Birth Of A New Era

There have been three important dates in my life to date, 26th August 2006 my wedding day, 16th May 1992 when Port Vale won on there first trip to Wembley against Stockport County and finally 23rd March 2007 the day I got my hands on Sony's new game console PlayStation 3. As those of you who know me will already know I can lose day's as it is playing on my PlayStation 2, and I thought that this games machine would take some beating. The anticipation surrounding the PS3 has been huge. Sony have had the machine in development hell for the last few years, and many people thought it would never appear on the market. The arrival of Microsoft's Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii have placed Sony under huge pressure to succeed with this new machine and on my first impression they have pulled on there lucky stars again. The shear playability of the PS2 was its strength which led to it being the world's most popular console, with literally millions of game's available to suit all tastes. The PS3 has a lot of work cut out to compete with its older brother.

So as I waited with anticipation for the U.K. release date of the PS3, I thought with the price tag that I should do as much research as possible before purchasing the machine. Of course the first thing you want to know is if you will be still able to play the PS2 games on the PS3. To date on purchase of the machine about 30% of the PS2 titles and 70% of the PSone titles will directly play on the PS3. This is because Sony have removed a chip from the European version of the machine to speed up the distribution of the console, but fear not you will be able to download the updates to your PS3 to allow you to play all the other titles from what will no doubt be peoples vast back catalogues. Sony have always prided themselves on "backward compatibility" of their PlayStation's and this is a bit of a blow for some people but to be honest nobody will of brought a PS3 just to play PS2 games. What would be the point! The new machine boasts a 60 gig hard drive built in and is basically like a small p.c. The vast computing power PS3 is capable of allows it to process huge amounts of information at once - and that means better games.With its Cell processor capable of supercomputer-like processing speeds, PS3 is able to compute huge amounts of data in 'real time'. Real time processing refers to when different components of a game - the graphics, sound, physics, and so on - are worked out as events in the game as they actually happen - in 'real time'. Real time processing is not new - but traditionally, less sophisticated systems have forced game developers to rely on tricks like pre-rendering events that are simply played back at a given moment in a game, and are the same each time you play. With PS3, the huge processing power offered by Cell means that developers can finally realise their ambitions, with real time processing being used in all kinds of ways that have been impossible until now. And since using real time processing allows games to react and change to what's happening - as opposed to using a pre-determined routine - games on PS3 are set to offer richer, more unpredictable interactive experiences than anything you've ever tried before.
The new controller is a dream come true. It's wireless for a start so no more messy wire's or pulling the cable out of the machine. Its is known as the SIXAXIS so it can be used as a motion sensitive controller.In addition, by simply inserting a USB cable into the Wireless Controller allowing you to seamlessly switch from wireless to wired connection and automatically charge its battery while the Wireless Controller is in use. Having tried it now it feels great and although it will take some getting used to, it appears to bring a new element of fun to the game playing experience.

Now as with all consoles the games are the most important item and I thought long and hard over which games to pick up on the release day. At around £50 per game you can't afford to get the choices wrong. Firstly I decided to pick a driving game to see just how good the PS3 could be, so I decided on Ridge Racer 7. This games graphics are awesome. I have not been a big fan of the Ridge Racer series in the past, so I went into picking this game with an open mind. Its a tricky little number to master but there is a fantastic soundtrack and
the games playability is awesome. The features on the game allow you to race over 22 courses in 40 different cars. It is just a basic driving game and not much has changed from the PS2 versions but the unbelievable graphics more than make up for this. It also has an added extra of Xevious as a loading game which is great fun and does add something to the game. There is also the usual added extra of the token Ridge Racer girl which makes the game even more pretty.
Next up is World Snooker Championship 2007. Snooker I know not the most exciting game in the world, but on the PS3 its a game which does show off the capabilities of the machine. The play is simple and easy to pick up. This version again is not much different than the PS2 version in game play but yet again the graphics are spellbinding, right down to the cameras being picked up as shadows in the balls on the table.

