Monthly Archives: November 2009

I’d planned on keeping a low profile this Children in Need, but no, guess who took the first call?

Hmm yeah, this blogging thing isn’t really proving to be a massively compelling pasttime is it?  So what have I been up to since the start of September when I stopped briefly by to post some badly re-written lyrics?

Well, quite a bit I guess.  Lots of watching Forest – who are doing rather well at the moment, which is always a bonus to my general sense of wellbeing!  We celebrated Rich‘s 30th birthday with a couple of surprise events which was all rather successful – yet strangely hard to organise.  I’m hoping he steers clear of any plans for my 40th as I can’t be arsed with organising stuff like that again!

Rich and I also made a discovery that going to see ZZ Top was much more than the novelty we hoped it would be – they genuinely rocked.  We popped down to London via car then Tube and took in a tour of Wembley Stadium before wandering over to the Wembley Arena to see the gig.  First up were Steel Panther, below is a sample of what was on offer from the shamelessly cheesy metallers…

This is lead guitarist ‘Satchell’ executing the most spectacularly indulgent guitar solo I’ve ever seen, sadly the clip ends before he gets behind the drumkit and starts pedalling away along with the various well known riffs he was cycling through.  Strangely compelling though.

As for the main act, they were just bloody brilliant.  Starting with Bluesy numbers that made their name back in the seventies, they progressed through to the more familiar mid-eighties tracks that Rich and I were familiar with from Dad’s old LP’s.  The aged rockers certainly still know how to rock – indeed, it was ace to discover latterly than guitarist Billy Gibbons travelled to the gig on the Tube! (Sadly not the same line as Rich and I).

Here’s a sample of ZZ Top in action that night, covering a classic Hendrix track:

Perhaps does them a disservice by linking a cover version since they have such a plethora of their own material that was completely awesome too, so in that spirit I shall add a final video link to one of their own very famous songs.

So that was Wednesday last week, after hotfooting it immediately up to Nottingham after the gig the following day – as we were both off work – Cat and I headed on off to Leicestershire to the terribly-websiteded Tropical Birdland.  It’s a fun place with loads of ace parrots, many of which are free to roam at will and interact with visitors.  One particular Cockatoo took a shine to me before starting to savage my head randomly.

Thoroughly recommended though.  Indulgently we stayed in a hotel overnight before heading home the following day via Twycross Zoo.  Which is always ace, particularly when The Gibbons Are Restless.  Lots of photos of these adventures on Facebook, and this amusing video of the Gibbons making a right royal racket!

… and that’s it really!  See you in a few more months, whoever you mysterious folks are who read this blog!