Magnum - 25/05/07

At Leeds Rios, not Bradford as it says above. Bradford Rios is now defunct and has moved to Leeds into a bigger venue, capacity of 1680 instead of 600! Anyway Magnum is our very first visit to Rios new home in Leeds!


The venue was not as big as we thought it would be due to Rios having 3 floors, so in fact it was probably not that much bigger than the old Rios.


Anyway, Magnum came and conquered... They were the best band I've seen this year.. well, maybe except for Journey! They played half of their new album "Princess Alice And The Broken Arrow" plus mainly songs off of the classic albums: "Chase The Dragon", "On A Storyteller's Night" and "Vigilante"


After nearly 2 hours of Rock, we all went home fully rocked out! The next gig maybe or maybe not the Sunday of the Download Festival - also known as "Iron Maiden" day!

The Who - 23/05/07- "We are not the Arctic Monkeys!"

The Who at Sheffield Arena! This was their first tour since last year's Leeds Uni and Harewood House come back. As they bounded onto the stage Pete's first words to introduce the first song was: "We are not the Arctic Monkeys!"


Tonight they played a load of new songs from their recent "Endless Wire" CD, and very good they were too!


They also played one totally new song called "Real Good Looking Boy" about Elvis which was excellent and cunningly only available on their new "The Who - Best Of 1964-2007" out 7th June - so need to buy CD of 19 previously owned tracks to get this one new song :-(


Pete was on top comedy form with his inbetween track comments - particularly funny were more comedy quips about the Arctic Monkeys! e.g "If we sell as many copies as them, it'll be a fucking miracle" and "Things were different in our days, but then they are only 12 and a half"


Overall it was a very good gig - the audience seemed a little quiet, but thats nowt new for Hallam FM Arena! It wasn't sold out either, but they are playing a big outdoor show at KC Stadium in Hull on Saturday, which may be more popular!


The Who are releasing this show, along with all the other shows on this tour on DVD and CD via their website - may invest in a copy of last nights it was good!


Next gig is Magnum on Friday, more then!

Carlski, Honk and Patrick Stewart!

There's no real explanation needed for this one - I don't think!

Cat's Like Apple Macs!.....

...because, they are nice and warm!!!!

Snakes & Arrows - Billboard Chart Position + Other Factoids!

And finally, the U.S Billboard Top 200 chart position for Rush's Snakes & Arrows: A mighty number: 3. That's their joint second highest chart placing in the U.S, with only 1993's Counterparts beating it! (That album debuted at number: 2)

Rush have currently sold at least 45 million albums worldwide and have 23 U.S Gold Discs - only bettered by The Beatles (42), The Rolling Stones (39), Kiss (24), and are joint with Aerosmith! The U.K tally is 13 Gold or Silver Awards (which is still good by anyone's standard!)

Snakes & Arrows - Hits The Chart! (Updated)

Here's this weeks Top 40 Rock Chart, again courtesy of the lovely Beeb! I wonder whose number 1? :-)!!


Good to see Rush doing quite well in the BBC Radio 1 Official Album Chart - straight in at no:13, that's Rush's best appearance since 1992, when "Roll The Bones" made the Top Ten. But miles better than the no:38 peak of "Vapor Trails" from 2002!
Roll on October and the tour :-)

Snakes & Arrows - Review!

I have listened to it now about 5 or 6 times, so I believe I have ingested enough of it to give a proper review!

Firstly, the production is so much better than on their last album "Vapor Trails", and also the consistancy of the songs is much better over all, generally speaking they are much better than any on VT.

The album starts of a little weakly with "Far Cry", which is a pretty standard Rush tune, nothing particularly special. "Armor And Sword", follows and is a little better, nice acoustic guitar reminicent of "Presto", but still a bit over long. "Workin' Them Angels" is the next track, and is superb, good both musically and lyrically, same can be said of the next track "The Larger Bowl".

Spindrift is the first 10/10 track, it sounds like classic Rush should, stunning! "The Main Monkey Business" is the first instrumental, and is excellent, more brilliant guitaring from Lerxt! "The Way The Wind Blows" is next and is a little less good than the last 2 tracks.

"Hope" is next and is a 2 minute "12 string acoustic guitar" workout, brilliant, but rather pointless, could be any good guitarist, not very Rush sounding!

"Faithless", "Bravest Face" and "Good News First" are all 10/10 new Rush Classics, espesially like the orchestral arrangement on "Faithless".

"Malignant Narcissism" is the 3rd and last instrumental, 2 minutes of funkyness, quite groovy. The name comes from the film "Team America: World Police" and features a sample from said movie. Neil Peart, the drummer is good friends with Matt Stone (one of the co-creators of Team America) so permission for the clip would have been easily come by!

"We Hold On" is the last track and is another straight ahead rocker! All in all, a great album: 9/10


But not everyone thinks this way: Check out this review from an "alledged Rush fan": http://jamesgibbon.com/weblog/pivot/entry.php?id=76/

I definately do not agree with the Geddy Lee, quote:"warbles atonally over the music like an amateur improvising while hearing it for the first time." bit,

Or the "In places, in the remaining songs, there are some interesting musical moments - but for the most part, these songs have been crucified by the most half-baked, awkward, embarrassing vocal performance you're likely to hear this side of hymn practice at a special needs school."

And certainly not: "Ah well. Even without the Geddy Lee Cringe Factor™, this would be at best a below-average post grunge rock record that sparkles rarely and mostly falls flat. As it is, it's a dog."

It's far from a dog, so maybe this guy should go and listen to some Arctic Monkeys or other such shite!! I sincerely hope he ain't sitting next to me come the tour!!