And we are, we're live, live on The Metal Voice, a special edition Judas Priest North American tour edition. All the guys are here from the show in Montreal, Canada, but we're not only gonna talk about that. We're gonna talk about- We missed a few here. I'm sorry? We, there was quite a few of us. Yes, there was. To say the least. I don't know, was there, who else? Be high, I saw me high, I was in a van. I was there with my cousin. Everybody I went to high school with. Everyone I went to high school to grew up with since the show was in LaValle. There was a lot of people. I didn't get a chance to say to hi to everybody.  Everybody has served time with, was there? There you go. All right, on March the 4th, actually I go back a step. On September, 2021, Judas Priest was supposed to go on a North American tour with Sabaton. But wait a second, hold on, Richie Faulkner, you know, has this acute cardiac erratic problem and it, you know, 12 dates got canceled or something like that. So they had to reschedule it and go on tour with the Queens Rake, which is a great package that we all went to see, right? But hang on. But hang on, but hang on. Rob Halford gets sick close to the end or close to the Canadian tour dates. So things did turn out phenomenal. So let's just talk about it. Let's just talk about this North American tour with Queens Rake. And if anybody wants to comment on what they saw with Sabaton, go right ahead. And if anybody wants to talk about their city or leave a comment on what they saw and what they thought of the show, go right ahead. Alan Dixon, give us the high level. Judas Priest, well actually, let's start off with Queens Rake since they opened. You sure? You're good now? I'm good now. That's your final question. Queens Rake, you know. I don't want to start. I was sitting with you guys. I was in a different sector, but everybody around me were singing the songs to Queens Rake. It was a great set. Perrin and I spoke about it before even walking into the show, how it was looking forward to all the songs they were singing. I was there with stiff rod. He turned to me and go, are you gonna do the whole warning? Because it was like one song after another for the warning. It taught, I mean, the balls of the guy to open every show with Queen of the Rite. I mean, just to show you what he's able to do vocally. And again, they stuck to pretty much a great set list. I think they had one of the newer songs only from Todd Aira. The rest were from previous albums. And... I don't think they played one for Todd Aira. There was nothing to Todd Aira. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think they kind of started like that on the tour, but then they didn't play one with Todd Aira. Yeah. All right, Stefan. What did you think of the opening act? I know what you told me in my ear.   I will say what I told Jimmy. I think I'll take back everything I said about the post Todd Latorre period. I used to think that Jeff Tates was Queen's Rite and it couldn't work without a singer, no matter how good Todd Latorre was. But then I see him on stage and on the first notes of Queen of the Rite, I said, okay, he is not an amateur. He is not a stand-in. This guy can sing. And the highest notes and the highest song from the first EP, I said, okay, I'm getting chills down my spine here. He is touching me. And immediately I could tell the difference between this guy and Jeff Tates. I mean, Jeff Tates was a great technical singer, but let's face it, he didn't have the greatest stage presence. He could not command an audience and he could not get people the same way. And Todd Latorre has the voice, has the charisma and has the stage presence to go to the extra mile in concert and that was the first thing that struck my mind, says, oh my God, he compensates for, and you're gonna find it's terrible, but as you know, Queen's Rite made it extremely, made it big as an album seller, but they were never a legendary live band. Todd Latorre convinced me that they could have gone much bigger had Jeff Tate been a better front man. Those are really big words, those are, ooh. Would you say better front man, are you talking to later years or right from the beginning? Well, I find, you know, I don't really care for Queen's Rite's later year material. You know, I'm an originalist as Americans would say and I just find that, you know, Jeff Tate was not the front man I thought he was when I saw at the tour. I know what you're saying, I know what you're saying. You know, and I've seen Jeff Tate with Queen's Rite very often, the very first show in Montreal in 1983, opening for Twisted Sister. And I've seen them over and over and with opening for Martley Crue in 1989. This was my first show since 1989, seen Queen's Rite and I was left speechless, speechless. This was an incredible, very satisfying performance. And I think they've come a long way. They impressed me and this singer truly is phenomenal. And I can tell you guys with 100% confidence those are not track the vocals. I think he is doing those vocals at that range in that intensity and that's the real deal. Parrot? Well, first, I mean, look, I'm an early adopter to Queen's Rite, right? I've been a fan since the EP in mourning. I first saw them in 86 opening for Ozzy for Rage for Order, which was their second show here in Montreal. The 83 show I would have been 12 years old and 12 year old me was not going to be able to get into an 18 plus than you when they played this spectrum. So, and I did a quick tabulation. I've seen them nine times. So I saw them three times with Jeff Tate when Jeff Tate was Jeff Tate. I saw them three times on the Q2K tour, on the tribe tour and on the live evolution tour when they weren't kind of previously what they were. Saw them on Wine Crime 2 here in Montreal. And this is the second time I saw them with time. So I knew what I was getting, but I saw them when Todd first joined the band. And I guess the first thing I'll say is, you know, Todd was always good, but now that he's been in the band, you know, he's the new guy, but he's been in the band like almost a decade, right? Or eight years, whatever it might be. So they've really gelled as a unit. Todd's really gotten comfortable with the songs and not just a few of the songs like the entire catalog. And he's hitting a home run every night.  They know the name Queen's Strike. They know the hits. They know the songs they like. They kind of know that Jeff Tate's not there anymore, but they don't know anything about Todd. And I got so many texts and people saying to me, wow, that new Queen's Strike singer, he really delivered. So similar to Steph's reaction. One thing I really loved is they got an hour, which is not a typical opening access. So they had an hour. 56 minutes. 56 minutes. But look, a lot of opening acts depending on your stature. 35 minutes, 45 minutes. If you're big, maybe you get 50. So to get almost an hour, 12 songs, almost full PA. It was kind of a nod of the hats to how important Queen's Strike is in the world of metal, I thought. And you guys alluded to the set list a little bit. You know, yeah, it would have been good, I think, for them to play one or two new songs. But I think they're smart enough to recognise it's not their audience. They're opening for Judas Priest. They're opening for an older audience. And the best way to get a response is to play songs that people are more or less familiar with. And for me, a longtime fan, you know, we got an EP song. We got a bunch of warning songs and deeper cuts from the warning. We got a couple of deeper cuts from Rage for Order. We got, you know, the important to mine crime tunes, which you wanna hear. We got some empire.  You got like almost a headline set. You got a pretty diverse set list that was really well executed. So, you know, if you think back to all the concerts you go to and say, hey, what are some of the best opening acts I've ever seen, you gotta put this up there as saying, they are one of the best opening acts that you've seen because, look, I'll do respect to Sabaton. I'm glad they're coming back and they're actually gonna be headlining the same building, a scaled down version. But I'm glad we got Queen's Strike and it really made the night like a full night for me. You know, like, you know, Maiden always brings kind of Raven Age or Lauren Harris or it feels like that's what we get these days. But I'm really glad that Priest brought, you know, a really great A Opening Act with them. Guy and Perrin, I just wanna say that this is probably the best package. Queen's Strike, Judas Priest. I usually can't stand the Opening Act. Like, so this was, to me, my favorite band. What am I, I actually like Queen's Strike better than Judas Priest.  I was a bigger Queen's Strike fan back in the day, much more so than Judas Priest. I know people aren't gonna like that because I'm wearing the Prague Metal kind of thing. And Jeff Tate's great. I've seen Jeff Tate live. He's a great singer, but I think Todd brings it to Stefan's point to another level. How do you sing the Whisper? I don't think, I'm not even sure if Jeff Tate's sang it that high for that long. You know what singers do? They sometimes, there's these high notes and what they do, they compensate, they use like a lower note when they're singing and their melody. And he didn't, he hit all the notes. He, you know, every scream was there. Great pitch for Monika and here. And the band was tight, super tight. It was just phenomenal experience. But it's no stress, right? Neither one of them are promoting an album. So it could be, like Perrin said, a greatest hits collection. And then they could feel to do whatever they wanted. They did do some deeper tracks, both bands. But you know, I've never, never, ever had a problem with Jeff Tate as a frontman. I think I've always enjoyed his performances and his rapport with the audience. I've always thought he'd done a good job, even in recent years. No, I agree with you that too. But I'm just saying that I was always a Queens Right fan before a Judas Priest fan. Not to say he didn't like the band. I just always liked them more. So to me, this is like my, the opening band, my favorite band, opening for another band I love. It's the best package. It's the greatest package you could ever have. And let me just say, a lot of people do the, you know, Stefan said he's a purist, right? A lot of people do the, oh, no DeGarmo, no Queens Right, no Tate, no Queens Right. Jimmy, you were posting a couple things from the show and within five or six comments, like always on the metal voice thread, someone was saying, sorry, that's not Queens Right. I mean, Jeff Tate, I mean Queens Right. And people need to understand the 28 year old Jeff Tate doesn't exist anymore. So your choices right now are the Todd Latore in his early 40s or Jeff Tate around 60. And at this point in their lives, the best singer for Queens Right, even though it's not the Queens Right you grew up on, is Todd. And he hits a home run. And let's also say he's a great person not just because we kind of chatted with him. He's so good with fans. He interacts with fans on social media. He'll take the hits and the criticism. He'll fight back. He'll take a picture with Orlando at the outside at 12 o'clock at night. Yeah, so like Todd's also doing, Todd's doing a lot of work to kind of like bring the band to the people a little bit also. So, you know, full marks, like honestly 10, you can't get better as an opening act. 10 on 10 as an opening act. Yeah, I agree. My only, the only change I would have made, I mean, yeah, they couldn't play everything, but their biggest hit ever commercial was, let's face it, silent acidity. And it's very hard to play a power ballad like this, especially when you're an opening act. But I would have played it had I been in the band. I would have played it because it's such a signature recognizable hit that I think they, I would have. I think it's to Perrin's point that, you know, you have one hour, this is not your headlining show.   