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DIARY 2005

Check back here regularly to follow Chris Dale's quest to find True Metal.


Some Fireworks I downloaded
Saturday 31st December 2005
I spent New Year's Eve on the internet having a virtual party, pulled some hyper-crackers as attachments and drank lots of Flash Media Champagne! I also made my New Year's Resolution to buy some toilet paper. I'm down to the last roll. It's an easy resolution to keep. I think sometimes in the past I've set my goals too high so this time I'm hoping to do well.

The Nativity by Corregio
Sunday 25th December 2005
Christmas and stuff... to celebrate the birth of Jesus I got a camcorder! I'm not really sure how that celebrates the birth of Jesus but it'll help the Sack Trick DVD project along a bit...

Dublin
12-18th December 2005
I Play Rock Celtic Nations Tour. Not a gigging tour as such, we just went and got drunk in Dublin, Newport and Edinburgh in short succession with I Play Rock and our posh mates. Dublin scored 8/10 for getting drunk, Newport 6/10 (though I wasn't trying that hard) and I can't remember Edinburgh so that must have won!

Christmas Danish style
Saturday 10th December 2005
Sack Trick's annual Christmas holiday to Denmark. Yes, it's that time of year when Sack Trick go to Denmark like a rock Santa giving the gift of penguin flavoured metal to all the boys and girls of Roskilde who've been good over the year. But instead of leaving Santa a Mince pie and a glass of milk by the bed, they left him loads of Danish beer. There's a new photo gallery of the gig up at www.sacktrick.com

Me and Richie B shredding
Monday 5th December 2005
I Play Rock Gig at Camden Underworld. We added a couple of new songs since the last I Play Rock gig. We've got an original track called Huh which rivals Bark At The Moon for riffage and we're doing a cover of Paul Gilbert's I Like Rock. I love Paul Gilbert. This last month or so I've played some of my favourite covers of all time...Kiss, Maiden. AC/DC and now Paul Gilbert!

Ralf from Primal Fear
Sunday 4th December 2005
Me and Metal Jay had a Primal Fear day, listening to a few albums and then watching the DVD my good new friends Mat and Ralf from Primal Fear sent me. Jay played some gigs in his old band, Skyclad with Primal Fear on the bill out in Greece years ago too, so it's like one big happy metal family...watching live videos from Wacken Open Air! Them Germans have sure got their metal sorted!

Lots of rock stars & Robin Guy
Tuesday 29th November 2005
Robin Guy organised a big party at the Hard Rock Cafe for Clive Burr's drumkit to go on display there. It was packed wall to wall with rock stars! Of course Clive was there as were Bruce, Adrian and Janick from Maiden, Ian Paice, Tony Iommi, Bernie Tormé, John McCoy, Lea Hart, Girlschool, Cradle of Filth, Fun Loving Criminals and even Robin Guy himself!

A posh Casino in Nova Gorica
Friday 25th November 2005
Thought I'd pop out to Slovenia for the day, went to a posh (or should I say really rough) casino in Nova Gorica. Wasn't that keen on it to be honest, I've seen better sides to Slovenia and worse too come to think of it- a wasp storm in Maribor a few years ago comes to mind. Wasp storms are like snow storms but with wasps instead of snow. This casino wasn't as bad as that but it wasn't great either so I left the next day via Trieste.

Bruce Kulick on the Revenge Tour
Thursday 24th November 2005
I chatted to Bruce Kulick on my Total Rock show today....I've never spoken to a member of Kiss on the phone before. He remembered me and the Sack Trick "Sheep in Kiss Make-up" album too! How cool is that? He said "Yeah, that's a great album". We chatted for a bit about Union, his solo stuff and the bits he'd done on Paul Stanley's new album....then we said bye, see you soon type stuff, then hung up....I'd just chatted to a member of Kiss on the phone just like you'd chat to normal people. I'm blown away!

Vinnie on the Lick It Up Tour
Sunday 20th November 2005
Got back from the Kiss Expo all excited just in time to watch a bit of my Kiss DVDs (they're great- one's from the Lick It Up Tour with Vinnie!) and then straight off to an I Play Rock rehearsal. To be honest all this rocking has taken it out of me recently...I just stumbled around in a half witted manner letting JK and Richie B bear the brunt of the rock...

Sack Trick at the Kiss Expo
Saturday 19th November 2005
A great day out at the UK Kiss Expo at Nottingham Rock City. Me and Robin played a couple of tunes for Adam Bomb (a one time friend of Tommy Thayer's who carries a signed letter around with to to prove it....), then we played a set with Sack Trick (they're my friends too but I've no real proof, you'll just have to take my word for it), then I bought some bootleg DVDs (never buy bootlegs, they're bad for you), and finally got drunk to Dressed to Kill while trying to educate Cheeseman on some of the finer points in Kisstory- probably a wasted exercise. There's a DVD available of the day's events including some of Sack Trick, Adam Bomb and Dressed to Kill's sets at www.kissexpo.co.uk

Joe Clancy in Black Orchid
Thursday 17th November 2005
Back from Brazil onto Total Rock and a chance to play all my new friends' albums...Priaml Fear, Masterplan, Tribe of Gypsies, Angra and of course Tribuzy.... Later went with Rockin Roly Bailey to see Joe Clancy of Black Orchid fame play in a band called Zero Cypher at the "new" Marquee Club in London (it's rubbish by the way), they were pretty good but he was the star...it was great to see him beating the kit like we were back in Black Orchid!