The game has loads of different game play options from single games, tournaments and career modes both in Snooker or Pool .You can play the top players from both the Snooker and Pool worlds and the career mode features tournaments only the serious fan would know about such as the Mosconi cup in the 9-ball game. You have to do the usual win games to unlock items routine but this is fun. One of the best features for me is the commentary from John Virgo and John Parrot. This proves very droll at times and sometimes you play slow just to wind them up!
Next up is Fight Night Round 3. This is one of EA Sports first games on the PS3 and if their previous games are anything to go by this should be a cracking game. It doesn't let them down at all. This was the first game I played on the PS3 that made me literally drool! The graphics on this game are just mind-blowing in there realism. The texture and quality of the game is easy to see. The game features the obvious different game modes with the straightforward get in the ring option to the more detailed career mode, where you can start off from scratch or rebuild
the career of one of the legends of the sport like Ali, de la Hoya and Britain's own Ricky Hatton. The game also features a great soundtrack with artists such as Akon recording songs just for this game. During each round is my favourite part of the game. One of several scantily clad young buxom wench's parade in the ring showing off their ample curves! The game also has some great training mini-games and the chance to re-create some of the greatest fights of all time in the ESPN classic mode.

Finally I got what has proved to be the best game released on the PS3 so far, Virtua Tennis 3. This game has just about everything you could want from a tennis game. You can play in either singles or doubles naturally, but what really makes this game special is some of the absurd mini-games featured. You run round the court chasing fruit or fending off crocodiles, stopping space invasions or simply dodging giant tennis balls. There is even a chance to play
ten pin bowling and bingo, all with the aid of your trusty old tennis racket!. There is as usual a career mode which is easy to get into, but I find it lets itself down by the fact you play the top players as a rookie and beat the easily, but as you get further into the game they become much more difficult to beat. This game also uses the SIXAXIS option of game play to its full ability and once you get the hang of it it makes for great fun. It is by far and a way the best game on the machine at the moment and a must for any sports game fan.

All in all I know that the PS3 is going to take time to come into its own, and to be honest I'm a little disappointed that a football game was not out on release day. I'm sure that the big game companies did this as it is towards the end of the football season and they want to get all the players at the right clubs ready for the start of next year. If the graphics so far are anything to go by then a football game on the PS3 will be awesome. There are several games that I can't wait for the release of. FIFA 08 obviously which is due in August. Gran Tourismo 5 due before Christmas. Grand Theft Auto 4 due late September and the next batch of EA Sports games such as Basketball and Ice Hockey which should all show off the full capabilities of this machine. The £425.00 price tag is steep, but I feel already that it is worth every penny, and this little baby will take game playing into the next generation and open up Sony to be the pace setter and market leader in games consoles for years to come.

Thursday 22nd March

Its time to get funky........

Well maybe just a little bit anyway. Back to another fun filled evening in the Birches Head Hotel. Over the past few week's we would of been able to hold the karaoke night in one of our living room's as the lack of punters in the pub was beginning to be worrying and we seemed to be singing to each other. But this week, although not many singers were in again (Back to the old faithful!) the pub was at it's busiest for the last few weeks. I can only put this down to the public reading these blogs and coming down to see what all the fuss is about, or that the aliens that appear to have abducted everyone is systematically dumping them back in the pub. Either way I'm happy to see the pub filling back up again on a Thursday night.
This week saw me do another five new songs and the lack of request on the blog (Hint! Hint!) is leading me to pick new stuff every week by artists I wouldn't normally sing. Over this year so far I have sang 34 songs by 27 different artists, and I have still to sing any songs by my usual suspects such as Robbie Williams, E.L.O. and Bon Jovi, much to my surprise. The race to be top of the most sang artist league is hotting up with The Fratellis leading the way with 10 tracks sung, being closely chased by Razorlight and Cher! on 7 tracks sung. My aim is to knock the Frats off the top with the Stones (Sorry Shaun) but I'm sure that second place is the best I can hope for as Shaun is bound to do a Fratellis night when Baby Fratelli comes out on the next Sunfly disc in the next couple of weeks!
It been quite an exciting week in the Captain Jack household, as this week I pre-ordered my PlayStation 3 console. Too be honest I have waited 2 years for this to come out and I can't wait to get my hand's on it. I will do a blog on my new baby early next week to let you know what I think, that is if I can drag myself off it!. I'm sure all the sceptics will be knocking it because of the cost but I'm sure Sony will of excelled themselves again with this machine and it will surely rival anything else that is available on the market. Keep you posted.
Also this week saw the announcement of The Rolling Stones 2007 European tour. This has come about due to the band cancelling some gig's last year after Keith Richards fell out of a tree! I was hoping they would play the new Wembley stadium but instead it seems they are playing The Millennium Dome on the London leg of the tour which will be almost impossible to get tickets for as there will only be around 5000 available so I will have to settle for .....Slane Castle in Ireland instead! Really this one is going to be a big one and I cant wait.
This year appears to be one filled with gig's for me to go to, and after a few quiet years I can't wait to get out my concert gear and rock on with the crowd! It always seems to go round in phases as for years your favourite bands don't tour and them wham they all tour at once. This time I am going to try to keep you all up to speed on who I am going to see and then give you a gig review on each of the ones I get to see. So far this is the line up.

