My Favourite Albums Of 2009

My favourite music releases of the year 2009 in no particular order - they are all great :)

Ian Hunter - Man Overboard

A CD full of extraordinary songs from my favourite singer/songwriter, Not a dud track on this release.

http://www.ianhunter.com/

James Maddock - Sunrise On Avenue C

I loved the CD James Maddock released with his old band WOOD (Songs From Stamford Hill) and this CD is just as good, great songs sang brilliantly, pity this UK singer/songwriter is based in NYC as I'd love to see him play live.

http://www.jamesmaddock.net/

The Misers -Amplified Life Stories

Excellent band from Hereford, the lead singer Neil Ivison has a terrific voice and writes wonderful songs.

http://www.themisers.co.uk/

Amy Speace - The Killer In Me

Another brilliant release, excellent country tinged songs sung beautifully by Amy Speace, duets with ian Hunter on two tracks on this album.

http://www.amyspeace.com/AmySpeaceHome.html

Lynyrd Skynyrd - God & Guns

This release suprised me, fantastic and a real return to form from the band, as good as anything released in the Ronnie Van Zant era.

http://www.lynyrdskynyrd.com/

Mott The Hoople - Live At Hammersmith Apollo 2nd October 2009

I saw one of the 5 reunion shows at the Hammersmith Apollo that Mott did and it was the best live gig I ever attended, so emotional, musically stunning, the band were on fire the night I saw them and this 2 CD set is terrific (actually it's 3 CD's but the third is photo's etc.)

http://www.mottthehoople.com/

Guns 'N' Roses - Chinese Democracy

I know a lot of people didn't rate this CD but I loved it, exceptional songs by the one and only Axl Rose.

http://web.gunsnroses.com/index.jsp

Mott The Hoople - Classic Rock Reunion Gig Review

Mott The Hoople - UNCUT Reunion Gig Review

Mott The Hoople - MOJO Reunion Gig Review

Latest Dilbert

Bus Crash

Had a little prang whilst bus driving, not much damage but I'll be in trouble because of it !!

Daily Dilberts

Song Lyrics

Sometimes you hear a song lyric and it sums up a specific point or time in your life, well this line fits me today !!

"Man Overboard, waves washing over, me, hard times, it's a perilous sea !!"

From Ian Hunter's new CD Man Overboard.

John :P

Daily Dilbert

Daily Dilbert

Currently....

Listening to:

Ian Hunter - Man Overboard
Tracie Hunter - Screaming Superego
James Maddock - Sunrise On Avenue C

Reading:

The Chisholm Trail - Ralph Compton

Watching:

England being beaten by Holland 2-0

As as I type England have scored !! Defoe - 2-1, Come you three Lions :)

Music :)

Currently listening to:

Ian Hunter - Man Overboard

Tracie Hunter - Screaming Superego

Talent runs deep in the 'HUNTER' family, both are superb releases.

Seek 'em out folks :)

John xx

A Smashing Time !!

One of our night bus drivers had a smashing time early this morning !!

Note that the mirror by the passenger entrance door is unscathed, how the hell did that happen ???

Daily Dilbert

Daily Dilbert

Ghandi's Revenge !!

Well I had my first ever "Vindaloo" curry from our local indian takeaway last night, it was bloody hot and I now know why Johnny Cash sang "Ring Of Fire !!" LOL :P

Ian Hunter - Man Overboard Scans

Some scans of the outer and inner cover of Ian Hunter's new CD 'Man Overboard' plus a scan of a pic from the CD booklet. Love his new CD, one of his best IMHO :>

John :)

Daily Dilbert

Ian Hunter - Record Collector

Album review and Q&A from current Record Collector magazine about Ian Hunter's new CD "Man Overbaord"






John :)

Pincushion Blues !!

