I took a while to warm up to the Jumps season this Coronavirus-hit
year. No crowds, few foreign raiders and poor prize money had combined to dull the
enthusiasm. Small fields and uncompetitive races didn’t help. And the weather…
With six weeks to go, finally, the sap is rising. Look, even
a blog post for the first time in months. I’ve made a start on the ante-post
schedule too. Here’s the progress. This is everything, including the bets
already binned. Not that much activity yet, but I’m starting to get busy. This
weekend’s Dublin Racing festival will be the catalyst for more action, either
before the tapes go up or just after.
The 2021 Festival will be a shadow of previous years. Without
being there on the Tuesday; without the lads down the Barley Mow for Festival
Friday, it’s gonna be a tough one. Bt when push comes to shove, what the Friar
Tuck else is there to do? We’ve even got a Zoom Preview evening lined up. If
you can’t beat ‘em…
RACE
SELECTION
ODDS
SUPREME NOV HDLE
Metier
25.0
I was really impressed with Metier’s run in November at
Ascot, and so I backed him for the Supreme the day before his Tolworth win. I had
a bit on the day too, and was surprised to get 2/1. In a way, hope he doesn’t
turn up in the Betfair Hurdle next weekend. It can be a brutal race before
Cheltenham. Over in Ireland, Appreciate It looks really good. Impressive
engine. Though I want to see him jump a few more hurdles than in that low-sun
farce ‘the last day’. This weekend’s Leopardstown fixture is looking really
strong and he should be in action. My
punting pal Bacchy has also lined this one up with a pre-Tolworth bet. We’re
both on the same Supreme horse. You don’t get many of those to the decade.
CHAMPION HURDLE
Aspire Tower
14.0
This is a recent bet. If you believe Epatante is not the same
horse as last year then this race is wide open. I see Hendo says he’s sorted
her bad back, but I remain to be convinced. The run in the Fighting Fifth was
visually impressive, but she didn’t beat a lot once Silver Streak and Not So
Sleepy had both crashed out. I wanted to get onside with something before this
weekend’s action in Ireland. Love the way Aspire Tower battles. His jumping
needs to be more consistent and will need to improve to compensate for the loss
of the age-for-weight allowance. But there’s every reason to suggest that’s
what he’s doing. 14/1’s good enough for me at this stage. Will look again after
the weekend.
BALLYMORE HDLE
Bravemansgame
6.0
I backed him immediately after that Chepstow win, despite a
rubbish price. His run had me as excited as any race I’ve seen this season.
Visually he looked stunning and yes, I’ve lapped up all those Denman
comparisons like a junkie high on nostalgia. This is one for some dirty combis
too. There’s loads of confidence behind Bob Olinger and he’s another who will
be good to see this weekend.
RSA NOV CHASE
Shan Blue
28.0
Dead. Got carried away after the Feltham, and too late saw
that the 3m race was not on the agenda. The Skelton’s have probably made the right
decision. Unlike me.
CORAL CUP
Kateson ??
33.0 ??
No bet yet. This one has caught my eye a couple of times this
season and I will back him for this if he’s entered. Not sure when the entries
are out.
RYANAIR CHASE
Itchy Feet
44.0
Mister Fisher
16.00
Backed Itchy feet on a whim right at the start of the season,
but this is now a poor bet. He’s more likely to end up in the Coral Cup! His jumping
has just not come together at all, even out of his seemingly preferred soft
ground. I hoped he would progress, but there’s no sign yet.
The Mister Fisher punt was a reaction to the Peterborough
Chase win. He’s a lively outsider in a ace where both Min and Imperial Aura
catch the eye.
STAYERS HURDLE
Thyme Hill
12.5
This was an early bet once Hobbsy confirmed Thyme Hill would stay
over hurdles. Wish I’d put more on. Don’t know why I was so feeble. I haven’t
seen much that’s come out to challenge this one or Paisley Park, so this one could
be another for spawny combis. I’m worried about Paisley’s return to form and can
see him doing TH in the last knockings again.
MARES NOV HDLE
The Glancing Queen
13.0
I like this one of Alan King’s. She’s probably
just short of the top novices, so I’m hoping she turns up here, though she could
go down the handicap route. This is NRNB, so it’s a bet to nothing.
TRIUMPH HURDLE
Fiveandtwenty
56.5
Dead. Another wide-eyed punt. McCain loves one for the
Triumph (Navajo Pass) and I thought they’d go with this one, but he hasn’t been
entered. Bollocks. Incidentally, I do like Navajo Pass. That beating of Buveur
D’Air the other day wasn’t the fluke some think it appeared to be. I may line
him up for the Aintree Hurdle at a nice price.
4 x acca
Shishkin,Monkfish, Chacun Pour
Soi, Envoi Allen
19.77
Just a bit of fun, this one. And there will be plenty more where
this one came from as we inch closer.
I haven’t had a Gold Cup bet yet. Al Boum Photo was less
convincing at Gowran Park than his reappearance last year and I do fancy
something to run him closer this year. Maybe Minella Indo. Hard to know what to
make of Venetia’s Ricci horse, Royal Pagaille. Who runs in the Peter Marsh as
Festival Grade 1 prep these days? At 11/1 for the Gold Cup, I’d be more
interested at 11/2 in the far easier old 4-miler!
And I wish they’d stop faffing around with Waiting Patiently.