But I get what you're saying, Stefan. I like that song too.  I'm a softy. I like the song, but I like that song. Not that I like that song. It's not my favorite, but it would have been the song. Everybody. Oh, you know what I forgot to mention tonight is the last show in Hamilton, Ontario.  This is the last show in the Queens. You got an hour and 45 minutes. That's right. It's not too late. I don't know where they're playing in Hamilton, where the Bulldogs play, right, Alan? I think that's what the center's called. Well, it's the former cops' policym. So it's now, it has a corporate name now. I don't know what the corporate name is. Okay. We're not mentioning corporate names on this show. Yeah, unless they pass, we're not mentioning them. Listen, Alan, I'm gonna just sort of toss us out there. We had lunch. We had lunch at the Savlaki bar, right? And I have a picture here. I'm gonna show everybody this picture. I'm gonna find it here. How down-to-earth these guys are. Okay, let me find it. That was before the show? Before the show, we had Savlaki. Had to have Savlaki, because Todd's wife is Greek. Or Laval, so I mean. In Laval, we had Savlaki at the Savlaki with Michael Wilton, the whip, and Todd Latori. And let me tell you guys, they were so nice, so down-to-earth, and so kind. I know, I know I'm blowing a lot of hot air here, but they were so, Alan, maybe you wanna just say something. Yeah, I agree wholeheartedly. I mean, of course you have Todd, a guest on the show lots of time. We always joke around with him. It's nice to finally meet him. And then, you know, Michael came along as a bonus and just a super, you know, pretty reserved, pretty quiet kind of guy, but easy to talk to and interested in different subjects. And Jesus, just a pleasure to get to have lunch with both of them. Yeah, yeah, and we, because we did a promo, right? We wanted to push the tour, so that's what we were doing it for. And it's so nice that they did that. All right, last question on Queen's Day, and we'll move to Judas Priest. And somebody was asking, can they jump on? Can they jump on and do a call with us? Maybe, I don't know. Let's see if we got time. Gayer tickets for Ontario. Now, would you have liked to hear, Alan, would you have liked to hear an original on the Todd era? All right, so I mean, there was one song I just couldn't place. I thought that was from the Todd era. But now that we've told you. I think it goes back to what you guys were saying earlier. You know, with only 56 minutes, and we're joking because that's what Michael said. We got 56 minutes, show up there at 7.30 on the Todd. And we looked at our watch where they were finished, and it was 56 minutes, the second. So I think that's, you know, they had to stick with that kind of great set list. And like I said, everybody around us, they were singing all the words, and it was so, it was a, you know, the top song, so as far as I'm concerned. Baron, would you have liked to hear at least one track? Yeah, I think as much as I love all the old songs, I think they should have played maybe a song from their last album, The Verdict. Because I mean, even though they're not supporting it anymore, and there's a new album coming in some point this year, I think it's just, it lends credibility to the Todd era of the band. And I think they were giving us so many treats in the set list, that if you kind of opened with Queen of the Reich, did warning, and then did a new song, and then got back to the classics, people wouldn't have known it, but I don't think they would have minded it, and maybe would have created some awareness around what the band is doing now. Like some people might have been asking, you know, what is that? What album it's on? So if I were them, I would have done one newer song, and as a supporter of this era of the band, I wish they would have. Okay, I don't know what I would have cut. I don't know what I would have cut. Would you like to hear at least one song, or maybe it just wasn't the time and wasn't the right place? It wasn't the right place. People there were there to see Judas Priest, and don't forget tickets went on sale, waiting for Queen's Reich was announced on the bill. So given that they had to play in front of a Judas Priest audience, even though they're within the same metal family, they didn't have much of a choice, but to play safe with a safe set list. So I can certainly understand why they didn't take a chance playing newer material that fewer people would have known. Alan, do you think sitting in, you're in the orchestra, which is like the ground, do you think people were there just loved Queen's Reich just as much as they liked Judas Priest? Like what was the, I know people are on their feet there too. They're standing. Yeah, I would say so. Yeah, from what I witnessed, some of the younger fans, maybe less, but overall I think, yeah, it was a perfect double bill like you said, because from the reaction that I witnessed, everybody was equally in tune with Queen's Reich as they were with Judas Priest, so. All right, anything else anybody wanna add? As we move to Judas Priest? We can move to Judas Priest. I was with, well, I just wanna say, I was with Steph Rodney, he had never seen Todd live before playing with Queen's Reich and he just looked at me throughout the whole set, like, wow, do you listen to that tone? Listen to him hit those notes. I mean, he was quite an arm and he was quite impressed that, you know, for somebody who's watching him for the first time, it's very impressive. I would say that because Queen's Reich was opening, they got a lot more fans. They sort of attracted a lot of fans that they didn't have before and they also brought in a lot of fans too, right? That maybe Judas Priest didn't have before. That's the mood I was getting, because there were some fanatics, man. I saw, because I was looking down at you guys, Alan, in that area and they're just pumping their fists and standing and just singing the songs, take all the flame area, we're singing it. You can see them sing along with the words, you know? Well, look at the merch too. Like, I always, when I go to shows, I like to see who's buying what merch. And Queen's Reich had only two shirt selections. You're wearing one, I'm wearing one. They sold a lot of merch. I saw lots of Queen's Reich shirts and also beyond these, I saw a lot of old Queen's Reich shirts at the show. So they definitely kind of had an audience there, but I think they also won some people who maybe they had lost and they won them back. And that's a good point there, you know? Only in a lie, and this is to Alan's. Alan, when he first saw Todd, he was, Jimmy, I can't believe it, man. He won him over, seeing him live, opening for the Scorpions. Remember that, Alan? You just, once you see him live, the band live, not only Todd, but the whole band live, they really give justice to the legacy of the band plus they're this sort of a continuation of the band and it's legit. No, Jimmy, let me see. Because we keep mentioning Todd and Whip. You know, Mike Stone is in the band now as a second guitar player and Mike is a very kind of laid back kind of presence, but he's so good and it's not easy. He's in the DeGarmo role and Kelly Gray was in the band for a while and Parker Lundgren was in the band for a while and Mike Stone's been in and out, but he's such a great musician, laid back guy and he does such an amazing job. And Casey Grillo, this is his first tour with them on drums, filling Scott Rockenfield's shoes which is not easy. And I think he's a long time acquaintance and partner of Todd's and Casey Grillo does an amazing job as well. So it's not just a Todd show, it's not just a Todd show, they've become a really cohesive unit. And you know, Eddie Jackson and backing vocals and the overall sound with Queensrack was great. The other thing you brought up, Jim, I think with the demographic that was there, you guys take it from your point of view, but if Sabaton had opened it would have been a, I would think that they would attract a younger crowd and I saw a guy's outrage, the crowd was more or less outrage. I said, yes, there was some younger people there obviously, but I think overall it was an older crowd that was there which was a win-win because like everybody's agreeing here, Queensrack was a great band back in the day and we all wanted to see them again. So they're still a great band, but I think if Sabaton was there, the older crowd might not have known as much about that band as they did Queensrack. So I think it worked out in priest's favor this time around it. But they do agree. Jackie Long says it's the best. Todd brought life back to the band and when you think about it, he's had three albums going on four and it's not, it's Todd bringing the energy to the other players and giving them that sort, it's a dynamic that feeds back and forth with, you know, with Michael Wilton, right? It just, everybody in the band, it's that whole energy. It just, it just sparks something there, you know?   And I know Steph Ann stopped listening to the band after 1984 or something, 85? No, no, I stopped after 1990. I sort of, look, I have a hard time. You know, I'm an old geezer in the sense that that music that I listened to from 1980 to 1990 is so identified with moods, with life, with certain life events. And after that, life changes and it becomes a bit harder to, for me anyway, to sort of try to duplicate the feeling I got out of this music in the 80s and transfer it to, you know, 2022. But bands who do it right, they have me standing up on my seat. They have me buying their record still. Queens Right, my opinion, they've run out of ideas and nothing they do can match what they did in the earlier days. In concert, I'm willing to take new tracks but I have a harder time assimilating. And I think that's why I was really looking forward to see Sabaton opening. And it's, you know, I was supposed, as you know, I was supposed to go with my daughter who's really into Sabaton. And, you know, they're the younger generation.  