The beginning of a musical journey......

This site has been running for just over a year now, and in that time we have had some quite fantastic interviews with sports stars, as well as the odd TV celeb as well.

However, we have never really had much joy in getting the music section growing or succeeded in attracting any musicians to do a Q&A with us. But that is about to change.

Don't get me wrong - the site has no one lined up but over the next year, when we look back, we will have conducted quite a few. Let me explain....

Every week, a free newspaper is produced called shortlist - you might have read it yourself. Quite an enjoyable read, as it covers a multitude of topics. One of the feature writers is a guy called Danny Wallace and this is where the musical journey of this site starts, with Mr Wallace.

For those of you who don't know, Danny Wallace has written several books. I fact, he has one out at the moment called Charlotte Street - if you are reading this Danny, send me a copy and I will review it for the site! Anyway, back to Danny and his books. His most famous publishing is most probably Yes Man which got turned into a Jim Carrey movie a few years back (with a cameo from Mr Wallace). But its not really his books that have any significance to this story. In fact, Danny is only part of the reason for our future success in getting some interviews.

Danny used to live with a guy called Dave Gorman. And this is the real start of my own personal quest. Danny drunkenly challenged his flatmate to go and find "loads" of other Dave Gormans. And by "loads", the number was set at 54. So Danny Wallace, published writer, regular feature writer, Hollywood movie creator bet his flatmate to go and find 54 other Dave Gormans.

And a whole story evolved. Dave went on an odyssey to find his namesake and recorded the findings, eventually turning it into a stage show and television show. For those who have seen it, Dave manages to turn a Powerpoint presentation into a hilarious tale of how he won his drunken bet.

And that is where my music odyssey starts - with a drunken bet.

Now let me clarify something right here. The bet was not made with Dave Gorman or Danny Wallace (although if they want in, they can contact me) - it was made with my mate Alex, who is neither a stand up comedian or writer.

So what was the bet?

Well after drinking a fair few shandies, we had just finished watching Guns n Roses in Glasgow. Axl had finally departed the stage at gone 1.30am and I turned to my mate and said "I am going to interview him for the site". The stakes were set and hands were shook. And that was that.

Of course in the morning, I woke up with a sense of "what have I done?". But never being one to turn down a challenge, I have decided to follow the road map set out by Misters Gorman and Wallace and document my road to the interview.

So how am I going to do it?

Well, I am setting myself a roadmap to success. And that is the point of this article. To let you all know how I get on, and give you updates as I go.

So step 1 is to meet some other rock/ pop stars of years gone by and work my way up from there to Mr Rose. I am going to set myself a 5 step interview plan to get to where I need to be. And as its my quest to start with, I am going to take in some personal favourites along the way.

My first target to talk to is going to be Mr Derek Dick aka Fish. Not only is he a personal favourite of mine, I saw him in concert two nights after Guns n Roses in Glasgow so it makes it feel somewhat appropriate.

Which leaves me with 3 other names to fill in along the way.

So how can everyone help? Well first of all you can follow my quest on twitter here @meetaxl.

Secondly, you can let me know who the other 3 should be on my way to meet Axel.

Thirdly, grease the wheels. If you know something or someone who can help, let me know. You can get me on adamd@v2journal.com

And my promise to you (and my mate Alex) is that I will interview Axl Rose starting from 1 year today. And you will read about my epic quest here......

Interview targets:

1. Fish
2.
3.
4.
5. Axl Rose

You should speak with someone in charge at DF Concerts, who promote T in the Park. It would be a great stand alone interview anyway, with an interesting insight into how you actually put a festival together, its local to you (in Scotland anyway), and low and behold - "Guns N Roses" will be there this year! So if you impressed someone at the promoter, you could score a press pass or something??

That's wrong info.
They aren't playing T in the Park this year. I thought I heard they were.

Still... Speaking to a festival promoter might make for a good interview and generate some contacts?

4. Bernie Taupin
3. Todd Rudgren
2. Alice Cooper

I'd start with Cooper because he seems to be up for anything, he's also a massive fan of British Heavy Metal so maybe you could get an in there? Rose's biggest musical influence were the musical productions of Bernie Taupin/Elton John, yeah, seriously, so to get to Rose I reckon you could get an intro off one of them.

EJ is off the scale so why not try and get to Taupin through 2 acts he's co-written with, Cooper and Rundgren?

If you get to Taupin, Rose will be a shoe-in.

Piece of cake.

Great suggestion from both of you.

the list is set:
1. Fish
2, James Dean Bradfield
3, Brian May
4. Elton John
5 Axel Rose

Ambitious?

Not really, because I have awesomeness on my side.

Next stop Fish - it will happen.

Mate, if you get EJ I swear I will and kiss yer feckin feet.

I think Rose was a big fan of Queen too, so Brian May could be a winner.

JD Bradfield's just a bit of self-indulgence surely?

The list is set and this week will be the start of my odyssey!

I might as well go for people I genuinely want to meet.

I have never backed down from a challenge so this odyssey wont be complete without all five!

I guarantee at least 3 out of the 5....

Well, feck ye not about bud. Get on yer toes!

Aim for the stars and you might just get to the moon...

Good luck, I'm looking forward to reading the updates.

By-the-way I loved the Dave Gorman odyssey.

Adam D wrote:Great suggestion from both of you.

the list is set:
1. Fish
2, James Dean Bradfield
3, Brian May
4. Elton John
5 Axel Rose

Ambitious?

Not really, because I have awesomeness on my side.

Next stop Fish - it will happen.

Okay due to some overzealous jubilee celebrations, I have now finally put my sensible hat back on and have decided to reconsider some people on this list.

So the list is:

1. Fish
2. Def Leppard
3. Brian May
4. TBC
5. Axel Rose

The mission is still the same and I already have my first lead in my quest.........watch for an update this weekend!

Just as a small nod, Danny Wallace currently presents the breakfast show on XFM (and there are podcasts online for those of you outside of their London/Manchester broadcast areas) and I wonder whether at the end of this, or even during, you might want to let him know about your quest - considering he was the inspiration so to speak, and it ties in nicely with XFM's target music/audience.

And also, I bet my bottom dollar that if you do meet Axl Rose, he will be a dick. Just the impression I took as I stood waiting in a cold field in Reading in 2010 for an hour as he sat backstage supping free booze rather than coming on stage.

You do realise it is Axl, not Axel, don't you mate? Knowing how tempremental he is a spelling mistake in his name would possibly set him off and ruin any chances!

Perhaps the quest is more to meet Axel F the 1984 song by Harold Faltermeyer destroyed by the Crazy Frog years later?

Just stumbled onto this by the way.
Both Dave Gorman and Danny Wallace are geniuses in my view, have read nearly all of their adventures (Googlewhack was my personal favourite). Always wanted to find out what happened between the pair as they certainly seemed to have a falling out of somekind.

Def Leppard - awesome! I have read many a magazine article / interview with those guys and if Adam succeeds in bagging any or all of Elliott, Savage, Collen, Allen and Campbell, he will be my new hero.

Best of luck...though I seriously doubt you will get to interview Axl Rose. He's become even more reclusive and paranoid since G 'n' R split and is notorious for not even turning up for gigs sometimes.

Was at that same Reading field. Missed sweet Child when I went to the loo. Bitterly disappointed