JANUARY 2009 - LONG COLD WINTER

Salam to all my friends and my blog readers. Wish you guys Salam Maal Hijrah and a happy NewYear. It has been a while now since the last time I updated my blog. My apology as i need time to settle down since my transfer to London. Finally today, i manage to find time to write something to share with you all.

Actually, since the last quarter of 2008, there were a lot of events or incidents happening here in london from freezing cold winter, credit crunch, football managers being sacked, demonstrations, and so on. Come to think of it, I can verify that London is really a "happening" city. Basically, you are free to do what you think or like and nobody give a shit.

The rock scene in london during this long cold winter is pretty quite and not much. We shall wait for summer. There will be a lot of rock concerts here in london. What interest me is the return all all classics 80s bands rock concert here. Looking forward to that. Well, I shall save this rock things in a later stage as there are a lot of things that I wish to share with you all.

Let me start with football. Well, as a football enthusiast,being in England-the land of the famous Premiere League, this is a good opportunity for me to visit all the football stadiums here. Thank God, I had managed to do that. I have visited few stadiums including Spurs, West Ham, Chelsea, Arsenal,Manchester City,Everton and the most important Old Trafford(Manchester United) and The Anfield(Liverpool). Oh man, what a feeling when I finally arrived Old Trafford and Anfield and not to forget the White Hart Lane. It was awesome. I took a chance to visit Manchester United Museum and Stadium tour by paying about 12 pounds. I tell you..it is really worth it. My next target is to go to do the same at Anfield. Attached are some photos that i managed to snap. I wished I could add more pictures but the file for each picture is too big 5mb( using my cousin SLR and I am not expert in this. My bad.

Okay, back to the rock scene...well lately, since moving to london and live just a whisper away from the immortalized ABBEY ROAD by The Beatles, suddenly I felt like checking about the Beatles. Everyday I will come across visitors come to visit this crossing and the Abbey studio. As a non Beatles generation, i must admit that I could never bother to listen to them before. 80s rock generation man...what the hell is the Beatles...Who cares. Then i started buying their CDs and to my surprise, now i know why the Beatles is voted the best band of all time. You just imagine as a 60s band, they were so innovative. Their sound and modern and songs are still fresh until today and if you don't believe me, most of the current top songs by the indies, grunge, modern rock are so Beatle likes...Unbelievable. That i started going deeper...try to find out who was the real vocalist for them. Was it Paul or John Lennon? Well it was both but i am really impressed with John Lennon. No wonder why people were so sad where he died. Now, I am trying my best to collect all John Lennon's solo CDs including the famous Imagine and The Plastics Ono Band.But you know la kan...kalau cd legend legend ni mana ada yang murah. Sekeping CD cost me 16 pounds. Anyway I still need to but the CDs. Guys, believe me....go and get this CDs. If you are not Beatles generation like me...then please start listening to the Beatles. John Lennon and the Beatles are really awesome. You just imagine if John Lennon is still alive today. Being a hard core peace activist....what would he do with this Israel thing? Lu pikir la sendiri.

Enough said about the Beatles...You know what Dokken has come with the new studio album entitled Lightning Strikes Again with new guitarist and bassist namely Jon Levin and Barry Sparks while wild Mick Brown and Don Dokken remain. You might think they will not kick ass without Mr Scary George Lynch. Wroooong. This album is awesome man. You will not miss George Lynch at all. You know what...Jon Levin really bring back Dokken's 80s sound. Trust me...you will never regret to own this album. The 80s rock is back. Who will want to dispute the fact that 80s rock was the golden years for all hard rock/metal fans. ROCK is king during that time. ROCK will never Die bro. Enough said...please check out this album. "Sweet revenge will never end this time...break the spell, all illusion...waiting for you...dream warrior" ...remember this song. Go and check it out.

After Dokken, then another 80s band released a new studio album. You remember Vito Bratta of White Lion? Sure you do....White Lion has come up with a new album entitled RETURN of the PRIDE. If you remember the classic PRIDE album with beautiful songs like Wait, Tell me, When the Children Cry, Lady of the Valley, etc. ...well this time the called it Return of the Pride. To be honest, I am bit dissapointed. This album was released without any touch of Vito. Sad to say, until today we have not heard anything new on Vito except the 2007 interview with Eddie trunk. Mike Tramp has to soldier on without him. The entire line up is new...no Greg de Angelo and Mark Lomenzo.For me, as a fan of White Lion, I still bought it. They still maintain white lion sounds but the only missing part is distinguished Vito's guitar sound. Suprisingly, Mike Tramp's vocal is better than ever. Even without Vito, i still love White lion. Thank you to Mike Tramp for still putting up new materials for 80s generation like me. Understand that they are planning to come to london. Might want to see them again. The last time I saw them live was in 1989 during the Pride tour in Dallas. Hopefully you guys can find this album in Malaysia. Even myself have to pesan from my friend while he was on business trip to US .http://www.returnofthepride.com/

Well, actually there are more things that i wish to share including Avenged Sevenfold..but lets stop here for my first article of the year. See you guys later.

Cheers.