Hey guy's. I am ready for the 2010 Tour. I will be at the Manchester and Bristol gig's. Cannot wait. Really intrigued about Joe's new material.

Laters.

Well, that was lucky..

For many years now I have been listening to the orgasm inducing music of Joe Satriani, and I have always managed to somehow miss out on tickets to his live shows by days, sometimes even hours. Not this time, ohhhhh no, my radio station of choice happened to mention that they will be having a presale for his shows in October. It was at this exact moment, hearing what had to be lies, that I looked on in sheer shock and excitement, swerved over to the wrong lane and missed a cyclist by about 2 inches. Fuck it, I need to get home and tell someone.

Somehow I made it home alive. Jumping out of the car, storming through the front door and shouting at my wife. "CALM DOWN!" she shouted back, "what on earth is up with you?".

"Oh my God, you have no idea... OH MY GOD! I have just heard that there is a... FUCK... Joe Satriani concert in October... The presale tickets go on sale tomorrow at 9am!" I yelled.

"Erm, great honey! Well done..." she didn't seem as happy as I was.

"IS THAT ALL YOU CAN SAY?! FOR OVER 12 YEARS I HAVE WAITED FOR THIS MOMENT, EACH TIME HE TOURS I MISS IT FOR SOME STUPID REASON! I WILL NOT MISS IT THIS TIME".

"Stupid Reason? Like our wedding?"

...

So.. anyway, the next day at work... I logged onto planetrock.com (radio station site) at 8:30am and clicked refresh every 10 seconds, my heart racing faster at every click.

9am: There it was! The link to my dreams... I clicked on it, went through some horrible login/register screen and saw that my tickets were reserved for 15 minutes whilst I registered.

"Please be swift in the processing of my transaction" is what I wanted to shout, but instead it came out as "COME ON YOU STUPID PIECE OF SHIT". This didn't go down to well with my boss, or my bosses boss. I didn't care.

Finally I got through, bought 3 tickets and printed the receipt. Amidst all this chaos and panic I didn't actually see what seat I had been allocated..... I looked down, and had a mild heart attack.

ROW A

LOL! Loader, I can relate....buying tix to a Joe-show is always anxiety-causing until it's all said and done.

Good job, and I already know I don't need to say enjoy the show, cuz....it's JOE!!! Hope the other 2 people going with you are just as thrilled as you are. Now, go to the road page and register yourself as attending your show, and that will put you in the drawing for aftershow meet and greet passes...if you win, you get to meet Joe!! Good luck!

Skippy, I may take you up on your offer of assistance some day. If I do make it to Oz again, I might need yer wisdom in figuring out where to go, what to do while there, and best places to stay. Oh, and how to navigate places to see as many Joe-shows as possible, LOL!! I've been to Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney before, but as a teenager where I dint really have to pay attention, lol!!

Happy Sunday peeps, I'm proud and happy to say that today....is my dad's 88th birthday!! Dint think he'd be here for it just a few months ago, but here we are....birthday barbeque bash coming up in a few hours!

Cheers Pal, I've already done the competition thing, so fingers crossed.

Crap!! I was hoping he'd pull through.

R.I.P. :-(

Wendy Dio, wife/manager of legendary heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio (DIO, HEAVEN & HELL, BLACK SABBATH, RAINBOW), has released the following statement to BLABBERMOUTH.NET:

"Today my heart is broken, Ronnie passed away at 7:45 a.m. [on Sunday] 16th May. Many, many friends and family were able to say their private goodbyes before he peacefully passed away.

"Ronnie knew how much he was loved by all.

"We so appreciate the love and support that you have all given us.

"Please give us a few days of privacy to deal with this terrible loss.

"Please know he loved you all and his music will live on forever."

