The Metal Project: Bad Boys Of Metal

Evening All. 

  For tonight's post I was feeling nostalgic so decided to dig into the vaults and pull out some songs from a decade that was crucial to the development of Heavy Metal in all it's forms.  The 1970s may have seen the birth of Metal and the post-grunge era saw Metal go off into all sorts of bizarre directions but it's the 1980s that really saw Metal move away from it's early Heavy Rock roots.  Punk and MTV both had a big impact on this kind of music it it's hard to see where we would be without both. 

 Never mind all that. Let's get some songs on and the old-school headbanging started, shall we? 

  DNA - Metal City (Demo. Brazil 1989)

Honour to: Rare & Obscure Metal Archives

And check out his invaluable blog here: 

http://strappadometalblog.blogspot.com/

Hawaii - Bad Boys Of Metal (USA 1984)

(Featuring a pre-Cacophony, pre-Megadeth Marty Friedman)

Honour to: HAWAIIROXX

Dementia- Metal Detectors (USA 1989)

 Honour to: Wesse Boyman

  Digressing for a minute, I am continually amazed that after doing this for several years I am still turning up all sorts of intresting stuff from way, way back in the 1980s.  It boggles the mind as to how many bands there were slogging away, touring the clubs and putting out material on self-released cassette and vinyl.  It's equally impressive how many people there are dedicated to preserving all this obscure treasure and putting it online.  

Airwolf - Death Metal Rain (Germany 1988) 

Honour to: Wesse Boyman

Assault - Queen of Metal (NLD 1984)

Honour to: MetalScavenger1978

I think That will do for tonight  but stay tuned for more obscure 1980s goodies.

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That's All Folks. 

Portsmouth Naval Museum Pt 4

Hello again. 

To finish up my brief look at the Portsmouth Dockyard Naval Museum hee's a few random pictures i took in the actual museum itself. 

  The Naval Museum is spread across two different buildings, both dating from the 18th Century. Naturally the life of Admiral Nelson and the battle of Trafalgar feature heavily in the first part with subsequent  displays devoted to the Navy experience in the 19th Century through to modern times.  It really is impressive and definitely worth a look if you're in the area.. 

I think it probably says a lot about me that I only chose to snap certain things I thought were "cool".   

 Although the artist was clearly a master craftsman, my immediate reaction to this figurehead was "He's wondering how to cover his junk when he's only got a silk scarf to work with."

Figureheads really need to make a comeback.  

Meanwhile this saucy miss doesn't seem at all bothered by her wardrobe malfunction. 

Snarking aside, the carving and expressions on both of these are delightful.

It's like somebody looked at the Classical statues in the British Museum and thought "I can do that...but much less formal."

Over in the other building I was fascinated by this:

The guide says this is the gun that fired the first Royal Navy shot in WW1 when the destroyer HMS Lance

ran into the Imperial German minelayer Konigin Louise.  

After a brief scrap Lance and her consort HMS Landrall 

put the German ship down, the first of many ships to find a 

cold, lonely home on the seabed over the next five years. 

More here: The museum article on this gun.

That's a sophisticated bit of technology considering that the Navy had been using cast-iron muzzle loaders only 50 years before. 

Note how little protection there is for the crew. 

They were more cold-blooded times, I feel. 

A collection of promotional posters.

Finally I took some pics of another model

This is an aircraft carrier from... somepoint in the 1950s I think. 

 Th selection of aircraft is interesting, being a mix of WW2 designs and more recent turboporops with jets yet to make their appearance. 

At the back you have Fireflies and Gannets, with AEW Skyraiders and Wyverns ranged forward and a couple of choppers standing by. 

The carrier itself - and I have no idea which one she is - is practically unchanged from WW2 with a full suite of AA guns 

and before the RN saved a lot of pilot lives by introducing the angled flight deck, among other innovations. 

The best part is, if you press a button underneath the radar starts rotating. 

I happily spent ten minutes at a time studying all the models they had here, and over at the Jutland exhibition. 

Geek that I am, that's my kind of fun day out.  

Anyway, I'll get back to posting metal and underclad women soon. 

I might even get some film reviews up. 

That's all folks. 

Portsmouth Naval Museum Pt 3

Evening all.

This is the very much delayed third part of my photo record of a trip to Portsmouth Naval Museum. 

In this part I get to visit another of the Dockyard's attractions I've been hankering after for a long, long time. 

HMS M.33, also known later as HMS Minerva, was built as a Monitor during WW1. This was a new class of warship designed to bombard enemy shore positions from the shallows while being cheap and much more expendable than the valuable battleships and cruisers which were needed elsewhere. While some monitors were built to house spare battleship guns that happened to be lying around  M33 and her sisters were much more modest, housing a brace of 6" guns. After service at Gallipolli and during the British intervention in North Russia in the Civil War she was refitted as a minelayer before being hulked at the start of WW2.

After several years of restoration M33 was finally given a  snazzy coat of paint and a new home in a drydock next to HMS Victory. 

Now we're up to speed, time for some photos. Starting with the RN's newest and coolest ship.

 I have to admit that the Queen Elizabeth looks very striking and has the sort of presence that's rare these days. Currently top of my list of things I want to visit one day.  

Interestingly I have a book from the 1970s which talks about the new carriers which the RN was hoping to get - sadly cancelled - and the design has that same two-island layout.


By contrast with the high tech marvel over the way, the little M33 is very much a no-frills kind of ship.

 

The only thing remotely electronic on this whole ship is the radio

The crew quarters are minimalist as well.

This is where the ordinary matelots lived and slept.

Note that there's stuff all in the way of ventilation.

Now imagine being in this metal box on a scorching hot Turkish night with water in short supply.

This is an officers cabin. 

These days it would be considered unsuitable for a ship's brig.

What you can't really see from these pics is how crudely the whole thing was put together.  

M33 is all bolted plates and sharp corners. A cheap ship, built quickly because it was needed in a hurry. 

Here's the ships galley.

A somewhat restricted diet was on offer, I suspect. 

No wonder the matelots looked forward to their rum tot so much. 

They were a a hardy lot back in them days, weren't they? 

The M33 is well worth a look if you get chance. 

Not only is it the only remaining example of a Monitor and Gallipolli veteran 

but it's a really great example of the sort of small, utilitarian ship that 

served the RN well in both World Wars. 

Stay tuned for part 4.