With Queens Right, you had two Dad Rock bands. With Sabaton, you would have had a millennial band and a Dad Rock band and that would have worked fine. But either way, I was extremely happy. I have my tickets for Sabaton this fall anyway. So it doesn't matter, I'm still gonna go see Sabaton. But the original goal of this bill was to get two generation of music metal fans. And I think had Sabaton remained on the lineup, that show could have been sold out. But you gotta say this, Stefan, and I could show you pictures of the crowd with Judas Priest and Queens Right. And tell me if this is true or not, this was like their biggest gig for the biggest place they played. It was almost sold out. And I'll show the pictures. I'll show a picture here to prove it to everybody. I would say what, 7,000, 8,000? Yeah, they did, according to the Journal de Quebec, they did 6,000 in Quebec City the night before and they probably had about six or 7,000 in Laval. So, and just for reference, the American shows are mostly playing theaters. Like they played the Fox Theater in Oakland in the Bay Area where I used to live. And that place holds 2,800. So they sold it out, 2,800. But in a lot of US cities, they were playing theaters. They were selling out the theaters, but it's only in Canada, Halifax, Quebec City, Montreal, and Hamilton today, where they're playing arenas. And okay, yes, it's scaled down arena, but six or 7,000 in arena is still better than 2,800 in a theater. So they did some pretty big numbers here compared to the rest of the world. That's what I'm saying, and that's my point. Like maybe Sabaton couldn't have done that. I don't know, I don't know. Anyways, it is what it is. If we're going to bring up that subject, I just want to say it leads us into the Judas Priest portion of the concert. There you go. I caught them the last two Redeemer of Souls and Epitaph and, you know, the attendance, this was at the larger venue here in town and the attendance was slipping. So I'm glad management finally woke up and booked them into a place that was more convenient to the type of crowd they're drawing these days. Yes, it's great that it's still better than theaters, but, you know, they're on their downward slope here. They're not playing the larger venues. They did in the 80s or as recently as, you know, in the last 10 years. So that leads us into the Judas Priest portion of the concert. So I'm anxious to hear what you guys have to say. All right, Stefan, what do you think? It's been a while since you saw Judas Priest. I'm putting up some pictures as we speak. So what did you think? What did you think? I loved it. And it was a very important show for me because the last time priests came to town, they were on the same bill as Deep Purple. And even though it was a co-headline tour where priests had almost as much time as Deep Purple, let's face it, it was a Deep Purple evening and Deep Purple these days. Well, they sound kind of soft. So we all remember that show where priests literally took the show. They won the audience. You know, after that, people were just sitting down. And it was the same thing last night. As soon as Rob Alford shows himself on stage, oh my God, it's, he's the middle God. For me, it's like, you know, even more important in metal than Bruce Dickinson. He's it for me. He's like, ah, thank God. Heavy metal started and ends with Judas Priest. And even though I still feel kind of sad not seeing Glenn and KK, I still see this incredible band, you know, of Ian Hill, of Rob Alford, who just give it their absolute best. And I, look, I loved every minute of it. I cannot think of a single moment during the show when I went, okay, let's go for a piss.  My only criticism is I think I would have liked to be on the floor with Alan. Oh, next time. Yeah, because. I could have arranged that, just tell me next time, guys. The old switcheroo with stiff rod. No, it's because. You guys know, you don't know stiff rod, paramet stiff rod. You didn't know stiff rod. For me, the sound needs to be good. And I could tell the sound was good, but where we were, let's face it. We had a column of speakers hiding the backdrop. And the sound wasn't too good. Am I correct to say Alan, that the sound was better on the floor? I don't know what you were, I have no reference to compare what you were hearing, but it sounded, it took them a while to get the sound correct in my opinion. The first two songs sounded, I don't know if it was the Flying Vs also, but it sounded tinny, it sounded thin, compared to Queens Right. It took a few songs to get the sound right. And which is okay, because the first two songs are not necessarily my favorite, but I was glad to, you know, from you got another thing coming to the end, I was, my mind was blown. And it's really funny, because when we got to Freewheel Burning, this is the spot where the tour started off with Exciter. You know, for me, Exciter was the greatest song in the world, because my very first Priest album was Priest in the East. And I said, no, no, no, I love that song too much. But then when I saw YouTube- Unleashed, Unleashed in the East. Yeah, well they called it Priest in the East elsewhere in the world and I have the import.  And then I'm listening to Freewheel Burning. Yes, that takes me back. That he's doing it as he should. And that was a great song. And for me, even songs I used to not care much about like Turbo Lover, I actually got into it. Oh, here we go with Alan. Alan, he can't stand Turbo Lover. I love it, man. I love it too. I love it too. But for me, I mean, just there was not a dull moment. Howford was looking and feeding a lot younger than his age. His voice was spot on, Stefan. His voice, once he started kicking into gear, man, he was hitting these notes and I still having trouble hearing on this ear right here because that big speaker was right there, right? He was hitting the mark. He was on fire. This guy has a cold? Or he had a cold? What? What? You could tell he's not using tracks either. Because there's too much grittiness in his voice. It's not polished. He was better on this tour or this show than he was for me during Angel of Retribution. I just think he was kind of sleeping during that tour. But this one, he was spot on, man. He was spot on. And I like Turbo Lover. But it was more than that, I think. It was when they got into those lists of non-stop classics. I mean, Rocker-Roller. Oh, I loved it. I loved it. That was a highlight for me. I loved it. I loved it. A highlight. And then Victim of Changes. Wow. That's his standard. You can't, this is one of their best songs. It's one of their best songs. I mean, Desert Plays, Desert Plays for me was awesome. You know, came out saying they're using backing tracks. Okay, let's define what backing tracks are. They're not backing tracks. Exactly. So when you have like a synthesizer or a keyboard in the background, or maybe you have some multiple vocal layers or harmonies, yes. But the main vocals are Rob's. I was watching, I was listening to him. It didn't sound, you know, altered or he wasn't lip-syncing. What do I know? But it didn't sound that way. Yeah. They're effects. They're not tracks. Yeah. Like now, semantics maybe. So, but what were the first two songs, Perrin, what was the first three songs? Cause to me that was a kind of like Queens rights, you know, doing great, doing great. And then Priest comes on. It was kind of like a little bit of a letdown to Alan's point. Maybe the mix wasn't there. But then when they started kicking into gear, it was just amazing. Okay. Well first, so I'll address the sound thing first. So first, like I said, in the States, most of the shows are in theaters. So their sound band is used to theaters, which are typically acoustically really made for music and they're smaller houses, right? This is only your second or third show in an arena this tour. And even when you're sound checking, sound checking in an empty arena versus in an arena full of people is different. So it's normal that it's gonna take a couple of songs to kind of get the sound where they want it. It was a very, very loudly played show on purpose. There's no doubt about it. So you're also dealing with like sheer volume as well. So I didn't have much of a problem with the sound. But you did allude to the first couple of songs, Jimmy. So I would say, first of all, I thought the set list was brilliant because when you have a 50 year career, it's really not easy to make everybody happy. And 70s priest is an animal and 80s priest is an animal. And 90s and newer priest is another animal. So they were able to do a lot of that. But look, opening with one shot of glory, a deep track from Pinketer is not what I would have done. Now, I've seen priests 12 times. I appreciate them doing a song that I've never seen live before. Hence, I really appreciated Rockerola because of the 12 times I've seen priest, they never played Rockerola. They never played one shot of glory either, but opening with a song that people generally don't know except the diehard of all diehards. That was my problem, Perry, that was my problem. You really want like Queenstrike opened of Queen of the Reich. And even if you're only vaguely familiar with Queenstrike, you were kind of up and you were excited. But for a priest to open of one shot of glory, where you can kind of see a couple people mouthing to their friend next to them, what song is that? Like, you know, I don't think it's the best thing. And look, and I love the Firepower album. So the second song was Lightning Strike from Firepower, which is a good song, but I think there's better songs on Firepower. And I don't know if I would have just done a combination of opening with lesser known song, last album, new song. I might have, it's your last tour most likely. It's your 50th anniversary tour. I appreciated having Electric Eye as the first encore. Maybe I would have opened of that. If they wanted to open of something rare, open of Screaming for Vengeance.  I don't know, like just do something that's a little more familiar and a little more punchy. So I would say if there was a downside of the night, I would think, I thought as novel an idea as it sounds, the open of one shot of glory and then go into Lightning Strikes, I don't think that was a good idea. But then after that- But Perrin, Perrin, what do you think about? Okay, so K-Man saying, Jimmy, you definitely need to go back and listen to some of priests in 2004, 2005 gigs. Okay, what did you think about the vocals? Look, Rob is 70 years old. And again, a show was canceled in Boston five days prior because he had a very bad cold. And again, we kind of know exactly what the issue was. He had a very bad cold.  They didn't. And neither did they in Montreal. 19 song set, his voice was really strong. I thought they might protect his voice a little bit and not play victim of changes and they did it. And, you know, look, he was high. He was low. He had those piercing screams. Yes, and victim of changes in other songs, like the extension of the note changes is done with an effect. But he's still hitting a pretty high note the first time. And they're this, they're extending it for effect. But he's- I'll tell you, Perrin, if you listen very careful with the singers, they choose different notes when they're singing because they don't want to blow their voice out. He was going for the notes. He was going for the big notes and victim of change, you know, he, you know, grade that middle part, you know, that, but he went for it. Painkiller, he's just going, this is the painkiller. And he keeps going higher and higher. He didn't, he didn't go for the lower notes. He went right up there. Yeah. No, he didn't cheat. There's no, look, he didn't cheat. There's no cheating. I wouldn't call it cheating. I would say he just, he went for it. That's all. I saw, but I just want to underline everyone because I started on a negative about the set list. The set list was great. Rockerola was a fantastic ad. I hadn't heard Green Manalishi and Diamonds and Rustin a while and we heard those songs. And again, I appreciate that they don't shun the turbo ram it down era. I like herring turbo lover. I'm perfectly fine with that.  And even playing Blood Red Skies from Ram it Down. Blood Red Skies is a great song. And I mean- Alan's favorite song, by the way, is Turbo Lover. Alan's never liked the song. Alan, please explain why. We know there's two camps, right? There's turbo is a love it or hate it album. It's as simple as that. And it's a love it or hate it track. I like the song. I think it's an important part of their history and I'm glad they still play the song. Okay, Sylvain was sitting next to us as, you're right, Jimmy, of course. Rob's voice and stage presence was better on this tour than in the 2008 Angel Tour, Angel Retribution.  You just, there's something. I think the audience was going, they gave him that energy. They gave him that energy. They're just going wild. Orlando was up there. I don't know if the security took him away at one point or somebody was taken away. It was just the fans. We got him back. We saw him at the end of the show. Yeah. What would you have changed? Anyone? What would you have changed? Well, I think of my impression of the concert, Jimmy, it's like, it's like he started. Okay. So I agree with Perrin. I loved that song, but it was in the opener. No, the second one, they lost me because firepower, I'm not that familiar. But then I look over and here's Orlando. So I was like, maybe it's a good choice to add this as the second song. He had another thing coming. There's a bit karaoke for me. And then they started kicking it. Then I think that's when they hit their stride after the third song. Now I love under the red skies. I love, you know, Turbo Lover. We heard that synth guitar intro and Steve Rodney sat down. Unfortunately, it's better live than it is on record, I admit, but it's just not everything. But we weren't surprised by too many of the choices, right? And we even looked at each other and at one point I said, it's gonna be hell bent for leather next. And to turn it up, you heard the motorcycle start. So, you know, that's what we've seen increased a lot of times. Rob, he's an entertainer and he hit all the notes. We're not gonna say anything, Richard did his best. And then there's a one point of the song that I'm looking over and Andy Sneep, I can barely hear his guitar. He's playing rhythm tracks. Richie's playing all the leads. And for where I was standing, it was hard to hear that rhythm track play. But to go back to the sound, as soon as they came on, my knees down to the floor were vibrating because of the bass. I was standing on the floor six rows from the stage and all night long from my knees down to my ankles, you can hear a vibration from all the low end notes coming from the bass. Hmm. My only, it's not a criticism at all. That's your question. I was under the impression that Glenn was still coming to play rhythm for the final song. I was gonna make, I was gonna say that. Glenn hasn't shown up. He wasn't in Halifax. I think his last appearance was like seven shows ago, right? He did a few at the start of the tour. I would have liked him to come out, but you know, his health is what his health is, right? He flies in and out and he does clusters of shows. Actually last time in Montreal, we were lucky. He made an appearance last time in Montreal on the Deep Purple Tour. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think from what I hear, it goes of how he's feeling and who knows if he's having treatments and stuff like that. And maybe there's a schedule there. Yeah. So some clusters of shows he does, some he doesn't. So it sounds like he did not come to Canada. I think Richie Faulkner, he was just incredible. He just, he carried the band so much. And he was just, what a great showman. What a great musician. What a great guitarist. You know, he sort of made up for KK not being there and Glenn not being there. Of course I would have loved them if they were there. Don't get me wrong. But he really is a star, you know? It almost feels like they're holding him back. That's the impression I got. This guy's got so much talent and he's so good. I'm watching him and you can just see where he just, he was doing little leaves that normally weren't there and he's making it his own, but you can see the potential of this guy and he's kind of like boxed in, right? These are classic songs. You can't reimagine it. Not that Judas Priest ever would. But you can see the potential of this guy in it. It's almost as if he's living himself. Richie brought new energy to Priest. He did. Just the same way Todd brought new energy to Queens, right? I think that's kind of like that. Absolutely.  Rob's doing his best. He's all over the stage. He's nonstop. He's walking back and forth. But you know, I see the younger generations, they're going insane.  I was going to say, if you liked that, you should have seen them 20 or 30 years ago. You're back in the 80s. You know, you would have, you would have blown your mind. You know, it's a different beast. That's all I'm saying. I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy it. The songs, they threw in a few surprises. I was, we were joking. And we know of the set list before we even walk in what songs are going to play. And then they started out with two that like parents said, we would never imagine they would ever, ever do. But there were a lot of similarities to the epitaph tour. And then also the redeemer souls. So I think with their catalog, I'm kind of hypocritical here. I wanted them to do new songs and then they did new songs. And I'm questioning why they did those new songs. So that's, it was a bit of a confusing for me. All right. Would they, here's the big question for everybody who's ever seen them now and the people in Ontario and Hamilton are going to see them. Could they have pulled this off with four? Oh, what else before? Pulled off. Could they pull this show off with four without sneak? Cause that's the war. Okay. Sorry. Remember, sorry guys. It's, I'm tired. It's been a long day. Could they pull this show off with four as they originally intended to? Did sneak make that much of a difference? No way. No way. I cannot even imagine how they could pull a show like this of a foursome. No, no way. No way. You need that rhythm guitar. Yeah. Back and forth leads and that's, that's what the piece is all about. The dual leads. And well, and Alan alluded to it that, you know, whereas before it was more of KK and Glenn dueling leads, Richie does most of the heavy lifting here and, and, and Andy is more of a rhythm player that we does do some leads, but you just can't do it. Like there are two, two guitar parts in these songs. So, you know, you talk about tapes and cheating. I don't care what you said, you know, Richie was either going to have to play the songs differently and improvise if he was alone, or they were going to be kind of playing a rhythm track and they were going to be cheating a little bit. And I don't think anybody wanted that. Not to mention, it just wouldn't look right. Judas, Judas Priest as a quartet, you know, at the end of the night, taking the bow or whatever, it just doesn't look right. If you've seen Judas Priest any amount of times, you know, you're going to have, you know, you're going to have a guitarist stage left and a guitarist stage right. You're going to have Ian kind of back there in the pocket and not move very much. Do what is staying, holding it down. That's it.  And it's just wouldn't be right as a quartet. We got a message to Stefan from this guy named Orlando Marsh, but tell Stefan, I want to do a duet with him on, I ain't no nice guy by Motorhead. He wants to do a duet with you, Orlando, a singing duet with him on the song, I ain't no nice guy, I ain't a nice guy by Motorhead. But they're both nice guys. Um, I, um... You accept. Challenge accepted. Challenge accepted. After a few drinks at the Metal Voice Summer Barbecue, we'll get that on stage. After quite a few drinks, if I can out-drunk Orlando, I'll sing. I don't know about that. Orlando's like a tank. He's like a little tank. I'm a big tank. He's relentless. Orlando is relentless. I must admit. Suddenly he's sitting with us or close by, and then suddenly he's right in front. No, and then all of a sudden he's next to me on the floor. Frank Potmay is heading to the show after work, he said. Okay. All right. So buy your tickets now. The show is starting in an hour. Right? You can over it? Yeah. I'm in 730, so about, yeah, over an hour. That's right. So, Quiz rate's hitting the stage in an hour. So, you guys, you got it. Okay, guys. The experience for you out of 10, what do you rate it? Okay. Tell us. Nine and a half. Nine and a half versus the fan. Oof. I would definitely, me too. I would say definitely nine and a half. It was a great show. It was just phenomenal. Yeah. I'm a tough grader. I'll give it a nine though. I mean, great opening act, great headline set, a few set list choices. I'd do a little differently for Priest, but it was mostly good. But I'll say nine on 10, just because a 10 on 10 is like the greatest shows I've ever seen. So this is like a nine on, this is like one little notch below some of the best shows I've ever seen. Let's take a nine on that. That's good. Alan. So thanks for doing it again. What do you grade it? Come on out of 10. You're the one who started this. Because the bar is so high in all the previous pre-shows. I'm going to give this an eight out of 10. That's pretty good. Eight out of 10. That's 80%. That's more than I ever got in high school. I was lucky to get out of high school. That's all I'm going to say. All right. I think we're done, guys. Thank you so much. Until the next round. All right. Thank you guys. Thanks to all the people who said hello. Our main is next, isn't it? Well, our main is not for a while. Well, there'll be a few others between now and then. All right, guys. Thanks. All right. Thank you. All right.


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Well, the strengths and benefits there of the master teacher role are almost too many to list. Having Christy come into our leadership team, we have been able to achieve things that simply would never be possible without her in that role. So for us, it's absolutely pivotal and has been a game changer for what we're doing at Cannonball State School. That term master teacher, that person who's showing best practice and can be a lighthouse for others within the school is, you know, just priceless, really. Our improvement journey, our targets that we've set for our whole school is 100% of our students getting a C standard in English and Maths and 50% of all of our students being in the upper two bands in every day main of NAPLAN in both years three and year five. The results that we've had throughout this year I've already said could not have been done without Christy. The improvements have been marked and they will continue to get greater. This year I've been overseeing the development of early childhood practices in our school. If we can get that practice right in that beginning year of school, then we know that that's going to filter through and make those student outcomes successful. So my role has been partly to oversee and help drive and work with the staff there collaboratively. And in doing that I've been coaching, which has been formal, informal, modelling with teachers, attending data meetings, working with the whole staff, doing presentations to help develop areas that they need to work on to help them successfully and implement and work on the new strategies and things that we're building up within the school all in line of course with our school pedagogy philosophies and curriculum delivery. She's not just doing and operating within what's happening at Cannonball State School, she's operating with what happens before they even get to us.  So yeah, she's absolutely really a linchpin for what we do. The exciting thing about the role is being able to work collegiatively with others and to collaborate and share. I'm working with wider communities, local schools and also within our region and the state as well through opportunities that the Master Teacher Program has offered. I know that when I was on class teaching I would have loved to have been given or had that support from a Master Teacher through coaching and just through having that up-to-date research. I'm also really excited because I know that we're going to get there and we're going to really make big improvements for children. I've got two children myself and for me I grew up, I went to state schools, I'm a big supporter of state schools and I want the best for my own children and I expect that for all other children across the state and I don't believe that wherever you live, if it's a small school, a big school you should be disadvantaged or miss out on learning opportunities and I think that this role as a Master Teacher you can really contribute to that and to the big picture for state schools so that's what really excites me about it. I'm really excited because it's a new role, it's been evolving and with the evidence hub being able to take that to the next step I guess so I'm hoping that we can see some really effective results. My results I'm hoping will give us 100% of our prep students reading at or above benchmark and we are on that journey so I'm really excited so watch this space for another two years at Cannonvale.


