Steel Panther Headlines at Wembley Arena

Steel Panther at Wembley!

* click on the images to enlarge *

Saturday 14th March, Wembley Arena: The show was outrageous of course, and hilarious.

When we first saw what we thought was the band on stage, we were all collectively worried for a moment that all four members had shrunk! In fact, they had hired 4 "little people" (is that the politically correct term nowadays?) dressed up as Steel Panther! What a really funny prank and a highly original way to open the show. Roadies then chased them off stage but they came back on for the finale.

Satchel made me laugh so much! He is such a comedian! "You are definitely the best audience we've had all week."

During the encore, Steve (brother) went on stage to present the band with an award for the vast number of records they have sold (almost impossible to achieve nowadays).

I had a little chat with Stix the drummer afterwards. He remembered me from Download last summer!

Gemma's backstage pass on her er... dress

Gemma looking foxy just before Steel Panther came on stage

Steel Panther "little people" tribute band with Steel Panther

Steel Panther posing

I took this picture because I liked the lights

Satchel of Steel Panther making us laugh

Girls on stage!

Steve Wood (centre stage) presenting Steel Panther with their awards

The grand finale

Me with Michael Starr of Steel Panther last year at the Download Festival

The support bands were also great!

The Lounge Kittens

Skindred

Me with Benji Webbe of Skindred

I finally make it onto the stage in Monty Python's Spamalot!

Me (the peasant) on stage clutching my tin of Spam, with King Arthur and a bunch of silly English Ker-nnnig-hts. I've wanted to do this for such a long time! 

Me on stage! What an experience! It was worth all the tea in China!

Seat Done, or rather D1

With Joe Pasquale - the longest serving King Arthur?

With Todd Carty - the longest serving Patsy?

Spamalot's run in Woking 2015

Gemma after the show being er, "Queen Arthur"?

Friday 13th March 2015: Monty Python's Spamalot, New Victoria Theatre, Woking:

I first saw Spamalot in January 2007: I loved it so much, I went again, and again, and again... last night was the 17th performance of Spamalot I've seen, and I'm going again next month when the show is in Southampton! I have a sneaking suspicion, that won't be my last time.... As far as I'm concerned, it's the funniest show ever! You can't keep me away - it's hilarious, whether you're a Monty Python fan or not!

I've seen the show so many times, I notice any changes they make to the script. Some of the changes since the last time I saw it (which was at the Playhouse Theatre, London) were:

• "And I'm the Emperor of Norway; bugger off" has been replaced with "And I'm the Emperor of China; bugger off"
• King Arthur no longer tells Patsy that those who see the Knights of Ni seldom live to tell the tale.  Consequently, Patsy no longer replies, "Oh great!"
• There's a new country-by-country section (with each country indicated by flags)
• Pointing at a bail of hay and shouting "Hey!" has been reinstated but not in the same way and not in the same place as it was before (which was during Sir Robin's song)
• Talking of Robin's song, that has been completely updated. Out goes Jedward and in comes Michelle Obama and Ant & Dec. Out goes Boris Johnson and in comes Mary Berry. It's so up to the minute with current affairs because the lyrics now include Top Gear, and King Arthur made a joke about Jeremy Clarkson's latest shenanigans!
• There's also a small tweak to the lyrics of Diva's Lament that concerns the artist formerly known as Cheryl Cole (but I won't ruin it for you).
• The "peasant" that helps find the Holy Grail used to get rewarded with an "Arthur", but now, it's a tin of Spam.

So how come I ended up on stage, I hear you ask. It turns out I was sitting on the Holy Grail the whole time! Whichever unsuspecting soul sits in seat D1 ends up on stage! When Joe asked my name, for some reason I pronounced my surname a little like "Woood", so he took the piss out of me royally about that! (See what I did there?)

I found going on stage such a wonderful experience, which, thanks to Gemma, I can now, finally, tick off my bucket list. She's going on stage next time at Southampton! Watch this space :-)

My LA Trip

Somewhat later than intended, here is a selection and the sights and sounds of my trip to LA last September.

Click on the photo above for a slideshow of the trip

I visited West Hills, Calabasas, Hollywood Boulevard, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Sunset Boulevard, Beverly Hills, Malibu, the Griffith Observatory, Los Feliz and I saw Slash and Myles Kennedy in concert at the Roxy. I had a little chat with Gene Simmons and Nuno Bettencourt who were in the audience. That was quite a night!

I had a fantastic time and was royally looked after by my brother, sister in law and nephew (the up and coming rock drummer, Zach Wood, currently on tour with Like a Storm who are touring with Steel Panther).

I can really say I have now "done" Los Angeles.

Preview Screening of "Boom Bust Boom" - a documentary by Terry Jones and Theo Kocken

I got an invite to a preview screening of Terry Jones and Theo Kocken's documentary "Boom Bust Boom" last night.

What is Boom Bust Boom? From boombustclick.com:

Terry Jones presents Boom Bust Boom, a unique look at why crashes keep happening combining live action with animation, puppetry, song and experts to explain economics to everyone.

