Thursday 28th June

Well its good to be back into the swing of things after last weekends over exuberance at the Aerosmith gig. It's a sign of how good they were as I'm already eager to go and see them again, and I just hope that it's not another eight year wait. The other thing about last week is I finally managed to get the tour shirt I wanted in my size! Normally they only have the ones nobody wants left in small only so I was relieved to get the new Aerosmith ' Relics ' tour shirt in my size. The buzz from the day will last in my memory for a long time to come, and I'm sure that Hayley can't wait to see them again either.
Onto the latest on the karaoke front now. As many of you will of read in an earlier blog, the vote for my top song of the year has taken a surprising turn with Def Leppard seemingly running away with the vote so far. This has taken a huge lead in the poll so far, much to the annoyance of the wife! Please if you have any resemblance of hope for me not getting moaned at for the rest of the year at least give the other songs a vote to ease the pressure on the runaway leaders! The constant nagging is now on a daily basis and if she doesn't stop my head will explode!!!! Joking aside thank you all for voting so far and keep it up, it's always nice to keep my public happy lol.
So onto the song's for tonight. After week's of being asked I have finally done some Robbie Williams songs tonight, another Stones lesson for Hayley, and after seeing Chris Cornell at the weekend sing a great acoustic version of this one, a track by Soundgarden. So tonight's tracks were 1. Jumping Jack Flash by The Rolling Stones (SC8964-10) 2.Come Undone by Robbie Williams (SF204-16) 3. Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden (SFMW874-09) and 4. Better Man by Robbie Williams (SF176-05)

Jumping Jack Flash by The Rolling Stones link

What a song to start up with this week. As its now only about eight weeks until we go to see the boy's at the O2 arena in London so as long as Hayley has been taking note over the last few months she should be pretty on board with the main songs they should play at the gig. This is one of the bands best and most recognisable tracks. It hit number one in the U.K. in 1968 and as the story goes was written about Keith Richards gardener. After a night spent at Richards country house and being abruptly awoken by a figure passing the window, Jagger asked 'who was that' to be told by Richards 'Oh that's Jack, jumping Jack' and there the song was born. If I was Jack I'd ask for a bonus! A great song to start the night. As always I love the Stones stuff as at least everyone over the age of 35 seems to know all their stuff and I get to educate the younger sprogs! on the night rating 8/10

Come Undone by Robbie Williams link

Well you don't get one for ages then two come along at once. No not buses Robbie Williams tracks! The first one tonight was one Tina has been asking me to do for weeks now, and one I know Hayley likes too, Come Undone. It was the second track taken from Robbie's Escapology album, and got to number 4 in the U.K. charts. The song is another Robbie dig at the media's infatuation with the singer's life and lifestyle, and how he has to be leading a double life most of the time to please the media's prying camera lenses. I really should do more Robbie songs as I always feel comfortable with the Robsters songs. It may be that its the Stoke accent, but I seem to be able to get them pretty much spot on, and of course he is a Vale fan so I don't mind singing any of his songs! (Just think folks,if he had been a Stoke fan I'd of never sang anything by him on principal!) Anyway if you want more Robbie then get the requests in! on the night rating 7/10

Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden link

After seeing Chris Cornell's awesome performance at Hyde Park last week, I couldn't resist doing this Soundgarden classic grunge anthem this week. It was released in 1994 and is easily the bands most well known song, although most in the Hotel didn't seem to know it! (God where have these people been!) It also won the band the 1995 Grammy for best Hard Rock Performance. Admittedly the band did have a bigger following in the States, but the track did make the U.K. top ten. Chris Cornell has now embarked on a solo career, and apart from his great new album, 'Carry On' an obvious reference to the fact he is going solo after Audioslave split last year, he has a huge back catalogue of songs to pick from now, with Soundgarden, Temple Of The Dog and Audioslaves songs to pick from in his live shows! It does have the usual 'suicidal' feel that made the grunge movement so popular with the American teenage sub-culture, so it was never going to be my most well liked song of the night, but from a vocal point of view, I felt it was my strongest song tonight. on the night rating 10/10

Better Man by Robbie Williams link

So last up tonight is the second Robbie track. This one was a request from Jayne, one of the semi-regular singers, whose birthday was tonight, so she asked very nicely for this one. This song is one of Robbie's best, but amazingly it was never released in the U.K. but has been one of his most popular live tracks. It was only released in Australia, New Zealand and Latin America, where a Spanish version of the song was recorded (Imagine a Spanish/Stoke accent!) It was taken from Robbie's 'Sing When Your Winning' album. It was a shame it never got a U.K. release as it is a great song. Again the vocal range seems to suit me, so no problems with this one. I only stumbled on this one by accident when I first sang it ages ago, and Jo and Jayne always ask me to sing this one, and they only get me to do It about one in ten times of asking, so they were lucky tonight! on the night rating 7/10

Well there you have it. Another good bunch of tracks tonight. I pretty much enjoyed all of the songs this week. It does help when you know all the songs to give a better performance, and as I have practiced all tonight's about a million time's before they were all no problem tonight. I do try my best to bring a wide range of music to the karaoke scene at the hotel. Not all are successful, like Soundgarden tonight, but these always are the songs I love to sing the most. It's a shame as I do like such a wide range of music, and most of the time I do have a pretty good ear for good stuff, well in my ears anyway!
Another gig is on the horizon next week. We are off to see Satellite Party at the Carling Academy in Birmingham on Wednesday. The band was on at Download, but I missed them as they were on at the same time as Marilyn Manson. So in less than a month I have caught both of the bands I wanted to see, but missed at Download, after seeing The Answer last week at Hyde Park. Will try my best to give a review of the band in next weeks blog. Until then folks its bye bye until next time!

" Marge, I've finally learned how to walk on stilts naked! "
Homer J Simpson