Merry Christmas from The Glass Walking-Stick

Season's greetings to all you lovely people out in the blogosphere. I hope you're all having a healthy and happy time. Wishing you all peace and love.

On today's To-Do List - Let's Kick Out the Tories!

40 Years of DWM!

Forty years ago this week saw the publication of the debut issue of Doctor Who Weekly, the first ongoing magazine devoted solely to everyone's favourite Time Lord. As the Fourth Doctor, the mighty Tom Baker, was fully embedded in the public's consciousness at this point, with Tom having played the character for five years, it was clearly an ideal time to launch this new magazine.
The 12-year old me was certainly very excited to read this "Fantastic First Issue"  -  I'd been a Doctor Who fan for 7 or 8 of those years and had just recently watched what would turn out to be my all-time fave Who story, the Paris-set beauty that was City Of Death. ( The current serial at the time was the overly-camp Creature From The Pit which was 2 or 3 episodes in at this point. )
Doctor Who Weekly combined two of my great passions, Doctor Who and comic strips, so I was as happy as a Dalek with a planet-full of pitiful humans to exterminate. And it was a Marvel comic too
( master-minded by comic book impresario Dez Skinn ) so that ticked another box for me. A Marvel comic with a secret ingredient... the cream of 2000 AD!

Yes, the lead comic strip in the first issue featured some absolutely stellar work by 2000 AD mainstays Pat Mills, John Wagner and Dave Gibbons, bringing us eager young fans the kind of budget-busting science fiction spectacle that the Beeb could only dream about. The issue was rounded out by some entry-level articles about the show and another couple of short comic strips. I was instantly hooked and became an avid follower of the magazine. After a year or so of publication its name was changed to Doctor Who Monthly as it began to be published ( you guessed it! ) once a month. Now known as Doctor Who Magazine ( or DWM for short ) it has managed an incredible run of 40 years of continuous publication. In an age when print media seems to be dying this is really impressive.
DWM has unsurprisingly had many ups and downs over the years but for the most part has been a wonderfully entertaining and informative mag, devoted to the Doctor and the various spin-offs from the show  -  from the New Adventures novels, to TV off-shoots like Torchwood, to the long-running Big Finish audio stories.

( The above issue has a special place in my cold, unfeeling heart as it contains the first fan letter I ever had published. I'll have to dig it out sometime and scan it for this 'ere blog. )

So, many congratulations to all the talented people who have kept DWM going for all these years, even through the "dark times" when the show was off the air. Happy times and places!

Happy 70th Birthday to The Boss!

( Photo courtesy of Backstreets Magazine )

Hard to believe, I know, but the legendary Bruce Springsteen is 70 today. I just thought I'd pay a quick tribute to the hardest working man in rock 'n' roll and one of my all-time favourite musicians.

I've written before about Springsteen and what his music means to me but I'd just like to thank Bruce ( like he'd ever see this... ) for the years of pleasure his work has given me. From the stadium rock of Glory Days and Dancing In The Dark, to the introspection of The River and My Hometown, to the bar-band rumble of Rosalita ( Come Out Tonight ), the experimentation of Streets Of Philadelphia or the sheer "we-gotta-get-out-of-this-place" romanticism of Thunder Road, Springsteen's songs have been a touchstone for me  -  tales of love, life, anger and hope, sometimes reaching for the stars, sometimes digging down into melancholy, but always heartfelt and real.
And, unlike many of his contemporaries, Bruce doesn't just trade in nostalgia for the glory days, he's also phenomenally productive. Since the E Street Band's Reunion Tour in 1999 ( 20 years since my first Bruce gig at the NEC! ) he's performed literally hundreds of gigs, released 10 albums with or without the E Streeters, written his autobiography and performed 236 sold-out solo shows on Broadway in 2017 / 2018. Phew!
( Cowboy ) hats off to Bruce!

Hope you're having a great birthday, Boss! Keep on rockin'!

