Sams inane ramblings....

Sam's myspace

2007-01-11T14:04:00.000Z

Hi, in future, my blog will be carried on through my myspace site,

www.myspace.com/samerics

Just add it and rename!

Cheers m'dears!

UPDATE ON MEGS FUND

2006-03-14T20:55:00.000Z

Just to keep you informed of how your kind donations are being used for Meg and her family.

They finally moved house to a purpose modified home on the Cottingley estate last week. The modifications have been funded by the Health Authority and the council, but they gave only the basics, ie, medical modifications to suit Meg. Her mum, Sarah, is a single parent, and obviously now a full time carer, so part of the money has been spent on making the house livable in, as it was a shell, with no floor covering, curtains or anything, with the decorations being in a particularly awful state. The money has provided these basics, but the main bulk has gone towards buying Meg a laptop which is modified to suit her needs regarding head switches to operate it, and educational software to help her too. It has also bought a computer desk, an LCD TV for her DVD's that stop her day becoming too boring, and a new DVD player. She watches a lot of DVD's...

Plans for the summer are to fund trips to the seaside, which will have to be done by large taxi's there and back, which will cost a fortune. There are no other options due to the complexity of her equipment, and obviously she will need a carer too, though Sarah is better than anyone with Meg's medical care, the hospital staff included, I have no idea how she does it.

I will keep you informed, but suffice to say, thank you all again, we would have been knackered without it, and Meg, Carys and Sarah's life together is all the better for your generosity!

MOJO RISING

2006-03-07T08:25:00.000Z

Well the band is now officially bricking it! First gig is announced at the New Inn Churwell, Friday 28th April. This is a few weeks before we had planned to be ready, but, hey, nothing like a bit of pressure to discover the colour of adrenalin!

The bands set list consists of mucho blues, rock and southern boogie, whatever that means. It is a diversion from the stuff I've played since, well, as long as I can remember really, but I've wanted to play in a more guitar oriented band for years now, and blues in particular. Music is from such greats as Cream, Rory Gallagher, Clapton, Albert King, Gary Moore, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Dr Feelgood, Floyd, John Mayall, Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, Hendrix, Black Crowes, ZZ Top, just good old stuff that rocks!

Musicians are me on guitar and vox, Col Challinor on bass and backing vox, Chris Allen on drums and Mark Barron, aka Baz on rhythm guitar and vox. Col and Baz are good mates of mine, and are a good tight unit in the Bare Essentials, Col being particularly ace technically, but Chris is a real find. He hits them as hard as Paul, (ffs!), and he's tight as a gnats chuff too, so it should be great when we get going. Baz has come on leaps and bounds in a short space of time and has a great understanding of fitting within a song, plus he's got some nice gear too! The band is starting to get pretty tight, for a band that has been rehearsing since mid November with a holiday and illness break at any rate. We're all very critical in rehearsals, but that's the best way to be, ie, get it right before you gig it, but confident that it will be really good when it's up to speed, and we're having a whale of a time, (me being a whale you understand...)

I'll post more about gigs, but suffice to say it will have to fit around Erics and BE gigs.

Watch this space, and check out the link on the Erics website.

TTFN

New acquisition, success!

2006-02-22T08:08:00.000Z

It's a beauty! Played it at rehearsal with the new blues band last night, sounded wicked and played as a good PRS always does, ie like a dream. The band is called MoJo, and I'll be giving you a full run down when i get half an hour to spare, but suffice to saying I'm buzzing about it.

Later!

Next acquisition was crap.....

2006-02-17T08:39:00.000Z

Bummer, guitar arrived from Yamaha and it played like a dog, neck was horrible. So it went back. And in future I will look for another old one, far better than the new stuff they make now apparently!

However, this is coming on Monday, lets hope it's a good un! I've never played a bad PRS so I should be safe. Fingers crossed.

Next acquisition!

