The Grey Room

Melomaniac : We also have to teach our kids to invest time in what they really want to do, in passions and hobbies, and in their dreams, not in what society teaches them to be important -  agree with you there, good advice.

I read a book about the Scottish history and a big bit is going on the Battle of Culloden. It is amazing and horrific to read what the english did back then. Not that the Dutch are clean!!

Hello, is this the Grumpy Old Men room?

I'd like to take us back to one of the original ideas about discussing old gigs. I still have the ticket stub from Genesis at the Hammersmith Odeon, Friday June 11th 1976. It cost me the vast sum of £1.50!!
I guess my mind must be going because the only bit I can really remember is the "A flower?" bit from Supper's Ready.
So who else saw the giants of prog in the 70s? My sisters used to go and see Caravan at Ewell Tech (with Black Sabbath!).

Hello, is this the Grumpy Old Men room?     No.

mystic fred wrote: chopper wrote: Hello, is this the Grumpy Old Men room? I'd like to take us back to one of the original ideas about discussing old gigs. I still have the ticket stub from Genesis at the Hammersmith Odeon, Friday June 11th 1976. It cost me the vast sum of £1.50!! I guess my mind must be going because the only bit I can really remember is the "A flower?" bit from Supper's Ready. So who else saw the giants of prog in the 70s? My sisters used to go and see Caravan at Ewell Tech (with Black Sabbath!).       ......me...grumpy?     hi chopper, Hammy Odeon (now the Hammersmith Apollo) was almost my second home for some time. Many gigs, Aerosmith 76 , Queen 75, the show was built around Bohemian Rhapsody, amazing, saw Quo a few times, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Peter Gabriel....loads.  i used to go to Wembley Arena ( Yes 90125, AC/DC) and Earl's Court (Led Zep 75) too. I remember them all, not very cool!         PS  must get my beauty sleep now, up at 5am tomorrow!

I saw Peter Gabriel at Hammy Odeon too - March 12th 1980. The whole band walked through the audience from the back onto the stage, carrying torches. Very effective. I also saw Rainbow, Rush (3 times), Be Bop Deluxe, Yes (with Trevor Horn), Rory Gallagher and Status Quo (amongst others).

TheProgtologist wrote: Melomaniac wrote: Can even a movie beat a good book? Not in a hundred years! Not by a longshot. Give me a good novel over a movie anyday!!!

I like to read as well, but I simply don't do enough of it.  I have the desire too though.  It is vitally important though for children to read regularly and try and restrict their television watching.  I had a television in my room and I used to watch a lot of 18 rated films when I was 14 or 15, but they luckily didn't have a bad affect on me.  However, the content in films today is very worrying.

Maybe it's just me, but almost every American film I see on late at night involves mindless car chases, shootings, stabbing, swearing... what ever happened to harmless films that dealt with adult concepts in an intelligent way?
I'm not saying all violent films are inherently bad, not at all, but some of them are pointless and not even worth making.  It's also not always a question of violence, but it's often a question of how much the film costs to make!

Personally, I would much rather watch an old Ealing Comedy, or an Alistair Sim film, than something modern and mind-numbingly awful.

Oh and I realise I am not 30, but I am 26, which is older than most of the posters in that VR place!


Edited by Geck0 - September 18 2006 at 23:17

bhikkhu wrote:     Well, I wondered where my grouchy old contemporaries were off too. I like the idea of an area for our interests, but come on guys. Is this only going to be a gripe session about how much better it was in the old days.?

Edited by mystic fred - September 19 2006 at 02:21

chopper wrote: I still have the ticket stub from Genesis at the Hammersmith Odeon, Friday June 11th 1976. It cost me the vast sum of £1.50!!I guess my mind must be going because the only bit I can really remember is the "A flower?" bit from Supper's Ready.So who else saw the giants of prog in the 70s? My sisters used to go and see Caravan at Ewell Tech (with Black Sabbath!).

Let's clear up a couple of things first, eh?

1 - Hammersmith Odeon (Genesis, Zappa, AC/DC, Motorhead, Hawkwind, plus too many others to recall... especially Krokus ) is, was and will always be Hammersmith Odeon, or 'Hammy' - never The Labatts Apollo or the Carling Apollo!

2 - My favorite venue, St Albans City Hall (Marillion, Hawkwind, Fairport Convention, Budgie... etc etc etc and Manowar...) is not The Alban Arena!

3 - The Marquee (too many to list, but included are The Enid, Magnum, Pendragon, Twelfth Night, Solstice, 999... and believe it or not, Pallas ) is a pokey little black painted sweaty basement club in Wardour Street, London - you cannot just move a venue anywhere you like and call it The Marquee!

But, oh! Those halcyon days of the late 1970s - I was there on the first night at Earls Court when Floyd left 20,000 of us with our mouths open after seeing 'The Wall' played live. I've been at the Reading Festival watching The Enid's Robert John Godfrey jumping around in dungarees singing 'Wild Thing' . I was there, too, at Reading in 1983 when a young, nervous Marillion blew headliners Black Sabbath (vocals - Ian Gillan ) off stage...

I've never had an I-Pod, but remember when cassette Walkmans were cool, I remember when mobile phones were the size of a Mini Metro... Hell! I remember the Mini Metro, I remember when computers filled large carefully air conditioned rooms and the closest we came to this technology was a Commodore 64, a ZX Spectrum, or (if you were rich) a BBCB.

The internet? The internet?!? E-Mail?!?! I remember when people used to phone each other, and write letters, and tape albums from friends (remember "home taping is killing music"?) - when download wasn't even a word!

And you tell the kids of today that...

...and they'll not believe you.

Now you'll have to excuse me, my bag's full.
      
    

Edited by Jim Garten - September 19 2006 at 07:10

*dozes off in a comfortable chair*