WASP gig.

Another great rock/metal gig enjoyed by Kevin & I, sadly T was unwell & didn't join us. Huge shame :(  We pottered over to Camden first & had the obligatory pre gig beer at The Oxford Arms and looked around, it was absolutely rammed with people. Had a walk, a shuffle really, through the Horse Hospital and then got something to eat at The Cobden Arms. This was just out of the main hustle & bustle of touristy Camden and considerably cheaper as well! Both had a excellent homemade Steak & Ale pie with chips...........and another pre gig beer! Sharps 'Atlantic' very nice. A beer that obviously travels well as its brewed in Cornwall!
Eventually pottered over to the Kentish Town Forum, (yet another venue now owned by the 02 group), couldn't get rid of Tara's ticket though, the tout I spoke to couldn't sell the ones he had as the venue had released a load of tickets just prior to the show! I guess that tells you it wasn't a sell out!
We got into the forum and got a seat. We had unreserved seats in the balcony, it was a strange seating arrangement as it was just padded 'benches' with only the seats at the back of each section having backs to them, that's where we sat.
The support act were called The Cruel Knives, I enjoyed them but Kevin wasn't so keen, true to say the singer did lack alittle oomph but I thought they passed muster.
The set the WASP played was alittle different to a normal gig. Its the 25th anniversary of the release of their album 'The Crimson Idol' and they played this in full. It was brilliant! I haven't been to a gig before where a complete album has been played, as with any album you listen to there's always the odd duff track but maybe because it was being played live, I didn't notice any. I'd bought the album a while back to get into it which probably helped. They also ran a film on screens while they were playing. It cost $5M to make according to Blackie Lawless.........I think they were robbed, to a degree anyway!   It was abit art-house-y, shot in grainy black & white, I drifted in & out of watching it to be honest. The second part of their set was other songs from their halcyon days.  It was a brilliant gig!  They started with a cover of the old Who track  'The Real me' which was brilliant & just as good as the original in my opinion. Have to say that even by my standards it was also pretty loud, without a doubt Blackie Lawless, the only original member of the band, has still got it. I thought it was very brave of him to have videos of their hits from years back showing in the background with him far more svelte like that he is now......but aren't we all!
It finished all too soon & strangely didn't have an encore but I have to say a fantastic gig. To mention  their name, there's a  full stop inbetween  each letter & Blackie has been asked over the years as to what it stands for with various answers! First was White Anglo Saxon Protestants, then later he said We Ain't Sure Pal & latterly in 2010 he said it was just using full stops to make their name stand out more, so you can take your pick really. Whether their name means anything or not it was a bloody good gig!
 Here's the set list:

1.   The Titanic Overture
2. 
   
3. Play Video
4. The Invisible Boy
   Play Video
5. Arena of Pleasure
   Play Video
6. Chainsaw Charlie (Murders in the New Morgue)
   Play Video
7. The Gypsy Meets the Boy
   Play Video
8. Doctor Rockter
   Play Video
9. I Am One
   Play Video
10. The Idol
    Play Video
11. Hold on to My Heart
    Play Video
12. The Great Misconceptions of Me
    Play Video
13. Encore:
14. The Real Me
    (The Who cover)
    Play Video
15. L.O.V.E. Machine
    Play Video
16. Wild Child
    Play Video
17. Golgotha
    Play Video
18. I Wanna Be Somebody
19.  The World We Were Sold
20. 
    
21. 
    
22.  The Cruel Knives 
23. Play Video
24. Maybe I Should Know
    Play Video
25. On A Fucking Leash
    Play Video
26. Kill The Messenger
    Play Video
27. Itch
    Play Video
28. The Promised Land
    Play Video
29. Crawl

The Cruel Knives

Blackie Lawless and WASP

Camden Lock

Kev and self enjoying a pint of Sharps Atlantic, even though the glasses say Doombar! 

An idiots guide to an Idiot: "The Immortal Memory of Lord Nelson and those who ...

An idiots guide to an Idiot: "The Immortal Memory of Lord Nelson and those who ...: That was the toast we drank in memory of Lord Horatio Nelson on Trafalgar  Night at The Star at St Marys in the Marsh in Kent in the compan...