Just been for blood tests and a Glucose Tolerance Test (to see if my blood sugar level has gone down) and feel like a bloody pincushion, the nice lady who took the blood couldn't find a vein in my right arm and eventually found a bleeder in my left arm !! - Where's Dracula when you need him the damn blood sucker !! :P

Daily Dilbert

Daily Dilbert

Harry Potty

http://entertainment.uk.msn.com/movies/news/Article.aspx?cp-documentid=148425565>1=61502

Daily Dilbert

Today's Dilbert :>

Ian Hunter - Classic Rock Scans

Scanned two articles in from the latest issue of Classic Rock, you'll have to click on the pics to zoom in and view the print.

Man Overboard

The brilliant Mr Ian Hunter performing "Man Overboard" IN NYC recently (You'll have to cut and paste the link)

John :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3St_EpZPzE

Currently....

Currently listening to: MAN OVERBOARD By Ian Hunter - Feckin' Brilliant :)

Currently watching: WIMBLEDON - Great wins for Andy Murray and Andy Roddick, my fav. palyers at Wimbo, both can progress, still think Mr Roddick is the dark horse of the tournament :>

Currently....

Currently....

Relaxing at home, on two weeks holiday :)

Currently watching Wimbledon, Andy Roddick (great player) won his first match and played well, he's a dark horse for the tournament IMHO :)

Currently reading "The Road by Cormac McCarthy" - brilliant book, weirdly written though.





Currently listening to "The Misers - Amplified Life Stories" - Fav. CD of the year so far :)

http://www.themisers.co.uk

Swine Flu

Father's Day !!

Well Father's day started out well with cards and presents and my youngest
daughter Stefanie and oldest son Jamie coming over :)

But then it turned into a disaster when Jamie's came over to pick Jamie up in
her car and to give Stef. a lift home as well, they then had a crash on the way
home resulting in Stef having to go Emergency with a bashed up face and
concussion after hitting her head on the seat in front, thankfully she is doing
OK now and is on the way home!!

Strange day :(

John

Snatch Wars !!

STAR WARS meets SNATCH (The Guy Ritchie film) !!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDKiQfBs9lo

John :)

Pub Photo's

Some Pub photo's :)

John & Joe

Down The Pub !!

So me and my youngest son Joe went to Greenwich this lunchtime, McDonalds and then a few beers in a pub, Good times :)

Wilderness #60– The Outcast By David Thompson - Genre: Western

I’ve read four Wilderness books in the last few months and I must admit I’m amazed that David Thompson (real name David Robbins) can come up with such an enthralling and consistently excellent series of books with such great storylines every time I read one, to me this speaks of a writer at the height of his writing prowess. This book starts off brilliantly and never lets off to a great finale. A lone Indian warrior arrives at the King valley determined to wipe out then people living there but after spying Louise King he is reminded of his dead wife and his mind is suddenly in turmoil, this is a start of an twisting tale as events unfold with a kidnapping, a vengeful spouse, a return of an old enemy, a multi-threaded chase and a surprise ending. Great characters in this tome including “Te Outcast” who I hope we see again, fantastic dialogue that has a lot of emotional moments and a lot of humorous ones as well, loads of great action with many perilous moments and a great storyline to boot. All in all this was another fantastic read in this continually excellent series. A must read IMHO if you like the Wilderness series.

Wilderness # 58 Cry Freedom & # 59 Only The Strong - Book Reviews

Wilderness # 58 – Cry Freedom & # 59 – Only The Strong By David Thompson – Genre: Western

This story is spread over two books so I’m reviewing it in one go (saves my typing fingers!!). The Worth family are black slaves on the run from their owners after the father, Samuel, accidentally kills a man who is about to harm his daughter Randa and together with his wife Emala and son Chickory the four of them head towards the imagined safety of the wilderness of the Rockies. Nate & Winona King on the way to St. Louis encounter the family and Winona gets Nate to help them on their journey, Nate does so burt with reservations, he thinks the Worth’s are hiding something from them. What follows is an excellent tale which includes two sets of slave hunters, untold wilderness dangers from man, beast and the elements, kidnapping, being set-a-foot and much, much more. Bags of action as usual, great dialogue with some funny moments, great character’s and an excellent plot, another great pair of books in the series, well worth hunting out !!

