A mini Ex TNMS gathering in Witney last Saturday! Bezza and Neill (with 2 L's) were up in Witney for my Birthday Shenanigans so when we all walked into The Crafty Pint Bar David L was rather surprised! Cracking night, mostly good music other than when the special guest (me!) made an appearance behind the mic!

Quote from: David L on October 11, 2023, 10:42:57 PMAfter 3 months, the best bar in Witney, 'Drummers', has reopened today as 'The Crafty Pint'.
Nice to quaff a few ales there tonight with Mr Pudney of this parish. A good day indeed

Ha! Just came on here to make a similar comment! Cracking night and good to see you both again. Lovely to have it back, such a great place

Quote from: Nickslikk2112 on October 01, 2023, 09:59:21 PMEnjoyed my trip to the RAH to see Hawkwind on Friday. Better still Mrs S enjoyed it, because there's always lots to watch. Of course they'll never be Space Ritual standard Hawkwind, but any Hawkwind's good Hawkwind.

After being on the receiving end of an "Are you Dave" moment at a Steve Hackett gig (someone thought I was Dave "Who?" Bainbridge. I gave one out, to Pudders' mate Dave Ling

Big shout out to Arthur Brown who at 81 is in remarkably good voice, not as sprightly as 82 year old Dave Brock but then Brock isn't in as good voice.

Next gig which I booked before going to the Albert Hall is Steve Hackett at the Royal Albert Hall on 23rd October next year. Must sort more out.

Quote from: Matt2112 on September 26, 2023, 06:11:03 PMDid you see Giles and Jon, Pudders?

Nope think they only attended on Saturday night. We got the better set mind

Quote from: pxr5 on September 26, 2023, 11:03:10 AMI still haven't played any of the tracks but this morning I got my Burning Shed notice of shipment for the orange vinyl. Maybe here tomorrow. 

I've managed to avoid it as well, despite having the opportunity to listen to a review link a while back! CD is on pre order for a record store signing in Oxford on Monday and I hope to have the Blu-ray tomorrow...we shall see!

Lou and I travelled up to Huddersfield, on Sunday, to see John Lees' Barclay James Harvest perform along with the 80 piece Slaithwaite Philharmonic Orchestra at the Town Hall. A very late call, with tickets bought on Saturday morning but, what a fantastic experience! For my sins I have been a fan of the band since the mid 70s but am a little too young to have seen them try this sort of thing before (they gave up when it nearly bankrupted them in the early part of the decade). Had to be done then and so glad we went. Hearing the early tracks that were originally recorded with either Robert John Godfrey's arrangements or, latterly, those of Martin Ford was something special indeed. The bands late keyboard player, Woolly Wolstenholme had a deep love of the classical world, in particular Mahler and, that was also clear in some of his early composition like Moonwater and Dark Now My Sky. Mrs P's comment after the latter was played was along the lines of, 'That was weird, presumably one of Woolly's?' 

Strangely enough the absolute highlight for me was probably their most well known song. I've heard Mockingbird so many times that I wouldn't miss it if they never played it again in it's usual band arrangement but, add the orchestra back in and, wow! So many other highlights (Jez getting the chance to play that magnificent organ definitely one of them!) and John, at 76, can still play a mean guitar and the voice is pretty decent too. Lovely to meet him after, shake his hand and just say 'thanks'.

Quote from: Ali on September 10, 2023, 01:12:32 PMOff to see the unfeasibly talented Rosalie Cunningham for the second time this weekend tonight, at Night and Day in Mancunia

This is the first week of an extensive nationwide tour and I can't recommend her highly enough, so get yourselves down there for a musical and visual treat 👌🏻

I first saw her in her old band Purson who were excellent too, her new band are so tight and rock out spectacularly

There's a good reason she was mentored by George Martin, she's a cracking singer/guitarist/writer/bandleader - her music is a heady mix of psychedelia/prog/folk/hard rock

She's playing in Oxford on Thursday. Tempted but depends on how I have recovered from a day at the cricket, tomorrow, with Bez and looking after our Granddaughter, Thursday daytime!

