Saturday Club

Ruts D.C. played their last gig of this year on Saturday 23rd December at The 100 Club. It was everything that we could have hoped it would be - sold out in advance, we gave one of our best shows of the year alongside great sets from our friends Department S and The London Sewage Company. And there were plenty of friends in the audience too - I hadn't seen ex - U.K. Subs guitar hero Jet for ages, Rupert Orton bought along Newtown Neurotics drummer Simon Lomond while Nigel Bennett introduced me to his friend Steve who, he said, 'wanted to meet me' - and I don't mind admitting that I wanted to meet Steve Lillywhite too... all well and good (and if I'm honest, very exciting!) but none of it would have mattered if there hadn't been an audience. And what an audience they were. People had travelled from far and wide to see the show - you never think that people are going to do that for something you're involved with (well, I don't anyway!) so when it happens it's quite something. Plenty of locals too, and even though I say so myself they saw a good one. You know when you've played well, and we played well - some nights it all falls into place, and this was one of those nights. One to remember forever - but it's been a year to remember for the band. So much has happened - The Stranglers tour seems an age ago now, as do the 'big gigs' with Die Toten Hosen and Stiff Little Fingers, the outdoor show at The Rebellion Festival and so many terrific nights up and down the country, not forgetting The BBC6 Punk Party with The Damned... as I say it's been quite a year for Ruts D.C., and next year we tour Australia and New Zealand with The Stranglers, Great Britain with Stiff Little Fingers and more. 

See you in 2018 - there's work to do.

And in the meantime here's 'Kill The Pain' and 'Psychic Attack' from the 100 Club show - enjoy! 

'The hope that springs eternal...'

The word 'legendary' get overused these days doesn't it? It seems to me that you only have to get through the opening stages of a television talent programme to find yourself referred to as a genius, and if you get through to the final you're a legend within minutes, maybe even seconds. Ah well - at least that means that it'll never be applied to me...

The Hope And Anchor in Islington is, I think it's fair to say, a legendary venue. The Stranglers, Madness, U2, - they and many more played there back in the day, although you wouldn't know it from the pub's website. Have a look at it here - unless I'm missing something (which let's face it is more than possible!) there isn't one mention of it being a live music venue. In a way I suppose you could say that this is a good thing - there are so many people and places that have talked up what they've done to the point that it's either barely believable or just plain embarrassing - but I can't help but think that it's a shame that a place like this seems to be all but unaware of it's history. That said the walls of the staircase down to the basement venue are adorned with reproduction posters and tickets so perhaps I'm reading more into this than I should. Imagine that eh? I saw a few shows there over the years although oddly enough the only band I can really remember seeing there were The Gas; the last time I was there was to see Ipanema who featured former Mega City Four mainman Wiz and who played upstairs rather than downstairs - I'd never played there myself and so it was indeed a pleasure to play there with The London Sewage Company last night. Apparently the official capacity of the venue is only 80 people - sadly we didn't get near to that figure, but those that were there certainly made a lot of noise. With the Ruts D.C. Autumn schedule looming it'll be my last gig with the band for a while although there's talk of a single release in the not-too-distant future - more news as and when I have it, as they (whoever 'they' are) say.

Talking of Ruts D.C. we've been gearing up for this month's European gigs (full details on the Muttis Booking website) by spending some time at The Music Complex in Deptford. Tour rehearsals begin next week, but part of this year's PledgeMusic campaign involved us offering drums, bass and guitar lessons - nobody wanted a guitar lesson (!) but bass and (especially) drums proved to be popular, and as a band we decided to go a bit further by all turning up for the last hour of the session which gave the pledger a chance to play with the whole band. Somewhat inevitably this also involved us all visiting The Little Crown for some Guinness - it's a tough old life sometimes isn't it?

