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Greetings from the shed...

Glad you are here to read this. This almost didn’t happen.

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#TheAction

How has your week been? Mine has undulated between joyous and woeful. The notification of a death of someone who inspired me, who I learned from and enjoyed chatting with was certainly a low point. But then there were moments that had me deeply appreciate being alive. Long frosty dog walks though diamanté trees, new food experiences, a warm fire on a cold night and a helping hand from a friend.

And then to finish the week, I got a second chance to see a band I love, 36 years after the first.

You might recall from this post…

The Chance of an Encore [440]

…that I found a diary documenting the first ever gig I went to. It was the Michael Schenker Group supporting Whitesnake January 1988. I mentioned that I would buy a ticket for their 50th anniversary tour but that didn’t quite work out.

Both the sites I tried had issues and so I did what I used to do when documenting bands in the mid 2000’s, I contacted the management. A nice guy call Tony, who was obviously very busy, sent me an email saying ‘Done.’ Nothing else. Just one word.

And so on those four letters alone, last night I headed into a freezing London. Also alone. I can’t remember the last time I went to a gig by myself. Apart from when I’ve been passing by a pub and popped in. Never a ticketed event anyway.

I had no idea what to expect as I joined the very long and excited queue outside the venue. The people waiting were all ages, but mostly leather and denim clad rockers between 30 and 70. It was freezing and I wish i’d brought a hat. Underneath my multiple layers I wore the MSG t-shirt I’d bought at the first gig 36 years ago. As the queue shuffled slowly forwards, I spotted a little window slide open and a sign saying ‘guest list’ drop into view. I politely asked a giant of a man behind me clad in leather with curly waist length hair if he’d save my space.

After approaching the window and giving my name, a list was checked and I was told to head to the stage door. I could not believe my luck. As I walked down the now much longer queue, I sheepishly flashed my pass at the man who’d saved my space. He grinned, flashing both thumbs back at me, like a giant hairy Fonz.

At the stage door a guy asked me where my camera was. I was confused for a moment and stupidly thought he’d recognised me from way back. But it’s been years since I regularly photographed bands. I hadn’t noticed that the pass I’d been given included pit access for photography. I could not believe my luck. Or how very unprepared I was. Under my body warmer I had a small satchel and showed him it as I slid into the warm.

I was the first ‘photographer’ backstage, but soon six more showed up. While they double slung their heavy DSLR bodies with giant lenses, I sheepishly took out my compact X-Pro 3 with tiny 35mm lens. On leaving home I had grabbed my bag without thinking and would have packed differently if I’d known. I was just pleased it had a camera in it. The battery was at three quarters full and with no spares, I hoped it would last. I did also find a small 50mm lens in there though.

We were told we could grab shots from two tracks of the support act ‘Night Demon’ (also good) and three tracks of MSG. Although at the time I craved some serious gear, it was liberating to work within the limitations of a slow camera and two prime lenses.

I thoroughly enjoyed the gig. The setlist was packed with my Michael Schenker favourites and UFO classics, plus I had the best view in the house. It’s easy in my top three gigs ever. Below are a few of the images I took.

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#ThePictures

A few images from the Michael Schenker concert at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire 30/11/23. [Click the pic to enlarge]

I’ll upload a bunch more into Flickr soon. Or if you run a photo desk and need some for an MSG feature let me know. (I also have colour ;-)

At the merch store all the t-shirts my size were gone. So I settled for a much needed hat. Let’s see if it also lasts 36 years.

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#TheSound

Right after I talked about getting my tape recorder being confiscated at a gig, 99Pi drop this podcast on bootlegging the Dead. Thanks to Ilicco for the heads up.

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Have you had a play with the AI music generation app called app.suno.ai I have. Here is some experimenting just for you.

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Right enough of that. Here is some real music from real people. I bought this gorgeous cassette made by Jem Finer from Bandcamp and got a bonus CD by Laura Cannell and her artistic response to the Longplayer project.

You can listen to Laura here and to Jem’s Hudy-Grdy here.

“Without music, life would be a mistake.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

“Wot he said” ~ Christian Payne

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#TheConsumed

I needed to eat before the gig in London and round the corner from the venue found a small African restaurant called ‘Flamingo’. It mostly serves Ethiopian food and I had a delicious meal of Zilbo. (Fresh boiled collard greens, mixed with tender pieces of lamb, marinated in onions, ginger and garlic.)

It was served on an Injera a traditional Ethiopian pancake, with a slightly sour taste. I think I ate something similar in Sudan once. No cutlery. You rip a piece of the pancake off and use it to pick up the food. Delicious and very satisfying.

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It’s hard to tell if a found crate of supposed 200 year old whisky is as old as it is said to be.

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#TheBody

I have made a little time to meditate every day now for one hundred and four days straight. I think we can safely say it’s now a habit.

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#TheThings

Remember all of that lovely data I was gathering with the Radiacode? It’s all gone. The app needed to be deleted and reinstalled and the data was deleted with it. I’m looking forward for the ‘export’ data feature to be added to the iOS app. In the mean time. I can’t help myself and have slowly started gathering more data.

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#TheThanks

I must thank those that pay $5/month to support these shenanigans. You are a dying breed and I thank you. I won’t ask the rest of you again… Ok I probably will.

Or if you prefer you might like to buy me a coffee or send a tip via PayPal or Monzo. Either way… Thank you for reading.

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#TheWeb

• If you plan to rob a bank, don’t wear your favourite jeans.

• A startup wants you to work in your sleep. For real. Sigh.

• Thank you for adding yourself to the Documentally community map :-)

• A night out where you can learn stuff and meet new friends in Bletchley? For only £20? See you there? I’ll be stopping over in Milton Keynes afterwards if you fancy a meet up.

• Need some problems to solve? Try this card game.

• Some of my other places include Letterboxd, GoodReads, FarceBook, Flickr, Strava, Untappd, Diaspora, Vivino, LinkedIn, YouTube, Mastodon, a ham radio newsletter or search ‘Documentally’ on Wire, Birdsite or Bluesky.

• Discover neglected books.

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#TheEnd

This week has been so full of other stuff that I was thinking i’d just livestream me lying in a puddle of woe (for supporting subs) instead of putting this together. But there was not enough woe. Very little actually. Been too busy to be woeful. I hope you are woe-free and can find the time to relax and do some nothing this weekend. I’ve allowed myself some time for a little nothing. I’ve stuck it in the diary between 7am and 8:15am tomorrow morning. Thank you for reading and have a great weekend.

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“Cram as much pleasure as you can into life, and rail against the pain that you have to suffer as a result.” ~ Shane MacGowan

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Rock.

See you out there.

Over…

A ❤️ is a high-five, a comment is a hug. A supporting subscription earns my undying love.