Surely he’s a 3-miler these days. Gets outpaced over anything shorter. Give him
a go over the Gold Cup trip and watch him stay on, slowly, up the hill. Maybe.
On to Leopardstown then, with carefully stoked eagerness.
At my work leaving do last Summer, I fell into conversation about
music with two friends and colleagues. The beer had been flowing and I was
cracking on about rock music again. I was waxing lyrical about the variety and
depth and bombast and subtlety and light and shade and emotion and power of
heavy metal in particular. Jenny and
Naomi looked at me blankly. They were steadfastly unconvinced. This was clearly
not how they saw the genre. I said would come up with a playlist that would demonstrate
the evolution of hard rock and heavy metal; and highlight the sweeping variety
and complexity of the best of the movement.
It’s only taken me 9 months and a worldwide pandemic. And they will almost certainly have forgotten that conversation. But I've been on a mission. Here at last is a post about the origins and growth
of hard rock and heavy metal as it matters to me. An electronic mix tape of 29 tracks.
Forgive me a nerdy note, before we go further. For definitional
purposes, this list includes both heavy metal and hard rock. This is bold step.
Purists the length and breadth of the land will be sucking their teeth and
shaking their heads in bemusement. This is because hard rock and heavy metal are
traditionally regarded as having different roots. The former comes through a
twisted lineage of Afro-American blues to spawn electrified boogie and
swaggering rhythms from the likes of Led Zep and Deep Purple to AC/DC and
Lynyrd Skynyrd. Heavy Metal is regarded as having a classical source, taking scales
and structures typically found in classical music to create power, drama,
changes of pace and theatrics, evidenced by bands from Judas Priest and Iron
Maiden to Metallica and Tool.
The reason I’m lumping together these two sub genres of the
all-encompassing ‘rock’ beast is that they have more in common than they have
in contrast. Take Black sabbath, widely (and rightly) regarded as the first
true heavy metal band, are on record as saying they evolved their sound through
the blues. Or take Motorhead who played loud, fast, aggressive, in-your-face
music redolent of the finest heavy metal: Lemmy always regarded his creation as
‘just a rock n’ roll band’. This is the point. Stylistically they are tied
together by a reliance on loud, distorted guitars, built on chunky riffs,
underscored by driving and dense rhythms.
Having argued the rationale for creating a generic theme for
this mix tape, I’m now gonna pull it apart and highlight various constituent elements
and trends. This is a personal journey towards enlightenment for non-believers.
As such, I don’t expect these ramblings to go unchallenged.
Origins
The Kinks – You Really Got Me (1964)
What better jumping off point can there be? This catchy 2-minute-15-seconds
wonder with its chant-like chorus was a smash hit and launched a long career.
Ray Davies wrote the song, but the most important element for our story is the
riff. Ray’s younger brother Dave created it by slicing up the speaker cone of
his Elpico guitar amp and poking it with a pin. The resulting dirty, fuzzy and
raw sound was the birth of that bedrock of hard rock and heavy metal, the
beautiful powerchord. And we are away.
Jimi Hendrix – Purple Haze (1967)
Hendrix was a true original. His indelible stamp on popular culture covers many facets. For this list, we are most concerned with the way he took the guitar to places it had never before been taken. By making feedback, distortion and wah-wah exciting; and by putting his amps through the wringer to play at terrifying volume, Hendrix booted open the door to new music. This was not yet hard rock or heavy metal – Hendrix was far too diverse to be constricted by such narrow concepts. But he had shown the way.
Blue Cheer – Summertime Blues (1968)
American rockers Blue Cheer, fresh out of San Francisco
played thunderous, psychedelic, LSD-inspired blues rock. They have been
credited with pioneering the heavy metal sound. Though in my view, they provide
important stepping stones along the way rather than the fully formed medium we
have all come to know and love.
The pioneers
Led Zeppelin – Heartbreaker (1969) Zep’s second album is where things really come together. It
is an intense and gritty slab of hard rock. Moving up a gear from their debut,
Jimmy Page introduces a compelling riff on ‘Heartbreaker’ that twists and burns
in the second half of the track. Robert Plant’s cacophonous, spine-tingling
vocal became the new benchmark for rock frontmen. The band went on to scale the
heights with a series of million-selling albums, but this remains their
heaviest work.
Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath (1970)
Birmingham, June 1970 : The moment that Heavy Metal was
born. Thunder, rain and the tolling
bell in the first few moments of this seminal track give way to Tony Iommi’s
colossal, ground-breaking riff and doom-laden lyrics, to which the incomparable
Ozzy Osbourne gives life and death. These were defining moments in rock ‘n’
roll and I make no apology for the verbosity. Though nothing is ever truly
original. The time changes on this masterpiece echo a classical composition and
some of those bass runs and drum weaves are drawn from a jazz/blues
inspiration. But never mind all that. Just luxuriate in the thick-as-treacle
opening notes.
Deep Purple – Speed King (1970)
Purple had been trotting out prog rock fodder that might not
have created too many waves until a double line-up change presaged a new
direction. Perhaps sniffing what was going on in Birmingham, new recruits Ian
Gillan on vocals and Roger Glover on bass, added to Richie Blackmore’s guitar
pyrotechnics to create the ‘In Rock’ masterpiece. The riff/rhythm that kicks ‘Speed
King’ into life just after the organ intro is electrifying. And yet the track
brings a more polished, more accomplished sound in comparison with Zep or
Sabbath. Nevertheless, together, these three bands became the unholy trinity of
British hard rock and heavy metal. This band's legacy runs deep, as we will see.
