Motorhead - Bad Magic review

A lot changes over the course of 40 years...oh except for Motorhead, and on their 40th Anniversary album, Bad Magic, they're trying very hard to be as loud, brash and gritty as ever, with the consequence being a rather old and worn out sounding Lemmy Kilmister.

After four decades of shouting something has to give, and in this case it's Lemmy's voice. It's been well documented how ill he's been and from pictures online it's easy to see too. On Bad Magic there's nothing lacking in the music department - far from it - every song sounds as original as it's possible for a Motorhead track to be, but there's a real lack of oomph in the vocals. It's been said that on the final mix the producer actually had to boost the volume on Lemmy's vocal track because it wasn't audible enough over the bass, drums and guitar, which is obvious when you listen to the album because it's clear how much pressure his voice is under.

Normally the vocals/lyrics are make or break for me however with Motorhead, a band not exactly renowned for about clarity when it comes to vocals, I think I can look over it because of just how good the musicianship is. Phil Williams is spectacular on lead guitar and Mikkey Dee demonstrates his prowess behind the skins, keeping up with and adding to the insane drive that Lemmy offers with his un-bassist-like, chord/rhythm playing technique.

Motorhead, much like AC/DC, have been labelled by many as bands whose songs sound very similar one to the next, and this album follows that with just a few exceptions. The first of these exceptions being The Devil, which uncharacteristically to every other Motorhead song ever recorded, features a 'stop-go' rhythm as I'd call it, in that there is actual silence between notes in the chorus. Another thing to point on this track is that is has a guest guitarist in Queen's Dr. Brian May, and one things for sure, he doesn't mind getting his heavy on! It shouldn't be a surprise when May shows his musical flexibility but it's nice to hear him shred on a neck and not associate the ensuing genius with a previous track we've heard a thousand times before on commercial radio.

The other exceptions will definitely please the more rock than metal fans of Motorhead. Till The End is almost a hard rock ballad, starting slowly and building to a crescendo of classically Motorhead proportions. As well as this there is the album closer, an uncharacteristic cover; The Rolling Stones's 'Sympathy For The Devil'. Having heard Guns N Roses' abysmal attempt to cover one of the Stones' most well known tracks, I was more than pessimistic about yet another hard rock/Metal interpretation. However, I will report that it's not anything like as awful as Axl and co's version and in fact I quite like it. Lemmy's distinctive grunt fits very well with the depressing war/devil lyrics and the trio stay very true to the original structure, just adding traditional Motorhead grit and drive.

Verdict 3.5/5
Well it's typical Motorhead for three quarters of the album so normally I would only give that 2/5 or so. But on this occasion, with the added musical depth of two rockier tracks I'm happy to move that up to 3-3.5/5. I'm still not convinced by Lemmy's vocals, and there comes a point where you have to say no more, but the production team have done just well enough to mask his frailty enough to produce a good heavy rock/Metal album. I do feel the time is coming though when Lemmy will have to say no more and either scout for new vocal talent or end the band as is, although I don't think that's fair on Phil Williams or Mikkey Dee.

It's difficult to say how Bad Magic will be received by hardcore Motorhead fans but, knowing Metal fans, I think it'll still hit the spot.

The Strypes - Little Victories review

After debuting in 2012 with Snapshot, The Strypes have earned their stripes with Little Victories. Great lyrics, soul-shaking riffs and a clear musical evolution make the 2015 release not to be missed!



Little Victories starts where Snapshot left off; with two heavily riffed, Zeppelin-esque, simply written tracks. Get Into It, the single from the album, sums up life as a teenager in the world of social media and does so with a kickass riff that almost makes you not care so much about the song itself and just focus on the chemistry between guitar, bass and drums. I Need To Be Your Only is in much the same vein as Get Into It in that all you can say is it's clearly a Strypes song by the way it's written, the accompanying riff and the driving bass.

The Strypes have definitely shown how they've progressed as musicians, with the introduction of mellower, less aggressive tunes. A Good Night's Sleep And A Cab Fare Home, for example, demonstrates the versatility of Josh McClorey's writing and shows that you don't necessarily need to be smashing the audience's ear drums to please them. You can hear the influences The Strypes have had over the past few years in this one, with an Oasis/Arctic Monkey's indie sound coming through, which I can't decide if it's a bad thing or not.... (I Wanna Be Your) Everyday is so mellow it may act as an attempt at a foray into the psychedelic, with a smooth, shimmering guitar wah over the top of Ross Farrelly's chilled vocals.