Brazil looks nicer than London
Monday 14th November 2005
Hangover, saying goodbyes and another 10 hour flight to arrive in London's morning rush hour in the rain...

The Toilet I was sick in

Sunday 13th November 2005
The gig in Belo Horizonte was just as metal, perhaps even more metal. Then as with the night before Bruce got behind the kit...Highway to Hell it was first...aren't AC/DC songs great? Then Bruce did the drum fill intro for Black Night and off we set around that... then Bruce started the high hat and kick drum beat for Smoke on the Water...so because it sounds a bit similar we all started playing Run to the Hills...we all laughed so hard we didn't get past the intro...before going into Smoke on the Water properly...I gave Ivan (Tribuzy's bassist) my bass for this one- well actually I swaped it for a fresh DFB (delicious frosty beer) he'd just got. More fun and drinking backstage with everyone after the gig, then again at the hotel. Then some of us went out to a strange rock club for the rest of the night, watched Maiden at Rock in Rio on the big screens, drank stupidly and I was sick in the toilets. A brilliant night! See a full review of my Brazilian holiday here and some photos here.


Me, Gustavo and Bruce onstage
Saturday 12th November 2005
Second Sao Paulo show. T
he only difference was that the DVD was being filmed today, so the metal hard to be extra hard. Then at the end of the gig because the crazy Brazilian crowd kept asking for more Roy Z started the riff for Tush by ZZ Top...I stood listening for a minute or two before recognising it, then joined in with a load of the other guitarists. Something sounded a bit different though...I looked around and there was Bruce playing the drums! Very silly. Then backstage for more laughs and a chance to meet up with some friends like Nando, who runs the Sack Trick Chat Forum. Then back to the hotel for a more drinks and laughs. This was becoming a travelling heavy metal party.

Mat, Roy Z, me and Andreas Kisser

Friday 11th November 2005
First show of the Tribuzy mini tour. This was an incredible line-up. Jeff Scott Soto (Yngwie/Talisman) was the opening act. Then Tribuzy's Brazilian band got up and played songs from the Excecution album, with guests such as Bruce Dickinson, Roy Z (Tribe of Gypsies), Roland Grapow (Helloween/Masterplan), Kiko Lauriero (Angra), Mat Siner and Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear) and Andreas Kisser (Sepultura) getting up and joining in here and there. There's all these brilliant musicians here and I'm stuck in the middle of them! At the end of the gig me and Roy Z would get up with Bruce and do some Bruce and Maiden tunes. During these numbers we'd be joined by some of Tribuzy's band and some of the guests jamming too. Andreas Kisser was next to me being stupidly loud. I was going to ask him to turn down a bit but then I realised he's the guy out of Sepultura- that's his trademark he plays stupidly loud!


Glad to see Renato

Thursday 10th November 2005
When we landed in São Paulo at 6am after a sleepless night and it was pissing down with rain (I thought Brazil was sunny so I'd only got a t-shirt on)....I was in a pretty bad mood.... Then the sun came out and I met up with Bruce and his mate Alfredo at customs. All was fine again! We had a good old chat on the way to the hotel, catching up on gossip and funny stories and wondering what lay ahead for us at these strange gigs... The first thing that lay ahead was meeting Renato at the Five Star Hilton Hotel! Amazing! I had a massive room with a bathroom I got lost in on more than one occasion, a view over São Paulo and the best bed in the world (I tried to steal it on the way home but couldn't get it in my bag). I went swimming in the luxury pool. See a full review of my Brazilian holiday here and some photos here.


Rugby Players...
Don't sit next to them on planes!
Wednesday 9th November 2005
Off to Brazil for the Tribuzy gigs....
I don't mind flying but I'm not as keen on it as say, Bruce Dickinson is. Then again I don't know anyone who's a keen on flying as Bruce is. But a 10 hour flight, sat next to a rugby player who's twice as broad as his seat was never going to be the best part of the holiday. Worst of all I'd brought a book to read... and then found out at Heathrow I'd brought one I'd already read by accident. Aaaaargh! I was going a bit mad at that point. See a full review of my Brazilian holiday here and some great live photos here.

My Jay Jay French plectrum
Sunday 6th November 2005
Went to see Twisted F****** Sister with Robin at Wembley. They're one of my favourite bands ever and I've never seen them live until now. All those years and they didn't disappoint! They truly rocked. Me and Robin were little fans in the front row with our fists in the air, we even got guitar pics! I've not enjoyed a gig so much in ages. Then Alice Cooper played, we hung out backstage, met Eric Singer etc...but all I could think about was the rock power of the the 'Sister live!

My bass and some Maiden albums
Tuesday 25th October 2005
Just realised it's only a couple of weeks till I go to Brazil to play some metal bass for Renato Tribuzy and Bruce Dickinson...I'd better learn some songs! Just in case you're going to the gig (go on!...you'll get a tan and it'll be top fun!) I won't spoil the surprise by telling you the set list but suffice it to say I've been annoying the neighbours by playing bass stupidly loud to some Maiden albums all afternoon...also while jamming around I made a video clip of me playing Sack Trick's 'Perfect Today' for some of the people on the Sack Trick Chat Forum. It's a pretty big file but it's here if you're curious.

