"Nothing but the rain"
You know how it goes. Major music festival which normally announces headline bands at the end of the previous weekend goes all quiet. Then, you spend a few months worrying that it won’t be any good, because – why haven’t they announced the bands?
So, you wait and then, one day this pops up in your feed [my highlighting]:
Gosh, this looks an excellent line up. I am already excited!! Let’s see what these bands look like shall we?
It looks brilliant.
There have been legal reasons for a change in the status of my commission. I used to have a RAF VR(T) commission and currently still do but it will run out, have passed on at some point in the near future. My commission is now also, but soon to be solely, a Cadet Forces Commission. Not a great deal changes but my rank slides have changed and I no longer have lovely gold pins on my rank slides.
I now have exactly two sets of rank slides. One set are wedgewood blue and the other are colour matched to my jumper. The problem is that I have different jackets that are different shades of blue.
I spent the weekend at RAF Honington for a competition the CCF had been selected for. It was good fun even though I spent most of Saturday with a migraine and in bed. I did manage to watch them become best dressed in the organisation and also saw their drill routine.
Belated congrats to Maidstone Grammar School CCF (RAF) Section on winning uniform inspection at National Drill Championship. You did your school proud.
— Comdt AC (@ComdtAC) November 26, 2017
Here’s a few pictures of a proud base:
Sorry there’s not a great deal in this communication.
This is the next draft in my list but I’m not sure I’ve completed all the Is before this one. However, I don’t care. This album is SEMINAL.
There’s a communication somewhere here called Descent into Metal. I’m not sure if this album appears but I still rate this as the second best Iron Maiden album after Killers. I love the raw sound, the anger and the power behind this album. It’s brilliant.
Prowler – awesome
Remember Tomorrow – shivers down my spine
Running Free – YEAH!
Phantom Of The Opera – Lucozade advert anyone? plus tempo changes and harmonies!
Transylvania – incredible instrumental
Strange World – mysterious magic
Charlotte The Harlot – what you gonna do?
Iron Maiden – Marvellous.
My CD version also has Sanctuary on it which is a super song. Just brilliant.
Now, I’m not known as a wordsmith, far from it. Hence this communication doesn’t quite match my emotional relationship with this album. I have listened to these songs since I was 14 or 15 and I still think it’s a great album.
Last night I had dinner at the Hope and Anchor [lovely little pub and very nice] not far from the O2 Arena. I met up with friends, one of whom was over from the States, and chatted and moaned and then got locked in a prison transfer van.
The friend from the States was stuck in business meetings and the remaining four of us walked the short distance from the pub to Bunker 51 to experience an escape room challenge. We were put in overalls along with hand and foot cuffs and then given an hour to escape from a prison van using clues and ingenuity. We didn’t make it. We had one last clue to solve and just failed to escape. We were gutted. However, we were told that only 11 teams had managed to escape in the time this room had been running. Still not happy we didn’t make it. The current record is 3-1.
While I walked from the car park to the pub and venue the city was looking gorgeous. I took some photos.
![All This Will Go [post Brexit]](http://fooyah.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/20171115_221414900_iOS-1024x768.jpg)
This is a lovely photo:
Last night was one of those events I had been looking forward to for quite a while. Nachtmahr were playing a gig to celebrate 10 years in business and it was happening at Electrowerkz. I really like Electrowerkz, it’s a dingy little club in Angel with a small venue for concerts. I’ve been here before. This time I travelled with my niece and met Smith there.
Outside the door is a sign saying Hadley’s Hope. Inside it’s black and reminiscent of the landing site in the film Aliens, called Hadley’s Hope. There’s a bar decorated in a very Giger way.
Bands playing were:
We arrived near the end of the set for the first band so I shan’t comment. The Biomechanimal set was . . . not marvellous. They had a keyboardist pressing buttons on a bass guitar looking device, the bassist was busy but I couldn’t hear what she was playing and the singer was screaming so I couldn’t really hear what he was saying. I would say they were an industrial dance band with heavy overtones but I’m not sure they were any good. Fair enough if some people like their music but it didn’t really do a great deal for me.
Third band on the bill were DKAG, who I’ve seen before a couple of times. It’s very dance. Well constructed but a little boring with no lead singer to interact with. We went to the bar.
Finally, Nachmahr were on. I saw them at M’era Luna a few years ago and was slightly underwhelmed. This time though they were great. One “programmer” and the lead singer is all it took. The music was hard fast beat Austrian industrial and it was great fun. Really enjoyed it.
Some songs are in German, some in English. Rainer spoke in both. This was well worth missing a multitude of fireworks and bonfires celebrating the state sponsored death of a Spanish Catholic. Over all this rated about an 8 on the official scale of 0-10. I thin kthe Combichrist gig a few years ago got a 9.9 from me and so using that scale gives this gig an 8.
After the final song the venue was shifted around a little to be turned into the Slimelight club. The bar downstairs was opened and the BBQ started. I took a picture of the full moon glowing through the roof:
Finally, here’s a picture of three people at a bar:
