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Post by Mr Kite on Apr 25, 2021 21:16:55 GMT
Oh God (?) Here I go again ..
Had a few strange thoughts these last few days . Did the record company who signed Kiss ever thought they would be such a success ?
No, just kidding I don`t think even Gene thought that .
But the thing is I`ve just to about 3 hours of John going through Primal Scream so don`t take anything I say for granted .
As you get older you seem to just want to go back to your youth or even try to think of your childhood . I, being a poor lad from up North went to Blackpool every year for me` Olidays and I just don`t remember them . I remember bits and the most important time I went into Woolworth`s and buying Ram and Red Rose Speedway with my Holiday money that was intended to spend on milk shakes rides and those summer annuals I loved . Whizzer and Chips and Cor , I think it was called Never got into The Beano or The Dandy .
I don`t remember how I got there , My parents did`nt drive . Back then not many working class folk did . Well not in our street . I think there was one car . And I don`t think they were working Class they had BBC accents
Do you remember when there were just three T.V. Channels ? And people had to have a good education and actually went for acting lessons . You could go to school the next day and chat about a program and you were sure that half the School and watched the same program . You find out who had the same "Taste" as you . Star Trek fans ? Well not many in my school . Then of course there was that most important one . ( Yes Footy was essential also ) Music . I was lucky that I found a few who liked Rock Not many Beatle fans though . There was one lad , but he was a bit ..Odd I remember he always walked about with a hanky in his hand . I don`t about you but that was a warning sign to stay clear . Then there was a lad who was a bit ..Mad , but for some reason he actually thought I was funny and I became his best mate . It turned out he loved Rock music and owned a Drum Kit . And he had a friend who owned Led Zeppelin and The Who albums . And there you have it . That`s why I ended up going to watch bands and when I left school and me and mad Mike formed a band . We rehearsed and messed about and before you know it split up .
A working class hero is something to be . Said John . I didn`t want to be working class but it turned out for the best as who knows I could have been signed up by the same record company as Kiss and I wouldn`t have to be worried about the quality of music I would have recorded. I would have just pointed out to my manager "Have you listened to a Kiss album pal ?! "
Laters ..
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Post by Mr Kite on Jul 14, 2021 20:52:32 GMT
Hey ho !
Here`s a thing .
You may or may not know I`m a huge football fan . I watched the World Cup in 1970 and saw maybe the greatest international team that has ever graced the field Brazil . I was 8 years old and I fell in love with Football and within 4 years I was going to Old Trafford to watch Manchester United in the 2nd Division . I`m 2 seasons away from going to that famous ground a staggering 50 years.
So I do have a love for the game , my son as now been a coach for almost 10 years and teaches sport in schools He now has took the mantle and has a season ticket at O.T. So you may be thinking that of course I support my National team England .
Well you are wrong . I never really have had any connection to England F.C. and I never really want to Back in the day if you wanted to go and watch them it meant a 400 mile round trip in the middle of the week . Then the years went by and England fans (?) traveled the world supporting the team and doing what they do best Shame the country and just smashed anything and everything and probably brought up the world wars and of course the booing of opposing teams national anthems and of course the racist slurs and so on . I could go on for hours about shameful goings on. Coming home from work to see the news of the England fans in the World Cups was something that really made me ashamed to be English .
So once again the same old English mentality raised it`s ugly head again this weekend . I didn`t watch any of the England games . You may say (as people have ) it`s a small minority and they arn`t real fans . I say it`s been going on long before they were born . It`s the culture and the sad thing about it is that as long there is someone who comes from a different town , a different city or a different country for some reason the English want to smash your head in . Don`t blame the team , support your team and all that . No chance in hell I`ll stick to my boyhood club Utd fans through the decades have had there up and downs but I have had to live with that and I`ve been proud of being a Utd fan more times than being ashamed .
I don`t like to be a negative nanny , but it`s just a ramble and I do really feel that this country needs to grow up .
