Song of the Week #222

Recently I’ve been involved in setting up a website for a very good friend of mine. Ben Gathercole was my triathlon coach and mentor for a number of years. He got me through a very successful Ironman campaign in 2010. Apart from coaching legends like me, Ben was an elite level coach. He’s written a book about his experiences coaching Simon Thompson. They went all the way to the Athens Olympics so it’s a fairly amazing story. The book is called “Better Than Winning”. What I’ve taken from the book and Ben’s coaching philosophy are two things. One is consistency of effort. It doesn’t matter what you’re trying to achieve – if you work in fits and starts then your results will be patchy at best. The other is that the journey is what really matters. I made the Ironman journey with four other guys who were training for the same race, Coach Ben, Coach Davey, my whole triathlon club, my colleagues and of course my family. Crossing the line was momentous don’t get me wrong, but all the effort and sacrifice leading up to that day built bonds that will last a lifetime. You can check out, and buy Ben’s book at www.bengathercole.com.au .

Last week I wrote about going to see a local band, “Live Evil”, play some music. Well I went along with DJs MCG and SAB to see the show. It was pretty good indeed. Two and a half hours of almost nonstop rock with a lot of classics thrown in. They played both songs that I predicted last week which was cool. As Matt the vocalist pointed out, it’s great to see people rocking out to the classics. This was their encore choice…

Deep Purple – Highway Star – http://youtu.be/jh0iihjANPc

In other music news, I’m playing a gig tomorrow night. It’s officially sold out which is pretty cool. To be fair, selling out a gig at H’s house probably isn’t that huge an achievement but we’re happy with it. Angus came along and heard our final rehearsal last night and admitted that we were pretty good! This song is in there….good times…

Midnight Oil – In The Valley - http://youtu.be/kWBNfbEJo84

There’s an album by Australian Crawl which I’ve been trying to get my hands on for a while. It’s called “Phalanx” and it’s a live LP. The reason I wanted it was that it’s the only place that I know of where their song, “La Califusa” is available. I used to play that one in another band; back when I had some hair and a Telecaster. Anyway, it arrived yesterday via eBay for the bargain basement price of around $10. I’ve played the song I was looking for before so here’s another cut from the LP. I guess I’ll be listening to it a few times on the turntable this weekend as well as transferring it to MP3 for my iPod.

Australian Crawl – Unpublished Critics (live) - http://youtu.be/IBY4a8-9Gsw

Alison will be home later today as well. I’m glad she’s back from one of the world’s terrorist hot spots in one piece!

Radiators – Comin’ Home – http://youtu.be/wOHUjJGcq5E

DJ DeKneez has been rather unwell this week and last. Here’s a track that I hope will cheer him up. Get well soon Grandad Mango!!

The Shadows – Apache - http://youtu.be/pY-rPDwzM9M

Back to “Live Evil” for a minute. Originally the show was meant to be a Judas Priest tribute but time got the better of them. They still played a heap of Priest songs though which was pretty cool. But, my musical education continued later on. This track was only released on the US version of the “Killing Machine” album (released in the USA as “Hell Bent For Leather”) – it’s a Fleetwood Mac cover – that I didn’t know! Here’s both versions…

Fleetwood Mac – The Green Manalishi (With The Two Pronged Crown) – http://youtu.be/6h6J2W17V9A

Judas Priest – The Green Manalishi (With The Two Pronged Crown) (at Live Aid) – http://youtu.be/XT2DktNBRfo

DJ DGradeWinner has been blogging about top sporting films. And it’s been pretty good reading. I’m hoping he’ll post it all on the web sometime soon so you can all read it. Years and years ago I saw a film called “The Jericho Mile”. It’s about a guy in prison who runs, and runs fast. Now I can’t find a copy anywhere so if anyone out there on the internets can locate it I’d love to see it again. Speaking of films, I watched “Prometheus” this week; boooooooring! Seriously, the story is solid but it just takes too long to get anywhere. I watched “Snow White & The Huntsman” too – that was pretty cool – especially the dwarves.

Finally it’s a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Dad. I know he’ll like this track as he’s the reason I like it! We saw this played live in 1988, it was a magic moment for me. I’m still listening to this band quite a lot all this time later.

Battlefield Band – Bad Moon Rising / The Rising Moon Reel - http://youtu.be/xpdGR7JYiLc

Have a great weekend folks – thanks for tuning in.

DJ Rob

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