Ronnie James Dio
Saturday 22nd October 2005
Went to see Ronnie James Dio live at the London Astoria. No news to report. He's still got an amazing voice, still puts 100% into every gig, still has some amazing songs (he played the whole of the Holy Diver album tonight) and still looks as if he might go bald next year. Just your average night out at a Dio gig really- brilliant! And the bonus about going to a gig like Dio is you get to bump into all of your mates you've not seen for a while like Rockin'Roly Bailey, Joe Clancy (from Black Orchid) and former (when it was good) Kerrang writer Paul Elliott. I'd not seen him since the Sheep In Kiss Make-up album came out. He told me the best thing we'd done with the Elder was missed out all the boring bits! Boring bits on the Elder? Can't say I'd noticed any...

Total Rock
Thursday 20th October 2005
Back at Total Rock Radio for more metal. It was a great show- well I enjoyed it anyway. There's something very relaxing about sitting in a small room blasting myself with metal for three hours solid.

The Water Tower in Mannheim
Saturday 15th October 2005
Popped over to the former Grand Duchy of Baden (Mannheim, actually) to sample a couple of Weissbiers with some mates like Metal Jay, Andy Carr (you remember him, he played bass on Tattooed Millionaire), Tony Hadley and the I Play Rock lads, JK and RB. You'll never guess who we bumped into over there....Andy and Leigh from ESS and Martin Fry from ABC! The most remarkable thing about Mannheim (apart from the Weissbier, Schnitzel and Bratwurst) is its very nice water tower. Don't get me started on water towers!

I Play Rock - The Album
Monday 3rd October 2005
I Play Rock the Album is released. All our proud efforts of the last few months have come to vinyl (well CD anyway) at last! I'm very pleased with the results....See I Play Rock for more info.

JK on lead vocals!
Saturday 1st October 2005
I Play Rock first gig! We did a secret gig just to check levels of rock onstage before our first full I Play Rock gig at Camden Underworld on December 5th (get tickets directly from I Play Rock). Whereas most bands do "secret" warm up gigs in obvious places like the Marquee or the Astoria, the gig we chose to do as a secret was one that nobody would have suspected- we played Butlins holiday camp in Minehead. And the levels of rock turned out just fine- slightly above 99% pure rock!

The Singer's Bum DVD
Friday 30th September 2005
I got the see the DVD of the Tony Hadley & Martin Fry tour that I wandered around on earlier this year. It's all the fun we had in three months packed into 45 minutes. It even features a bit of me, Richie B and JK playing Led Zeppelin at the Albert Hall, which is great. Pure rock history re-lived. There's another clip of me eating a banana, that's kind of average to be honest- no Oscars for me for that one. The DVDs called the "Singer's Bum" and is out on Townsend Records if you're interested.

Jay's safe driving
Saturday 24th September 2005
Me and Metal Jay just went driving around the motorways of Britain, listening to metal and putting the world's troubles to right. To be honest we do that quite a lot. Sometimes we drive past nice tourist sites, sometimes we go to little villages, sometimes we pop in on our mates for tea, but mostly we just drive around with Dio on the stereo. This time went to Blackpool...to see the lights....

Rentao Tribuzy Live!
Wednesday 14th September 2005
Renato Tribuzy Gigs confirmed! Yes, that's right I'll be jetting off to play a couple of shows with Renato in São Paulo in November. He's got one heck of a supergroup playing with him....Bruce Dickinson, Roy Z, Roland Grapow (Hellowen), Andreas Kisser (Sepultura), Kiko Lauriero (Angra) and some chaps from Primal Fear. And the support band is Jeff Scott Soto, Yngwie's former singer who also sang on some unreleased Vinnie Vincent songs...I'm going to grill him for Vinnie info.....

Birthday Boy Roo!
Monday 12th September 2005
Sack Trick played at the Underworld in Camden. This time it was Roo's special birthday party and as a special treat we had a game of "Onstage Wobbly-Guitarist". That is, we let him get too drunk to stand before the gig. The odd thing was his fingers moved just fine and found all the right frets, it was just his legs that couldn't find the floor. Top fun again! The venue was pretty packed which is pretty odd because it was a Monday and I didn't tell anyone except you lot about it.

Sack Trick 2005
Sunday 11th September 2005
Sack Trick played at the Joiner's in Southampton. It's a fun little venue, and it was a top gig all round. Support band Toupé made my day by being a two-bassist three piece band. No room for guitars in their wall of silly sounds. They gave me a copy of their new album Burgers too, it's full of bass silliness, I'd recommend it to everyone but then you're probably not as obsessed about bass players as me. Our gig got sillier still, that fridge Roly brought onstage to keep our beers cool was a great idea.

Trying to play Racer X songs
Saturday September 10th 2005
Sack Trick played at a private party at the Peel in Kingston, as kind-of a warm-up for our two date tour. Sorry I couldn't invite you all down there, but it was a surprise private party. Very confusing. It was so much of a surprise that we started our set with a cover of Racer X's Scarified to throw them off the Penguin flavoured scent.