Wilderness # 57 Fear Weaver - Review

Wilderness #57 – Fear Weaver By David Thompson (David Robbins) - Genre: Western

The Wilderness saga continues with this great entry into the series, Nate King is on his way to visit Touch The Clouds and the Shoshone tribe when he happens on the Woodrow family who are trying to find some of their kin who have set up home in a remote valley in the wilderness that is the Rockies, Nate agrees to help them not knowing the hellish situation he and his new friends are heading towards. This tome was another hugely entertaining book in this series that I continue to thoroughly enjoy; I can honestly say I’ve not liked a book in the WILDERNESS series that is now at book # 60. An engaging plot that has you wondering all the time, just what or who is doing all that killing??. Plenty of action in this book, brilliant characters (I especially liked Auntie Aggie who was hilarious, her banter was extremely funny and made me laugh out loud many times), an excellent plot-line that had me engrossed from start to finish, another brilliant read.

Bullet For A Bad Man - Book Review

Bullet For A Bad Man – A Ralph Compton novel by David Robbins - Genre: Western

Two brother’s bound by blood but bound to shed blood !! – Boone and Eppley Scott are brothers and in some respects could be classed as chalk and cheese but in one respect they are the same, the ability to kill, but one does it to defend himself and those he loves, the other to get his own way in life and not allowing anything or anyone to stand in his way. I found this book a fascinating read with the difference and similarities of the two siblings, both deadly but both different. The book has a fast paced plot that draws you and keeps you enthralled from the first to last page, loads of action, a lot of it brutal at times, a love story, great characters, the two brothers, Sassy, the Radler’s and the shootist Skelman who was great. Excellent story as usual from David Robbins which has many twists and turns and cliff-hanger chapter ending with a terrific and exciting finale to the tale, another excellent Compton book by David Robbins.

Smallville - Music Video's

Smallville is my favourite TV show and the music they use on it is excellent, clever people on YouTube put the music to clips from the show which I really enjoy, some are below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3h6XMMGXDk&feature=related

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll243bFLYZg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKdJtCGx2WM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_M-J8pAPUA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVaS-ER4hNk&feature=related

This Happened In My Bus Garage At Work !!

This happened at the bus garage I work at !!, drivers really need to be more observant, never happened to me !!, though I had an old drunk tramp/hobo asleep on the back seat of my bus a while ago, had to call the Police/Ambulance to get him off, the joy of cheap cider LOL :P

I AM OMEGA

Watched "I AM OMEGA" last night (After recording it via SKY +), a low budget movie very loosely based on the book "I AM LEGEND" by Richard Matheson (Which is an excellent book IMHO), It was OK, some fairly good action scenes, the only weird thing was it was Zombies and not Vampires as it is in the book, not a bad way to waste few hours with bugger all else on the TV though !!

Here's a link to a trailer for the film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWskbJrz1T8

Mott The Hoople Get MOJO Award

Mott The Hoople received an award at this years MOJO magazines awards, about time my favourite band were recognized as the great and influential band they were, can't wait for the reunion shows in October :)

http://www.mojo4music.com/blog/2009/06/mojo_honours_list_09_the_winne.html

Currently....

Currently listening to:- The Misers - Amplified Life Stories http://www.themisers.co.uk/



Currently reading:- Wilderness #57 Fear Weaver by David Thompson (David Robbins) http://www.dorchesterpub.com/Dorch/productdetail.cfm?Product_ID=2193&L1=3&L2=0



Just finished reading "I Am Legend" by Richard Matheson - Stunning book, enjoyed it immensely.

My New Blog

Started this blog to say what I'm upto, what I'm reading?, music I'm listening to? etc and about life on the buses, the good, the bad and the ugly !! - I'm good, the passenger's are bad and the buses ugly :)

The blog is called "Bus Driver Billy" because that's the wife's polite name for me sometimes !!