Wednesday 11th January.

Still waiting to get my roof fixed. Having managed to get a quote for the work, I'm currently trying to get a surveyor appointed by the Insurance Company to come out to the house and okay the quote for the work but I'm unable to get hold of the surveyor. Phoned several times and just keep getting put on hold and I've resorted to emailing them to try and get a response from them!

Also I found out today that, my Twitter account (@ajohnmain) has been hacked so that's another issue that I need to sort out. If only my PC was up and running I could at least get that done, but I'm still trying to do a Restore on it – despite having the discs, my PC is having none of it. Frustration, frustration, frustration…..

Saturday 7th January.

I was pleasantly surprised when looking at Facebook over the weekend to find that Swedish band Inmoria posted the following on their Wall: "….we're catching up with things after the Christmas holidays but would like to say cheers to Johnny Main at Metal Talk for listing our album as his best album of 2011 - that's really cool, thanks!...". Nice of them to do that since their album "A Farewell To Nothing - The Diary Part 1" is very, very good!

A quiet weekend was had except for Saturday night when the wife and I went in to The Solid for her Bestie's birthday night out. Bestie (aka Gillian) downed Jack Daniels like it was going out of fashion and predictably, she didn't make it to the Classic. Unfortunately I did and it wasn't worth going to so we headed home. Nice to see a bit of bitchiness from someone of FB the next morning – ah well, once she's paid me back what she owes me, she'll be getting deleted off my FB and she can do whatever she likes and I don't actually care what that is. It's nice to know that you look after someone (especially when they are ill), give her money when she's a bit short so that he and her cats have food and then goes out with a bloke and begins to treat you like crap. Well, I don't need to be treated like that. Rant over.

Sunday was the 21st anniversary of Steve Clark from Def Leppard's death. Hard to believe it was that long ago, so I'll be listening to some classic Leppard in his honour tonight.

[Edit: I'm gutted to learn that Tony Iommi is the latest rock musician to be diagnosed with cancer. According to a band statement, Black Sabbath's legendary guitarist, 63, is suffering from "the early stages of lymphoma". Like all of Tony's friends, band-mates and fans, I wish him a speedy and complete recovery.]

Christmas and New Year 2011.

The road back up after the excitement of the Paul McCartney gig was nice and stress free – despite the cold weather.

Friday 23rd December saw us heading into Glasgow City Centre to meet up with Gordon and Ian Swan and Alison Edward who were having pre-Christmas drinks at Wetherspoons in Bothwell Street. All was going well and the pub was packed, until the fire alarm went off – leaving us standing outside for 20 minutes (with our drinks still inside the pub!) while this was dealt with. On returning to the pub, a lot of folk had given up and decided to go home, making the pub somewhat less packed than previously.

Christmas Eve was spent at Calan's mum's house with her brother and 3 nieces which was a good laugh and then on Christmas Day we headed home early for what turned out to be a quiet affair. Nothing much was eaten or drunk and the telly was a bit crap – even Doctor Who!

On Hogmanay, we headed over to Garry and Nicky's in Paisley in late afternoon, loaded with booze and some munchies in the form of a homemade curry. It was a good night with us all taking apart in a music quiz (which I won – Yay!) and a glass of Gentlemen Jack at the bells, eventually getting to bed somewhere around 5:30am!

Since the New Year, we've been battered with severe winds and torrential rain causing a lot of damage – including the loss of a couple of tiles on my roof. I've contacted the Insurance Company and they're sending a surveyor out and told me in the meantime to get a builder in to seal the roof – easier said than done when they are too busy with other jobs or the fact that they're not willing to come out due to the high winds!

The high winds meant that my planned return to work day of Wednesday 4th January was delayed by one day as there were no trains running on the 4th, due to the weather. On returning to work on Thursday 5th January, it soon became clear that everything (work wise) is very much as I left it at the end of December 2011.

Sir Paul McCartney MBE - Live in Liverpool.

As promised, I'm going to try and keep this blog updated more oftenm and that starts... now!  


So, back to normal after the Christmas and New Year so a quick update on what happened in the run up to Christmas..

The Works Christmas Night out on Friday 16^th December was cut short as I was informed of the death of my friend Cameron McNair.  You couldn't really have fun after that, so I left the party and headed home.  Cammy and I used to attend Quo gigs together including the gig at Middlesborough (Father P's first Status Quo gig) and the famous “4 nights in a Row – Carlisle, Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen back in 1999).  His funeral was held on Wednesday 29^th December.  It'd the first time that I've been to a funeral where at the end of the service, Status Quo's "Rocking All Over The World" has been played as the congregation filtered out.

Saturday 17^th December saw myself and Miss Carlan heading down to Newcastle to see Father Pertus and Sister Agnes to share an early Christmas with them.  It was nice to see them both and I think that everyone had a good couple of days.  Christmas Dinner (on this occasion) was lobster - nice.

We left Newcastle in the early afternoon of Monday 19^th December and headed down to Liverpool.  The roads were busy (and very wet) but we made good time arriving in Liverpool at about 5:00pm.  We also managed to avoid a couple of crashes that happened on the road down so if we'd left any later, we eould have been caught in the traffic jams.  I realised about half way down that this is the furthest that I’ve ever driven before, but I managed okay – as did my wee car.