Queen – Stone Cold Crazy (1974)
OK, Queen had many more strings to an impressive bow than
mere hard rock. But there is no doubting the crunchy, distorted, driving guitar
and theatrical delivery of much of their early work. On this track, Roger
Taylor is properly shovelling coal behind the drums, giving traction to Brian May's express riff. The
energy is electrifying and plenty have cited this as a touchstone for
thrash metal that came 10 years later. When you have spare 2m16secs, check out
Metallica’s cover of this. On discovering Queen’s early work a few
years after its release, I found my erstwhile missing link between pop and
metal.
Rainbow – Stargazer (1976)
Richie Blackmore, having left Deep Purple at the height of
their powers, formed a new band with the diminutive, leather-lunged singer
Ronnie James Dio. Rainbow, with Dio’s influence, cast a new hard rock sound, often featuring ambitious musical passages,
orchestration, classical influences and lyrical themes of mysticism, magic and fantasy. Dungeons and Dragons for rockers. Later
incarnations of the band took a more commercial sound. ‘Stargazer’, however, weighs
in at a hefty 8 minutes and 26 seconds and is from their early and best period.
It is a predictable choice for this list, but simply too good to exclude. The track features the most thrilling drumming
I’ve heard on any rock track, bar none. Cozy Powell was a genius.
AC/DC – Overdose (1977)
The legendary Aussie rockers have been cornerstones of hard
rock for generations. Flying in the face of punk, it was 1977’s ‘Let There Be
Rock’ album that solidified their powerful, raw, infectious, boogie-hard rock.
The band is currently a pale imitation of this period, dishing up thin material and pantomime renditions of the
classics. To remind ourselves of the vitality and thrills of this band at their
best, indulge in the razor sharp barbs of guitar on the intro, giving way to a simple,
dirty, electric riff so tight it constricts your breath.
Motorhead – Overkill (1979)
The embodiment of hard lived, hard played rock ‘n’ roll.
Motorhead delivered uncompromising, high-octane music played at a furious pace
and maximum volume. Fronted by anti-hero Lemmy and his hoary vocals; and powering
the band with distinctive bottom-end bass tuning, there was no mistaking their
sound. No-one else has come close to the swagger and swing produced on cuts like this. I agonised over which track to pick. 'Ace of Spades' is the one everyone knows and loves. Indeed it would be my funeral song choice. 'Overkill' gets the nod here because its not so obvious and yet beautifully captures their sheer relentless approach. I loved ‘em.
Judas Priest – Screaming for Vengeance (1982)
The metal genre – however imprecisely defined – was spawning
myriad bands who were regularly puncturing the actual charts with sonic mayhem.
1982 saw Judas Priest perfecting their sound around screaming guitars,
superfast rhythms and ear-shattering vocals that - however extreme - was
finding commercial success. The approach inspired a host of others who went on
to establish speed and power metal. The incomparable Priest had already proved
more than influential in creating the outrageous leather-and-studs image of heavy
metal that stuck like clichéd superglue
for decades. This track is typical of their hypersonic mid-80’s output. Pin
back your lugholes.
Melodic hard rock
If British acts had set the early metal and hard rock pace,
by the mid-70’s US acts had picked up the baton and splintered it into new
sub-genres. Alice Cooper, Kiss and Aerosmith were leading a groove-laden,
image-rich brand to whom later glam metal bands owed a significant debt.
Down towards the border, Southern rock made its first
appearances, spilling out of Allman Brothers musical territory to fuse metal,
boogie and a sprinkling of country to produce rich, bluesy chugs. Blackfoot,
Lynyrd Skynyrd and Mollie Hatchett were the ring-leaders. Stateside also
pioneered the AOR sound at the softer end of the rock spectrum with pop-infused
soaring melodies gloriously laid down by class acts like Boston, Journey, Styx,
Foreigner (only half American!) and many others. But these are sub-genres that
my mix tape can’t embrace. Mainly because
it’s my list and I get to choose.
One sub-genre that easily makes the list is melodic hard
rock which peaked in the 70’s and 80’s with a clutch of bands forming a solid
backbone of classic hard rock.
UFO – Pack It Up (And Go) (1978)
UFO are my favourite band of all time. Flying slightly below
other bands who achieved greater commercial success, UFO typify the genre and were
the band that opened my eyes to the boundless energy, emotion and drama of
brilliantly constructed and delivered classic hard rock when I was nothing but
a snotty-nosed kid. ‘Pack It Up (And Go)’ is spikey, unpredictable and
ahead of its time. And just listen to Schenker’s lead guitar work here,
spraying shards of rock dust across everything. A genius at the peak of his
powers.
Whitesnake – Fool For Your Loving (1980)
Another Deep Purple link, of course. David Coverdale fronted
the band after Ian Gillan’s departure and then left himself to form Whitesnake.
Coverdale has re-invented the band many times, but this track comes from their
breakthrough album, ploughing a fertile furrow of heavy blues rock. Coverdale's vocal is rich and mellow. Guitar
twins Micky Moody and Bernie Marsden cook up a sumptuous sound. Ignore the
soulless remake of this from 1989 with different musicians. This one is the
real deal.