It's actually a very serious subject (financial collapse, why we never seem to learn from history and the shortcomings of traditional university economics education) told in a very silly way. So by definition then, it's Pythonesque... which figures. I learned last night that the documentary is part of a global campaign to change the way economics is taught, to help prevent crashes from recurring. A noble cause!

The screening was at the Warner Brother's De Lane Lea in Dean Street, London

Back in 2012, I helped promote Bill & Ben's "A Liar's Autobiography - The Untrue Story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman" as you can from my incessant stream of blog posts about it here.

Boom Bust Boom is another Bill & Ben creation, and last night was a mini Liar's reunion!

In addition to Bill Jones and Ben Timlett (obviously), there was André Jacquemin, Justin Weyers, Steven Lall, Jeff Simpson and Philip Bulcock, and others I've forgotten to mention.

Bill Jones and Ben Timlett introducing the film

My most memorable moments of last night were:

• Bill & Ben's intro speech before the film started. I'm paraphrasing: "Usually at screenings like this, we'd be interested to hear what you think of the film... but since it's finished now, if you don't like it, you can fuck off."
• Meeting Dr Alison Telfer (Terry Jones' ex - Bill's mum), getting a photo with her and hearing all about how she and Terry met and how they ended up living together (all thanks to Delia Smith!), and her memories of the Pythons writing the shows in her living room, of the TV show recordings, of the Holy Grail and Doune Castle, and Tunisia for the Life of Brian. I even sat next to her in the screening! What a lovely lady! I was so honoured to meet her. 

With Dr Alison Telfer

Private Herbert William Purser, 9th Battalion, The Royal Sussex Regiment

My grandfather, Herbert William Purser. 1898-1982

Grandpa's World War One service medal

Page 1 of 22 of Grandpa's personal account of his experiences as a prisoner of war (written in 1927)

Private HW Purser 18642
9th Royal Sussex Regt
37 Councillor St
Camberwell
SE5
Dear Sirs,
In reply to your letter, I have much pleasure in writing these few lines but, being a little depreciative of journalism, you will help in my case. Being captured at Démuin near Villers-Bretonneux on the 30th March at 10am after losing nearly all my comrades 250 strong, only three of us coming out unscathed and from that spot we walked a mile or so meeting a regiment of Prussian guards the officer in charge after questioning us for a minute or so, threatened us three with the point of a revolver to carry a wounded German officer who had been shot through both legs to their nearest dressing station, this being a church a mile or so further on, but after passing by the officer who had spoken to us, before attending the wounded German we got punched and kicked by the private soldiers as they passed by us. After seeing our wounded man safely at the dressing station we were told to carry on walking which we did for another 2 hours.
Still rather hungry, as we had had very little to eat the last 5 days, being mixed up with strays from other regiments and never out of the fighting, at the end of our weary walk which would surely have done us more good to have a rest as we were all dead tired having very little rest one night in 9 days. Eventually we were taken into a large house by a female soldier who was looking out for prisoners where we came across a score or more of our own comrades where we were searched. Rings, watches, photos & correspondence were taken from us. All photos with writing of any description were torn up, others were given back to us with the exception of rings & watches.
From this unknown place we were sent along to Rousel (?) where we were to bury dead for 3 days as fast as we could in bundles of items. From this place we were sent on to Péronne where we worked hard for 600 gms of bread equivalent to one food __ slice of bread with sauerkraut using shovel & pick for 8 to 10 hours a day breaking down a bridge that can open (?) The Somme.
After a fortnight and gradually losing weight oz by oz I was taller,  bad with dysentery and, after being unfit to work by their doctor, spent 3 days in bed. On the fourth I was out at work again only to break down on the walk from our hollen down camp "some houses barbed wire all round with no tops upon them about a mile away, every time I fell out of line I was told to loose(?)" with the butt of a rifle meeting the middle of my back and this is I got at least a dozen times before the day was out. I reported some at camp but nothing came from my complaint, my spirit and friendly telling to my fellow creatures were more than shattered and I swore that my revenge would come on our postern (guard) well within a fortnight or so after our hard task of manual labour had ceased (I being a clerk found this hard work). 

Page 22 of 22

 I thought a blog post about my grandfather's role in World War One would be fitting for today. He was a private in the 9th Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment. He told me he was a sniper and he used a rifle with a telescopic lens to shoot Germans in their trenches when they went to the loo. He also told me that if ever captured as a sniper, it would be instant execution. He was captured, in fact, but luckily managed to rip off his sniper badge just in time. Of his POW experiences, he fascinated me as a child by telling me how he escaped from his POW camp and was on the run for days. He said he hid in bales of hay, and the Germans even prodded the hay with forks but luckily missed him. He said he was still on the run for several days after the war ended but had no idea it was all over.

Yet, in his write up which I only recently read for the first time, it's a slightly different story. Now I'm not sure which version is what actually happened.