2006-02-07T21:40:00.000Z

Well, what do you think? Yes I know I've had one before, but it was the best guitar I ever had, honest!?! Should be here by friday so I may gig it at the Tut, we'll see. Back to my Bill Nelson and Santana rip off solos then....

And yes I know its a picture of the one I used to have but I couldn't find a better one. Mmmm, can't wait. Sad b*stard I hear you cry....

God its been ages!

2006-02-07T21:20:00.000Z

Just a quick post to keep this thing going. Haven't had much time of late to post on here, but a quick update on how things are.

Meg is doing great, a really happy bunny who has just celebrated her 4th birthday at home with a big party and lots of pressies, most of them pink! Same condition obviously, but she is avoiding major infections and is becoming more independent in so much as she wants to try and doing everything via a pen, a paint brush or a straw in her mouth. That includes combing Jills hair, putting her moisturiser on or opening her pressies! She also scribbles a mean abstract, Jackson Pollock, your days are numbered.... Carys is just as cute and precocious as ever too.

I'm doing ok now after a wee scare, ulcer has gone and I'm 95% there. Back on the beer, but no fish and chips or spicy stuff, no orange juice or citrusy drinks. Big loss obviously, as I much prefer them to alcohol ;) Eating healthier generally, and I've lost a few pounds, though I'm still a fat b*stard before you all scream!

New blues/rock/guitar band is in full rehearsal mode, as a long awaited (for me anyway) sideline, which I'll talk about in more detail in another post, but its ace, and tight as f*ck!

Laters!

A QUICKIE ON MY ILLNESS, SO'S YOU KNOW

2005-12-28T12:11:00.000Z

Sorry about Boxing Day chaps, but I really was a bit poorly...

Basically I collapsed on Monday night, 11.50pm, passed out twice after feeling unwell for a couple of days. I actually stopped breathing at one point when I blocked my airway, and frightened poor Jill to death! I was take to the LGI where they eventually diagnosed a torn ulcer, which they fixed on Tuesday afternoon by endoscopy and laser. Not a process I would recommend as a recreational activity, pretty vile... I had lost a lot of blood, ie red blood count down from 12 to 8.3, even after two pints of blood!

The long and the short of it is that I have been told to lay off certain painkillers forever, cut down the drinking (no.....), cut down the stress (not quite as simple.....), and let my body and blood count recover over the next few weeks. I hopefully should be back to work in a couple of weeks, but as it stands the stomach is doing ok but I just feel knackered all the time. This is just down to my blood count, but a couple of weeks or so should return this to normal.

A big thank you to Jill, she finished the house on her own, whilst cooking 40 xmas dinners a day and working evenings too, and coming to see me, oh and seeing Meg too. No wonder she is utterly knackered now. And to all the band, mates, family, workmates, the guys from Styckleback and Splinter, and finally to the lads at Rock of the North for their kind words, cheers mateys!

BACK ONLINE AT LAST

2005-12-28T11:32:00.000Z

It's been a while since I was surgically removed from my PC back in October, but I'm finally back online again. And what an eventful two months!!!

The house has gone from the above....

To...

This.

What a great feeling it is to see what was effectively a building site, with nearly every wall replastered, new kitchen, living room, furniture, doors, basically everything redone now looking like a proper home. We are 90% there now, with just a bit of decorating, tidying up, and lots of pictures to complete the set up. TFFT! Figure it out...;)

And finally, a word for Jill, who has handled the whole shebang like Challenge Anneka. I have no idea how she pulled it all together, (ooerr), but she did, and she deserves a couple of nights off the housework as a special reward for her efforts, or perhaps I'll buy her a nice pressie. An iron or a vac perhaps? I'm all heart, I'm too soft, I can hear you all now, but she deserves it, bless her ;) Only kidding Linda.....

This week, I is mostly listening to....

2005-10-22T13:18:00.000Z

One great advantage of getting older is the ability that it gives you to reassess things after a few years, or even decades in this case! With the benefit of seeing what has come along since, and my own musical development, listening to this again has been a fascinating, challenging, and utterly satisfying experience.

Originally released in 1980, this is the most maligned of the real Clash albums, i.e. before Mick Jones was thrown out, but the key to its appreciation is not to judge it as a whole, but to listen to every track on it merits. It is widely accepted that parts of the album are self indulgent, and merely there to satisfy Mick Jones, who said "I want a triple album!" A good proportion of the last third falls into this category, and though Strummer defended the inclusion of everything, including the song made up of barking dogs and bleating sheep, Career Opportunities sung by a child, and one song being another played backwards(!), surely if this had been released as a double album it would have been hailed as a brave masterpiece.

What is apparent is that the Clash had moved a million miles away from the raw, basic punk of the first album, which only had one glimpse of diversity in its inclusion of a cracking version of Police and Thieves by Junior Murvin. Simonon was brought up with reggae as his backdrop in his teenage years, (listen to his vocal debut, the much sampled Guns Of Brixton on Londons Calling), and they all had an affinity with Brixton and its diverse culture and music, so the inclusion of reggae and dub shouldn't come as such a surprise. However, Jones in particular was a musical sponge, soaking up everything around him. The first track on the album is called The Magnificent Seven, and is possibly the first white rap ever to have hit the streets of the UK. The band went to New York to write and record the album, and Jones went on to the streets and heard the rappers on street corners, and took the influence straight back into the studio.

Another key to the success of the album is the drumming of Topper Headon. Incredible technically, able to cover any style, and the key to why the band were able to explore such a wide range of styles. After all, you can't do funk, jazz or reggae if you aren't utterly on the ball and inventive too, but I'll let Paul comment on that. What's more, to complete the transformation, Simonon's bass playing was so much better than on the first couple of albums.

The point I am making is that the sheer diversity and multiple textures of the album are mindboggling. How about Mowtown, gospel, reggae, rap, jazz, rockabilly, oh and punk? No wonder people were confused though. It had no one clear direction, and the old punks were up in arms! But the beauty of it is that it shows a band at the peak of its creative powers, able to break even further away from the restrictive shackles of punk now it was unfashionable, and do whatever they liked. Strummers lyrics had a depth and passion that approached real poetry and not just sloganeering, and yet his politics shone out more clearly than they ever did.

I'll leave you with the words to the finest song of the lot, Washington Bullets (how the hell was this not in my top 5???). Though history overtook the lyrics further on in the decade, this song still rings true today, US foreign policy stinks!

Washington Bullets Lyrics

Oh! Mama, Mama look there!
Your children are playing in that street again
Don't you know what happened down there?
A youth of fourteen got shot down there
The Kokane guns of Jamdown Town
The killing clowns, the blood money men
Are shooting those Washington bullets again

As every cell in Chile will tell
The cries of the tortured men
Remember Allende, and the days before,
Before the army came
Please remember Victor Jara,
In the Santiago Stadium
Es verdad - those Washington Bullets again

And in the Bay of Pigs in 1961,
Havana fought the playboy in the Cuban sun,
For Castro is a colour,
Is a redder than red,
Those Washington bullets want Castro dead
For Castro is the colour......
That will earn you a spray of lead

For the very first time ever,
When they had a revolution in Nicaragua,
There was no interference from America
Human rights in America
Well the people fought the leader,
And up he flew...
With no Washington bullets what else could he do?'

N' if you can find a Afghan rebel
That the Moscow bullets missed
Ask him what he thinks of voting Communist......
Ask the Dalai Lama in the hills of Tibet,
How many monks did the Chinese get?
In a war-torn swamp stop any mercenary,
'N' check the British bullets in his armoury
Que?

Sandinista!

One tip though, if you're going to buy the album, or dig it out and listen to it again, give yourself time, and read the lyrics as you listen. That's what I did anyway, and you get the full picture then.

RIP Joe, you were a one off.

I'm an uncle again!