"Talk about a dream, try to make it real"

Up, up and away...

Packing this young man off to Hereford University today!
( The one on the right. )

The sky's the limit!

NICE Con 2019

Last weekend ( keeping things current, as ever with this blog ) I went to Bedford for this year's NICE con. The main draw for me last year had been meeting the legendary Don McGregor and, while there was no one creator I was as interested in this year, there was certainly an inviting array of artists in particular on display.
After a trouble-free drive on a sunny, late-Summer morning I arrived at Bedford's lovely Corn Exchange and almost instantly bumped into my old blogging buddy Joe Ackerman. After a quick look around the con we went for a walk into Bedford where we had some lunch and Joe took me to local comic shop ( and sponsors of NICE ) Close Encounters. This turned out to be a pretty cool little shop with a surprisingly well-stocked back issues department  -  I bought a couple of recent Marvel comics, just out of interest ( including Marvel #1000 ), and an issue of Planetary which now completes my collection of that title. As ever, it was great fun to chat with Joe as we covered such subjects as DC's TV shows, tattoos, Brexshit, the merits or otherwise of drinking alcohol, and which inkers worked best with Gil Kane...

Back into the Corn Exchange where I spent some time just wandering around, trawling through the long-boxes of comics, chatting with some of the exhibitors and watching the artists at work. This last is always a pleasure, whether it's Dylan Teague working on a Batman sketch or Esad Ribic putting some finishing touches to a Conan painting. As well as the big players ( Alan Davis! Adi Granov! ), there were also plenty of independent comic creators there and it's heartening to see people being creative and often not just following the latest super hero trends. If I'd had unlimited funds I would have bought quite a few art pieces and indie comics but I had to settle for the three comics shown above.
I've recently been re-reading my New Teen Titans collection ( the wonderful Marv Wolfman / George Perez run from the early '80s ) and I'm now on the hunt for some issues to fill the gaps. Funnily enough, I'd been talking to Joe about the DC TV version of the Titans compared to the source material, and then I came across the two Titans comics above and promptly snapped them up. The Fantastic Four issue  -  number 80 from November 1968  -  is one I've been after for a very long time. This is one of the very few post-1965 issues of the Lee / Kirby FF that I don't own and it's one of only two FF stories from the Silver Age that I'd never previously read in any form. ( The other being FF #21, the first appearance of the Hate-Monger, if anyone is feeling generous and wants to buy me a copy. )

This is quite a goofy, stand-alone story in which Reed, Ben and Johnny go to the aid of almost-forgotten supporting character Wyatt Wingfoot, whose tribe of Native Americans is under attack from Tomazooma, the Living Totem. ( Of course. ) Hardly a classic but fun nonetheless, with Tomazooma being one of the last new antagonists created for the Lee / Kirby run, almost a precursor to the Celestials from the later Eternals comic with its shiny, metallic, robotic look juxtaposed with cod-mythology. And it's a lovely copy  -  cents-priced with no UK price-stamp, a shiny cover and some lovely white pages  -  all for less than £30.

There's also the added bonus of a letter in the letter column from one Donald McGregor of Providence, Rhode Island. Yes, this letter is from that self-same star of last year's NICE con, who was then a 22-year old comics fan, just a few years away from his own breakthrough into the business. It's a small world...

So, I had a great time in Bedford and hope to go again next year. I'm also hoping to persuade another blog-buddy Pete Doree from The Bronze Age Of Blogs to come along as well, and hopefully finally meet up with the Mighty Joe. Wouldn't it be NICE?

Spider-Man: Far From Home and other recent movies

So far this year my movie-going experiences have oscillated ( and that's a word I don't use enough! ) between MCU blockbusters and assorted classic re-releases. I'm just going to do a quick rundown in roughly reverse order, starting with super-hero shenanigans...

