Well another Thursday rolls upon us with a bang and as the first Bank Holiday weekend of the year , its an opportunity to get blind drunk on a Thursday and not have to worry about the consequences of over indulging in alcohol. That is unless you have to work on Friday and Saturday like I had to do! Not to worry though, at least I would get to do my usual 4 or 5 songs to at least keep myself entertained, that is unless everybody turns up on the night and the majority of them sing like this week!
To be fair it was quite obvious from when we arrived at the pub that this was going to be a busy night, and it was great to see the pub heaving with people as oppose to the empty seats. There was a birthday party group in who got louder as the night went on, and who sang probably the worst rendition of the Arctic Monkeys you would of ever heard.
Shaun was out with the guys and gals from his work so I had the important duty of noting down all the songs people sang for the karaoke stats page until he arrived. Now I could of used this opportunity to have doctored the stats to put the Stones at the top of the most sang artists league, but as I figured he would twig that I decided to go with the genuine list instead, and I never got to sing any Stones tonight anyway!
Shaun's crowd turned up halfway through the night and still managed to entertain us with a few songs, and as Shaun likes to embarrass his work mates with postings of them singing on You Tube, Captain Jack managed to sneak into the video with a cameo appearance to make my You Tube debut! Oh the fame how will I cope!!!!!
Apart from that not really a bad night. Lots of people means of course a better atmosphere, and that leads to more drink, which in turn led to a huge hangover at work for most of Friday! But at least I only had to cope until lunch.
Anyway on to tonight's songs. Tonight very short set was as follows, 1. Day Tripper by The Beatles (SFMW85004) 2. Baby Fratelli by The Fratellis (SF253-02) and last but not least 3. Life On Mars by David Bowie (LEG00104)
Day Tripper by The Beatles
First song of the night, and this one is one of mine and Andy's favorites to duet together. We have done this one hundreds of times and we spent ages trying to find the perfect karaoke version. Sometimes its easier to just give up on it but I think that the Sunfly version does have a slightly more rock feel to it than the others so it gets my vote. Now apart from always getting the giggles when we accidentally change the lyrics from "Shes A Big Teaser" to "Shes a ..." work it out for yourself!, this is a damn fine song an great to start a karaoke night off with. A little treat for the rockers amongst you. Click on the title to see an extremely rare version of the song by Whitesnake! do again rating : 5/10
Baby Fratelli by The Fratellis
Now in no way have I sang this tonight to:A. get the Fratellis to the top of the most sang artist league B. Because it sends the wife potty or C. as a kind of gay tribute to Shaun. I sang this purely tonight as this song bloody well rocks. This is my favorite track off the fantastic Costello Music album by the Fratellis. It has that ability to get you to want to stand up and jump around and go potty. It has all the element of a seventies glam rock special and does sound a bit T-Rex, but that is a huge compliment to the lads who wrote the track. Its another song that has a catchy chorus which appears to get everyone singing along and its one of the few songs that if people don't know it they tend to stop chatting and listen to it as if they have to find out who it is by. Loved to sing this one and judging by the response it got on the night, it seemed to go down well in the pub as well. do again rating : 10/10
Life On Mars by David Bowie
Now this song was sang for a very good reason tonight, well two actually. Firstly, it was a request from Tina and Hayley after I sang Bowie the other week, and secondly, as a bit of a tribute to the conclusion of the brilliant BBC drama series Life On Mars starring John Simm and Philip Glenister as Sam Tyler and the fabulous Gene Hunt. The song is also one of my favourites as well and has that fantastic seventies Bowie feel to it. Its been really good over the last couple of weeks to do the requests, but when you get requested to sing a great song like this one then its even more of a thrill. As a treat for all the Life On Mars fans I've added a link for you to see the moment Sam found himself trapped in the seventies, all to the fantastic Life On Mars track by Bowie. do again rating : 9/10
Well there you go gang, and as an extra treat above is the Camberwick Green sequence from the show which sadly will of finished by the time next Thursday comes around, and we will all have our own theories on what happened to Sam. At least we will have next years new series Ashes To Ashes to look forward to, where Gene Hunt plies more of his smooth cop ways this time in the 80's in London bashing those southern softies (apologies to my south of Watford readers :-)lol!!) This week I am going to do my best to learn some more new stuff as I do have lots of songs I have been meaning to sing, and with the Easter break upon us I hope to have got my head around some new tracks by next Thursday. As always Its quote time to end with and what better way to end today's blog than this. See you all soon.
[Ordering the hunt for a murderer]
Gene Hunt:This is my city. And it will be a safe place for my wife and my mum to walk around in. Is that understood?
Detectives: Yes, guv.
Gene Hunt (Sternly): Right. Find out who the dead woman was, find out who killed her. Do it now.
