Sunday, May 30, 2010

Eric Clapton's Cream (The Fool) SG Guitar: has now been manufactured as a double-necked 6 and 12-string guitar, with the original artwork:-
http://www.famousguitarreplicas.com/models/Double-Fool/index.htm
It looks knockout, but there's nothing like the original.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Debut Magazine: have just emailed to say they have accepted a writing tutorial essay written and sent back in March. Titled 'Try Not To Try Too Hard', it may well be published in their August issue, so more news will be posted here as and when.
http://www.parkpublications.co.uk/index.html

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

'When The Clouds Have Passed': is now complete with a cover and a bar code and will be at the publisher's tomorrow. A 'proof copy' should be sent next week for the final look over, and then it will be on sale a few days or so later.
The cover as a whole looks knockout, if different from those in the past, and I am pleased with it.
The back cover synopsis blurb has been edited down to be more succinct, and is the better for it; less is more, as they say.
It will be published in June, and due notice will be given here of its appearance on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk and other outlets.
It is being made available as a download, and much as many an MHB may turn a wry smile at this after my grumpy and logical diatribe about music downloads; just like those music downloads, I was asked to move with the times. It is the way ahead no matter how much and how hard we grumble about this tech-progress, and as my publisher says, "a sale is a sale in any format, so don't knock it." Presumably every band, musician, and singer on the planet gets told the same thing.
But you can't beat lounging in an easy chair with a good book in your hands; and much the same goes for an album or CD when you're listening to it.

Monday, May 24, 2010

The 'When The Clouds Have Passed': novel is getting ever closer to being published next month. The front cover art came through today and looks apt if not different from most of the past covers.
The text looks good with a nice eye-friendly font, all 181 pages of it. Once the back cover has been approved it will be all systems go, so watch this space.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Motorbastards: Are a new Motorhead tribute band from Brazil. They formed last year, and in September / October 2010 they will be playing the FULL Motorhead 'Ace Of Spades' album live onstage.

These are a few of their My Space videos which they sent over -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtH4jRLuJCY&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTzR1_2qmKI&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ9EPMlWkLM&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2XhAiP7YmE&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mraDRC0DEkw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTxBqc6Yf9Y&feature=related

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Kathy Knight-McConnell: Has a book published any time now, titled 'Curtis Knight - Living In The Shadow of Jimi Hendrix.'
Kathy made contact to ask permission if she could use Fast Eddie Clarke's comments about working with Curtis Knight and Zeus. Eddie recorded 'The Second Coming' album with Curtis, and it was released for the first time on CD last year; well worth getting.
Eddie's words were from an interview I did with him on The Bomber UK Tour of 1979, which appeared in the Motorhead Babylon book.
Kathy also asked me to join her on the Manny's Music Hall of fame website. There's a bit of work needs doing, but here's the link if you're interested...
http://mannysmusic.ning.com/profile/AlanBurridge