In the meantime Big Al and The Blistering Buicks played at The Kings Arms in Harefield on Saturday evening, an odd show which was marked by an unusually high amount of equipment malfunction. As we went to start the first number Pete's guitar amp refused to make any sound at all - fortunately Al had a spare but it wasn't a good way to begin the show. Chris's keyboards then mysteriously turned themselves off, and when he turned them back on he'd lost his pre-programmed Hammond Organ sound - and then my overdrive pedal went wrong. Towards the end of the Bournemouth gig earlier this month the overdrive sound had stopped working even though the indicator light was still lit - this, a classic case of 'the lights are on but no one's home', usually means that the battery has nearly run out so changed it believing that to be the problem. However it happened again at this show, something which I chose to attempt to remedy by jumping up and down on it in an increasingly futile (and indeed childish) display of anger. Not big and most definitely not clever, although it did give Al something to laugh at! Closer inspection revealed that the power switch on the back of the pedal was set for 18V rather than 9V (it's an Ibanez Tube Screamer TS808DX - this review tells the story should you wish to indulge) so I've since taped it in the 9V position which should hopefully sort things out. We shall find out this weekend as Big Al and Co. play at a private party in Uxbridge on Saturday night... and The Upper Cut return to showbusiness with a gig at Ye Olde George in Colnbrook on Sunday afternoon - which means that I've got from now until then to re-learn the songs. I'd better stop sitting here typing and listening to 'Album' by Public Image Ltd (it is bloomin' good though isn't it?!?) and get on with it then hadn't I?

Many Happy Returns

Well there you have it - the biggest gap between postings that these hallowed pages have ever seen. Well, these have been busy times. Since last Tuesday I've been working in Balcony Shirts as well as playing 3 shows with Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks and appearing at The Boomtown Fair with Ruts D.C. - all of which means that this is the first chance I've had to post anything since The Rebellion Festival. 

Ah yes, The Rebellion Festival. That seems a long time ago now. And in many ways it was a long time ago, or maybe to be more accurate it feels as though it was another time. 5 days in Blackpool, during which I managed, oh I don't know, maybe 20 hours sleep at the most. No wonder I couldn't keep my eyes open several times in the succeeding few days. Still that's alright - sometimes things are too interesting to sleep through aren't they?

So - what happened?

Well some details are necessarily sketchy, while others will remain with me forever. Did I, as a teenage Damned fan, ever think that I'd be in a backstage bar discussing the merits of The Prisoner with Captain Sensible? No, I did not. But this happened, and more besides. In musical terms the two Ruts D.C. shows - one on the 'big' stage in The Empress Ballroom. the other in the cramped confines of the acoustic stage - were both as good as we ever hoped that they would be, while the show with Noel from Menace and Rob from King Kurt was better than any of us could believe! The London Sewage Company show went well, an unscheduled appearance with T.V. Smith reminded me just what a genius the man is, and a song with Bug was great fun even though my guitar chose to go wildly out of tune as soon as I bent a string. It turned out that the top nut had come loose - I spent the next morning buying superglue to repair it... all this muscling onto other people's stages (that's a joke, I was invited!) meant that I played on every day of the festival, as well as working on the Cadiz Music merchandising stall the rest of the time. Maybe it wasn't just lack of sleep that was making me tired... 

I'd attempted to use my Facebook page as a kind of 'live diary' as the festival progressed, but a mixture of bad phone signal in The Winter Gardens and being too bloody busy to remember to do it meant that I didn't manage to update it as often as I'd have liked. And it wasn't all good - I had several nosebleeds (I wasn't doing anything naughty, honest!) and received a frantic phone call from my Dad telling me that my bank had called to say that my credit card had been compromised (it seems that I'd bought several ill-defined items in quick succession while working behind the stall - the very helpful young lady on the phone sorted it out in no time) but nothing could ruin what really was a wonderful festival. But that was then, and this is now. Back to life, back to reality. Same time next year? Let's hope so.

'Euston, we have a problem...'

Well I've just had three 18-ish hour days in a row and have had little if any time today to sit blogging about 'em. So, in a nutshell...

Thursday - Ruts D.C. rehearsal during the day, Menace rehearsal in the evening.

Friday - Ruts D.C. rehearsal during the day, Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks gig in the evening.

