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