Spider-Man: Far From Home ( 2019 )
James and I saw this at our local Cineworld last weekend, and probably just in time too as the film is down to one showing a day now. We'd missed seeing Spider-Man: Homecoming at the cinema so really wanted to catch this sequel on the big screen, especially because there were scenes set in Venice, as the poster above demonstrates. After the huge, world-saving, time-travelling Endgame where everything was about the BIG STAKES, this movie was lighter and smaller scale but a lot of fun. Again going for the John Hughes teen-comedy vibe this took Peter Parker and his friends on a wild school trip around Europe, taking in beautiful Venice ( sigh! ), Prague, Berlin, somewhere unspecified in the Netherlands ( we knew that 'cos there were tulips and windmills on display ) and ending up in London. Some fine action sequences, Jake Gyllenhaal having a ball as anti-hero / villain Mysterio and some great performances from the young cast. I'm still uncomfortable with Peter being Tony Stark's bitch and not really his own man but this movie went some way to move the character onwards in the wake of *SPOILER* Stark's death in Endgame.
So, I'd rate this a solid Three and a Half out of Five Web-Shooters

The Matrix ( 1999 )
Sarah, James and I went to see this 20th anniversary re-release in Southampton while we were on holiday down in Hampshire. This was at the Showcase Deluxe cinema which boasts a 70 ft (!) screen which was perfect for a film like The Matrix in which you need to be totally immersed. For a film that is two decades old ( I still can't believe that! Surely it came out in about 2010? ) and has been almost constantly imitated ever since, The Matrix stands up really well. Apart from a few wobbly effects and some obviously outdated cultural references it's still a visually spectacular thrill-ride, with its cod-philosophy more integral to the plot than the endless navel-gazing in the sequels, and lots of fun to be had in the interactions between the lead actors. Carrie-Anne Moss and Laurence Fishburne are still impeccably cool, Hugo Weaving and Joe Pantoliano are hilariously slimy and Keanu is... well, he's Keanu. Playing a hacker-turned-action hero who seems to be simultaneously the smartest guy in the room and the dumbest dope on the block, the role of Thomas Anderson / Neo is absolutely perfect for the former Ted ( Theodore ) Logan. And, bizarrely, Keanu is of course an action hero again all these years later in the John Wick series. "Whoa!" indeed.

Avengers: Endgame ( 2019 ) ( SPOLERS! For anyone who hasn't etc. etc.)
What more can be said about The Most Successful Movie Ever Made TM? ( Until the next one, anyway. ) There's not much I can add except to say it was hugely entertaining, with the Russo brothers somehow managing to corral the immense cast, spectacular action scenes and emotional payoffs to this long-running MCU saga into a convincing, and mostly coherent, whole. After the intense setup of Infinity War this last chapter in the Thanos saga was surprisingly light and comedic, although the early scenes of post-"Snap" trauma were suitably anguished. Most of the characters received appropriate screen-time and were given fitting ends / next chapters in their stories. Chris Evans and Mark Ruffalo easily walked away with the acting honours... or hobbled away, in Cap's case... but it was also suitably sad, if inevitable, to see Robert Downey Jnr's Iron Man meeting his heroic downfall. ( Also, as Doctor Who fans, James and I both laughed when the concept of a "time heist" was unveiled but, of course, nobody else in the cinema did. )

Captain Marvel ( 2019 )
More super-hero action of the cosmic variety next with the latest iteration of Captain Marvel. It's certainly past time the MCU focused on a female hero and its previous applicants ( Black Widow, Scarlet Witch ) have never been strong enough characters to carry their own movie. Carol Danvers, on the other hand, former test pilot - turned - Kree warrior, is far more interesting and worthy to be Marvel's answer to DC's successful Wonder Woman. The film showed huge confidence by instantly plunging the viewers into the middle of the intergalactic Kree / Skrull conflict with very little hand-holding by the way of exposition. Brie Larson was the definition of "steely" as the good Captain, trying to discover the secrets of her past and to escape from the toxic shadow of Jude Law's Kree mentor Yonn-Rogg. Her scenes with Samuel Jackson's Nick Fury were a delight, their spiky, acerbic chemistry being the best parts of the film. Larson brought a subtlety to her character which many nay-sayers confused for blankness but I thought was refreshing after the often over the top stylings of many other super-hero actors. The action scenes were well handled and surprisingly not too gratuitous, while the 90s soundtrack was a blast. Hopefully, apart from her short appearance in Endgame, we won't have to wait too long for this gutsy, empowered hero to return.

