Bring on the MO!

It's that time of year again, folks!  MOVEMBER!

And yes, yours truly is going to have another attempt to grow a decent amount of facial hair in aid of a good cause.  Currently I am sporting a vague goatee beard, nothing like Beppe di marco from Eastenders - contrary to what the girls at work think.

I have been asking people what sort of mo I should gro(w).  Current favourites are the pornstar, the cowboy and the full "Brent".  Illustrations of these will follow as soon as I've played around with Paint some more!

For now, please visit my MoSpace and donate.  or join my team, if you're raising too!

A Tough Few Months in My World of Music!

It started the moment I got back from my late spring holiday to Orlando, Florida in May.  I found out that Ronnie James Dio, Rainbow's real lead singer, died while I was on holiday.

Rainbow have always been right up there with my other favourite bands, Guns 'n' Roses, Tool and Dream Theater (more on them later).  I grew up listening to both Dio-era Rainbow and the later stuff with Graham Bonnet and liked both.  But Rising was always my favourite album and Stargazer has always been my favourite song ever.  With Dio involved, the lyrics were often set in Lord of the Rings-esque fantasy and had a progressive edge to it.  I was saddened by Cozy Powell's death, many years ago, but for me Dio WAS Rainbow (well, him and Blackmore!).

Since his passing, I have been listening to a lot more of Dio's solo stuff.  I had heard Holy Diver before, as I'd come across Killswitch Engage's awesome cover of it on some satellite music channel... probably Scuzz!  I got hold of Heaven and Hell's album and am hoping to get some of the Dio-era Black Sabbath stuff.

Rock music has lost one of the greatest singers of all time.  And the inventor of the iconic horns hand signal seen at every rock/metal gig in the world.  Ever!


In August, Guns 'n' Roses came to England.  Yay!

But noooo, Axl Rose has taken a right bashing.  Now then, I don't condone the way he clearly takes the piss getting his arse on stage.  But people are forgetting he's always been like that... there have been riots in the past because of it.  And it seems these detractors have one sole reason for directing it at him...
"New GNR" are not as good as the original line-up.

Personally, I can tell the difference between the older stuff and Chinese Democracy, as most can, but I like both!  Indeed, Phee had never heard much of the older stuff, bar the obvious songs, and became a proper fan off the back of their latest offering.  Obviously they'll never been the same without Slash, Duff and the guys, but Axl owns the name, the music does sound pretty GnR-ish so he can do what he wants.  And having seen them live before, they are all talented musicians in their own right.  Do people slag Slash off for playing GnR songs at Velvet Revolver or Slash's Snakepit gigs with Axl?  No.

And the insults aimed at him for the way he looks?  Fuck me, that's low.  The guy's almost hitting 50, of course he's gonna be a little rough around the edges!

He needs to be more professional in this day and age though.  He might have ruled the world in the 90's with the Use Your Illusion world tour, but now he has to prove himself all over again, without the old band mates.  Time will tell whether he manages it... but I will be gutted to wait another fifteen years for a GnR album!

All this said, I did see them live last week.  Phee and I went to the O2 Arena in London for their Wednesday night gig.  We sat around the Blueroom for a while, listening to their albums, before catching the end of the support act - I believe it was Sebastian Bach.  Judging by the timings of the support band and how long the turnovers can be at any gig, I was expecting Axl and the boys on stage at about 9:30pm.  They were a mere ten minutes later than that.  Impressive for him!

Once again, people still come out saying he was an hour late.  An hour?!  The door didn't open til half six.  With the support band, safety checks regarding the pyrotechnics and the sound set-up there was no way they were gonna be on stage at 8:30!  No way in hell.

The gig itself was good.  Took a few songs for Axl to warm up it seemed, but when he did I loved it.  We had to leave at midnight, missing all but the first song of the encore.  Bloody trains!

I loved it.  Phee loved it.  Critics can go to hell.

However, I would have preferred going the following night.  Not only were the Murderdolls supporting, but Duff McKagan joined in!  I'd seen Izzy Stadlin' play with them at Download in 2006 and was gutted I didn't get to see Duff up there with Axl.  I almost wet myself with excitement when I found out!  And Duff quite liked it too...


Finally, comes the news last month that Mike Portnoy has left Dream Theater.  This is devastating news, although not surprising when you read his statement.  He has long been one of the best drummers in the world of any genre, but particularly of progressive music.

It was time for him to take a break from the band and I wish he'd been able to work out a compromise with the rest of them.  Tool take years between albums, so most DT fans would have waited for the next album and tour til he'd recovered from the burn-out.  But no compromise was forthcoming.

And now he plays for Avenged Sevenfold.  I'm fine with that.  After the Rev died, they needed a decent drummer and they got the best, in my opinion.  They'll be better for it.  I like them too.  The criticism levelled at Portnoy and at A7X is ridiculous!

You have to follow your heart in this life.  If it's not in what you're doing, move on...