Arriving in Liverpool, our hotel was right across a pedestrian precinct from the venue (The Echo Arena) and our bedroom was situated on the 6th Floor, so that the view from the only window included the Liverpool Wheel, the Albert Dock and the Liver Building in the distance.  How lucky were we?  A quiet tea in a local PizzaExpress was followed by a walk around the Albert Dock before we retreated from the cold into a local hostelry called The Pump House (http://www.albertdock.com/the-pump-house) where we discovered Jack and Ginger (Single Barrel Jack Daniel's and Crabbie’s Alcoholic Ginger Beer).

The next day was gig day and a trip to The Beatles Story exhibition (http://www.beatlesstory.com)  started things off nicely.  It took us about 90 minutes to get round it and we escaped the shop without buying anything at all!  After this, a nice leisurely walk round Liverpool One (only 10 minutes walk from the hotel) and the Matthew Street area of the city centre including a few beers in The (famous) Grapes Bar (http://www.mathew.st/venues.php?VenueName=The+Grapes) before returning to the Hotel for a glass of wine and some food before the gig.  Because the venue was so close we opted for drinks in the room as opposed to fighting for drinks at the bar downstairs!

At 7:15pm and we headed across to the arena only to be told that “McCartney’s people” wouldn’t let anyone into the venue as the band were still sound checking so after a 15 minute wait in the rain we were finally allowed in.  A quick queue for a t-shirt and a couple of beers and we headed to our seats.  Lovely helpful staff made sure we got seated in plenty of time before the show started – nothing like the rather ubrupt staff you get at the SECC in Glasgow - and we caught the DJ spinning discs before a video montage of Paul's life was played.  Slightly later that planned, however, the lights went down and the show began - and what a show it was.  Over 3 hours of tunes from The Beatles, Wings and McCartney solo back catalogue with McCartney frequently making jokes and telling stories of being back “home”.  Fabulous entertainment and certainly worth making the effort to go and see him.  The set list was as follows:

Hello, Goodbye  
Junior's Farm (played for the first time in Liverpool)
All My Loving
Jet
Drive My Car
Sing the Changes
The Night Before (played for the first time in Liverpool)
Let Me Roll It (with Foxy Lady Snippet)
Paperback Writer
The Long and Winding Road
Come and Get It (played for the first time in Liverpool)
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
Maybe I'm Amazed
I've Just Seen a Face
I Will
Blackbird
Here Today
Dance Tonight
Mrs. Vandebilt
Eleanor Rigby
Ram On (played for the first time in Liverpool)
Something
Penny Lane
Band on the Run
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Back in the U.S.S.R.
I've Got a Feeling
A Day in the Life / Give Peace A Chance
Let It Be
Live and Let Die
Hey Jude

Encore:
The Word / All You Need Is Love (The Word played for the first time in Liverpool)
Wonderful Christmastime (with a girls choir from LIPA)
Day Tripper
Get Back

Encore 2:
Yesterday
Mull of Kintyre (with Pipe Band)
Helter Skelter
Golden Slumbers
Carry That Weight
The End
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Christmas 2011.

Okay, so I said in October 2009 that I would try to update this more often, but obviously failed miserably, so I'm having another attempt at keeping this up-to-date.  Famous last words, eh?

;-)

October.

So where did September go? I have no idea! Long time since I've updated this but I've just been so busy that I haven't had time.

Bought a couple of new books recently - both autobiographies - by Chris Evans and Ozzy. Should both be a good read.

Currently listening to a lot of Deep Purple and Rainbow. Not really sure why but at least it's decent music. Will update this for sure at some point next week. Happy Weekend! :)

August Already?

Busy weekend for me with lots being done (but nothing really productive).

Simon came down on Friday night while Ross and Ashleigh were visiting their gran at her caravan in Saltcoats. Went to the pictures (for the first time in seven years) to see “Moon”. It sounded really good, but we both left disappointed. A few beers in the town (although not in The Solid) and then home. He left on Saturday morning to head back to the caravan, but he might be back again this weekend.

Saturday was Top 100 day in The Solid, so lots of silliness was had. The regulars table was packed out, but it was all good fun. The annual Air Guitar Championships were had again with me being cajoled into participating. Unfortunately (or fortunately!) I was eliminated in my first heat – not helped by the fact Frankie was playing the “guitar” with her boobs! Ended up on the tables rockkin’ on to this years number one song: “Highway To Hell” by AC/DC. The Top Ten was filled out with Metallica, Journey, Lynyrd Skynyrd, KISS, Iron Maiden and more AC/DC.

Sunday was spent in Edinburgh with mum and dad and the rest of the folk from Tyneside who came up for the weekend. The afternoon was nice just sitting in Princes Street Gardens listening to a succession of Jazz bands in the bandstand followed by a barbeque at Alec’s house. Katie and Janet both turned up with the kids, which was good as I haven’t seen them for ages.