A Clockwork Orange ( 1971 )
Another classic movie re-released, this time Kubrick's controversial adaptation of Anthony Burgess' equally controversial dystopian novel. James and I saw this at Stroud's Vue cinema with only about a dozen other people. Maybe another Fast And Furious movie was out or something.Anyway, it was a lovely print of the film, lending extra clarity to Kubrick's eye-popping visuals and, as often when you see a familiar movie on the big screen for the first time, all the little details of the set design just sang out, enhancing the experience. I hadn't seen A Clockwork Orange for some time and I found "the old ultra-violence" to be as shocking as ever ( especially the sexual abuse scenes ) but I was surprised to recall just how much of a pitch-black comedy the film really is. From Malcolm McDowell's alternately charming and sneering performance, to all the typically Kubrickian grotesques that make up the supporting cast ( "P and M", Mr. Deltoid ) to the juxtaposition of horror and farce, this was a film that had you laughing at some "real horrorshow" situations, then feeling suitably uncomfortable that you'd found it so funny. Viddy well, O my brothers, viddy well...

A Matter Of Life And Death ( 1946 )
And finally, another re-release, in complete contrast to the last one  -  Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's romantic fantasy masterpiece A Matter Of Life And Death  -  or Stairway To Heaven if you're American. This has long been one of my and Sarah's favourite films and we jumped at the chance to see it on the big screen at the Cheltenham Playhouse, part of a season of "fantastic films". We dragged James along too and I think we converted him.
I should probably do a whole post on my love for this movie, and for P&P's other classic films, but I'll just state for now that it's one of the most beautiful, heart-felt, witty and wise films ever to be made in this country. The direction by Michael Powell and the cinematography by Jack Cardiff are absolutely perfect and the wonderful script by the Hungarian Emeric Pressburger is a total joy, masterfully capturing aspects of the British character as only an outsider could see them. The story of a WWII airman who jumps from his burning plane without a parachute but survives and then has to justify his life to a maybe-imaginary Heavenly court is a triumph  -   a sweet love story, wrapped up in a fantasy, underpinned by philosophical ideas and touching on darker themes of war and mental illness. There really isn't anything else like it. And the lead actors  -  a never-better David Niven, Kim Hunter, Roger Livesey, Marius Goring and Raymond Massey  - are all sublime. I have to admit, I've never watched the last scene of this movie without getting a bit misty-eyed... and I hope I never do.

Bank Holiday mood

You know it makes sense...

Portsmouth Comic Con 2019

A couple of weekends ago ( trust this blog to always be up to the minute! ) we spent two days in sunny Portsmouth, home of the Mary Rose, the HMS Victory, the Spinnaker Tower, and the beautiful Portsmouth Guildhall which was playing host to hundreds of Wookiees, superheroes, gamers and Imperial storm troopers. Yes, you guessed it, this was the Portsmouth Comic Con and a very impressive con it was too, definitely the biggest one I've been to so far. The major draw for me was the appearance of those comic book legends, "Rascally" Roy Thomas and "Stainless" Steve Engelhart, two of the defining writers of the Silver and Bronze Ages. This was also an opportunity to catch up with the nearly-as-legendary Kids From Rec Road, but more of them later...