• Aerosmith 24th June Hyde Park: Tickets are purchased and the line up of artists on the support acts stand so far at Chris Cornell, Jet and The Answer. Hotel booked for a two night stay in the capital, overlooking the Thames and not too far from the event.
• Rolling Stones 18th August Slane Castle: Tickets go on sale next week so Hayley will be primed and ready to go on Friday. Then its a matter of booking a hotel near to the venue and getting flights, currently standing at a very reasonable £43 per person return. Thank god for Ryanair!
• Magnum 24th May Wulfrun Hall Wolverhampton: Tickets still available so will pick them up in the next week or so (Hint Hint Wifey)
• Download Festival 9th August Donnington: Still only weekend tickets available so will have to hang on for the day tickets. Only really want to go on the Saturday as Linkin Park are on along with Evanescence, Marilyn Manson and Motley Crue.
• V2007 18th August Weston Park: No tickets available but would of had to pull out of this one with the announcement of the Stones gig. Roll on V2008!
• Leeds Festival 25th August: Looks a good line up with Razorlight topping the bill along with Kings Of Leon, Ash and Maximo Park but this venue has a bad reputation and this weekend is my wedding anniversary so its up to the wife!
• Status Quo Trentham Gardens: Date not yet confirmed for this one but it is a must if the Quo are in Stoke On Trent
• Jools Holland Trentham Gardens: Again no date confirmed but another must see artist.
• Bon Jovi : Rumours abound on the web of a 2007 summer concert. I'm sure Hayley will of brought tickets to this one before Bon Jovi know they are playing it!

As you can see we have a busy Summer schedule planned and I promise to give as good a review of each gig as I can. So on to this weeks song list. The tracks I sang this week were as follows 1. Animal by Def Leppard (SGB6015) 2. Together In Electric Dreams by Giorgio Moroder & Phil Oakey (SFMW84113) 3. Bring It On Home by Sam Cooke (SC896302) 4. Ruby Tuesday by The Rolling Stones (SC896403) and 5. I'm Gonna Be (500 miles) by The Proclaimers (SC02558)

Animal by Def Leppard

A bit of Brit Rock to get my night started. This is one of those well known rock tracks from the mid 80's, a period of some of the finest rock bands and songs ever. This was from the hugely successful Hysteria album which went multi platinum just about everywhere and was the first song released by the band after drummer, Rick Allen, lost his arm in a car accident in 1984. Many critics at the time questioned whether the band would be as good as before and they were wrong they were better. This song in particular catapulted the band into a huge spell at the top and they went on to release another seven tracks off the album which in this day and age is unknown ! I can't imagine another band nowadays ever having an album with eight top ten tracks on it, even on a greatest hits album! A great song to sing although I prefer the Sound Choice version to this one.

Together In Electric Dreams by Giorgio Moroder & Phil Oakey

Another 80's classic for my next song. This one is a great track that I heard on the Radio early in the week and thought "hmm I'll have a go at this one on Thursday night" and as if by magic there it was! Its a forgotten classic in my mind with everyone in the pub seeming to have remembered it all at the same time! It has a great sound to it with plenty of keyboards and a cracking guitar solo much in the style of Van Halen. Phil Oakey of Human League fame tried to break the U.S. with this one and I'm sure it was from a film. His vocals are it the lower range so it's not too hard to sing at all. I think Shaun especially liked this one so I'll dedicate this one to him.

