I hope you take in to acount that the copyright situation outside the UK is a different one. So most of the times I follow a link to the iPlayer or Youtube I get to read "Not available in your area" wich make the newletter only half fun to read.

3/10. Poor. Disastrous, in fact. I got the American funk metal band one, the metal band one and the last one right.

Great stuff... thanks as ever.

since the last one.

Two things I completely agree with.

Flight 666 - nice film, shame about the music.

The underestimated importance of the quality of the rhythm section in the best music - that it needs to be varied and creative. And what was said about Ringo and his brilliance.

Here's that clip:

A very inspiring podcast which brought back memories of head banging to this back in 1980. Great talkbox effect on the solo.

Pedants, I'm told, maintain that it's Scarlett Johansson - with a hard, Americanised J. As in 'Scorsese' pronounced 'Scorsezzy' and a guy from Chicago I met once with the surname DuBois, which he insisted was pronounced 'Dooboyz'...

I actually find the ones like "Morissette" and "Johansson" quite easy - if I don't know for absolute-rock-solid sure that I know how to spell it, I look it up, after which I probably will remember it in the future.

No, the ones that get me are the very common forenames and surnames with alternative spellings.

Which is which?

PHILIP(S) or PHILLIP(S): Michelle/Prince [...](the Duke of Edinburgh)/Dutch record company/Leslie

-BURG- or -BERG-: Big Ben Roethlis[...]er plays for the Pitts[...] Steelers, Carls[...] lager, Nurem[...] rallies

BRIAN or BRYAN: May, Wilson, Jones, Ferry, Clough, Adams.

HILDA or HYLDA: Ogden, Baker, Margaret [...] Thatcher

and the real bastard:

STEVEN(S)(ON) or STEPHEN(S)(ON): Hawking, Fry, Shakin', Patrick Morrissey, the Rocket's inventor, Pamela, Robert Louis, King, Spielberg, Tyler, Frears, Neal the cyberpunk author*, Berkoff.

And that's without even starting on "Ia(i)n", "Al(l)(a/e)n)" and quite a few others.

(*I can remember it's not "Neil", but the surname? Not a clue.)

Many years ago I did a phoner with their notoriously grumpy frontman Corey Glover and I put that very question to him.

"Why do you spell the name of your band the British way?" I asked in all innocence.

"Because that's the correct way to spell 'colour'" he hissed.

I didn't have much more luck when I asked (in reference to LC's virtuoso guitarist Vernon Reid) why he thought we didn't see more black rock guitarists in the style of Jimi Hendrix. "There are many black rock guitarists" he snapped. "You just don't know about them!"

I asked a drummer friend of mine, "Apart from the drumming, what's so good about The Who?", and he replied, "The drumming."

I'm glad The New Yorker isn't owned by a foreign multi-national. Or maybe we have a twinning arrangement where they rave about our articles on their podcast?

as one of the above just a simple thanks .

John Lennon does deserve a slap for that off the cuff jibe which has hung , undeservedly around Ringo's neck ever since .

"Elvis died when he went into the army". No he didn't. He died about eight or nine years after he came back, on fire, with the greatest music of his life.

So there.

There's a song on Iron Maiden's latest album called Coming Home which is inspired by Bruce's experiences of flying one of those big passenger jets around the world.

Any other rock band who writes a song about a private jet is either telling you, the listener, that they've made enough money to afford this level of luxury, or is about to embark on some sordid tale of mile-high groupie action.

Coming Home is Bruce trying to put across his love of flying, which he elevates to the level of poetry:- "Stretched the fingers of my hand, covered countries with my span, Just a lonely satellite, speck of dust and cosmic sand."

I think it's a shame that with metal bands, and Iron Maiden in particular, once you get past a certain age, you're looked down on in certain quarters if you say: 'These songs meaning something to me - they move me.'

Metal is often regarded as being the province of the teenager and unsophisticated by association. If the Irons had gone down a different path and recorded their lyrics as folk songs, rather than theatrical metal, they would be a lot poorer financially, but more highly regarded as songwriters.

As it stands they are one of the great British bands. I was never happier than last year, walking along a deserted corridor of a snowed-in Southend hospital, taking advantage of the echoey acoustics to bellow the chorus to Powerslave.

Great podcast and good to see my beloved Maiden being shown some appreciation. I interviewed them on tour for a well known left-leaning broadsheet a couple of years back and some points (from memory, so a bit jumbled)...
1) I think they *do* have links to older music, but they're quite well hidden. I noticed on the first night I saw them that even on songs I didn't know, you could follow the tune by the end of the first chorus - much like when you listen to hymns or old folk songs and they have that 'circular' quality. I asked Steve Harris if that sort of stuff had at all been an influence and he said it had, particularly English folk and Jethro Tull and he'd originally been interested to see if you could put those kind of structures onto metal. Other main influences he mentioned: Thin Lizzy's twin guitar sound and Wishbone Ash.
2) I've never seen a band work so hard, shrink huge venues down so much, or just appear to enjoy playing quite so much. Case in point - Steve Harris is inevitably bellowing along, word for word with every song when they play. He doesn't have a microphone, he just still obviously really loves those songs that he wrote over the last 30 years and loves yelling along to them like a fan. Bruce Dickinson was really interesting about using old vaudeville techniques from pre-amplification to bring the crowd in. Absolutely consumate stagecraft.
3) Their kids did all seem incredibly well brought up, polite and well mannered.

... the third band I ever saw. Edinburgh Playhouse, 1989, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son tour. They will always occupy a place in my heart.

...of Mid Lothian, obviously?

I've come late to Iron maiden but love their stuff. I thought the '666' documentary was excellent. What a great bunch of blokes!

also gave permission to the long defunct Iron Maiden from Bolton to release a couple of CDs for a cancer charity, providing they were released under the name "The Bolton Iron Maiden". In the early 1970's they were Bolton's best known rock band but split up when the guitarist succumbed to the dreaded disease. Some of the tracks were studio recordings not previously released. The current Iron Maiden have given publicity to this venture both on their website and on radio interviews. How many current groups would do that?

http://open.spotify.com/album/7qUrN5NVMLlF4Mr5CIZRla

...a Maiden - Bruce. And he was indeed a very nice bloke. It was a few years back, mid semi-sabbatical, and I recall his memorable, bemused, observation that 'It's funny - the less we do, the bigger we get.'

A shame I just don't care much for the music...

the extra disc on the deluxe live at leeds

Partners absent, a mate and I consumed mountains of booze and turned the thing up to 11.

The band were going at it full tilt. At one stage he said "listen, it's like a car careering nearly out of control, then they haul it back in onto the road just at the last moment".

It's always stuck with me that description and the podcast reminded me of it.

thanks gents.

The Spizzles

moment is why I love the podcast.

...to think that that was Hank Marvin pictured above, on first glance.

Seventies Johnson? Sixties, more like...

Thought 666 was great (thanks to the podcast for that recommendation) I watched the 'Lemmy' dvd last night. And was - more than anything else - astonished at how bloody good his skin is. All his contemporaries looked thoroughly dug up. Doubt he'd have much truck with make-up for the cameras and, as a woman, I know just how little headway Max Factor could make on a gasper and JD diet for the best part of thirty years.
Must be the fun that does it.