Rick Brindle

  It depends what you call expensive, but pickup changes can definitely help. Pickups will change the tone of your guitar, but they won’t on their own turn you into the next Tony Iommi. That takes practice, practice, and even more practice. And a shedload of raw talent. I’ve got a Squier Affinity Strat, definitely a cheap guitar at two hundred quid. I quickly realised that the music I like to play, stoner rock and metal, isn’t really suited to single coil pickups, unless you’re a Hendrix or a Blackmore, which I’m not. There was no way I could change my guitar, as it was a present from the Mrs, so as well as changing the pickguard to a more scary black one, I changed (well, paid someone to do it for me) the pickups for a three piece strat set of hot rails, which cost me about the same as guitar did. So for just under five hundred quid (two hundred from the Mrs for the guitar, and two fifty from me for the pickups) I’ve got the sound and the tone that I want, thanks to the pickups an...

  In the UK it has been settled since 2010. The Equality Act protects lots of people in our society from discrimination, and it’s been a legal thing for sixteen years now. As you can imagine, it was brought in by a labour government. I mean, no way would the tories introduce something that actually protected ordinary people, unless there was something in it for them and their rich mates as well. Interestingly though, they didn’t repeal it, even after a 14 year car crash in power, including the living disaster that is brexit. The act mirrors and implements he four major EU Equal Treatment Directives. There’s also the Gender Recognition Act, 2004, also a labour achievement, which gave people the legal right to change their gender. And let’s be clear, trans people have been around, like, for ever, so it’s not exactly a new thing. What is relatively new is that weird thing called tolerance. Of course, it’s not there everywhere, and it’s fair to say that we’re on a journey, but hopefull...

  Cold Steel and the Underground Boneyard , the third novel in the Cold Steel series, is free to download from Amazon for a limited time. Get your free copy now! Cold Steel are back! Their new album has just been released. Their previously cancelled Spanish tour dates have been rearranged, with the female trio and Spain’s biggest metal band, Damas Infernales, supporting. Cold Steel’s biggest asset though, is Johnny Faslane, their brutally talented manager. But even Johnny can’t fully eliminate Cold Steel’s innate ability to spectacularly destroy their prospects, and even before their second concert ends, the tour is scrapped after an ill-advised trip back to the eighties, and the band are put into creative deep freeze by their record company. Only an unprecedented event and a lot of money can possibly turn their fortunes around. Like a five hundred year old treasure hoard that a long dead pirate once offered in return for his life, treasure that has never been found. Cold Steel fin...

Military: If we’re talking best made, as in most likely to get you back home, then this bad boy must be up there. The Vickers Wellington. This aircraft was designed in the 1930s and was built using what was called a geodetic airframe. This made it very durable, and crucially, able to take a lot of damage while remining flying. At the end of World War 2, there were jet aircraft being used, but the Wellington was both built and used for the whole war, and that tells you a lot about its versatility. And the best civilian one was another Vickers aircraft, the VC10 It was designed to operate from short runways and fly long distance. It held the transatlantic speed record for 41 years, and served as both a civilian airliner, and in air forces as a cargo plane, air to air refuelling, passenger flights and aero medical evacuation. Both aircraft were really good examples of excellent British aircraft innovation. It's Not For Everyone   Cold Steel on the Rocks   We Are Cold Steel  ...

  We Are Cold Steel , the second novel in the Cold Steel trilogy is free to download from Amazon for a limited time. Get your free copy now! 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 improba...

  Get the model right, and they're good for all level of player . Epiphones are an excellent first choice for any aspiring axe monsters out there. They are well made, playable and pretty affordable. And while I play a Squier (with Seymour Duncan Hot Rail pick ups), and am perfectly happy with it, I’m sure I would be equally happy with an Epiphone SG. So that’s the beginners sorted out, and as for the pros, JayJay French of Twisted Sister tours with an Epiphone. He can absolutely afford a Gibson, but has said many times that the Epiphone is way good enough for live work, and his more expensive instruments won’t get messed up, or worse, stolen if he takes them on the road. And whether you like his music or not, he’s absolutely a professional musician, and he knows what he’s doing. Unlike Cold Steel. Cold Steel on the Rocks   We Are Cold Steel   Cold Steel and the Underground Boneyard   It's Not For Everyone   Sister Alex

  Cold Steel on the Rocks , the first instalment in the hilarious Cold Steel trilogy, 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 ...