Bring It On Home (To Me) by Sam Cooke

A soul classic this time. This is a great track to sing, as are many of the soul classics and it a song that I love to belt out. It has recently been covered by Rod Stewart on his Changing Faces album and by Ben Mills, of X-Factor fame, on his Picture Of You album. It's also one of Hayley's favourite songs so I dedicate this one to my wife. When you sing this one you can really feel the soul in the song coming out and it kind of gives you a warm feeling inside. In my opinion this genre of music is one of those that really does live up to it's name and there are many more of these great song's I would like to have a go at in the future.

Ruby Tuesday by The Rolling Stones

This weeks Stones classic is not full of guitar riffs like the last few have been, it's just a brilliant song. Yet again the Stones recorded another timeless classic with this one. Its is probably one of the bands more well known songs but surprisingly only reached number 3 in the U.K. charts as a double A-side along with Lets Spend The Night Together in 1967. Supposedly written about one of Keith Richards many conquests its a really soulful track and you can tell it was written with care and attention. It's another easy song to sing and has one of those sing along choruses we all love. An absolute belter in my opinion and one I will definitely do again

I'm Gonna Be (500 miles) by The Proclaimers

A duet with Andy to round the night off with and one I sprung on him at the last minute. I had decided during the night to have a bash at this one and sing it not in the style of the Proclaimers but in the style of the recent Comic Relief version I Would Roll (500 Miles) by Brian Potter (aka Peter Kay) & Andy Pipkin (aka Matt Lucas). I'm sure Andy had no intention of doing his bit as Brian Potter but I was going to take on the Andy Pipkin impression firmly with both hands on my wheelchair!!! It went down really well apart from the few oldies up the corner who seemed to have no idea what was going on! Andy got through without laughing too much and I seemed to have our table and the rest of the pub in hysterics with the "Yeah I Know" and " I Don't Like It" comments. An absolute cracker but not one I think we will be doing again in the future. Anyway here's a link to the Charity Classic Original version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEMYYNLbEtw

There you go then. Another great night of songs in the Hotel this week. A new Sunfly disc is on the horizon with some more new stuff on for us to have a go at. I know that myself and Shaun have had great fun in bringing these blogs to you over the last few weeks. It is fair to say we have found them an extension to our love of all things karaoke and I'm sure that the witty comments have proved fun for all to read although my head is still hurting from banging it on the doors as I try to leave the pub. To end this week I will leave you with some more words from the main man Homer again. until the next time TTFN.

" Oh look at me !!! I'm making people happy! I'm the magical man from happy land, with a gumdrop house on lollipop lane! Oh by the way ... I was being sarcastic." Homer J Simpson

Thursday 15th March

Hello again to another weekly dose of karaoke mayhem. I'm not going to say this again but this has been the quietest few weeks in the Hotel for age's. Now either our singing is that bad that they are all keeping away or the locals have all been abducted by aliens!

They are all missing out on some really good quality karaoke. Over the last few weeks the regular singers have all been trying new stuff which they have never sang before, and have been doing a grand job of it too. Yet again with it being quiet I managed to get in four new tracks this week so in the last three weeks I have sang twelve new songs, which to be quite honest I was very surprised with. When you sing every week you don't realise what you sing and you can sometimes feel you become repetitive singing the same stuff week in week out, but since I have begun this blog, and with Shaun's brilliant stat's page you get to see the singing in a totally different picture. I think secretly we all want to do new songs, and as many as possible so that we all put as many on the chart as possible, although I am sure there is a conspiracy to get The Frattellis to the top of the most sang artist league table!!

I must make a couple of special mentions on this week's comments. Firstly I would like to say a happy 40th birthday to Paul who some of you will know from my wedding night Darkness tribute, as the bass player who was the most like any member of the band! I'm sure he won't mind me saying that he doesn't look a day over 39!! Anyway here is a picture for you all to remember him by.

Paul is the good looking one on the left, with his son Jack at the front. Shaun is at the back and I am the embarrassed one on the right. This was one of the highlights of the whole evening (I was going to say whole day but the wife would kill me!) And if I never had the chance to thank all the lad's properly for dressing up and help in making our day special then I shall now. Thanks guys!