Welcome to all of you to this session on economic survey as everyone was waiting for the economic survey to release and finally the document has been released and it has been put in the public domain. So first of all, why economic survey? What is the relevance of economic survey? So let me tell you if there is only one book which can take you towards the UPSC qualification then it is only the economic survey. Because economic survey discusses everything what is happening in the economy and not only about what is happening in the economy but it also tells what is the future for the Indian economy be it's GDP, be it's inflation, be it's forex reserves everything has been discussed in the economic survey. Although it is a voluminous book it's approximately 500 pages but still the book is highly intellectual because all the professional, all the highly expertise economists of India and also the global have their role to play in preparation of the Indian economic survey. And let me tell you the historical context since 1950s this document is published annually. Annually without any break this survey has been published and once you read the survey you get the entire gist of what is happening in the Indian economy. So first of all let's do the basics. Who releases it? It is released by the Department of Economic Affairs. See Ministry of Finance under the government of India has many departments and one of the department is Department of Economic Affairs which prepares this report under the guidance of Chief Economic Advisor. So Chief Economic Advisor is the central person who is responsible to document this intellectual book. What it happens, what it includes so it includes the growth outlook for the past year that is for FY23 that means from 2022 to 2023 how the economy has performed and also it projects how the economy is going to perform in the next coming financial year that is from 2023 to 2024 and it is generally released a day before the budget is released. So budget is released generally on first step and then the survey is put into public domain by 31st of January. So first we will understand what the economic survey has to tell about GDP. See GDP is the most important parameter to gauge the status of Indian economy. Every country releases its GDP data and on that data we compare how the economy is performing. So the survey projects that the GDP growth rate to be 6 to 6.8% in 2023 to 2024 but there is a big disclaimer which the survey has put that this will depend upon the global political and economic situation. You know that if you analyze the world the past 2 to 3 years has been a world where multiple events which no one has predicted has happened be it the geopolitical crisis of Russia, Ukraine brought be it the coming geoeconomic crisis because of the black swine even pandemic. So all these situations has cumulatively acted as a big dent on the whole humanity. So the survey says that this whole GDP growth rate will depend upon how the future is with respect to political and economical development globally. But despite all of these things, see 6% is not very much. India was already growing with 7-8% it has been growing with that particular number in the past but despite all the uncertainties India will still manage to get a growth rate of 6 to 6.8% and that is incredible we will see why. But the survey says that India will remain the fastest major growing economy in the world. Despite of all the odds India will still be the leading nation in terms of the GDP growth. And lastly the survey with respect to GDP summarizes the entire thing. It says that economy has nearly recouped what was lost. You will see how renewed what had paused and re-energized what was slowing during the pandemic and since the conflict in Europe. Let me illustrate this whole summary by some figures. So you can see first of all the first figure tells you what is the GDP growth rate. So you can see in the FY20 that is from 2019 to 2020 the GDP was 3.7 and then came the pandemic and India entered along with other countries into a period of recession where the economy declined or the contracted by 6.6% in the history of when India got independent only for five times our economy has contracted and this happened during the 2020 to 2021. But after that India bounced back the GDP growth rate was 8.7% and for this financial year that is from 2022 to 2023 the GDP is predicted to be at 7% and for the coming year that is from 2023 to 2024 the GDP is estimated to grow at 6 to 6.8%. Now see this diagram basically tells so we started from here then came the pandemic and in the pandemic we declined our economy declined but see then in the next year we are again back to where we started that means India has recovered all the things which we have lost. So all the GDP which was lost during the pandemic now India in the FY20-22 has recovered all that was lost and in the next financial year you can see that India is growing strongly despite all the odds. So the survey says in short that the GDP which declined during the pandemic and the recovery of that loss has completed so that's a very good news which the survey tells now what I was saying that the world is facing a lot of crisis and then the world is facing a lot of crisis most of the global economies most of the global economies be it the best advanced economies of the best all are moving towards a recession all are moving towards a slowdown in every country there's a huge uncertainty as to how their future will be and in all these things India is still emerging as a strong player this you can see in this particular diagram the United States is projected to grow at 1.6 percent and in the next year at 1 percent you can see United Kingdom lowing to 3.0.3 percent then you can see China 4.4 percent but see India at 6.1 percent and for 2020 to 6.8 percent so you can analyze that India is the fastest major growing economy in the world so we were discussing why India is going to be the fastest major growing economy in the world so the survey tries to put out some basic substantial proof that why India will be the leading country in terms of GDP growth so the first survey says that there is a huge rebound of private consumption what do you mean by private consumption so private consumption is a basically a consumption which is made by people like you and me what we do we go we buy car we buy phones we buy laptop we go and eat food so all these consumptions is the major strength of Indian economy let me tell you India's GDP car approximately 55 to 60 percent of our GDP growth rate comes from this private consumption and this private consumption was declining because of pandemic a lot of people were jobless a lot of people whose salary was going to increase it did not get so in this context the private consumption which constitutes 55 to 60 percent of GDP wasn't declined but the survey says that it is now rebouncing in a very strong manner second the survey says that you know that India always used to give subsidies India always used to give some freebies culture there was a freebie culture which was promoted but since two to three years this government has focused in a very strong manner in terms of capital expenditure capital expenditure means construction of road railways highways all those infrastructures which has a multiplier effect because if you construct a road then the economy gains by double but if you give freebies if you give subsidies there is no productivity which is comes to the economy so that is why the survey says that the quality of expenditure done by government is shifting more towards scapegoats and less towards the freebies or the subsidies and because of this huge push towards capital expenditure the private players which were reluctant to invest in India now they are feeling confident that yes government is standing government spending in the right manner so let us also support the government so because of the qualitative shift in terms of where and how the government is spending the private persons are also coming into the picture and they are also investing the third union universal vaccination coverage you know that India has the record number of vaccination in the shortest period of time and because of that the contacts based services what do you mean by contact based services like hospitality sector hotels tourism spa so this is again a very important sector for the Indian economy right and because in the pandemic the tourism was shut all the services which were based on human to human contact were shut but now because of the near universal vaccination coverage the services industry is also growing at a very great pace fourth the survey says that all those migrant workers because of the lockdown where they went back to the villages now they have again came back to the urban cities so all those construction sector where there was a huge shortfall of migrant workers now it is not the case finally very important thing the survey says that there's no twin bill balance sheet program you know that since 2015 or in the 2015 India was facing this very big problem what do you mean by no twin balance sheet it basically says that the balance sheet of the corporate and the balance sheet of the public sector banks both are in a very poor state both are in a very poor state let me give you an example for example i am a company i have taken 100 crore of loan but i'm not able to repay that loan back so my balance sheet has gone and the bank which has given me the loan now uskabi balance sheet has gone right so both the balance sheet gets disturbed so this problem india was facing in 2015 but due to many different different steps which has been taken by government now there is a tata bye bye to this twin balance sheet problem india has now a very robust public sector banks and also the state of the corporates which were highly over leveraged at one point of time their balance sheet has also consolidated right so now india does not have any twin balance sheet problem so in all this context the survey says that everything sounds very optimistic for india and hence india after the pandemic or after the this war when the things will settle down india will emerge in a much more stronger manner than anyone has expected now inflation again inflation is a very important parameter to gauge and understand how the economy is because you know that inflation does not affect the rich inflation does not affect the rich but what is inflation inflation basically is like a tax on the poor because by inflation most of the things becomes out of reach for the poor population for example if the prices of onion increases how can a poor person afford that so that is why inflation is again a very important parameter and survey says that the rbi has projected the headline inflation at 6.8% you already know that in terms of inflation india has kept a tolerance limit that is in india the inflation has to be from 2% to 6% and if it is beyond 6% then that means that inflation has failed or inflation is not as per what the government wants to be so but because of the pandemic when the supply chain was disrupted because of the geosupportical uncertainty because of Russia-Ukraine war and the energy prices being shot up in all this context not only india but globally every country is facing high level of inflation you can see this graph so this particular graph is for advanced economy 7.2 is the average inflation which these countries are facing you know that US and every country has a high level of inflation and then similarly the developing countries also has a high level of inflation but despite all these things india was able to keep the inflation beyond a particular level that means although it is more than 6% but still it has not exceeded too much as everyone was predicting that in india economy it might even go to double digit so although the inflation is beyond what the tolerance limit of 6% is but still the inflation has not been out of reach this is because the survey says this is because you know that in india who is responsible to control the inflation it is the primary responsibility of the RBI and in RBI also there is a monetary policy committee which is constituted only for this purpose that they have to control or they have to keep the level of inflation from 2 to 6% so the work done by the RBI monetary committee was incredible and hence the Indian inflation did not end out of reach so you can see that this is a graph that how interest rates were increased you know that when inflation rises the interest rate has also to increase why because interest is what