Thin Lizzy – Thunder and Lightning (1983)
This lot were torch-bearers for classic/melodic rock with a
string of hits and a distinctive sound based around twin-lead guitars. This
track comes from their final studio album and wouldn’t be many people’s pick as
a classic Lizzy tune. But I love the energy that new guitarist John Sykes
brought to the band at this point in their career. It’s also heavier and more dense than anything they had previously recorded, and yet still 24-carat Thin Lizzy with a lush keyboard undertow and brilliant, precise
vocals from the incomparable Phil Lynott.
The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal
Old rockers like me cling on the vitality and youthful zest brought
by the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) like old punks hang on to the
raucous anarchy of gigs at The Music
Machine. Punk was partly responsible for NWOBHM. Disaffected working class
young white males were throwing together underground bands to play metal
injected with a new aggression and intensity.
So many bands and great music came out of that period, which
ultimately heralded hard rock/heavy metal’s most sustained commercially
successful period. The big hitters are
those that inevitably make this mix tape, given the brief I’m working to.
Nevertheless, honourable mentions go to
Samson (there at the very start), Raven (uncompromising), Tygers of Pan Tang
(whose debut album ‘Wildcat’ is a massively underestimated work of bristling
power), Diamond Head, Angel Witch…too many others to mention.
Iron Maiden – The Number Of the Beast (1982)
Iron Maiden swept all before them with a string of
top-selling albums in the 80’s. Driven by Steve Harris’s vision and hitting a
settled line-up, 1982’s Number of the Beast brought a polished sound harnessed
to the band’s dynamic energy. It paid dividends with big hits in the singles
chart without losing authenticity. NWOBHM had entered the mainstream. This was an exciting time to be alive.
Def Leppard – Rock! Rock! (Til You Drop) (1983)
Sheffield’s biggest export since electroplated steel makes
the list because of their first three albums and not for very much afterwards. ‘Pyromania’
was the turning point and its massive sales in America prompted a further shift
towards an overwrought lush sound. The follow up album ‘Hysteria’ went
ballistic, but left me cold. In amongst the radio-friendly melodic stuff creeping in on Pyromania, there
are a few nuggets that remind us where the Lepps came from. ‘Rock! Rock! (Til
You Drop)’ remains a great track.
Saxon – Princess of the Night (1981)
Even Barnsley’s finest had a wobbly bit when they tried to
embrace melodic rock and then had a go at power metal for a while. Thankfully,
there is oodles of their driving, raw, monster-riff heavy material with which
to keep ourselves pumped. ‘Princess of the Night’ is the opening track on
‘Denim and Leather’. They played this when I saw them live last year for the
first time in about 15 years. They still deliver the goods like they mean it.
Authenticity is everything, especially when you are smashing out an anthemic chunk
of powerhouse metal laced with nostalgia for a train. Who says there’s no
sentimentality in heavy metal?
Thrash
If this list has been unashamedly biased towards Brit metal
thus far, there’s no doubt that the next seismic shift was led by the US. Thrash
metal was taking hold. Whilst the sub-genre owed a debt to NWOBHM, as well as punk
and British stalwarts like Motorhead and Judas Priest, thrash was a Stateside
game changer. In fact the UK has not been at the forefront of hard rock/metal
innovation ever since. Thrash was a pimped
up ride along an extreme highway, typically dealing in ramped up aggression, fast
tempos, percussive rhythms, down-tuned guitars and supersonic shredding solos.
Thrash bred a whole extended family of derivations embracing
doom, death, black, speed, avant-garde and all points in between. I’d moved to London by this time and was to be
seen down the Marquee Club on many a Friday night soaking up a mixed bag of the
thrash family with increasingly ridiculous names like Testament, Carcass, Obituary
and Deicide. Infact I almost hogged the spotlight one night during a Bolt
Thrower gig whilst attempting to stage dive. Jo-Anne Bench, the band’s bassist,
had to stop playing to help haul my inebriated self on to the stage. An eventual
stylish swan-dive into the pit did nothing to restore my credibility.
Metallica – Welcome Home (Sanitarium) (1986)
First, last and always. Well may be not the very first, but
Metallica were breakout thrashers and the only ones to achieve sustained global
mainstream success. Their early albums, whilst suffering some lightweight
production, can lay claim to definitive early thrash sounds rich with time
changes, dramatic pauses, acoustic segments and drama alongside the crunching
riffs. ‘Welcome Home (Sanitarium)’ comes from ‘Master of Puppets’, one of the
greatest thrash albums of all time. I saw them on this tour shortly before bassist
Cliff Burton died. A virile Anthrax were the support band. My life and my
hearing were never the same again.
Anthrax – Medusa (1985)
I saw lot of Anthrax
and Metallica back in the day and loved their live shows. Anthrax never quite mastered
the depth of Metallica’s material and their later flirtation with hardcore rap was
a cul-de-sac I wasn’t prepared to follow them down. The first clutch of albums
were really technically strong though, and very tight. ‘Medusa’ from ‘Spreading
The Disease’ was a live favourite.
Megadeth – Sweating Bullets (1992)
Dave Mustaine established Megadeth as the vehicle for his
music and explosive guitar playing after he was kicked out of the founding
Metallica line up. The output is patchy, but the band’s influence cannot be
denied and so they make this mixtape. ‘Countdown to Extinction’ is a later
album and ‘Sweating Bullets’ is a more sophisticated offering.
Glam and sleaze
At the same time as thrash was hitting its high water mark, glam
metal was sweeping all before it. You might hear the term ‘hair metal’ to describe
this period. It was never a term used at the time and is an after-the-fact
media invention with no validity.
Against my better judgement I’m gonna have to include some glam
in this list. Simply because in it was everywhere. Alice Cooper, Kiss, Van
Halen, Bon Jovi and their kin have a lot to answer for. Glam metal’s flashy clothing,
ridiculous hair, misogynistic/over-sexed lyrics and focus on style over
substance stuck in my craw. Some of the music was a bit shallow and the brand kept getting re-invented and watered down. And
yet some of the music, when the image noise can be filtered out was, let’s face
it, catchy, fun and, well, OK.
Quiet Riot – Cum On Feel the Noize (1983)
History pretty conclusively shows that the movement really
began with Quiet Riot’s Metal Health album – the first Metal collection to top
the Billboard Hot 100. The single ‘Cum On Feel the Noize’ secured massive
rotation on MTV and ushered in a whole new era of video-powered sales. In a
neat touch of symmetry, this single is of course a Slade cover, the original Glam
kings from 1972.
Motley Crue – Smokin' in the Boys Room (1985)
Motley Crue were the undisputed loud, rude, hedonistic and
vaguely androgynous leaders of the Glam Metal circus. They lived larger than
life: manslaughter trials, celebrity girlfriends, dodgy home movies and frightening amounts of chemical
abuse. They started out as metal, but by ‘Theatre of Pain’ had pretty much set
the glam template.
Guns N’ Roses – Nightrain (1987)
Often lumped in with glam, Guns N' Roses actually had a very
different vibe. They were a gritty and raw band and the music was refreshing,
harder and bluesier in comparison with glam. Guns N’ Roses had dirt under their
finger-nails and sleaze in their veins. In Slash they had a brilliant guitarist
and in Axl Rose, a compelling front man. The band were full of energy, rage and
frustration. Ingredients for powerful hard rock that connecting with people. They
burned so brightly, had legions of dedicated fans and we thought they were the future. The freewheeling ‘Night Train’ comes from their incandescent album ‘Appetite
for Destruction’. The band was never this good again.
Grunge
Crawling out of Seattle and given wings by the Sub Pop label,
grunge wiped glam and sleaze off the charts. Grunge is ostensibly a hard-wired distortion
of metal and punk, shot through with fuzzy indie tones to keep things mysterious.
Lyrically, there was a lot of navel-gazing going on: social isolation, disaffection,
betrayal. Grunge was commercially successful. Nirvana, led by the troubled Kurt
Cobain captured the mood of a generation. Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in
Chains and Stone Temple Pilots all found success with variations of the same zeitgeist.
The sounds hit a sweet spot for me and a high water mark was
Nirvana’s set at Reading in August 1992. Cobain donned a blond wig to lead the band
though a wild, explosive set whilst we were spattered in the mud and rain. Mudhoney, Nick cave and L7
also made a significant contribution to an outstanding, memorable day. That was
Nirvana’s final gig in the UK. Less than 18 months later, Cobain ended his life
with a shotgun shell.
Nirvana – Breed (1991)
Nirvana's Nevermind hit number one in early 1992 and
suddenly Guns N' Roses looked pretentious, impressionistic and flabby. Built
around a warped, wired riff this is Nirvana’s sound at its scary best. In
the spare lyric, Cobain is expressing fears about starting a family.
Mudhoney – Let It Slide (1991)
Less commercially successful than other bands around at the
time, ‘Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge’ was nevertheless at the heart of the
grunge sound. ‘Let It Slide’ was a perfect three-minute advert. I have it on limited
edition mud-coloured vinyl. A collector’s item. Probably worth at least a
fiver.
Pearl Jam – Last Exit (1996)
By 1996, Pearl Jam had diversified their sound and ‘Vitalogy’
has an eclectic mix of material. Vocalist Eddie Vedder had begun contributing guitar
as well and this gave the album a different dynamic. Tracks like ‘Corduroy’ and
‘Whipping’ were typical of their early canon; whereas the immediate ‘Spin The
Black Circle’ and the selection here with its scintillating, insistent drum beat
giving way to a grinding riff are more direct and punky. Great album. Great band.
21st Century metal
By the turn of the century, grunge had pretty much had its
day. With a couple of notable exceptions (step forward Pearl Jam), bands had
broken up or faded from view. However, their influence can be seen in some of
the acts that followed: post-grunge bands like Creed and Nickelback; and the
newly christened nu metal, shorn of indulgent solos, such as Korn and Limp
Bizkit.
And the scene has subsequently fragmented more than ever. We
see myriad spiralling and cross-over influences that have given rise to even
more sub-sets. Metal and hard rock loves its labels and pigeon-holes, but where
do you go next after neo-classic, alt, nu, industrial, groove, stoner and sludge?
I’m an old rocker and as this mix tape reaches 2020 it is running in to a sandbank of fusion and hybrid sounds that I can’t always dig. Linkin Park have
been one of the biggest metal bands on the planet for a good few years this past
decade, with their fearless blending of rock, metal, hip-hop and electronic
themes. But I just don’t like ‘em. So they don’t make my list!