I've already dicussed Eighty-Four in a previous blog post from when I saw Evan, Josh, Pete and Ross in a tiny venue in Cambridge in May, before they'd even announced the name of the new album, but needless to say - it's awesome.

McClorey is assisted with lyrics on Queen Of The Half Crown by his friend Dave Bardon and revives that fuzzy Led Zep sound to great effect once again. Finding out 'half crown' is Irish slang for drunk put a funny slant on the song too. Best Man plants this album straight back into the punk genre. A fast paced, short, sharp song that has The Clash written all over it - not literally, mind.

Three Streets And A Village Green is one of two tracks that appear to describe the longings of home after months traveling the world. Lyrically it's a check on the band's humility and their defiance not to forget their routes in the leafy rural Irish village of Cavan. Again the early-noughties influence is there but McClorey adds a huge amount with a 'different' wahed solo.

Another single next; Now She's Gone. A proper, heavy, distorted outburst of shouty teenage angst that also sees McClorey increase his musical diversity with a stint of tinny lap steel guitar audible towards the end.

A song writing debut for bassist Pete O'Hanlon on Cruel Brunette is an interesting one, written in the form of a short story that tells of a bad experience with a girl (obviously). O'Hanlon's song writing reminds me a lot of very early Pink Floyd or more specifically, Syd Barrett, especially at the beginning of the track, that morphs into jangly mod and back to 1967 Pink Floyd.

Status Update is probably the most cleverly sarcastic song you're going to hear from a band with a writer as young as McClorey. The chorus has backing vocals of "shame, shame, shame", as if a rebellious teenager is just ignoring everyone and not caring what anyone says. All I can picture when I hear this track is a disgruntled teen walking out the door of his parents house with two fingers raised. The chorus alone just screams pissed of teenager, "And it never felt so good - Am I acting like I should be? - Doing things I never could".

Finally, Scumbag City is the second song that tells of the band missing home, or more specifically hating where they are staying. In an interview on Wednesday 19 August on RTE Radio 1, O'Hanlon said how much he hates Shoreditch and the hipsters that inhabit it. One line of lyrics - "There's empty cans on river street, Scumbag City Blues" - actually appears to refer to a real street in the Shoreditch area when researched on Google Maps! This maybe a coincidence but somehow I think not.

Verdict
I'll give it 4/5 for now, or if I'm generous 4.5/5. The only song that troubles me is A Good Night's Sleep And A Cab Fare Home purely because of the indie rock sound which needs to stay in the noughties and doesn't belong on a rock n roll album!

Other than that small hiccup, Little Victories is an excellent album and a clear evolution in The Strypes sound without straying too far. It also gives us a good helping of rocking riffs to keep us happy for another few years until part three of the discography comes our way.

The Strypes: Rock Is Alive And Kicking!

On 4 September 2014, Gene Simmons of Kiss claimed in an interview with Esquire that rock was finally dead. Having seen The Strypes live I can tell you the present and future of rock is very much alive and in great hands!

About a month and a half ago (5 May) I had the pleasure of going to see Irish Blues Rock four piece The Strypes at the Portland Arms in Cambridge. I had wanted to see the band, made up of Ross Farrelly on lead vocals, Josh McClorey on lead guitar and lead/backing vocals, Pete O'Hanlon on bass and Evan Walsh on drums, last Summer when they were touring their first album, 2013's Snapshot, however I missed their final East Anglian gig by a couple of weeks. This time around I was going to make it my mission to see them on their Flat Out tour in support of their upcoming album, Little Victories, which comes out on 21 August 2015.


Little Victories album cover

The Strypes' debut album, Snapshot

In interviews they've said they take most credence musically from Dr. Feelgood and The Yardbirds, which is easy to tell when they play their hard paced, aggressive, 'speed blues'.

It's hard to pin down exactly what genre The Strypes fall into, but to give just a few examples of who they sound like, it's a fusion of Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Jam, Jimi Hendrix, Canned Heat and The Sex Pistols. This long and diverse list of musical royalty should give an idea of just how much range these four teenage Irishmen have, and it's a credit to their elasticity as musicians that they are able to resemble such bands in the space of just a few songs.