interest rate basically tells you at what cost you can borrow the money so if the inflation is high that means the supply of money exceeds then what is required so in that case generally the central bank increases the interest rate so that the cost of borrowing increases so if the cost of borrowing increases then less people will go and take the loans and if the less people will go and take the loan then the supply of the money will reduce and hence the inflation will also come down right to do that RBI has been constantly or RBI monetary policy committee has been constantly increasing the interest rate in terms of economy we call it as a reporate right so reporate has been constantly increasing so you can see in 8th April 2022 it was at 4% and finally in the last month 7th December last to last month the interest rate or the reporate has increased to 6.5% and because of this calibrated increase in a very step by step manner our inflation has not crossed what other countries are facing because if you compare Sri Lanka if you compare Pakistan if you compare Turkey all those countries are facing double digit of inflation so in that context our inflation is hovering around 7% 8% at the max now fiscal deficit again a very important parameter to gauge the status of economy what do you mean by fiscal deficit you know that governments what the government gets and the what the government spends there is a complete mismatch so suppose government gets 100 and government has to spend 200 that means government is facing a deficit of 100 rupees so that is known as fiscal deficit that is known as fiscal deficit so fiscal deficit also very important parameter because if government recklessly take loan if government recklessly spends a lot of money then the economy the macroeconomic stability of the economy come a stability of the economy comes into problems right so you can see that the fiscal deficit right it was in f by 20 9.2 now it has come down to 6.4 you know that our target is to achieve a fiscal deficit of 4.5% by 25 26 so in that context the fiscal deficit is again on the declining trend it is not again on the declining standard because if the government why there's a limit there's a limit because you have to control what the government spends because if you don't have any limit or if you don't have any plan then government can borrow any amount of money and hence because if government borrows a lot of money and spends recklessly then the inflation will rise and hence the stability of the country comes into crisis and similarly the fiscal deficit of the state you can see it's 3.4 percent right so for the center it is on the declining trend and for the state also it is around 3 to 4 percent the fiscal deficit now comes to the tax collection so tax collection the graph has been put by the economic survey right so for the f by 23 you can see that out of 100 rupees which the government gets 28 comes from the GST 26 comes from the corporate income tax 26 comes from the personal income tax 26 comes from the excise duty and 8 percent comes from the customs so you can see that GST which was a game changer tax based revolution now has very much stabilized so the unpredictability which was with GST now has gone and the GST has emerged as a very stable tax so you can see that there has been a robust increase in terms of GST collection now if we do the sectoral growth trends how different different sectors of the economy are performing you know that there are three sectors one is the agriculture second is the industry and the third one is services if we compare all the three sectors let us see which sector has performed well and which sector has not performed well so as per the survey the agriculture sector has been the most resilient sector in the entire pandemic or in the entire game of the picture you can see that it grew it grew also during the pandemic so during the pandemic it grew at 3.3 percent you know you can see the industry minus 3.3 you can see the services minus 7.7 minus 7.8 but despite all the sector showing a recession the agriculture sector was very strong and it was very resilient sector so you can see that agriculture sector is expected to grow at 3.5 percent the government target is 4 percent ticker so it is close to that 3.5 percent if you see the industrial sector this is where the problem is you know that India manufacturing is very much poor as compared to other countries but our services sector is very good services that means tourism services that means software so like companies like tcs vipro so India has a very good services sector but when it comes to industrial sector or the manufacturing sector India is not that good so we can see that industrial growth shattered during the pandemic it was at minus 3.3 but let me tell you that during the 2018-19 before the pandemic also industrial growth rate was in the negative figure so things are not going good in terms of industrial growth but services sector although it contracted during the pandemic but now you can see it is growing in a very fast manner so overall if you see the agriculture sector is performing good industrial sector is performing optimum as usual always it happens but the services sector is the key sector which is taking quickly the India's growth story then comes the goods trade outlook goods merchandise trade outlook so you know that India generally India imports more goods than what it exports okay India imports more goods than what it exports why because in India the manufacturing has not been developed that significantly as you can see in other countries for example like China so generally in India most of the goods you can see laptop phone everything is imported from outside right so that is why India has a trade deficit trade deficit means the amount which we get through export and the amount which we have to spend to get our import is always higher so always the import value is higher than the export value and hence we run a deficit so see you can see the deficit deficit minus 60.2 billion dollar 54.6 billion dollar 62 81 billion dollar and 75 billion dollar so 75 billion dollar that deficit head so this dollar deficit basically depletes our products reserve this dollar deficit basically depletes our products reserve and for country like China they have a trade balance and India has a trade deficit in terms of goods but when you compare the services sector this is the sector which has performed or which has been performing very appropriately very up to the mark and that is why Indian services sector is always having a trade balance that means we export more than what we import and that is why India always earns dollar because any international transaction has to happen in dollar so if we are sending a good then we are getting dollar and if we are buying a good we have to sell dollar we have to spend dollar so because we export more than what we import so you can see that in India services sector is always positive and you can see that survey says that in this year also the trend will remain the same and we will be earning huge forex reserve because of the positive trade balance in the services sector and that is why because we earn dollars over here so this dollar we are using to fund the deficit which we are facing in the merchandise goods right now there is one big problem with the survey says although the problem is not that much but the survey says that because of the geopolitical uncertainty because of the geoeconomic crisis which the world is facing things might turn the other way when it comes to the current account deficit you know that when we prepare the scheme of balance of payment so there are two accounts one is the capital account and the other one is the current account what do you mean by capital account capital account is basically the flow of fdi fpi and other things and what do you mean by current account basically that trades in goods and services so generally if you compare the current account it is always deficit because the value of things which we export all the goods and services combined the amount which we export and the amount which we import so the import value is much more higher we have already seen this you can see that in terms of goods trade we are negative but in terms of services trade we are positive but when you add this negative positive becomes in a net negative but still we are net negative and that is why our current account deficit which includes mostly the trades in goods and services apart from other things also so trades and services if you combine but both the things still we are negative so generally the current account deficit was hovering around 1-2 percent but this quarter the last quarter it came down to 4.4 percent and this is a very worrying sign because you know generally if the CAD current account deficit is with is from 3 to 4 percent it's fine but when it crops at 4 percent then the thing starts to become problematic and you know that why you know because we have to get the oil imported and because of the Russia Ukraine ball the energy prices are shot up so in that case our import cost rises second global commodity you know that inflation is a global phenomena every country is facing inflation so in that context the global commodity prices is also on a rise and third whenever the current account deficit increases the rupee starts to depreciate the rupee starts to depreciate and that is why you will always hear in news that rupee has touched it all time low it all time high so this is the reason whenever the current account deficit by dense the rupee straight away comes under the attack but the survey says that although it is a worrying thing but that does not mean that India is going to face a very severe crisis because you know that what is current account deficit it is a deficit that means we are going how much dollar we are getting and how much dollar we are using to buy the imported goods so when you export you earn dollar and when you import you use your dollar because of the deficit we spend more dollar but from where we will get that extra dollar we will be getting that dollar from our forex reserves India has a good forex reserve so because India has a good forex reserves then that is why despite the CAD despite the current account deficit reaching to its all time low still because the forex is so good that is why we are able or we are confident that there will be not a big problem so you can see that this graph basically tells you the forex reserve so quarter 3 in the FY 23 the forex is approximately 563 billion dollars so that's a huge number right so that is why India does not have a very big problem because India can use the dollar reserves from here to fund its current account deficit and this graph basically tells you the import cover so currently import is import cover import cover is basically even if you don't do any trade and the reserves which you have so how long you can get the things imported with the same reserve which you have so for example if India has 563 billion dollar and if we don't earn any dollar from tomorrow so till how long we can get the things imported what we are importing so for eight to ten months for ten months we can still get that the things imported you know that during 1991 when India had a balance of payment crisis so this is what was happening India was left with no dollar reserves so that is why India was not able to import anything right so forex reserve is that's why very crucial because you know that India is a highly dependent on the import of oil and when we don't have dollar from where we are going to import the oil so that is why the survey says that although the current account deficit is going to be a problem but still we have a huge big forex reserve and also the import cover is for approximately 10 months so that is good coming to climate change one of the new imagination discourse which the world is seeing climate change it is a new reality and India you know that despite India being a developing country and India's contribution to this whole climate injustice or the whole climate catastrophe is very less but India has been a leading player in terms of climate climate-led activism so you can see that how India has progressed so the survey tries to say that how India is performing in terms of its climate activism so you can see that we started with national action plan on climate change we went to the COP 27 where we renewed our NDCs you know that Panchamit where prime minister has given five major goals one of the goals is that India will become net zero by 2070 