Communications

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No More Tears – Ozzy Osbourne

It’s Ozzy isn’t it! You don’t need much more than that. This freaky person who once bit the head of a live bat during a concert. This man who took copious quantities of drugs and who invented Heavy Metal. This man who still writes great music. This god of metal.

And then you see him on a reality TV show and it shocks you just how fucked he is. His body is knackered and you can actually see him thinking. The show highlighted just how much his wife had managed him and got him clean, eventually.

Whoever your heroes are they will let you down eventually. This downfall will be quicker if you see or meet them in real life. Never meet your heroes. I used to think Ozzy was a god, now he’s a broken man.

I’m pretty sure this was the first Ozzy album I bought. There are a couple of others but I think I got this one on music cassette. It’s a brilliant album. It’s very well produced and has excellent songs on it. I’ve loved the rolling bass lines keeping the rhythm section going and the creepy sound clips over the top. There’s a certain beat to these songs that is a slow but heavy boom that means you can feel the urge to move and bounce along.

Mr Tinkertrain – excellent.
Mama, I’m Coming Home – tear jerker.
No More Tears – brilliant opening, the riffing is ace.
Hellraiser – damn good.
Zombie Stomp – written with the audience in mind.
A.V.H. – darn good.

I’ve enjoyed this album for many years and it still pleases me, which is no mean feat.

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Kurtz Got Airbourne

This photo shows me in the rear seat waving at the crew room as the Juno helicopter taxied past before landing. I’ll thank OM for this photo. The Flight was easily the best fifteen minutes of the year so far, I can’t see it being outstripped either.

Fg Off Parish waving at the crew room of the DHFS
DHFS – Wave

The DHFS uses two types of helicopter and both are pretty much Eurocopter versions painted similar to all others! I’ve found it hard to tell them apart but after examination the easiest difference is the engine intakes. The Juno has intakes flush with the bodywork whereas the Jupiter has intakes mostly vertical in shape and they stick out more, the engine exhaust is more pronounced. There might be a slight difference in the landing skids too.

Juno and Jupiter
This was stolen from the MOD RAF website.
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Rammstein – MK Stadium

This Was Warm

Last Saturday I went to see Rammstein play their current set at the MK Stadium in Milton Keynes. It was bloody amazeballs.

Early Fire
Early Fire

I had spent the previous week at RAF Shawbury with a cadet camp which was already a brilliant week and I then topped it off with this brilliant show. I drove down from the West Midlands to Milton Keynes and met with Smith in a supermarket car park. This gig is an important one because he had brought his kids along, their first major gig. You could tell that there was a slight trepidation from the eldest [around 14] but the youngest displayed nothing but sheer excitement [around 12].

The support band were two women who played pianos on a stage just in front of our seats. It was nice but I didn’t really pay attention. I was suffering with the effects of being tired and so I read a book on the development of the pressure suit for high altitude flying published by Nasa. It wasn’t bad but I needed to rest!

Extinguishers?
Extinguishers?

Rammstein themselves were amazing. Absolutely amazing. The show they put on is remarkable and worth every penny of the 7500 for the cost of a ticket. There were the normal theatrics with lots of fire. And I mean lots of fire. There were black clouds bellowing over the stadium at certain points during the show and I wondered what it must look like to someone outside the stadium.

Angel Of Fire
Angel Of Fire

There were many highlights. Every song had its own act. The keyboardist being burnt in a massive cauldron, the burning to death of a giant baby, the massive riding cock for the song “Pussy”, and flames shooting from guitars.

This might seem odd but the dance track halfway through made my night. That was the moment I thought “this is the best show ever”. One of the guitarists DJd while being lifted high above the stage and the other members of the band came on with suits that lit up along the limbs. They then performed a dance routine to an electronic version of thier own song. What balls, to make 30,000 metal fans listen and dance to electronic music. This band have it all.

This was the best show I have ever seen and is the third best gig I have been to. The Prodigy last year at M’era Luna may have been an excellent show, I don’t know I can’t remember any of it. This concert would have been top of the list had I been in the pit. You have to take whatever you can from a gig and I loved this but part of me hankered to be in the mild violence of the circle. I still had a great time. My top three gigs are: Combichrist Old School, The Prodigy and Rammstien – this one.

This Was Warm
This Was Warm

This is the thrid time I have seen Rammstein and it was bloody brilliant.

