It was an onslaught – Damn it was GREAT!!! It was the last show of the 2007 world tour of GN’R in Australia.

The first act of the night started at 8:15pm and it was Rose Tattoo. Angry Anderson’s voice rocked the house. He sang a lot of Aussie classics and one of my faves “We can’t be beaten”. Indeed, Rose Tatto is one of the loudest rock band in the world if not the number one loudest of ‘em all. With the opening band like this the night was certainly worth the money.

Second Act was Skid Row’s frontman Sebastian Bach clad in leather and armed with screeching voice. He is with a new group now. His voice was just so Awesome. He brought back the days of hair metal (head bangers) and he roared some of Skid Row’s anthems mostly from their self titled album and Slave to the Grind album. He head banged across the stage – here and there. He was all over the scene and swinging the microphone like a lasso above his head whilst head bangin’. Unfortuately cameras were not allowed in the venue. I did not manage to capture the event but never mind because I have it imprinted in my memory.. At one point Sebastian Bach stood up and said to a man in the front row “Dude… do you wanna take a photo? C’mon take a photo…What do you mean no mobile phones, no cameras? It’s 2007 for f@ck sake, who cares – here take a photo..There no harm done”…. At that point he captured the people’s admiration – the people just loved him. True to ROCK he was and is. He defied the show’s emposed ban on cameras because of digital rights and greater more he defies the US Army’s Drafting System as a Dad protecting his 19yo son….and the mass just applauded him. The crowd started shouting “NO MORE WAR” repeatedly – Now that is absolute ROCK!!! And of course in a true Sebastian Bach fashion he sang some of my faves such as “YOUTH GONE WILD, MONKEY BUSINESS, 18 AND LIFE, PIECE OF ME and I REMEMBER YOU”… The night took me 15 years back in time… Back to when I was 17 when my sister gave me a shirt with his photo printed on the front and on the left chest was written “SKID ROW”. I have to thank my sister for that again.. Sebastian Bach and his band could play all night and I would not mind at all if they did.

Then at 11:55pm….

After almost an hour’s break from experiencing hard rock frequency blistering through my ears, the lights went off. The speakers thumped and every strand of hair on my body just felt the intensity of the drums reverberating through the giant speakers… The crowd began to chant “Guns and Roses” repeatedly… With massive on-stage fireworks, one of rock world’s most unforgettable bands came out.

The stage background was draped with GNR but written to resemble like Chinese characters. They were promoting their album Chinese Democracy. Axl Rose, the only original member left, came out screeching into the crowd with “WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE”… At that point, I forgotten about whatever happened to the original GN’R… This time it was about the performance and the music and not about who or who was. Just forget about what you read on the internet discussions. They are just moaning because their sorry asses are sitting at home and have not been to a GN’R live gig recently and has not personally seen Axl Rose sing again (probably the sorry asses could not afford it)… The true test of an artist is a live concert in front of a massive crowd…. If you like the music GO and SEE the CONCERT! His voice sounds almost the same as it was 15 years ago. They sang and played classic Gunners such as SWEET CHILD O’ MINE, NOVEMBER RAIN, KNOCKIN’ ON HEAVEN’S DOOR, YOU COULD BE MINE, MR BROWNSTONE, MY MICHELLE, LIVE AND LET DIE and OUT TA GET ME…

And yes, the crowd sang DON’T CRY whilst being played as a guitar solo…

And yes again the crowd whistled to the intro of PATIENCE and sang along…

Every now and then the stage was erupting like a volcano as five mushroom clounds of fire of about 1.5 meter diameter belched behind the band and vanishing at about 5 meters up in the air. It was like hell (as I imagined it to be) but in a good way…The fire went on and on… The lights were intense and so were the mosh pits from where I was. Axl, played the piano and stood on it as well. He called on Angry Anderson back and also Sebastian Bach on separate songs. He sang a couple of songs from Aussie legends like INXS and AC/DC… Definetely there was an encore and it was madness when he sang PARADISE CITY. Absolutely the night (24.06.2007) took us there….And the city – Sydney!

I went home at half-past three and went to work at six of that same morning. I had the balls for not having a day off because I had an amazing time. And the first thing I did when I got home from work was grab my guitar, plugged it and had my headphones near to full blast and went 12-15-14-12-15-14-14-14 (you can easily guess what song it was)….

… AND THE FEELING WAS BLOODY GREAT!!!

…. OH and YEAH you can admire my shirt on top of that, HUH!!!

Update…. I have been appointed a new job since first week of June. I am still doing my old job though so I am sort of in the “transition” mode. I am just so excited to do my new job but my old job is still occupying most of my brain… I reckon this is also one of the reasons I can’t sleep at night. I find it difficult to do two jobs as they both are demanding especially the people and planning side of things.

