Visaro's Oceanic Rock N' Roll Journeys

"I want to do all the things I can do and one of those is singing. I suppose it's bloody-mindedness, but I refuse to specialise. I always do the thing that seems the most dangerous, the thing that frightens me the most." He confesses. "Anyway, I'm not giving up acting. I just always wanted to make a record." The album is due to be released here in a couple of weeks. Curry called it 'Read My Lips', "because that's what the engineer kept saying to me through the glass in the studio." For a first album, he has certainly commanded the sort of treatment that full-time musicians would envy. "But I've waited 10 years to make it," he says. "And after all that time I wasn't going to make it for Gladys Cottle down the road."

📰: Curry Faces The Music by Emma Sloane

📷: Tim Curry (1977)

Yes, it should ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Only one way though, don;t include what girls send to dudes

BALLADS of midnight, Radio Tirana 1, valet 99.5 fm

Faster Pussycat
Jeff Healey
Lemmy of 2000
Warrant
Type O Negative of 1999
Heart

and a lot more

Me Visarin, broadcasting.

Ora 00.05
Eastern time : 6.05 pm

Live ur end of the week through the heartbeats !

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Baladat- pak pas mesnate | RTSH Radio Baladat janë përkëdhelja që mbyll javën, me Visarin në Radio Tirana 1, në mesnatë kur qyteti fle, por jo ata që dashurojnë baladat! Mesnata do të nisë me grupin: ASIA – WORDS

The Anniversairy of one WOW ALBUM

June 26, 1989 Bad English released the self-titled album "Bad English"

That's why we can't read until they get us into the building where truths are rarely told, felt at max....and that Max ( with Helen ) comes off too strong, louder than the railroad's words of steel, witnessing the Kisses need the train windows opened, to dance with the air of what can't be filmed

Nje shprehje e vjeter, por e cila pershtatet me se miri me jeten sot.
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It's not the only great song of the album, but it;s the beginning of the ending rock.

What's yours ?

AC/DC - Stiff Upper Lip (Official Video) Music video by AC/DC performing Stiff Upper Lip. (C) 2009 Leidseplein Presse, B.V.

Kurt opened a song with these wise words of ancient times !

Love on the telephone - Foreigner

CHICAGO BUNNIES

Carmine as a painter or smashing the drums ?

Self portrait. This is the way I see myself..image of the artist 🎨 what do you think?

Collaboration with for our exhibit. Virtually at Stakenborg-Greenberg Fine Art . Limited edition prints signed in 13 x 19 and 24 x 30.

Purchase here:

https://www.stakenborg-greenberg.com/purchase-art/Carmine-Appice-Ed-Heck-Drum-City-Exhibition-c69338408

Their "Everybody's workin' for the Weekeeeeeeeeeeeeend" makes me ask you:
"Are you workin' for yours ?"

"What dirty-minded thing is on your mind, to have a better one"?

DEEP PURPLE IN TIRANA, AN UNFORGETTABLE HARD ROCK EARTHQUAKE !

Machine Head! Yeah, that’s what yours gotta be, to remember how they opened that Epic concert!
Would like to say “Highway Star” but I know that was in the middle, cos’ I lost my mind several times on that night, before, and everytime I think of the song!

Life-changing! An ‘opening track’ for the other concerts to come!

It’s early spring of 2007, they’re walking towards us, through the backyard of the building they played on…. The city and the hearts of metallers were in flames just a few minutes ago…….

But let’s get back to how it started.

Imagine a 16 year old dude, already disappointed in life, diving everyday into the doom metal lyrics of Black Sabbath, not even liking s*x after the first time…..

Livin’ in a post-communist but still communist, rural country, for those of you that haven’t experienced it, you can’t really know that kind of salvation, what it really means – the Hard and Heavy World, what it was for me, to stay true to my heart n’ my blood, even if that required (and still does), goin’ to war with almost everybody, with only a few days off, to listen to the war songs of Pantera and Megadeth !
No youtube, no social media, no valid passports, nothing in sight, only a few metal videoclips downloaded, lots of # # # footage downloaded as well, in a northern town of Balkans, where nothing gives you hope.
And it was too early for that kind of reality.
But that’s not it; my then girlfriend was about to quit school, (cos’ of me ?), I was broke, like every adolescent might be, but filed for bankruptcy due to other downhill aspects of life…..
My father and I weren’t talkin’ for months, up to that point, all I wanted to do was get the hell outta there, but with borders closed and not wanting to die on the border, Ozzy’s lyrics and a “Smoke on the water” video, part of their live concert of 1999 in Australia, Abandon Tour, were among what helped me, along with the caresses of the p**nstars you never met, you only picture yourself starring in those videos (yeah Bon Jovi, your “Bed Of Roses” ain’t the only one)