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Books For Just A Penny: The world of the writer, much like the world of the musician, is quite an unfair one. A Royalty is paid on the first sale of the book or record, and from there on, no matter how many times the item is sold and resold, there is never another penny made.
This is particularly poignant for the writer, and after reading an article about her in a magazine, I checked Amazon to find that most of Margaret Dickinson's novels sell in the New & Used section for 1 penny. No, I'd never heard of her either, but she writes historical sagas set in Lincolnshire, and sells quite a few by the look of it.
And it must be wonderful selling in such large amounts at the outset, and presumably, that's all that concerns her. But it must be quite disheartening, if indeed she ever looks at her Amazon listings, to see her work on the Used or 2nd Hand market at such a pityfully low price. But when you sell in hundreds of thousands, if not in millions, I don't suppose it matters. As long as the publsher is happy, what care they about the crumbs around the table after the fact?
The sellers on Amazon, of course, make £2-75 postage plus the penny for the book, minus the packaging and postage. As far as they are concerned, they have made perhaps 50 to 75 pence after these costs have been taken out, moved some stock, and have extra shelf space. There is an absolute feast of books out there, so if their copy is sold then that's all that matters.
Whilst having never sold in voluminous amounts, my cheapest fiction book is on Amazon's New & Used for £1-50; the most expensive, the Motorhead Illustrated Guide, is at around £84-00.
There are also CD's for sale on Amazon for 1 penny, and regardless of pricing, we never make a bean from the resale, but that is the way of the world for the author and musician; like it or lump it. I suppose if we worried about it too much, we would give up our craft and simply go insane.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Proud To Be A Dinosaur: Don't you hate these 'on-spec' telephone calls? Double glazing. Mobile phones. Car insurance. Pay off your credit card bills.
Our landline number once belonged to someone else, and although it's been ours for 16 or 17 years, people still call asking for the previous owner, who lives 3 miles away.
One such WAS a double glazing company, I told them he didn't live here and never had. And then the caller asked if I would like any double glazing? Trying to get business on the back of ringing someone else annoyed me, and I told the caller so and hung up.
The classic was someone asking if we needed a stair lift. It gave me great pleasure saying we live in a bungalow.
Last evening, a well-mannered young chap with a good sense of humour, selling mobile phones, called. He could not believe how old my Nokia was, and that I put £10 on it last November, for the Motorhead tour, and still had about £8 credit on it today.
Our landline barely gets used, so why do I or we (Mrs. B) need to spend £35+ a month EACH on a mobile? (Plus leccy charging them). Do people really want to talk that much, or is having 'the latest' phone just a status symbol? (I thought history dictated husbands and wives ignored one another? Now they want to talk all the time?)
I told him people seemed to call one another to tell them they had just passed wind. He laughed. But why do a couple need to pay almost a £grand a year texting and phoning each other, or friends and family, when they usually see them face to face later in the day / week, and can ask them in person, for free? Perhaps they've got a bad memory? Perhaps I've got a good one? If I've forgotten what it was I needed to say when I meet the person, then it can't have been that important, anyway.
The classic, which this chap laughed at when I told him, was on that 'Beat The Bailiff' TV programme. As ever, this couple were drowning in debt, but the show's presenter found out that: The bloke would be upstairs playing on the X-Box, and he'd text downstairs asking his Mrs to bring him up a drink. And She texted him back asking what drink he wanted? Utter madness!
Mobile / cell phones are knockout in an emergency, but an expensive luxury for the rest of the time, which is 99% of it. But some people couldn't live without them, and they have become quite an addiction, and there's always someone fiddling with theirs wherever you happen to go.
But hey, let's face it, I'm in the minority; a dinosaur who would prefer spending that £grand a year on a holiday rather than making the mobile phone millionaires even richer.
Keep Us On The Road - The Ultimate Motorhead Concert File & Diary: Have been working on this for quite some time; it has just been accepted for publication, and should be available via the Amazons in the autumn.
The title is pretty self-explanatory, and the finished book will include gig tickets, concert flyers, posters, and a myriad of photos of the band in their various line-ups from 20th July 1975 through to 31st December 2010.
The layout and design should start next week, and even though the autumn publication date is rather vague at the moment, as soon as it is given a confirmed day and month you will be informed of it here.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Friday, May 14, 2010

Eric Clapton Guitar School: This has always been a fave since 1969 when it was first televised as part of Cream's Albert Hall Farewell gig.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9ODNQPQo3A&feature=related
Oh, how so many of us wish we could play the guitar half as well...

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Lemmy The Movie: With so many MHB's asking what's happened to this film, there's a 16 minute video update on it here:
http://www.motorhead.it/ and it's well worth watching, too.
I believe it's being shown at the Canne Film Festival this month. As any further news arrives it will be posted here.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Three (3) Original Copies Of: The Illustrated Collector's Guide To Motorhead can be found on www.abebooks.co.uk Search Alan Burridge to find them. They are going for what I regard as 'silly money,' but if you'd like a copy, they are there.
There are also some of my original crime thriller's available, and also a few more on Amazon.
Frank Frazetta: Died yesterday aged 82, here's Mick Farren's tribute from Doc40 -
http://doc40.blogspot.com/2010/05/finally-frazetta.html

