Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Boy, was I ever wrong about the old guard
July 30th, 2010 | 
Author: When I was invited to the High Voltage Festival in London last weekend, I made all kinds of cracks about the lineup being terminally geriatric. I had visions of signs above the backstage entrance that read “YOUR PROSTATE MUST BE THIS BIG FOR YOU TO PERFORM!”
I mean, Argent? They hadn’t played together in 38 years. Uriah Heep was going to run through their entire 1972 album, Demons and Wizards. The combined age of ZZ Top is 182; for Emerson, Lake and Palmer (together for the first time since 1998), it’s 187. Ian Hunter was going to sing All the Young Dudes again — even though he just turned 71.
I joked about the average age of the crowd, too, and the need for walkers and wheelchairs. But in the end, I was dead wrong.
Instead of a barrage of irrelevant, outdated songs by over-the-hill performers, I witnessed how enduring and ageless good rock ’n’ roll really is. Bachman-Turner (Bachman-Turner Overdrive in all but name) cranked out their still-muscular hits. There were a couple of 20-somethings next to me who not only new all the words to even the deep album tracks, but sang their parts in perfect harmony.
Over on the metal stage, the legendary Saxon bludgeoned an appreciative audience of young metalheads. On the prog stage, Dweezil Zappa’s young band ripped through some Mothers of Invention material so effortlessly it would have brought a tear to dad’s eye. And it was fascinating to watch all the rockers, punks and metal freaks pay their respects to the late Ronnie James Dio as Heaven and Hell — the collaboration between Dio and Tommy Iommi and Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath — played their last-ever set with Glenn Hughes (ex-Deep Purple and one-time Sabbath singer in the non-Ozzy years) on vocals.
And despite the wide availability of alcohol I did not see a single drunk person. Not one. And there were no police anywhere, either. There were security personnel to be sure, but no bobbies anywhere on the festival site.
At Heathrow, I found myself behind Randy Bachman in the security line. He was as giddy as a kid. “Wasn’t it amazing?” he gushed. Yes. Yes, it was.
Posted in 
Boy, was I ever wrong about the old guard
When I was invited to the High Voltage Festival in London last weekend, I made all kinds of cracks about the lineup being terminally geriatric. I had visions of signs above the backstage entrance that read “YOUR PROSTATE MUST BE THIS BIG FOR YOU TO PERFORM!”
I mean, Argent? They hadn’t played together in 38 years. Uriah Heep was going to run through their entire 1972 album, Demons and Wizards. The combined age of ZZ Top is 182; for Emerson, Lake and Palmer (together for the first time since 1998), it’s 187. Ian Hunter was going to sing All the Young Dudes again — even though he just turned 71.
I joked about the average age of the crowd, too, and the need for walkers and wheelchairs. But in the end, I was dead wrong.
Instead of a barrage of irrelevant, outdated songs by over-the-hill performers, I witnessed how enduring and ageless good rock ’n’ roll really is. Bachman-Turner (Bachman-Turner Overdrive in all but name) cranked out their still-muscular hits. There were a couple of 20-somethings next to me who not only new all the words to even the deep album tracks, but sang their parts in perfect harmony.
Over on the metal stage, the legendary Saxon bludgeoned an appreciative audience of young metalheads. On the prog stage, Dweezil Zappa’s young band ripped through some Mothers of Invention material so effortlessly it would have brought a tear to dad’s eye. And it was fascinating to watch all the rockers, punks and metal freaks pay their respects to the late Ronnie James Dio as Heaven and Hell — the collaboration between Dio and Tommy Iommi and Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath — played their last-ever set with Glenn Hughes (ex-Deep Purple and one-time Sabbath singer in the non-Ozzy years) on vocals.
And despite the wide availability of alcohol I did not see a single drunk person. Not one. And there were no police anywhere, either. There were security personnel to be sure, but no bobbies anywhere on the festival site.
At Heathrow, I found myself behind Randy Bachman in the security line. He was as giddy as a kid. “Wasn’t it amazing?” he gushed. Yes. Yes, it was.
Boy, was I ever wrong about the old guard
When I was invited to the High Voltage Festival in London last weekend, I made all kinds of cracks about the lineup being terminally geriatric. I had visions of signs above the backstage entrance that read “YOUR PROSTATE MUST BE THIS BIG FOR YOU TO PERFORM!”
I mean, Argent? They hadn’t played together in 38 years. Uriah Heep was going to run through their entire 1972 album, Demons and Wizards. The combined age of ZZ Top is 182; for Emerson, Lake and Palmer (together for the first time since 1998), it’s 187. Ian Hunter was going to sing All the Young Dudes again — even though he just turned 71.
I joked about the average age of the crowd, too, and the need for walkers and wheelchairs. But in the end, I was dead wrong.
Instead of a barrage of irrelevant, outdated songs by over-the-hill performers, I witnessed how enduring and ageless good rock ’n’ roll really is. Bachman-Turner (Bachman-Turner Overdrive in all but name) cranked out their still-muscular hits. There were a couple of 20-somethings next to me who not only new all the words to even the deep album tracks, but sang their parts in perfect harmony.
