Insider Column 24

Bob's Insider Column #24
December 18, 2001


In my last column I mentioned that Townsend’s new cover song is awesome. By now, most of you know that it is a "cover" originally done by Def Leppard, called Pour Some Sugar on Me. The song was released in 1987. Ryan was six years old at the time and Todd was 9. That was before Todd even started listening to music.

If you want to be the first to hear it live you absolutely must go to the Silicon Valley Bowl on the 31st. If we’re all lucky that will not be the first time we get to hear it; there is a chance that we will get to hear it soon on the radio. Of course it would help if we all contacted Z and encouraged them to play it. It may even be played in the LA area on KISS. I think that I will listen to Z 95.7 every chance that I get. Maybe it will be played before Wendy gets around to post this column. Pour Some Sugar on Me is coming out as a single soon. We’ll let you know as soon as it comes out. I wonder if I should buy one? As soon as it’s out, we need to start an orchestrated effort to get it played extensively on the radio stations in your area..

For you out of state fans - I want you to pay very close attention to what I’m going to say. If you want to see Townsend perform all you need to do is watch a football game called The Silicon Valley Football Classic on the 31st of December, which will be on national television - and Townsend is performing at halftime!! The game is between Fresno State and Michigan State, and it should be a good game (for all you football fans). If you can’t be at the game make sure that you watch it on TV. The guys will be performing two songs, Pour Sugar on Me and a new version of Understand This, which has some outstanding guitar work, that gives it a great zing. Pour Sugar on Me is spiffy. Actually, all of their songs now have live instruments.

On the 29th the guys will be performing two of their other songs at the Great Mall in Milpitas. You know, the home of the Milpitas monster. Let me digress for a moment. I remember when Milpitas had only one stop light in the whole town. Now it has hundreds. I remember when Milpitas had more pollution from horses than from cars. (Note from Wendy: Hon, you're old but not that old, please!) I remember when you had to be careful where you stepped when you walked across the street in down town Milpitas. As I was saying, the guys will be at the Great Mall. We’ll let you know where as soon as we find out where they will actually be at the mall. I wonder if they will be performing two of their new songs there?

Hey, if you get there early, I’m going to be with my daughter Tami at the Gloria Jean’s Coffee Shop, where Tami works. Maybe I can get her to give me a free coffee. If you want to say hi to Tami and me drop by. Wendy might come too, but I'm not sure.

I wonder what Townsend’s two other new songs sound like. Todd and I were able to get together for about 30 minutes on Saturday, that’s all the time he had for me. He told me a little about the new songs. One is called Jealousy, it was written by the five guys. I’m not sure, but I thing it’s a Townsend version of hip-pop with an edge. The other song is called Close Your Eyes. It’s a ballad written by Matt. I have a feeling that this will be another tearjerker for us old folks.

On Saturday night I helped out with the Marines Toys for Tots program. This is the first year that they had the Santa Train. The train left San Francisco at 4th and Townsend and ended up in Santa Clara at "my" railroad depot. The Santa Clara depot was the last stop. The train was all decked out in Christmas lights and ornaments. We collected about 25 barrels of toys at our depot. We had about 500 people come by. Z 95.7 was there giving away concert tickets and other good stuff. The Salvation Army had one of its disaster support mobile canteens there giving out coffee, hot chocolate and cookies. I had lots of fun and it was great meeting all the wonderful people. There were lots of kids and they had a great time in our railroad museum, mostly because we have scale trains operating on two large layouts. Even after the Santa train left we couldn’t get all the people to leave the depot. Z did a great job in advertising the event on the radio. After the event was over, the Z street team couldn’t start their van. I helped them jumpstart it. It seems to me that Z owes T Rex a favor. Of course they have no idea who Iam.

Earlier that day I went shopping to buy some toys for the Santa Train. I found two dolls. One was called Bob the Builder and the other was called Wendy the Helper. They were talking dolls. Bob had a hammer and a wrench and Wendy had a paintbrush. Bob and Wendy were dolls of few words but everything that they had to say was very intelligent. So what exactly did the Bob and Wendy dolls say? Only two two things: "Can we fix it?" "YES WE CAN!" All right, all right, I can hear you all snickering. Stop it! I bought the dolls. They are on the Santa Train.

Before I forget, let me point out that Townsend has a new mail address. Don’t send anything to their old PO Box! Their new PO Box is given in the "Contacts" section of this site.

Bye for now, and Bah humb... oh, I mean, er - Happy Holidays, to one and all .
T Rex

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