"The Immortal Memory of Lord Nelson and those who fell with him"

That was the toast we drank in memory of Lord Horatio Nelson on Trafalgar  Night at The Star at St Marys in the Marsh in Kent in the company of the fantastic Romney Marsh Morris on the 21st October, the very date of the battle that was fought in 1805.
An evening of sea shanties and old songs sung with mucho gusto by the Morris with the chorus belted out by everyone else, what an absolutely fantastic night we had!
The enthusiasm of the side shone through backed by an excellent group of musicians including a couple of fine violin solos by Tom finishing with, of course the sailors hornpipe.
It was interesting to note, that  amongst our number was an 'old salt' who knew all the songs, learnt in the Royal Navy of the 1970's. Despite losing 'the tot' it was good to hear that some  traditions still prevail!  
'All around my hat' the old Steeleye Span standard was sung by our own dear friend  Kas, a song our boys will remember from singing in the car enroute to Eastbourne, even though they may not admit it these days!! 
It was an evening we both thoroughly enjoyed, good company, good songs, good beer. What could be better? Rule Britannia!

https://www.facebook.com/Romney-Marsh-Morris-338999409774390/   

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Hols

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Hols: We had a superb week in Majorca didn't blog it straight away because I thought if I left it awhile I could relive it again! Determined...

Hols

We had a superb week in Majorca didn't blog it straight away because I thought if I left it awhile I could relive it again!
Determined to get abit of guaranteed sun on our backs this year we fore went  our Cropredy gig and decided on Majorca, a very good deal that Tara found got us a week at a boutique hotel at Can Picafort on the North East side of the island. Unfortunately we got off to a false start with a three & half hour delay flying from Luton. Bugger! Ironically we were going to spoil ourselves & go in the VIP lounge before our flight but as it didn't open until 4.30pm & our flight was supposed to be 5.50pm it was hardly worth doing, if only we'd have known!
With the delayed flight our pick from Palma airport was also cocked up with an hour waiting there so we didn't get to our hotel until about 4am! We seriously considered not going to bed, just going for a walk or find a bar or something have breakfast and lounge by the pool all day, but once we got to our room the bed looked too inviting!
Up at 9.30am for brekky. The restaurant the hotel had was about a minutes walk round the corner, very pleasant surroundings and plenty of brekky to be had.
We did a great deal of pottering & strolling hand in hand from café to café and from bar to bar, just enjoying the great weather and each others company on this holiday.
We did do a couple of trips though. A guided tour of Palma was good with a funny old chap called Jordie. He was very interesting though, he gave an in-depth history of Palma and the cathedral. On Tuesday evening we went to a show at Son Amar which was well worth seeing. It was a show of dancing and acrobatics and comedy with dinner included. We sat with a couple from Switzerland and got on very well. The Spanish cater very well for wheat and gluten intolerances, puts us in the UK to shame quite honestly.
There was some Phoenician tombs not far from where we were staying. One afternoon T had a lay down and I went for a walk to these tombs. Only about half an hour along the coast, a glorious day, I'd worked up quite a sweat once I'd got there, the tombs were fascinating albeit alittle knocked about. I popped into a local supermarket to pick up a few nibbles and drinks for our room. I got a litre bottle of red wine for just under 2 Euros! It was very nice!    
Had some really good dinners here. We decided to go on a B&B basis only to give us the opportunity to sample the local fare, so we ate at a different restaurant on all but one evening. Can Picafort was once a small fishing harbour, its got bigger due to tourism but still has alot of fish on the menus of just about everywhere

we went so for a change Tara had a reasonable choice!
One place we went to used old vinyl records as menus, some items printed on the album cover,& some the record itself. That was abit different. 
We already knew that this end of the island was very Germanic, no problem with that, everyone we spoke to was very friendly, afew other English about but not many. It was a touristy area but not the kiss me quick hats and 'Full English breakfast here' type place, it was quite laid back really. We'd seen a singer advertised in  one of the bars  so we went back there after dinner one evening and had a great time. Even got a few dances as well, great stuff!
We had an absolutely brilliant time and our week came all too quickly to its end. Trouble free journey home, we flew with Monarch airlines and two days later they went bust so bit of a close call!
We enjoyed the place so much we are seriously considering going there again next year. Can't wait!

Inside Palma Cathedral

Outside Palma Cathedral

View from a waterfront bar.

Memsahib at the rooftop cocktail bar at our hotel

And the view from the roof

Us.

With accompanying drinks.

View from our room.

Phoenician tombs 

Interesting lamps in one of the resturants

Albums used as menus

A pillbox even though Spain was neutral during the second world war. Probably to keep both sides off the island!

Phoenician tombs

Resturant

Interesting collection of chilli's outside a shop in Palma 

Jordie, our guide around Palma

My find of the week, a 2 Euro bottle of wine!

Street in Palma.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Roman murder!

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Roman murder!: Host a murder to be exact. Tara fancied doing a host a murder for her birthday,we have a couple that we still haven't done so it was a ...

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Roman murder!

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Roman murder!: Host a murder to be exact. Tara fancied doing a host a murder for her birthday,we have a couple that we still haven't done so it was a ...

Roman murder!