Unbeknownst to me (having not read the tour poster in much detail) the warm up act was a young, 1960s styled pop band called The Red Faces all the way from Sheffield. They looked no older than 14 or 15 years old but had the stage presence of men twice their age, strutting around the stage with as much swagger as the mods they were replicating had done during the height of 60s mod culture. I wouldn't say they were my cup of tea, in the same way as I'm not a big Beatles fan mainly because I prefer 60s rock over 60s pop, but they certainly have the charisma and talent to take them a long way in the music industry. The Red Faces were only on for 30 minutes or so but definitely left me intrigued.

The Portland Arms only takes 200 people inside it's venue (located outside the pub itself) but this just added to the atmosphere and meant we were all packed in like sardines just feet from the bands. I managed to get a spot right next to the technician desk (see picture below).

Portland Arms music venue

It's always tricky to adjust equipment in anticipation for the sweltering conditions that occur when you cram 200 people into a small room, and as I suspected might happen, The Strypes seemed to have problems during and after their first few songs. At first it was Ross' harmonica microphone which wasn't cutting through the other instruments, then Josh's microphone wasn't loud enough to accompany Ross', followed by Ross requiring another towel, as the frontman exclaimed, "I'm fucking melting up here!"

The Strypes start the show in front of a packed venue

There was a very friendly, laid back vibe at the gig which was made clear whenever the band had to stop due to technical problems. On a few occasions Josh would give his tech that stare which means "help me it's not working", and it would be left to Pete and Ross to keep us and the audience entertained. In one particularly awkward silence as we waited for Josh's rig to be set up properly, Pete turned to us, leaned into the microphone and asked, "has anyone seen the new Avenger's movie? I have. It was OK. Not as good as the first one though. You guys look a bit too old for that kind of thing though, right? Oh well, just chat amongst yourselves until we get our shit working. That's the problem with a room that's fucking insanely hot, strings and guitars warp, sweat gets into the electronics and the amps decide not to work, all part of the fun I guess..."

As for the gig, the set list consisted of classics off the Snapshot record such as Blue Collar Jane, You Can't Judge a Book By The Cover, What a Shame, Hometown Girls, What the People Don't See and I Can Tell. They added to these by playing a few songs off the new record, three of which are on the new EP, Flat Out; Scumbag City, Eighty-Four and Kick Out The Jams. Scumbag City is a song that starts slowly with a single strumming guitar intro that builds into a thumping, guitar screaming climax that no doubt will become a live favourite and have crowds shouting the chorus back at the lads in a live situation. Eighty-Four is a track which is more rock driven than the previous song, with driving bass and drums that barrels along like a locomotive to produce a slobber-knocker. The final single is Kick Out The Jams, a 1:27 blink and you'll miss it thrash of rock 'n' roll that has a hint of heavy metal to it with the pounding bass, screeching guitar and shrieking vocals. It was on this number that The Strypes finished the main part of the gig before the encore, leaving their amps turned up to 11 and walking straight through the crowd with the throbbing feedback of their instruments ringing in our ears and reverberating through our bodies!



Left to right; Josh, Evan, Me, Dan, Pete, Ross

The lads told us afterwards this gig was part of a tour visiting small venues to prepare them for their big festival tour over the summer, and in the process get rid of the cobwebs that build up having been in the sanctuary of a recording studio for months beforehand. I took by this that they didn't feel bothered about having the problems they did, seeing as it was in front of a crowd of 200 rather than of tens of thousands.

I should have guessed, them being Irish, that they would be incredibly easy to talk to and friendly but I didn't and was blown away when after the gig, my friend Dan and I asked Evan's father if we could have our LPs signed and the band duly obliged, and also asked if we wanted a photo! I suppose they are used to this kind of thing, having toured all over the world and taken pictures with thousands of people, but to meet a bunch of young musicians who are clearly only in the industry for the pleasure of playing music and not the money is very refreshing.


My signed copy of Snapshot




The Women's Tour Visits North Essex

Yesterday my father and I decided to follow stage two of the Women's Tour from Braintree to Clacton-On-Sea, stopping at Sudbury and Great Bentley en route to catch the Queen Of The Mountains and Sprint sections of the course.


The start in Braintree town centre



Pearl Izumi Team with Team GB riders Dame Sarah Storey, Katie Archibald and Joanna Rowsell



The peloton move through the neutralised high street

To think it's been a year since I went to see a stage of the Women's Tour in Bedford feels absolutely mental but even more so is how the popularity of the event has grown in that time. Even at the start in Braintree town centre the streets were packed with people trying to get a look at the immense spectacle that is professional road cycling. You may have thought that the absence of Lizzi Armitstead following her crash the day before would have put fans off but that couldn't be further from the truth.

