Coming out of the shadows

[smashedagain]

Great set there

[Junior Senior]

Good luck, that's all a bit heavy for me mate.

[Tal]

Away from poker, I'm playing the first gig with a new band a week Saturday, 15th September.
Final rehearsal (of only 5) is this weekend, which is the main reason I've had to resist qualifying for the SPT.

I keep quiting gigging because I'm getting to old / lazy to lug all the gear about, but I miss it too much, so I'm back out plank-spanking.

How about this for a thumping rock set-

Ace Of Spades
Enter Sandman
Breaking The Law
Are You Gonna Go My Way
American Idiot
Hard To Handle
Rock N Roll
Boys Are Back In Town
Hush
Here I Go Again
Sweet Child Of Mine
Highway To Hell
Alright Now
Hey Joe
Monkey Wrench
Rocks
Tie Your Mother Down
Word Up
You Give Love A Bad Name
Rock An Roll All Night

Every one's a winner.

I can't remember looking forward to anything this much for ages.

Can't believe it's been 3 years since I last gigged with a band.

Greenday could not have sold out more if they had their own happy meal. Started as such an interesting band and then turned into the same bilious faux-punk that disappoints me in an almost paternal way.

Everything else on that set looks like fabulous fun. Is that Hush by Kula Shaker? Magic.

Can I also confirm 'Everone's a winner' is just a comment by you and not the song by Hot Chocolate? It is a brilliant song, but I'm not sure it would follow a Kiss anthem very well

[Longy]

Is that Hush by Kula Shaker? Magic.

Surely the Deep purple original!

[Tal]

Is that Hush by Kula Shaker? Magic.

Surely the Deep purple original!

LOL yes I imagine so. I also didn't think he was playing a Hot Chocolate number!

[Wingdings2]

That's a real fun set list.

Are you the Lead Guitarist? Some juicy stuff to play if so.

[AdamM]

I'm sharing lead guitar duties, but the other guitarist is my former bassist of 15 years stepping up to guitar for the first time, so I've got most of the interesting stuff.

We've gone for the Kula Shaker version of Hush, although the singer is using the Deep Purple lyric sheet, on acount of KS blurring everything.

The principle of the band is to play the most instantly recognisable rock tracks from the biggest bands, whilst avoiding anything too cheesy (ie rocking all over the world / summer of 69, etc) . Imagine you're playing Name that Rock Tune, these would be your starter questions. I doubt many people would get past the intros of these without knowing the song. In 2008 and 2009 two one-off rock bands were set up for an annual reunion night at an old rock pub we used to drink in back in the day. we played some awesome tracks that didn't make the cut because you need to be a rock fan to know them. Stuff like The Trooper by Iron Maiden, Seek & Destroy and Sad But True by Metallica, Mad House and Anti Social by Anthrax, Cherry Pie by Warrant, Dr Feelgood by Motley Crue, Monkey Business by Skid Row, It's So Easy by G'n'R, Screamager Therapy, Wild Child by WASP, L'il Devil by the Cult, Black Out In A Red Room by Love/Hate, No More Mr Nice Guy the Megadeth version, the list goes on. After the first gig, we're adding in Panama and We're Not Gonna Take It, which some how got crossed off when we were going through the previous set lists. We decided we weren't prepared to do it as a one gig a year set up anymore, because it's a lot of effort for one gig. We'll be looking at getting out at least once a month.

I couldn't disagree more about Greenday. I've been listening to them since Kerplunk. They were a decent enough melodic punk band, but they've grown up really well and their last two Rock Opera albums, American Idiot and 21 Century Breakdown are amongst my favourite albums of all time. Live, they are up there with some of the best rock bands I've ever seen. I have to admit the first single off the new album is a bit of an album track, and I haven't heard the Kill the D.J track yet, but after 20 odd years, they're entitled to experiment a bit. Really looking forward to the THREE new albums, Uno, Dos, Tre

[Tal]

Fair enough, Adam. Different opinions are what make music so diverse. There's plenty of stuff on my generic MP3 player that would unlikely be your cup of tea.

Excellent choices tho. Should have any self respecting audience up and rocking!

[AdamM]

I've got a pretty wide range of tastes myself. Usually got a guitar in it somewhere, but it's anything from Adrian Legg at one extreme and Slayer at the other, all sorts of with rock, blues, punk, folk and metal between.