Host a murder to be exact. Tara fancied doing a host a murder for her birthday,we have a couple that we still haven't done so it was a good opportunity.
It's for eight players, so me, Tara, Gary, Olly, Laura, Ella, Julian & Bev. Tim was here as well though didn't play as he had to get back for Tia. Everyone did really well with costumes as well. The game is in four  rounds and each round takes place during a course of the dinner. I wanted to try to be as authentic as possible so found some  Roman recipes online.
As a starter we had Roman eggs. That's boiled eggs with a pine nut sauce. Doesn't sound like it would go but it did! The pine nuts soaked in vinegar & sweetened with honey, pepper & celery seeds, bashed to buggery in the food processor and served with boiled eggs (still just a little runny in the middle) and a little salad.
Main was chicken with peppers, an old Roman recipe, basically a casserole of chicken and red, green and yellow peppers cooked nice & slowly so the meat fall off the bone, Tara had Herring with cumin, cheese & oil which worked really well. Pud was changed a little as I did pears poached in red wine, more medieval than Roman I think but as an accompaniment I made a Roman sweet cake with almonds and thyme & cinnamon & honey. Romans liked sweet things so I also made some Muslum which is honeyed wine. Very easy, warm up half a cup of honey & add it to a bottle of white wine. Mix, chill, drink. very nice!
The characters we had were: Tara-Flotilla Submergia, the owner of a large shipping operation, I was Bogus Fortunatus  sort of a priest cum soothsayer, Olly was Harangus Adnauseum part politician  part philosopher, Gary was Licentius Caesar a ruler of the known world,   Rotunda Immaculata was Ella, a Vestal virgin, Julian was Maximus Testosterus a soldier, Laura was Cleptopatra Queen of the Nile & Bev was Mercedes Accelleratti a free spirited type who drove chariots. The murder victim was called Flabious Corpus.
There is an accompanying booklet  for each character with some information that you need to bring out during the course of that round during the conversation

and some things about your character that you don't want to mention, but if questioned, you can't lie. Sounds easy. It isn't. This is the forth or fifth host a murder I've taken part in & I haven't got the murderer right yet, during the inevitable chat and banter over dinner, not to mention the wine I usually don't have a clue who done it! No one got it infact, though Gary claims he did as he'd written some thing about every character in case it was them!
It was a great night with much fun and laughter, just love having everyone round the table. A great race the Romans!

 

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Tom Petty

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Tom Petty: Saddened to hear that another great rocker departed far too early today. Unfortunately I never saw him on stage, I think I'm right in s...

Tom Petty

Saddened to hear that another great rocker departed far too early today. Unfortunately I never saw him on stage, I think I'm right in saying he didn't come to the UK very often but he was one of a breed of rock n roll star that had something special. I've only got one CD of his & its a 'greatest hits' album, having just played it again I think every track is a gem. One of my faves is 'Into the great wide open'  with the line about being a rebel without a clue! I like that.
I also liked him in the 'Travelling Wilburys' & of course there's only two of them left now! (Jeff Lynn & Bob Dylan). I suppose what touched me the most was the fact that he's a name in rock n roll that, to a greater extent, I've grown up with and I've always enjoyed his music. We've lost far too many of late & the passing of the likes of Lemmy, Rick Parfitt, David Bowie & now Tom Petty has diminished that great vibe that is rock music. There'll never be another.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: A VC before dinner.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: A VC before dinner.: The Lancashire Fusiliers won six VC's before breakfast at Gallipoli in 1915, this is nothing like that so I'll explain. Found myse...

A VC before dinner.

The Lancashire Fusiliers won six VC's before breakfast at Gallipoli in 1915, this is nothing like that so I'll explain.
Found myself in Welshpool  this week and as part of the Great War commemorations any town that had a Victoria Cross winner is having a plaque installed to remember them. Welshpool has one to 355014 Serjeant William  Herbert Waring VC,MM who served with the 25th (Montgomery & Welch Horse) Bn, The Royal Welsh Fusiliers. His citation reads:
 "He led an attack against enemy machine guns and, in face of devastating fire from the flank and front, rushed a strong point singlehanded, bayoneting four of the garrison and capturing twenty others with their guns; then under heavy shell and machine gun fire, he re-organized his men, led and inspired them for another 400 yards, when he fell mortally wounded."
He had previously been awarded the Military Medal as well, he is buried in Le Havre.
Stayed overnight in Shrewsbury again and sampled the very tasty HPA (Hereford Pale Ale) by Wye Valley Breweries. Very light in colour  and very citrusy. A good pint. Had whitebait as a starter, this was imaginatively served up in a half pint beer mug and followed that was a very good sirloin steak cooked rare served with huge very crisp onion rings! 

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Diana hysteria.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Diana hysteria.: I didn't get it twenty years ago & I get it even less now, how a person that most people did not know could cause what I think amou...

