Weekend at Bernie’s – Episode #4!
Weekend with Bernie (on FB) #91 How I played “Future Shock” riff solo 
(From Youtube Boleslaw The Brave channel) Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!
Again, courtesy of Kyoko Cooley.
That is where we start this week. Kyoko’s Weekend at Bernie’s pick involves Bernie sharing some of the details, some of the how-to relating to the title track from Gillan’s Future Shock album.
Cool tune. Cool Album with an interesting album cover (One that I have yet to find an explanation for. . .).
With that, however, I digress and offer the following tale, which has little to do with that tune nor album really. Nothing. . .
A few years after the Future Shock album came out, Ian Gillan went on to join Black Sabbath. That was in 1983. That was for me and my friends the real Future Shock. We had been waiting and waiting for a Deep Purple reunion.
We were never expecting Ian Gillan to be singing Paranoid and the like. And of course the Purple reunion did finally happen, but apparently we first had we had to endure this. Oh it was not that painful!
It was just all very weird really. Keep in mind that Ozzy left Sabbath in 79? He discovers this amazing guitarist in Randy Rhoads, who then sadly dies in a plane crash in the midst of Ozzy’s Diary of a Madman tour in 1982. And who is brought in to take over? Bernie Torme, of Gillan fame, at least in the UK. Granted he was out of that insane situation after a month. That month I am sure was truly like something out of a diary of a madman.
So Bernie goes and supports Ozzy, and Ian proceeds to go and support Sabbath? OK. Why Not? And Purple for the time was not happening.
So with all of that, my buddies and I quickly got our Sabbath tickets for the Philadelphia Spectrum when they passed through supporting Born Again in late 83? And Born Again is honestly a good album. But it is through this show at the Spectrum that we tie all this together. Kind of.
One of my buddies, Dale Rounsaville, was an artist of sorts. He had some talent, or at least some skills with calligraphy. So for once, we brought a banner to this show. Banners were cool-just truly showing your support of a band.
I imagine folks still bring them to the bigger shows though I wonder whether today’s security will allow such? Back in 1983 they were interested in weaponry and glass maybe. So my one mate, band mate and artist took the font, the calligraphy, of Future Shock-both the classic book by Alvin Toffler and likewise the Gillan album, and asked on this banner: “Is this the Future Shock?” It was brilliant. We liked it, but perhaps that was the Beaujolais. We were probably the only ones in the Spectrum that got it. . .
Sadly the banner lasted a few minutes and then disappeared. We had gone up to the second level to put it up. We wanted it to be seen on stage and throughout the Spectrum. so we put it up and went back to our seats. Sadly it was gone minutes later. Gone.
Really little to do with the actual music of Gillan’s Future Shock, but still was kind of fun.