Whilst Sarah headed off to Gunwharf Quays for some retail therapy James and I| plunged into the maelstrom of the con. It was really quite bewildering with room after room and floor upon floor filled with toys, games, comics, artwork, cosplayers, families, people with very poor bodily hygiene, all squeezed into a labyrinthine building which was lovely but didn't seem to follow any logical pattern. After a little while getting our bearings I made a beeline ( whatever that is ) for "Sturdy" Steve Engelhart himself who was signing comics in the artist / writer area ( I'm sure it had a snappier title than that! ). For those who don't know, Steve was one of THE most prolific writers of the Bronze Age of comics who had celebrated runs on some of the most important mags of the day  -  The Avengers, The Defenders, Justice League Of America, Doctor Strange, Captain America, Detective Comics  -  whilst also creating or co-creating and writing such characters as Star-Lord and Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu. In later years he also wrote an excellent update of the Fantastic Four as well as working for Malibu, Valiant and Topps. Phew! My personal fave of all his comics work was the time he spent with the following master of the mystic arts...

Naturally, this was the comic I'd brought from my own collection for Steve to sign. He was very gracious when I gushed about how much I'd loved this series as a young reader and how it had been ahead of its time in terms of philosophy and concepts. He told me briefly about the differing working relationships he'd had with artists Frank Brunner and Gene Colan on Doctor Strange  -  basically, Steve and Frank would brainstorm story ideas together over some jazz cigarettes and then Steve would shape those ideas into a story, whilst Gene was happy to work from a full script and didn't contribute to the plots. He also briefly touched on his time working with Marshall Rogers on Silver Surfer after I'd raved about that series too. Unfortunately our time was cut short after someone reminded Steve that he was due on a panel so I had to move on, but at least I'd spoken to one of my all-time favourite comics authors who had turned out to be a lovely bloke... and he'd signed my comic...

James and I legged it to the Guildhall's impressive council chambers for Steve's panel. Here we heard him repeat the stories he'd just told me about Doctor Strange and the Surfer, as well as further fascinating anecdotes about writing Captain America in the Watergate era, working with Marshall Rogers on Detective Comics, and his later creator-owned characters like Coyote and Scorpio Rose. Also at the panel were my ol' blog buddy Pete Doree of The Bronze Age Of Blogs and Kids From Rec Road fame, and Colin Brown, curator of the John M Burns Art Facebook page. We had a quick chat after the panel before going on separate quests. ( There's a wonderfully in depth post about this con on Pete's blog, which you can read here. He's remembered loads of stuff so I don't have to... )

James and I took a quick detour down to Gunwharf Quays to meet Sarah for some lunch and then it was back to the con. After nosing around the various stalls etc and briefly chatting with the guys from Knockabout Comics I queued up to meet the Rascally One himself... Mr. Roy "The Boy" Thomas...

Yeah, here I am with THE Roy Thomas! As someone who's been reading Roy's comics for nearly as long as I've actually been able to read this was an exciting, and surreal, experience.As with my meetings with Steve Engelhart and "Dauntless" Don McGregor last year I found it incredibly hard to encapsulate decades' worth of time reading and enjoying the man's work in the short time I had with him. ( I didn't get off to a great start when I shook Roy's hand and he said "Wow! You've got a strong grip... and I've got arthritis." Oops! ) Anyway, he was perfectly charming and allowed me to burble on about what a fan I am  -  I'm sure he hears this stuff all the time. For a long time, of course, Roy was Stan Lee's right hand man at Marvel Comics, taking over the reigns himself as Editor in Chief when The Man moved on to Hollywood, and is a legendary figure in the industry. He had a stellar career writing mostly for Marvel and DC ( excelling at team books like the FF, X-Men, Avengers, Invaders, Justice Society Of America, Infinity Inc ) but one of his characters clearly stands head and overly-muscled shoulders above all the rest and was the obvious choice when I was thinking of getting a signature...