Nevertheless,
here’s a trio of bands that have made their mark over the last 20 years. I’m not
under the skin of the genre like I used to be, when as a teenager I’d be twitching
with anticipation at every new twist. So there’s no deep analysis here, just a
recognition that through bands like this, metal and hard rock has the power to reinvent
itself, quicken the pulse and keep connecting.
Slipknot – Duality (2005)
A band that keeps pushing the boundaries with their
nine-musician (count ‘em) line up bringing turntables, switch-hit vocal styles
and aggressive, discordant power plays.
Rammstein – Rammlied (2009)
Combining elements of industrial, techno and gothic metal, Rammstein
harness booming, operatic vocals with grindingly heavy guitars, sweeping
keyboards and a massive rhythmic drive. All Till Lindemann’s vocals are in German,
adding a layer of harshness to the mix. Live shows are an epic pyrotechnical
extravaganza. I saw them at Wembley Arena ten years ago, sat several blocks back from the firestorm on
the stage. My eyebrows have only just grown back.
Alter Bridge – Dying Light (2020)
Let’s hear it for classic metal. I’m a big fan of this band.
Myles Kennedy is a gifted vocalist and Marcus Tramonti an underrated axe-smith.
Together they have created some powerful, layered, intense, soaring, heavy,
hard (and soft) music. The future is safe.
That's a wrap!
The 80’s and early 90’s were the golden age for the metal
and hard rock. NWOBHM progressively became just BHM and those fledgling bands
joined older, more established hard rock and metal acts who were still shifting
mega units and packing venues. Old school metal, hard rock, mainstream thrash
and glam metal was lacing the charts and filling the airwaves. Every set from
the 1990 Castle Donington Monsters of Rock festival headlined by Whitesnake was
broadcast live on Radio 1. It’s impossible to think of this happening now. Grunge
re-invented the genre at the start of the 90’s and the groovy times rolled on. We
had never had it so good.
In the consciousness of
non-believers, we’ve fallen away from those glory days of 25 years ago. But
that suits me, really. I’ve always quietly revelled in thought of rockers as outsiders,
bucking the popular trend, swimming upstream…There is a clan feeling amongst
us. As Johnny from Rock Candy magazine puts it, “We had so much in common. We
talked the same language. And it didn't matter what you looked like. Everyone
was welcome if you loved the music. It was a natural home for outsiders and
misfits.”
So there we are. Long live rock n’ roll. And outsiders n’ misfits. And kebab n’ chips.
Jenny & Naomi, I hope you made it this far. Twenty-nine tracks. This is my metal
and hard rock journey, but it’s your mix tape.
1970? I
doubted it. Paul Gambaccini was bigging up the likes of Pickettywitch and Judy
Collins in a post-Beatles, pre-Glam edition of Pick of the Pops. A dead zone
for music. A Dark Age akin to the Romans leaving Britain. A void filled by drivel
like Brotherhood of Man and Peter, Paul and Mary until we were saved by the
1066 watershed of T Rex and Slade. (I offer you the Ladybird guide to both popular
music and medieval history...)
Picketywitch in their pomp
Radio 2’s long
running chart retrospective was filling the car with pap as we headed to the
coast for some fresh air. Mrs A knew every word of every song, whilst I was
bleating on about the shallow quality and inane content. Even Elvis let me
down. I’d never heard ‘Don’t Cry Daddy’ before, but what a cast iron crock of indigestible
sentimental soup that is. The chorus saw me with my head in my hands: ‘Daddy,
you've still got me and little Tommy/And together we'll find a brand new mommy’.
Even Helen winced. “OK, so this isn’t his finest moment.”
Coronavirus
was by then beginning to take grip of the country. We could see snippets of evidence
with our own eyes. For instance, the roads were suspiciously quiet. I can’t
recall the M25 ever being so tame in the middle of a Saturday. Mrs A was
worried that we would get to our destination before the 1970 chart reached its
zenith. I was not.
This was the
weekend before the Cheltenham Festival and I was constantly expecting Coronavirus
to result in its cancellation. Italy had already entered lockdown. Events
elsewhere were being cancelled. It was only matter of time, surely. Those few
days before the year’s horseracing fiesta are always distracting. A mix of
fevered expectation combined with stress about the targets/chances of fancied
horses causes a strange, short-lived brain impairment, the symptoms of which are
Festival Tunnel Vision and Festival Babble. The event’s potential pandemic-induced
impediment was making these symptoms worse. There are many other much weightier
and deadlier reasons why Covid-19 is devastating, but in the week before
Cheltenham I was pretty much impenetrable to all of them except the one that
might impact on my week of horse racing.
A trip to
the seaside was a bit of light relief. As Mrs A tapped her foot to ‘Na Na Hey
Hey Kiss Him Goodbye’ by Steam, and then ‘Venus’ by Shocking Blue, I wondered
what she would make of the Airbnb I had booked in Broadstairs. More
distractedly, I also wondered why both those tracks had been covered by Bananarama
in the 80’s. I speculated that Keren, Siobhan and the other one that no-one can
remember, sat down to plan their next ditties in one of the three houses they had
bought together on the same street in north London. One of them undoubtedly said,
“I know! Let’s just pick one chart from a week at random and cover everything
in the top 10!” And that’s what must have happened. 7th March 1970
was that chart and over a number of years, they released their covers. Only
these two became hits, obviously. I guess the other bilge failed to trouble the
scorers.
