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Many years ago, fed up with lads holidays to the same old places, I signed up for a group holiday to somewhere I really wanted to visit, Sicily.
The plum trip on that holiday was to Etna and although I wasn't relishing the journey to the crater - part of it was by jeep - I signed up.
However, the evening before, I foolishly got trashed and in spite of consuming loads of water in an attempt to avoid a monster hangover, I awoke the next morning to a baking hot day, a mouth like the bottom of a budgie's cage and - surprise surprise - a terrible hangover .
I agonised over whether to still go on the trip, concerned that everyone else would be going to Etna and I would be on my own all day, but in the end decided that I really wasn't up to going.
Eventually, I dragged myself out of my pit and made it to the pool. Thankfully, three other members of our tour group had also decided not to go to Etna, a couple and a woman on her own.
The single woman and I got on like a house on fire, started seeing each other after the holiday, even though she lived in Scotland and I was based in the Midlands, and we have now been together for 22 years .
Best of all, she is even willing to go to QPR games with me
"Last and right up there with the best is the lad from Grimsby who wrote all the hits for Heatwave, was taken to the USA by Quincy Jones to write for The Brothers Johnson, Donna Summer, Quincy himself, George Benson and Michael Jackson. The man who gave us Thriller, Off the Wall and Rock With You, Mr Rod Temperton".
This is a great shout and I was actually just about to post about him, but - pedant alert - he was actually born in Cleethorpes
Russ Ballard, Waltham Cross' finest, also deserves a mention. I knew he wrote top tunes like Rainbow's "Since you've been gone" and the Argent song Kiss turned into a massive anthem, "God gave roll and roll to you," but it turns out that he also wrote "So you win again" and "You can do magic".
There are so many others I could mention but I must put in a good word for Primus. The lyrics are clever and tell all sorts of stories, from hilarious to cautionary ones, and the music is so inventive, catchy and memorable, yet unorthodox. The bass often plays the lead line while the guitar creates soundscapes .
If I recall correctly, the sign on one edge of the Bracknell estate of Great Hollands used to have the following spray painted on it:
"Twinned with Beirut".
Edit: I think the point being made was that it was supposedly like a war zone. My brother actually lived there at the time and it was fine plus one of my mates lives there currently.
For Can, I'd suggest you start with the album "Tago mago".
Not all the tracks are great in my humble opinion, but some of them are amazing.
Can, and especially that album, were said to have inspired bands of the baggy genre. You can certainly hear the influence of Can's rhythm section in some baggy tunes e.g by The Happy Mondays.
King Crimson. I love prog, so I should warm to them.
I might have the same experience as I did with Gentle Giant. I ignored them up until a couple of years ago, mainly because I thought the band's name was so naff, but once I took the plunge, I discovered that I absolutely love their first two albums.
Apparently, Rangenick and Alonso turned them down.
Given that Atalanta just crushed Alonso's Leverkusen 3-0* in the Europa League final, I wonder if Bayern, and a few other big clubs, will be on the 'phone to Bergamo this morning.
*All three goals scored by a man born in....Wandsworth 👏
Unless you are really desperate to do it, I wouldn't bother taking kit to enable you to cook.
I went on two long cycle camping holidays many years ago and on the first, we took all the cooking gear, though not jars of pasta sauce, a chopping board and a meat tenderising mallet, unlike some Dutch cyclists we encountered. You end up needing lots of stuff - tea towels, sponges, plates etc - and often, the meals you put together aren't great. This is just my view but we really felt all the extra kit, the additional time and additional processes simply weren't worth it.
The second time, without all that clobber, we got on just fine. We ate out a few times and even when we ate in, we were able to put together reasonable meals without resorting to cooking.
Three other tips (which you have probably already borne in mind) for if you are taking your own tent - Don't forget the instructions for erecting the tent. I'm probably going over the top here but a mate and I had real problems putting up a second hand frame tent we had borrowed from a mutual friend. When we eventually finished the task, the bloke at the neighbouring pitch, who had been reclining with a beer while he watched our travails, gave us a sarcastic round of applause
- Don't forget something to knock the pegs in with. On the cycling trips, we were so focused on saving weight that we hammered the pegs in using rocks or stones we found lying around, but that's clearly not ideal!
- Don't forget a torch. Petzl make a container for their amazing head torches, so you can use them like a lantern and hang them wherever you need light.
I'm not much of a country fan but may have to reconsider based on what I am learning on this interesting thread.
I love, love, love Wichita Lineman, though, it's a haunting track with a great guitar solo. I've taught myself to play the basic tune on the guitar.
Without wishing to take us way off topic, which Ozrics album were you listening to just now? I am a huge Ozrics fans but feel that the albums since "Paper Monkeys" are really just rehashes of what they have already produced. My theory, not just for the Ozrics but for any band, is that the quality of their music is always better when more than one band member is responsible for the creative process.
When I was young, my gran had a shelf of books in her back bedroom and one of them was, if I recall correctly, "The coral island" by R M Ballantyne.
The start of each chapter featured a few lines about what was covered in the section. One chapter was preceded by the comment: "In which we have intercourse with the natives".
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