Leading the race through neutral zone of the town centre and out onto the main road were children from Beckers Green Primary School, who all looked around in amazement as they saw the throng of people all paying attention to them and the world class riders they were processing. The 138km course would be going via Halstead, Sudbury, Hadleigh, Kirby Le Soken and Great Bentley before turning 180 degrees and heading for the Essex seaside resort of Clacton-On-Sea.

 

QoM finish line on Finch Hill

Once the race had left Braintree we hurried back to the car and patiently crawled through the back log of traffic left behind by the road closures. Free of the mass of traffic the road opened out towards Halstead and Sudbury. Just before Sudbury we turned off to journey through winding lanes to the point where the first QoM section would be decided on Finch Hill. This was a perfect spot for spectators because the climb was long and straight, meaning we could see the riders coming from about 300 metres away.

The race was through in seconds and we dashed off to reach our second destination, Mistley, where the second QoM section was. However, it became apparent as we crawled through yet more back log into Sudbury that we weren't going to make it as the race was matching 85-90% of it's target time. So instead my father redirected us and we cut through to Great Bentley via some of the prettiest lanes I've ever driven in my life!



The break away come through Gt Bentley 1:42 ahead of the peloton

 We arrived in Great Bentley with about 30 minutes to spare and made the most of it by getting a much needed coffee from the pub and settling down with a picnic on the village green, the largest in Great Britain by the way! Proceeding the race to perform a rolling road block was a convoy of around 10-20 motorbikes, some of which were carrying cameramen and photographers. Most of these blokes were serious and didn't even crack a smile to the crowd, however one biker broke the trend, slowing down metres from the Sprint finish line, wiping his forehead and rocking his motorbike side to side in the same way a cyclist would in a sprint to the line. Safe to say it brought a chuckle.



The peloton speed across the sprint finish




Sprint finish on Clacton seafront

The finish on the waterfront in Clacton-On-Sea was barely 10km away now but with the race averaging over 20mph we didn't have long to get there. Luckily the traffic was kind and we managed to park and walk to the bustling finishing straight with 5km for the peloton still to race.
The big giveaway that the race is close is the TV helicopter following the race. As we stood on the finishing straight we could see said helicopter above the houses and slowly making its way towards us, and sure enough as it came into line with us the front of the race came bursting into view round the corner and sprint up the hill towards us and across the finish line.

Once the race had finished we headed up the road to where the presentation ceremony was. Being used to the pomp and circumstance of the aftermath of a professional cycling event, my father and I were ready in front of podium before anyone else in the crowd knew what was going on. 

Stage two winner Jolien D'Hoore - Belgium National Road Race Champion

Overall race leader Lisa Brennauer - World Time Trial Champion

 
The atmosphere at cycling events is always fantastic and yesterday's stage was no different, and I certainly cannot wait until next year's Women's Tour!

Is Muse's 'Drones' Their Best Yet?

Muse have released their seventh studio album, Drones, and can be considered as both the most socio-politically active and best music Matt Bellamy, Ben Howard and Chris Wolstenholme have made to date.



Muse's new album - Drones

The artwork on the album cover is a perfect reflection of what this album is all about; political control. It denotes that even those we see as authority figures are being controlled and are being manipulated by multinational business bosses who use their power to influence politics to make it work for them and not the general population.

Just the title of the album alone sets the tone for what's to come, a very dark, ominous feeling of authoritarian control and a human race that has been numbed into senselessness and has no feeling left of individuality. Muse have always used their libertarianism ideologies in their music but even for them the message behind this album is very strong.

The album opens with Dead Inside. A funky, electric number with dark lyrics of a distraught couple where clearly one is giving more than the other and ends with Bellamy telling how he has become as cold and calculating as his partner.

Next is a 0:21 interlude of a Drill Sergeant screaming orders at a recruit which follows into what I consider to be the best song on the album, Psycho. Psycho is built on a tremendous rock 'n' roll riff that demands a good head banging! The lyrics behind the riff portray the anti-humanity of war and brutal way in which governments turn human beings into senseless killing machines.  

