Joining The Whiskey Rebellion

I don't know if I ever mentioned that I love live music.  Weymouth for a small sea side town has a great live music scene. I don't know of many other places where you can have a choice of seeing as many as a dozen or so music acts on a Friday or Saturday night.

This Saturday I headed down to The Sailors Return which is a great traditional pub, to see a new band called "The Whiskey Rebellion". The Rebellion consists of 5 members who are no strangers to the music scene. Maria Greenwood from Hustle and a few other outfits on vocals, Rob Davis - drummer and backing vocals for The Stereoironics, Glen Conroy - guitarist for Hustle, Andy Newman -  guitarist for Shooter and last but by no means least Ben Delplanque bassist and vocals for Shooter, The Lo numbers, Hustle and reserve bassist for Hybrid.

I arrived just after 9.30 when the band should of started, but in true rock and roll style they were late. Not surprising with the amount of equipment they had to set up, as well as the standard guitars, drums, bass and PA, they also had 2 keyboards. I'm not always convinced keyboards in bands are a good thing, there is a danger of them sounding like Ross in friends. Standard piano or hammond organ type sounds are fine, but once you try to emulate brass, dogs barking or helicopters flying you enter in to danger territory.  It looked like the people playing the keyboards would be guitarist Andy and bassist Ben, I was intrigued to see how they could play 2 instruments at the same time.

Things started getting busy in the main bar, so I retreated to the other bar to listen to the band.  I can't quite remember the running order for the set, had I thought I would be writing a mini review I would of taken a notepad and pen and made some notes! But one of the first stand out songs for me was "Electric Feel" by MGMT.  My concerns about the keyboard were unjust as they managed sound authentic to the keyboard in the original track. The vocals and harmonies between Maria, Ben and Rob complimented each other well, and guitar bass and drums gelled together.  All in all very impressive pulling off a live version of a song such as Electric Feel, and the Rebellion did not stop impressing...

Every time a track started playing such as "Propane Nightmares" by Pendulum, me and my mates would comment "I can't believe they are going to play this".  But we had to believe it because it was happening. Plus not only did they play it, but they played it bloody well.  Rob's drumming was as solid to rock and roll as it was to playing drum and bass beats. My favourite tracks from the night were "Uprising" by Muse, "Me and You" by Nero, "Little Sister" by Queens of the Stone age and "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele. I'm sure there are many more I can't recall.

I think I commented in the night that the songs in the set are very different. This was not at all meant in a derogatory way, what I meant is a lot of bands end up playing a lot of the same stuff... Sweet Home Alabama, Sex on Fire etc. Different is good, and in the case of the Whisky Rebellion, different is awesome.  They certainly have some balls to play the tunes they play in a live environment.

I will be catching the Whisky Rebellion again, and I suggest you do to.  Next time it would be good to see them in a bigger venue with some room to dance. I can imagine them going down very well at an outdoor event in the British sunshine.  Would also be good to watch again as I never did get to see how they managed to play 2 instruments at once.

If you also wish to join The Whiskey Rebellion or find out more info, you can do on their Facebook Page here.

Who killed Saturday Night TV?

When I was a lad (many years ago now), my Saturdays evenings would be ruled around watching TV. These were simple times, unless you tired to record a TV program. We had no "One Touch Record" or "Series Link". Life did become slightly more simple with the invention of Video Plus, but I digress. Our TV screens were a lot smaller than by today's standards and were a lot heavier. There was not such thing as HD, and we only had a choice of 3, and then eventually 4 TV channels.

Saturday evenings would be a time when the whole family could get together and watch TV. You had to all watch TV together as most house holds would only have one decent TV set. The shows I most remember were various Noel Edmonds efforts such as Noel's House Party. There was always the slight excitement with the NTV part of the show when a hidden camera would be put in a home of unsuspecting member of the public that it could be your home.... it never was ours.

The Generation Game and Big Break were 2 popular shows that were hosted by Jim Davidson. Now Jim Davidson and popular in the same sentence? The 90's were very different times!  These shows were all on the BBC, after they finished we used to change over to ITV for programs such as You Bet!, Gladiators and Blind Date.  Blind Date was always very disappointing when they used to put on old couples.

My point is you could enjoy a good few hours of family entertainment on a Saturday night... up until the point when Casualty would come on.  So what are we left with these days? Endless reality TV shows: X-Factor / Dancing on Ice / Strictly Come Dancing / So You Think You Can Dance etc. Why are these shows so popular? Or is it just the fact they are forced onto the viewing public so we have all been brain washed into thinking this is entertainment?

I'm not saying we should bring back all the shows I used to watch when I was a kid, as I think these are best left to memory, you only have to watch at Sky's remake of Gladiators for proof of this. But I do think TV producers should be able to come up with something a bit more original than a reality singing or dancing show.

So what's your view? Is Saturday night TV really as bad as I think it is?

Getting back to life

Hello again blog readers. First of all I must apologise for recent lack of blogging. It's been over a month since I last blogged, it's a lot easier to find inspiration for blogs when you are bored out of your mind stuck in hospital or at home.

Here's the latest update from me on my status. The last time I "spoke' to you I just finished my last lot of "3 day evil chemo". Since then I have now finished all my chemo, and had the CT scan. The result from that was good news, the chemo has done it's job, and I'm just left with a small lump in my stomach, no more than 2cm. With any luck this lump will either stay the same size, or turn to scar tissue and shrink over a period of time. A watchful eye will be kept on this. The good news for now is that I won't have to have any major surgery for the forceable future. This means my life can start getting back on track and I will be able to enjoy the summer.

I'm planning to return to work tomorrow, this will probably come as a shock to the system, but I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again and getting some routine back into my life. There are a number of things I'm looking forward to doing over the next month, these include:

• Eating - Now my appetite is coming back I can get back to eating proper meals. I'm going out to eat next weekend and already have steak and chips pre-ordered. Yum!
• Drinking - It's been quite a while since I have been able to let my (lack of) hair down and enjoy a night out on the town.
• Gigging - As I might have mentioned before I play bass in a band. I'm looking forward to getting back to playing and entertaining folks of Weymouth.

So from now on I might actually write some non cancer related blogs, but will be sure to keep you updated with any progress or news.