Saturday - working in Balcony Shirts during the day, Neck gig in the evening.

...which all looks reasonable straightforward written down here, and I suppose in many way it was exactly that. The only bit that caused any real problems was getting stuck at Harrow-On-The-Hill Station on Friday as I was coming back from The Music Complex in Deptford (a disembodied voice repeatedly told us that the line to Uxbridge was closed due to 'signal failure at Rayners Lane'; incidentally 2 splendid sessions at said studio may well mean several new songs appearing at the coming weekend's Ruts D.C. shows - oh yes!) for a gig with Big Al and the boys at Hayes Working Men's Club. This resulted in several increasingly sweary phone conversations before the heroic efforts of fellow six-stringer Pete went above and beyond the call of duty by meeting me at Northwood Hills Station. We made it to the gig in time which went well although I felt that I played badly in the first set; it had been a long day on Thursday with the Menace rehearsal at K Town Studios in Kentish Town running on until after 10 o'clock so maybe it was all catching up with me? Still that rehearsal had also gone well, with drummer Noel sounding good on acoustic guitar (he's usually on drums!) and vocals and and Rob excelling on double bass - we're getting together again tomorrow evening so with a Ruts D.C. session also happening another long day is in prospect. Still I wanted to play the guitar didn't I? And it was definitely good to play guitar last night, when Neck played at The Good Ship in Kilburn at an evening to celebrate the 85th anniversary of The Morning Star newspaper. With Naomi Bedford and Paul Simmonds, Comrade X and Attila The Stockbroker also on the bill a fine night was in prospect, and I'm pleased to say that a fine night was had. Personally after a l-o-n-g day in Balcony Shirts I could perhaps had done with an early night, but as I said earlier, I wanted to play the guitar didn't I?

And there's lots of guitar playing in store for your humble narrator this coming weekend, as it's The Rebellion Festival in Blackpool - in addition to appearing with Ruts D.C. and Menace I'm also playing with The London Sewage Company, working on the Cadiz Music merchandising stall and maybe doing a few songs with a couple of other acts too. I am intending to give a kind of 'running commentary' by regularly updating my Facebook page as the festival progresses, but there are a lot of bars and they're all open all day...

'And red mutant eyes gaze down on Hunger City'...

It's my birthday on Friday, and starting then I've got 3 gigs in 3 days with 3 different bands. I realise that for most people that would not constitute a reasonable way to celebrate such an event, but you won't be surprised to hear that it fits the bill just fine for me... The Upper Cut play The Dolphin in Uxbridge on the day itself, the next night Big Al and the Blistering Buicks are back at The Brushwood Inn in Hillingdon and on Sunday Neck play The Ambition Festival in Croydon. Excellent!

And it's been 3 gigs with 3 different bands since last we spoke, starting with The London Sewage Company at The 12 Bar Club in Holloway on Friday. It was singer Barnet Mark's birthday, and with The Fallen Leaves and Chris Pope among the other acts on the bill a splendid time was guaranteed for all. I'd spent the day with Noel and Rob (incidentally that's Rob on bass in this legendary clip. Oh yes!) from Menace rehearsing for our upcoming acoustic show at The Rebellion Festival - when I got to the venue The Love Me Tenders were roaring through their set and sounding good to me. Next up Chris Pope who played with customary commitment and energy, with new songs and Chords classics sitting together well. By the time we went on around half past nine the place had filled up nicely and our set saw much merriment on the dance floor. It also saw various items of underwear thrown at Mark who then got covered in silly string followed by an inordinate amount of flour amid scenes that wouldn't have been out of place at a King Kurt gig. He took it well, but I suppose he had to if you think about it. The Fallen Leaves then gave a wonderful performance - I hadn't seen them for a while and had all but forgotten how much I like them. After that it was time to leave for the train home, but not before bidding Mark goodnight - he was wearing a loud Hawaiian shirt and an increasingly confused expression. And why not?

