And The Last Letter Said "I'm 9 Years Old and Homeless" FUUUUCCCKK !!!

PIGS CAN FLY from HEYLUKE on Vimeo.

The Fulfilment Of A Lifetime's Dream

Today a CD arrived. Not an unusual event at Gable End, to be honest.

In fact, some would say an all too frequent occurrence. Like my Mum, who thinks that any money not spent on the family is money wasted.

My rationale is that music makes me happy, and that's good for the family.

I jest, of course.

No, today this CD dleivered with it the fulfimemt of a lifetime's dream. Namely, that since approximately the age of 14 I've always, ALWAYS wanted a credit on a proper bone-fide professionally released album.

And now, thanks to master muscician Dec Burke, my journey is at an end. See...

there I am, on the right. See ? SEE ?

Of course, in my dreams it was going to be Rush or Pink Floyd but, hey a credit's a credit and it's a bloody good album to boot. You can buy it here www.decburke.com.

And, what did I do to deserve this accolade ? Well, I went to meet the great man himself to discuss all his works in interview form, the product of which will be unveiled in the forthcoming Dead Nobodies Dec Burke Special - "The Story Behind Storylines" (working title).

IThangU

Sweary Alert !!!

I know this is puerile and highly childish and I'm old enough to know better, but this is beyond funny...

Dead Nobodies #3 - High Voltage Special

To celebrate a year since I had my heart attack, I've done a High Voltage Special version of the wildly popular and succesful (;-)) podcast, Dead Nobodies.

A High Voltage, Yesterday

Downloads available from the Dead Nobodies website here or from iTunes. Advantage with iTunes is that a). you can subscribe and b). you can download an "enhanced" (y'know, bigger muscles, finely hewn pecs, buns of steel, that kind of stuff) version.

Other podcasts are available, so I'm told. Anyway, this one is a bit more ROCK than usual, as it's reflective of the line-up. I won free tickets for this year's event, but didn't fancy it. What a boring f****r I am.

In other news, I've been renewed for another 6 months doing IT transformation for a major Insurance Company. Whatever that means. This is OK.

I'd much rather be concentrating on my music ventures though. For example, I am just about to start planning a very exciting, and very secret, project relating to music. Secret because it might not come off and I don't want you laughing at me in the street

If it does though, it'll be brilliant and may, just may, offer up a whole new vista of opportunities.

Before that though, I'm off on a Top Gear styled road trip to the Belgian F1 Grand Prix at the end of August. Yes, the Mercedes and I, plus a mate and his Porsche, are motoring to Spa and back, stopping off in Bruges, Winterklass, Spa and back again. It's all tremendously exciting. Now I'm on the market for iPhone holders that I can use to record some in-car video, just like you see on Top Gear. Not sure who I am though. Well, I'm definitely not The Hamster. I don't think I'm Clarkson. So that only leaves May.

Oh well. I'll post the items up here in what, I think, we could safely term a "v-blog" or a "vidlog" or a "video blog".

Actually, even before THAT, I am taking my cousins (15 and 13 - ish) to see Iron Maiden. The last time I saw Iron Maiden was at the UEA in 1981. I suspect they may have changed  a little. On the other hand, they may not. I wonder if they still have Eddie as their mascot...

As we move into Autumn, I have a sackful of gigs lined up, so let's just enjoy the summer before we head into what is sure to be a fun packed final 2 quarters. 

Apart from that, little to report dearest blog I wonder whether anyone still reads this shit ?

Oh Lord Won't You Buy Me A Mercedes Benz

I have a new car. It is a Mercedes Benz. A Mercedes Benz SL to be precise. A sleek, silver, sexy machine. It is very long. It is very powerful. It is very comfortable and it is very fast. It is, I believe one would say, a Grand Tourer in the finest tradition. A car capable of conveying its occupants from one end of a country to the other in style, comfort and speed.

It is very, very, me.

It is not to be confused with it's baby brother, the SLK. That is a girls's car.

I bought this car with some of the proceeds from a payout from a life insurance policy. I spent ages deciding which car to have, looking at Porsche's, Jaguar's and even a fleeting consideration of an Aston Martin. None of them really hit the mark. Or it may have been my natural aversion to spending money.

Anyway, I decided that the Mercedes would offer the ideal combination of speed, comfort etc etc, and it has indeed ticked all of those boxes. It has to be said that our first few dalliances were a little reminiscent of a stuttering love affair, with both protagonists kind of quite keen, but a little apprehensive at diving straight in. But once we'd gone away for a weekend with each other (to Rotherham of all places) the love affair was quite definitely on.

