Ex-JUDAS PRIEST Guitarist K.K. DOWNING Granted Permission To Put Up Marquees For Weddings

According to Shropshire Star, former JUDAS PRIEST guitarist Kenneth "K.K." Downing has been granted permission to put up marquees for weddings and other functions at his home at Astbury Hall in Shropshire, England.

It has been claimed if the marquees idea proves successful it would boost plans to build a hotel at the site. The application was given the go-ahead at a meeting of Shropshire Council's south planning committee, held at Ludlow Town Football Club's SBS Stadium yesterday.

Downing, who owns 18- and nine-hole golf courses on the property, previously had permission for extensions to the hall to provide a hotel, use of a barn for holiday lets and the erection of 12 holiday lodges.

In a 2009 interview with Shopshire Magazine, Downing admitted that it could be odd coming back to sleepy Shropshire after touring the world with JUDAS PRIEST.

"It is weird," he said. "I've been going and coming from this place all my life and every time it's like it's reinventing itself. I have to reintroduce myself to everything. I go to the cupboard and say, I'm sure I bought some sugar where is it?'"

Regarding his decision to buy a house not too far from his Midlands roots, he said, "It became common sense to buy a property of your own and a few of us acquired homes in the south of Spain. I came here in 1985 a long time. It was the house really that I liked. Before I came here I had a tiny semi in Bloxwich as my first house, but the deal was that there was bus stop outside it, and when we started doing 'Top Of The Pops' in the late '70s, people used to get off the bus and walk up the garden path for an autograph."

Downing recently slammed as inaccurate reports that he chose to quit JUDAS PRIEST to concentrate on his championship golf course.