On Sunday afternoon The Upper Cut made their latest appearance at Ye Olde George in Colnbrook. It being a very hot afternoon I for one was half-expecting a low audience turnout but I'm pleased to say that there were plenty of people present, including Blistering Buicks Big Al and Pete both fresh from The Uxbridge Auto Show. Despite the heat we gave an energetic show that wasn't without incident - I was interrupted mid-solo by a young lady who I think was trying to tell me that I was playing too loud (I couldn't hear what she was saying as I was playing too loud) while later a table collapsed for no apparent reason (at least none that I could see) and a young couple kept telling us that they'd tried to book us for their wedding a year or so ago (we hadn't been available, although no one could quite work out why). All in an afternoon's work.

And last night Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks played The Ox And Gate in Dollis Hill. A Tuesday night gig is rare enough, but a seven o'clock start at a Hungarian food night qualifies as 'previously uncharted territory' on more than one level. Howard once again made a great job of depping on drums, I met Aussie Rob who used to play in Swervedriver and Curve and who knows the lads out of Menace and everyone else enjoyed the free food, especially Al who at one point had possibly the biggest sausage that I've ever seen (oo-er missus etc) on his plate. 

Me? I bought myself a veggie burger. Of course I did. 'If they give you lined paper, write the other way', as someone once wrote...

Left to my own Devizes (sorry!)

Well it's been another one of those 'there's no time to do anything apart from what I'm doing at the moment' weeks; the last few days have seen Upper Cut gigs in Barnes and Colnbrook, a London Sewage Company show at The Dublin Castle in Camden Town, busy times in Balcony Shirts, The Damned, Johnny Moped and Rubella Ballet at The Roundhouse and more - I'll hopefully get the opportunity to write more about them at a later date, but before I leave for a Ruts D.C. gig at The Devizes Festival there's just time to say that I'll be making another one of my occasional appearances on Music Scene Investigation this Sunday at 9 pm reviewing three songs submitted by new artists. There's also an Al & co. gig this weekend, more days in the shop and probably some other things as well; in the meantime the Arte programme 'Tracks' has broadcast an article on Ruts D.C. (the interviews and live footage were recorded when we visited Paris in April) and our set from Strummercamp last month has appeared on YouTube - you can watch them by clicking here and here if you like. Maybe I'll get the chance to see them one day?

Now, I really must get on with changing my strings...

Respect the chemistry

After the madness of the Bank Holiday weekend it's been a quieter week in mad-guitar-world, which as I occasionally observe here isn't necessarily been a bad thing from time to time. Balcony Shirts is very busy at the moment so there's been a fair bit of work there with more to come, and I've been doing dangerously-grown-up things like putting all the last few month's receipts and bank statements in order with a view to filling in this year's tax return in the not-too-distant future. This seems to have come around rather quickly again, but with Ruts D.C. gigs starting in August and continuing for much of the rest of the year I think that it's better to get it done now while I've got a bit of time rather than rush it before gig frenzy breaks out. Well that's the plan anyway - we'll see what actually happens... I've also finally caught up with the rest of the world and begun watching 'Breaking Bad' - it's very good isn't it?  

In the meantime it's been back to the pubs for your humble narrator this weekend, with Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks playing The Halfway House in Rickmansworth on Friday evening and Ye Olde George in Colnbrook on Sunday afternoon. In between times The Upper Cut returned to The Kings Arms in Harefield on Saturday night for a gig that started slowly (The F.A. Cup Final had not long finished when we arrived) but which livened up considerably with the arrival of several young ladies out on a hen night. 'Caan yew plaay 'Go Yer Own Waay' by Fleetwood Mac?' slurred the really rather good looking blonde girl as her friends passed the bottle of champagne around - sadly we couldn't which was a bit of a shame as I'd love to have seen what would have happened if we could... our inability to perform what presumably was one of their favourites didn't seem to hamper their enjoyment of the evening, and fairly soon they were joined on the dance floor by more than a few likely lads (at least one of which ended up flat on his back on more than one occasion - pace yourselves boys!) along with people asking if they could play harmonica with us, people asking if their mate could play harmonica with us, people asking if their boyfriend could play harmonica with us - all in a day's or indeed night's work. Oh and my old friend Steve and his wife Jan turned up, I played our last few songs on his old Les Paul because, well, he asked me to and it would have been rude not to! The Big Al bashes went well too, with Al and the band on top form and everything going in the right direction. A good weekend all round then, and with The Upper Cut are out and about again this week in Barnes on Friday and Colnbrook on Sunday, and The London Sewage Company playing their second gig at The Dublin Castle in Camden Town on Thursday there's plenty to look forward to in the next few days.

