Leaving

The tjjkiosk

House

I have discovered that I can blog from my mobile phone!! -I see the future!

Birthdays and Christenings

James trying to look cool on the morning of his 5th birthday

Ruth (failing to look cool) and Sophie ready for the party!

James blowing out the candles on his Dalek cake

Its Grandaughter Emily's Christening (Sarah Emily and Mark)

Finally Me mum (The Great Grandma) with Emily

My God its me!

Thanks to David Nassur for the picture.

This was taken in 1977 ish in Hoyland Near Barnsley - Arc Rouge's North of England tour (tee hee) I was 18.

Not sure what I was so happy about (probably about having the camera to myself!) Ah the dreams that boys have when they worship slavishly at the alter of Rock and Roll .

Holidays.

Just returned from our second holiday of the year. This one was in Whitby at Easter, an alltogether cooler more bracing experience than February's trip to the Canary Islands. (see photo)

Haven't been making many posts so far this year - I will have to sort that out!

Played a gig at the weekend, a bikers do in a marquee - it was a good one and it was good to be back behind the kit again.

Witchcraft

We watched a documentary on Wednesday night. It was about The children involved in the Rochdale Satanic rituals case back in 1990. The film covered what the events had done to the lives of those involved.

20 Children were taken from their homes in dawn raids by social services. They spent 34 years in care between them, one kid was in care from 6 to 16. The whole thing was a media fuelled witch hunt based on spurious comments made by the kids in interviews which were later condemned as unprofessional by the trail judge. Any one who asked questions about the way the investigation was being handles was immediately under suspision themselves or at best seen as sticking up for child abusers. One local councilor upon being told by the Police that the allegations included children having their fingers chopped off and nailed to an upturned crucifix in the local graveyard said "and have your officers checked the local schools to see if there are any four fingers kids knocking about?" Of course they hadn't and his seemed to have been a lone voice of common sense in the whole affair. Seeing the kids talk about this time in their now ruined lives made both Ruth and I cry. What was more chilling was that it had happened here in the UK in the last 16 years!! The programmed finished by saying that at the time there were over 30 separate different enquiries of this type all over the UK and not one allegation was shown to be true,

The whole sorry affair reminded me of Arthur Miller's astonishing play 'The Crucible' based on the Salem witch trials in America it was his response to the McCarthy political (anti Communist) witch hunts in the 1950/60's. In my amateur acting days I had the chance to play the main character John Procter in this play. What a priviledge thas was. Indeed the actor Robert Carlyle sites The Crucible as the reason he decided to go on the stage. Once you have read or performed this play you can never join the crowd in denouncing someone or some group without asking questions. As another hero of mine Oliver Cromwell said "In the bowels of Christ consider it possible that you may be mistaken". Advice he himself didn't always take of course.

I feel that this play and the issues around it should be required study for everyone, because when you look round the world and even this country today, its is obvious that the witch hunters have not gone away.

New Stuff

If you follow The Erics site you will already know that we are rehearsing again. Its been a long time, plus with Sam's illness it was good just to get us all there and ready to play!

When you're an aging covers band, choosing material to do is very important. The Erics have always tried to do stuff that we like and can try to believe in, and if the audience love it too, then thats a bonus. So we have started work on Floyd's 'Wish You Were Here' and Queens 'Now I'm Here' both are sounding great and although not unique on the local covers scene, there are not that many bands doing them.

The same cannot be said for anything by the Kaiser Chiefs! Everyone is playing 'I Predict a Riot'. We will be joining them as we love the track. The pressure is then on to make it a standout performance and to inject some Ericsness in to it. This is difficult and doesnt always come off. It was the same with Vertigo. Everybody does (did) it, we tried to take it to another level but ended up just playing it too fast (a common failing of mine I do confess). However, eventually we sorted it out and ended up with something which goes down really well live and seems to aviod the 'standard' tag. Lets hope we can do the same with 'I predict'.

We are also working on 'Ant Music' and 'Times like These' (foo fighters) plus there will be some stuff coming back from past set lists. What will see the light of day first is anyones guess, but is is great to be playing again. In a band its the shared experience thats the thing, when The Erics get working positively in either the live setting or in working out new stuff, the buzz is wonderful.

Inspiration

Christmas brought the usual bagful of smellies, socks etc but increasingly rellies and mates buy me dvd's cd's or vouchers for the same.

This allows me to get an annual dose of musical inspiration.

This year stand outs have been Bullet in a Bible - Greenday Live at Milton Keynes. What a cracking dvd plus you get a cd of the live show as well. The live version of Jesus of Suburbia is a classic and reminds me of the first time I saw The Who live, it is so energetic -also it proves that you can play things fast and loud and still get emotion across if the song writings good enough. The dvd ends with a Billy Joe doing a solo of Good Riddance on electric rather than acoustic guitar - this is brilliant just like a billy bragg song, the crowd sing a long and the gig ends on superb high.

Next pressy to mention is U2 Vertigo live in Chicago dvd- This stage show is the best I have ever seen. Plus they do an updated version of Electric co. along with a great Running to Stand still and an even better 40 to finish the show.(incidently me and my mate Bono are both Christian types so we know that 40 is based on psalm 40 in the bible).

Most Influencial this year is the Live 8 dvd. Madonna's performance is stunning, she's the same age as me but she's not fat and knackered like I am. She is my favorite female singer by a country mile! Then there's the very over rated Robbie Williams, he bangs out three hits from his time with Guy Chambers but doesnt do any new stuff. Why? cos the new album is sh*te. Yes his tour sold out in record time, but the punters dont want his new stuff they want Angels! he is very soon going to undergo the emperors new clothes treatment. Pink Floyd -aaah sublime, as a result of this Live 8 performance I phoned Sam to suggest we do Wish You Were Here. Not the usual Erics fayre but when we reheased it it was pretty damn good.

ok I have a few rants brewing which some may be interested in -I will start posting those tomorrow!