While the lack of communication was present in the house, so was Ingrid Mukeli’s “Yesterday” tv program, which we loved watching on tv every weekend. The only visual program in the country that had no age and was about rock n’roll to the fullest. Not quite enough, I needed something raw, touchable…..
And one day, lunchtime, this advertisement makes my black old tv explode: "Deep Purple, the legendary british veterans, for the first time in Tirana, next month, for a hard rock concert, not to be missed! Book your tickets at…..
No time for “at….”, cos’ I was screaming so loud, that one of the sentences I remember being told was : no lunch for you today!

My then close friend and cousin had told me but no way I would believe him: “ Deep Purple, in our country? Naaaaaaaaaaaah, whoever told you that, is taking you for the low ride, buddy”

But, au contraire of what Tv sells to you day and night, this was real. So I go to meet my first cousin, Drini, as he asks me to slowly repeat what I wanted to say, cos’ of that crazy enthusiastic vibe that had captured me.
Drini: you sure it's not a fake act, trying to gather as many fans as they can?
Me: duuude, it's the real Deep Purple! Europe were here 2 months ago!

True. Europe had burned down the Palace of Congreses, but was rebuilt on time for the early spring event.
I was not at Europe's January gig on purpose, but it didn't matter. The big day was coming and all I thought about was a concert I could actually be a part of. How wonderful is that? Very, considering the life in a modern communist country. It still is, but I had began getting away from everybody, cos everybody watched politics and they knew nothing other than to have unrealistic, stupid opinions that get them to stay where they deserve, there, whether is in their minds or location.

Drini: gimme the money. I'll go to Tirana and make sure. If so, we got the tickets.
Me: Is your brother Ardit coming?
Drini: No, he ain't up for it.
Me: They will sing "Smoke On The Water" maaan....
Drini: if they sing 'Smoke On The Water', I will bring my finance degree university bunch with me!

I was upset that Ardit wouldn't come. He's 11 years older but we'd steal each other's cassettes in the 90's, me starting the robbery.
And a year b4 the concert, I got his whole mp3 archive uploaded on my pc, including Deep Purple as well, learning a better English through the lyrics.

And in my house, before the non-communicating months would start, even though I was one of the best students of my high school, elected as a representative in the Youth Parliament, but not enough.
Still, daddy'd say: "you will end up as a road worker, in order to make a living and they won't even accept you there"...the same guy who loved Rolling Stones and Tom Jones to death! Go figure!
And I paid close attention to my father’s words, by listening to every word that Ozzy would scream in the Sabbath albums !

Tension was growing…..
Couldn't believe it !
Publicity of the gig was on tv !
How could a rock concert be like?

I had bought 2 lighters for the ballads, had printed 8 song lyrics, learning the words on the way to Tirana.
My "then-partner in crime", the guy I was expecting to come with me, we'll name him 'Don Diu', he didn't come, with the excuse of exams but another excuse was bigger...let's say "confusion".

Now I can talk or write about it, lookin' back at that life period from another point of view, what was happening to me ….
It was a mental war....Tirana was waiting for me...I could smell the air of an invasion of the streets by girls n'women!
Was louder than Falco's "Vienna calling" ! But Vienna stories are for another time.
I was having suicidal thoughts when "Child in Time" started, but once the long solos were on, they'd fade...
No metal crew of mine in town. Ceni and Mireli,, fabulous guitar players, were struggling on their own. We hadn’t met yet but a few months later they would become my close friends. We’d join forces and we'd start our own crusade of survival in that horrible town.
And it was the roughest kind of survival, in a place I felt the Hunger for the Western World more than anyone else I knew...
At school, every 'friend', several teachers would judge me of the way I was dressed up like, each but one big –hearted girl, the smartest, the prettiest one, whom I'd fall in love with, head over heels, years later....thank you Deep Purple, for "Love conquers all" that you didn't sing but I don't care, it's part of that beautiful cassette of that 1990 album....

