A Fresh start

I have decided to move this blog to its own hosted server in time for a fresh batch of ranting! All posts and comments have been mirrored there. The new domain is http://yonguksaram.com

It’s coming…

I realise that I am probably a little late with this news, although I am not sure anybody in Korea even cares about it. What can I say… It’s coming!

Sometime before my 15th birthday, I heard a tune on MTV (back when MTV played music video’s) that blew me away. It was a song from Terminator 2, and was the ‘new’ single from Guns N’ Roses. Since that day, they have very much been ‘my’ band.

I was doing my work experience with school at the time, working at the admin office of the local council. Although the work was voluntary, they had a whip-round and handed me £15 at the end of my stint. In 1992, that was a reasonable amount to give a young kid. I used it to buy a nice new LP – Appetite for Destruction. I was already familiar with some of the songs, but being able to throw them out at will, at high volume, for the majority of my waking hours, was something that made me happy!

(Official Music Video)

Shortly afterwards, I picked up a copy of GN’R LIES and I was happy enough, and I devoured everything I could find that was in any way related to the band. A friend of mine had a copy of the NY Ritz show that had been shown on Elvira’s Headbanger’s Ball a few years earlier, so I had myself a copy of that. I then found out that they were due to drop a pair of double albums, and that they would be in London a few days before the release. I was gutted. Just weeks after my 15th birthday, there was no way I could get to see them live, and being able to buy the records was going to be an issue.

When the albums were released I had copies made by a friend who owned a CD player (I never got one until years later), and so I had some tapes to wear down. I remember listening to them for the first time, and just as November Rain had built up and was starting to wail, the bastard tape ended, and I had to start over again on the other side! It was almost a year before these illicit were replaced by the real deal, and it was only when I got the official releases did I learn the full names of most of the tracks. I still own my original copies of the albums. UI1 and Appetite are on Vinyl. I got Lies on cassette first (it must have been cheap) and I replaced it with the vinyl at a later date. For some reason I never managed to get UYI2 on LP. I bought it on cassette, and the next copy I bought was the CD, a few years later.

Early in 1992, after the albums had pushed the band to the top of their genre, a new world tour was announced, and they were once more coming to the UK. Wembley Stadium. Smack bang in the middle of my GCSE’s. I couldn’t afford it, and there was no way my parents would stump up the cash in the middle of the exams that will decide my future. I had to find it myself.

A good friend, one who I am better friends with today, used his paper round money to buy a pair of tickets, along with the coach fare to London (250 miles away). This shit was on! Now I just have to find a way to pay him back! There was no way the parents were going to pay up. They were good parents, but they couldn’t afford to go pissing away money so I could go listen to music, and they were not going to encourage me to fail the exams that would enable me to go onto further my education and escape the trappings of an industrial working class town on the outskirts of Liverpool.

As the concert neared, I did everything I could to raise the money. It was not a huge amount, especially in today’s money, but as a schoolkid with no job it was hard work. It took me a while, but I got there. The ticket was paid for, and I was pumped.

Over the next few months I got a few teasers. The band played the Freddie Mercury Tribute in April, and on June 6th, 1 week before I was due to see them, a concert was broadcast from Paris, France.

(Paris, France, 1992)

I watched the show live, then again the next day (with my mother). The next week was the first week of exams, but all I cared about was wearing down the video tape!

The day before the show, dad came back from work and gave me a bundle of cash. He made up the cost of the ticket so that I had some spending money. He figured that if I wanted to go to the show so badly, I would find a way to pay for it myself, but once I was going I had to have a good time! I used the cash to buy a program, and a T-Shirt that I still wear to this day, despite it being a nice shade of gray!

The concert was amazing. I was at Wembley Stadium, about to see the biggest band of my generation. Soundgarden and Faith No More played fair sets, and I managed to get to the front, almost die from the heat, go sit at the back, and then be right at the front again by the time GN’R came on. I was around 5 rows back and it was insane! 5′2″ (at the time) and trying to mix it with the kind of big, sweaty bastard that makes a UK concert what it is.

I went back to school, finished my exams, and decided to get myself a guitar. The tour ended, and another was immediately announced. This time, they would be playing a stripped down set, and would be at the Milton Keynes bowl. I went to see the show (with the same guy I saw the first one with), and it was a blast made all the better by the fact that Izzy Stradlin’ had come back for a few shows to fill in for Gilby Clarke (GN’R fans will know what I am on about).