Now - do I sort out some receipts or watch the next episode of 'Breaking Bad'? Tricky...

The thrill is gone

We live in strange times don't we? Well I think that we do - another 5 years of Tory (mis) rule have arrived seemingly by accident, or at the very least against the run of play; anyone who dares to question anything that they say and do is labelled at best a troublemaker and more likely a loony lefty revolutionary ready to take the 'great' out of Great Britain. Most of the country didn't vote for them of course, but that hardly seems to matter - millions struggle to keep a roof over their head and put food on the table while The Royal Family casually add another member who will live with all the luxury and opulence that they've come to consider 'normal'. For what my opinion is worth I think that the very existence of The Royal Family is an insult to the working people, indeed the working class of the country, but I guess that just makes me a loony lefty revolutionary troublemaker. If you're lucky enough to have a job then you're not supposed to have a opinion, if you're lucky enough to have a opinion then you don't deserve to have a job; in the meantime former contestants on television talent contests are now considered to be 'artists', the winners are referred as 'legends' while others are now presenters or indeed judges on said programmes. A self-fulfilling prophesy? Maybe... 
If B.B. King had have showed up on the set of The X Factor he'd have lasted a few seconds at best - too old, too heavy, not able to sing and play guitar at the same time, not even trying to dance, all of which means that he will have to be content with being remembered as one of the greatest and most respected blues guitarists of all time. His playing is literally the stuff of legend - yes, legend - with sad men like me spending their entire lives trying to get even near to it. We all bend strings, but no one bends a string like B.B. King. Did he invent it? Well probably not, but as he himself once observed, nobody did it before him. And then there's that vibrato - often imitated but never equalled, it almost redefines the term 'industry standard'. As an artist - yes, an artist - he stayed true to himself and his music throughout his long and illustrious career, and as such should be seen as an inspiration to musicians everywhere. There is thankfully a huge amount of superb live footage, most of which confirms his graceful greatness and total commitment to his music, so here is a clip of 'How Blue Can you Get?' recorded at Sing Sing Prison - somehow he even looks cool hitching his pants up doesn't he? What a player, and what a man - we are sadly unlikely ever to see his like again. R.I.P. B.B. - and thanks.

It's been a busy few days in mad-guitar-land, starting with a show by The London Sewage Company at The Dublin Castle in Camden Town. I'd not played there before and so was particularly looking forward to the evening, which turned out to be highly enjoyable despite there being hardly anybody in the audience. It had been raining heavily all day which probably had an effect on things, and it's often the case that a big show (we played at The Shepherds Bush Empire last month) is followed by a much smaller one. Still we played well and we're back at the same venue on June 4th for another show in what could well turn out to be a monthly residency for the band. Support came from The Uppercuts (Oooh! That's a dodgy name for a band!) and Dirt Royal (both of which were excellent) and earlier in the evening I found time to visit The Rock 'n' Roll Rescue shop next door - time to donate some of those books that I haven't read for ages methinks!

Two Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks gigs saw the band return to The Riverside Club in Staines on Friday night before heading up to the previously uncharted territory (that's uncharted by us - other people have been there!) of The United Services Club in Dunstable the following evening. Both shows went well although I for one wasn't sure that they would - the first one was rather sparsely attended while the next night had a real 'go on then, impress us' feeling about it from the moment we arrived. However I'm pleased to say that in both cases the band rose to the occasion, playing with plenty of energy while Al's showmanship soon had the people on our side. Indeed both gigs saw plenty of dancing and general merriment which is always a good thing to see.