Rockin' Roly Bailey
Wednesday September 7th 2005
Sack Trick rehearsal...for the first time in ages. It was really funny trying to remember bits of songs....I think we played them mostly right. It was also the first rehearsal with Roly Bailey (of Bittersweet fame). Roly's going to be playing percussion, bagpipes, bicycle horn and backing vocals. Now that I hear bagpipes in our music I'm surprised we got away with doing gigs for ages without them.

Doogie White- the Horned Beast
Tuesday 6th September 2005
Me and Roo went to see Doogie and Jackie. Doogie's the Voice of Rock and Jackie's the dog. She's never really liked me before. You know when someone just doesn't like you for no reason? That happened a lot to us when we were in Atom Seed. Lots of people didn't like Atom Seed, can't imagine why. Anyway today Jackie decided she was my friend and we made up and had a nice chat in French. There's not many dogs that speak French in London, but Jackie's one of them.

Leffe Bruin
Sunday September 4th 2005
My birthday! I got loads of great presents...including a bottle of champagne, a family size bottle of Leffe Bruin and a bottle of Pilsner Urquell. Guess what I did with them all, then guess how I felt the next day?

Bruvce in Iron Miaden
Friday September 2nd 2005
Bruce Dickinson called up this afternoon and asked if I fancied coming to see Iron Maiden at Hammersmith Odeon. He didn't have to ask twice. Maiden at Hammersmith!?!?! It was so good to see a great metal band back at the Odeon with a full stage show. It really took me back to the eighties when I used to go and see bands like Maiden, Ozzy, Ratt, Mötley, Stryper, WASP, Dio, AC/DC, Anthrax, Queensryche, Crimson Glory (anyone remember them in their funny silver masks?)...then I went to the aftershow party but I got a bit bored of all the free beer so left before 3am.

I Play Rock - The Album
Thursday 1st September 2005
Finished mixing the I Play Rock album (well I didn't mix it, John Brough did that mostly, I just sat in the background trying to look helpful with a Hoegaarden in one hand). It sounds great. For those of you who haven't heard it, I'd describe it as Rock flavoured Rock with a touch of Rock. It bridges the crossover between Rock and Rock very well. 

Iron Maiden Classics
Sunday August 28th 2005
I popped along to Reading Festival. What a lovely summer day out. By a fantastic stroke of luck I managed to miss every band except Iron Maiden. Who wants to see goths in daylight anyway? My only complaint about Maiden's setlist was there wasn't a break during a dull song to go for a wee. It was hit after hit, classic after classic. I was thinking of going for a pee after Die With Your Boots On, then they started Phantom of the Opera, so I thought I'd wait till after that, then they played Hallowed Be Thy Name. By this point I was bent double with my legs crossed and weeing tears out of my eyes.

Food for Thought
Thursday August 23rd 2005
Today's Total Rock Radio Show was jam packed with special guests. First there was Renato Tribuzy (well he'd come all the way from Brazil, so I couldn't not have him on the the show again could I?). Then we had Plastic Toys on (they're a band too) and then I chatted with Henrik and Mattias about their weird Maiden covers album they've just released. It's called Food for Thought  and I think it's really good- I'm slightly biased cos I played bass on one track but I even like the songs I didn't play on too. I love their Bee Gees take on the Mercenary. See Food For Thought website.

Renato and Gustavo in London
Tuesday August 21st 2005
Renato Tribuzy came over to visit from Brazil with his guitarist Gustavo. The Tribuzy album I played on a while ago is finally getting a European release. I took them around all the big tourist attractions like the Tower of London, Total Rock Radio and my local pub. In fact I took them to several pubs, just to get the atmosphere. 

Matt Backer
Monday August 15th 2005
Now this was one weird studio session. Me, Metal Jay Graham on drums, Mikee from Sikth and Matt Backer (ABC/Alan Partridge guitarist- yes he's in Chalet!). Matt does a bunch of library recordings for TV and stuff and he wanted to do some metal tracks so we got Jay and Mikee down to metal up Matt's tunes. I'll have to put an MP3 of it up on this site when I get a copy, it's too metal to believe!

R Guy, me &, Bernie Tormé
Saturday August 13th 2005
Went to see Robin Guy playing with Bernie Tormé and John McCoy (both ex-Gillan) in their new band GMT at the Peel in Kingston. They were a great as expected. They played loads of old Tormé and Gillan songs and some new stuff they've been writing together for an upcoming album. I always thought Tormé was a top guitarist but having Sack Trick's very own R Guy behind him makes him sound all the better.

Pillow Talk- The Film
Thursday August 11th 2005
Pillow Talk were my special guests on Total Rock this week to chat about their new album Criminal Conviction. If you've already got Pillow Talk's album you'll be pleased to find out they've also got a film out starring Doris Day and Rock Hudson. Amazon described it as "one of the funniest and most romantic films ever made", to be honest it's not as funny as the albums, but anything they do is good by me.

Dawnie and me in Brussels
Friday 5th August 2005
Me and Dawnie went to Brussels for the weekend. For those of you who don't know Brussels is the capital of everything that's great in the culinary world- beer, chocolate and chips with mayonnaise. We had loads of all of them, thus a great time was had.

Majorca
Friday July 22nd 2005
Me, John Keeble and Richie B had an "I Play Rock" band meeting at a villa in Majorca. That's just the kind of thing that happens when you're in a band with real rock stars. Oh, and they were playing a gig at someone's wedding party over there.....

