Captain Howdy

Circa 1986

Gonna post this as just recently discovered them, and loving what they do. I know most here wont care due to not being their style or not singing in English, but as a Band Maid fan, this shit is right up my street. They are a South Korean band. Posting two songs. One original and one a cover (Maneskin, a band I dont really care about) which is kinda impressive seeing as the song is in Italian, a language they don't speak ha ha

Got the album a day early. The rest of the album is pretty much on par with the singles released, so if you like them you will probably like the whole album. Final track is an instrumental, which is probably the closest to what people would have expected from Mick, pretty bluesy.

Arrived this morning: Rolling Quartz - Fighting (Korean import) Mick Mars - The other side of Mars

Owned this on cassette and CD, but never came with glasses I did though replace my CD with a Jap copy a few years ago to get the original version of Ain't the same (the version on Cuts is much better).

FOREIGNER’s MICK JONES issues statement: “Fans will have become very aware that for some time now, I have not been performing onstage with the band. A number of years ago I was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. I want everyone to know that I am doing alright, however, l've always liked to be at my best when performing onstage, and sadly at present find that a bit difficult. I'm still very much involved in the background with Foreigner and remain a presence. Parkinson's is a daily struggle; several of my friends are also dealing with the disease. The important thing is to persevere with the loving support of my family, and remind myself of the wonderful career l've had in music. I thank all the fans who have supported Foreigner throughout the years and continue to attend our concerts. Please know I appreciate your support; it always means so very much to me, especially so at this point in my life.”

Another day, another vocalist change. Never got into these guys anyway, and saw them live once when Cruz was on vocals, and it just sounded like a load of noise. I was saying to someone the other day that as much as I like the Treatment, I think their constant revolving door of vocalists has hurt their potential for success.

I didn't get into Whitecross until late, and my first CD by them was the best of "At their best" which I bought off an old school mail order company (you know, mail out a list via snail mail) due to being described as "the best album Ratt never made". I did like it though, and several years later when the internet was a thing for me finally I started to buy their back catalogue. I got pretty much every studio album bar two (In the kingdom and One more encore). I really liked their early stuff, but after Rex left they turned to absolute dogshit going for a more grunge/alternative sound, which is why I was never fussed to complete their discography (I really should at least get In the kingdom if I can find it though). When they did the re-record thing about 20 years ago, I had lost all interest. Just listened to this song and it's not bad. Certainly not as good as Scott on vox, but better than anything put out without Rex (although I guess it's just Rex and friends now). Oh, and I also bought both of Scotts solo albums. Not bad for an athiest.

Jimmy posted a photo of him and Andre in the studio late last year but all been quiet since then. Looks like maybe they ironed out their differences, but as I say, all quiet on the western front since then (think it was Oct).

The thing is, a lot of the guys dying really are not that old being in their late 50s or in their 60s. Cancer really does no descriminate. And lets face it, with substance abuse we have seen a lot of much younger guys pass away through our lives. From my perspective, I think passing away before you are in your 70s or 80s is still young. This guy was only 68, RDJ was only 67, James Kottak was only 61. Just to name a few. Hell, Erik Gronwall was in his 30s when he got Leukemia, but was one of the luckier ones in that he was able to beat it, but we could have been looking at one of these type of posts for him had it not been different.

