Thursday August 16th 2007

Hello again maties and welcome to another weekly dose of mayhem. This is the start of a busy period for the Captain and his crew, well the wife to be precise! Next week sees us travel to London to see the Rolling Stones at the O2 Arena or the Millenium Dome for the uninitiated. Then its back down to the new Wembley for the England Vs Germany match, and then Captain Jack take a well earned break back down in hopefully sunny Newquay, not in the hotel that burnt down I must add!

So as yet again my birthday falls when I am on holiday (Bad timing yet again!) I have been allowed to have one of my birthday presents early. Now as a budding guitar god (no pun intended), last year my fiance as she was then brought me a Fender guitar as a pre wedding/birthday pressie to help with my Darkness tribute for her on our wedding night. Now I haven't probably taken enough time to learn it yet, as I have been far to busy pillaging (well writing this blog anyway!) so it has gathered a bit of dust. So the last present I expected from her was another guitar, but this one is no ordinary guitar, and I am already a dab hand! Its the Guitar Hero 2 game for my PlayStation and its bloody fantastic....

The game comes with a cool replica guitar, a set of decal stickers for you to customise your axe and the game which includes some brilliant rock tracks from such artist as Aerosmith, Thin Lizzy, Rolling Stones, Danzig, Van Halen, Kiss, The Police, Guns And Roses and many more great tracks with brilliant rock riffs.

There are several different levels and modes on the game for you to try like Quick Play for a one off blast, Career mode where you create your own band and play gigs earn money buy new songs and guitars and even stage costumes. You can play either lead or bass, you can practice parts of songs to get those difficult riffs spot on and there is even a multi player mode to battle it out against an axe buddy, side by side.

The idea of the game is to match up the notes as they pass down on the screen with the corresponding coloured frets on the guitar, while strumming the guitar as each one passes over to get the best score. You score combos for more points, but you have to hit as many as you can right or the crowd get pissed off and boo you off stage and the song gets pulled before you finish it. In easy mode you have just three frets to master, and each difficulty level adds more frets, chords and riffs to master until on expert where you may as well be playing the real thing.

Now all this adds up to a pretty fantastic game and it is very addictive, especially for the air guitarists out there, as now you have a toy to play which can make you a rock god. But wait there is more. Some crafty little computer geeks have managed to hack into the game to create their own songs, and I have found one to show you that I know Shaun will appreciate. Now as I don't have a chipped machine, I can't get hold of these for the game, but on the grapevine I have heard the PS3 version out later in the year will feature a facility to download up to date tracks from current artists, such as My Chemical Romance and the following track by Linkin Park.......enjoy Shaun!!!!!!

It is yet again another brilliant pressie from the wife, and in six months time when she hasn't seen me for playing on Guitar Hero solid every night, then I want it to be noted by all my readers out there " Its your own fault dearest! "
So on to tonight's karaoke then. Another relatively quiet night, with no real regular singers in, no Tina this week, and still only three songs sang! At least I managed to take down the song's I have been wanting to do for the last few weeks, so three new ones to the karaoke this week and all crackers. So tonight's songs were 1. New Sensation by INXS 2. Beast Of Burden by The Rolling Stones and finally 3. Party Hard by Andrew WK.

New Sensation by INXS link to video

Another 80's classic to add to my repertoire this week, but not from Duran Duran this time its Aussie rockers INXS, with the brilliant late Michael Hutchence on vocals.The song was taken from the bands legendary album Kick in 1987, and is without date one of their most recognised tracks. It came out around a boom time for the band as they released hit after hit and toured extensively during the mid 80's. Hutchence was well known in the press for dating some of the most beautiful women in the world, and he dated Kylie Minogue, Helena Christensen and Paula Yates, well maybe not Paula Yates. Ironically the band became bigger in the U.K. during the 90's and in 1992 they played a sell out gig at Wembley Stadium. Unfortunately Hutchence was found dead in a Sydney hotel room in 1997 in suspicious circumstances. The coroner concluded it was suicide, but it is widely suspected Hutchence was involved in a sex game that had gone badly wrong, resulting in his death. The band recovered by creating a reality T.V. show called Rock Star:INXS, and was won by Canadian singer JD Bennison in 2005. The band are still touring today and released new material in 2005 and are due another album this year. on the night rating 6/10

Beast Of Burden by The Rolling Stones link to video

Well with just one week to go the Hayley's initiation to the greatest rock and roll band in the world, I give her the classic Beast Of Burden, taken from the 1978 album Some Girls. The track was written by Keith Richards as a tribute to Mick Jagger and how he kept the band together through his so called 'drugs hell' during the 70's excessive years. Richards said, " Beast of Burden was another one where Jagger just filled in the verses. With the Stones, you take a long song, play it and see if there are any takers. Sometimes they ignore it, sometimes they grab it and record it. After all the faster numbers of Some Girls, everybody settled down and enjoyed the slow one." It has a great blues feel to it, and Jagger's vocals on the song are awesome as usual. As usual it's another track where the uneducated Hotel seemed not to if heard it before, so I will have to continue their education in the future, although Hayley will soon know all the songs off by heart. A classic song and I loved it, despite no one else knowing it. on the night rating 8/10

Party Hard by Andrew W.K. link to video

To finish with tonight a rock classic from the early 2000's from a little known rock icon. Andrew W.K. was born in Stanford, California, and grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
At age 4, he began learning classical piano at The University of Michigan School of Music. He attended the private college preparatory Greenhills School for middle school before attending the alternative Community High School from 1993-97, where he studied jazz keyboards. His father is Professor James Krier, a well-known legal scholar at the University of Michigan Law School and co-author of the widely used Dukeminer & Krier Property casebook.
Andrew got his start in music in the year 1993. In between 1993 and 1998, the year his first solo album under his own name came out, he was in many bands. During a failed attempt at a career in music, Andrew began acting. With the purpose of creating an underground buzz and gaining "street cred," he began performing solo and sending demos to independent labels. Andrew's first release under the name "Andrew W.K." was in 2000, on the now-defunct Michigan record label Bulb Records. Andrew released two EPs on that label, and a full length album was planned, but never released. Andrew's big break came in 2001, when he was signed to Island Records. This classically trained musician was the self proclaimed saviour of rock, and this single propelled him into the limelight. Very Status Quo like, with a very catchy riff, the song was massive in 2001. Party Hard was featured on the EA Sports video game Madden NFL 2003. Despite being labeled the 'saviour of rock' he was slated by the media for promoting over indulgence, getting wasted and generally being an arse, and his career has floundered somewhat. He is still releasing albums today, and still has a big following in Korea and Japan and, in a complete change if pace, he is rumored to be going back to his classical roots, releasing a piano only album in either 2007 or 2008. Again only myself and Shaun knew this song, and despite being a fan myself, Shaun only knew the track from the Madden 2003 game! Still it is a rock classic, and it does do what it says on the tin! Just link to the video and judge for yourself. on the night rating 10/10

So there we have it folks, another week done already. As I said earlier, its a very busy week next week with the Stones concert, and of course the result for the song of the year so far will be posted up on Thursday 23rd for you to see what wins, so get your final votes in quick. until next time folks Bonjour!!!!!

"Homer: I want to share something with you boy: The three little sentences that will get you through life. Number 1: Cover for me. Number 2: Oh, good idea, Boss! Number 3: It was like that when I got here."
Homer J Simpson