Bananabarmey
Back to the
evening’s accommodation. I had failed to book a fine hotel overlooking Botany
Bay, north of Broadstairs, because they had no pet-friendly rooms left. Undaunted,
I found a couple of town centre Airbnb gaffs that would happily host us and our
hound. One place stood out. All the reviews used words like ‘quirky’,
‘individual’ and ‘eclectic’. Excellent, I thought as I snapped up a bargain
with Janice, the host. We would soon realise that the website’s gallery didn’t come
close to portraying the real vibrancy of Janice’s abode, but they were nevertheless
enough to spook Mrs A. Too late, I’d already booked. She shared the listing
with Daughters 1 and 2 who were suitably horrified by pics of the ‘busy’ décor,
floor to ceiling shelves packed with ceramic bric-a-brac and walls crowded with
framed art.
We hit
out-of-town shopping centre traffic west of Ramsgate as I was marvelling at the
insight and philosophical depth of Peter Noone’s insipid vocal on a 1970 Herman’s
Hermit hit. Cop this wisdom: ‘Years may come/Years may go/Some go fast/Some go
slow’. Genius.
The traffic
snarl up meant Mrs A got her wish. We were parking up in Broadstairs as Gambaccini
gave an undeserved build up to Lee Marvin’s gawd-awful chart-topper from that forgettable
week, a dirge-like, teeth-grating rendition of ‘Wandrin Star’. I rested my case
and indeed Mrs A had nothing to say.
Although, funnily
enough, she found her voice again when we entered the cottage. Descriptions of the place emptied
our collective thesaurus: unusual, eccentric, peculiar, idiosyncratic,
characterful, disturbing…just plain weird.
But the place was fantastic, imaginative, funny, unique and out-of-the-ordinary as well. I couldn’t decide whether the shelf packed full of Virgin Mary statuettes was more troubling than the inflatable moose’s head fixed above our bed. Or the papier mache mer-man hanging in the bathroom more unsettling than the black and pink floral wallpaper. It was a real house though. Janice lived there when she had no bookings, so it felt homely, comfortable and cosy. There was no telly, so we necked red wine and played Scrabble, overlooked by a ghoulish portrait gallery. I lost. Again.
Broadstairs offered
up all the fresh air we craved, and plenty more besides. The coastline between
Ramsgate and North Foreland is particularly attractive with chalk cliffs shot
through with streaks of sandstone giving way to half a dozen coves and inlets filled
with the golden sand you only see in filtered holiday brochure pics. Viking Bay
is at the foot of the town’s main street, lined by hotels, houses, shops, restaurants
and pubs that give a fair impression of a well preserved Victorian resort.
Back up the hill
and past the train station, we stumbled upon a fantastic pub, carved out of a
stone flag-floored stable, serving real ale and cider straight from barrels
piled up behind the bar. I’ve added Broadstairs to the list of seaside towns
I’m trying to persuade Mrs A that we should move to.
On Sunday we popped over to Whitstable, another fine Kentish town on my list, and joined our friends there for lunch. More lung-fulls of fresh air. Whitstable bay is just so photogenic.
By the time
the Cheltenham Festival kicked off on Tuesday, the Coronavirus death toll was
creeping up and the level of confirmed cases was on the march. Attendances were
down at Prestbury Park each day. Watching on telly at home, the Festival party
looked increasingly like a last hurrah before an inevitable lockdown. I joined
the racing crew in the Barley Mow on Gold Cup Friday for our traditional session
of punting, drinking and making merry. Top day.
I didn’t go
the Festival this year, but still had a week away from work to immerse myself
in every twist and turn of the action. So hitting a crowded pub felt like
breaking my own self isolation after a week of social distancing. In hindsight,
we had probably absorbed some of that Cheltenham final stand feeling in a gung-ho
sort of day. Possibly not the wisest move.
For the
record, I had a shocking festival. Backing horses that found new ways to lose, from
grinding to a standstill up the hill to getting short-headed in a last furlong
dog-fight. And most galling of all, an unseat from jockey Jamie Moore when
miles clear. His horse Goshen managed to lock together his off-front and off-rear
shoes for a stride when stumbling through the final hurdle. A cruel and freak
incident, bringing down my Festival-saving four-timer with the jockey.
Bacchy and the Fantasy Festival winners' whisky round
And then another
Saturday and another car journey. This time to meet our friends Fay and Adrian for a dog walk-pub-lunch. Over a pint and a robust
plate of ham, egg and chips, Adrian fixed me with an inquisitive demeanour and
said “So let me get this right. You booked a cottage in Broadstairs packed full
of strange art without telling Helen first. And then you took her to a pub in a
stable that didn’t serve red wine? How are you here to tell the tale?” I had no
answer, but offered to make myself available for any assistance they needed
with future accommodation bookings.
On the way
over I insisted we had The Planet Rock Years on the radio. Gambaccini had been
kicked into touch since his woeful picks the previous Saturday. Mark Anthony
was digging 1975. Led Zeppelin, Uriah Heep, Pink Floyd. That’s better.
