What a weekend of gigs!!

Probably won't appeal to most but i've just had the weekend to end all weekends! I'll preface this by saying I'm not a lucky person - I've never caught a single thing at a gig in my entire lifetime and never managed to meet anyone after the show without paying for the priviledge - you always hear stories of 'bumped into 'X' in a pub before the gig... well thats not me.

First of all, on Friday night I drove down to Sheffield to watch Lynch Mob at Corporation. Wasn't fussed on the venue and the crowd was small and seemed to not know the Lynch Mob stuff and just shouted out the name of Dokken tracks which I thought was a bit disrespectful as George Lynch has a 27 year history with Lynch Mob... The gig was amazing though. I've heard Lynch can be hit and miss from one night to the next but on Friday he was the best guitar player I have ever seen live - his technique was mind blowing and really inspiring! The band were superb.

I noticed before the gig however that George came out and put his 'pedalboard' down and plugged it in (his pedal board has no board, it is literally a battery powered TS9 and thats it) so I thought they mustn't have roadies with them. When the show was over I thought I'd hang around at the barrier until I either got kicked out or the band came out to pack their gear. The latter happened and the perhaps 10 of us that had stuck around passed our tickets over the barrier and the band signed them which was cool! Most people then left but I stuck around longer; the barrier came down and the band started carrying gear down the ramp to the ground. Seeing a man in his 60s struggle with heavy flightcases I asked George if he wanted a hand, at which he smiled and accepted and I helped the band load the van with all of the gear! It was great, we hung out for about 15 minutes carrying gear and trying to pack more gear than would logically fit into their tour van! At one point we lifted his Marshall cab but he can't have closed the flightcase properly and it fell out. I panicked as I thought I had dropped his cab and he just smiled at me and said 'now you're getting the real roadie experience!'

Needless to say it was a very cool experience - they got free labour and I got to meet one of my heroes and hang with a really cool bunch of guys. I got a photo with George, we all shook hands and then parted ways, an amazing end to a brilliant evening!

Then came Saturday night - didn't meet anyone here but had a fantastic evening! I took my Mum to see Alice Cooper at Leeds First Direct Arena; she wouldn't go to these things alone and she has been a fan since the very beginning and only been once when I took her in 2005. I like Alice Cooper but I wouldn't go out of my way to see him if it wasn't for my Mum, she's a massive fan, I just like the odd track. My Mum is one of these hoarders people who likes to collect mementos from each gig so we went straight to the merch stand to buy a programme but they weren't doing them, just t-shirts and £30 Alice Cooper bobbleheads so she left empty handed and a bit disappointed!

When the band came on though they were excellent, we were 3 rows from the front right in the middle so we had fantastic seats as Alice was literally right in front of us! About 2 songs in Alice launches his stick into the crowd - I was taking a photo at the time (actually have one of it leaving his hand) I saw it was coming towards me and I leapt up like a salmon and grabbed it! Ordinarily I can't catch, especially not left handed, but it must have been because it was for my Mum that I managed it! (Richard Fortus' wristband bounced off my hand, which was broken at the time at GnR and fell into the pit but the security guy who saw it bounce of my hand gave it to a pretty girl)

A few people tried to take the stick off me but I was having non of it so I took full control of it and then gave it to my Mum! I also caught a $100 bill with his face on from the song 'Billion Dollar Babies' and got a Nita Strauss pick that she launched straight at my face! What a haul! The gig was superb, really tight band. They also brought the original line-up on at the end for 4 or 5 tracks which really made my Mum's night! She spent the whole car journey home saying 'I've got Alice Coopers stick!!!!' I think I would have enjoyed the gig anyway but the real enjoyment was seeing my Mum's face light up repeatedly; she was in her element and loved every second!

Anyway, probably of no interest to anyone but I certainly had a good weekend!