Back to the other mentions. Firstly to Nicki one of our regular singer's. I tend to give her a bit of stick of a night but she's is always willing to get up and have a go, and this week she sang Redemption Song by Bob Marley. Although most of the empty pub hadn't heard it before I thought she sang it brilliantly seeing as she had never done it and didn't even know until she turned up as I had taken the track down for her to have a stab at. Secondly to Andy who sang White Lines which is an absolute classic, and finally to Hayley & Tina who had a crack at the new Sophie Ellis Bextor track Catch You which with a bit of practice will be brill!

On to my songs this week. They were as follows 1. Gimme Shelter by The Rolling Stones (SC8964-11) 2. I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues by Elton John (SC8134-08) 3. Let It Be by The Beatles (SC7513-12) and finally 4. Ooh La La by Goldfrapp (SC8967-04)

Gimme Shelter by The Rolling Stones

This weeks latest Stones track in my attempt to educate the populous into some of their unknown classics. I'm sure that most people will recognise this music from an advertising campaign a few years back, not sure what it was for though! I actually prefer another version by a band called Thunder and I will attempt to get it on the player for you to hear for yourselves. It's pretty straight forward to sing and as with all Stones track's it has some great guitar riffs. This is a great karaoke version as well as are all the Sound Choice tracks.

I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues by Elton John

A song that I never thought I would do on karaoke as I'm not really an Elton John fan but I did enjoy singing this one although I think it needs a bit of work to polish it off. I must respond to the ridiculous claims of me being overly modest at singing this song! I was responding to Shaun's comment of " That was quite good" when I responded "I Know" I did think he was talking about the actual song as I know he probably thought it was sang by Cliff Richard and not about my singing performance which was note perfect, faultless in every way and positively the best version of the song I have ever heard. Now I must widen the doors so I can get out to go work next week!!!

Let It Be by The Beatles

Another absolute belting track by a great band. This a really easy track to sing but if you get it wrong it does sound terrible. Thankfully I always seem to be able to sing it well. This is one of the wife's favourites after Journey South sang it on the X-factor a couple of years ago, so I do try and sing it more like them rather than Paul McCartney, and this version is much more like their version as well.

Ooh La La by Goldfrapp

This was my song of the night this week. It was a special one I sang just for Shaun as we actually both prefer the version done by The Fratellis as they use it as their closing song on their live shows and he didn't know I was going to sing it. I did also ad-lib at the end, throwing in some Spirit In The Sky as it seemed to fit in. It is a great song in it's own right and I'm sure I will have a go at it again as it is a song that rock's!

Well there you go then another night of quality entertainment at The Birches Head Hotel that everyone missed! Even though Andy started a bit later due to the lack of punters in the pub we still managed to get in 24 songs this week even though there was only about 6 singers in the pub. I know me and Shaun would get up a dozen time's each but I must admit it makes the others have to dig deep to come up with songs to sing, and Pete, who is a regular, has been doing some absolute belting tracks by artists such as Carl Perkins and Dave Edmunds which none of us have heard done on karaoke before. Anyway on to this weeks Homer quote to round things off.Ta ta for now!

"Kids are great, Appu. You can teach them to hate the things you hate and they practically raise themselves now-a-days, you know, with the Internet and all" Homer J Simpson

Thursday 8th March

You know when you have one of those nights when all the songs you sing just seem to work on the night and it gives you a warm happy feeling inside, this was one of those nights. It was another quiet night for a Thursday and this, as I have mentioned before, always gives you the chance to try out new stuff. This week I did five song's that I haven't sang this year, and although the first track I sang as a duet with Andy was an old favourite, the other four song's were all first timers for me on karaoke. This is the second week in a row that I have sang four new song's so my vast repertoire is now getting bigger! (So is my ego apparently!!!!) But not to worry this all has a purpose! Shaun is compiling a league table for songs sang, artists sang and songs sang by individuals in the hotel (check out Shaun's blog for the first few months stats). He has also started up a great set of stats of all the songs that are being sung at the hotel at the moment so for some interesting reading check them out on http://www.editcdg.com/tofm/karaokestats.htm
On to tonight's songs then. The list is as follows 1. I Feel Fine by The Beatles (DKA3098) 2. Beautiful Day by U2 (SFG009-06) 3. Live And Let Die by Paul McCartney & Wings (SC8468-05) 4. Tumbling Dice by The Rolling Stones (LEG120-14) and 5. Layla by Eric Clapton (PSJT007-17)

I Feel Fine by The Beatles

First song of the night and this is an old classic that always seems to ease peoples fears into getting up on karaoke. The Beatles are one of the few band's that 99% of their stuff is known by everyone, so that gets them singing along and after they have a few beers they feel ok themselves to get up on karaoke and have a go too. I can't remember the number of times Andy and myself have started with this number but it's loads. We seem to be able to harmonise really well on this one and its always nice to kick in with a song everyone knows. Love to sing The Beatles as they are easy songs to sing.

