I miss my Dad.
It’s coming up to the 3rd anniversary of my old man’s passing from cancer, and for some reason I’m thinking more deeply about this impending date than either of the first 2 years I was forced to deal with it. Perhaps it’s because Mum has finally been able to sell the family home where we moved to nearly 30 years ago and it’s the realisation within me that we as a family have reached the end of an era.
Two weekends full of work, despite the fact that the Premier League & Championship were on hiatus for the first 12 days of it. I was originally down to work the first Saturday afternoon of International weekend as well as my usual Sunday evening stint on talkSPORT, but got a call Friday morning to come down early and cover Friday evening’s Kick Off show. Not only that, but my Sunday schedule was now to be an afternoon shift presenting live coverage of Scotland’s friendly with Brazil live from the Emirates Stadium. I hope my usual Sunday evening listeners miss me ;o)
For a change it’s been something of a quiet week for me these past 7 days…although the emergency talkSPORT call did come on Monday morning – but not for Alan Brazil but instead for a poorly Adrian Durham our Drivetime host, and so a quick dash to Birmingham International was in order to cover 4-7pm alongside Darren Gough.
Until 1994, my gigging life was, shall we say, a bit sporadic. Not to mention a bit regionally confined.
My college band Dangerous Games never dared venture outside the West Midlands Conurbation, save for one trip to play at Wrexham University for Keith’s best mate in the worst fog I can ever remember driving in – Shotgun Wedding were braver and got as far as Cardiff (at least twice), Morecambe & London, but these were one off shows rather than part of any ‘tour’ or grand design.
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.