“Did I mention? I’m seeing Rammstein in Milton Keynes this weekend.”

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CCF Camp SHY

It’s the end of a great week and tiring week at RAF Shawbury. I spent a week there with the CCF RAF cadets and I’m pretty sure everyone had a great time. I’m struggling today with being super tired [fault of seeing Rammstein last night] and so have decided to write this instead of doing some pressing work badly.

Baby Helicopter, Moody Sky
Baby Helicopter, Moody Sky

RAF Shawbury is home to the helicopter flying school for the three services and there is a mixture of uniforms walking around.

On the Sunday we had some time on a high ropes course in Telford and then went to fly some birds of prey along with seeing owls close up. I got some excellent photographs and I endeavour to show them on here at some point.

Monday was the first day of section visits and we had the RAF Police tell us about their job and demonstrate restraining an adult volunteer [me]. One of the Midlands ARVs also came along to show us what kit they have and what they do. In the afternoon we had talks about training Air Traffic Controllers and we saw the simulators they use covering RAF Cottom. We had a tour around the dry helo training area run by the Ascent military contractors.

Apache
Apache

Tuesday brought a trip to nearly RAF Cosford and involvement in training the Midlands police how to cope with public demonstrations and protests. The cadets also learnt how to use riot shields correctly.

Wednesday for me was time spent at the DCCT block and then on the range in the afternoon. It was a little disconcerting that we had to stop often as there was a helicopter taxi way just behind bullet catcher. The last thing we needed was a stray round to kiss a Juno flying ten feet above the ground.

Thursday meant a visit to Air Traffic Control and a drive across the airfield. Then we nearly all had a helicopter flight in the afternoon piloted by an Army major. In the evening we had a camp meal out at The Red Lion in Shrewsbury.

In The Air Again
In The Air Again

On Friday I had a very short visit to the RAF Museum at RAF Cosford and then another afternoon on the range. It was very hot and there was a lot of aircraft activity including a visit from an Apache and two Pumas. We managed to get a tour around the Pumas. In the evening an ex-SAS member gave us a talk on motivation. This was followed by the traditional ceremony of the plates.

Only a PUMA!
Only a PUMA!

The final day meant tidying rooms, packing and then a journey home. Mind you, I had to stop at Milton Keynes to see Rammstein burn gallons of fuel during their concert. The review should follow shortly.

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New Jersey – Bon Jovi

This was the first Bon Jovi album that was released during my fandom. I’m not sure if I had already seen them live, I’ll check at some point. I remember driving with friends down the Wembley Arena and seeing Bon Jovi with Dan Reed Network as support in around 1990. Right, this album was released in 1988 and so I was into Bon Jovi then but I hadn’t seen them live.

I really loved this album. It felt mature but still great fun. I have just, slightly embarrassingly, realised that the band’s name shortens to BJ, which is brilliant but I can’t believe I’ve only just noticed that [I wonder if the Pom has?].

Lay Your Hands On Me – brilliant.

Bad Medicine – brilliant and includes the lyric which I have found most fascinating: “You’re an all night respirator wrapped in stockings and a dress”.

So, here’s the thing. I could end this album right at this point. I know that’ll be controversial given some of the songs that follow:

Blood On Blood, Homebound Train, Rise Cowboy Ride, I’ll be There For You, 99 In The Shade.

These songs have never really done much for me. That’s just how it is and I do understand it’s a massive character flaw. When I saw these guys last at Twickenham they played “I’ll Be There For You”, it was the most boring song ever, key changes and everything. I hated it.

This album is still great, even though I turn off after about ten minutes. Everyone should own it.

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Old Television

There’s a big news story around at the moment that the over 75s in this country are going to have to pay for a TV licence. I’ve got some thoughts on this matter which I will communicate here.

In the UK the TV Licence pays for some of the BBC along with some of Channel 4 and, I think, channel 5. It used to be more of a licence to operate receiving equipment which just happened to be used to pay for public broadcasting. I think nowadays it is considered to be a tax by people which goes directly to the BBC.

The reason the BBC are going to charge the over 75s is because the GOVERNMENT has chosen to withdraw that part of the funding for the BBC. It seems amazing to me that the majority of the anger is placed at the BBC where it should be placed directly at the government. The media which isn’t funded by the government has a massive issue with the BBC funding and targets it a lot about everything.

