Rick Brindle

A bonkers hotel, run by a bonkers manager (owner). Meet the crew We arrived in the afternoon, and while there was, of course, ample parking, there were no EV charging points, so I’m not sure how future-proof the place is. Thankfully though, there are a good dozen points nearby, so no real dramas there. Rain in summer, clearly pre-climate change What I was a little puzzled by was the sight of a tall, skinny man shouting obscenities at what I can only assume was his parked car, and then beating it with a length of foliage. Weird, but okay. Things got way weirder when it turned out that car-beating man was actually the hotel’s manager, although he was of course at pains to point out that he was the owner (maybe the owner needs to actually get a manager, I’d suggest). We’d booked our room over the phone - can you believe that they didn’t actually know what the internet was - and rocked up to reception. On that point, word of mouth advertising, never believe it! Anyway, at reception was a g...

  We Are Cold Steel , part two in the Cold Steel series, is free from Amazon for a short time. A day after their historic concert on the Caribbean island of St Clements, heavy metal band Cold Steel are heroes. Now, all they have to do is stay out of trouble and enjoy a well-earned holiday until they start work on their next album. Except that the owner of the recording studio hates all things Cold Steel. Except that Cold Steel’s record company has blackmailed the studio into accepting them. Except that not all reporters are as friendly as band manager Johnny Faslane’s girlfriend, Rachel Shaw. With a tight deadline, Cold Steel have to get the next album out before their tour starts. They can’t afford any delays, and Johnny has his work cut out keeping the band in line. Feral former soldiers, reporters with an agenda, cake-obsessed studio execs and international criminals all work their way into the mix as the band hurtle from one improbable incident into another. They just want to m...

Sounds a lot like project Real Man, my very own fictionally created stance taken by Charlie Scudsen, an American President . But upon looking into this, it’s deliberate policy being rolled out by the actual US administration. "High-T Department": Hegseth approves testosterone screening in military Hegseth says he is authorising hormone screening to ensure US troops "operate at your absolute best". https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn0nlx18rz0o It seems that Pete Hegseth wants older male members of the US military to have their testosterone levels topped up as their natural levels, like naturally, decline. His argument in favour of this is that soldiers will be more aggressive if they’re what he calls ‘High-T.’ It seems to only apply to male soldiers, because of course it’s only men in combat roles and only men who do the fighting. I can’t say that I’m convinced by any of this. I don’t think it’s been a problem for any military around the world in the past, and sol...

Many, many reasons, but here’s the absolute three most important. Typhoon sounds a lot cooler than F18 Even if we use both aircrafts’ NATO reporting names, let’s face it, a typhoon wins hands down. A typhoon is mean, threatening, a real danger to life. It’s ominous, it’s dangerous, it’s announcing your impending doom. Whereas the hornet? Yeah, it’s a small insect that might do you some harm, if it stung you. And as for the Super-Hornet? well, it sounds like something out of a marvel film, not a top-drawer fighter plane. They really aren’t in the same ball park, are they? 2. The F 18’s got wonky wings So, yeah, have you ever had an Airfix model, and glued something in place and it drifted to one side or the other because you’d been distracted by your mum offering you a bowl of Angel Delight? That kinda looks like what happened here. Sloppy workmanship or what! You’ve got to wonder what else is lop-sided in that kite. I guess that’s what happens when you don’t let union lads and lasses ...

When musicians tour, things (instruments) get manhandled, battered, dropped, lost and sometimes stolen. Imagine your studio instrument is a priceless vintage strat, or similar, and it gets half-inched. It happens. Steve Morse's Prized Custom Buscarino Electric Acoustic Guitar Stolen in Washington, D.C. Steve Morse's Prized Custom Buscarino Electric Acoustic Guitar Stolen in Washington, D.C. | Guitar World https://www.guitarworld.com/artists/steve-morse-prized-custom-buscarino-electric-acoustic-guitar-stolen-in-washington-dc That’s one point to make. The other point to make is twofold. Firstly, professional musicians can make cheap, budget, limited instruments sound really good, and secondly, many budget instruments are actually pretty good anyway, so it makes no sense at all to take the priceless museum piece on the road. Twisted Sister's Jay Jay French on Epiphones versus Gibsons: "I think that for the money, Epiphones are fantastic" Twisted Sister guitarist Jay ...

  Charlie Scudsen, An American President , my latest novel, is now live on Amazon as ebook and paperback. Hardcover to follow soon. It’s November 2022, and the American people have chosen their next president. For over two centuries, that immovable four-yearly tradition has held. And because of it, American democracy is lauded around the world as a dependable, balanced and controlled institution. And with the innate politeness that characterised American politics, even when one side disagreed with the other, everything was done in a civilised way. There was always a peaceful transfer of power, and once the election was done, the whole nation got behind their president. The whole world knew it, and the whole world admired it. Until Charlie Scudsen won The White House, and then everything changed. Charlie Scudsen, a serial adulterer and failed businessman who couldn’t even keep his driving licence. A chain-smoking, homophobic womaniser, who saw the whole world through a lens of fifti...

  Cold Steel on the Rocks , the first novel in the Cold Steel series, is free to download from Amazon for a limited time. Get your free copy now! When the pirate, Blackbeard, buried his treasure, he could never have imagined that it would fall to the heavy metal band, Cold Steel, to come looking for it. Cold Steel, high-octane British rockers who came close to legendary status, until the release of their fourth album, when their excesses send them spiralling into terminal decline. Struggling small-time band manager Johnny Faslane, in the right place at the right time, lands the dream job of managing Cold Steel, and then has the seemingly impossible mission of turning the band around. Cold Steel’s singer, Maxwell Diabolo, claims to have a treasure map that he thinks will lead him to Blackbeard’s lost riches. With the band bent on a terrifying path of self-destruction, Johnny wonders if they will even complete the tour, much less get to the Caribbean to embark on a treasure hunt. Aga...