On Sunday I (re)joined my old mates Neck for a how at The Cursus Festival in Dorset. With no chance to rehearse with the band I'd worked on the songs on my own, and I'm glad that I did as the projected set list was changed on the day when the band got to the site. This sort of things happens a fair bit as it's always good to react to what's happening on the day, and when we realised that there was rather a lot of cider around (I'll leave you to think about the implications of that development... got the idea?!?) we changed the set to be a bit more, shall we say, danceable... it was a tactic that worked too, as our show saw a great amount of jollity from the assembled multitude, and an excellent time was had by all.

This coming weekend Ruts D.C. are playing in Bologna (I've not been to Italy before so I've been looking forward to this show for a while) and at Strummercamp at Manchester Rugby Club - Bologna and Cheadle Hulme has to be the most unusual and indeed unlikely back-to-back gigs that I've ever done! In the meantime it's Pete Townshend's 70th birthday tomorrow - when push comes to shove he's my favourite guitarist of them all, so here is some incredible footage of The Who at The 1970 Isle Of Wight Festival touching musical heights that few if any will ever approach. 
Enjoy!

' 'Smell The Glove' is here...'

Ruts D.C. with 'Love In Vain' - at last!

Well last night promised much, and I'm pleased to say that it delivered much more, as 'Love In Vain - The Story Of The Ruts and Ruts D.C.' by Roland Link was finally unveiled after many years in the making. Edited by Paul Trynka and published by Cadiz Music and Sosumi Records it really is an amazing piece of work - I know you'd expect me to say that, but I'd like to think that I've still got some level of objectivity here... mind you, if you'd told me a few years ago that there would be a time when I'd be asked to autograph a book then I'd probably have told you that you'd gone completely mad - but it happened last night. Incredible. Said event took place at The Islington in Islington where Ruts D.C. played an acoustic and electric set, participated in two Q & A sessions with the afore-mentioned Messrs Link and Trynka and met what felt like the entire audience. And I'm going to say that every moment of it was enjoyable - and that's a great thing to be able to say.  

The previous evening The Upper Cut played at The Dolphin in Uxbridge. We'd rehearsed at Bush Studios in Shepherd's Bush the previous evening - this coupled with the fact that we've been playing regularly lately (well, regularly by our standards!) and that it was Big Al's birthday (he bought down quite a few family and friends) meant that we were on fine form throughout. Such was our enthusiasm that I managed to cut a finger by windmilling and being silly - I really should watch things like that shouldn't I?

Once again there's a busy week in prospect, meaning that once again blogging time is limited. The London Sewage Company play The Dublin Castle in Camden Town on Thursday, I'm joining Neck at The Curcus Festival in Dorset on Sunday and there are a couple of Buicks gigs in between - how on Earth am I going to find time to read Roland's book?!?  

You cannot be serious!

In writing these (ahem!) hallowed pages I quite often find myself recounting things that when I read back through them seem scarcely believable - but an incident that occurred at The Upper Cut's performance on Saturday evening at The Halfway House in Barnes has to go down as one of the best. There I was at the bar with Scots Kenny, the always-genial mate of UC bassman Terry discussing of all things The Motors (and why not? They were great weren't they?!?) when we were approached by a man who I will politely describe as 'odious'. Sorry to have to say that but, well, he just was. Nasty, bitter, rude - it was written all over him. You and indeed I sadly meet people like that sometimes don't you? He cared not a jot for the fact that Kenny and myself were having a private conversation but instead interrupted and weighed in with the line 'you should be enhancing my evening but you're coming close to ruining it'. At first I thought that perhaps he'd heard what we'd been saying and wasn't a Motors fan (in which case he'd obviously be a total git - after all, who doesn't like The Motors?) but when he followed it up with 'let me give you some advice' I knew we were in for an entertaining time. He went on to tell Kenny that although he was 'quite a good singer' his vocals were so loud that they were giving him a headache. Although struggling to keep a straight face (well, I certainly was!) we politely agreed to turn Kenny's vocals down in our second set - meaning that we of course left our singer Terry's setting where they were. So what happened next? You've guessed it, our friendly neighbourhood buffoon approached the band (and specifically Terry, who remember had been lucky enough not to have spoken to him up until this point in proceedings) and threatened all manner of terrifying actions if we didn't turn the vocals down. I briefly considered a comment along the lines of 'listen mate, I don't come around to your work and tell you how to do things, so don't come around to mine' but instead Terry told him where to go in no uncertain terms - after which the landlady came over to ask him to leave us alone before giving us the frankly astonishing news that he used to be a Wimbledon umpire and was well-known in the area for having been insulted by John McEnroe back in the day. Like I say I sometimes have trouble believing the stuff that I write here... leaving aside that idiot's antics (I'm sure a couple of people clapped as he walked out of the door a few songs later!) it was a good night - our first gig at the venue ended with barmaids dancing on the table and us being rebooked. And for the record, I didn't think that we were too loud, but I suppose that I wouldn't would I?