right then share of renewable energy has increased out of the total electricity and then finally you see that this year also sorry last year the government has launched this flagship scheme that is known as national green hydrogen mission and this year we have launched this sovereign green bond right so the survey says that India has performed more than what it needs to when it comes to climate activism next come to unemployment so unemployment you know that this is again a very big issue for India India is generally called as a jobless growth or India has generally said that India is not you know generating much more jobs but but the survey says that this is not the case survey says that if you see the unemployment rate so in 2018-19 the unemployment rate was 5.8% but next year it is 4.8% and then the another next year it is 4.2% that means our unemployment is on decline our unemployment is on decline similarly you know labor force participation ratio what do you mean by labor force participation ratio it is that how many people are either in the job or plus how many people who are looking for job right so that means how many people are participating in the economy so that is also on right so you can see that 55.6 percent of the people were doing then 56.8 and then 57.5 so overall the survey says that although the unemployment you know shot up during the pandemic now once the pandemic when the dust has settled India's labor force participation and India's labor market has recovered what was before the pandemic finally you know that social infrastructure is also very important India being a welfare state it is very crucial that the economic pie if it increases then it is redistributed among the poor people also and going by that principle the government has allocated a huge fund towards the social infrastructure and you can see that it was 25.2 lakh crore and now it has increased to 26.6 lakhs 6 lakh crore so that's that mean that government is spending a huge amount of expenditure also on the social infrastructure that means health education and other schemes finally the survey concludes that you know that India is entering the period of Amritkal it started last year and by 2047 Indian have taken a pledge that we are going to a developed economy so in that context the survey says that the fundamentals of Indian economy are sound as it enters the Amritkal the 25 year journey towards the centenary as a modern independent nation right so Amritkal is a very important period and the survey also sells also tells that this Amritkal will not only a growth story for India but India will also act as a model voice for the developing world and in that context the survey categorically puts that how India is going to look and how India is going to shape the world in the in its period of Amritkal by saying that we will consider our growth as based on the principle of Vasudev Kutumbukam that is one earth one family and one shared humanity so in that context the survey says that although India will be developing India will be growing much faster and India will become a developed country by 2047 but this growth will not only be for India but this growth it is it will be for the entire humanity the growth will be based on model principles of equality the growth will be based on the principle of inclusion and the growth will try to deliver the objective or to deliver the crisis which the whole humanity is facing so the economic survey concludes everything in a much more optimistic note and it says that Indian fundamental economic principles are very strong and India is bound to grow India is bound to grow despite anything happened India might be declining to some extent but no one can stop the rise of India because all our economic fundamentals are in a very strong place and this growth the survey says is not only for India but this growth will help the humanity to be a better place so I hope that this survey you get a brief introductions but this let me tell you my friends this is only an introduction there will be a huge detailed analysis in-depth analysis both from the brilliant's perspective both from the main's perspective for interview and in general so everything everything will be explained to you in as simple manner as it can be so that the economic survey and the coming budget you are very much familiar with and you don't commit any mistake in the exam so you have to wait for some time and the detail analysis is just right on the way to you in the coming days continue watching us thank you


Main danger remains one of the main threats in the Black Sea," said Dmitro Plitenshak, spokesman for the Ukrainian Navy. He also noted that mines are a common problem for Ukraine and its Black Sea neighbors. Among them are three NATO members, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey, according to Front News Media Outlet. We have a lot of such work to do, we do it every day to organize security for our export-import corridor. However, the Black Sea still needs a full-fledged, demoning operation. It has already been planned, a headquarters has been established, and ship crews are preparing. However, now, due to the Montreux Convention, these ships cannot enter the Black Sea, Plitenshak said according to Plitenshak, the Ukrainian crews that were preparing to use the UK's Cherkisi and Chernihiv ships have already been trained. They are already on duty. Last year they received a first level of compatibility with NATO countries. This year, we hope to get the highest rating, the second level of compatibility. In addition, three more ships are being prepared for transfer from the Netherlands and Belgium. And these crews are already receiving training. In total, we plan to receive five mine-resistant ships, said Plitenshak. The spokesman also described the situation in the Black and Azaf seas. The situation is currently stable. The missile carriers are at their basing point in Novorossiysk. Only a patrol yacht of the Russian Federal Security Service is in the Black Sea, not far from the coast. There is no other activity in the Black Sea. One of the crew's missile carriers, which is being tested in Russia, has left the Azaf and Black Seas and is returning to the plant for completion, Plitenshak said. Russian military personnel deserting en masse in Kursan region. Russian military personnel are arriving in the temporarily occupied districts of the Kursan region, where they are reportedly deserting in large numbers according to the partisan movement Atech. It is noted that Russian occupiers are refusing to carry out combat missions and are deserting their temporary deployment areas. Interestingly, some of those who officially went on leave as deserters were later found in the occupied territory of the Kursan region. Meanwhile, movement agents also report the arrival of a large number of personnel from the occupation army in Novo Lexivka. These military personnel are accommodated in vacant abandoned houses. Most of them have multiple tattoos on their bodies. The local population believes that these are people who were previously in places of detention. The message reads, Desertion and refusal to participate in the war is increasingly a problem for the Russian military. Desertion is as hard as it ever was and it all depends on where the soldier is. To leave the front, he must either be granted furlough or be sent to a hospital from where he'll leave for another country legally or illegally. Running from the front line is very dangerous. People are fully aware that there are criminal consequences but that doesn't stop them. Some pretend they are one of the dead or injured. Some shoot themselves in the foot to get out to a hospital and then escape from there. Agents of Atech also report that units of the Russian National Guard have been instructed to capture Ukrainian partisans who provide information about the whereabouts of Russian occupation troops. Additionally, there are reports of the disappearance of Russian military personnel in the settlement. Partisans have discovered a radar station of the Russian occupiers in the temporarily occupied Crimea. It is installed in the area of Balaklava thermal power plant. Russian military personnel are also moving self-propelled artillery units towards Zankoi in the temporarily occupied Crimea. In addition, partisans have observed the movement of a large number of Russians to the temporarily occupied Zankoi in Crimea.


Let's get across more of these comments with Mark Bailey who joins us live from FIG Securities. Mark good morning to you. Do appreciate your time this morning. Now a couple of dovish comments you would say there. I mean most officials recently have been very hawkish, sort of thinking that interest rate rises is the right decision. We could even see more than the market is expecting. Where to from here? Because it does seem like there are a couple of doves among them. Yeah, good morning Leanne. I think that's right and that's certainly the way that the market reacted to these comments on Friday and probably will be in terms of the week ahead which will probably be fairly light trading. Obviously we've got the non-farm payrolls on Friday. But in terms of those specific comments, obviously if they are thinking about reducing that balance sheet that will also play into any hiking decision as well. Because I think if they start to reduce the balance sheet which is kind of continue to be maintained after QE where they've been reinvesting those bonds that have matured and those coupons have been reinvested as well. If they do start to reduce the balance sheet that will also kind of be a pseudo tightening. So that will also potentially impact the pace of hike that it's going to happen in 2017 and 2018. And also you had William Dudley as well again saying look he certainly isn't seeing the economy overheating. Inflation is still below their core target and again you had that print on Friday in terms of the Fed's preferred inflation measure, the core PCE. And that again illustrated it came in at 0.2% in line with expectations for February. So again I think you're right in terms of those dovish comments. I think the market has maybe got itself too far ahead. We've been talking that lower for longer is probably still the mantra. There's a lot of people that would dispute that. But in the first quarter we did see those 10-year deals trade from around about 2.3% to 2.63% in the 10 years. And closed on Friday around about 2.4%. So towards the lower end of that range. And I think that's probably right in terms of what we're seeing with the Trump presidency. The failure to repeal Obamacare turns his attention on to tax and fiscal stimulus. And there's a big question mark about whether he can get those through the Senate and the House in terms of actually implementing those into the US economy. So still lots of question marks. I think that's why you're seeing a bit more cautious in the market. And the market is actually only pricing in about 1.7 times in terms of the hikes this year. Slightly less than the two times that's probably most of the board members are predicting if you look at the blue dot plots. With regards to how many hikes we could see how dependent is the Federal Reserve. They're their path for tightening. How dependent is that on those fiscal measures getting through. At the moment they've been very keen to state that the future projections aren't really placing any significance on any fiscal stimulus that may or may not happen. So if they do get the fiscal stimulus through then there is a potential chance that those hikes may come through a lot quicker. Personally I don't really see that you're going to see the fiscal spend a have a big impact on the economy. I don't think you're going to see a significant increase in inflation. But that's going to take probably about three to six months for the market to realize that that is the case. And but in the meantime you probably still see a steepening and still probably higher yields across that US Treasury curve as a market still expects that to be the case. But if you think about it we saw vast amounts of QE in the preceding years after the GFC and still didn't see inflation. So we're meant to believe that you're going to see inflation from fiscal spend in one country. Personally I don't buy it. So but I think at the moment the market is certainly certainly still believing that. And I think the Fed will obviously have to react if there is a major fiscal stimulus that does actually get passed. Let's talk about other sort of measures stimulus measures there in place or lack