(Location unknown, 1993)

Blind Melon, Soul Asylum and The Cure were on the bill, and it was a great Bank Holiday weekend. Until GN’R came on. Then it pissed down and I managed to slide into the bowl as the embankments turned to mud. Happy days! At this show, against all odds, I bumped into an old school friend that I had not seen in years. We actually bumped into each other on the way out, and since becoming reacquainted we renewed our friendship, and I am now godfather to his kids. Strange…

This was the last tour by GN’R in the 19xx’s. A new LP, “The Spaghetti Incident” was released on the 23rd November, 1993. That was the last GN’R album of new material to be released. The band fell apart.

There were whisperings of a new band, and the name Chinese Democracy was being touted as a new album. The rumours about who was in and who was out were becoming ridiculous! End of Days featured “Oh My God”, a new song that was mauled by the critics. It’s not so bad, but it doesn’t sound quite like Guns N’ Roses. Then, in 2000, some things started to happen. In early 2001, the new band played a couple of shows. They did a show at the House of Blues, and then played Rock in Rio 3, and received a mostly good reception. A world tour was announced, and tickets were purchased. This time, I was going with the same guy I had always seen the band with, and another school friend who had never seen the original line-up. We were psyched. This could be great or terrible. They cancelled. It was terrible!

The rescheduled for 2002, and this time we did get to see them, at the Docklands arena in London. The new band was amazing. They blew the old one out of the water, even if they did look like a freakshow. The guy who had never seen the old band had a blast, though was gutted he couldn’t confirm his suspicions that this band were in a different league.

(Boston, 2002).

After this show came the MTV awards, where things were not quite right and the band were slated in the press. Axl was ‘large’ and his voice was different, and people didn’t quite like that! After the MTV awards, Axl promised that the new album would be out soon. Could the wait be over? In a word… No!

There were a number of things that happened that caused the delay of the album. Buckethead (the guy with the bucket on his head, duh!) quit the band and a replacement was sought. A few more years passed, and GN’R announced yet another tour, for the album that was not yet released.

I was all ready to pass on this tour, as I was starting to feel like Axl was taking the piss with cash grab world tours. Then they announced the Hammersmith Apollo, a pretty small venue, and I just had to go. Whilst I was living in Oxford for the 2002 show, I was now back in Liverpool, so it was decided that this should be a weekend event. The same three that went to Docklands made their way to London by rail. We started drinking on the train and were in a bar in Hammersmith by 1:30pm. We were shitfaced by the time the band came on at 11. The new new band sounded even better than before, but the show was hindered by the number of instrumentals. Still, they sounded good, and Sebastian Back came and sang on a track. It is always fun to see him! One thing I will say about the 2006 tour that is without a doubt. The voice is definitely better than it has ever been!

(Rock AM Ring, 2006)

Even though I was still following the band closely, I had almost given up on the album ever hitting the shelves. By 2007, I had moved to South Korea, and I was tempted to fly over for a show in Osaka, but I decided I am not giving them another penny until the album drops. And that brings me to my point. The road has been a bumpy one, but it’s coming, and it will arrive exactly 15 years after the release of the Spaghetti Incident!

Click it fuckers!

Bank charges back home have nothing on this place!

For all those people who like to complain about bank charges for moving money back home, or even the ATM charges for getting your own cash, here’s a piece from the Korea Times website that puts things into perspective:

A man in his 20s was slapped with a 300,000 won ($220) fine for trying to get 1 won coins in change from a bank.

The Changwon District Court Wednesday fined the 27-year-old for interrupting banking services in an attempt to get nine 1 won coins in change.

According to the court, he purchased 1-gram of gold from a Changwon bank in February. He was supposed to be given 669 won in change but the bank clerk handed over 670 won, citing rareness of the coin. After his repeated calls for nine 1 won coins were rejected, he said “I won’t leave here till you give me 1 won coins.”

Ok, I get it. He was being a pain in the arse. He was arrested, and charged with being said pain in the arse.

The court said, “He was found to have suffered brain damage. But such behavior had nothing to do with his mental trouble.”

Erm… Nice! A guy with brain damage is being a tad daft. So he is arrested and removed from the area. The sensible thing to do at this point would be (assuming he is not a danger to anybody) get him to his family and ensure that he won’t cause any more problems. Instead, he is taken to court and handed a disproportionate fine. Nice to see that it isn’t only foreigners who get shit on by the banks!