2005-10-18T21:25:00.000Z

A quickie this time, ooerr...

Congratulations to my brother Steve and his far better half, Sarah, on the birth of their new twins, Alfie and Jack, tonight at 7.00 pm. All are well, and we shall be wetting the babies head as only the Hirst's know how. I can feel the hangover already!

Ace news!

Moving house, oh deep joy...

2005-10-18T18:33:00.000Z

Not like me to be dramatic(!), but we are moving to my old house next tuesday, having sold Jill's, have only just found out the date, my old house has no fireplace in the living room, nothing basically, it needs replastering. The kitchen is a building site with, err, no kitchen in it, lots of bare brick and holes on the walls and floor.The house is full of rubble, the stairs and landing need replastering, as does the bedroom, we are having a new kitchen friday, new fireplace at the weekend, I need to remove the cornice in the living room, rip up the stair carpet, not to mention the fact that there are only two floor coverings of any kind in the house, fill the skip, and pack up at home. And I'm working till 6 every night, visiting Meg 4 times a week, and Jill has been living in the pub since a week last sunday and doesn't leave til midnight thursday, and the miserable git is only giving her a couple of days off after she has run his pub for nearly two weeks for no extra brass! Hence the fact that I say I, because Jill hasn't been able to leave the pub for more than a couple of hours at a time!

Not like me to moan either, as you all know, but I had to get that off my chest! I also have to say that without Jills hard work and organisational skills, none of this would have happened. Good job, as I'm fricking useless....

Later dudes!

ABOUT MEG

2005-10-03T00:56:00.000Z

How cool is she? Barbie sunglasses indeed...

I know so many of you have contributed towards Meg's trust fund, and expressed your concern and support, and I just thought I'd give you the full run down on her condition and how it all happened, so you can understand what all the fuss is about.

Meg was born on the 5th February 2002 and has always been a bright, lively child, full of beans. We always said that she was on springs, she bounced around so much, and to cap it all she has always had a lovely outgoing nature too. Anyone who went to the Black Labrador gig in August 2004 may remember her jumping around in front of the stage shouting for grandad!

In mid November of 2004, one evening we got a call from Sarah, her mum, saying that she had fallen and cut her chin. Jill and I picked her up at about 6.45 pm and took her to casualty for stitches in what was quite a nasty cut, not realising she had actually collapsed. However, while we were there she seemed a little dozy and unresponsive, plus the cut needed some plastic surgery as it was deep, so they decided to keep her in for the night. Around midnight they started to take her to a ward, and while we went up there with her, her condition suddenly deteriorated, and by the time we got to the ward all her responses had stopped, her eyes were vacant, and they had to put her on a respirator to make her breathe. Effectively, she had become totally paralysed, but all we thought that night was that she was going to die, and had no idea what was happening to her. The next few days were traumatic to say the least, but within a few weeks, ie just before Xmas, she shook her head very slightly, and we all spotted it! The first three months were difficult, her heart would stop for no reason, and they seemed to have no idea why. It was only in January 2005 that her condition was diagnosed as transverse myelitis, an illness where the antibodies attack you rather than a virus. Unfortunately in Meg's case it attacked her spine from the brain stem down, destroying the myelin sheath, which has left her paralysed from the second vertebra, hence she is unable to move anything from that point, hence none of her muscles work that require stimulus from the spinal cord, effectively the whole of her body. That means her diaphragm doesn't move and so she requires ventilation from a machine, permanently, with no attempt from her body to assist.

That is where she is, physically, however, she regained the ability to talk earlier in the year, and boy does she talk now! Short sentences because of the machine, but it makes no difference. She can also move her head quite a lot, though ultimately she can't support it without assistance. She does an excercise, up, down, side to side and around, and is very pleased with herself and says she's clever! And so she is! They also seem to have stabilised the heart problems she had through tweaking of the respiratory equipment, and she is, for the most part, an extremely cheery soul, and a cheeky monkey with it! She recently started home visits with a nurse present, and the plan is for her to be home into a specially adapted house, with a care package to help mum and all of us to look after her. She has loved being home, seeing Rosie the dog, and bossing her little sister about, the gorgeous Carys, who is upstairs in bed while I type, bless.

