Not Metal enough?

So, I went back to the Doctor’s for a check up (this was the first time he’d seen me since I went into hospital) and he wanted to check my blood (as he suspected I might be low in iron), so he sent me off for blood tests. Turns out that I’m not as metal as I thought I was, because I am indeed deficient in iron, so I'm still on iton tablets and will be for the next 3 months. Maybe I should drink more Guinness!!!

Anyway, despite not being metal enough, I still made the Metallica gig at the SECC. The set list for the ‘Tallica and Machine Head are below, but should point out that this gig was the second time *ever* that “My Apocalypse” was played and the first time “Turn The Page” and “Die, Die My Darling” have been played in Glasgow. The cherry on the cake was “Trapped Under Ice” which has been played live, literally, 5 or 6 times since it was written in 1982 – cue many younger fans: “Oooooh – it’s a new song!”!!!

Metallica: That Was Just Your Life, The End Of The Line, For Whom The Bell Tolls, Of Wolf And Man, One, Broken, Beat And Scarred, My Apocalypse, Sad But True, Turn The Page, All Nightmare Long, The Day That Never Comes, Master Of Puppets, Fight Fire With Fire, Nothing Else Matters, Enter Sandman, Die, Die My Darling, Trapped Under Ice, Seek And Destroy

Machine Head: Clenching the Fists of Dissent, Imperium, Halo, Beautiful Mourning, Descend the Shades of Night, Davidian

Metallica-Time (Part 2).

Well, it here – Metallica’s World Magnetic Tour touches down in Glasgow tonight. It’s the first time for 13 years that the band has played indoors in Glasgow (I was, of course, at the previous indoor gig in the Barrowlands in 1996). Looking forward to a good night and hoping to get (my personal favourites) “For Whom The Bell Tolls” and “Creeping Death” played tonight as neither were played in Newcastle earlier in the month.

As mentioned, the weekend will be taken up with all things of a Grand Prix nature. Will Ferrari be able to hold onto the World Championship Constructor’s trophy and will they be able to wrestle the Driver’s trophy from the hands of McLaren Mercedes? Only time will tell (it always does). Could be an interesting first race with all the rule changes since last year – thankfully the FIA have reverted to the old points scoring system instead of the new one they suggested.

Right, I’m off for lunch across the road in Wetherspoon’s and then off to The Squalid for a few beers with Mr Garry before heading down to the SECC. Rockkkk On!

Almost Famous!

Well, Scotland on Sunday had a rather large piece on Doctor Who fans last weekend, and I even got a name check! I do have a paper copy (thanks to Mary Jo at work!) but for those who missed it, it’s online at the link below. My bit’s in paragraph 13:

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/spectrum/Tales-from-behind-the-sofa.5094307.jp

Good weekend with Dad’s party. Lots of lovely food (of which I didn’t get much) and lots of wine drunk (which I did do my fair share of drinking!). Petrus the Pirate enjoyed himself, and the weather was good so he even got out into the garden for a while.

Apart from that, it’s a quiet week for me – with the exception of Metallica, Machine Head and The Sword at the SECC on Thursday and The Sword headlining King Tut’s on Friday with support from Diagonal and The Black Cherry Group.

This weekend will mostly be spent watching the Australian Grand Prix qualifying (Saturday) and the actual race on Sunday. It’s the first time for 12 years the BBC have done the coverage so we’ll see how it goes. Thankfully we won’t miss any action due to advert breaks and I’m sure David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan will do a good job with the commentating!

Happy 70th Birthday - Father P.

Today is, of course, Father Petrus' 70th Birthday - Hope you have a lovely day, Sir! :)

St Patrick’s Day?

It is, of course, St Patrick’s Day today – and you’d have to be hiding in a hole not to notice! Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles wouldn’t shut up about all things Irish this morning, Metal bands like Slayer and Metallica are offering special "St Patrick's Day" branded merchandise just for the day, a lot of the music channels on TV are showing special countdown shows of the Best 100 Irish this and that and, of course, all the Irish theme pubs all over the UK are making the most of the day! It’s strange cos I don’t remember any of this fuss on 17 April 2008 (St George’s Day), 1st March 2009 (St David’s Day) or 30th November last year to celebrate St Andrew’s Day. Why do the Irish seem to make more of a fuss!

Didn’t feel well on Sunday afternoon, and struggled into work yesterday but only lasted until 3:00pm. Straight home and straight to bed. Feel a bit better this morning, but still not feeling 100%. If I had £5 for every time someone mentioned I was maybe having a relapse – I’d have £35! I don’t think I am, but if I continue to feel rotten I’ll make a Doctors appointment.

Happy Tuesday!

Signed Venom cover.

Venom's "Hell" CD signed by the geordie rockkers (Cronos, Antton and Rage) themselves. Cronos has signed his name backwards - how cool is that! :)

Birthday Girl/Comic Relief.

Happy Birthday to Mrs Kate who is 38 (count ‘em) years old today. Here’s hoping she has a lovely day.

Over here and it is, of course, Comic Relief day. The BBC seem to battering Comic Relief into our conciousness with special programmes and interviews with those celebs who climbed Mount Kilamanjaro, special episodes of programmes like “The Apprentice” and “Two Pints” as well as retrospectives on previous years – but tonight is the “big” nigfht when you aren’t suppost to go to the pub after work but instead should donate the money to Comic Relief, whilst having a good laugh at the shenanigans on the TV. Guess that means I’m going straight home after work tonight! :)

Happy Friday everyone.

More Doctor Who Nonsense.

