Party all Day

Steel Panther and ZZ Top were playing Wembley Arena – a gig not to be missed! Whilst ZZ Top are one of the most recognisable bands, you might not have heard of Steel Panther. They are a 80’s tribute hair metal band that enjoy writing songs with the most disgusting/funny lyrics which are then delivered in the most over-the-top way. You won’t have your life enlightened by the band, you will have a good laugh as they strut their stuff.

See why it’s called “Hair metal”? The bassist loved looking at himself in a mirror

This song was concerning the moral difficulty of whether the light should be left on whilst procreating in less than optimum circumstances(If you want the actual words…  link )

ZZ Top were their usual cool selves. James commented on the fact that these shots look sharper than the Panther ones – that’s because ZZ Top don’t move one muscle more than is needed to maintain their Southern cool

 

Classic, and not so classic guitars

Only ZZ Top would have “technicians” in high heels deliver their 10 gallon hats

(We are) The Roadcrew

The UK music festival season is in full swing with at least one festival happening every weekend. James and I decided to visit Guilfest(err, at Guildford, hence the name....)

Over this festival season, James and I had fine tuned our festival logistics, and one of the best investments that we had made was to purchase a 4-wheel gardening truck from eBay (Type

Garden Trolley Hand Utility Truck Wheelbarrow Innerbag into eBay, and you'll see the type I bought) So, rather than struggling with all the stuff that you need for a 3 day camping trip by using wheelbarrows, sack trolleys and backpacks, we were able to roadcrew our kit without the usual pain.

Guilfest is delightfully British affair. Aimed at kids and families, it is an odd sight to see smartly dressed middle aged taxpayers sitting on expensive fold up seats reading the Sunday Times, whilst the bands crack out lyrics where every other word starts with F, C, B or A (You go figure!)
Guilfest has more than the usual 3 stages, and, whilst this means that there are opportunities to see lots of bands, there is also a high chance of seeing complete dross as any band with a GU postcode seems to have a right to play there.

Whinge over, here are some of my highlights.

Friday was a lovely day, no rain and just the right temperature to watch one of the funniest acts this year. Tragedy, are an American band that do Bee Gee’s songs with an odd combination of 70's glitz and a very heavy metal style. The combination sounds awful, but was in fact so totally over-the-top that it really put a smile on my face - and, at least the guys could play!



Tragedy, being camp, loud, and over the top all at once

Just before Tragedy , Ginger did a good job with his particular mix of Punk and Rock
Ginger (ex- Wildhearts and Quireboys) doing his bit

Friday night headline band were Motorhead.
Lemmy and the boys did a stunning job in getting the crowd going. Even middle England managed to rattle their jewellery and stomp their Hunters in time

Lemmy doing “Ace of Spades”
Saturday was a bit more miserable with drizzle coming down most of the day, but that didn’t matter when my hero Joe Bonamassa got up and headlined on stage 2.

Joe doing Sloe Gin
Joe, as always was stunning! And even though by this time we were soaked to the skin, we really enjoyed him and his style of timeless blues given a new twist

Rock 'n Roll all nite

I was slightly aprehensive as I booked my tickets for the Download festival. Would there be fights?, would my stuff get nicked from the camping site?, would I be the oldest person there?

55,000 people all getting on at Download

I really wanted to see some old favourites, and get to see some new bands - but what would it be like?

I shouldn't have been worried-Download at Donnington Park was superb! Not only was the music great, but the atmosphere was really good, the weather was great, nothing got nicked and the beer was cold! Not only that, but the mix was eclectic, every age, style, interest (Apart from people who wear pastel colours - Black, grey brown tee-shirts were the uniform worn by all)

The day did start with a "Bit of a challenge". What makes Donnington such a great venue for concerts is that it is situated on rolling hills - put the stages at the bottom of dips, and everyone can see. The downside of this arrangement is that when you are dragging all the food, booze, water, tents, cooking stuff that is needed for a 3 day sojourn, 2 miles from the car park to the campsite up and down dale, it bloody hurts!

Stage 2 - showing the angle of the terrain

I met up with Peter 2/3 rds of the way to the campsite. The temperature by this time was in the mid 80's, and we both looked more dead than alive, but we finally found the campsite("Turn left just after the toilets", "Where are the toilets?", "You'll know when you get there!")

Chris, James and Peter at the Campsite

James and Chris had already put up our tents, but it still took a couple of hours to get our life organised. At last - time to go look at some bands on the 3 stages!

The sound systems were superb, lighting great, and most of the bands were superb.

The band that first attracted me to part with a weekend ticket was an ol' favourite ZZ Top, and they, of course did their Southern cool brilliantly. But there were other bands that I didn't "Get" such as Slipknot, that did such a good job, that I'm a convert.

ZZ Top doing what they do best - being Cool

I guess if I had to call out my favourites, Marilyn Manson, Dragonforce, ZZ Top, Slipknot and Faith no more have to be at the top of the list. I found Whitesnake a bit formulaic, but what do I know!

The weather was superb, and I failed to put on enough sun block, so rather than coming backed bronzed, I came back bright red and peeling - more Rock lobster than Rockjunky!

The Campsite at dusk

And will we be going next year - Oh yes, but this time with some other method of dragging my Food and Booze from the car park,

Many Thanks to Chris and James for setting up the campsite and looking after us, as well as thanks to Peter for being a good mate as we both felt like dying as we dragged our life up yet another hill.

Funkier than a mosquito's Tweeler

Joe Bonamassa at the Royal Albert Hall playing Sloe Gin

I love the way that music progresses. As each new generation comes along, they take their musical influences, add their own magic, and create something that is rooted with the greats, but adds and augments.

So, it was with great excitement that I went to see Joe Bonamassa at the Royal Albert Hall last night. Joe is one of the new generation of bluesmen that have taken up the challenge to move one of the most clearly defined musical styles onto the next rung.

He did a great job.

As well as a great practitioner in his own right, he took classic blues numbers and moved them on. For example the Muddy Waters classic, Rollin' and Tumblin', is almost a rite of Blues passage with versions recorded by Clapton, Johnny Winter, Bob, Dylan,Robert Johnson, Jeff Beck and many more. Joe's version is Last Kiss, and a very fine version it is too.

Joe is a fine singer with clear influences from John Mayall(noticeable on "Another kind of love", where he mixes Mayall back of throat singing with Johnny Winter "Rock and Roll Hootchie Koo" style guitar playing.

There were many other influences, but one clear one is Clapton. So it was a real joy when Eric joined him on stage for "Further on up the road", and I reckon that Joe actually blew Eric off the stage - maybe the Padawan is becoming the Master.

One innovation was the use of two drummers. They were very tight, and sometimes played the same, sometimes contrapuntal rhythms, a great idea.

it was a great evening slightly marred by the acoustics (we were in the standing area right at the top - an area which is very echoey), but the combination of great conversation with some buddies that I hadn't seen for some time, beer(Naturally!) and great Blues made for a very fine evening.

Thanks To Darren H for putting it all together.