Over on the metal stage, the legendary Saxon bludgeoned an appreciative audience of young metalheads. On the prog stage, Dweezil Zappa’s young band ripped through some Mothers of Invention material so effortlessly it would have brought a tear to dad’s eye. And it was fascinating to watch all the rockers, punks and metal freaks pay their respects to the late Ronnie James Dio as Heaven and Hell — the collaboration between Dio and Tommy Iommi and Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath — played their last-ever set with Glenn Hughes (ex-Deep Purple and one-time Sabbath singer in the non-Ozzy years) on vocals.
And despite the wide availability of alcohol I did not see a single drunk person. Not one. And there were no police anywhere, either. There were security personnel to be sure, but no bobbies anywhere on the festival site.
At Heathrow, I found myself behind Randy Bachman in the security line. He was as giddy as a kid. “Wasn’t it amazing?” he gushed. Yes. Yes, it was.
Boy, was I ever wrong about the old guard
When I was invited to the High Voltage Festival in London last weekend, I made all kinds of cracks about the lineup being terminally geriatric. I had visions of signs above the backstage entrance that read “YOUR PROSTATE MUST BE THIS BIG FOR YOU TO PERFORM!”
I mean, Argent? They hadn’t played together in 38 years. Uriah Heep was going to run through their entire 1972 album, Demons and Wizards. The combined age of ZZ Top is 182; for Emerson, Lake and Palmer (together for the first time since 1998), it’s 187. Ian Hunter was going to sing All the Young Dudes again — even though he just turned 71.
I joked about the average age of the crowd, too, and the need for walkers and wheelchairs. But in the end, I was dead wrong.
Instead of a barrage of irrelevant, outdated songs by over-the-hill performers, I witnessed how enduring and ageless good rock ’n’ roll really is. Bachman-Turner (Bachman-Turner Overdrive in all but name) cranked out their still-muscular hits. There were a couple of 20-somethings next to me who not only new all the words to even the deep album tracks, but sang their parts in perfect harmony.
Over on the metal stage, the legendary Saxon bludgeoned an appreciative audience of young metalheads. On the prog stage, Dweezil Zappa’s young band ripped through some Mothers of Invention material so effortlessly it would have brought a tear to dad’s eye. And it was fascinating to watch all the rockers, punks and metal freaks pay their respects to the late Ronnie James Dio as Heaven and Hell — the collaboration between Dio and Tommy Iommi and Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath — played their last-ever set with Glenn Hughes (ex-Deep Purple and one-time Sabbath singer in the non-Ozzy years) on vocals.
And despite the wide availability of alcohol I did not see a single drunk person. Not one. And there were no police anywhere, either. There were security personnel to be sure, but no bobbies anywhere on the festival site.
At Heathrow, I found myself behind Randy Bachman in the security line. He was as giddy as a kid. “Wasn’t it amazing?” he gushed. Yes. Yes, it was.
Two men survive plane crash in N.S.
TRURO, N.S. – A small plane that crashed into the backyard of a home in central Nova Scotia on Friday narrowly missed striking a row of homes, the RCMP says.
The two-seater plane, an American Champion Explorer headed to Ontario, came down around 7 a.m., shortly after taking off from a private airstrip in Valley, near Truro.
Police say it was foggy at the time of the crash. Witnesses said they heard the plane’s single engine sputtering before it plunged to the ground.
“It came down in what I would call a block of houses in a subdivision,” said RCMP Staff Sgt. Jay McInnis. “In the middle of this square is some alders, birch trees and shrubs. … The plane would have travelled over a row of houses and into the empty wooded area.”
McInnis said the plane crashed about 70 metres from the closest homes.
“Things could have been much, much worse had the plane stayed aloft a little further,” he said. “Whether that was good luck or good management on the pilot’s part, I’m not sure.”
When emergency crews arrived at the scene, only a few hundred metres from the airstrip, the pilot and his lone passenger had already walked away from the wreckage.
“It was hung up on some trees on one side,” said McInnis. “The one wing had broken away.”
The 60-year-old pilot was taken to hospital to be treated for cuts to his head and face. His 51-year-old passenger was also taken to hospital but was later released.
McInnis declined to release their names.
Local fire departments contained some leaking fuel.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada dispatched an investigator to the scene.
Two men survive plane crash in N.S.
TRURO, N.S. – A small plane that crashed into the backyard of a home in central Nova Scotia on Friday narrowly missed striking a row of homes, the RCMP says.
The two-seater plane, an American Champion Explorer headed to Ontario, came down around 7 a.m., shortly after taking off from a private airstrip in Valley, near Truro.
Police say it was foggy at the time of the crash. Witnesses said they heard the plane’s single engine sputtering before it plunged to the ground.
“It came down in what I would call a block of houses in a subdivision,” said RCMP Staff Sgt. Jay McInnis. “In the middle of this square is some alders, birch trees and shrubs. … The plane would have travelled over a row of houses and into the empty wooded area.”
McInnis said the plane crashed about 70 metres from the closest homes.
“Things could have been much, much worse had the plane stayed aloft a little further,” he said. “Whether that was good luck or good management on the pilot’s part, I’m not sure.”
When emergency crews arrived at the scene, only a few hundred metres from the airstrip, the pilot and his lone passenger had already walked away from the wreckage.
“It was hung up on some trees on one side,” said McInnis. “The one wing had broken away.”
The 60-year-old pilot was taken to hospital to be treated for cuts to his head and face. His 51-year-old passenger was also taken to hospital but was later released.
McInnis declined to release their names.
Local fire departments contained some leaking fuel.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada dispatched an investigator to the scene.