Beautiful Day by U2

I think I surprised everyone tonight by letting them know that this is the first time that I have sang this one. To be honest I didn't think I would of been able to cope with it as some U2 songs do have very high note in them as Bono does have a touch of falsetto every now and then! This one thankfully is falsetto free so I coped. I think my favorite bit in the song is the break towards the end where is almost talking,but not quite talking. It sort of makes you try too hard and I found myself trying to hold back from shouting! Its another great track from a band with some great stuff to sing.

Live And Let Die by Paul McCartney & Wings

Bond theme's. We all know them. We all have our favourites. We all never admit too liking them! Me I'm a fanatic I love them all, even the daft ones like The Man With The Golden Gun by Lulu. But this one without a doubt is the best Bond theme by a country mile. This was the first Bond film I can remember really getting me into the series, so to me its a personal one too. Its just got great pounding riffs and breaks and is really easy to sing. The film is also filmed in Jamaica, my spiritual home and where I went on my honeymoon last year. We also drove down the road where the bus chase from the film was filmed and also saw the famous crocodile farm, where the "running over the crocodiles" stunt was filmed. Jamaica has a great tradition with James Bond and I can't believe it's taken me as long as it has to do this one. And to make it even better it went down really well with plenty of air guitar from the people in the pub.

Tumbling Dice by The Rolling Stones

Another favourite from the greatest band in the world. This is not one of the most widely known tracks, but to true Stones fans it is one of the best tracks they do live. As you will know from reading this blog I love to sing the Stones and I'm hoping to throw in a few I haven't done before in the coming weeks to let everyone hear the great riffs Keith Richards has come up with in the past. It is an easy song to sing, no high bits and another song that once you get into it you can ad-lib too to give it a Stones twang.

Layla by Eric Clapton

Talking about great guitar riffs this song has probably one of the most recognisable riffs ever, but not this version. This little classic is the M.T.V. unplugged version and is performed acoustically, and as I have said before the true test of a good rock track is how well it can be performed acoustically. This track is a brilliant example of this. Some may not agree, but I think this version of Layla is actually better the the rockier original, although I admit it lacks the cutting edge without the well known riff. I will have to have a go at the other version so we can all judge the two.

As you can see this was another great mix of songs. No songs from any of the new bands knocking around tonight from me, but a good chunk of stuff not heard before in the Hotel. After two very quiet weeks in the pub we have all managed to do a lot of new songs. Andy had a go at The Fratellis and did a great job. Shaun did an old favourite by singing Happy Mondays and the girls did their usual great job on Voodoo Child and also threw in a couple of new tracks which sounded great. I'm hoping that a few requests will get posted on the comments page so I can let you know how they go down if I do them. On to today's quote from the great man himself
"And how is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain. Remember when I took that home wine making course, and I forgot how to drive?" Homer J Simpson

Thursday 1st March

Hello all , too another dose of Thursday night fun. After last weeks rather lame effort on the singing front I was determined to make this week a much better effort all round. I have been off work this week for a bit of well earned R&R so I knew that I could get in some practice before going down to the Hotel to sing. I also knew this would mean a full night on the juice with Shaun and the gang. So the last thing I expected to do this week was four new songs. I didn't realise this until I had given Andy my slip so I had to make sure I didn't drop the ball as it were and put in a reasonable effort.
I think to be honest, I felt these songs tonight would be ok to try even without a lot of practice as they are all tracks I listen too a lot so I was sure of where too come in etc. Tonight's medley of top track's was as follows 1. Jealous Again by The Black Crowes (SC859803) 2. Me Plus One by Kasabian (SF25212) 3. Gypsy Road by Cinderella (PSJT07002) and 4. Open Your Eyes by Snow Patrol (SF25213)

Jealous Again by The Black Crowes

An old favorite of mine by a very underrated band. This was one of the stand out tracks from their first and probably best album Shake Your Money Maker. If you have not heard it yet give it a try it's a great first album. Its got great guitar riffs in it and has a great chorus. Easy to sing but not known by a lot of people.

