Suspended by Stars

Last year I was given the golden opportunity of being the Drum Tech for The Wonder Stuff's 2006 Tour in the UK. That 3 week trip brought more emotion, experience and insite into how my favorite band puts things together than I could of imagined. From the camaraderie of everyone involved to the sheer professionalism I witnessed...... It was simply magical

I can only assume that to the rest of the seasoned crew and band I must of looked like a rabbit caught in headlights..... and for good reason, it's not often you get to work with pure genius.

Anyhow, I took an awful lot of photos, some of which had found there way onto the cover of the new Live double album soon to be released.

Just how honored and chuffed am I?

very chuffed indeed!

Check out the thanks section in the scan from the inside cover above

The Plan (walking up a hill in the Lake District) Part 2

Do you remember my PLAN on walking up a hill in the Lake District?

Well, I've had to change the hotel as the original one is fully booked..... but at least I'm booked in! (to the new hotel)

The new gaff can be found here. It's called the Red Lion and is situated right in the middle of Grasmere.

Just to remind people, I'm doing this walk to celebrate my new hip...... and to help me focus on getting it "bedded in"

If anyone is still up for this walk to the top of Helm Crag in The Lake District, Grasmere

on the weekend of August 22-24 2008

the plan is to arrive Friday, walk the hill Saturday morning, get drunk Saturday evening, leave Sunday afternoon after a massive Sunday Lunch.

then feel free to come along. There's no need to book a hotel if ya don't want to, I'm doing it cos I'll need a place to oil the knackered old bones once I've done it.

'alright Dave?

OK, lets get this out the way....

For some strange reason there's a new digital TV channel calling itself Dave. For the most part, that's what people call me (to my face)... it is my name after all.

This has caused at least two people to smile, point at the TV and say "hehe Dave...... that's your name that is".

and that's as far as my interest in this goes really..... although, I'd like to know the marketing reasons for giving a cable TV station a blokes name

More experiments

OK, this shows the brief "meeting" between the guards (who had lost control at this point) and the prisoners to decide if we should end it all and go home or continue being on the telly..... all hidden to make it look like we were continuing the "social study".

The ring leaders "Edwards and Petkin" (prisoners) had been a pain in the arse, childish and arrogant. It was more of a playground than a social experiment

I should point out that there is a little bad language (maybe I should of explained that earlier, Opps, sorry).

A trip throught your brains, ride the scarlet train...

My hip will be having one last shindig later this month and you're all invited.

Miles Hunt will be playing Guildford's Boiler Room on Thursday 25th October (7pm kickoff)



So, I'f you're up for it and would like to be entertained (either by Milo or by the pain I'm in) then simply get ya Tickets from these chancers..


PS: there's a pint for the first to complete the lyric in the title of this post. And another pint for the title of the song*


*you have to goto the gig to claim your free pint(s)

Ok, enought of the hip thing, we get it....

I dug out the DVD of me on the telly, and with nothing better to do decided to slice out a bit and put it here...

This was 6 years ago, I'm now much prettier to look at and have a bright green racing car.


and here's the title sequence from the show....

Countdown has started

a new shiney hip will be spliced into place on

Monday 5th November 2007

My hip which looks, well, kinda like this...

will then be "shaped" using this.....

and will eventually look something like this....

bugger..... it all looks rather.... painful.

New leg on the cards!

Folks, it's getting closer.... I can almost smell that tell tail copper tang that gives away the spillage of claret.

Yesterday I had a consultation with the head chopper cropper in Hip replacement surgery. Top bloke if a little self assured about his chosen profession.

There's no getting away from it, surgeons are not normal people.

Most people who show an overly keen interest in slicing into unconscious humans usually end up being dramatized in an ITV Tuesday night special and having to answer to 21 stone "Maureen" in the men's showers at the Big House

Fortunately for me, this fella decided to get some medical qualifications and keep the crossed-out stick men on the bonnet of his car to a minimum.

So, the plan is for me to have a Birmingham Hip Replacement, also known as Hip Resurfacing sometime in November of this year. (Birmingham eh! Seems that a lot of troubles in my life have been solved by things from Birmingham..... you know who you are!)

I'm still waiting on the insurance company's approval....... (long pause)

BASTARDS!

Sorry..... I have a mental image of some Standard Life rep bent over my policy attempting to find the medieval small print that denies a payout due to whistling on Tuesdays.

No.... I'm sure it'll be fine.

So, there's a lot of compromises I've gotta except if this all goes ahead.... I'm not too worried about the Op or the pain, its the after care and not being able to drive to pick up Em that's gonna be the killer.

4-8 weeks off work and not being able to do normal things...... hmmm.

Still, the outlook is fairly good, by Feb '08 I could be completely fixed!

A tip of the hat

I've spotted the name Ronnie Hazlehurst many many times on the credits of so many classic British TV shows, but never really gave him the credit for the amazing work he helped create. Sadly Ronnie passed away yesterday at the age of 79

So, rest in peace there fella, and thanks for those wonderful, wonderful tunes you pulled from the ether (he never mentioned anything about a number 9 bus from Stourbridge btw).

and boy, did he leave a legacy, his family should be very very proud

Here's just some of the theme tunes credited to Ronnie

Some Mothers Do Have 'Em (the piccolo spells out the title of the show in Morse
Code!)
Last Of The Summer Wine
Yes Minister
No Place Like Home
The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin
Sorry