A few on here will remember Peter from the old TNMS days. Sad to report that he passed away over the weekend after a short illness. Ironically he was no great fan of the band but he worked for them, as Neil's personal driver, during the European legs of two tours (Hold Your Fire and Roll The Bones) having first met Neil in London, before he joined the band. To say he was a character is somewhat of an understatement but he was great company and I'll certainly miss the occasional chats we would have on the phone. We rarely talked about Rush, it was Football, Horse Racing, Rioja and family stuff in the main and we would ramble on for ages.

Rest easy Pete...

In other gig news, saw Sparks last night in Oxford. Great fun from a slightly nuts band who, apart from 'that' song I was quite unfamiliar with. Will check out the more recent albums as a result as some pretty good stuff aired last night. Anyone else seen them over the years?

Quote from: David L on May 22, 2023, 09:05:15 PMI thought I'd reflect a little on the LVS gig at The Northcourt, Abingdon on Saturday night. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a gig as much!
The set consisted largely of what I would call mid-period Rush with, I think, Moving Pictures being the album to have  most cuts featured.
Seeing as this is the period in which Rush employed the most complex production techniques, it really is an outstanding feat that a tribute band can produce this music so convincingly. Of course, it is reliant on the supporting technology working flawlessly and, fortunately, there were no problems.....that my ears detected anyway.
I've seen Neil perform a couple of times before (with Bravado) but I thought he was on top form on Saturday. Watching closely, I appreciated the amount of vibrato Alex employs during his solos.
Dave Mackintosh did an outstanding job of recreating Neil's drum parts, arguably the toughest job of the night.
Bibbi's vocals were well suited to 80's Rush, being in that lower register than the early stuff. I assume that's why they concentrate on that particular period.
I thoroughly enjoyed the setlist with standouts being Time Stand Still, Manhattan Project, The Analog Kid and Available Light. Curiously, no tracks from P/G (Kid Gloves would have been nice!). 'Proggers' were treated to a great rendition of Xanadu, complete with double-necks. A (second) encore of Overture (2112) segueing into TSoR sent an extremely enthusiastic crowd home happy.
A thrill for me - my good friend Richard attended with his son and even though they are not huge fans and have never seen Rush in concert, they thoroughly enjoyed the show, singing enthusiastically through the numbers they recognised.
A top night and the most enjoyable Rush tribute show I've seen. I'd see them again without hesitation - 10/10

Sorry I couldn't be there David, after our chat in the pub on Friday night had every intention of attending. Unfortunately Florence (our Granddaughter) was quite poorly over night and spent several hours in the JR so rather scuppered all other plans... Seems it was a rather nasty, but brief, viral gastro-enteritis bug and she's now on the mend.

Will hopefully catch them again!

I bought a new lens recently but haven't had much chance to play with it yet. But, managed to wander around a local lake the other day and try to get my head around it's variables. Have to say, quite pleased with this Chaffinch, they really are wonderful little birds

(For those interested the lens is a Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 Contemporary, ie the budget version! Relatively lightweight but still a bit of a brute).

We were in Lanzarote for the 3 weeks 29 March - 19 April. Looks like we missed a few folk! Been going for almost 40 years, mostly staying in or close to Playa Blanca in the south, which has grown massively in that time! Mrs P's symptoms are less of an issue out there as well, a real bonus.

Also have 2 weeks cat sitting at a friends house in a French village called Flers...which just happens to be in the middle of the Somme battlefield (Mrs P can't wait, probably!). Tacked a couple of days on in Ypres at the end of that as well...

Nice one James, will have a listen

Liked that - not a band I'm familiar with at all, beyond the name. Will do some digging

Victory and British War Medal. Not come across the acronym 'N.D.T.' before. Searches come up with Non Destructive Testing, might be relevant for his later service and yet another service number! That's my lot for the night but will dig again later in the week