Me Plus One by Kasabian

Another new track by a new band Kasabian. Only short (under 3 mins) but very catchy although again I felt not many people have heard this one (apart from Shaun). Its a great song to sing as you can either sing it high pitched as Serge in the band sings it, or as I sang it in a mid-range vocal. Not sure I could get away with it high pitched as it does sound mid-range on the original to my ear. Got a great banging drum beat and although lyrics at the end don't seem to make sense they are on the original. Anyway I've found a great acoustic version for you to judge for yourself. Enjoy!!!!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPVOpGeL-Dc

Gypsy Road by Cinderella

This is a track I have recently un-earthed on karaoke and in my eyes its a great 80's rock track. A little known band in the U.K. Cinderella were an influence on a friend of mine Steve Johnson former lead guitarist and frontman to Guns & Oatcakes. Unfortunately the band has split now but this was one of Steve's fave's to play. He put his own style to it and it always came across as a great live track so in a way it was a bit of a tribute to the band. The song is pretty easy to sing and at the end has a great break down moment to allow for crowd participation (Hint to the Hotel regulars)

Open Your Eyes by Snow Patrol

Final song of the night and changed from one I was going to do as the few people in tonight seemed to know the new stuff that was being sung (check Shauns blog for full listing). It is one of my favourite tracks by Snow Patrol and is the kind of song that leaves you waiting for the riff's to kick in. It does tend to repeat itself a lot, which makes it easy to learn, but even so it seemed to go down well. I will definitely have another try at it in the future as it is a great song and I love to sing stuff that is popular at the moment.

Well there you go another set of fine song's that I really enjoyed singing tonight. They all seemed to go down well and in the great scheme of things they are all songs I will do again at some point in the future. It has been a quiet few weeks at the hotel and I'm sure when the weather picks up things will get busier. Its great to be able to sing new stuff but I would prefer to have a bigger audience. As you will of noticed I now have music on board the blog. Hope that I can educate you all to some great track's in the future. Now to end with another Homer quote and one I feel after a week of drinking one that is quite appropriate.
"To Alcohol. The cause of ,and solution too all of life's problems"Homer J Simpson

The Fratellis Live At The Academy

For the second time in under a year I was asked by my good pal Shaun to accompany him to go and see the new British hit band The Fratellis. The first time I saw the band they were a support act to Kasabian at the M.E.N. arena. Big venue loads of people there but unfortunately not many saw the Fratellis set as they were probably still at the bar getting themselves drunk at the extortionate M.E.N. prices, only to throw most of it at each other during the Kasabian set. I have to admit, apart from the chart stuff I hadn't really heard much of the two band's so it was a learning night for me, but being experienced in going to gig's over the year's I feel I can safely know when a band can "do it live" and perform at the top level. Well safe to say after that first gig I am sure Kasabian lived up to the pre-gig hype about them being a great live act but on the night I felt the Fratellis had a lot they could prove as a headline act on their own. I remember a few years back going to see Def Leppard and the support act blew them off the stage. The support was The Darkness and they went on to have a two album stint at the top but suffered from a problem which a lot of band's seem to at the moment, their first album's are just too good and a second album is just too much for them to cope with as they never seem to hit the heights of the first (I'll get on to this comment later).

Costello Music by The Fratellis has definitely been one of the album's of the year, and not surprisingly the band won Best British Breakthrough Act at The Brit Awards. I'm sure the album will probably win some more awards as well, as they seem to have captured a new style of a rock/glam /indie genre all of their own. Many of the tracks on the album are anthemic, and have easy to sing-along choruses, catchy guitar riffs, and also you find the songs could translate well into acoustic style, which I have found in the past to be a benchmark to a great rock band. It's almost as if you wouldn't be out of place seeing Jon Fratelli stood outside one of their gig's busking to the crowd to get them warmed up for the forthcoming event.

