Monday, June 29, 2009

Bloatermog Quite Shocked: A 'Hit' counter has been on the http://www.alanburridge.freeuk.com website for some time now, and it's not often been checked, but the 45,547 hits it's logged to date was quite a shock - or more like a pleasant surprise.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Bloatermog Groundhog-In-Chief Tony McPhee: had a heart attack on June 16th leaving him temporarily unable to speak. Our thoughts are with him for a good and speedy recovery.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Motorblog New US Tour Dates:
August 28th - First Avenue, Minneapolis, Minnesota with Reverend Horton Heat & Throwrag.
August 29th - Eagle's Ballroom, Milwaukee, Wisconsin with Rev Horton Heat.
August 30th - House of Blues, Chicago, Illinois with Rev Horton Heat.
September 1st - Motor City Casino, Detroit, Michigan with Rev Horton Heat & Nashville Pussy from here on.
September 2nd - Docks, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
September 3rd - Metropolis, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
September 5th - House of Blues, Atlantic City, New Jersey.
September 6th - House of Blues, Boston, Massachusetts.
September 8th - 9:30 Club, Washington, DC.
September 9th - Roseland Ballroom, New York, NY.
September 11th - Fillmore, Charlotte, North Carolina.
September 12th - Cherokee Motor Cycle Rally, Cherokee, North Carolina.
September 15th - Jannuslanding, Tampa, Florida.
September 16th - House of Blues, Orlando, Florida.
September 18th - Warehouse Live, Houston, Texas.
September 19th - Palladium, Dallas, Texas.
September 20th - Stubb's, Austin, Texas.
September 23rd - Pageant, St Louis, Missouri.
September 24th - Midland Theatre, Kansas City, Missouri.
September 26th - Fillmore, Denver, Colorado.
September 28th - Flames Central, Calgary, Alberta.
September 29th - Events Center, Edmonton, Alberta.
October 1st - Vogue, Vancouver, British Colombia.
October 2nd - Showbox Sodo, Seattle, Washington.
October 3rd - Roseland Ballroom, Portland, Oregon.
October 5th - Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, California.
October 9th - Nokia Live, Los Angeles, California.
October 10th - House of Blues, Las Vegas, Nevada.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

So Now We Will Be Asked: Where were you when Michael Jackson died? Well, out of all the JFK's, Elvis, John Lennon etcetera, the only one I can remeber where I was is Twin Towers or 9/11. But for MJ I can say "Having an knockout time at Champions new rock venue in Bournemouth watching the all-girl Ramones tribute band, The Ramonas - and they were are effing excellent! http://www.ramonas.net
Not worth me even trying to list their set because just about every 1-2-3-4 by The Ramones you loved was covered, and the crowd went away well pleased and sweaty after a great evening. And despite the fact some neanderthals may say "well, it's just the same song time after time with different lyrics," well, in that case you're the neanderthal and you have missed the point.
However, I can say it was a treat to see chicks playing in a band, and it makes a refreshing change - love our male rock / guitar idols as we do, as there is an unparallelled thrill to watching females play drums, guitar and bass; denim mini-skirts and fishnets notwithstanding, of course. And they included Motorhead's 'RAMONES' track in the set as well: Top Notch!
So that's where I was.
That's where WE were when MJ passed as not only did I go along with friends Cam and Barb, but lifelong Bro, Eric was there with his partner, Anna, chatting to the inimitable Dave Robinson, the man who owns Champions and The Bourne Beat hotel / rock venues; plus a respected work colleague and bass player from the past in Graham Dear was also there looking for dates for his latest band, Catalyst.
And from being the iffy rock star and the man everyone grew to hate more than love, I get home just past midnight, set the radio alarm and they're playing one of HIS records. When the alarm went off at 05:15 they were still playing HIS records. This is where it all becomes VERY effing annoying and exceedingly boring because all of a sudden he's cool once more. ME? I own one CD of his, a 3-tracker with the Slash / Eddie Van Halen / Steve Stevens tracks on it, and that's all I'll ever needed.
Oh, and before setting out for Champions the News told us Farrah Fawcett had died - but hers was rather ill-timed as she will be quickly forgotten beneath the shadow of 'Wacko Jacko' popping his clogs.
But at least they'll give the now relentless / tedious / crap Jordan and Peter front page tussle a rest. Was that really the best we could do for headlines? Will Katie Price turning lesbian really save her dive-bombing career?