Diana hysteria.

I didn't get it twenty years ago & I get it even less now, how a person that most people did not know could cause what I think amounts to mass hysteria.
I'm no Royalist I should say from the outset, but that doesn't mean I want to hang them all from the lampposts stretching down the Mall, though there are probably enough hangers on that we're paying for to stretch that far!
It was an appalling thing that happened, the death of anyone from any echelon of society to be killed so young in such a way is numbing & I felt then as now my sadness for her sons but how people who had never met her or really knew anything about her other than what was said in the media could be so upset is beyond me. 
I've heard it said that as people still recall where they were when JFK was assassinated so it will be with Diana. Why? The two hardly compare, a young President of one of the worlds most powerful nations  with every burden that has with it,compared to....... a not especially bright  'Sloane Ranger' as they used to be called, who happened to marry into an emotionless & dysfunctional family!
It is a strange irony to me that the same week Diana died so did Mother Teresa of Calcutta. A person who had spent her life in the slums of Calcutta really helping people, getting her hands dirty if you like, but so swamped were we by the death of a 'Royal' that her passing , by comparison, went almost unnoticed. 
And what difference did Diana make to me? Nothing, nothing at all. Rant over.      

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Pizza.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Pizza.: We've tried the wheat/gluten free pizza bases you can buy & though they are Ok, they are still abit cardboardy so the Memsahib deci...

Pizza.

We've tried the wheat/gluten free pizza bases you can buy & though they are Ok, they are still abit cardboardy so the Memsahib decided to cook her own today from scratch & very good it was too. The dough was made alittle differently as well as being wheatfree. You mix egg whites, oil, vinegar, sugar & water in a bowl add the flour & sprinkle the yeast on top. This gets mixed in a bread maker then taken out. It looks nothing like dough of any kind & is just about poured out of the bread maker into a bowl. Tara actually made this yesterday & put it in the fridge overnight. It was never kneaded just kind of poured into 28cm sponge tins and the toppings added. They cooked for about 20 minutes or so. Served with a nice mixed salad & potato salad it was a meal fit for a reigning  monarch. I'd defy anyone to identify it as wheat free. Lovely!


Tara's delicious wheatfree veggie pizza.

  

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Whipsnade walk.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Whipsnade walk.: We took our doggie guest, Charlie, out for a walk yesterday. The weather was glorious, we didn't go far, just to the Tree Cathedral. It...

Whipsnade walk.

We took our doggie guest, Charlie, out for a walk yesterday. The weather was glorious, we didn't go far, just to the Tree Cathedral. It's very pleasant there, it's laid out like a medieval cathedral would have been and built by Edmund Blyth in memory of three of his friends.
All four had served in the trenches of World War One. Arthur Bailey and John Bennett were both killed in action during the big German push on the allied lines in March 1918. I have checked the Commonwealth Wargraves Commission site to try to identify these two men. I couldn't conclusively find them but using the dates of the German attack ( Operation Michel) of March 1918 I think Arthur Bailey could have been a Lieutenant with the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry killed in action on 24th March 1918 & remembered on the memorial at Arras aged 19 & John Bennett possibly a 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd Bn The Rifle Brigade killed in action on 28th March 1918 and remembered on the Pozieres Memorial. His age was 22. 
Blyth's third friend Francis Holland survived the war but was killed in a car crash in Canada in 1930.
Work on the cathedral was started in 1930, interrupted in 1939 as Blyth was called up to his old regiment. By 1947 when he was demobbed the site was very overgrown but by 1952 the first service was held there.
It was given to the National Trust in 1960, there's also nearby cottages called 'Bailey Cottage' & 'Bennett Cottage' which Blyth brought to give cheap holidays for people in London, Edmund Blyth lived in 'Blythwood' and died in 1968. His son Tom continued to manage the site until his death in 1978. He also gave nearby 'Windy Sales' to the Guide movement but these days the Scouts use it too.
There's 22 different types of tree planted here and 14 types of flowering shrubs, it's a place I often walked with our dogs and never disappoints.
Afterwards we repaired to the Old Hunters Lodge for a beer. The pleasantly cool Tawny Owl Ale by Tring Brewery was on tap, it slipped down a treat I can tell you! Popped in on Ella & Julian after as well.

Charlie.

Approaching the Tree Cathedral.

Tring Brewery's Tawny Owl Ale. 

Add caption

Charlie, obviously done in from his walk, with Ella & Julian.

      

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Silverstone

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Silverstone: Some friends of ours are attending a motor bike event at Silverstone this weekend & it reminded me that my Dad had been to Silverstone....

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Silverstone

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Silverstone: Some friends of ours are attending a motor bike event at Silverstone this weekend & it reminded me that my Dad had been to Silverstone....