So onto tonight's gig. We left early to get to the Academy at Birmingham, a venue I had never been to before, and with neither of us having been to it we left early to make sure we beat the Birmingham traffic. We need not of worried as the venue was incredibly easy to find, just yards away from the Bullring shopping center. Its amazing the place's you miss when your shopping with the wife!! We first went to a pub just yard's from the Academy called Scruffy Murphy's. This place was like a dream come true for me, an obvious choice for a pre-gig beer. It just screamed out that this place was a rock pub, and no bloody Stella on was about the only downside to the place! Not to be too dejected from the lack of real lager (had to be content with Carlsberg. As far as I'm concerned the bloody Danish can keep the stuff). We had a couple of light ale's in the pub and then made our way to the growing queue of Frat's fan's waiting to get in the venue. We had a slight detour as we tried to queue jump by buying another drink at a bar adjoining the venue, but this proved to take longer than the original queue, so we re-joined the main queue outside and got in, in no time at all.

A quick scan round the venue found us in a place not to dissimilar to our own Sugar Mill in Hanley, albeit on a much grander scale. It's a run of the mill concert venue with the smell of beer stained floors and walls. One downside I will mention is the lack of merchandise stalls or at least the size of them, tiny hole's in the wall that looked like converted cloakroom's but at least the gear was up to date!!

The first band on was The Enemy. They can only be described as LOUD! Not really my cup of tea. These guy's can be easily described as a band who clearly want to make a noise. Non of their song's really stick in your mind as "future big hits" but they were clearly crowdpleaser's on the night. Unfortunately for them I think having a pouting guitarist who mouth's the lyrics while the singer tries his best to scream them at you has been done already several times before.

Onto the main event, The Fratellis. One more thing before I comment on the gig though, Shaun had told me of a ritual the band has started while the stage crew is setting up. The band has a tag line "Mon The Fratellis", which by all accounts, fan's adapt the line onto picture's and artwork to give a montage of amusing shot's which is played on a white screen on the stage. All very good stuff and, along with Shaun and the rest of the people there on the night, we all tried to spot the more difficult to find one's (the Yellow Page's ad is particularly hard to spot!) All was going well until they dissed Aerosmith on one of the pic's. Now I'm sure the band themselves don't have any input into the pic's so I won't knock them, but to the person who did this pic I can only say get a life. When The Frattellis have achieved what Aerosmith have achieved then mock,but not before. Rant over on to the gig.

The Frat's opened with the album opener Henrietta, one of the best track's on the album and an instant crowd-pleaser. The beer started to fly about the venue, as is customary at these smaller gig's and throughout the first few numbers Jon had the crowd bouncing with several tracks off the album including Everybody Knows You Cried Last Night and Flathead. The band then threw in a new track presumably off the next album called Pretty Like A Girl,Filthy Like A Boy which continues in the same vein as the current stuff. All the albums carries well onto the live set,and after only seeing the band as a support act previously, they also make an excellent headline act. The lad's converse well with the crowd, obviously knowing that they will join in with the sing-a-long stuff such is the catchiness of the track's. Towards the end of the main set they hit the crowd with three absolute stonking live track's Baby Fratelli, Whistle For The Choir and the awesome Chelsea Dagger. These three track's may be the one's that stand out in the future of the band as their benchmark song's, but as live track's go these are probably some of the most crowd-pleasing, rip-roaring song's you will ever hear live. The crowd is almost salivating at the thought of the band playing these three, and obliges by going crazy as they play through them. As they leave the stage you know the encore will be coming soon, as it always is for headliners,and The Fratellis don't disappoint.

Jon ventures back on the stage to do an acoustic version of Cigarello which kind of blended into For The Girls, which is the track he usually does,still bloody excellent though. The other guys come back on stage to do the final two tracks,Cuntry Boys & City Girls and finally a cover of Goldfrapps Ooh La La which the band has put there own slant onto, and has made their own, an excellent end to a great gig. These guys can play their stuff live well and do put on a great, albeit short, show but this is their first album so this is to be expected. To the point I was making earlier about first albums, I hope they guy's stick to what they are good at, making catchy song's with great guitar riff's and don't try to become another in the long line of one album wonders we have had around in the last few years. I'm sure they have the potential to carry themselves a lot further, as they already have the foundations to go a long way with a great band logo and extremely sale friendly merchandise. I hope the Fratellis have a great future, and with a busy summer schedule booked with the V-Festival and Glastonbury on the card's this year I'm sure a lot more people will be delighting to their fantastic live performance's.

MON THE FRATELLIS!