The British Steelies Society

by **Ken Byng** » Sun Mar 15, 2015 6:44 pm

Bob
You will be in your element when you do get here. My friend Manfred Schall is going to drive down to Nashville today in time to see the Time Jumpers tomorrow and Mike Johnson's 45 RPM on Tuesday night. I am so jealous!!

The girls behind the bar in the Sheraton last night said that the bar takings have been down this year due to the lack of Scots. Paddy Long and I tried to make up the shortfall but by 5.00am this morning I needed my shuteye, and Paddy's eyes were already shut. :lol:

by **Ken Byng** » Mon Mar 16, 2015 2:19 pm

Here is a shot of 4 delegates. From L to R - Ted Nesbitt, Mickey Adams (sans obligatory baseball cap), Alan Black and Ivor Greenwood. Ivor stopped talking long enough in the first photo for me to take his picture. :lol:

He didn't spend too much over here, so he took $10K spending money back to N. Ireland. He only mentioned the word tone 249 times, so we got off lightly. (Time 215 is in the second photo, hence Alan laughing!!) :lol:

by **David Patterson** » Mon Mar 16, 2015 9:50 pm

Thanks Ken for your thoughts on Dallas----Can't wait to see what Ivor has brought back from Dallas in his big suitcase---and I agree with you Ken, Joe Wright is a monster player, but I would rather he stuck to the music, and left that nonsense to one side---I also find his humour quite abrasive---I saw him at an Irish Steel Guitar some years ago, and found his abrasive humour, humourless, in fact he tried to take the wee wee out of Gerry Hogan, and I found it tasteless---Gerry Hogan, is one of life's true gentlemen, and I will have no one say a bad word about him.

Just my humble opinion, and no doubt, others. Will disagree.---but that's life.

by **Ken Byng** » Mon Mar 16, 2015 11:14 pm

Well David, I didn't laugh once during Joe's act. His humour and even his playing doesn't do much for me I'm afraid. This must have been the umpteenth time that he has done his 'comedy' routine here, and it has worn very thin indeed. In fact I thought it bordered on embarrassing. It's no wonder to me that he has a problem scratching a living. He would get heckled at my local boozer, as most of the audience are better comedians than he is. I reckon Ivor Greenwood would leave him standing in the comedy stakes.

He finished his set with a third rate version of Hotel California, and spent most of the time with his teeth pointing towards the ceiling, gurning as usual. His tone was mushy, the distortion was OTT and all told I think that if Gerry Hogan had followed Mr Wright he would have blown his set completely away. There we are, no sitting on the fence from me I'm afraid. I think that the organisers could have done worse than put young Eddy Dunlap on Joe's spot, and put Joe on earlier

Thank goodness for Messrs Dodd, Jernigan, Maness and Reid for bringing a great dollop of pure class to the evening.

by **Ken Byng** » Tue Mar 17, 2015 9:39 pm

Sweltering hot in the Dallas area today with the temperature up in the 80's.

I had a real struggle finding a case or a bag long enough to accommodate my new Zum body. I ended up tagging a cardboard carton next to the one that housed my new Hudson pedal resonator guitar. The reso in the case is really heavy. The case that it comes in is very substantive, but way too heavy. All told, the 2 items came to a total weight of 76 pounds way over American Airlines weight limit. The very helpful lady on the check-in desk told me that the baggage staff at Heathrow won't touch anything that weighs over 70 pounds any longer, due to trade union directives. :evil:

I had to take out 6 pounds of packing, but I managed to do it in the end. The excess weight and the additional case charge came to a total of 348 dollars, which wasn't bad under the circumstances.

I am now relaxing with a cold drink in the departure lounge at Dallas, happy to have offloaded that massively heavy load. The pedal resonator guitar needs a little work to be done on the mechanics, but when you look at the cost of a Franklin PedaBro, it was an absolute bargain. I now have the pleasure of getting it all through Heathrow tomorrow morning.

Dallas was a good trip for me this year - very enjoyable. It will probably be my last one due to health reasons unfortunately.

by **JohnDavisStringsHere** » Wed Mar 18, 2015 7:21 am

Interesting read Ken, thanks for posting....

by **Malcolm** » Wed Mar 18, 2015 9:32 am

Well done on the reports MR BLING

,surprised Spence did not send his private jet to bring you back :lol:

Have you got the tow bar fitted on the Merc, so you can drag the trailer full of gear to all the gigs? Hope you have a good flight back. :guitar:

by **echospence** » Wed Mar 18, 2015 10:21 am

My "Jet" is in for a full service at this time when done could fly you to Canada?
Hope you are OK!.
Spence.

by **Malcolm** » Wed Mar 18, 2015 7:19 pm

Spence I would love to take you up on your kind offer, providing I am allowed to be copilot( Ivor the Driver has more hours than me, but I am much better looking). :lol: