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Showing posts from April, 2026

It's Not For Everyone is free to download for a limited time

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  It's Not For Everyone , my very own story of what life was really like in the RAF Regiment, is free to download from Amazon for a limited time. Get your free copy now What do you do when your dream job turns into a nightmare? Rick Brindle was a third generation military child. His father and grandfather served their whole lives in the Army, and all he wanted to do was be a soldier. In 1989 he joined the RAF Regiment. But life in the Regiment was a world away from what he thought it would be, and it quickly became toxic. Facing a culture of bullying, beatings, verbal abuse and sexual harassment, the community he wanted to be a part of became more like a prison. Most people around him went along with the abuse. Some agreed with it, some joined in, while the chain of command routinely looked the other way. Set over thirty years ago, this is a story of surviving abuse that still resonates today. It’s Not For Everyone is essential reading for anyone considering a military career. Some...

Billionaires' bunkers: would they work?

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  The apocalypse would be a big equaliser. I think that while they’re in their bunkers, and provided they did their jobs and kept them alive through whatever apocalypse happened, they’ll be fine. You’ve got to hope that the bunker builders didn’t rip them off and cut any corners. but that aside, the bunker itself will offer whatever degree of survivability to luxury it’s been built for. Once they step outside? Well, they’ve still got a bolt hole to base from, but life on the outside might be tricky. There’s only so much tinned food etc that can be stored underground, it’ll be a case of surviving, like everyone else. It’ll probably be a good thing to make friends. To begin with, it might not be a good idea to advertise the bunker either, because it’ll likely be valuable for others, maybe bad people, who might want to live there. So if it was me, I’d make friends with as many survivors as possible, then go socialist and share ownership with everyone. After all, sharing is caring, and...

Why are there lots of jokes about the RAF Regiment?

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They’ve been around for ever, the jokes that is. And it’s fair to say that they go both ways. Taking the piss and being in the military kind of goes hand in hand, and the general rule of thumb is that any unit other than your own is shite. The Army being the Army, they’ve got loads of regiments that will typically shower metaphorical shit at each other, so it’s not just one that attracts more negative attention than any other. And as for Royal, well, you know. And much like the booties… The RAF Regiment are a singular infantry type unit within a service that doesn’t have any other such unit within said service, so they tend to be a focus for more piss taking than normal. But then again, they could all be jealous. It's Not For Everyone   Cold Steel on the Rocks   We Are Cold Steel   Cold Steel and the Underground Boneyard   Sister Alex

Cheap guitar, expensive pickups, can it work?

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  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...