Okay, Conan The Barbarian wasn't actually created by Roy ( that honour of course goes to the legendary Robert E Howard ) but he's probably the most important character that Roy developed for Marvel and he's the character that is the most associated with the Rascally One. And it was always going to be this exact comic that I'd like to have signed, Conan The Barbarian #24 from March 1973, the last regular issue to feature the incomparable art of Barry Windsor-Smith. I've had this issue since ( I think ) the Christmas of 1978. Back in the Summer of that long-ago year ( imagine? 41 years! ) we'd had a family holiday in that there London and I'd had my mind blown by my very first visit to a comic shop, the legendary ( there's a lot of "legendary" in this post ) Dark They Were & Golden Eyed. For my first glimpse of the world of comics retail, before the advent of such faceless shops as Forbidden Planet, DTY&GE was a pretty cool place to start. A veritable Aladdin's cave of comics, posters, "head shop" products and ephemera, it was a wonderful place to visit and I easily blew my limited budget. And then I came across a copy of CTB #24. I persuaded my parents to buy it for me but they kept it as a Christmas present so I had to wait half a year before I could marvel at Roy and Barry's four-colour masterpiece, The Song Of Red Sonja.

( Yes, it was a pretty good Christmas morning! )
As with my chat with Steve Engelhart I was aware that that there was still a queue of people behind me waiting to see the great man so I didn't hang around too long. I had a quick word with Roy about The Hero Initiative, the charity he's involved with which raises funds for healthcare for veteran comics creators ( read about its good works here ), gave some money to the cause and then moved on. It had only been a short moment really but... I'd met Roy Thomas! Very, very happy.
( Incidentally, did you notice that Roy signed the above with a Biro not a marker pen? He was concerned that the thicker ink from a marker pen might show through on the next page. Pete and I were talking about this recently and he remarked on how respectful Steve and Roy were for the artwork on the covers they signed  -  they always tried not to cover important parts of the art. A small but very telling point. )

In between these encounters with awesome authors I did manage to rummage around the long-boxes for some bargains. Unfortunately these were in short supply  -  for all its good points, the Portsmouth Comic Con was severely lacking in yer actual comics, in fact it's probably the poorest one I've been to in terms of back issues. ( I mean proper back issues, not just year-old American comics at a slightly reduced price. ) And, of course, virtually no British comics at all. I only picked up two
 ( two! ) comics  -  an issue of  Warren Ellis & John Cassady's wonderful Planetary ( only one issue of the series to go to complete my collection ) and this Fourth World wonder from the King himself...

As the day began to wind down we headed to the local Wetherspoon's ( only the best pubs for us! ) to meet up with the Kids From Rec Road for a swift drink before we went our separate ways. Although the dreaded ( and pseudonymous ) Arnold Lipschitz didn't show, I still caught up with Pete ( blogger extraordinaire! ), the mega-talented and award-winning Sean Phillips, and met the third of the Kids  -  Dave H who actually lives in good ol' Gloucester just like your humble blogger. It's a small world but I wouldn't want to paint it etc. etc. Here are the Kids in full flow, with Dave explaining just why Marvel are better than DC ( probably )

Not long after I took this photo, Sean headed back into the Guildhall for the Tripwire Awards where he won for Best Artist and Best Original Graphic Novel  -  very well deserved!
Whilst Sarah, James and I headed off as well  -  to our hotel just outside Portsmouth and an extremely average meal in a local restaurant. We then spent the next day in sunny Portsmouth, more to follow...

So, a fun day out with some fine people  -  shall we do it again next year?

And now, here's that absolute bell-end Jacob Rees-Mogg on Brexit:

 @Jacob_Rees_Mogg

If a long extension leaves us stuck in the EU we should be as difficult as possible. We could veto any increase in the budget, obstruct the putative EU army and block Mr Macron’s integrationist schemes.

1:43 AM - 5 Apr 2019

So, what you're saying "Jake" ( I bet he'd hate that! ) is... let me get this straight... we HAD power all along? We're weren't totally at the mercy of evil, slimy ( and, indeed, foreign, ) EU bureaucrats?

Does this mean you and your Leave cronies in fact LIED to us?

Sacre bleu! Who would have thought it?