John Keeble
Friday July 15th 2005
Popped into Sonic Studios this morning with JK and Richie B and left later that day with a finished "I Play Rock" album! I've never made an album so quickly. We just plugged in and rocked live, no mistakes so no overdubs. It feels great! We jammed a couple of new tunes, played a couple of tunes from past bands (in my case a full rock version of "Sack Trick's I Play Bass") and did a couple of covers we'd always wanted to rock up (in my case a Kiss song of course....). See I Play Rock

Dee Snider
Thursday 7th July 2005
I missed today's Totsal Rock show because of the terrorist bombings in central London. I'll be back next week, as Dee Snider once said "You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll".

I Play Rock
Tuesday 5th July 2005
I joined a new band! It's called "I Play Rock". The band was a two piece featuring Richie the B and John Keeble, now it's a three piece with me (in mathematical terms 2+1= 3). First rehearsal sounded great! The aim of the band is purely to rock...and it will rock. 

Tribuzy album cover
Tuesday 28th June 2005
I finally got a copy of Renato Tribuzy's album. Weird hearing stuff I played bass on a couple of years ago and not heard since. It's really a full metal assault. I'm quite pleasantly surprised at ourselves, for focussing the metal magnifying glass so well. See Tribuzy Website.

Motley Crue
Sunday 19th June 2005
Me and Dawnie went to see Benny the Calvert in his new band Killing Joke who happened to be supporting a band called Motley Crue at an arena just round the corner. Benny was just a little dot bashing away in the distance...but bashing away in style nonetheless! Motley did a kind thing and split their set into two parts. The first (compulsory) part was all songs from Too Fast For Love and Shout at the Devil (their good stuff) and the second (optional) part of the show was full of the poo they've done since. Then, just as we were about to leave Dawnie bumps into one of her pop-star mates, Faye from Steps. What's she doing at a Motley gig? Loving metal was the answer. I'm beginning to see that all pop stars love metal really.

John Keeble doing BVs
Thursday 16th June 2005
This week I interviewed former Spandau Ballet drummer John Keeble on Total Rock. We chatted mostly about rock! Then we popped downstairs where Alex Kane, Professor Malcolm Dome and others were recording a new song called Green Jack Jerry as a birthday present for our (not very) old mate, Jerry Ewing. Me and JK added some great backing vocals that'll probably get deleted later if anyone's got ears.

Bruce on the radio
Wednesday 15th June 2005
I did a few interviews with Bruce Dickinson. First I went over to his BBC6 Radio show and he interviewed me about the Sack Trick Sheep album and other stuff, then we went over to Total Rock and I interviewed him about his new album Tyranny of Souls, then finally we went to a pub and interviewed each other generally over a Budvar or two.

The clean underside of my nose
(As seen in digital Megapixels)
Tuesday June 14th 2005
I got a digital camera today! They're a new invention, like old cameras but with a little telly on the back. It's going to be so useful (for a start there'll probably end up being loads more stupid photos on this site) but also for a very practical reason. I, like many men of my age, occasionally suffer from what scientists now recognise as "Bogeys". A doctor once explained it to me as a perfectly natural phenomenon, whereby nasal mucus is dried by air movement and forms these "bogeys" inside one's lower nasal passage often gripping to nasal hairs. Even modern medicine has so far found no permanent cure but thankfully they're not a painful complaint, more just a social nuisance. In the past I would have to awkwardly peer into a mirror in the bathroom to spot these lurkers. Now with the aid of technology I can unobtrusively snap the underside of my nose and check the little telly on the back of the digital camera using its Megapixels-Zoom Pro-4 function. I could probably do this in a restaurant in between courses without disturbing fellow guests.

Bob Ezrin with Kiss
Monday June 13th 2005
A little while ago, Dawnie (who's very clever) managed to send Bob Ezrin a Sheep In Kiss Make-Up CD. What do you mean who's Bob Ezrin? He's only the guy who produced the Elder album for Kiss! And here's the great part, Bob's got back to us to say he loves it. I think Gene Hall summed it up best when I told him. He said "OMG! BOB EZRIN!!!!!!....WOWEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!OMG!!! BOB FLIPPIN' EZRIN!!AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! YA!!!!".

Silly Two Handed Tapping
Saturday 11th June 2005
Pissing around on my bass today I came up with the stupidest two handed tapping bit ever. It sounds all nice and melodic but is absolutely impossible to play. If I ever manage to play it twice consecutively it I'll try to record it for you.

Dokken's Back for the Attack
Thursday 9th June 2005
I interviewed Chris from 3 Doors Down on Total Rock today. Not having listened to any new albums for just over 15 years now (since I found perfection on Dokken's "Back for the Attack" album and didn't see any need to look further) I had no clue who 3 Doors Down were. It turns out that they're massive! They've had US number one albums, platinum discs and sold over 12 million albums worldwide. But guess what? He was a really nice bloke, very humble, totally down to earth and keeping it truly real. I knew the meek were blessed but I didn't know they were going to sell that many records. Good on 'em!

