Charms the savage breast…

I have a strange relationship with music. I have an enormous collection of tunes ranging from opera through punk to hard rock, with a lot of cheese thrown in somewhere in the middle. But I always seem to listen to the same old things. And every now and then I will change allegiance to the next new album that has been released. Sometimes I get a kick in the head that reminds me of some of the music i used to listen to, and that happened yesterday.

I took Mrs Giant68 to a local live music venue to see the SAS Band. Run by a guy called Spike Edney who has worked with bands such as Queen, it has a changing line up called from a vast pool of enetrtainers. But the core of the band remains the same. Johnny Marter on drums, Steve Stroud on base guitar, Spike himself on keyboards and kazoo and Jamie Moses on guitar.

I believe that our musical tastes are influenced by our parents. This is why my guilty pleasure is stuff like ‘ I never promised you a rose garden’ by Lyn Anderson. My dads favourite. I can sing along to that and most Leo Sayer songs, Gilbert O’sullivan, John Denver…

But my favourite is always rock. The tone was set for the night when Jamie Moses tore the air apart with his rendition of Springsteen’s ‘Born to run’ Eardrums are now destroyed!

But as i said, sometimes I need a reminder of all the music I have enjoyed in the past. And tonight it happened. From his pool of entertainers Spike had called up Sweet, the glam rockers. Time has not been kind to their long flowing locks but by God! They can still belt out ‘Ballroom Blitz’ and ‘Fox on the run’, and I can sing along word perfect.

But, possibly, my memory of the night is of Benny Gallagher of Gallagher and Lyle. Songs such as ‘Breakaway’, ‘Heart on your sleeve’ and ‘When I’m dead and gone’ brought back a lot memories.

Madeline Bell, Kiki Dee and others didn’t shine quite as bright for me but I walked away thinking ‘Madeline Bell is 70 years old??? Bloody hell!!’

Jamie Moses finished the night off with something that they have been practising for years, the 21 riff salute. We have been attending their gigs for about 10 years now, and what started off as the 21 riff salute is now about 29. They have taken the greatest guitar riffs and stitched them together to form one piece. Absolutely fantastic, there are other guitarists who could do this but I don’t think as well. Jamie usually breaks most of the strings on his guitar during this and it is a bugger trying to keep count of the riffs…

My ears are still ringing and my legs are aching from the walk home, yes, I am a tight git for not paying for a taxi home!  But the words are still running through my brain and occasionally reaching my lips.

‘When I’m dead and gone…’

Regards

Giant68

Getting wood.

I like coffee. In fact I love coffee. But it has to be served in a certain way. It has to be strong, relatively sweet and the temperature of lava that has just been ejaculated from the bowels of the Earth. At home this is easy to achieve, just boil the kettle, put the pod in the Tassimo (other coffee makers are available), microwave some milk and Roberts your mothers brother. Hot coffee. When i am out and about, i do go out and about every now and then, ok, I go out a lot, hot coffee is hard to come by. I think that health and safety, and the threat of being sued by some moron who wouldn’t understand the meaning of the steam being emitted from the mug meant ‘be careful’, has meant that coffee temperatures are tepid at the most.

I have found that I can ask for it to be served extra hot, which i do to some strange looks. I wonder sometimes if I will be asked to sign a disclaimer.

But the worst thing by far is the little wooden stick that you are expected to stir it with. If you take sugar or, in my case, sweeteners you need to get a bit of rotary motion in the fluid to enable the sweetness to mix properly. With a teaspoon, even a plastic one, with a vigorous flick of the wrist you can give the brown nectar a uniform sweetness right down to the dregs in the bottom. But with that ridiculous wooden stick you can’t get a decent swirl. In fact, with a latte the sugar, or sweeteners, sometimes stay in the froth at the top.

So, the solution, Mr Nero Costabucks, is a spoon. Mr Wetherspoon sometimes gets it right but even they are slowly moving to the wooden stick. Take a stand Wetherspoons. Be like Wimpy. Remember them? In a Wimpy you were served your burger on a china plate, and had a knife and fork. I know that they are mostly consigned to history, a bit like the dinosaurs, but a few still exist.

Regards

Giant68