The Skids at The Brook, Southampton and the Guildhall, Gloucester

Over a couple of weekends in February I've been privileged to see one of my absolute fave live bands put on two cracking gigs in two great venues. I'm talking of course of the mighty Skids, improbably but wonderfully reborn and reinvigorated for the 21st century. My friends in Borrowed Time had supported Richard Jobson and co. on half a dozen dates of this tour and so, when I was asked if I wanted to go down to Southampton in the van with the BT boys, I couldn't say no. ( Well, I say "boys" but the lovely Helen was driving the van and running the merch stall too. What a star! )

The Brook in Southampton was a cool venue  -  an old pub converted into an events space, deceptively large inside with a strangely hipster-friendly bar upstairs. I helped Borrowed Time load their gear into the venue and then we had the pleasure of watching Dunfermline's legendary Skids doing their soundcheck ( see photo above ). After a bit of instrumental noodling and setting levels on the mixing desk, Jobbo came onto the stage, gave my mate Glenn a quick salute, and then they were straight down to business.They played a spine-tingling version of the epic Arena and then a jaw-dropping cover of Bowie's "Heroes"  -  it was a special moment, a real privilege to see and hear ahead of the actual gig. Below are Cliff and Glenn from Borrowed Time, being heroes, just for one day...

After a quick trip to a local American-themed fast food joint for a tasty veggie burger and cheesy chips ( this is life on the road, folks! ) I had a very brief chat with Skids guitarist Jamie Watson and then headed back to The Brook to see Borrowed Time kick off the evening. ( Literally. Rob was doing high kicks all over his limited space on the cramped stage. )

The BT boys were on fine form  -  in fact, this was possibly the best gig I've seen them play. The almost constant gigging has paid off and they are now tighter and more professional than ever. They went down a storm with the Southampton audience who clamoured for signed CDs after the gig which must have made the band feel like they'd finally hit the big time. It was a lot of fun, especially for me and Helen who were down the front as the only representatives of the band's home fanbase, and could see how engaged the Soton punks were with the set. Glenn even dedicated the song Oceans to me. Which was nice.

And then it was time for the main event. The traditional back-masked burbling of Peaceful Times heralded the appearance of The Skids who hit the stage running with the powerful punch of Animation, followed by the stop-start lunacy that is Of One Skin. The crowd went absolutely nuts for this one which really set the tone for the evening.

The audience was a seething mass of excitement ( no, really! ) as the band pummelled us with such titanic, singalong classics as Hurry On Boys, Working For The Yankee Dollar and The Saints Are Coming, while also dropping in a couple of crowd-pleasing songs from their comeback album, Kings Of The New World Order and One Last Chance. Jobbo was his usual ebullient, entertaining self, telling his tall tales of 1970s celebrity encounters ( TOTP, DLT. Pan's People, Saville ) and praising the previous night's audience in Swansea ( "Say what you like about the Welsh, they can fuckin' SING!" ) while challenging us to do better. Well, we certainly tried if my totally knackered voice the next morning was anything to go by.

Highlights of the set were a majestic version of A Woman In Winter ( my all-time fave Skids song ), a bruising, set-closing Out Of Town and the obligatory shout-along of TV Stars  -  Albert Tatlock!
TBH I could have done without the pointless cover version medley of Pretty Vacant and What Do I Get? ( which at least had some relevance when I saw them last, a couple of days after Pete Shelley died ) but the Southampton crowd loved that cheesy slice of Punk karaoke. And it was more than compensated for by two showings for the rollercoaster melancholy ( is there such a thing? ) of The Saints Are Coming, half way through the set and then again as an extra encore, Jobbo leading the crowd a capella -style through its mighty chorus.
This was a cracking gig  -  maybe my fave Skids performance and certainly the one to beat this year for any other band. It was loud, it was sweaty, I got covered in beer and pushed around... and I loved it! All too soon it came to an end, we hung around and chatted for a while ( briefly with Skids bass player, the legendary Bill Simpson ), loaded the gear back into the van, and then set off back to the Shire. It had been a truly wonderful day  -  thanks to Borrowed Time!