[He checks his watch]
Gene Hunt: Hold up, hold up. Do it tomorrow morning, first thing. (Brightly) Beer o'clock, gentlemen
Thursday 5th April
Memorabilia 1st April 2007
Every year at the N.E.C. in Birmingham an event is on that is a dream for people up and down the country, as its a chance to wander around one of the huge event halls dressed up like a fat Darth Vader without being heckled in the streets and called a weirdo. That's right its the memorabilia show! Of course its not all about dressing up and looking daft, it's much more than that. The show covers all genre's of collectible items from T.V, film, music, sports and model making, from groundbreaking shows such as Lost to the classics like Star Wars.
Pictured here is the very car used in the filming of the Back To The Future films that rocketed Micheal J Fox into stardom in the eighties. The DeLorean was the most integral part of the film as it was the time travel machine used by Doc Brown and Marty McFly to travel to the fifties, into the future, and finally to the old west. This was the first thing that hits you as soon as you walked through the doors of the show, and for around £10.00 you could have your photo taken actually sitting in the car, a small price to pay to be pictured in a bit of film history. 
Next up is this bit of memorabilia from that classic Aardman film Chicken Run. As you can see this is one of the models used in production of the film. Made from resin with modeller's clay on the surface this key piece is in wonderful condition. This amazing prop can be seen as Rocky and Ginger try to escape from the dreaded perils of the pie machine. In one scene, Rocky is inside the oven and with the doors slowly closing he falls into pie after pie in a pathetic bid to escape. This is one of those pies complete with "Rocky outline" in the crust. It is, as you would expect, a very rare piece of film history and would set you back around £350.00 but to a serious collector this is a small price to pay for a bit of film history. 
The next bit of film classic we stumbled upon was an actual replica of the terminator robot used in the Terminator 2 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. This was the second film in the Terminator series and saw Arnie's role go from killer bad guy, as in the first film, to protector and hero. It was also a film in which director James Cameron used some of the best and most original C.G.I. ever used in film history to date. The film grossed millions earning $204.8 million in the States alone, and making Arnie the undisputed king of the box office in 1991. The film went on to win four Oscar's, and has also spawned countless other spin offs such as video games and comics.
Next up is another favourite of mine. This is one of the full body casts of the terrifying aliens from the Alien film series. This actual model was one that was used during the filming of the second, and most famous of the series, the 1986 Aliens. It again starred Sigourney Weaver as the heroine Ellen Ripley. She has to battle the aliens this time on a deserted terraforming colony where the crew of the first film first encountered the alien. She then has to battle the company man Burke, who has been ordered to capture an Alien and take it back to earth. She intervenes and on the way finds a child, Newt, who escaped the Alien attack on the colony. This suit was available to buy at a staggering £3000.00 and you couldn't even use it for fancy dress as it was tiny!
Back to the more easily recognisable stuff now. Picture is one of the props used in a T.V. show we all know Doctor Who. This was one of the props used in the seventies version of the show where most of the props were made from sticky back plastic and bits of plywood, but still had kids cowering from behind settee's up and down the country as the Daleks attempted to figure out how to climb the stairs! This one came complete with a fake Doctor and a cast of unknown's including Trinity from The Matrix!
Now the show is not just about films and T.V., its also a chance to meet and collect the autographs of sports stars. Pictured here is the well know Ian Wright. For around £20.00 you can buy a print of the man himself and queue up to get him to sign it for you and maybe even to get your picture taken with the man himself. Ian Wright had a fantastic playing career playing for Crystal Palace, where he got to and scored in the famous F.A. Cup final of 1990, but more famously he played for Arsenal from 1991-1998 where he won two F.A. Cups, one League Cup, one Cup Winners Cup and one League title in 1998. He also won 33 caps for England and scored 9 goals. He is now better known for his T.V. and radio work. 
Next on the list of all time greats to meet was the world famous Jake LaMotta, better known as The Raging Bull. He was born in 1921 and had 106 professional fights with a record of Won 83 Drew 4 Lost 19. LaMotta won the world title in 1949 beating Frenchman Marcel Cerdan in a brutal encounter. He eventually lost the title to Sugar Ray Robinson on 14th February 1951 , in a fight which was to become known as boxing's Valentines Day Massacre. In 1980, he was the subject of the film entitled Raging Bull, which starred Robert De Niro as LaMotta. It was filmed in black and white and showed the true reality of what a tough life LaMotta had, and is now acclaimed as one of the best boxing films ever.
remaining three James Bond collector plates, depicting the films of Sean Connery one of which is extremely rare and difficult to find in mint condition. Also I picked up a Limited Edition Pewter Homer Simpson figure which is almost impossible to buy and was recently seen being sold on E-Bay for well over £100.00. I paid the whopping sum of £10.00 and I'm sure the seller had no idea of it's value. All in all it's a great day out for all the family, although if you do take the wife with you and you bump into Tony Adams like I did, you can expect this look when you shout out at him "Eh Up Tone!"