Well, I would be satisfied with a good long play on one to be honest…
I was round my mate Tiffy’s the other week, and he played me a song by Dream Theater. Now, I first listened to them a good couple of years ago, and never really took to them. To me, they seemed to be a little too obsessed with the technical side of music, playing as many notes as possible in a time period, and a little lacking in feeling. I decided to reconsider my standpoint on them and give their stuff another go, mainly because Tiffy, John and Mr Kyle rave about them so much. Also, their latest album was in the car on the way home from the Rush concert, and I didn’t hate it.
But back to this song. I listened to it and was quite frankly blown away. It was very reminiscent of the opening minutes of ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ by Pink Floyd. After saying to Tiffy how much I enjoyed it, especially the guitar work, he revealed to me that it was not a guitar at all, but something called a ‘Continuum’.
Now, I could describe it to you, but much better would be for you to watch the instrument in action, playing the very song that blew me away no less:
Actually, I lied - there’s no way I could describe something like that…
Fortunately it was only due to wax blockage (eeeeeew! sorry!), but it made me partially deaf in both ears. To make matters worse, I was stuck for a week before I could see a doctor, and the advice of the treatment nurse to use ear drops just made it a hell of a lot worse.
Sorry, this wasn’t meant to be a description of my medical history. The point is, it really affected me. I even had to take a day off work, so freaked out was I. I got really paranoid. I could hear stuff, like people talking to me, but lots of the background stuff that you never really pay attention to but is constantly going on was missing, and it was replaced by the noises of me breathing, eating, and even my heart beating.
Of course, the worst part was the fact that I could not listen to music properly - everything was muffled, and came in one ear more than the other, so I couldn’t really listen to it properly….and I missed it.
I couldn’t really face the prospect of becoming profoundly deaf, to not be able to hear music. The thought just doesn’t bear thinking about. Thing is, I started thinking about it quite a lot last week. Not because of that natural fear that one gets that perhaps the hearing might not come back when they remove the blockage (eeeeew! again), but just that I tend to sit and think about stuff like that. Some might call that being overly pessimistic, but in fact it works the other way - I really gained an appreciation of that particular sense, and vowed to look after my hearing properly.
So anyway, on Friday I went to see the doctor, and shortly afterwards got both my ears syringed. Not as pleasant an experience as I remember it to be (I last had one ear done about five or six years ago) - it actually hurt a little this time round.
I got to tick another band off my list of ‘bands to see before I die’ list on Tuesday. Rush have been one of my favourite bands for, ooooh, twenty years, give or take. I went up with Tiffy, John, Mandy (Tiffy’s daughter) and Mr Kyle, so as you can imagine, it was rather coz in the back of Tiffy’s car. I didn’t care though, because I was getting all excited by this point!
Whenever I go to London for a gig, I will always go to Richmond, park up and get the tube through London. Tiffy went a slightly different way, through Slough and Windsor to Uxbridge. Due to his repeated assurance that the route was “easy”, I tried to take a mental note of it as we went. After the twentieth turning I gave up. Fair enough, the parking was only a pound for the whole night, and the tube journey involved no changes, but f*ck me, what a nightmare it would be to try to navigate that route to Uxbridge! Richmond costs £11 to park, and there are a few changes to make on the tube journey, but it is so easy to get to by car - up the M3, the M3 becomes the A-something or other, which takes you straight into Richmond - easy! This isn’t a dig by the way, as he seemed to have absolutely no trouble finding his way to our destination - my navigation skills are not as honed as his it seems.
Anyway, enough about the journey. The gig. Totally f*cking awesome! And it was a long one - over two hours of majestic rock, played by three masters of the craft. I could be picky, and say that the sound quality at Wembley wasn’t great (it wasn’t the last time I went either), but that did not detract from the experience very much at all. Just to see the three of them in action, three utter legends, heroes of mine for years and years was an experience I will never forget.
And they played a lot of songs I really wanted to hear - Freewill, YYZ, Limelight, Tom Sawyer (with a fanstasic intro from the South Park boys!):
Natural Science, Entre Nous, Distant Early Warning, and so on. Another lifelong ambition was fulfilled when Neil Peart played his obligatory drum solo. The best bit though was ‘Spirit Of Radio’. I know it’s like the cliche favourite Rush song, but it is such an anthem, that to hear it live….well, I got a little emotional I don’t mind saying.
Totally awesome band, totally awesome gig. I shall definately go and see them again if I ever get the chance.
And a big thank you to Tiffy for doing the driving, and especially to Mandy, for buying the tickets and suggesting it in the first place.
(I should add that the youtube video above was not filmed by me, and wasn’t even at the same gig. Our view was thus (zoomed in a little bit)):
I met up with one of them the other night for the first time in over a year.
And I just wanted to post up here, congratulations to Stewart and Sally on the birth of their son, Edward Alexander Herron…sometime back in April…I think…