And a week later we did it all again, this time in my favourite venue the Gloucester Guildhall! ( As much as I love it, the Guildhall has gone down in my estimation over the last couple of years for relying heavily on dodgy tribute bands. Hopefully this Skids gig was evidence that there's still room for "proper" bands. ) This was intended as the final night of the tour, which made it very special, but another date had been added in Colchester which slightly undermined the Gloucester gig  -  and meant a lot more driving for the Skids tour mini-bus! Anyway, the buzz of anticipation was loud as I reached the Guildhall and located the BT boys, working their way through the backstage "rider". And this excitement had also brought many "old" faces from the local scene out for the night: the mighty Mark B ( my former comrade in the Death Planet Commandos), Andy K ( Demob / Noise Agents ), Baz ( Noise Agents / Borrowed Time ), those Bristol girls Nicky & Lindsey, Tony The Nose, Jamie & Sarah, Ben R ( Chinese Burn legend! ) and many more. It was great to see so many lovely people turn out for The Skids... and Borrowed Time...

There had been a few nerves in the BT camp ahead of this gig  -  the pressure was on as it was their first home town gig in some while and many contemporaries were there to see them  -  but I'm glad to say that ( apart from a couple of bum notes ) the boys smashed it! Songs like Bad Stranger, Under The Radar and The Day We Broke The World went down a treat with the Skids fans, and singer Rob was in fine, cocky form  -  throwing his disgusting socks into the audience and throwing some Yoga shapes on stage, while baiting fans from the Forest Of Dean: "Is there anyone in from the Forest tonight? Yeah? Thank God, I thought it was the drains." And they still made it out alive!
So, a triumphant last night of the tour for the guys. Glenn has said to me on more than one occasion "How did we get here? Who thought we'd end up supporting The Skids in our 50s?" It just shows that talent and hard work pay off even if you're living on borrowed time...

And then it was Skids time! Fife's finest came out to a rapturous welcome from the usually reserved Gloucester audience and went straight into Animation and Of One Skin. Yeah... the set was almost identical to the week before ( as well as a lot of Jobbo's patter ) which was fine because, hey it's The Skids!, but it did make things a bit predictable... here come the new songs, here's the Leo Sayer reference, here's the point where Jobbo introduces the band and calls guitarist Jamie "Ed Sheeran" and so on. It's a minor grumble because the band's performance was out of this world and the Guildhall did them proud with excellent sound and lighting, as ever.
One of the highlights of the gig was spotting fellow blogger David of David Rose's Gig Diaries fame in the crowd. I've been following David's excellent blog for a few years now and it was a pleasure to meet him at last. We managed to chat a bit during the mayhem and hopefully we'll catch up at other gigs further down the road.

( This photo above captures Bruce and Jamie Watson just before one of their Thin Lizzy-like double guitar showdowns. Which are awesome! )
After playing solid gold hits like Circus Games, Masquerade and ( of course! ) Into The Valley the
band played a glorious Scared To Dance, as the 23rd of February was 40 years to the day that the album was released. They then went one further and floored us all by dropping the set-listed Happy To Be With You and pulling out their cover of "Heroes"  -  which was just sublime. A wonderful moment in a wonderful night. And after a final, bruising reprise of Of One Skin, in which I got crushed against the stage barrier by the rabid crowd and unfortunately lost track of David, The Skids were gone.
I said a few words to some of the lovely people there who were similarly knocked out by the bands' performances and then headed for home, tired but happy. What a gig! In fact, what a pair of gigs!

Winter walks

Just a few photos from a couple of walks we took at the weekend, around the beautiful
Westonbirt Arboretum and the tiny Gloucestershire village of Huntingford. Although it's technically still Winter, there was a definite feeling of Spring in the air...