We did it.
We only bloody well did it!
136 years on from the formation of the club that I love, Birmingham City finally own a piece of silverware that cannot be derided as either ‘Mickey Mouse’ or ‘tinpot’ by anyone from the outside looking in. And those that do still come out with such small-minded nonsense reveal ultimately more about themselves than about what we’ve gone and won.
It’s hard for me to stay out of recording studios for too long.
Tom Ross and I have been in creative mood once again, joining forces as The Bluenose Brothers to make an assault on the download charts (and your eardrums) with our new releases; a updated version of “Keep Right On” and a new Danter composition entitled “On Our Way” to commemorate Birmingham City’s upcoming trip to Wembley for the Carling/Milk/Rumbelows/Littlewoods final thingy.
Well, now that my fantastic Dressed To Kill adventure is over, I am without a regular ‘gig’ behind a drumkit for the first time in over 20 years, the occasional Three Amoebas shows notwithstanding.
I’ve gone from Shotgun Wedding to City Kidds/Sons Of God to New Jersey to Ian The Goat Sings Black Sabbath to Foreigner 4, back to New Jersey again, then to Hotter Than Hell and finally Dressed To Kill in just over 2 decades – but that only scratches the surface of my life tubthumping onstage.
How fitting it was that my finale with DRESSED TO KILL came at a place close to home where I’ve spent many a happy gig night on the drums – The Robin in Bilston was packed out as usual to see DTK, but I imagine that, despite our intensive promo for the night, many folk arriving had no idea about what was in store…namely 2 KISS characters playing drums on the same night.
Another week that’s proved no two weeks in my working life are ever the same – and a week in which my club is one step closer to its first major MAJOR trophy.
I’ve mentioned more than once before in these blogs about how my past keeps coming back to delight me lately. Well, it can bloody well scare you too.
But in a good way.
My dear friend Gray Ettrick, who stood shoulder to shoulder with me for 6 desperate years in Shotgun Wedding dreamimg of rock stardom that never materialised, was the one member of the band who kept everything relating to what we got up to. And I mean EVERYTHING.
Happy New Year to you all. Thanks for visiting the site once again.
So, how's your Christmas belly then? Mine's nicely cultivated - so now presumably it's time to turn masochistic and retrieve some dignity to my appearance by going for 2 bowls of Special K a day. After all, there is one last Dressed To Kill gig to stay trim for...
Yes, you heard me right. I now have one last night in the lycra and the slap next month - FRIDAY 4th FEBRUARY to be precise, at the Robin RnB club in Bilston which is pretty much the closest venue to home for me as it goes.
“Ain’t it funny how the time slips away…’cos now I’m leaving and I wish I could stay…”
Paul Stanley definitely wrote that song for me. It’s 5 years on from my first show as a full Dressed To Kill member at the Nottingham KISS Expo, and now my time in the world’s longest-running (and best) tribute to the Hottest Band In The World is at an end. I’ve already bored you witless with the reasons why in a previous blog, so let’s just get on with the story of my last 4 gigs shall we?
Good grief I’m angry today – I am ‘the Guns Of The Navarone’ as Samuel L Jackson put it in Pulp Fiction. And it’s not just because I’m having to write this blog again from scratch as it didn’t load first time of asking – blooming internet connection time-out nonsense….
I’ve often been referred to as ‘band slag’ ‘have sticks will travel’ ‘he’s after everybody’s job’ and other choice summaries of my career behind the kit. Most of the time, my band choices have been based almost entirely on the enjoyment I expected to derive from it. And so, whether it’s been Shotgun Wedding, Dressed To Kill or The Three Amoebas, it’s been a laugh a minute for the right reasons.
