The Cinema Show – Genesis

Lyrics:- ‘Listen to the old one speak of all he has lived through’ – Banks, Collins, Gabriel, Hackett & Rutherford

Song Choice:- Taken from the brilliant 1973 Album ‘Selling England by the Pound’, the lyrics outline the band’s social comment on the UK being ‘Sold off’. The early 70’s of course were of course a time of great uproar with the trade-union strikes, the three-day-week and a general feeling of gloom and doom – I can remember most things being nylon, plastic or brown… Optimism wasn’t a word that was banded around frequently back then. It took Punk and the Silver Jubilee to kick start the nation and get things going again I felt…the 80's were far better...

Being 55, and as Gabriel sings, I could comment on a lot of what’s gone on in the world. I mean, I can remember 1967 (Just) and have first-hand knowledge of most of major ‘Ups and down’s’ since then as they happened. It’s amazing just how many you can remember when you try – these last few weeks will be etched on all of our memories for sure and there are more to come of course..

Apart from the obvious shocking disasters, what we can do is to look back at the things that went wrong for us personally, our own personal disasters, you see, there’s one common theme.

We just didn’t try hard enough – FACT. 

And for some of the failures the solution at the time, was SO ‘Easy’ - One simple change would have solved a lifetime of pain, yet it’s ‘Easier’ not to. Doh - Oh how I hate excuses - I also hate 'Failure Enablers'...

To me you see, it’s all ‘Pure Laziness’ that drives us on to FAIL... 

And it's something you’ll never find MEguilty of... How about YOU?

Rory Coleman - 994 Marathons - 244 Ultras - 14 Marathon des Sables

9 Guinness World Records - 8,561 Days' Alcohol Free - 410 Days' post GBS

& 1 Inspirational Running Memoir - Get your copy here.

Location:- Cardiff, Wales

Squonk - Genesis

Lyrics:- 'All the King's horses and all the King's men' - Banks & Rutherford

Song Choice:- I've always loved 'Squonk'. It's a song about a North-Amrican mythical creature of the same name that when captured, dissolves in a pool of tears, nice. The song was designed to sound like Led Zeppelin's 'Kashmir' which was recorded the previous year and funnily enough at Headley Grange where Genesis had recorded 'The Lamb'. 'Squonk' opened the band's live performances, right the way through their early 80's concerts, including the two that I was lucky enough to see in '78 & '80.

Anyway, it's the 'All the King's horses and all the King's men' line that I'm interested in for today's 'Bank Holiday Blog'. You see it's a year today since I went into Llandough Hospital to start my GBS recovery and it got me thinking into what I've learned during this past 365 days.

I'll go to what I've learned later on, but I didn't come to that conclusion from completing  this year's Marathon des Sables or by beating my brains out, bashing out 100 miles along the Thames Towpath this weekend, trying to please the Facebook Failure Enabler's that folk seem to attract nowadays. There's nothing worse than not-completing to a round of 'Well at least you trieds' or '50, 60 or 70 is extreme' etc. in my book. I'm pretty sure that none of my 'Life Learns' came from 100 mile Ultras...

What I've learned is that 'Satisfaction' comes from within. Within a world that exists between our ears and rather than searching deep down inside and correcting our own behaviour - We expend most of our time looking at and trying to change the world around us. I believe that whatever happens in the world around us or in other folks lives just doesn't matter - so why do we believe it does?

At the end of the day or 365 of them in my case, I wonder how many folk I will project my thoughts during the next year. It's not easy as the thing is, there's no right or wrong - and only time will tell if they get to see the world as clearly as I do without having to spend a year rebuilding their lives. You see for some 'All the King's horses and all the King's men' will never put them back together again.

More tomorrow...and enjoy your Bank Holiday, whatever you are doing - and then maybe look back over your day and wonder why you did what you did, instead of doing something else.

Rory Coleman - 989 Marathons - 243 Ultras - 14 Marathon des Sables

9 Guinness World Records - 8,517 Days' Alcohol Free

& 1 Inspirational Running Memoir - Get your copy here.

Location: Caerdydd, Cymru

Mad Man Moon - Genesis

The Good Old Days...

Lyrics:- 'If this desert's all there'll ever be, then tell me what becomes of me' - Banks

Song Choice:- As our 'A Trick of the Tail' journey continues, we hit my least favourite track on the record, Mad Man Moon. Or at least it was until today... Written by keyboard genius Tony Banks, it's always sounded such a let down following on from Squonk. Back in the day, as the last track on side one of the album, it was far too easy to flip the LP it and play a much more upbeat Side Two.

Anyway, I listened to it again with a fresh heart and it's actually a brilliant song. In super hi-quality sound without the vinyl wow and flutter and scratches of a 70's hi-fi - The piano and Collins vocals sound so pure. Amazing the things you missed back then eh?

The album was released before the long hot summer of 1976 yet, I remember the snowflakes falling in June 1975, that ruined Cricket matches all over the UK being played followed by a searing hot summer similar to that of '76.

Back then you didn't have to go on a 'Sahara Desert Adventure' to experience unbearable heat, a drought that could kill and pray for thunderclouds and rain - as the rivers really dry up that year.

It was an amazing phenomenon to live through and those long hot summers certainly brought their own adventures.

Adventures long gone and forty years on, I'm still wandering around in the sand, still searching beyond the final crest - for the that Mad Man Moon.

Maybe another long hot summer would do us good.

Rory Coleman - 986 Marathons - 241 Ultras - 13 Marathon des Sables

9 Guinness World Records - 8,473 Days' Alcohol Free

& 1 Inspirational Running Memoir - Get your copy here.

Location: Pembroke Road, Cardiff,United Kingdom

Anyway - Genesis

Lyrics:- 'Feel cold and old, it's getting hard to catch my breath' - Banks, Collins, Gabriel, Hackett & Rutherford

Song Choice:- Wow, it's already time for the last part of my 'Confused GBS-SIDP Trilogy' as it's now become known to me; and the 'Anyway' track contains one of my favourite Steve Hackett guitar solos which is sadly always over before it's begun in my opinion and far too short. It's a real highlight on the 'Lamb' double album for in the future. Take a listen yourself and see if you rate it too...everything is just perfect. What a recipe, Bank Piano - Collins, Drums - Rutherford's, Bass served up with lashings of Sir Peter of Gabriel Vocal Custard.

Anyway, (a word I write in every blog, if you've ever noticed) there are some bleak lyrics in this dark and rather macabre brush with death that our hero 'Real' experiences during the concept albums story. The 'Feel cold and old, it's getting hard to catch my breath' line is something I can obviously connect with, the track itself has even darker images to deliver.

It relates the meeting of 'Real' with Death at the Pearly Gates, with his heart out of pumping energy as a 'Running Man' facing death. See I told you it was dark and personal... and just before Real gets reduced to ashes to start the whole lifestyle process once again, he narrowly escapes and is led away onto further adventures by the 'Supernatural Anaesthetist'. 

Boy LSD certainly helped create this one...yet it feels so real.

Anyway, 3-2-1 and back in the room, I'm being led in an anaesthetised state away from a near death experience is the best way I can possibly describe the 'Grogginess' that's accompanied the whole 'Confused GBS-SIDP' experience this past six months.

What or whom is going to lead me away from being the person I didn't want to become - to the one I still don't want to be, is still in the discovery stage perhaps and possibly the whole 'Lamb' experience was Genesis experiencing a similar state too and they turned out ok didn't they?

'Anyway' - the 'Confusion Trilogy' only matters to me in the 'Grand Parade of Life' and 'I guess I'll only drive myself insane' or possibly those around me with my observations and realisations that in fact being open to new horizons and chasing fresh dreams and goals with my new persona isn't going too much of a mountain to climb, if I can ever accept it.

Regaining some of the old fire that burns deep down in my heart of creativity is what I'm desiring right now. The sense of loss is one that only time can heal and that success can help to disguise. Maybe you get where I'm coming from and if you are recovering or rebuilding your life, I hope your sense of clarity returns.

You never know because like mine, it could be there right in front of our eyes.

Rory Coleman - 982 Marathons - 241 Ultras - 13 Marathon des Sables

9 Guinness World Records - 8,449 Days' Alcohol Free.

& 1 Inspirational Running Memoir - Get your copy here.

Location: Caerdydd, Cymru

Lilywhite Lilith - Genesis

'The Real Rael'

Lyrics:- 'The chamber was in confusion - all the voices shouting loud' - Banks, Collins, Gabriel, Hackett & Rutherford.

Song Choice:- If you are ever confused, my advice is to listen to some Genesis from their 1974 concept album 'The Lamb lies down on Broadway'. Watch out though, as it won't make things any clearer but hopefully it will relax your mind into accepting what you are experiencing and where you might be travelling in your life next. Don’t ask me where I'm going or where they were going back then, as I don’t know and I don't think that the band knew either. By that stage they had become a very disparate collective and although it’s probably their finest work, the Album and its creation went on to implode their very existence, sadly right at their peak. You’ll have to listen yourself to see where I’m coming from and just how great and alive the tracks are.

Now, I’m going to write a trilogy of blogs to try and exorcise my current thoughts. Don't ask me where this blog is going to go over the next three days, because I haven’t got a bleedin’ clue but the of 'Chamber of 32 Doors, Lilywhite Lilith and Anyway' are tracks that I've always enjoyed as they seem to offer a higher mental plane of thought and absentiesm  Sometimes the music helps me explore the depths of my grey matter and I thought I’d try and use these tracks to unscramble some of my current scramble…

Well it’s a worth a go as I'm confused. Or maybe just ‘Brain Fogged’ is a better analogy.

Well it’s the best I can come up with right now as it’s hard to put a phrase on it and even harder to explain. I could attribute it to being my ‘Big elephant in my head-space’ as a sort of bi-product of last year’s,‘Guillian-Barre Syndrome’? But that sounds like a bit of a cop-out to me. Or is it just my ‘Non-cop-out’ stiff upper-lip denial that’s causing my confused state. Whatever that confused state is, or even if there is one to be confused about, can you appreciate why I feel ‘Brain-Fogged’.

When ‘Googling’ about it I read, ‘Many people who suffer GBS, whether they make a full physical recovery or not, will also make a good psychological recovery. They will find ways of coping with any ongoing problems and will put behind them the fears and stress associated with the acute illness. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that in GBS, as in better-researched illnesses such as heart attack or stroke, a significant proportion of sufferers do continue to experience severe emotional disturbances.’ 'Fuck me! That didn't help much...

So feeling only more confused, I returned to the lyrics.`You see, I get the ‘All the voices shouting loud' reference as that’s a definite contributor to my ‘Mental Tinnitus’. It’s still there ringing away more as a dull white noise all the time if I’m being honest and perhaps my own brain is my ‘Lilywhite Lilith’ helping me through the crowd. It’s more like the blind leading the blind though and even though I feel that I’m in a ‘Tunnel of Night’ I am hoping that one day or some-day soon I’ll see the corner of the tunnel lit up by whatever’s coming my way… Well that's what happen's to Rael on the album...

The thing is it’s more like a ‘Land of Confusion’ and it’s one that I’m trying to escape from but right now I can’t literally run fast enough from or even at all some days. The feeling or being lost or loss in fact is the one that is clouding my thoughts.

It’s easy to say look where you’ve been and look how far you’ve come but it’s doesn’t make things any better. 

Nothing will until a blaze of white light fills the air - Let's see if the Chamber of 32 Doors will shed any light tomorrow.

Rory Coleman - 982 Marathons - 241 Ultras - 13 Marathon des Sables 

9 Guinness World Records - 8,447 Days' Alcohol Free.

& 1 Inspirational Running Memoir - Get your copy here.

Location: Caerdydd, Cymru

I still haven't found what I'm looking for - U2

Bono Searching...

Lyric:- 'I have run, I have crawled' - Hewson

Song Choice:- This is a real Gospel classic and one that underlines U2 as a proper 'Christian Band' and one where Bono sings, 'I believe in the Kingdom Come. Then all the colours will bleed into one, bleed into one but yes, I'm still running'. My word, a local 'Sunday Sermon' couldn't give that much hope with such few words and the whole track is extremely uplifting.

I do prefer 'The Joshua Tree' original over that of the 'Rattle and Hum' live version and it's well worth a listen even thirty years' on, it still stands the test of time and I believe it's the band at their very best.

Anyway, I spent 5hrs 43mins searching my soul today on the eve of my 55th Birthday. Fuck me, I'm nearer 60 that 50 now... How frightening is that? Like anyone else that likes to analyse what they are doing and where they are going, my path has been fruitful I would say, yet it still needs 'Agent X' that magic ingredient that will take it to a higher plane and give it the edge that I'm looking to excite me for the next five years' of my life's next chapter.

It's funny but I feel most certain that I'll see out my 50's yet have no data to base that on apart from the extreme confidence I have on things always turning out alright, especially given my brush with GBS death. If I can conquer that, I might just have what it takes to get to old age. That and parents already in their 80's and in great health gives me a shining light to follow.

The danger lies in the 'looking' perhaps and I'll admit that I am still searching especially as I'm now only 19 marathons from a 23 year-life-goal and I'll need something else to spur me on perhaps when I get there -  before starting to tackle the next 1000, if I can pluck up the courage to do so...

I do recognise that I have time on my side to consider all of the above but tonight I'm celebrating 26.2 miles of non-stop running that brought me some enlightenment on where to go next earlier today

And when I know where that is - I'll let you know - As I still haven't found what I'm looking for...

Rory Coleman - 981 Marathons - 241 Ultras - 13 Marathon des Sables 

9 Guinness World Records - 8,432 Days' Alcohol Free.

& 1 Inspirational Running Memoir - Get your copy here.

Location: Caerdydd, Cardiff

Reward - Teardrop Explodes

Today's Rewarding Message

Lyrics:- 'Suddenly it struck me very clear, suddenly it struck me very clean' - Gill & Cope

Song Choice:- The Teardrop Explodes were an English post-punk/neo-psychedelic band formed in Liverpool in 1978 but I only know them for their 1981hit - Reward. And as we draw towards the end of January, it's the 'Reward' part that I'm interested in for today's blog.

You see, If like me you've been cleaning up your act by actively instigating some replacement behavioural traits, to some degree of success - just how do you celebrate?

It's an interesting thought.

On Wednesday next for instance, if you've been following 'Dry January' will you be going out to catch up on 31 days of sobriety in one session? If you've been cleaning up your diet, will a celebration blow-out Curry hit the spot?

Success or Failure always deem some kind of reward it seems. It's part of our culture, yet neither forms of reward above, hit the spot for me and if I'm being honest.

I think I must have missed out on the instant gratification gene and I prefer more of a permanent mark of success that I can use as a framework to build the rest of my life around. I would therefore suggest that 'success-breeds-success' and once you've got the ball rolling so to speak, stopping to take on a dose of 'celebration kryptonite' is actually counter productive to a continued progression.

I sound like some old spoil-sport here but there are other great ways of celebrating other than eating or drinking. A weight-loss 'Wardrobe Overhaul' or 'Sobriety 4K TV' for instance provides a longer term reward - and I'm sure we all have dream holiday, adventure or even new house we could use as bait to continue our good practices.

And that's my key message today - You've done well getting to where you are right now but don't take your foot off the gas, even for a moment if you can help it. It's so easy to slip into reverse gear and find yourself back at square one with a month's hard work up the swans and another to get you back to where you are today.

So keep a clear mind this weekend and get ready for February. Your 'Reward' might be closer than you think.

Rory Coleman - 980 Marathons - 241 Ultras - 13 Marathon des Sables

9 Guinness World Records - 8,423 Days' Alcohol Free.

& 1 Inspirational Running Memoir - Get your copy here

Location: Caerdydd, Cymru

The Sound of Silence - Simon & Garfunkel

Quote:- 'If you're not ready to fight, the silence will kill you. Don't let fear keep you quiet. You have a voice. So use it. Speak up. Raise your hands. Shout your answers. Make yourself heard. Whatever it takes. Just find your voice and when you do, fill the damn silence' - Meredith Grey

Rather than go for the more obvious 'People talking without speaking, People hearing without listening' line from the Simon & Garfunkel classic used in the 1967 Oscar winning film 'The Graduate'; I thought I'd tap into a quote from 'Grey's Anatomy' which struck a chord with me after my posting of some very open ended blogs over the last few days.

I'm not very sure where I'm going with some of this still but I do know that when I'm being challenged, I have a very clear voice, know my facts and am quite happy to air my thoughts. 

It's interesting as lots of people have developed 'Opinion Laryngitis', especially now that social media plays such an important part of our modern day lives. I believe a lot of opinion is based on experience and if you look at the complete spectrum of advice given to folk that have had Guillain Barre Syndrome by their Doctors' you'll understand exactly where I'm coming from as if you haven't been there yourself, how can you have a worthy and justifiable opinion of any worth. The only 'Sound in the Silence' worth listening to, is your own inner voice and your experience.

Sure, I can take onboard the stories and advice from GBS Facebook Support Groups and the like but they are just as ignorant about the journey as I am. I can 'Google' GBS clinical trials and read endless books on the subject but they're not going to help me become 'Drug and GBS Relapse Free'.

I have to do that myself as no-one else is going to do it for me.

So, I'll keep raising my hand, speaking loud and filling the 'Sound of Silence' as that's what it's their for.

Have you lost your voice?

Rory Coleman

977 Marathons - 241 Ultras - 13 Marathon des Sables - 9 Guinness World Records

www.RoryColeman.co.uk

I Feel Free - Cream

Lyric:- 'You're the sun and as you shine on me - I feel free' - Brown & Bruce

Song Choice:- 'I Feel Free' was recorded fifty years ago in September 1966. The track was recorded on an Ampex reel-to-reel tape recorder and it's only 2.49 minutes long. It's so short that as soon as the intro 'bomb bombs' start, the single is playing out to fade. It's a great song that features Eric Clapton on guitar and well worth a listen if you haven't heard it before.

Anyway, whilst my sun is still shining, and I feel free, I wonder whether you feel free?

Can you say you enjoyed true freedom today? 

Maybe you can't and you feel trapped by guilt, alcohol, drugs, people, money, family, time, food, illness, etc. If you are, it's a tragedy.

It's funny that fifty years ago folk certainly weren't as free as we are today, but had more time perhaps as life was far less complicated. With our Wi-Fi connected 24/7, our Google filled lives haven't any space left in them to fill as the post-cold-war, transistorised world was less addicted to it's daily dose of maximum loading.

Am I guilty? 

Yep, I'm guilty as charged BUT my current Hospital Boot Camp experience is teaching me that when I do finally get home, I will enjoy a new found freedom as after three months of liberation, 'I do in fact feel free'.

Don't miss out on the sunshine folks... get it whilst you can!

Rory Coleman

976 Marathons - 241 Ultras - 13 Marathon des Sables - 18 Unaided Steps - 8251 Days' Dry
www.RoryColeman.co.uk