Mercy, one of three released singles, is sung from the perspective of someone who has been broken emotionally, perhaps a veteran of war who can't fit into civilian life. It tells of ghosts and shadows eating away at this soldier's soul and the tyranny of the "powers that be" who are responsible for engaging in conflict. The first verse alone is incredibly poignant and immediately makes you feel sorry for anyone who is damaged by the consequences of violence:

"Help me
I've fallen on the inside
I tried to change the game
I tried to infiltrate
But now I'm losing

Men in cloaks always seem to run the show
Save me from the ghosts and shadows
Before they eat my soul"

 

 

Fifth on the album is Reapers, which opens with the sound that has become synonymous with Bellamy's guitar technique, a legato/tapping scale, and reminds the listener that yes this is still a Muse album! Reapers talks about how drones have upgraded warfare, and how even being an innocent civilian doesn't spare you. It's a very politically motivated song, seeing as drones are being used by allied troops in the Middle East and have killed civilians. It also covers how drones are replacing human fighters and how war is becoming more electronic, digital and advanced with every passing moment.

 

Military drone used in warfare

The Handler is lyrically similar to Psycho in that it describes soldiers as drones and can be programmed to kill on demand.

 

The second half of the album does brighten up however and a feeling of humanity returns to a setting where political tyranny has the world under the thumb and war rages on.

 

As before Psycho, before Defector there is a 0:55 interlude as John F. Kennedy delivers a speech describing the means by which higher powers go about seizing control, silencing those who oppose them.

 

Defector is delivered in the first person as someone who has escaped the clutches of a damning regime and is free to go about his life the way he wants to for the first time.

 

In the same vein as Defector, Revolt is an upbeat, punchy song, which encourages others to break free from the oppression of those at the top of society, as the defector did, and explains how anyone can make of life what they want no matter what anyone says.

 

Aftermath is the most subdued song on the album, with an atmospheric Pink Floyd sounding slide guitar intro, that mulls over the end of war and a world returning back to normal civilised behaviour. It describes a world where all the States have crumbled and humans are free from oppression. Aftermath builds this feeling of relief and humanitarian togetherness and launches into a release of emotion with a great solo by Bellamy.

 

The Globalist is the longest track on the album at 10:08 and explains the rebuilding process after the dramatic war and political ideology that pretty much destroyed it. Going along with the idea of building, this track starts off very docile, slow and acoustic and builds to halfway where it dives deep into a heavily bass driven electric sound that gets faster and faster. The track slows some 02:00 later and piano comes in with Bellamy singing of a world with nothing left, including countries and culture, just the love of humanity as if the world has been cleansed of evil.

 

The close of the album, Drones, is a very surreal song. Sung in the style of a harmonic church choir with no accompanying music it describes every member of their family dead, all killed by drones.

 

Overall this offering by Muse is in a completely different musical direction to their previous album 2nd Law, which was heavily influenced by dub-step, and very much goes back to their roots of guitar, bass, drums, harmonics and electronic overdubs.

Left to right: Wolstenholme, Bellamy and Howard

It's a brilliant album and is also a reminder of how good song writing can really be when done properly. The social and political ideologies addressed in this album are very sensitive so it's good that a band such a Muse has the confidence to take it on, and at the same produce fantastic music.  

Joe Bonamassa Rocks the Apollo

Bonamassa playing his '59 Les Paul

Tuesday night was very special for me. Not only was it my first time at the newly named 'Eventim Apollo' but it was my first experience of seeing blues prodigy, Joe Bonamassa.

I started following Joe only last summer, when Planet Rock announced his four dates at the aforementioned Apollo. I'd never really paid much attention to blues before then, other than the odd Led Zeppelin or Jimi Hendrix song, not that I wasn't interested, so this was new ground for me. Needless to say, once I dug around and listened to the blues staples, I was hooked.

Eventim Apollo

Joe has played the Apollo four times as of Tuesday, and each time it has bestowed a different name; Hammersmith Apollo, Carling Apollo Hammersmith, HMV Hammersmith Apollo and Eventim Apollo. However Bonamassa was adamant of what it was to him, breaking away for a moment to say to the crowd "to me this beautiful venue will always be the Hammersmith fucking Odeon!"; the venue's name from 1962-1992. This passionate outburst from Bonamassa actually got the biggest cheer of the evening.


