Rick Brindle

  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 ...