I dread to think what Mr. Miserable would have made of the previous evening's entertainment at The 100 Club, where The Cockney Rejects had roared through a blistering hour-or-so set in front of a sold out crowd of diehard fans, all of whom seemed to know ever word of every song and who gave them the sort of reception that their performance thoroughly deserved. I arrived just in time to miss the first band 16 Guns (sorry lads!) as I had been to meet Richard and Blaise from Cadiz Music in The Ship in Wardour Street where I received the sad news that the pub was about to close for several weeks before reopening as a gastropub. Bugger! How many more landmark establishments will we lose in the name of so-called 'progress'? I however did see a splendid set from The Morgellons (let's face it, any band who plays 'The Blank Generation' has to be worth a look!) and a not-such-splendid set from The East End Badoes although in the latter's defence I did spend much of their time on stage catching up with various people so perhaps I should not be quite so judgemental (for once!) about them.

The previous day Segs and myself had met up to review some ideas for new Ruts D.C. songs - we worked on some chords sequences, recorded two rough demos and looked at any number of lyrical ideas so the day was certainly a success on pretty much every level. The band is about to announce a batch of shows for the Autumn including some in far-flung and in my case previously unchartered territories - watch this space, as they (whoever 'they' are) say... and we're playing at The Corn Exchange in Bedford with The Neville Staple Band this Saturday which has all the makings of a classic evening.

And it was a classic day yesterday when The London Sewage Company recorded 5 songs at The Brook in Wallington. Engineer Andy does a fair bit of work with Status Quo, and as I did a fair bit of work with Pip Williams back in the '90s we had plenty to talk about - progress was swift and although the tracks have yet to be mixed it looks as though they should turn out well. Game, set and match, you might say...

The calm after the storm? The calm before the next storm?

Well there we are then - a few weeks of intense activity (by my standards anyway!) and suddenly I'm back in the real World. Ooo! Still it's been good to have a week-and-a-bit to get things in order (I didn't half have a lot of clothes to wash!) and working at Balcony Shirts before the next batch of gigs begin. 

The long-awaited (by me at any rate!) book 'Love In Vain - The Story Of The Ruts and Ruts D.C.' by Roland Link is due out next month - we'll be playing The Islington in (you've guessed it!) Islington as part of the PledgeMusic funding campaign on Saturday 9th May which should be a night to remember. We're also about to release a 7'' single featuring a re-recording of the Ruts classic 'Jah War' which even though I say so myself has turned out really well. (I know you wouldn't expect to say that it's terrible but you know what I mean I think!) And myself and Segs are getting together tomorrow to go through yet more ideas for new songs - exciting stuff!

