GrumpyDaddy

2011 has been a great year for rock music, in particular for progressive rock and melodic death metal. While I still hold that 2009 was the best rock music year of recent times I still think there are plenty of great records that should be on your shopping list when those Christmas vouchers come flooding in next week.

Check out my musical review of the year over on my music blog Grumpyrocker.

One could argue - if I was a bit more flush I might have a go - that you can have too many guitars. I certainly have a few - but by no means a ridiculous collection. The current count is six if I ignore wifey's bass guitars.

The six are an Epiphone 435i, Epiphone Les Paul Standard, Fender Squire Bullet Strat, Aria 12-string semi acoustic, PRS SE Custom 22 Trem and finally a Gibson Les Paul Traditional.

So the question is how many of them do I actually play and therefore actually need?

Lots of great music released in 2010. There have been plenty of albums I've really liked - but which have been my five favourite?

In This Moment "A Star Crossed Wasteland"
I know I'm too old for this sh*t, but when it popped up as an Amazon suggestion I checked the band out. Bloody hell what a surprise, the kind of band that the Kerrang kiddy channel would play but I actually like. While most young American metal seems like a load of noisy strummy crap this band actually likes a bit of harmony, plenty of Maiden-like moments in the music and vocalist Maria Brink really is going to be a megastar.

Example tracks - The Promise, The Gun Show

Thanks to David Lewis for suggesting this. Using only song names from one artist, answer the following questions - without repeating a song title. It's harder than you think

• Pick yourself an artist - Iron Maiden
• Describe yourself - The Educated Fool
• If you could go anywhere, where would you go - Isle of Avalon
• Your favourite form of transportation - Flight of Icarus
• Your best friend is a - The Trooper
• You and your friends are - Blood Brothers
• If your life was a TV show what would it be called - The Prodigal Son
• What is life to you - Stranger in a Strange Land
• Your current relationship - The Angel and the Gambler
• Your fear - Fear of the Dark
• What is the best advice you have to give - Be Quick or Be Dead
• I would like to die - Only the Good Die Young
• Time of day - 2 Minutes to Midnight
• My motto - Heaven Can Wait

I have set myself a goal for the next few months and that is to form a band. Given my age I reckon it should be called Old Enough to Know Better.

My ideal I think would be a simple three piece group - me on guitar, a bassist that can sing and a drummer. I've got plenty of gear - I think the only thing lacking is a spare amp in case something goes wrong.

As for the material that's easy. We'd play popular classic rock covers. Though I'd hope we could shoe-horn some original material in too, I've written over a hundred songs over the years and it's a long time before an audience has heard any of them.

So I just need to hope they are some other thirty-something musicians in Dorchester itching to escape nappy changing and instead throw some shapes and play some rock and roll.

Have you heard the new song from Diana Vickers?

Rather familiar isn't it?

It features the biggest musical theft since Lloyd Webber ripped off Pink Floyd's Echoes for Phantom of the Opera. The chorus of Vickers' Wicket Heart sounds exactly like Red Hot Chilli Peppers' Under the Bridge being sung in a Reeves/Mortimer "Club Style".

Enunciate girl, enunciate.