My wife and I went to witness one of the many great summer festivals that Toronto has to offer this past Saturday, it’s called Toronto Ribfest.
There are actually several Ribfests during the summer months. The one we went to yesterday was located in Etobicoke’s Centennial Park. We’ve been there before mostly for the food but this year ran into this great band playing on the Rotary stage, but first to the fine local cuisine!
First we picked up some Origional (Yes that’s how they spelled it right on the tin mug that came with it) Pappy’s Old Fashion Soda Pop. It was way too watered down for the price of $7.00. Tip: if you do get one, make sure to completely pull down on the tap until you see the colour of your drink otherwise you end up with a bad mixture. The mug does have a cool Army or Klondike gold rush appearance to it. Then it was off to Camp 31 BBQ to get us 2 Full Racks of Ribs with 2 orders of beans and coleslaw. Cost $48.00.
Just before leaving the Ribfest, we finally decided to get a taste of Bob’s Bloomin’ Onions. Cost $9.00. They get a huge onion and make it look like a flower. Then they dip it in batter then deep fry it and serve it with a Ranch Dressing sauce.
The parking as usual was crazy, for a more pleasant exit from the parking lot, ask the cop or attendant whee they want you to exit, it will definitely help with your blood pressure.
It took 29 years and 328 days for the surviving members of Pink Floyd (Roger Waters, David Gilmour and Nick Mason) to perform as a band at a Roger Waters concert at London’s O2 Arena on Thursday May 13th. Man that would have been a great show to witness.
I recall seeing the band in the old CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) in Toronto in the mid 80′s and that show was just plain epic. The band actually went into Quadraphonic Sound that night, holy crap it was just like sitting in someone’s home who had a real kick ass stereo system. An old friend of mine, Ed Myers, had the first Quad Stereo that I ever experienced and for that I thank him!
While Rogers was playing Comfortably Numb that night with his band, David Gilmour joined in with a beautiful black Stratocaster of his and what a sight and sound that must of been. Behind Roger Waters on stage was his trademark white Wall and on the top of that was David Gilmour whaling away singing and playing guitar like only he can. Whenever I jam along with this classic tune or perform it live somewhere, I always have his majestic guitar solo playing in my head way before it should in truth come in. It’s just one of those solo’s that even non guitarists know off by heart.
Then for the last song of the evening Roger Waters, David Gilmour and then bands original drummer Nick Mason gathered on stage and offered the crowd their version of Outside the Wall. Gilmour was on a mandolin, Rogers on trumpet and Nick Mason on tambourine.
I’m not sure how many Pink Floyd fans there are out there, but if you wanted to see the olde boys from Pink Floyd play together again, even if it was for largely symbolic reasons, than this was a show to have seen.
Judas Priest‘s K.K. Downing has finally made his final curtain call after 42 years with the band. He just wrote on his website that he decided to leave the band because of a breakdown in the working relationship between himself, the band and management.
Imagine playing in a band for 40 or more years, touring with and putting up with the same buddies and their little idiosyncrasies? I think that might just do it.
The thing that would bother me the most is performing the same old songs over and over again on tour. To this day I can’t for the life of me figure out how the Stones perform some of their standards after 49 years, 49 years! Some musicians might like to fall into the same old groove, playing a collection of their songs to death, but I certainly couldn’t.
Judas Priest plans on carrying on with their latest tour, Epitaph, even without one of it’s founding members. The band will insert another enthusiastic guitar player into the lineup. He is a 31 year old British born guitarist called Richie Faulkner.
The one song that comes to mind when I hear the name Judas Priest is You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’. It’s really an anthem song and the bands’ most popular tune. When the song first came out the only guy I remember freaking out over it was my good old buddy Barber! He loved playing it on bass and the enthusiasm on his face when he played will be etched in my mind forever.
I’ve written this blog to share my enjoyment of music, the guitar and other instruments and I hope that I can offer information that might be useful to others who are interested in playing the guitar.
