The PA Happy Birthday Thread

Yep, Alan is quite easily the oldest progger in town, being born before WWI even commenced. As a sprightly 99 year old, he was a medical student. Well, nothing beats life experience when trusting someone to burrow inside one’s bowels, I suppose.

Elsewhere, we celebrate the special day of a distinguished public servant. Given that Mr Laz humbly serves Her Majesty’s Government every waking hour, he always appreciates someone cut from the same cloth. 

Biman, or Thomas Bie, the forum name sadly being a reference to his name, and not a celebration of who he likes to jump on top of naked (although you never know, of course), reaches the milestone of his 50th birthday today, so only 57 years behind our Mexican veteran. Thomas joined us for one month in 2009, and unfortunately didn’t provide us with the benefit of his wisdom on the proportion of Danes who enjoy a wee bit of prog noodling over dancing naked to Lady Gaga. This is a massive loss to this site, because if anyone could tell us the answer to this burning question, it would have been Thomas, for he is the Kontorchef, or Head of Division to those of us who speak the Queen’s English (and Americanese, of course, well up to a point) of Danmarks Statistik, the Danish governments National Statistics department. No really. Thomas Bie - Kontorchef / Head of Division - Danmarks Statistik | LinkedIn What’s more, his responsibilities include tax statistics, so no doubt he would have been able to fully support me when I tell you that there are lies, damned lies, and government statistics, especially when it comes to tax (note to any government police chaps  looking at this post. My full name is John Aloysius Doe, and I reside at 55 Porky Street, Honolulu. I would give you my telephone number, but I have just finished some medical treatment from Alan, and don’t expect to be fully fit for at least 3 years and 10 months, by which time I shall be retiring. Okay? Good oh!).

So, is Thomas celebrating his birthday with a glass of Tuborg Pilsner, the statistically most popular beer in his homeland, or Carl’s Porter, number 12 on the hit parade, and clearly barking juice at 7.8%? Only he can tell, but I know that you will all join me in hollering out Tillykke Med Fødselsdagen to our dear friend Thomas. Go Viking, my friend.! Keep a close count of those beers!

In collab news, Stefro, or Stefan Turner as Mummy and Daddy call him, a prog reviewer on the site who has sadly been absent from the forum for a while, is 39 today, and hopefully celebrating hard in the cauldron which is East London. Happy Birthday, Stefan! 

There was one small problem with this, as was somewhat starkly pointed out to her by other site members, given that said Snaky personages bore no relevance to prog whatsoever. Michelle obviously took a wee bit of umbrage at this, because she has not visited since, and, hence, celebrates her 54th birthday today without the love of PA forum members.

Research shows us that her real name is Michelle Ballard, and she posted photos of her favourites on Her Space here Photos from Rattlesnake Remedy (rattlesnakeremedy) on Myspace

Rattlesnake Remedy were an ‘eavy metal band from that cesspit of industrial Engerland, Birmingham, home, of course, to Ozzy and The Sabs, Judas Priest, and those other metal gods, erm, Moody Blues. Michelle’s involvement may not have been altogether altruistic, given that one of the rock hunks in the band was one Dave Ballard. They have a Wikipeepee page Rattlesnake Remedy - Wikipedia. I personally love the name change at the end of their career in 2009, when they morphed to Caduga. The reason for this? Well, they justified it with a famous Picasso quote, thus; “Every act of creation is thus an act of destruction”. It is, of course, heartwarming to know that prog doesn’t have a complete monopoly on pretentious bollocks, yes? Also, quite what Caduga itself means, well only Dave and Michelle know. 

The band split in 2011, and do not appear on our sister site, Hairy Music Archives, although I am sure one of the collabs there would wish to rectify this anomaly. I listened today to the track which attracted a record 44 head banging fans, namely Drag You Down https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=toQECKPQaHw&feature=share Pretty standard dandruff gathering stuff, excepting for the notable feature that the lead singer quite clearly placed a tight strap around his testicles in order to effect a Geddy Lee atmosphere to the vocal department.