The main reason that I bought this car, aside from ego and transportation, was for my marathon excursion into the world of Rock, specifically that sub-genre everyone else calls "Prog" but which I just call "really really brilliant music made by really really talented people, which would be really really successful if only more people opened their ears and shook off the idea that it was all aout Capes and Moogs and Mellotrons. Including a sizeable minority of the bands themselves. And the audience."

The first event to be supplemented by Mercedes Benz assisted transport was the Classic Rock Society Band of The Year Awards, this year including their very own Personality Award, no doubt taking their cue from one's very own Prog Personality Of The Year (podcast still available on iTunes here).

Soon afterwards, I ventured off to Hammersmith to catch Peter Gabriel do his orchestra thing, which was a bit of a curates egg to be honest.

Definitely not a rock gig, the arrangements were a bit hit and miss and it was just too bloody quiet.

I'd spent a very hospitable afternoon in a pub on the Hammersmith embankment in the company of Designer In Chief To Prog (Storm Thorgesson Wing) Vitamin P and his mate Chris. We were joined later on by John Mitchell and his guitar tech Paddy and finally by one of my other proggy mates James. All in all an excellently convivial time was had, ultimately spoilt a bit by the lacklustre gig. The evening was nicely rounded off by a visit to The Crobar, a rock bar in Soho. The last I saw of VitP, Chris and JM was after they dumped a load of cash on me for the cab ride and bailed out to the nearest kebab shop.

Phew! Rock and Roll eh ?

A couple of visits to The Peel followed, first to see one man guitar orchestra, Matt Stevens play support to Credo.

Matt is a top bloke and one of very few people I've met who make me feel physically small next to them. He is also very talented and worth checking out

The following week saw the return of Tinyfish with a freshly minted new set drawing heavily, and rightly, from The Big Red Spark. They were playing a mini-tour in preparation for their visit to the USA in late May to RosFest.

Now, Tinyfish are a proper band and stuff. I mean, they make real records and have been in the music press. So to say I was thrilled that they dedicated a song to me (Weak Machine since you ask) would be an understatement. In return, it only seems fair that I promise that I will now stop haranguing Simon and Paul every time I see them by insisting that Weak Machine is the best song on the album.

Now they are off to America, playing RosFest and will return stars of the prog firmanent, if there's any justice in this world. Maybe they'll stay out there and go over to LA and make their fortune. Anyway, whatever they do, it's a real joy and treat seeing this band continue to win friends and influence people.

My favorite ever band, Rush, decided last year to tour their, probably most popular, album, Moving Pictures in a show called Time Machine. This year they brought it to the UK. Now, my ritual when presented with a Rush tour is to figure out which gigs to go to, and then go to more. However, this time, the tour clashed badly with probably the rock concert event of the year (and possibly of all time) with Roger Waters bringing The Wall back to life. Indeed, it seems that Rush and Rog were literally leap-frogging over each other around the country.

So, I had reluctantly decided that I would only make one gig, at the O2, this time round. However, as luck would have it, the aforementioned Vitamin P and Chris mentioned to me that they were going over to Dublin to see the boys.

Dublin ! Of course ! Cue much grinding of gears and lights flickering on and off, whilst I figured out the logistics of getting there and back and shoehorning it into my schedule.

Cue another wonderfully refreshing afternoon with VitP, Chris and the lovely Dena as well as a number of other boys and girls who it was great to meet.

To say Ireland went mental for Rush would be an understatement The noise in that arena was deafening. Very few bands can match the scale and intensity of a Rush show and it was ear and eye blisteringly brilliant. The two young lads (15 and 12) in the row in front of me were absolutely blown away. It's great to see what may almost be the third generation of kids getting into Rush; it gladdens the heart, so it does.

Now I'm looking forward to the next gig at the O2 in London in few days time. As we Rush fans say, it's gonna be fucking awesome, dude !!

Inbeween this marathon bout of gig going (and it ain't finished yet) I've also produced the first of my new series of podcasts, called Dead Nobodies.

It's a personal choice of new and not so new stuff that has caught my attention, and not restricted to any one "type" of rock music. So, you're as likely to find AC/DC as well as Frost*, Mumford and Sons as well as Jethro Tull etc etc. I'm hoping to keep a fairly common and tight format, that comes across as a journey through the music rather then a set of tracks randomly jammed together. Each month, I will feature a special mix of material from, and related to, a particular artist, plus a bit of my own brand of honest insight and humour (ahem) as well as giving it bit of spit and polish by linking stiff, using stingers and jingles and sourcing material from the best possible source, for example, re-mastered tracks etc etc.