Me and Jim Bob
Wednesday 25th May 2005
Jimmy Bob Jirgens came over for a pre-production meeting on the new "Teach Yourself Latvian" album we're going to make. It'll be a really handy way to learn Latvian to a musical background. Neither of us speak much Latvian yet but that's the challenge! We recorded a few bits, it's going to sound great if we ever actually get around to finishing it. And believe me, you will all learn Latvian from it. I've learned loads already just by humming along.

Cheeseman getting wise
Tuesday 24th May 2005
Cheeseman told me to record the bass parts even faster for the new Sack Trick stuff. He'd not heard what I'd done already but he psychically knew that it should be faster. You can't mess with Cheeseman's knowledge, he's very wise on these things. So back to the drawing board I went and played it all loads faster!!!!!!!

Joe Inferno
Monday 23rd May 2005
Been recording some bass parts on the new Sack Trick stuff, the only question is whether to leave the distortion on all the time...it sounds so metal! And in the middle of recording who should call up but our old hero Joe Inferno, so I got him to record his parts for the album down the phone from Germany. Joe inspired me to leave the distortion on a lot of the time, which in turn inspired me to pay very silly and fast. Was this a bad idea? Only time will tell...

Geezer by Name...
Thursday 19th May 2005
To open up my new season on Total Rock Radio Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath came on the show today for a chat. Can you imagine that? My favourite thing in the world- playing heavy metal bass- was invented by this guy! And he was a top bloke too, not a serious word to be said. He claimed he'd recorded his new GZR album when he was three and that he'd walked from Birmingham that morning. Geezer by name Geezer by nature.

SPAM
Monday 16th May 2005
Back from Salzburg to millions of emails, yay! What are they all going to say? How cheap can I buy sexual stimulants this week? I wonder if any West African business men want my bank details again? SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM, SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM...

Where Eagles Dare
Sunday 15th May 2005
Today me and Dawnie went up an alp. Alps are terribly big rocks they have in Europe which make you feel queasy when you climb them...or maybe that was the Weissbier? Anyway the great thing was we had to use the same cable car that they used in "Where Eagles Dare" starring Clint Eastwood and Cliff Burton (from Metallica). Well, no the really great thing is getting out of the cable car onto solid land with all limbs intact.

Dawnie with a lion
Saturday 14th May 2005
We went down some Salt Mines in Bavaria. It was a little dull except for the big wooden slides you get to have a go on that the miners used to use to reach lower shafts. They're good fun. You can't take many good photos down a mine so here's photo of Dawnie playing with a lion in the Mirabell Gardens instead. Don't worry it's not a real lion.

Salzburg...been there!
Thursday 12th May 2005
Me and Dawnie went off to Salzburg for a holiday!!!!

New Pillow Talk album
Sunday 8th May 2005
I got the new Pillow Talk album "Criminal Conviction"....it's on constant repeat. It's so good. I'd heard a few bits and pieces of demos of it before, but it's even better than all that. Words can't do it justice, just go to Pillow Talk and a get a copy.

Bingo
Saturday 7th May 2005
Finally the end of the marathon Metal Club tour! So me and Swiss Roo drove around in a van looking for fun. It's amazing how hard it can be trying to find a bit of fun on a Saturday evening in West London. First we went to a golf course, but when we narrowly missed a head-on collision with a Ferrari in the car park we decided it might be a bit up market for us. Then we saw signs for a circus. Circuses are full of fun with scary clowns and funny tigers so we thought we'd be fine there. But alas they'd just finished a performance and the next one didn't start for hours. Then we saw signs for Hampton Court maze, but we got lost on the way there. While getting lost we realised Kingston Laserquest wasn't far away so we sped over there. But there were no teenagers to shoot at when we got there, they were all half naked in the street snogging bottles of alco-pops. As a last desperate attempt at fun went to a Bingo Hall. I've never played Bingo before but lots of people do so it must be fun. But in some bizarre post 9/11 security set up they need 24 hours to vet your membership application before you can join a Bingo Club. So no go there either. I asked the young guy behind the counter if he knew of anywhere fun to go in London on a Saturday night. "Errrr...dunno," he said.

AC/DC Rocks!
Friday 6th May 2005
End of Tour in Southhampton! Everybody likes a little joke at the end of tour but maybe we went too far when I got up and played bass in the gig. There I was metalling my way through Spandau Ballet's "Gold" with Tony Haldey. I even managed a bit of tapping in it which probably wasn't on the original version. Then again us doing AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" Martin Fry from ABC- probably didn't sound much like AC/DC, more like AB/CD- but we did try to make it rock like AC/DC.

Faint signs of intelligence
Tuesday 3rd May 2005
I made a quick website for the two Phils in the Tony Hadley band. They've got a side project called "Faint Signs of Intelligence" and its quickly becoming my new favourite album. Check out their song "Will You Look After My Hamster?", the MP3s up at Faint Signs of Intelligence.

ABC? Never heard of them
Saturday 30th April 2005
Halifax. Shat myself. The touring bassist P-dub felt really ill poor lad so I played the bass for the whole soundcheck with a bunch of odd tunes I never realised I knew like ABC's "When Smokey Sings" and some Tom Petty song. That was all quite a laugh until Martin Fry told me I might have to do the whole gig if Bass hero P-dub didn't get better soon. I'm sure everyone wished him a speedy recovery but nobody quite as much as me in that moment. Luckily he recovered enough. Nobody wants to hear me mangle pop songs with my blunted weapon of rock!