I was once in an own material band that attempted to deliver material from all areas of that spectrum. We were called White Noise. The problem I found was that most of the audience only liked 25% of the set. Just a different 25% to the person stood next to them. I learned that when you're in a band the easiest thing to do is pick a style and stick to it. My last own material band called Fluff was firmly in the pop-punk zone. I've also played in blues bands, metal bands and even a Me First & The Gimme Gimmes tribute band that sadly never got out of rehearsal.

I think maybe that's why I admire bands that can shift direction, even if it doesn't always work out. Like I say, I love the direction of the newer Green Day albums. Metallica is the opposite. Can't stand Death Magnetic and St Anger, and can just about get on with Load / Reload. Even the Black Album was just 'OK'. Master Of Puppets was the glory days for my money. Same thing with Iron Maiden. Down hill after Power Slave. And AC/DC peaked at Back In Black. Still admire those bands for keeping going and trying to keep it fresh.

[AdamM]

Oh, and the new band is called DYNAMITE BILLY by the way

[AdamM]

Well, we nailed that.
No dead spots in the set, every song went down a storm.
Particular winners in the set were Ace Of Spades and Enter Sandman as openers, Sweet Child Of Mine was epic, much to the annoyance of the singer who hates it, Highway to Hell and Alright now obviously killed, As did Rocks, and we used Tie Your Mother Down to end the main set and it guaranteed an encore. You Give Love A Bad Name and Rock N Roll All Nite were colossal tracks and we finished really strong.

We're adding We're not Gonna Take it, by Twisted Sister, Panama by Van Halen and L'il Devil by the Cult for the next gig.

Now that's out of the way I can start the next major project: Give my 40th Birthday to charity.

What happened was this, early in the year there was a knock at the door by a Barnardo’s tin rattler. I was about to politely decline and close the door when I paused. Partly because the girl giving her prepared pitch was very easy on the eye, but also because I'd had it in the back of my mind for a while that I don't do enough for good causes. Other than the odd fiver for Comic Relief / Children In Need, or leaving my change in the shop / bar for whatever 'blind box' they have. So I listened to the pitch and signed up for a tenner a month. It's a start, but still pretty small really. My birthday had not long passed. I’ve always though greetings cards were a waste of money as they’re overpriced and they  just sit on a shelf for a week and go in the bin, plus the shirts / sock / cds / etc that people buy,  I could just have bought for myself. It all adds up. "What if I gave my birthday to charity?" I thought. Must add up to a couple of hundred quid for a big one like a 40th.

That’s where the idea started, but it’s started to grow a bit. I thought; maybe I could have a party. Dynamite Billy could play a set, we could pass a bucket around for the chosen charity. Anyone that wanted to buy me a drink could stick a couple of quid in the bucket. That’d add up too. I could get musicians from other bands I’ve played with over the last 22 years of gigging to do a song or two with us. That’s where it’s taken a jump in proportions. I started to plan out the set, and who I would get to do what songs and it looks amazing on paper.

What I’m now thinking of doing is booking the refectory of the local college which I think holds around the 500 people mark, getting their stage set up, trying local equipment hire company to provide lights, PA and an engineer for free, getting a bit of local press involved, the works. Thought I could get the college’s visual arts department to film it, and perhaps some of the run up to it. For posterity and maybe sell a few copies if it turns out any good. £5 a ticket, plus rattling the tins at the bar / during the set, we could easily raise a few grand.

When it comes to picking a charity, I was a bit unsure what to do. My Dad and Sister are both type 1 diabetics, so Diabetic research that was an obvious choice. Also, my Dad just had a quadruple heart bypass, so again, British Heart Foundation jumped out a bit. However, what I don’t want to do is chuck a couple of grand into the pot for a charity that raises millions a year. What I’d rather do is make a specific difference to a local campaign. Also, maybe it’s to do with being firmly middle aged now, but I’m starting to think a lot about childrens charities and the next generation as quite important. Perhaps another reason I let the Barnardo’s girl finish her pitch. So what I’ve done is contact the local fund raiser for Barnardo’s to see if we can come up with something specific for me to fund raise for.

It takes the diary completely off-topic for poker, but then, I’m hardly playing at the minute any way. Thought I might put a few details of this on here as it develops.

March 9th 2013 is the date. So I make that 26 weeks to get it organised. Exactly half a year as it happens. Getting excited about it just typing.

[smashedagain]

Superb idea and well thought out.

[ruud]

Brilliant idea Adam. Where are you based? If local to me I'll take two tickets!

[Leatherman]

Great idea mate, good luck with it..

[AdamM]

Brilliant idea Adam. Where are you based? If local to me I'll take two tickets!

It'll be in Grantham.
I've gigged all over, but this'll be a home town job