Eddy52's Story
My name is José Eduardo but here in Portugal all Jose's are nicknamed “Zé” (pronounced Zay, not Zeeeeee), so everybody knows me as Zé Eduardo.
My father was a navy officer, so my childwood was full of military memories. We have been to Angola twice during the sixties when I was a teenager. I remember being on the bridge of the old second hand American WWII destroyers at full speed (36 knots!! what a sensation!!!), I remember the F-86 fighters, the P2V5?? anti-submarine planes, etc, etc. I was also very familiar with the terrific images of helicopters coming in all day long from the front with wounded and dead soldiers. I remember the naval bases with the patrol and landing boats. I remember the beautiful people of Angola and the amazing landscapes, beaches, underwater expeditions…safaris, etc. etc…Now, after almost 40 years of war, the country is finally in peace but completely destroyed and full of land mines which nobody knows were they are, except when you step over one.
Advancing in time…and back to Europe, I became addicted to computers when my nephews bought a small 32k ZX Spectrum back in 1985. Quickly I was flying a game named “fighter pilot”, staying all night in front of the television monitor playing a line half green half blue with some gauges…It was a marvellous sensation!
In the late 80's I switch to PCs and got seriously into hardware. Since that time I've been building my own computers. I quickly got hooked on the MS Flight Simulators in the late 80's (it was the standard for compatibility between computers when IBM lost the control of the copyrights and the Taiwanese clones started to pop up like mushrooms). I bought almost all military simulators available at the time. With the advent of 3D cards I got definitely into that virtual universe.
I've been a professional musician since the middle 70's. My life is totally devoted to music but 90% of my free time is devoted to gaming. I have some strategy or easy graphics simulation games on my laptop to be ready when I have to tour for more than 2 days. Sometimes I finished a concert at 02:00am, pack my instrument and run back to the hotel to play till four in the morning. My friends keep drinking and chasing the groupies for the same time. Its more than obvious that my decision to head straight to the hotel is normally the wisest one. ;-)
I've found the Skyknights in 97 when I bought the boxed game Air Warrior and decided plugged it into the net. I found “axe4u” that taught me the basics and invited me to the squad. I was very excited to become part of a community of players with the same interests and to start playing as a team with other human beings! I was tired of computer AIs…
Being a SkyKnight for a portuguese cat was not an easy task…Five hours difference in time difficult to deal with …and sometimes a musician's life can be very unpredictable. I find myself very often busy playing somewhere at night. And these 5 hours difference were always a problem…
After 2 or 3 years of great fun with the squad I decided to leave. In August 2003 after contacting Zooty I decided to return, but that year fortunately I got an award winning CD and a bunch of gigs ($$$$) so I had to quit again.
August 2004 and I'm back again. I've found a more flexible flying schedule, so I can fly with SK friends on line on different evenings of the week. Lets see how can I cope with the SkyKnights this time. I've got a new CD coming in September. I hope it will become a bestseller too. Good for Zé Eduardo…bad for Eddy52 and the Skyknights :-)
That's it. I'm practicing like crazy to get my chops back.
For those interested you can visit our non profit organization's web page at www.gremiodasmusicas.org It's in portuguese, but pretty clear. The Skyknights anthem can be found there…