thereof. I suspect that I mean bringing it back to Australia we heard there on on Friday that APRA is really clamping down trying to slow this lending growth to 30 percent of new mortgage loans investor only loans there. A couple of analysts sort of commenting saying that they believe the measures will have a meaningful impact on housing demand and we could see you know a rain in growth there in housing property you know housing prices. What is your view on how much this will have an impact more broadly on the housing market. Yeah. And I think that's exactly right. I mean that's that's what the regulatory authorities want. They want to target where they see potentially an asset bubble. You know most global asset prices have increased largely through share prices in Australia. It's the lower interest rate policy is manifesting itself in higher property prices. As you say there are limiting the growth in terms of the interest only sector to 30 percent of mortgage is written. And I think historically in the last 12 to 18 months that was over 40 percent. So there's going to be a fairly significant reduction in terms of the types of loans the ADIs are going to have to write. And also you know they didn't whilst they didn't change the investor only growth rates of less than 10 percent. They did say that it now needs to be comfortably below that figure as well. So that will all feed back into the into the housing market. And one of the problems is as everybody is aware of the housing market in Australia. It is it's very localized. So you know the significant growth in house prices that you've seen in Sydney and to a lesser extent Melbourne. Yes they do probably need to be tempered and attempted to slow down. But elsewhere you know particularly in Western Australia in Perth you're starting to see maybe a slight recovery in house prices after a fairly significant slump. And it's concerned that those types of markets where maybe the recovery hasn't been established and you haven't seen fairly significant house price growth over the last two or three years. It's going to really impact those markets. So it's very very localized in terms of the Australian market and it's in terms of the different centers. You know you've probably got Brisbane that's had a decent run but you know nowhere near in terms of the house price appreciation that you've seen in Sydney and Melbourne. So it's quite difficult to target those types of different different market conditions by using a fairly blunt tool. You know obviously the the regulatory APRA macro potential tools it's slightly better than the broader interest rate tools which do impact other parts of the economy. And so it's attempt to try and control and calm down the housing market by using those rather than interest rates which can impact your business loans for example as well. So it's going to be really interesting to see the impact. I think there will be some impact and that's going to be fairly significant because I think some of the banks are going to have to change some of their lending criteria and their growth areas more to that principal and interest product and more into our own occupied. So there's going to be competition there whilst I think you're already seeing interest rates increasing in those other sectors because banks are trying to maybe get people to refinance off their books and with somebody else. So I think it's going to be really interesting in terms of how that plays out in terms of the Australian housing market and also it will actually reduce a bit of pressure from the RBA in terms of their potential hikes that they're feeling because I think they're going to want to see how those macro potential rules work. And I think the RBA potentially broader economy is still pretty soft. It may even allow them to cut rates later this year. All right fantastic. Certainly comments from the RBA tomorrow will be closely watched as well. Mark will leave it there but to do appreciate you joining us this morning. Thanks so much. Leanne have a good day. We will take


We can reduce a fraction to lowest terms, so remember, the fraction a over b is reduced to lowest terms when a and b have no common factor besides 1. Since rational expressions are essentially fractions with polynomials, we'll define the following. The rational expression p of x over q of x is reduced to lowest terms when p of x and q of x have no common factors besides 1. Now, we've reduced a fraction by removing common factors. We made use of the fact that na over nb is the same as a over b. And so we'll produce a rational expression by removing common factors. So, for example, let's try to reduce 12 over 9 minus 3x to lowest terms. Now again, it's helpful to remember that a factor only matters if it's a common factor. So the factors of 12 besides 1 are 2, 3, 4, 6, and 12. And we really only care if one of these is also a factor of 9 minus 3x. And we see that 9 minus 3x is 3 times 3 minus x. So let's rewrite 12 using our factor of 3. So 12 is 3 times 4. Equals means replaceable, so 9 minus 3x can be replaced with 3 times 3 minus x. And now numerator and denominator have a common factor of 3, so we can remove it, leaving. Now a useful thing to remember is that minus a minus b is the same as b minus a. And this gives us a limited ability to rearrange some terms of our expression. And this will be useful on occasion. So let's say we want to simplify 12 minus 3x over x minus 4. So let's factor our numerator. And notice that this factor 4 minus x is almost the same as this factor x minus 4 in the denominator. And remember, if our two factors are the same except for the order of the subtraction, we can reverse the order of subtraction by introducing a factor of minus 1. So negative a minus b is the same as b minus a. And b minus a is the same as negative a minus b. So I can change this 4 minus x into a negative x minus 4. Equals means replaceable, so 12 minus 3x can be replaced with minus 3 times x minus 4. Let's go ahead and reinforce that this x minus 4 in the denominator is a single thing by throwing it inside a set of parentheses. And now the numerator has a factor of x minus 4. The denominator has a factor of x minus 4. And so we can remove the common factors, leaving. And we'll simplify, minus 3 over 1 is the same as minus 3.


Thanks for checking out this unboxing video. This is the unboxing for the June box of dread It's late because the box didn't show up late. It's I'm late on Unboxing this because I was out on vacation when the box showed up at my house So not the fall to box of dread or John John if I haven't said enough on these unboxing videos for box of dread you're doing an awesome job You're getting stuff out. You're getting good stuff out and it's just you For people who don't know it's one dude from dread central John who's doing all this box of dread stuff and it's cool and it's cheap and He does a really good job. And when I say cheap I mean the price of the box is cheap, but it's good stuff. So anyway, always excited for this box This is the June one. These don't have themes I'm fine with that. I actually don't care about themes Sometimes it's cool when themes are done, but overall I'm not a big deal for me. So let's check this out It's a different. It's like a different shape box every time too, which is fun Let's get in there Feels like there might be like a pop in there I think the box opened up on my pop. All right, I'm gonna do it's a poster. I'll do this poster first I think the last poster was the necronomicon page poster, which is really cool Don't get that frame. That's a really awesome one. Yeah Yeah Yeah, this is also an awesome one The howling. I love the howling the howling is my favorite werewolf movie now This is for the board game though. Apparently it's a board game Let's see if I can get better lighting on that if I get closer Yeah, you can see it all right from there. You can see the howling. It's a lot like the iconic Cover art for the howling DVD slash blu-ray, whatever Original VHS. Yeah, but this is for the board game I mean, maybe the board game will be worth checking out but That's cool. If I'm gonna get posters. I'm not huge into posters, but if I'm gonna get posters I Mean like this howling one pretty sweet like I was saying that necronomicon page one From evil dead slash army of darkness was awesome So that's cool. If I'm gonna get one. That's cool. I'm sure it was like some sort of promotional item That they worked out with those folks The pop is in the way. So I gotta do it This is a cool one. Um, this is nice.  I like this pop. This is a nice pop This will go really well with the rest of the horror pops that I have. I like getting pops in these pops and mystery minis Yeah, I like that. That's a good one. That's nice I'm a fan DVD always down for some DVDs The dark tapes, okay It's by epic Entertain and epic pictures. I would say epic entertainment. No, it's epic pictures This doesn't surprise me. I kind of figure we're gonna end up getting a lot more epic DVDs Because epic actually I believe purchase dread central I don't know if they purchased them or they just are financially backing them for whatever reason so their dread central was having some issues, but As soon as that I heard that that happened which I'm fine with I was like I have a feeling we're gonna be seeing more epic DVDs showing up Which is fine because I'm always down to check out horror films So this is the dark tapes Seeing the truth has consequences apparently 9.5 out of 10 found footage critic calm I don't even know what that is, but doesn't sound like like a very reputable website So there you go see it Is there any explanation a horrifying blend of terror and mayhem which takes you on a twisted journey Into the world of paranormal activity demonic possession and the supernatural So I'm assuming this is one of those kind of found footage anthology films in the same vein is like a VHS one or I think they did VHS VHS to and VHS They did a third one that was like a web related one or something, but anyway, um That's cool. I'm totally down to check this out always like getting DVDs of movies I'm not seeing and then We get oh That's interesting a signed card by Joe Chinakis Chinakis, I don't know. He's the guy who wrote the book rabbit in red He's horror book of the year author. That's cool. We're having a red must have been pretty good I actually have this book and interestingly enough I have this book from Horror block when I was subscribing to horror block So it's kind of cool to have the signature of the author now to go along with it I'll probably just like put this inside the book. I keep meaning to read it. I'm sorry. I've not read it yet I got a month ago. I just with all my reading, you know and You can get a free digital download of rabbit in red, okay, that's cool I'm not gonna show you The code on this because I think it might be the same code for everyone and that's only something you should get if you're a box of dread person so Extra incentive to sign up, but this is good. I like this idea not just having the signature That's just an extra bonus cool thing, but the idea of giving books but giving them electronically It's cheaper for a lot of people involved in this whole process But it's also nice because the reading things electronically is a much bigger thing now than Physical books, although I'm a physical book person. So I am glad that this was for one. I already have So yes But anyway, um once again, you know, this is a relatively cheap box 20 bucks total with shipping so it's $14 and then six for the shipping So, I mean the fact that I got a pop a DVD a Digital book and a cool poster. I mean, that's definitely the value At least the value, you know, it's more than the value actually because pops typically release like 10 bucks or so And then a DVD and you might be able to get this for less than 10 But around there so values good The stuff is good I mainly just get it because I always like I'm always hoping for the pops or the mystery minis because I love Horror mystery mini stuff and horror pop stuff. So any rate box dread did it again, John. Good. Good. Good job to To sound two months in a row of a nice Poster you might get me Rethinking my stance on I'm not really liking posters because you gave me two really good ones So anyway, thank you everyone for checking this out. Thank you John a box of dread for doing what you do and keep it up Man, I can't wait to see where we're going I know you said something recently about some new exciting stuff about to happen with box of dread So I cannot wait But until next time keep it brutal