So, as they undoubtedly are toasting in Brum this evening, ‘appy birthdoy Michelle! Bang that head, girl!

In collab news, it is a very happy birthday to a completely decent guy, Marty Mcfly, a Special Collab around these parts who, unfortunately hasn’t visited in a wee while. He is 32 today. Happy birthday, Marty!

Firstly, we visit Gliss Bliss, which, as those of who who are into the wild and wacky world of the late and barkingly great Daevid Allen will know, is from the track Gliss Bliss For Fliss City from Gentle Genie in 1979.

Niall McQuaid is 56 today and was a member for nine years, posting Floydian and wacky stuff. His signature was inspirational. “Let’s go to church and be good looking”. This is, of course, especially important to The Lord, who, it is well known, has a severe aversion to ugly wugglies tainting his house, and most certainly a decent smiting invariably follows should they dare to cross the threshold.

Niall stated his occupation as a student when he joined us, but these days he is a wee bit of a teacher on The Emerald Isle. He can be found on Tweety Pie at https://twitter.com/pinkfloydish 

As can be seen, Niall teaches the Bodhran, which is an Irish frame drum, beloved by all serious Celtic beardy types. So, if you are ever Bogside, and fancy a wee bit of a hit, go and visit the school. Lá breithe shona duit to you, sir! Carry on banging!

On a slightly more serious note, I would also very much hope that Fekete, or Yoel Schwarcz, is still with us to celebrate his 84th birthday, but, try as I might, I cannot say for certain that he is. Yoel was a member of Continuum, a fusion band who released a couple of albums in the early seventies. They are on the site CONTINUUM discography and reviews Further, please do take the time to read an exceptional interview that Bob (Easy Livin) conducted with him in 2006 on this site. Yoel Schwarcz of Continuum, May 2006 - Progressive Rock Music Forum It really is fantastic reading, and an example of how we should conduct such work for the posterity the Archives was set up for.

Happy birthday, Yoel.

In collab news, well today is a biggy. 65 years and nine months ago, Rivertree’s parents decided to get it together and create a future Special Collaborator. Uwe is a prolific and greatly respected person hereabouts, so let’s all shout out a very happy birthday, Uwe! Enjoy!

Another SC, Evolutionary Sleeper, or Luke as he might be better known to those he stays awake with, is 34 today. Luke hasn’t been here for a wee while, but we wish him all the best! 

Blimey! A busy one today! Time for Mr Laz to relax with some beer and a pork chop.  

I could have gone for allegedly the oldest swinger in town, namely dirtybanana, aka Flashgit, who loved our site so much he also joined as Nebukadnezar (sic), which suggests a certain level of delusions of grandeur if nothing else. Danny, for it is he, is from Germany, and according to his registration, was born in 1909, making him a wondrous 112 today. The centenarian’s top track on his MySpace site was funkysh*tJam, surely something which Goering and co grooved to in 1930’s Germany.

Actually, our old Flashman is one of many candidates today who joined, stayed for all of a brief time, and contributed diddly squat to the site, which fills me with amazement as to why they bothered to register in the first place. Take san1010, or Shin Hung Ho as he was named 53 years ago today. He joined us for 39 minutes in 2008, and has never been seen again. I mean, why? Why?

Jaferrandez, or José Antonio Ferrandez as his parents named him 64 years ago in sunny Logroño, did at least hang about for almost three years, although he never provided us with the benefit of his wisdom.