At 16, I had watched every famous classic mob movie, ever made !
My models were cousins who lived in what I thought I'd never see: America!
The main word in my life was “F**k”!
My hero of life, my granddaddy was going blind but it didn’t stop him to keep on being my hero and also paying for the ticket, even though daddy would leave more bucks than the ticket price, on the table, on the day of the concert, but my pride wouldn’t let me touch those, as I was in black, waiting for the van to go to the Big City Lights!

I was the only who had had s*x, inside my close circle of friends, I had a steady girlfriend but still, the Rock N’Roll lifestyle needed more sacrifices....it needed me to stay alive, not like in the Bee Gees song but truly alive, to get the hell out , cos' a whole New World was to be unfolded...the debauchery of my heroes, the true and untrue stories, as the concert day finally arrived…..
Cousins of mine and my uncle, 15-20 years older than me, the ones that were crazy about metal, were already living in the States since one decade ago, and a phone conversation once a month was too short to chat about the changing times and express my joy that Deep Purple would come to the country….pretty sure I shared that days after the concert, now I was part of the circle! Not bad for a guy my age, huh ?

My heart was pounding hard, got dressed in black, met with my cuz', jumped on a van, with a notebook for autographs and 2 lighters I had bought for the possible ballads they’d sing! When in Tirana, I was left alone by him, saying: " Visar, do what you gotta do. Don't phone me. I will, an hour prior to the show". He left.
Felt bad but it did good to me., the indipendence in giving a closer look to those girls that in my mind were so many you'd lose count....
My brain clock was set on the concert time....I was impatiently waiting to meet my cuz’ who had the tickets that to me were the American Lottery of that age...
You need to know that he wasn't that easily impressed...at 26, he had lived for almost a decade in Canada, having seen live Ac/Dc and Stones, while I had only videos....those and the p**n videos, not even films....learning english while jagging off !

So here I am, looking at thousands of men and women, everyone older than I was, at the entrance of the Palace of Congresses...
Wooooooooow!
I almost fainted!
Black leather, long hair, jeans, group shirts, bandanas, singing songs, beers like water, skull necklaces, a Muhammad Ali kind of enthusiasm before the concert.....
I was still in shock, not even moving my feet and Drini would push me inside, to see the shirts, official shirts being sold..
So fu**in' broke but with 12 $ won in gambling, which was school nr. 2 at that age, I desperately wanted a shirt....
Even my brother, years later would mention how he understood the financial state of finances, once he entered high school.
Drini gave me a few extra bucks n' my body shivered when I had "Machine Head- upfront / Smoke on the water-back" on !
Hell Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
I'm living in the vids I have on my pc....Bon Jovi....Scorpions videos....I'm living in those !
"That is the ultimate pleasure of life" was the sentence on my non-thinking brain.

"We ain't sitting in our places, we are going to stand up near the stage"- he told me
"Okay yeah sure."- I answer, not caring about it but happy we'd be close to the performance.

We go there and the crowd in black screams and sings, as an opening band performs covers like "Rock you like a hurricane" ," Runaway", "Big gun" and "Jump"!

Then, silence...
Then, rumours : "they are not showing up" "this is a fraud" "its taking too long, let's get outta here"
Horrible confusion....
Kept on being like that, until we see a few stage workers, coming up with the British flag and placing it on one of the amplifiers.
Still, nobody showing up.
That's where the Blues Brothers adventure gets ugly...you ain't in the vids anymore, it's real, your first...and it might not happen.

Lights go out again....we scream n'the dudes get up on stage !
F**kin’ A !
The fans were so loud I couldn’t understand which was the opening song…..I was shaking and screaming! It’s still loud, in my head; only a few meters away, the co-inventors of Hard Rock were performing.
No digital cameras, no smart or stupid or Iphones, nothing…only an old cellphone to shoot pictures with.
For years I thought it was “Hush” but speaking of pictures, they opened their set with those of home.
But you’ve been to concerts, you know how it is, you can’t stay without taking photos cos’ nobody will do that for ya, it’s your first concert but might be your last as well.