Sunday, May 09, 2010

Learn What's Too Heavy: After a year as a gardener, another one as a student, three in an office and thirty in warehouses as a goods inwards operative / foreman / supervisor; more than a fair share of lifting was necessary.
And they say most accidents happen at home, and had the scenario happened at work, help would have been at hand and no damage would have been done.
We changed the seven doors here for modern, light-weight, rubbish B&Q ones. The originals were old, from the 1930's when the place was built; and heavy, and panelled. But when panelling went out of fashion, those original doors were skinned over with hardboard; making them heavier still.
Younger, and a bit of a dab-hand at woodwork, I changed them, but left the old ones standing against the wall in the hallway.
A couple of weeks later we were due off on a holiday to Fuerteventura; the doors had been annoying me, and I should have known better and waited until help was available.
But no! Taurus people get a bee in their bonnet and MUST get the job done; and did.
They were heavy, damned heavy, and whilst carrying them to the old garage, (now demolished), under one arm, it hurt, like a red hot poker being pushed into the hip area.
Job done, and the pain went, but rather like a slipped disc and other back injuries suffered through the years, it returned to pay me back for my stupidity three or four weeks later, and has remained ever since.
The red hot poker feeling was the sciatic nerve being damaged, and it became difficult to walk, drive, or do anything.
So I sought accapuncture, and if some are frightened of the needles, it hurt that bad I didn't care if she stuck spears in me; needles were nothing, and the relief after seven or eight sessions was incredible.
Lately, it has been bothersome again, painful, and making me walk as if drunk, which doesn't happen any more as some of you are aware via this organ.
After one session with NHS physiotherapy where a 'ham-string-stretch' almost crippled me, I left it for a while, to heal; but it still hurt.
So, again, last week, I sought relief at the same Chinese emporium in town, with the same lady-Doctor of accapuncture sticking in the needles and providing the massage; which is focussed on the spine at waist height; who did so four or five year's ago.
After just one session, walking is now almost back to normal - yippee!
But the lady-Doctor was clever, and I was happy to agree. Accapuncture and Chinese medicine has an almost immediate effect for the better, so rather then trust patient's to return, which they often don't, she asked for another five sessions, along with the one just enjoyed, to be paid for in advance. It was not cheap, but anything good never is, and the way I feel now, I may not have booked another had I not been forceput.
So, there are five to go, bought and paid for. Afterwards, fortnightly sessions will be in order, and then once a month.
All avenues of relief with the NHS have been exhausted, and the doctor recommended seeking alternative medicine as nothing more could be done as far as traditional cures are concerned.
It's working, and other than advising you get help lifting anything too large or too heavy; accapuncture is the way to go.
And the 'needles' are not like mum darned your socks with, they are fine and almost hair-like in diameter, and can barely be felt when they are 'flicked' in.
If you need it, try it, an amazing experience, and the results very worthwhile and beneficial.

Thursday, May 06, 2010

The New 'Motorhead Collector's Guide': which Mick Stevenson is getting together is being advertised for sale on EBay. Why, we don't know? It will not be ready until July 19th, so if you lose your money it's no ones fault but your own.
Motorhead European Tour Dates: for December 2010 have been posted on www.imotorhead.com and this year include Germany, Switzerland, France and Spain.

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

The Illustrated Collector's Guide To Motorhead: There are 2 copies of this rare book on amazon.co.uk up around the £80+ mark, but if you would like to pay it to own one, they are there waiting for you.

Monday, May 03, 2010

Mick Farren: Has just announced that he is writing a 5th Victor Renquist novel, see
http://doc40.blogspot.com/2010/05/victor-renquist-mission-statement.html
Those of you who enjoyed 'The Time Of Feasting,' 'Darklost,' 'More Than Mortal' and 'Underland' will join me in being thrilled at this prospect, and those of you who haven't read them really ought to. And please don't think they are anything like the pathetic 'Vampire Diaries' currntly on TV, or those insipid novels teenage girls are seen reading to be cool; Farren is The Master of Sci-Fi, and he excells with these superb stories.
I for one await pre-ordering my hardbacked copy on Amazon.

Saturday, May 01, 2010

Been Getting A Few: Letters in the local Daily Echo again lately, if you're interested, they're here: http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/search/?search=alan+burridge in no particular order.
Again, local people around here amuse me. If I bump into them, as you do in a small village, and start a conversation, they are surprised at your local knowledge. And yet for £2-60 a week, THEY can buy the same newspaper and read the same news as I'm talking to them about. It's hardly a fortune, and you barely miss it at 40 pence weekdays and 60 pence on Saturday, which includes a weekend colour supplement.
Nowt as funny as folk, as they say up north.