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Post by Mr Kite on Oct 15, 2021 19:24:59 GMT
Hello ! I`m back and I even have a title for this waffle
Learning how to love Macca again . Part 1.
Got back from Liverpool at the weekend and as always the place has that affect on me . Don`t know what it is . I guess from the age of 13 (and even earlier ) I was kind of drawn to the music that was coming from there . I saw Ken Dodd in the 60`s with his Diddy Men on the Blackpool Pier and I guess my first feel of live music . And who did`nt take Cilla into your heart with her Saturday show back long ago And ! I bloody loved the comedy series The Liverbirds . It goes on ! But of course it was Wings and then The Beatles and that was it I was in hook line and sinker . So lets skip the next 3 years as it`s long and not very interesting as me and millions upon millions have the same story of how The Beatles drag you into there wonderful world and you want to stay there and dream of strange places like Strawberry Field and Penny Lane . Still at school me and 2 school friends jumped on a train from Manchester and went to Liverpool in the year of 1978 . We got off the station , wandered around , found a policeman and asked him where Mathew St . Funny that I now call it Beatle street and kinda feel a bit uneasy with it . We walked down the then very quite and run down street with just a small statue high up on the wall . It was a Madonna with 3 (?) babies in her arms and a cherub with the words around her . Beatle Street Four Lads Who Shook The World . And then off to the pier to do the ferry to Birkenhead u turn We didn`t get off , we just did the whole ferry trip And that was it , back home . The place I had read about was a real place and I had walked down the street that started the whole crazy thing where I fell in love the city of Liverpool . So, I more or less visited the place for now its well over 40 years almost every single year . In the year (2020) that was when the whole world of pandemic, lock downs and no traveling and all the mess that went on I went 3 times ! I still could not keep away ! I have so so many great stories and if I ever get the chance I would love to tell them all ! I mean , just imagine you go in the Jacaranda for a drink and see Astrid Kirchherr sat there ! But tonight I`m here to talk about how I fell out of love with Paul McCartney . Don`t get me wrong , I love Macca He was a living God to me back in the day and I always said that if I had a son I would name him after Macca And I did ! So what went wrong ?! I try to think of when I started to loose my faith . And the first thing that pops up is .. McCartney II Yes , I liked it and you have to remember that it was not so much a good time for Macca as he had got nicked in Japan and for the first time he had spent time apart from Linda and of course had to cancel the tour and if it wasn`t a death knell to Wings the murder of John Lennon had really finished Wings and even Macca to want to tour and stand on a stage where every crazy with a thought of taking out Macca and becoming one of the most infamous people in the history of music along with Chapman . I know and remember at the time I was obsessed with Pink Floyd`s The Wall . Deep, dark and concept and then I had Macca with Temporary Secretary Which now is lauded by ... Music laudists ! And for me it didn`t get much better . We had the death of John and I can again in hindsight see that the times ahead for Macca where tough , the mantle of the one half of the greatest song writing duet was now all on Macca and I like to think that he managed to keep his head above water with Tug Of War, Pipes Of Peace and Press To Play , and I`ll let him off with The Frog Song . and as we got towards the end of the terrible 80`s we got Off The Ground . From Band On The Run onwards I did enjoy all the Macca`s albums and never really thought that it was anything other than what Paul did and did well . Easy pop listening and nothing to make you want to start skipping tracks until I heard Off The Ground . I did struggle with this album and not only that the 90`s were around the corner and thanks to Nirvana they would show you didn`t need lots of keyboards and syn drums to sell albums . Would Macca fall away from my God like figure I basically bought everything he sang on.
To be continued ...
