Recently it was National Nostalgia Week, and to keep the nostalgia going here’s a photo review of an event that marked the end of an era in North Wales, the closing of the Tiv as a rock venue and leaving north east Wales with no rock clubs at all.

The Last Ever Rock Night at The Tiv!!!!
[Saturday 29th May 1999]

Saturday Night at the Tiv, was the ONLY Rock event in the North East of Wales. But thanks to a new manager who believes Rock is dead, and that STEPS is the be-all and end-all of music, The Saturday Rock Night was replaced with the “Trendy-We-Love-Steps” Night. To mark the end of an era, that had spanned decades, The Tiv had a goodbye to rock party, where all the Rock-Regulars said goodbye with the style only Rockers and Goths can achieve……

I “Pendragon” and Andrew “Ax” decide to go say goodbye to the Tiv’s Rock Night with style. And since this was also the first time we had been out drinking together (and we had known each other for over 4 years) A lot of Alcohol was drunk.. A lot of Moshing was done.. And A lot of Flirting with rock-chicks was done..

I don’t know why the photo shows our hands covered with a strange blood red liquid, and it is a coincidence that the following night we were 100’s of miles away in another part of Wales..

PS: The Doctors say the new manager will be able to walk again soon….

After asking a few discrete questions, Well as discrete as only a drunk bloke can be. Ax discovers Gill is single. And in a drunken moment of inspiration decides to kidnap her, and give her to Me as a present!!

Damn nice of him, don’t you think… And I didn’t get him anything…….

I am totally unaware of Ax’s kidnapping of Gill, or Koopers paralysing shock… Like a kitten with a piece of string I am distracted, but in my case its by Vodka….

I did consider claiming I was drinking coke.. But after a quick survey of my friends opinions, I was shocked to discover that no one would believe me if I said I was Tea-Total…

Listening to my Friends you would swear I was an Alcoholic!!!!

Kooper recovers from his shock, and starts to plan my death..

Just after this look to kill!! over a dozen unlucky people that were in his line of sight fell down dead…..

He still hasn’t forgiven me…

I’m safe… Kooper gets distracted as he is pulled by Dave.

Don’t they make a lovely looking couple??

PS: Is it just me, or does Dave look like a character from the Muppets or some such program, I just cant place which character……

This weekend I had a meeting with a representative of a local troupe of Belly Dancers (OI! get your mind out the gutter, I was not booking them for a private showing!) I was there in the guise of a possible “consultant“.

Now I can imagine lots of good consultant roles in relationship to belly dancing, for example :- Checking things shimmy as they are supposed to, Making sure the costumes do not cover too much up, and a load of other sexist stuff I could come up with but will resist, (Which considering the consultant request is a wise choice).

The consultant role they wanted from me was that of “Escrima Instructor.” Yes teaching them Filipino Martial Art Stick Fighting. This was not due to my first thought of keeping the viewers back, or dealing with any amorous fans.  NO! they are considering incorporating it into their dance routine.  Apparently there is a school of belly dance that uses sticks as part of the show, and these girls decided if they were going to do that then they should do it somewhat special.

So as a conscientious kind of instructor, If I agree to teach these girls escrima then i really need to know roughly what kind of styles they need to learn. So I believe some research is needed. For this reason I may be slow replying to people for the next week or so as I force myself to watch hours of videos of scantily clad women shimmy and dance. Its a hard life but someone has to do it!

I visited the Bristol Bierkeller at the weekend.

It is an Interesting club, it reminds me of a cross between Edwards No 8 (Birmingham) and the kings (Wrexham).

It was a good night, well they served a passable snakebite & black, and you got a free shot with every pint. The music was acceptable, the crowd varied, and lacking in the chav element (always a bonus).

Ok, there was one downside to the night, a two mile hike back at 3:30am in the frost and ice, after leaving the warmth of the club.

But there is a theory of the “pleasure/pain syndrome”.