Carmine Appice
Thursday 28th April 2005
Metal club comes to Leicester De Montfort Hall...I know that name...The reason this place sounds so familiar to me is I had a bootleg of Ozzy playing here in the Bark at the Moon tour in '83, it was one of Carmine Appice's few gigs with Ozzy and to think Jake stood on this actual stage. I found a quiet moment to screech out a bit of Bark at the Moon in tribute...

Yes, that guitar!
Monday 25th April 2005
Had a day off in Cardiff so went out for a pint with Metal Matty at the Hard Rock Cafe to talk about Metal and stuff. Low and behold what's do they have in the Cardiff Hard Rock Cafe? One of Vinnie Vincent's pink Jackson Sharks used on the Lick it Up tour! I even touched it!

Seven Pence
Monday 18th April 2005
Got a royalty statement for an old Bruce song called "Post Alternative Seattle Fall Out" for 7p! My royalties are never huge but this one's the smallest ever! I did get £8 for "Cheesy" from the Penguins on the Moon album the other day though, and few days later I got quite a very nice cheque from "I'm in a band with an Italian drummer"....perhaps I'll buy a helicopter?

The Royal Albert Hall
Tuesday 12th April 2005
Metal Club arrives at the Royal Albert Hall...I strummed the Oath on guitar in soundcheck, this is where the Elder should have been played in a nice old concert theatre perhaps each year like the proms. I like to think I'm righting some of life's little wrongs as I go along.

Our tour schedule
Every day forever and ever...
Metal Club goes on through
Oxford, Northampton, Dartford, Weston-Super-Mare, Truro, Bournemouth, Worthing, Croydon, Basingstoke, Bath, Folkestone, St Albans, Cambridge, Wolverhampton, Liverpool, Southend, Portsmouth, Eastbourne, Peterborough, Darlington, Reading, Torquay, Nottingham, Blackburn, Harrogate, Skegness, High Wycombe, Southport, Stoke, Tunbridge Wells, Birmingham, Margate, Cheltenham, Crawley, Birmingham (yes, again!), Grimsby, Scarborough, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Hull, Salisbury, Buxton, Manchester, Newcastle and Blackpool...I didn't know there were so many towns in the UK.

Prog Aid
Monday 21st March 2005
The Prog Aid single I did some backing vocals on is now available to order at the Prog Aid website. All money goes to victims of the Tsunami disaster last year. I ordered four copies....order yours now!

Kiss Crew Shirt
Tuesday 15th March 2005
Our bus driver Yorkie, today gave me a Kiss Crew Tshirt!!!!! How cool is that? He worked on the 1996/97 tour driving a crew bus and operating spotlights during the gig. If anyone's got the Wembley Psycho Circus video, Yorkie's the one that angers Gene by missing a spotlight cue. What a great claim to fame! He gave me the Tshirt because he said Kiss were onannists. 

The Dutch Fleet
Sunday 13th March 2005
Metal club comes to Chatham. The famous Chatham! What's it famous for? Possibly the biggest military and naval disaster in British history. Sorry, were our history books too busy telling of the heroics of Nelson at Trafalgar to mention the destruction of the entire English fleet at Chatham? Yes in the 1660's we declared war on Holland to teach those cheeky Dutch a lesson or two. While we were still prepping the lesson, they sailed up the river Medway to Chatham and burnt our fleet while it sat in docks. War over. Holland 1 : Britain 0.

Killing Joke
Thursady 17th March 2005
I took a day off from Metal Club so Benny Popped over fresh from being in Prague with Killing Joke. I always thought Ben was looking for a band as mad as himself and he might just have met his match here. He's having a great time with them doing all those things drummers like to do such as hitting their kits very hard, growing facial hair and cutting great big chunks of flesh out of their legs.

The Guv'nor
Sunday 6th March 2005
Tommy Vance died. A great man has passed on. He was the only way we could hear rock music on the radio back in my youth. His Friday Rock Show (produced by Total Rock's Tony Wilson) was where I first heard Armoured Saint and Master of Puppets. He interviewed us in Atom Seed once. I was just in awe of the man, the voice. I was speechless- hence not much use in an interview. Then a few months ago he filled in DJing a show on Total Rock just after my show. It was like supporting the Guv'nor! I felt honoured. He opened up with Dio "Rainbow in the Dark".
That night on the Metal Club bus me, Swordie and Metal Jay tried to have a little send off- wake for the great man of rock. Dio- Holy Diver and Metallica's Master of Puppets....but RJ (who is prone to Rockaphobia) started crying and throwing his toys around until we sang him gently to sleep..."you've been down too long in the midnight sea....". When RJ sleeps he's like a little smiley cherub and it makes you realise all is still good in the world.

If only...
Saturday 5th March 2005
You may well say it's not of our business. It was the brainchild of Leigh the PA tech to bring the two islands together (not geographically, just socially) maybe spreading the message of goodwill between the two islands. Phrases like "Red sky at night Jerseyman's delight- Guernsey's on fire" have to stop now! So fresh from our trip to Guernsey we arrived in Jersey and greeted the locals with "Hi, we were just over in Guernsey and they said to say hello, they love you." The best reaction we got was incredulous laughter the worst was being told to F**k Off. Come on guys, let's all live in harmony!