So, things are definitely looking up at the moment, stress levels are slowly easing, and we are all resting a little easier now. As for the future, well, we'll take it as it comes. Permanent artificial respiration is not a recipe for longevity, harsh but true, but she's doing very well, and if she avoids major chest infections then she is fine. Fingers crossed you lot, and we'll all help her enjoy herself. Time is still tight, much of our time is spent at the hospital, and will continue when she comes home as we will have to help Sarah, but we are all becoming nurses now, and are gradually taking it in our stride, as we have to do.

The money from the fund is just coming in to good use almost as I type, as the first computer has been ordered. She has shown great ability to move her head and operate head switches. Currently she has just being popping balloons on a computer screen, but the implications are that she will be able to run a wheelchair (oh no.....) and create havoc when she has it sussed...She will also be getting another set up for educational purposes. She currently goes to the hospital school and is progressing well with the programmes they have provided, but the computer will be great for play and educational needs too, to compliment the more traditional methods from the school. Should anything happen to Meg, the proceeds will go to the PICU at the LGI and also the Transverse Myelitis society, so whatever happens, your contributions will have had great effect, thanks again people!

I'll keep you informed as to how she is progressing, but at least you know what the score is now, and that despite all the negatives we don't want to dwell on, she is a happy bunny and life is good for her, which is all that matters!

Sams Top 5 Songs

2005-09-24T07:35:00.000Z

If you check out the Erics site you will see my top 5 songs of all time, with Old Blue Eyes being No. 1. Fabulous song, incredible singer, and a worthy choice, it puts the hairs on the back of your neck on end, either download it, or better still buy a best of Sinatra cd with this on it. He may have been an arsehole in real life, who knows, or indeed cares, but his kind of magic rarely comes along.

It was so difficult to come up with just 5 songs though. Thunder Road, Jersey Girl, Land of Hope and Dreams, Jungleland, My City of Ruins, all by Springsteen, could have made it in there. Won't Get Fooled Again by the Who, Adventures by the marvellous Be Bop Deluxe, lots of things by the Clash, Reach for the Stars by S Club 7, they could all be in there too. Only kidding about the last one, though Phil may disagree.......

If you have your own ideas, send us them through the comments facility, it could spark a bit of heated debate!

My pilgrimage.....

2005-09-22T17:13:00.000Z

Just returned from a few days in Hawes. We took the opportunity to visit Morecambe to find Erics statue, and what a joy it was! The best memorial I have ever seen, and it captured his essence so well.

I'm sure people think it's bullshit when we talk about Eric, and us being a tribute band, but it has to be said that the man was a comic genius and meant a lot to all of us. The guys perfect timing, the twinkle in his eye, and his sense of mischief when Ern was being pompous, and much much more, leaves a big hole in comedy still. There are very few people who you could refer to as comic geniuses, perhaps Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Tommy Cooper, Stan Laurel, even Eddie Izzard in his prime, but how many instill the kind of affection that Eric did? Watch the Andre Previn sketch, or his many asides with Ern. And lets not forget little Ern either, without whom none of Erics success would have been possible.

We enjoyed every minute of it, and now I'm back I'm digging out my old video of the best of their Xmas shows, Andre Previn and Griegs piano concerto with him and him will be on tonight! And remember, next time I play a bum note, that I'm playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order.....

Late again it seems!

2005-09-18T08:29:00.000Z

Well, once again I'm last to the show, the buggers have beaten me to it. I have no clue as to how this will develop, or what I'm going to write about, but I suppose that is the fun of it! I'll update it as often as I can, though time is somewhat at a premium at the moment, but looking at what the other guys have created, I've got a fight on my hands to make it as interesting as theirs....