Nuca, our Romanian mongrel with a hair-trigger nose that detects
grilled sausages at 200 paces, is sniffing Spring in the air. She’s been careering
around the garden with unhinged, mad-March enthusiasm and tucking in to new shoots
of grass like they are gourmet treats. I smell the changing mood too; and I’m
sharing something of her wild passion. Not sure it’s the weather though… Cheltenham
is nearly here.
Festival preview nights are all the rage up and down the land
right now. They have become an established part of the build-up: well-oiled panel
pundits spouting dubiously informed views and rumours in front of eager, equally
lubricated punters, before moving on to the next venue on the next night. Entertainment
is the name of the game rather than cast-iron info. The skill is in winnowing
the odd grain of valuable wheat from the wind-blown chaff.
The Barley Mow festival pack had its own preview evening on
Monday. Our level of inebriation would rival your regular ‘professional’
preview gathering, and indeed the quality of knowledge on offer was equally
variable.
Matters got off to a poor start when a stranger casually
joined us at our table and sat down with his beer as if he belonged there. Turned
out he did. He won our prestigious, fiercely competitive Fantasy Festival trophy
last year. Apparently I’d had a long chat with him on Gold Cup Day in that very
same venue about various exploits at the Festival. I had, I gathered, heartily
congratulated him on his win.
How we laughed. He’s a lovely fellah and took my total
absence of recall with a pinch of salt. Piecing together the dregs of that day
last March, it seems my memory faded from the point that Al Boum Photo won the
Gold Cup with a chunk of my bank wagered at 16/1. Everything after about 3.50pm
was lost in a bitter-and-whisky fuelled celebratory blur. I don’t remember the
results of the subsequent races, or who I was drinking with or how I got home. Or
the reception I received when I got there… The level of obfuscation only became
clear on Monday night when I had absolutely no recollection of meeting this
chap before. At all.
I was not alone. He went to the bog for a leak and I quickly
said to Nick,
“Christ, I can’t remember him at all!
What’s his name?”
“No clue” shrugged Nick. “Is he one
of Bryn’s mates?”
“I think it’s Tom”, offered Nev.
“No, don’t call him Tom!” pleaded Colin.
“It’s definitely not Tom. We’ve met Tom before in the Jugged Hare”
This went on for some time. Poor behaviour, really. Bacchy
helped. The Fantasy Festival is his competition, after all. We worked out he
was Danny’s mate. And he’s called Joseph. Now I’ve committed this to text, I’m
bound to remember.
So, you’ll be wanting tips and rumours from the Barley Mow
preview evening massive, I expect. Here are the highlights:
My
new pal Joseph has a cracking ante-post voucher of 10/1 on Shiskin for the
Supreme, after he scribbled the name into his little black book following a
bumper romp last year. This good punting.
My
best outsider is Rouge Vif at 16/1 for the Arkle, struck after I cashed in an
earlier bet on the same horse at 33/1 on the basis that I didn’t think he’d
make the race. This is bad punting.
Tim’s
best bets of the week will all run at Wolverhampton. This is barely punting at
all.
Elsewhere, Colin was roundly vilified for his nap of the
meeting, Clan Des Obeaux to win the Gold Cup. No-one else thinks he will get
home. I copped some flak for putting up Epatante in the Champion Hurdle, though
I genuinely fail to see why she can’t spank a pretty poor field. Bacchy had
Honeysuckle to win a packet in the Mares Hurdle. At that point, she still could
have been re-routed to the Champion Hurdle, leaving him potless. However, she
was confirmed for the Mares the very next day.
Nick produced a scrappy bit of folded-over A4 printed with
the rules of Bacchy’s famous Fantasy Festival competition. Underneath he’d
written the names of 16 ludicrously short-priced types he planned to enter into
the comp.
“I did some research!”
“What, Racing Post? Or do you use At
The Races?” I was impressed.
“No – I just did a comparison of all
the tipster sites”.
“Ah, so not actual form research, or anything,
then?”
“What do you take me for?!” Cue
mirthful roll of the eyes.
On leaving the pub, Nev, Bacchy and myself meandered down Strutton
Ground. Nev pointed out the bookies where he landed a spectacular three-figure Gold
Cup exacta back in the day. Emboldened with ale, I confidently claimed that I
stood a fair chance of bagging the triple crown of fantasy competitions this season:
cricket (already won); 12 To Follow (leading) and Fantasy Festival (launching
Tuesday).
Nev was having none of it. Within a nano-second he goes, “£50
says you don’t.” I politely declined. He smashed me out of the park alongside my
bullshit bravado.
I’m not going to the Festival this year. I’ll miss the roar before
the Supreme and the atmosphere that you just don’t get anywhere else. Nevertheless,
the keen anticipation is the same. I’m hanging on to every refresh of the Oddschecker
ante-post pages to see if my fancies have survived five-day forfeits.
Non-runners do for my Festival portfolio what Coronavirus has
done for cruise holidays. Speaking of the ‘C’ word, as I write it feels just
about odds-on that we’ll get the fully fledged Festival next week. But with
every passing day of hysterical reaction to new cases, the doubts persist.
If fears win out and the event is cancelled, Mrs A has
already asked (…demanded…) that I arrange to be somewhere else next week, please.
The prospect of me moping about the house all week, bereft of a horse to back,
fills her with dread.
Maybe I’ll tramp the hills with the dog in search of that
elusive Spring.