Roo at a disco
Friday 4th March 2005
Metal club goes to Guernsey....and no holiday in Guernsey is complete without our local guide, Swiss Roo (from Norwich). Swiss Roo showed us all the hot spots on the St Peter Port Nightlife scene (which was just what we needed as the hotel was freezing cold). I the morning Metal Jay woke up with his thumb frozen solid and had to go the hospital in Guernsey (which also doubles as the vets and green grocer's). They said it should be amputated and buried with sprigs of hazel and rosemary to ward off spirits. We said we'd wait till we got back to the mainland for a second opinion.

P-Dub
Tuesday 22nd February 2005
A day off. A few people have asked me to explain what Metal Club really is and what exactly I'm doing on Tony Hadley's UK tour at the moment. My nominal title on the tour is "Guitar Tech" although that's only the tip of the iceberg- mostly I'm hanging out with my metal mates on the tour listening to metal, sometimes I go to the toilet for a while at a time and sometimes I play bass in the soundchecks when the band's bassist (the excellent P-Dub) wants a Kit-kat break. Yesterday in Llandudno I played Roxy Music's Lets Stick Together with them in soundcheck, not very metal but we hope to improve on the soundcheck setlist soon.

Y Ddraig Goch
Monday 21st February 2005
Llandudno, North Wales. Jay bought me and RJ (the token taffs on the tour) a Welsh flag each to hang on either side of the stage during the pop gigs. Did you know the Welsh flag is called "Y Ddraig Goch" (The Red Dragon), in the same way the French one is called a Tricolour and the British one is called a Union Flag? Well you learnt something new today, didn't you? That's made life better.

RoboChrist
Saturday 19th February 2005
Bumped into the "One Man Metal Asylum" Robochrist at the gig in Bradford. He played with Sack Trick a little while ago in York, he's a top bloke who's not as scary without the face paint. Twas very good to see him, but slightly worrying as to why more metallers keep turning up at Tone's pop gigs?

Swansea Shopping Centre
Thursday 3rd February 2005
"Metal Club came to Swansea for the afternoon. The "graveyard of ambition" it was called by Dylan Thomas. Surprisingly little's changed since I used to go shopping there as a kid, except the HMV shop where I got my first Ratt album's gone!"

Metal Club
Tuesday 1st February 2005
"Booked myself onto a stupid kind of holiday for the next couple of months. It's called Metal Club. It's kind of a drinking/working holiday on the Tony Hadley Tour, where me and Metal Jay (who recently replaced Benny in Twin Zero for a few gigs recently) get to travel round with our mates in a couple of buses listening to Metal up and down the UK. We even have a trip to Guernsey coming up halfway through. Rich Baker's not coming to any more Metal Club outings- we're really going to miss him. I think he's upset about something I said about Judas Priest."

Prog Aid
Saturday 29th January 2005
"Nipped up to Metal Matty's place near Cardiff for the weekend to take part in Prog Aid. It's a charity single to help the Tsunami victims. You can find details of it at the Prog Aid website -please buy it- it's actually a really good song as well as being for a very worthy cause. I did some backing vocals but mostly spend the day drinking in a nice pub nearby with Metal Matty, Jerry Ewing and members of bands with great names like Galahad, Pallas and Pendragon. Bands these days don't have a clue when it comes to naming their bands after Arthurian legends."

Bing and Karl from Twin Zero
Monday 24th January 2005
"Twin Zero Album comes out!!!! I'm so pleased to say it sounds great- Roo's uber-project comes true. It's being hailed by the UK press as the best thing since sliced bread (and it might well be) and it's out on Undergroove Records now! So what are you waiting for?"

Bruce Kulick's Audio Dog
Thursday 13th January 2005
"Signed a UK and European deal for the Sheep In Kiss Make-up album with Cargo Records. They're the same label that released the Eric Singer Project and Bruce Kulick's Audio Dog, so we're in good company. The album comes out in the UK on February 14th. That'll hopefully mean we'll get some UK press reviews soon. They're always a good read."

A Toilet
Wednesday 12th January 2005
"Saw a great program on TV about health. They said if you ever want to go to the toilet you should. I'll be going all the time now I know that......Hang On! That's not news at all! I always go to the toilet when I want to and I like to think that most people I know go to the toilet when they want to. Do you know anyone that doesn't?"

Jef Shreddmeister Streatfield
Sunday 10th January 2005
"Jef Streatfield came over to do his guitar parts on the new Sack Trick stuff we've been recording (but not telling you about). Jef's been a full on Sack Trick member since our first ever gig back in 1897 but he's never been on an album before. When you hear what he's done you'll wonder why we've not tapped his bucket of talent before- he's a shreddmeister extraordinaire (oh, now spellcheck's telling me shreddmeister isn't a word- come on microsoft, learn to live with metal would you?)."

Diet Coke
Saturday 1st January 2005
"Time for some new year's resolutions. This year like most years I'll give up tea and coffee. Because I don't like drinking either this is always a safe bet. Last year I gave up my Diet Coke addiction. That was a tough one though, you can laugh, but Diet Coke is quite addictive. Do you know anyone that insists on drinking diet coke all year, but isn't interested in other soft drinks? Send them to this link then to this one called Aspartame Kills."

See Here For Diary 2004