José is another of those people who has dabbled in a wee bit of amateur recording, and whose frankly rather bizarre efforts can be heard on his Soundcloud site, including the altogether funky Hong Kong Rap. Phooey would be proud, no doubt. jaferrandez | Jose Antonio Ferrandez | Free Listening on SoundCloud There is some rather more familiar, and acceptable to us, fare on his contributions to Discogs at jaferrandez / Contributions 

Others, as we have seen, merely register in order to flog us something, or in the case of maerom1000 join us in order to convince the prog experts that their favourite band is a serious candidate for inclusion. Bruno César is 44 today, and hails from Portugal, and when he joined listed his interest as música de desporto, or sports music to those of us who speak Inglese. Bruno was desperate for the hairy bunch known to their adoring fans as Lamb of God to be included on the site, and made 5 posts to that effect in 2009, before he buggered off not to be seen again after being told that they were not, in fact, prog but ‘eavy ‘eadbangers. For those of you who wish to explore this cheerful looking group of lads, check them out at Lamb Of God – Official Website

The discussion is at Pro Prog Metal Bands - Progressive Rock Music Forum

So, Felicidades, Bruno! Keep banging that head, sir!

In collab news, today is the 44th birthday of b_olariu. Bogdan hails from Romania, and is a Prog Reviewer and prolific contributor to the site. Many happy returns, Bogdan! 

KublaKhan, for instance, is celebrating his 106th birthday in Brazil today, and by the look of his signature is looking pretty damned good for his age.

Continuing the long list of performing artists who have graced our sites, especially those of the extremely hairy and head banging variety, is Gerard celebrating his 43rd birthday in Poland today, although listening to his band Perihellium’s output this morning, I hope that the music they play at his party is a wee bit more uplifting than the doom fest that is Prototype:Day One Perihellium This lot are on both PA and Headbanging Archives, so check them out. PERIHELLIUM discography and reviews

However, the star of today’s rumination is a rap fan. Yep, that’s right, the genre where mainly fat black blokes mumble over a sampled piece of music and are the only personages left on Planet Earth allowed to say a certain word beginning with N without being strung up by the nearest lamppost .

Jibbs joined our happy fellowship in January 2006, and stayed for less than one minute and never bothered us again. Jim, as his parents rather boringly named him 31 years ago today in Da Hood, was obviously a little bit confused about the musical boundaries between hippies such as Jon Anderson singing about love and light, and said fatties boringly threatening to shoot each other all the time.

His signature provides us with a clue, as well as his forum name. “I’m like Mother Teresa with a glock”. Now this interested me a wee bit, because Mr Laz lives a rather sheltered existence in the wilds of West Sheepland, and had never heard of a glock. So imagine my surprise when I discovered that it is, in fact, a firearm. Yep, a gun.  GLOCK Inc. | GLOCK Pistols | Buy Guns Online Amusingly, in an abundance of caution for “guests” and employees, the purveyors of shooting luxury are closed for walk-in commerce in these difficult pandemic times, but always available to allow said guests to buy their wares and shoot the bollocks off of anyone they take a dislike to. The mind doth boggle. 

I then thought that his occupation, Master of the Custodial Arts, was a reference to Mr Jibbs perhaps doing a stretch of porridge in the State Penitentiary for being a wee bit too eager with his pet Glock. But no. The truth is a little bit more pedestrian, I am afraid, Custodial Arts being da yoof on da streets slang for a janitor. Really, this is not a joke. Urban Dictionary: master of the custodial art

I also found out that Jibbs is, in fact, the name of a rapper of small time success. Jibbs - Wikipedia Mr Laz, in the interests of assisting the growth of musical knowledge for all readers of this thread, listened to his second single, King Kong, which features another lovely chap going by the name of Chamillionaire. You too can listen to this bloody awful racket, which surely only appeals to those with a mental age of 2, or blokes who have to clean bogs for a living, at; https://youtu.be/Eh1kgwF6Z-I

Our friend Jim was born in the same year as Mr Jibbs, but in a different month, so I am confident that our one-time associate was not said Donkey Kong, but a fan. 

So! Let us hope that Our Jim is celebrating his special day by firing off a few rounds at his favourite saintly posters! Shake that mop carefully, Jim!

Elsewhere, present senior member Twseel is 23 today, and is a prolific contributor to our beloved gathering. Actually, our friend does share quite a bit in common with the rapper, in that his job is that of a vacuum cleaner and language hearer, which should be handy in interpreting the indecipherable cobblers our rappers spout out. Happy birthday, Sir!