Ramon Brandt_

24/1/08

Its been a while since my latest blog entrybut I have been busy during the december month, now january is almost over and things are getting a little normal again.

This year started for me with the Johnsons Legacy gig at one of my hangouts(The Waterhole) and yes the did it again, although the managre had some trouble with the volume, they did some great songs and Barry wrecked his snaredrum, Dirk broke a snare of his new guitar and didn't bring the good one with him, but the rocked anyway, I took a lot of pictures using Dirk's camera and had a good time, end of next month we will be hanging out again at the HMH at the Qotsagig.

Yesterday I went to the Paradiso to see the very multi talented Henry Rollins, this guy suffered from a serious case of oral diarehae, and he just talked for 3 hours straight, with the crowd in awe. He discussed his trips to dangerous places and countries, his idols, and his movie career, it was sometimes serious but most of the time just plain hilarious, he can tell and is a very great entertainer, Jonathan and me had a great evening and next time when he comes to the Netherlands we both will bring some more people,

The Sellaband wall of fame is comming very close now, on Tuesday I did get the keys to my new appartment and I will move before the end of next month, so all the stuff bands and artists sent me over the past half year will finally get their shrine..

I will move from the in the media well known Slotervaart area to the Rivirenbuurt and am a very happy man, just got another day off confirmed so I will join the Nemeseatour in Haarlem, so will be joining the Francis Rodino streetteam there and maybe in the Hagueas well, that is a week later so still under construction, for now Rock on and keep in touch

01/12
The gig of Rubber was great, a lot of friends and familiar faces from over the past ten years where there.
Yesterday I was supposed to go to see "The Boss" at Gelredome,  he suffered from a cold and the concert was postponed till today, major bummer, because today I have to work again, but went yesterday to Black Crusade instead, a friend of mine had an extra ticket so still some music, although something completely different, Black Crusade is a mini festival head lined by Machine Head and featuring : -Shadows Fall, Arch Enemy, Dragon Force and Trivium.
So it started loud and got louder till the end, a lot of fun and great bands, an evening well spend!
Wednesday I will go see Porcupine Tree, again something different, but really looking forward to that, again at the Heineken Music Hall or HMH for short, great, because of the blackbox construction the sound is always great! just about 15 minutes from my house by sneltram (metro/subway) although this one stays in the open

07/11/07
Wednesday today, two more days and friends of mine will play in the small room of the "Melkweg" anniversary and CD release party, their own songs are Dutch pop/rock and will be playing a cover set as well, info at: www.rubberinfo.nl
got one guestlist space available, so pm me and will make arrangements for Saturday



02/11/07
have been playing around with ticketmaster, heard that QOTSA is coming to Amsterdam again, 28/02/08, so went to their site, and although the tickets sales start tomorrow, I am holding already my e-tickets in the inbox, yeahhhhh!!!!
some noise from Joshua and his mates!!!




08/10/07
The old job is finished, had a parting party yesterday and came home at about 4 this morning, slept till twelve and got some household stuff done,
organized my CD collection from A to Z again and am a happy man for now.
Having another day of tomorrow and will start the new job on Wednesday at noon, looking forward to it, but also a little tensed, the restaurant just opened three weeks ago and they asked for my help for a week or three to get things organized, after those few weeks I will start in another restaurant in Loenen aan de Vecht.
So getting very busy the upcoming weeks, but work never killed somebody they always say.
about music not much to tell, shelved a lot CDS but that is about it, still have to get the new Foo fighters and the new Springsteen album, will see the show of Springsteen and the E street band on the 30th of next month and thats something I really am looking forward to, the last show I saw of them took almost three hours and was great.

25/09/07
Yesterday I went over to my sisters place @ the Hague, and she played me a demo by this Canadian lady, the lady is a friend of a friend of them and is now working as a teacher full time, the songs she sang, all evergreens got me goose pimples, her voice so beautifull and so talented, it just makes you wonder, what if she got on to sellaband?
well enough of these thoughts, Kink FM is playing the last dvd of the 3dvd set of Dream theater and I'm having a ball, oke they sometimes go over the top with extra solo's and stuff but I really love to see this band live sometime, it is been a while I went to a concert, yes I know I am a spoiled little boy when it comes to concerts but the last one was Soulfly at the end of last month, a month ago, so it's about time again, well next week probibally will be the occasion, some mean angry men music (boze mannen muziek) dmn, just got info my agenda is not correct, the concert is moved to 30/11, when I will be @Gelredome, Arnhem, to see the Boss and the E-streetband, so must seek another target for this comming weeks, well cant be to difficult around Amsterdam......