Quite an interesting wee night last night as I went for a couple of beers in The Crystal Palace with a couple of mates to meet a journo from Scotland on Sunday who’s writing an article on Doctor Who to tie in with the exhibition of props being held in The Kelvingrove Museum from 28th March 2009 – 4th January 2010.

Good chat was had about Doctor Who in gereral, fandom in Glasgow and the upcoming exhibition as well as the Doctor Who event being held in Glasgow on the 24th May. The article should be published in the 22nd March edition of Scotland on Sunday. The journo had asked us to come dressed up as a Doctor Who character and was quite disappointed that we all turned up in normal clothes. We all had the same reaction when asked to dress up – “We might like the programme, but we’re not sad to dress up as The Doctor or a Cyberman!”.

Apparently the exhibition is still getting set up, but the Face of Boe is there (still under wrapping at the moment) and some Daleks as well as a couple of Weeping Angels from “Blink”. Quite what else is there couldn't be divulged. The Kelvingrove are trying to get “someone” Doctor Who related to open the exhibition as well as try to arrange for Tennant to turn up sometime while it’s on.

Belated Happy Birthday to Simon who turned 37 yesterday and was treated to a meal out with Shirley followed by a visit to His Majesties Theatre to see comedian Al Murray.

Goodnight Sweetheart & Venom.

I remember "Goodnight Sweetheart" from Sunday nights on BBC1 and its being repeated again on ITV3 at the moment. Basically, it’s a sitcom where a TV Repair man finds a hole in time and traverses between his 1990s life and wife (Yvonne) and a girlfriend he’s got in wartime London (Phoebe). Missed the first episode, but quite enjoying the series so far. I was thinking about getting the DVDs (all 6 series available for £30) but not sure whether to actually buy it or not.

Got a CD through the post last night from Newcastle’s biggest Metal band (well, they did define and name the Black Metal genre with their 1980s song – “Black Metal”) - Venom. Didn’t pay for the CD as I saw on their website that the band were selling signed copies of their new album through a web store in America. I did query this with the band office are in Whitley Bay, and got a reply saying they were sorry the CD wasn’t available in the UK, but have a signed copy free. Nice! The interesting thing about the CD is that Cronos (Bass player and Singer – real name Conrad Lant) has actually signed his name backwards!! I’ll put up a scan of the cover soon.

Rossi's New Hair Cut.

Heard rumours about this in about September/October last year. Francis Rossi was hinting during the initial stages of Status Quo's UK tour that the ponytail might be going - as of today, it has finally gone. Click on the link below for more info:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/article2309123.ece

Got a text message out of the blue from Geraldine who I knew in Dundee many years ago. She's still in Aberfeldy and her son, Johnny, is now 10 years old. Nice to hear from her and totally unexpected.

16 days to the Metallica gig in Glasgow but in the meantime, I have a few things bubbling under which could be construed as beimg quite cool (for me anyway) if they come off - more as and when they happen! :)

Friday Again!

Well, that’s another week gone and what a week it’s been. With the excitement of Metallica earlier in the week, who would’ve thought my week could get any better. Arrived home after work to find my new Doctor Who DVDs, (“The Rescue” and “The Romans” starring William Hartnell) waiting for me, and an envelope from BBC Wales. I had previously found out that the BBC produce promotional postcards for Doctor Who (like they did in the 1980s), so I thought I’d write to them to find out if they have any for the new series. They do indeed, and inside the envelope was a selection of postcards – including one personally signed by David Tennant. What an unexpected surprise!

Just getting ready to purchase the birthday cards for March people. That’ll be Simon Maxwell (37), Katie (38) and, of course, Father Petrus is 70 in a couple of weeks.

Status Quo have announced their Winter Tour. Glasgow’s scheduled for 13th December while they arrive in Newcastle on the 16th December. They’re playing the City Hall in Newcastle which I saw on Kevin Whatley’s episode of “Who Do You Think You Are?” amd it does look very grand – can’t imagine a rock n’ roll band playing there although several have. Might give it a wee go this year.

Right, off for my lunch – Happy Weekend, everybody!

Newcastle - Done and Dusted.

Well, that’s me back to work after a hectic couple of days – the most exciting thing was going down to Newcastle to see our heroes. It’s been some 13 years since I last saw the band indoors (the Glasgow Barrowlands in 1996) and two years since I last went to a Metalli-gig (Wembley Stadium, where Machine Head also supported).

I’ve seen quite a few pictures from the current tour, so I suspected that it would be a really good night, which it was. Spectacular laser show to open the performance followed by explosions, real fire and more metal than the Forth Road Bridge! Highlights included “Harvester”, “Blackened” and “Killing Time” (by Sweet Savage who will currently be touring with Saxon), although I couldn’t really complain about anything on the night. Machine Head were pretty good, and The Sword sounded good although I didn’t see them as I was in the bar!

Newcastle:

Metallica: That Was Just Your Life, The End Of The Line, Harvester Of Sorrow, No Remorse, One, Broken, Beat And Scarred, Cyanide, Sad But True, No Leaf Clover, The Judas Kiss, The Day That Never Comes, Master Of Puppets, Blackened, Nothing Else Matters, Enter Sandman, Killing Time, Whiplash, Seek and Destroy

Machine Head: Clenching the Fists of Dissent, Imperium, Halo, Beautiful Mourning, Descend the Shades of Night, Davidian

I also managed to catch and take home one of the Metallica Beach Balls that falls down from the ceiling during "Seek and Destroy" - it's currently deflated, but will try and re-inflate it. It is quite big, so it'll take a fair bit of human puff to get it fully inflated!

Looking forward to the next installment in Glasgow on the 26th March!