Much like the anger placed at immigrants or the NHS or housing or local councils the real anger should be directed at the GOVERNMENT because they set the fucking rules. Annoyed with people dodging tax? Then moan at the government, they set the rules, they produce the law. It’s the government’s fault. The fact that the anger is deliberately directed away from the government is astonishing.

Local councils get their funding from two main sources, the national government and the taxes, council tax, placed on those who live in the area. The national government has spent years reducing the amount it sends to the local councils and so the only way to make up the shortfall is to charge more to locals. Where does the anger go? To the local council, not to the national government.

I don’t see that just because you are old you shouldn’t have to pay for a service that you use. It should probably be means tested. There are plenty of old folk out there who can afford this and they should pay slightly more to allow those who struggle to have access to services. It’s how society should work. Some parts of society struggle and the rest of us should help, it’s the morally correct thing to do.

There seems to be a perception that poor people or people who struggle through life deserve it. Their failure must be because they haven’t worked hard enough, that they have made poor choices. This is incorrect. The poor work hard, those who struggle work hard. It’s the way our current society works that produces parts of the population who struggle and always will. We must change society to make it work for all people.

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Late Night

Yesterday was a little busy but it was one of those good-busy days where everything seemed positive and fulfilling. In the morning the collektive known as DBL-MF went on a photoshoot. It was pretty good fun. In the afternoon I traveled to see this film at Rochester cinema and in the evening I had a run.

I did note that as I drove to the cinema the tide was quite high, I couldn’t see the edges of the inlet which was dredged just over a year ago, and when I returned home the tide was about at its highest.

After the film I rated it on the IMDB site, there’s a section here about rules concerning rating films and you can see that communication here. I then tweeted the result, through the wrong account initially, but I corrected that this morning.

I pretty much enjoyed this film. I even laughed out loud in the cinema and that is quite a rare thing. I would have liked to have seen a more political push in the discussions about the monologue but that’ probably wouldn’t have kept the humour at the correct level. I enjoyed this film although it was very much a feelgood movie. It made me laugh and really enjoy watching the characters develop.

John Lithgow’s performance was fantastic. He’s such an amazing actor and it’s strange to see him looking old he’s always much younger in my head. I think I remember that one of the first films I saw him in was called Raising Cain. I think he played a twin or person with multiple personality disorder. It was spooky and amazing. Then he appeared as a baddie in Cliffhanger, I think and also played an astronaut/scientist in 2010. He’s always been there in the background.

I know he had a long run on TV with 3rd Rock From The Sun, which was very good fun, and I watched quite a lot of those but I always felt as though he was an actor I discovered and tracked over the ages. He was brilliant.

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Dakota Overlord

This last week saw a fleet of Dakotas fly from Duxford to Caen in Normandy to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings. If I spend too much time on this matter I will descend into a melancholy beyond which we’ve seen in these communications. I shall leave it here and show some photographs I took.

Dakota
Dakota

The above baby flew over my house the weekend before the anniversary and it was extremely pleasant to watch. These really are gorgeous aircraft.

Flypast
Flypast

It was wonderful to see so many aircraft flying towards us while we waited on the school field. It’s a shame they were about half a mile west of us but still a great sight.

Finally, here’s a photo taken of my cadet contingent to commemorate the anniversary.

D-Day 75 MGS CCF
D-Day 75 MGS CCF

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Nevermind – Nirvana

As we approach the other classics in the “N” section of this mammoth album review journey we settle into thoughts about Nevermind. You know what, I just don’t know. In the early 90s this sounded amazing and remarkable, a real game changer. It turned metal from overblown historical narratives to being about feelings and angst.

I’m also worried that it doesn’t stand the test of time and might be a bit shit. If you’ve heard The Pixies you know what I mean. I haven’t played this for decades. I guess it still scares your parents though.

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Godzilla: King of the Monsters

I went to the cinema at Rochester to watch Godzilla: King of the Monsters. There are customary parts to get through here I guess. The tide, I noticed, was neither high nor low and when I came out of this film it was lower so I guess it was waning.

I have rated films I have watched at the cinema for a long time now and I rated this one, although I had to check this communication covering the rules I apply to the rating system.

This film was shit, what a waste of about $200 million.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t want to go into all the details of why I thought it was shit. But I hated it all and considered leaving three times, especially once I realised there was another round of battles to go. MV-22Bs do not a good movie make.

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