RIP Jimi Jamison

Rock musician and singer of bands Survivor & Cobra Jimi Jamison has passed away at the age of 63. Jamison, who’s origins are from the Memphis, Tn. area, passed away from a heart attack. The singer/songwriter was about to embark on a tour with Survivor starting Sept. 12 in Parker, Colo., according to the band’s website.

In addition to honing his vocal abilities in his teens, Jamison taught himself how to play guitar and piano. After singing for bands while still he school, he would later provide background vocals for successful bands including ZZ Top, Joe Walsh and many others before joining well known band Cobra in the early 80s. However the band broke up in 1983/84 which led the AOR band Survivor, who were struggling to regain the chart topping Eye Of The Tiger, to ask him to replace their singer Dave Bickle. Although he was initially not thrilled about fronting what he considered more of a “pop rock” band, which would contrast significantly with the heavy metal stylings of Cobra to which he had become accustomed, Jamison ultimately joined and became Survivor’s new frontman. He recorded 3 albums with them – 1984’s Vital Signs, 1986’s When Seconds Count & 1988’s Too Hot To Sleep before the band went on a long hiatus as the sales were disappointing.

Jamison provided vocals for the band’s The Search is Over, Is This Love, Man Against The World, and The Moment of Truth and Burning Heart from The Karate Kid and Rocky IV, respectively. Jamison recorded a solo album When Loves Come Down in 1991 and was even asked to consider joining Deep Purple, a band he was a huge fan of, as singer to replace Ian Gillan. Jamison went on to co-write and sing “I’m Always Here,” the theme from the hit TV show Baywatch and later released another solo album, Empires under the name Jimi Jamison’s Survivor. Jamison would later reunite with Survivor in 2000, and he ended up remaining with the band up through the release of their new album, Reach, in 2006. In 2008, Jamison released Crossroads Moment in Europe, and the album was released in the United States in 2009. It was produced by his former Survivor bandmate Jim Peterik. In October 2011, he released an album with Bobby Kimball (former lead singer of Toto) titled Kimball/Jamison.

On November 15, 2011, Jamison announced his return to Survivor following a five-year absence from the group. A year later, Jamison released a new solo album, Never Too Late. He continued to tour with Survivor and had very recently played with Survivor on Aug. 30 for a show in Morgan Hill, Calif.

Jimmy Wayne “Jimi” Jamison (August 23, 1951 – August 31, 2014)

Arsenal At The Transfer Deadline

So my fellow Arsenal fans, how does it feel after the transfer deadline day has passed? Like a slap on the face? A knee in the crotch? Yep! To be fair the transfers this season has been good overall. Coming into the 2014-15 season Arsenal had brought in 4 fresh new signings in attacker Alexis Sanchez, second goalkeeper David Ospina, left back Mathieu Debuchy & versatile defender Callum Chambers. However we all knew that it wasn’t enough. Carl Jenkinson was sent out on loan, captain Thomas Vermalen was sold to Barcelona and we lost Baccary Sanga on a free transfer to Manchester City. And adding to the fact that Theo Walcott is not yet  back from his injury, we also lost Kieran Gibbs (again) to injury and then striker Oliver Giroud to an ankle injury that will keep him out till January and then captain Mikkel Arteta is also out for a couple of weeks.  Going into the final days of the transfer window, and having played 6 games, we all knew that we needed to strengthen the squad a lot more.

We needed at the bare minimum a top class striker, a good holding midfielder and 1 more solid full back to ensure that we don’t fall apart. This was all the talk in the last couple of weeks. There were rumours of Sami Khedia, William Carvalho, Edinson Cavani, Falcao, Agger, Sokratis, Manolos, Ron Vlaar, Toby Alderweireld, Marco Reus all being possible signings. And in the end we only got – Danny Wellbeck! Unwanted at Manchester United and considered surplus there. You gotta laugh at the joke! It’s so typical of Arsene Wenger’s rubbishness these past few years. I wonder if he is losing his mind in his advancing years. It’s like being shown a scrumptious lunch/dinner buffet of all the best dishes the world has to offer but being given stale bread on your plate to eat! Well when you’re hungry you will eat the stale bread! And as EPL managers with better squads are doing last minute deals to further strengthen, “Professor” Arsene Wenger boards a plane to Italy, for a bigger priority – i.e. officiating at some obscure soccer match!

I have been a critic of Arsene Wenger for a while now but this tops everything. Selling Vermalen before signing a replacement, not addressing the defensive woes and midfield woes and a striker when you really need one! Oh for fuck’s sake!