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Bloatermog Interesting: At 5 minutes and 6 seconds after 4am on August 7th 2009 the time and date will be 4:05:06 07-08-09 and this peculiarity will not occur again until 3009.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Bloatermog The Dust Has Settled (and been Dyson'd up): No, not Hoover'ed, but Dyson'ed, and now the fallout of concrete dust and soot from the lounge chimney breast and fireplace demolition has been removed, and the decorating finished, (almost), the carpet and seating are on order; Jane has just the curtains to consider.
The old lady, (well, she's 70 and 12 year's my elder, so does she still qualify as 'an old lady'?), who dinked the Escort is back from holiday and concerned, (she asked our daughter, Natalie, if it had been repaired?), that everything went well in her abscence?
It did.
But that's the whole reason why we do our best to avoid RTA's, isn' it; it's not the accident, it's the phone calls and backside kicking to get it sorted out, repaired, and back to its owner that is so annoying.
Seeing the 08 Mondeo courtesy car being driven away held with it a rather large sigh of relief, too, with the feeling akin to that, perhaps, of Louis Bleriot or Amy Johnson at the controls of a space shuttle whilst driving (piloting?) it; the vehicle was too much technology for this dude.
So now the pages have been turned on the recent history, and normality is settling around the place once more, and if you don't know already, Pilly at Devil's Jukebox has re-issued / re-pressed Motorhead's 'Leaving Here / White Line Fever' single with sleeves in the style of the Stiff/Sky Dog originals as single 7" singles, or a pack containing the whole set: http://www.lamf.biz

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Motorblog: 2 New Motorhead Dates: November 4th - Zenith, Paris; November 5th - Forest National, Brussels, Belgium.

Bloatermog Arse Pain Ending: Car will be back today, repaired. The 08 Mondeo Titanium will be collected, (far too high-tech for this dude!). Great! Didn't need any of this hassle, just because an old lady didn't stop in time.

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Bloatermog Champions, Norwich Avenue West, Bournemouth: A new venue (used to be The Midland Hotel) for bands in Bournemouth, this is the itinerary to date:-
June 17th - Albert Lee & Hogan's Heroes £15.
June 19th - The Agency £5.
June 21st - Steely Scam (Steely Dan treibute) £5.
June 25th - The Ramonas (all girl Ramones tribute) £4.
June 26th - The Baker Brothers £4.
June 28th - The Hamsters (all Jimi Hendrix set) £10.
July 2nd - Led Zepp Too + support £7.
July5th - Hells Bells (AC/DC tribute) + Hellrazer £7.
July 6th - Rat Pack £ 10.
July 10th - Chicago Hit Squad (Blues Bros tribute) £5.
July 12th - Deeply Purple £7.
July 13th - Tony Adams sings Sinatra £10.
July 15th - GMT (Bernie Torme and John McCoy from Gillan) £8.
July 16th - Toxic Twins (Aerosmith tribute) £7.
July 19th - Beached Boys £7.
July 24th - Souled Out £4.
July 25th - Bowie Experience + Peachy Jane £7.
July 27th - Rat Pack £10.
July 30th - Sinner Boy (Rory Gallagher tribute *Brilliant!!!*) + support £7.
August 2nd - Los Endos (Genesis tribute) £6.,
August 4th - Michael Chapman (amazing folk/rock guitarist) £8.
August 6th - The Upbeat Beatles £10.
August 16th - Dire Fakes £6.
August 17th - Anthony Adams sings Sinatra £10.
August 27th The Stones £10.

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Bloatermog Arse Pain! Having a cup of tea at our daughter's house last weekend, and the old gal next door reverses her car into ours. It was just parked outside at the roadside, innocently doing nothing at the time! Of course, her's has to be the butt of many a Jasper Carrott joke, doesn't it: a Skoda! She knocks the door to tell Neil, our son-in-law, who then relays the message, so we traipse outside to find there's headlamp glass on the road and the bumper has a minor crack in it; and she's very apologetic but says "I could have just driven off!" Our's is an 'N' reg Escort, and it's always a pain when your car gets a knock, but it is doubly annoying when you were not even sitting in it and are 100% blameless!
So they take it away for repair and bring an 08 reg thing which in comparison to the Escort is like one of the Wright brother's trying to fly Concord. Technology? It can almost tell me when I last ate fish and chips and where I bought them; but do I really need to know? Do I really care? I am a man of basic needs who detests mobile phone technology, has just about learned the absolute rudiments of the Internet; never mind having some high-tech vehicle thrust at him which has a dashboard like the Starship Enterprise!
The Insurance company tells me, quite rightly, that paying the 1st £100 has been waived and my No Claims etc will not be affected; blinking right it won't; I'm the innocent party here!
The old gal muttered on about how she's going away on holiday, she was tired, and that's how she "wasn't as alert as she should be!" Like I care? You've dinked my car, you old bat, and I just cannot afford to have it written off!
(To be continued...)