Anyways, I am looking forward to the weekend ,24th of June, as I will be seeing GN’R (Guns and Roses) here in Sydney. Sad to say though that Slash had left the band ages ago. Good on him – he seems to have more sense than hair, but this means I can only see half of the original GN’R on stage. The question is – Will Axle Rose be wearing his signature spandex shorts (look like bike shorts) ???

….Shhhhh…. I had a pair of them in black back in them old days when it was soooo cooool to whistle the intro of “Patience”.

Well, I will put a review of that concert here.

Also, I had a nice 2007 Father’s Day dinner (this is the British father’s day I am talkin about, we have a different father’s day in Oz) complimented by a bottle of 2004 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from Margaret River. This is the type of wine Eddie Veder (Pearl Jam) was drinking on stage the night I saw them on their last leg of their world tour here in Sydney early this year.

On Tuesday night, the darn thing started to play up. I had to rescue a load of my baby boy’s clothing as it has been sitting there for hours. The problem seems to be a clogged pump filter according to the manual. I took out the filter and found these treasures in there – four AU$2 coins and three 5 cent coins. I was happy to see them as I could definitely enjoy a large hot cuppa with these found treasures on my next trip to Gloria Jeans. I put back the filter, switched the machine on and guess what – it did not work. For the past three nights I have been doing the washing sort of in semi-automatic mode. I would let the machine do the wash and I did the manual pump override. It wasn’t a walk in the park because I did the job until 10:30pm waiting for the cycles to finish – for the love of my son indeed.

I could not afford to get a new washing machine and was becoming resigned to the fact that this is going to be my night life as a Rock Dad until I can afford one. I could just see myself playing a guitar to this white boxy thing and if ever the missus asked me where the hell I am taking my guitar and amplifier with me, I would just say – “Sweetie, I’ve got a gig with the washing machine tonight.”.

As what a bloke would do, I had enough and decided to give it a go. I pulled the back of the washing machine off and pulled the top off and tried to get access to the pump. After an hour of analysing and fidgeting I have decided to tilt the machine sideways to allow me to access the solenoid and twist the hose a bit. What a pain – poor design on the manufacturer I would say because there is no way to access the pump except through the bottom or by completely dismantling the machine. Suddenly I thought, I should try to move the impeller manually by the use of a long screw driver. As soon as I directed the torch, there it was like a tiny devil smiling at me peeping in the corner and hoping not to get noticed – a 10 cent coin… I was spewing (Australian for really mad) and cursing and fidgeting and bending and kneeling and poked and poked and poked and cursed some more until I got it an hour and a half later.

One thing I learnt tonight is the most basic of all things which is attention to detail….. It was not a 10 cent coin, it was a 5 cent coin instead…. Nearly the most expensive 5 cent coin I have ever seen. You beauty!

Nung nasa Japan po ako bilang isang batang engineer, ang tanging tambayan namin sa (Rodel grabs a pilipino-ingles dictionary to look for the word “weekend” only to find it has no equivalent) linggo ay ang simbahan. May malaking community ng pinoy sa nagoya at negrerevolve ito sa simbahan dahil nga raw ang pinoy ay marelihiyoso.

Ngayon sa trabaho, may higit na walong pinoy: isang electrical engineer, isang despatch personnel, isang shift coordinator, tatlong crew members at iba pa. Paminsan lang kaming naguusap sa filipino dahil ayaw naming ma ilagay sa akward position ang aming mga collegues para symbolo ng common respect.

Gustong matuto ni misis magtagalog para matuto rin ang aming anak. Ang tanong – Taglish pwede?… hindi raw! Patay kang bata ka.

I woke up this morning and prepared my brekky. Turning the pages and there it was on page 11 – Brad Delp (June 12, 1951 – March 9, 2007). I do not know about you but surely this news I have never heard of down under. He did not even make it on the telly…. Why? Is it perhaps, “depression” in men is seen as weakness and is denied the fact that it is serious for some. Mid-life-crisis is a term we joke about to hide the evil of depression.

I always play the intro of “More Than A Feeling”. I play it to my son on the weekends and when I get home from a tiring day at work. I love this song – I have four different CDs containing this song (1) Boston Best Of (2) Bogan – simply the best Rock Album (3) Rock for Aussie Dads & (4) The Boys are Back in Town.

“So many people have come and gone,
Their faces fade as the years go by;
Yet I still recall as I wonder on, as clear as the sun
In the summer sky”

– sung by Brad Delp (1951-2007) of the amazing band BOSTON.

Brad, YOU are one of the many reasons why I picked up a guitar. Mate, you’ll be missed as my guitar gently weeps.