 I bet everyone has done a mix-tape ?

(Tape, for any younger readers is an old analogue recording medium made up a strip of plastic coated in a ferrous material, attached to two spindles. The tape unwinds from one spindle and winds around the other, passing as it does so over a magnet called a "recording head". This recording head applies a varying magnetic signature to the tape that equates to the material being recorded. You then play this back only this time, the tape is read by the same head which now converts the magnetic field on the tape back not music. 

Quaint, huh ?).

You put a mix-tape together of fave songs to impress a Girl and to show her in what high esteem you hold her.

You do this to share and communicate your innermost thoughts via the medium of someone else's songs

You do this because, as a male (of indeterminate age), you are genetically incapable of articulating these things to the object of your desire yourself.

You do this because you want to be with her desperately.

And you do this because you want get into her pants...

I don't know whether anyone has ever actually "sealed the deal" using a mix-tape as the prime mover, but in my view, it can only help. And in my experience girls love them.

At least, that's what they said at the time...

Anyway I digress. Doing a podcast is a bit like doing a mix-tape. You can't just throw a load of songs randomly together, they must be carefully selected and sequenced to make them sound good together. You may have to do some cross-fades, or some edits to get them to work together. You may need to introduce a jingle or a stinger interstitially to manufacture a transition between one track and another (particularly if they don't "flow" together). You may like to "beat match" tracks. You may even try to "key match" them.

Then, once you have done this, you may need to apply equalisation, compression and all manner of things to make sure the whole thing doesn't sound like some madman has got hold of the volume knob and is twiddling backwards and forwards furiosuly. That goes for any talky bits you might do and your "candy-floss". I have my own bespoke compression and EQ's I like to use. I think they work well, but you have to set them up through tria and error, and this takes time. I also like to use re-mastered tracks wherever possible, as these tend to be mastered to 0dB these days and sound better (IMHO), reducing the need to use any other fiddling.

I've also done a few of my own jingles which require editing. And if you do interviews, these need editing too !

Frankly all this takes me fucking ages. I know some people who do a 3 or 5 hours show every WEEK and I don't know how they do it ! Me, it takes me about 2 weeks to set this all up and constructing/recording it. Then I usually scrap it, change it and do it again. I get stressed with it and I usually get to the point where I figure that I'll just not bother. And then I force myself to do it, and from that moment, it starts to work. It's a creative process, far more so than I anticipated.

Anyway #1 has just been released. It has a website and everything. As the show develops and I garner some credibility and following (fingers crossed for both), I'll be looking to get interviews and reviews and all kinds of stuff in there.

Get Episode 1 HERE

And, it's now also on iTunes HERE

And so we move on...

I was 14 when The Wall was released, back in December 1979. I had by that time, become a devout follower of all things Floyd and looked forward to it with relish. I had already heard Roger Waters in a 2 hour show going through the album track by track with Tommy Vance (a show that I have never been able to track down since) and I was enthralled by its themes of alienation and barriers being built up in people. I resonated with its description of Teacher's and Mother's and Government and all the other stuff.

I guess that I was too young to understand it fully, but at the age I was I could completely identify with this abstract concept of a wall being built around oneself to protect and insulate oneself from everything "out there".

I was unable to see the original show production back in 1980/81 but by the time those shows had been completed, it had already passed into legend.

The background to the album was Waters' oft repeated story of spitting at a fan at a gig in Montreal and wondering how he'd come to do such a thing being, by any sensible measure, extraordinarily successful as the main protagonist of a band whose commercial success and artistic importance, equals that of The Beatles and Led Zeppelin.

What is less well know is that on embarking on The Wall project, Pink Floyd had suffered massive losses to their combined fortunes and assets due to the fraudulent activity and subsequent collapse of the investment company they had entrusted with their affairs. Fleeing the Country as tax exiles, Waters presented the band with two demos - one of which was to eventually become The Wall. Upon it, the livelihoods of the musicians and their organisation depended, as they had effectively been stripped of most of their earnings garnered over the preceding, fantastically successful, years.

It was against that backdrop that Roger Waters conceived and created, as album, show and film, perhaps the most audacious and ambitious piece of rock theatre in the history of popular music, now and then.

