was buried here.
Today I paid a visit to the RSPB reserve at Dungeness  and very good to was too, the high spot being seeing a Hen Harrier, that's what I was told anyway, I recognised it as a raptor but that was the limit of my knowledge, I tried to take a photo but for a second time this week muffed it so just enjoyed watching it instead.
Had a very pleasant walk around the reserve and will definitely come back again.

Tombs probably of the Godfrey family

Godfrey family.....probably

36802 Sgt CW Cook RAF

Unknown Royal Marine from WW1.

Dungeness RSPB reserve

     

An idiots guide to an Idiot: A day out in Kent.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: A day out in Kent.: Had a smashing day out with our friends on Wednesday. First stop was the Royal Air Force Battle of Britain memorial at Capel le Ferne near...

A day out in Kent.

Had a smashing day out with our friends on Wednesday. First stop was the Royal Air Force Battle of Britain memorial at Capel le Ferne near Dover. There's a replica Spitfire & Hurricane & a very interesting  visitors centre in the shape of a wing, once you get upstairs to the café  you can see it has the shape of the elliptical wings of a Spitfire.
We walked over near to the cliff edge of the site, heard the growl of Merlin engine , looked skyward & what should fly over but a bloody Spitfire!! We reckon Stan & Kas had arranged it! I tried to take a photo but was way out so decided just to enjoy watching it fly over. Fantastic! Puts the hairs up on the back of my neck, just brilliant.
Anyway, tea & wads (cake really) in the café & we  were ready to move off.

I wanted to have a look at a cemetery in Dover, as you know, I like a good cemetery, the reason being I have read a very good book about a World War One action called The Zeebrugge Raid on 23rd April 1918. The objective was to sink a couple of old ships in the mouth of the ship canals at Zeebrugge and Ostend to stop U Boats and  motor boats leaving port, a diversionary attack on the harbour (the Mole) was to be made by Royal Marines. All who volunteered for the raid were told to expect that they would not come back and nearly half of the four hundred or so Sailors and Marines who took part didn't! I have read a very good book about the raid which I urge you to read, 'The Zeebrugge Raid 1918  The finest feat of arms' by Paul Kendall ,follow this link to find out more. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zeebrugge-Raid-1918-Finest-Feat/dp/0752453327/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1475769354&sr=1-1&keywords=the+zeebrugge+raid+1918
Sixty six were buried in St James Cemetery in Dover, others were buried in Zeebrugge and some were taken to their home towns.
The men who took part in this raid are all buried together in a mass grave, there are another nine who took part but remain unidentified. Vice Admiral Roger Keyes who commanded  the  force and led it across the Channel requested to be buried with his sailors when he died, so in December 1945 he was laid to rest  with the Zeebrugge Raiders. He was by then Admiral of the Fleet, his eldest son was killed in action during the Second World War in 1941 and is commemorated on his fathers memorial, he was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross.
There was eight VC's awarded for Zeebrugge though none are buried here there is one DSC and a DSM. The award of the VC's is interesting as two were decided by ballot. That is to say the whole unit excelled and no doubt were all bloody brave but it was put to the vote who got the VC. The raid was partially successful, the block ships were not sunk in the exact places they should have been so the channels weren't completely blocked but they did make things very difficult to get U Boats in and out, air photos showed the number of boats within the channels varied very little subsequently.
Churchill described this as 'the finest feat of arms in the Great War and certainly as an episode unsurpassed in the history of the Royal Navy.’ He was probably right. 

Stan before the graves of the Zeebrugge Raiders.

Grave of Admiral of the Fleet Lord Roger Keyes RN.

Memorial to Admiral of the Fleet Lord Keyes & his son Lt Col Keyes VC.

Close up of the memorial naming the unidentified.

Ornate seat commemorating WW1.

View of the Zeebrugge Raiders graves.

There are three Victoria Cross winners buried in this cemetery, we found two of them.
 Quartermaster Charles Wooden VC won his award during the Crimean War whilst serving in the 17th Lancers, then a Sergeant Major, after the famous Charge of the Light Brigade, in which he rode , he helped retrieve a wounded officer under fire. He went on to serve as QM in the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons, sadly he committed suicide on 14th April 1876 by shooting himself having had severe headaches the previous week. 

Sergeant Major Charles Wooden VC.17th Lancers.

 

    The second was Lance Corporal William House VC who served with the 2nd Bn The Royal Berkshire Regiment. he won his VC during the Boer War whilst also rescuing a wounded comrade. He too died early, he accidently shot himself while cleaning his rifle! He was only 32. His grave must have been either unmarked or in disrepair as in 1994 his present day regiment The Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment had the grave stone photographed put in place.   

Lance Corporal William House VC. 2nd Bn The Royal Berkshire Regiment.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: The Memsahibs barnet.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: The Memsahibs barnet.: Now once upon a time, when the Memsahib & I first met she dyed her hair.........& it took me about a week with several prompts to no...

The Memsahibs barnet.

Now once upon a time, when the Memsahib & I first met she dyed her hair.........& it took me about a week with several prompts to notice. Tara has beautifully coloured brown hair with lots of other colour (red tones) in as well that you don't really notice, the up shot being that T hasn't changed her hair colour this past 35 years, until now that is.
Tara has talked about it but not grasped the nettle, shopping in Rye Tara & Kas get talking about hair colour & happen to be in Boots & then brought a hair colour  called 'Violet.'
The deed was done once we got back to Kas & Stans & it looks great! A very rich & lovely colour & Tara looks stunning. Thanks to Kas for this because if she hadn't done it the dye would have languished in Tara's bag forever and a day, but as I say the deed is done & it looks great !

Before.

After.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: The Great Spike.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: The Great Spike.: Buried in Winchelsea, East Sussex is one of the worlds greatest comics. None other than the great Spike Milligan. Born in India  the son of ...