15/09/07
Has been and still is a busy week,
Got a new job yesterday and am starting in 3 weeks time, cd's are pilling up, got a few from a friend of mine and really need some time to listen to them, then there is the Radius CD, got it last Saturday, same time I got two LE cd's of Cubworld I ordered thru the believer profile of the Dragon boy, and if I'm lucky I can have some time on Sunday night, but also planned a visit to friends of mine who moved houses and I really have to check their place out now it's finished, so much to do and so little time, Monday I'm invited to visit a possible new home for myself and after that I have to work again, Tuesday
I'm off, but Wednesday evening maybe to a concert of Devil driver and really need to their cd as well.
Good thing the budget for Sellaband of this month is finished, so need to browse the latest entries there, really love music but it looks like work for me at the moment;-)

Got a ticket for the Springsteen concert in November, so I am lucky and very happy, now time for bed, typing stopped making sense somewhere a few lines back







12/09/07
just a quick and short post this time, returned from work at 02,30 and got a post on my profile from the guys from Black Jack, still a little shaken up about the countdown of Vegas Dragons and then you hear you won, thats cool so as I already stated in my post, the two parts will go to the Black Jack team and I will double them at the end of the month, well deserved
thank you guys( another thing: page views 814)
Ramon

11/9/07 Dragons Day
well that was a strange night and day, started yesterday around15,00 on the countdown chat, until the server went down everything was just fine, returned there around five or six and just left 10 minutes after the dragons hit the ceiling, I didn't know what was the normal way things went during a countdown, the last I mist because I was working and the other artists hit the roof before I joined, I now that I was to scared to miss this one so I just stayed, must say I had lots of fun with all these people from around the globe, normally I wont be in the chat that much because otherwise I will end up with no live at all, it will be a pleasure to join in for the next countdown,
Brian you proved right, I am not mediocre, and never mend it in a way of faith or passion but more about scale, those things might change but again it might as well not,
you proved yourself a true friend and cant wait till you come over here and shake hands hug and drink a few beers or some JD, well as it is a party both and loads of it ;-)

29/8/07
600+ page views in two months, not to bad for just a mediocre believer, anyway went to The Melkweg on sunday to see Soulfly perform, hear always the stories about Sepultura and how great they were before Max left and so on, well Max isn't doing bad for himself, they kicked some ass, great band with very gifted musicians and great sound, can understand that if your not into his music you will get a very rough time, but my friends and I were having a ball, after the gig we went to the loudest rock bar of Amsterdam, the Cave, and had a few more beers

20/08/07
I just returned from the Lowlands festival. we left after i saw Tool give a almost perfect show, these guys keep surprising me with their performance
i dont want to get in details to much so just a list of the bands i was lucky to see perform:
Friday:
Dizzee Rascall ( well nice warming up not really my cup of thea, but the man delivered)
Kasabian
Eagles of Death metal
Air Traffic
The good, bad and the queen
The Killers

saturday:
The rifles
Admiral Freebee, this band played a semi accoustic set and well to be short
AWESOME!
some Turbo Negro
Chris Cornell(second time this year and even better than the club show)
Interpol
Kaiser chiefs
Malkovich (dutch hardcore,metal,math metal band)they rock!!

sunday:
Lacuna Coil
the Answer
Nine inch nails (yeah!!)
Sonic youth
Motorhead
Arcade Fire
TOOL!!!!!!!

in between i still managed to get drunk and have a good time with longtime friends..

some pictures will come up, same as the ones I took on thursday at Sellabration
right now I will go listen to some music while i get up to date again with this site and the emails









4/8
so my believing part is leaving traces on other profiles, Johnson's Legacy are hosting a picture of me with them, two other believers entered because of my giftparts and I'm getting hooked to this, so what's more?











29/7/07
it was a special day.
 yesterday, went to the hague, sow Johnson's legacy alive and rockin and met them and Walter M.
although the sound quality was a point of improvement, i liked what i saw,
these guys love what they are doing and deserve more, more believers more promotion and exposure.
So the next few weeks I'll bee thinking what to do, meeting some people and discussing plans, can't promise anything but something is going to happen
Ramon







music and more....
Its been an busy week, got textmesage from a friend last week, still off on thuesday? answerred yes why? got spare tickets for Qotsa, your going...
well that certainly made my day, forgot to get to the postoffice at 07.00 to get tickets myself and soldout in about 2 minutes, everybody wanted to see them in de Paradiso, and why not?
the support "moi non plus" was a bit strange, to be kind, misplacced even, but what Josh Homme and company showed was a awesome experience, tight drumstrokes, massive guitarriffs and energy from the stage..
early finish, yes was still before 10.30 when we got out, but still some time to get to a bar for an drink and recovering ears, had been loud, and should really get some earplugs fixed, but what a night.

Read about the concert @ sea, saw the footage of Francis, he looked like he had a good time, shame that only a view cloggies bothered to watch the SAB/Revu stage, on the other hand there is a story about a gig in the early 80's that Prince did in the Paradiso, only a hundred  turned out, but if you believe all everybody was one of them, everybody loves to be an early adaptor, anyway turned out to be good for the the myth around the midget..
maybe in about 5 years everybody was there @ sea?

SAB gets addictive to me, sorry guys, like a lot and there is a lot to like, but have to keep the budget in mind, and not talking about the 50000 us Dollars here, more about the rent and stuff like that, I'll try to make dreams come true but must be aware of not to life in a dream..
Please keep informing me, i will put you on my wishlist if i like you and when time comes i will make believing in you official...
So for now... keep up the good work, keep on rockin', keep on believing
Ramon