https://blabbermouth.net/news/longtime-helix-drummer-greg-fritz-hinz-dead-at-68 Longtime HELIX Drummer GREG 'FRITZ' HINZ Dead At 68 February 16, 2024 Longtime HELIX drummer Greg "Fritz" Hinz has died after a nearly year-long battle with cancer. He was 68 years old. Hinz joined HELIX in 1982 and stayed in the band until 1996, before returning to the group 13 years later. Earlier today (Friday, February 16),HELIX frontman Brian Vollmer posted the following message on social media: "Greg 'Fritz' Hinz: January 23rd/1956-February 16th/2024. R.I.P. "It is with a heavy heart that I must announce the passing of Greg 'Fritz' Hinz, drummer for HELIX since 1983, after a 10 months fighting Cancer. "At a future date there will be a Memorial Service. Traci (Fritz's common law wife) hasn't slept in six months, so I'm going to give her a couple of days. She's been an ANGEL throughout this whole ordeal. I don't know what Fritz would have done without her. Right now I'm respecting HER wishes. This is NOT up for debate. She's cared for Fritz since he found out he had Cancer last April. She has the right to do whatever-and whenever-she wants. PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT TRACI-GIVE HER SPACE AND LET HER HEAL. When she wants to talk to everyone she will. "Fritz was like a brother to myself, Brent, Kenny, and many other people who worked for the band. "Traci has asked me to write something to post. I could go on for hours about the guy, but right now I'm devastated, as are the other guys in the band. We've known about this since last April, but were unable to tell anyone, at Fritz's request. He wanted his privacy through this. He was a proud guy and tough as f**k. "When he fell off the ladder a couple of years ago and nearly died, I thought that was the end there. Fritz surprised everyone by coming back less than 8 months later for gigs in Vancouver & Calgary in one weekend. This meant lots of driving and flying-something that's extremely bad for someone who has suffered a major concussion. He played great that weekend and didn't complain. Many months later he told me that at the end of the Vancouver show at the Hard Rock, he nearly stood up and fell forward through his drums at the end of the show 'cos he had vertigo so bad. Like I said, 'One tough guy.' "I met Fritz way back around the late 70's when he played for the Cambridge based hard rock band STARCHILD. We both used to laugh over the fact that's Fritz's big part on the STARCHILD record 'Children of the Stars' was in the song Johnny Groover. The line in the song went '...here comes Johnny Groover in his Vet-he's got to get it wet…' to which Fritz would then add a squirting sound: Pht-t-t–t–t-h!...' "Fritz was the funniest guy you'd ever want to meet. We could be in the seriousest of situations and he could say something and everyone would burst out laughing. He had that kind of personality everyone wanted to be around. Add to that his ability to attract scores of women at our gigs. Fritz was HELIX's 'David Lee Roth.' The most frequent question asked by girls outside the buses on the QUIET RIOT/WHITESNAKE Tour in 1984 was, 'Do you know where your drummer is???' As a result, Fritz was frequently in 'movies' as he called them. This meant that one of his relationships had gone sideways and was becoming a soap opera. The funny thing was that no matter how much he would piss off the girl, they would always forgive him, come back, and shower him with gifts. "Fritz was the consummate rock drummer: It was his craft. He prided himself in his playing, and well he should have. He had a style all his own. Check out the bridge to the chorus in Heavy Metal Love. Such a simple lick-playing on the off time, but Fritz learned that playing his first instrument-the accordion-in an 'oom-pah-pah' band. "Over the next couple of days I'll be putting up pics (as I'm sure hundreds of other people will) some video, and even Super 8. Here's the first batch of stuff I've found. There's so much. "Fritz joined the band in 1983. This means that he's been in the band for over 40 years, with the exception of when he moved to Florida for a couple of years. "The world has lost one of it's GREAT rock drummers. As I was telling Jamie on the phone today: The public has no idea the sacrifices that musicians make for their craft. You think of the music business as be a fairly low-impact kind of job. In reality, you give up your personal life, your financial life, any type of regularity in your life, and…not to mention the physical scars. I've yet to meet a drummer who hasn't ripped his rotator cuff. Guys with guitars and basses-ditto. We've stayed in the coldest rooms, the hottest rooms, gone without sleep, and made shit money. All for this thing called 'making music.' Fritz definitely did that. He loved his drums and he loved drumming and performing. He took great pride in everything he did. I'm going to miss him so much. "My heart is breaking now. Gotta go." HELIX is one of the most successful Canadian rock bands, especially after the release of 1984's "Walkin' The Razor's Edge" album, which sold more than 100,000 copies in Canada, and more than 400,000 internationally. HELIX has shared the stage with some of the world's best hard rock and heavy metal bands, including KISS, AEROSMITH, RUSH, MÖTLEY CRÜE, ALICE COOPER, WHITESNAKE, HEART, QUIET RIOT and MOTÖRHEAD. HELIX has released 14 studio albums, including its latest, "Old School", which came out in 2019. https://www.facebook.com/helixrockband/posts/978092063882887?ref=embed_post

Just had a listen to the album for the first time, and yeah there is nothing overly original on it, but that is really the point. James just gets what classic metal is all about. If you didn't know any different, and his songs were thrown into a playlist with classic metal like Dio, Maiden, Helloween and Priest, you would think that it was just another classic metal band from back in the day. I really don't know who any of the musicians are, but like James, they know exactly what they are doing to recapture that classic sound. I don't think there is anything on here that will become an all time classic though, but for someone who likes old school trad metal and is looking for something new, I don't think you can go wrong. As a non-American I really did not know who James was until he joined Quiet Riot, and after hearing initial songs I wasn't gonna rush out to buy the album he did with them mainly because in my mind (and I said this elsewhere on here recently) no Kevin, no QR. But after hearing the first Durbin album I picked up the QR album and both his solo albums and have been checking out some of his YouTube covers. He is quite a versatile performer (his Steelheart cover is fantastic). I learned a long time ago to not judge singers if they broke into the industry through reality talent shows, and Erik Gronwall was the one who taught me that. I look forward to hearing more from James as he is highly talented, and a really nice bloke as well. He reminds me of Erik in a lot of ways.

Looking at the comments on Stryper and Michaels FB pages it is understandable why they get away with the prices they stick on their merch. They have way too many fans who think the bands shit dont stink, and will buy anything they put out no matter what the price. The comments of how great it is, when they have not even heard it yet really does speak volumes about how indoctrinated some of their fans are into the cult of Stryper. I have no issue with Christians and their beliefs even if it's not the way I roll, but these seem to be the same sort of people who send their life savings to TV evangelists because they think some orange skinned scam artist is gonna ease their way into heaven. I genuinely love Stryper, or at least I did until Michael started bombarding us with new material every five minutes.