Throughout the year long recording, in LA, London and the South of France he navigated the recording of the album as well as overseeing and inputting the production of the show and had engaged Gerald Scarfe and Alan Parker in the making of the film. And he wrote all of the songs, with David Gilmour co-writing a handful and contributing as the Musical Director for the show.

(It would be unfair to assume the Waters alone was responsible for the way the album sounds, It was still a band effort, even though Nick Mason and Richard Wright contributed little in terms of writing. The essential combination of the four of them was largely intact - it sounds like Pink Floyd. That said, the seeds of Wright's dismissal were laid down in his (in Waters' eyes) uncooperative stance in meeting deadlines and contributing musical ideas. The schism that this generated infects the band relationships from that day to this. Wright was eventually sacked, then re-hired as a session musician for the shows. As an ironic and amusing result, he became the only one of the four to make any money from the shows, as it was so expensive to stage (or the tickets were too cheap, as I recently read)

The point I'm trying to make is that Waters' did most of this himself. He had the vision, the idea and then the nous to manage it all through to its undeniably successful conclusion. As a Project Manager whose job is "getting things done" against tight deadlines, I am filled with admiration for this.

As the Floyd fell apart, one realised that the chance to see The Wall would be lost for ever. Waters said that he would only do it again if the Berlin Wall fell.

And then...

Well, whaddya know ? To the amazement of all of us who remember that time, the Communist Block of Eastern Europe crumbled in the late 80's. It was, I recall one of those times when you realise that, if things are wanted enough, they WILL happen. The Cold War ended. The tyranny of fear and suspicion lifted. And, chiming well with those sentiments, Waters agreed to stage The Wall in Berlin.

I, along with 500,000 others and my mate John, attended. It was a production on a truly staggering scale (look at the size of the cranes in the picture above).

However, my abiding memory was that only during the show did it really become clear to me what it was all about. The music, narrative and the show came together for me, and made sense on such a fundamental level that the experience has never left me. I maintain that you cannot truly understand The Wall, and be immersed in it, until you have seen it live and experienced the utter desolation and vacuum of loneliness engendered by the site of a massive, white wall, naked of anything, audience one side and on the other a lone, plaintive and desperate voice, keening repeatedly "Is there anybody out there ?".

You HAVE to respond. You HAVE to help this person. You HAVE to reassure them. You HAVE to shout at the top of your voice…

"YES!!"

This moment, the moment when the wall begins to be breached, reveal to us something about what it is to be human. That is the mark of great art - it tell us something about ourselves. And The Wall has it in spades. That is why it is so revered and so popular and just so mind-bogglingly powerful. Add all the special FX, the emotional content of the lyrics and the playing and, well, it all gets a bit overwhelming.

Left with the memory then, I had assumed, like most fans, that The Wall would never be seen again. But, the old bastard, he decided to take it out once more. This time, the themes have been broadened to reflect the fears that nations hold and the barriers that they construct, whether those be religious, idealogical, taught or manufactured. This makes for a heady mix, but the thing that makes it even better is the fact that Roger Waters is now, at 67, no longer the angry, scared, "fucked up little Roger" as he described himself, anymore. And he's up there, ENJOYING himself, laughing, fist waving, communing with the audience, bringing us the message and making it a communal affair. And, I think, this makes all the difference and only serves to magnify the message and impact of what is, in my humble opinion, the absolutely best, most staggering and awesome rock show I have ever, and will ever, witness.

The show at the O2 I saw, on the 2nd tier, was amazing. Seeing it 4 days later, from the centre block, 4 rows from the front, was simply indescribable.

It was completely overwhelming, in a sensory and emotional sense. From 4 rows back the stage is enormous and the wall itself is huge !! Add to that planes flying overhead, the lights and fury, the fireworks, the flying pigs, the giant inflatable's, the faultless, and very loud, sound, the rear projections and finally, the enormous behemoth that is The Wall, being built up brick by brick, over the first half of the show upon which are projected a barrage of images pounded the message home. And then, at the very end, the whole thing falls down in a haze of smoke and truly earth moving sub bass.

Let me tell you dear reader, I left that arena a gibbering wreck.

If I never see another concert again in my life, I will die a happy and contented man.

So, I'm nearly at the end of my epic tale of gig going. No more gigs and evets for a little while. I need to get my strength back !! Only one last "job" to do, and that is Rush again at the O2.

And you know what they say about Rush gigs...

It's gonna be f****g awesome, Dude...

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