My Ear Candy #14 - Gerry Robertson

This week's guest was Gerry Robertson who brought along a glamorous bodyguard in the shape of Laura, the pair of them rockers from Perth (Scotland not Australia) now living in Aberdeen. I must confess to a degree of apprehension having to play six tracks selected by a greaser but I found myself pleasantly surprised, who knew that heavy metal could be listenable?

I'm something of a music expert, my ears honed to only the best in indie music's cannon from yesteryear and the present day, I'm down with the kids and no mistake. Heavy metal has always passed me by, aside from the Ace Of Spades and Paranoid, not for me the ear shattering din of shaggy haired beardos, disappearing up their own rectums with their never ending screeching guitar solos. I remember a kid at school called Selwyn (who calls their kid Selwyn?) who wore a denim jacket with a 'Rainbow' badge sewn across the back and stank of petunia, he invited me to his house once and played this insufferable metal stuff and it put me off for life...or so I thought. For tonight, much to my surprise and I admit it, disappointment, I found myself enjoying heavy metal music. I'll say that again, I enjoyed heavy metal.

I didn't enjoy all of it mind you, the Aerosmith track got off to a decent start but petered out somewhat and Deep Purple was a bit of a dirge, the rest though wasn't bad at all. Thin Lizzy's track was familiar to me but I had egg on my face when announcing the lead singer had been married to Bob Monkhouse's daughter only to wiki it later to find it was Leslie Crowther (just to clarify, the lead singer married Leslie Crowther's daughter, not Leslie Crowther.) The AC/DC one was familiar too, but the biggest shock was listening to Ozzy Osborne sing melodically, something I wasn't aware he was capable of.

We rounded off the show with The Scorpions, a shared passion of Gerry and Laura's. Our chat during the show took in the subjects of football, any excuse for me to talk about Aston Villa, and the voluntary work Gerry and Laura do with Befriend A Child, taking a young lad out for a couple of hours every other weekend to give him some fun while his mum deals with the stuff of life. This charity does wonderful life affirming work, do get involved if you can because they need more volunteers.

9pm arrived, our signal to quit. A fun time was had by all and a poke of chips was had by me as I drove back to Aberdeen. Bad move, the car stank the next day.

Gerry's selections
Thin Lizzy - The Boys Are Back In Town
Aerosmith - Sweet Emotion
AC/DC - Highway to Hell
Deep Purple - Perfect Strangers
Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train
The Scorpions - The Zoo