So there I was, dancing, headbanging as hard as I could, hearing the roaring boys and girls and seeing the faces of the British rockers smile; probably they had no idea how it would turn out to be, the country was not part of the European leg of the tour ( yeah, thanks, Blendi Bombaj ) !
Ian Gillan’s in white, Glover is moving like he did in his prime, and Paicey, the rhythm of the group is smashing those drums in a very sweet but yet, addictive way to watch and headbang with.
Morse’s on guitar, playin’ Blackmore solos so good that even Ritchie, the guy who never smiles, likes them !
And the man of the crucial metal albums, Don Airey, he’s on the left side of Ian, lookin’ at us while doin’ wonders on the legacy of Jon Lord on keyboard!
They play a few new hits but we were so hungry to hear the old ones….I was Laaaaaaazy, just stay in beeed and when it began, looked like they were singing it for me.
Then, the intro everybody knows, makes us go bananas….

“No matter what
We get out of this
I know, I knooow
We’ll never forget”

The space truckin’ dudes had everybody fired up to the sky, it was madness and I was living it haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Then, their big 84’ comeback is represented in the opening notes of “Perfect Strangers”, a song I couldn’t recognize but everyone close to me could. “When a blind man cries” makes me wanna end the gas of the lighters, hoping the ballad would be extended to 56 minutes.
I was waiting for “Burn” and “Soldier”, but at that time had no info and no idea that it was Coverdale the singer of those anthems!
Anyway, probably it was the only time I really felt my skin burn, up to that point, when “Highway Star” began, that’s why I don’t wanna listen to it again, unless the possibility of going to see them again, is real for a near future.
Those keyboard and guitar solos are the true meaning of “extreme s*x” to me!

They take us to Geneva, Japan, England, everywhere you can travel through their lyrics….their faces are shining through the whole set, as they feel that the fans are not some cold, critic attitude guys who just stand there, like it allegedly doesn’t impress them. Not sure if Deep Purple remember it, but on that night, they had one of the bests times ever, playing live in front of us!

But as the songs come to an end, suddenly (cos’ nobody was lookin’ at the clock, bloke), off stage they are….and I didn’t know what an Encore was….
Silence again, but it was a loud silence, accompanied by “We want more” “Deep Purple” screams.
And here they are, once again, to close it with “Black Night “!
You couldn’t ask for a better closure.

But who said it was the real closure? Well, for most yes but not for me. I had waited so fu**in’ long and wasn’t gonna let them get away…
“Visar, come on, get real, nobody’s signing autographs, let’s go”- Drini would say.
“Dude, you go if you want to, I’m stayin’ at the back of the building until they come out! “

So we go to the back part and see like 10-15 other fans, probably waiting for the group to appear….but we were told that nothing like that would take place so we better get outta there. Still, like Saxon say : “Never ever surrender! "

I see some girls, 2 years younger than I was, gathered in a circle, singing “Burn”….that was another crucial moment where my brain told me: “Do anything and get here, Tirana’s waiting and your college years as well, to be lit on fire”!

We were waiting and chatting, when I spot the dudes far away, getting out of the back door of the Palace of Congresses. I take out my notebook and scream my lungs out: “Iaaaaaan ,Steeeeeve …. Come sing this for me Please! "
“Don! Iaaaaaan! Please come sign this for me !”, as my arm was almost getting body-displaced.
Then everybody, eeeeverybody starts shouting out and the Deep Purple dudes look at us, smiling, astonished…..they start walking towards us…
F**k!
I have difficulties breathing now, remembering it!
We shake their hands, get the autographs! Moments of bliss, surreal to me!
Lasted for only a few minutes, but will last for a lifetime in my heart !

We split, they get in their limo, big limo full of big glass whiskey bottles and my cousin and I start walkin’ truly excited, singing in the rain, in the streets of what would be my “Highway star” and “The call of the wild” few years later.

I still have the autographs, they still tour the world, they still sing songs I didn’t hear live and make millions happy with their hard rockin’ sounds!
Paice would come to Tirana two other times and I’d meet him again, but nothing comes close to their Epic and my first Rock concert!

Now I have the signatures, their discogs, cassettes of Deep Purple that my uncle would play all day, when I was a kindergarten kid….
The music of nowadays is screwed up but to me, at that moment, it was the opposite, cos' concerts don't have anything to do with what is hip…..a new world would open up and other founders of other styles would come to Tirana, to make me even more driven to never ever letting your soul die!

Thank GOD, the borders of a free movement to Europe would open and other outdoor and indoor concerts and festivals would take place, making it a continuation of what causes you the lack of sleep but on the other hand, adds up to who you are , no matter the age or life situations can be!

For Those About To Rock ! A Child in Time salutes you !