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Post by Mr Kite on Oct 29, 2021 17:56:42 GMT
Learning To Love Macca . Prt . 2
I`m doing this from memory , so I may be a bit out of sorts with which came first as in album or Tour . It`s 1989 and Macca has a new album on the way and rumours of a tour . I havn`t seen Macca since those gigs from Dec 1979 and as the years went by for this lad I thought I`d never see Macca live again . I buy the new album Flowers In The Dirt and it was very good ! And then the tour . I went a bit bonkers and I bought tickets for Birmingham and Wembley arena London and then out of nowhere Liverpool ! and then Knebworth ! I was going to see Macca 4 times in the same year of or Macca 1990 . It was a out of this world tour in my humble and I never even in my wildest dreams that I`d see Macca in Liverpool . Incredible stuff and my love of the Macca was back on and the next year my son was born and he was named Paul (John ) It was good to be back in the Macca comfy chair and I was going through a bit of Macca and Beatle surge and who again would have dreamed of watching a documentary of The Beatles at Xmas with brand new interviews and then the mother load the release of the 3 bloody brilliant Anthology`s which blew me and everybody`s minds of this unreleased stuff that I still think to this day are the greatest pieces of musical history of any band ever released etc etc etc ..etc So then we go back to Macca and that album came out Off The Ground . I wasn`t a fan and once again Macca tours and I don`t why and I think I do know ... He only played London ? I could be wrong , but I was bringing up a new born son and a mortgage and a not so great wage , I didn`t see the tour Was it that I didn`t like the album ? I don`t remember the reason , I was never going to London anyway , I`m not fond of it . And then we got Macca albums scattered over the next few years and they didn`t get my full attention and then we got Macca in a bad phase with the loss of Linda and that terrible mess with Miss Heather Mills . Time went by and I did lose interest in the day to day life of Macca and when I did watch the odd interview it really didn`t get me dragging out the Macca solo year albums . If anything I`d get the Wings out , I was still so fond of those albums (still am !) that I never had any thought of giving the new Macca a spin and tell me is there anyone who likes Drivin Rain ? And so it came to pass I had lost my faith in the Macca
To be continued ..
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Post by Mr Kite on Jun 29, 2022 19:56:18 GMT
Learning To Love Macca Prt 3
So the new Millennium came along and tour dates and in 2004 I booked the day off work and got bright and early to queued at the Manchester Arena as this was just before it all went digital , but still they were selling tickets on line , but the people at the arena were assuring the crazy folk it the front of the queue that there would be plenty of tickets held back for them . Didn`t really make it much better as the best tickets had already "gone" . I was getting 4 tickets , but I decided I would get the very best seat possible just for myself and get the cheap seats for my mates . All gone . Ended up with almost at the car park seats . But hey ho . That was the last time I saw (and I guess the very last time ) live . Macca was in his 60`s then and I`m sure with his voice not holding up as well .
With George now gone it seemed that the curtain was slowing closing on all things Beatles I was wrong Macca still toured and still recorded new music . And I didn`t really get excited, I did buy Flaming Pie and Chaos , that was just out of curiosity . I was finding new bands that I could go and see with without paying out a fortune and watching screens from the back of big arenas . But things took a turn . The Macca Remasters got me back into listening to the Macca I loved in the 70`s and next up the Yellow Submarine Remastered film the Eight Days A Week Film and then the The Beatles Super Deluxe Box Sets , the McCartney 1,2,3 which I was blown away with how good it was and the holy of all holy`s The Get Back film Mind blowing And on Saturday night at the age of 80 Macca played an almost 3 hour set at Glastonbury It turned out that my miss givings on Macca for many years was wrong and I have to hold my hand up and I loved it . Yes, Paul McCartney showed the world and me that he is a living legend and he showed us the reason why . With a back catalogue of the greatest music in the last 60 years who could argue that was just incredible and the greatest show on earth . And he played Juniors Farm ! . Now I need to get the Lyric Book . It seems my love for Macca has come full circle . There is only one Paul McCartney .
And . I`m reading 1, 2, 3, 4, The Beatles In Time by Craig Brown , it awesome !
And ! A news report of the morning of my queue and see if you can spot me ! And that bloke who waffles on about not getting a ticket the last time Macca played Manchester he got there at 4.00am in the morning is silly , I got there about 6.30am and get both nights .
Mr K . 1.42
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