Gibbo

'The Wedding Singer', when Adam Sandler's character tells his psycho ex-girlfriend to take his Van Halen t-shirt off before she jinxes the band (the film was set in 1985, remember?)

Dream Theater is not just a prog metal band, they're one of the pioneers back in the early days, together with Queensryche and Fates Warning. These latter two are more into heavy metal while Dream Theater can venture into heavier territory such as thrash. A media once labelled them as an exciting new band that combines both YES and METALLICA, well not too far off i guess. If you can appreciate those two bands, chances are you're gonna like Dream Theater, but if not, then it's hard. If you dislike old prog stuffs (like Genesis, Yes, King Crimson, Pink Floyd etc) and only into thrash/heavy metal stuffs, there are still some songs that you can appreciate. For me, I love 2 albums, 'Image and Words', one of their most accessible albums and maybe the best album in 1992, and the second one is 'Scenes From A Memory' from 1999. The third thing that I like is their 2011 album with Mike Mangini, but the rest well are maybe strictly for fans, but still you can make one great compilation from them. Octavarium is prolly my favourite. 'When Dream And Day Unite' is my favourite ... I haven't managed to get through a whole Dream Theater album since ...

Toadstool: Long Gone Flyer Eric Clapton: The Cream Of ... Peter Gabriel: So The Who: My Generation (The Very Best Of ...) Sheryl Crow: C'Mon, C'Mon

Thanks Simo, that was a good thread! Guess it comes down to personal taste on whether peeps think it's a good or bad thing categorizing judging from the comments there. Do you reckon it does artists a disservice when music gets too narrowly categorised or does it help in some way by creating niche markets and loyal followings? In places like HMV, they'll categorise everything from Within Temptation to Nickelback to Pearl Jam to Slayer as 'Heavy Metal'. Presumably on the grounds that none of these bands are 'mainstream pop'. I agree that some bands may have 'suffered' as a result of being categorised - either through being typcast (not all Black Metal bands sound like Mayhem, people), or through the so-called fans refusing to listen to something new simply because it isn't a genre they're comfortable with - I STILL get friends asking me how it is that I can listen to someone like Gary Numan one minute, and Amon Amarth the next. Loyalty to a band is a great thing, but not when it ends up with people being blinkered to what's around them, and becoming 'elitist' about 'their' band.

What he said ...

I think Lemmy would be the first to agree!

I'm probably going to get hung out to dry for this, but ... Pantera. LOVE the music, can't stand the vocals. Bands like She Must Burn or Bleed From Within - screeching/barking like some sort of wild animal is all well and good, but not all the way through every single bloody song!

Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them ... a pretty good addition to the Potterverse ... and Mr. Depp will have something to look forward to when 'Pirates ...' runs its course

Went to see The Bootleg Beatles on Friday ... they were superb ... 'John Lennon', in particular, was right on the money ...

Beauty and The Beast (with my daughters) The Hateful Eight (without my daughters)

Jonny Lang: Lie To Me Aerosmith: Rocks Junkyard: Junkyard Melissa Etheridge: Your Little Secret

Fish: Sunsets On Empire

Iron Maiden: The Book Of Souls ... over 90 minutes ...

Van Halen debut is a killer too That's the first one on my list

When and what venue? November 2nd ... Shepherd's Bush Empire ... tickets start at about £40.00 ...

Florence Foster Jenkins I didn't think I'd enjoy this, but I did. Hugh Grant plays himself throughout the film, but Meryl Streep is brilliant as the titular star ... the one thing that DID annoy me was the number of British actors playing Americans ... were there no Americans available at the time?

Ratt. I hated Ratt with a passion druing the 80s and 90s ... really can't explain why, there was just something about them that irritated the hell out of me ... then my mate JamesEagle persuaded me to listen to 'Invasion Of Your Privacy' again ...

My favourite short albums would include five of the first six Van Halen albums: Van Halen (the longest of the lot - 35:34) Van Halen II (31:36) Women And Children First (33:13) Fair Warning (31:11) 1984 (33:17) As for longer albums: Queensryche: Operation: Mindcrime (59:14) Warrior Soul: Salutations From The Ghetto Nation (56:23)

Toyah: The Changeling Yngwie Malmsteen: The Collection

Michael Schenker is playing London in November with his former bandmates Gary Barden, Graham Bonnet and Robin MacAuley ... it's tempting ...

Five bucks is about as high as I'll go for used CDs nowadays. Dude behind the store counter was cool tho, in addition to my pile of CDs my nine year old had grabbed one Green Day disc, and while we waited on line to pay, Register Dude overheard my son saying that he'd seen a couple more G.D.'s he would've gotten if he had the $$. We get up to the register and the guy told him, "it's OK, go grab two more," then only charged me for the first one. My son was jazzed, he sez "let's come back again next week!" The Goodwill I frequent out this way charges 1.99 for CDs, and depending on what day of the week it is, they can be 25% off, or buy one get one free, etc. Best deal in town,can't beat it with a stick... There's one indie record store near me that still charges 8.98 or 9.98 a pop for used discs, I'm like "What are you, nuts? It ain't the 90s anymore!" I noticed that they recently started a "frequent buyers" program for the used stuff - buy five, get one free. So you need to drop approx. $50 to get a freebie. Gee, thanks, ya generous bastards. There's a 'Games Exchange' place not far from me that buys and sells used CDs ... they'll give you pennies for your stuff, and then try to sell it for £5+ ... I've seen second hand AC/DC discs in there for £8! You can get them brand new for less than that! At the other end of the spectrum, I've found some gems in local charity shops for 0.50 - 0.99

HIM: Razorblade Romance Motorhead: Rock 'n' Roll Toyah: Love Is The Law

Megadeth: Peace Sells ... But Who's Buying?

Decided to go for something gentle and under-stated when I got home last night ... Meat Loaf: Bat Out Of Hell 2 - Back Into Hell

Dan Baird and Homemade Sin are also playing locally in June ... it's tempting ...