Joe's playing has certainly developed massively over the decades. Listening to his 2004 album 'Had To Cry Today', it's clear to hear his vulnerable voice; not able to belt out any hard notes and not very enunciated. Ten years later however, there is a notable difference. His latest offering 'Different Shades Of Blue' show cases not only his incredible guitar soloing ability but his improved voice which has been growing steadily since 2010s 'Black Rock' when he started taking singing lessons.

Joe Bonamassa's 2014 album - Different Shades Of Blue

A highlight of his Apollo performance was Joe playing all but four of the eleven tracks from his new album, which showed off his show stopping technique and talent when it comes to soloing. Songs such as 'Oh Beautiful!', 'Never Give All Your Heart For Love' and 'I Gave Up Everything For You' are just a taste of Bonamassa's supreme vocal and guitar playing talent on an album which is his first to consist of only original tracks - apart from the intro track, a 76-second cover of Jimi Hendrix's 'Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)'. Not to be overlooked are the members of Bonamassa's backing band featuring; Tal Bergman on drums; Carmine Rojas on bass and Reese Wynans, formerly of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, on keyboards. All of whom come together to make a sumptuous mixture of rhythm, blues and groove.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjW7mPepKB4&list=PLrHekRUw-GqdricXDRfOu4fyWwrYfSyq_ - Different Shades Of Blue full album.



About three quarters of the way through the concert, Joe introduced a special guest, one that I was not prepared for - Beth Hart. Joe began collaborating with fellow American Beth Hart in 2011 on 'Don't Explain', which features covers of classic blues tracks. Together they performed Donny Hathaway's classic single, 'I'll Love You More Than You'll Ever Know', and it goes without saying they brought the house down. Beth Hart's shrieking vocals get you right in the depths of your gut and leave you yearning for more, which you do indeed get when Bonamassa peels off from Reese Wynans' mesmerising keyboard and synthesiser wizardry to blitz yet another outstanding guitar solo; pure satisfaction.



'King of the Blues' B.B. King

Even sitting up in the circle as I was, I was able to see closely first hand his unbelievably quick fingers. There's a massive difference between shredding like Slash and soloing like Bonamassa; Slash and other hard rockers play with a huge amount of distortion and other effects, making each note almost an indistinguishable mass of crunching tone; Bonamassa on the other hand, seems to caress every note with care and passion but still portraying the attack and vigour of a man who has been studying the blues for 35+ years. Watching Bonamassa doing a solo is almost a spiritual experience. You can hear the influences of legends such as B.B. King (who Bonamassa opened for in 1989 when he was just 12-years-old), Albert King, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Buddy Guy but at the same time it's as original as when the first bluesmen discovered the art of playing the blues in the early 20th century.

I found my brain sore just trying to follow each pluck of his gleaming sunburst '59 Les Paul's strings, and in the end just laid back and admired this marvellous guitar player that no doubt will be remembered forever, as the man who brought the blues back into the mainstream.

Audax Legend Visits Great Dunmow

Steve Abraham, the legendary Audax UK rider, visited Great Dunmow on Saturday (28 February) to ride Tom Deakins' 200km helper's event, 'The Horsepower', as part of his endeavour to break the year time trial record.

Steve (centre with yellow high vis ankle tape) before the off

The record was last set in 1939 when Tommy Godwin battled all year to achieve an astonishing 75,065 miles and, Steve is to crack the record, he will have to average at least 200 miles per day.

 

Speaking before the ride Steve described the ups and downs so far of attempting this incredible feat: "It's the sleep deprivation that's hurting me at the moment. Although I'm up on my February total so far so I'm going to have a bit of a rest today so I can catch up on sleep tonight, and hit it again tomorrow."

 

Steve flying past up the hill at Finchingfield

Steve is relying on the hospitality of friends to help him before and after rides that are further afield from his home in Milton Keynes, and last night stayed at Takeley resident, Alex Watts' house. Mr Watts spoke of his experience hosting Mr Abraham: "He's going really well but he looks so tired. Steve got in at 9:00pm last night and I kicked him out of the door at 5:15am this morning. He's going to come back to mine tonight so he doesn't have to worry about getting back to Milton Keynes and can get a good meal and a decent nights sleep."

 

Steve's total so far to 2 March is 11,482 miles and is 1,940 miles up on Godwin's record, putting him in good stead to break it only two months into the challenge.


Steve is not the only cyclist going for the record. American Kurt Searvogel is also giving the record a shot but as it stands is nearly 1,000 miles short of Mr Abraham although he did start ten days later.