It was only a month ago that Dio, 67, spoke about his battle with cancer with the Artisan News Service on the "black carpet" of the Revolver Golden Gods Awards, which took place on April 8 at Club Nokia in downtown Los Angeles. When asked about how he had been feeling since he was diagnosed with the disease late last year, Dio said, "Well, I feel good and bad at times. It's a long process. Chemotherapy is a... I never realized what a difficult thing it was to go through. It's a real cumulative effect — the more you have, the more it piles up on top and it takes longer and longer to get over it. I find it very difficult to eat. I don't like to eat anyway, so I guess that's OK. But I know I have to. But this makes it very, very hard. But if you're determined to beat it, then you have to go with what you believe is going to beat it for you, and in this case it's that. I go to a great hospital in Houston called M.D. Anderson, which I think is the best hospital in the world, I have the best doctor in the world, Dr. Ajani, who I really trust and I really believe in, so I think I've done all the right things. It makes me feel positive about my life and positive that there is a lot more of it to live."

Earlier this month, HEAVEN & HELL canceled its summer tour plans in Europe due to Dio's treatment for stomach cancer. The band said in a statement that Dio wasn't "well enough to tour this summer. We hope that everyone understands and want to thank fans and industry colleagues for their continuing support at this time."

Ronnie James Dio had performed with ELF, RAINBOW, BLACK SABBATH, and his own band DIO. Other musical projects included the collective fundraiser "Hear 'n Aid". He is widely hailed as one of the most powerful singers in heavy metal, renowned for his consistently powerful voice and for popularizing the "devil's horns" hand gesture in metal culture. He was most recently involved with HEAVEN & HELL, a project which also included former BLACK SABBATH bandmates Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice. Their first and only studio album, "The Devil You Know", was released on April 28, 2009.

Crank it!

I saw Ronnie James Dio open for Deep Purple and the Scorpions back in 2002. He put on a great show, and he was 60 years old (!) at the time. He had done a lot of touring since then, too...he certainly had a lot of energy up until the end.

1985-86...I remember in my memories, My best friend tim came over one day , brought me this DIO lp record , holy diver, Him and I listened to it..I really dig it, it was given to me as a gift

Mike Portnoy shared a picture with Ronnie James Dio on Twitter.

Dream Theater and Heaven & Hell played a few festivals together in Europe last summer. I remember hearing a radio interview with MP after the fact where he said one festival actually wanted H&H to open for DT, but DT refused and insisted on playing first so H&H would have top billing.

R.I.P. Ronnie James Dio

Loader: Wow, what a story. Glad that you are able to get tickets. Best to ya.

Lost Cause: If I Could Fly is a great song.

I did a 5K Run ealier today. There was about 70-80 participants and I placed 2nd overall. My time was 17 minutes & 49 seconds, I broke 18 minutes. At first I thought the timer was not right & the course had to be short, but they said it was correct. I was about a minute & a half from the winner and third place was about 30-40 seconds behind me.

Skippygirl: LOL, a little bit. I tried to run "like the wind" as you would put it, even though the wind was blowing in our faces throughout the race. I had One Big Rush in my head in the first mile, SWTA in the second, and Summer Song in the third/last mile. Usually, I have those three songs in my mind when I'm running in a race. Sometimes, I'll have Back To Shalla-Bal, Crowd Chant, FIABD, Belly Dancer, Crushing Day, (You're) My World, and a few others in my head, when I do a marathon or half-marathon race; it just depends. My next run (a 12K) will be on a Saturday (the 29th); followed by my marathon (june 5th). Kudos to ya if you come to the U.S. and/or Joe coming down under to Australia.

Dream3: Jamie, how's it going man!? Been a while since I heard from ya. Hope you're doing well.

Time for bed. Work tomorrow morning at the guitar store and (maybe) a long jog in the evening. Another busy week ahead for me. \m/

Here's a fun Ronnie James Dio performance, brought to my attention on Facebook by They Might Be Giants, if you can believe that...

Roger Glover - Love Is All (with Ronnie James Dio on vocals)