Although I wasn't out gigging myself last weekend I did manage to see a couple of shows, starting on Friday night with The Secret Police at Tropic At Ruislip. The Police were never exactly the coolest of bands to like, to the extent that they almost fit into the 'guilty pleasure' category for many. For what my opinion is worth I think they made some great records and having seen them play a couple of times back in the day can say that they were absolutely brilliant live. Much of their material is notoriously difficult to play, and I thought that The Secret Police made a very good job of things despite backing tracks malfunctioning as early as the first song. It looked as though they were running them from a somewhat temperamental iPad, and if this proves nothing else then the old adage 'always carry a spare' comes to mind... still once they got going it sounded excellent, and I for one had forgotten just how great songs like 'Bring On the Night' are. 
The next night it was off to Sub89 in Reading to see Adam Ant. A packed house witnessed an energetic performance from The Ant Man and his band (with Tom sounding splendid on low-slung Les Paul) who performed the 'Dirk Wears White Sox' album to the approval of all concerned. The show then continued with a selection of B-sides and early less-than-well-known material - you could all but hear the collective sigh of relief from the audience as 'Kings Of The Wild Frontier' began the encore, and 'Antmusic' caused predicable hysteria before a medley of 'Get It On' and 'You're So Physical' bought a highly enjoyable evening to an end.

This coming weekend there's a London Sewage Company recording session and The Upper Cut play their first gig since January, at The Halfway House in Barnes. We've not played their before so it'll hopefully be a good night. Before that I'm intending to see The Cockney Rejects at The 100 Club on Friday - well, I haven't been there for a couple of weeks...

'I've got dreams to remember...'

So - how do I describe the last few days? 

Well yesterday is reasonably straightforward to get to grips with - I got up, did my washing, caught up on phone calls and went to see a great gig by The Razors at The Feathers in Rickmansworth. Easy. It's the previous few days that's a bit trickier to put into words.
Here, in essence, is what happened -

Wednesday - rehearsed with Ruts D.C. during the day and The London Sewage Company in the evening.

Thursday - travelled to Paris with Ruts D.C., where we stayed in Montreuil in anticipation of playing a show there the following evening.

Friday - Ruts D.C. played said show at Cafe La Peche, part of which was filmed for inclusion in 'Tracks', a long-running Arte television show.

Saturday - travelled back to London where I played at The Shepherd's Bush Empire with The London Sewage Company and The Water Rats in King's Cross with Neck.

And that, in simple terms is what happened. But there was more, so much more to it all than that.

When you're a kid trying to learn to play the guitar, you dream a lot. Well I certainly did. I've realised that some musicians are more career-orientated from the word go when it comes to what they want out of playing music. Some want money, some want fame, some want sex, some want drugs, some want all of the above and more - and some of course get all of the above and more. I realise now that I was much more naive than that - maybe that's why I don't get very much of any of the above? On the other hand I get to do the things that I do - and that's alright. 

So what were my dreams about? Well as I say, I was pretty naive; I wanted to play music here, abroad, on television, in big venues, in bands that people had heard of - and I did all of those things in the last few days. Pretty good huh? Well I think it is - maybe one day I'll get some of the other things too? 

Blackpool Tower looks different
at this time of year...

The gigs themselves were great. Really great. Ruts D.C. last played a show way back in January at The 100 Club and rehearsals since then have mostly involved working on new material, so this week's get together was to revise our live show. And revise it we did - alongside the new song 'Secondhand Child' we also added a version of 'Brand New Cadillac' which Segs had sung at last month's Joe Strummer film gig; I'm not sure how long it'll stay in our set but it's certainly good fun to play and it made a good encore song. A film crew from the French and German television show 'Tracks' filmed part of our performance and an interview with Dave and Segs; they also filmed us at the Le Rond Point bar which has been our virtual home for the duration of our visit. We were staying next door at The Hotel de Belfort and had gone there shortly after our arrival on Thursday evening - Segs used to live in Paris and his astonishing command of the French language (or more specifically Parisian French, which I'm told is quite different) meant that we were accepted almost immediately, and indeed were in there until closing time. Despite our headaches we returned there the next day for lunch (which I missed as I decided to be a tourist and head for Place de la Concorde for some sightseeing) and for some food before the show. If I was to say that Segs was presented with a large bottle of red wine by Omar the owner as we were leaving for London on Saturday morning then you'll realise how well he was thought of in said establishment. The presence of the TV film crew also shows how well The Ruts and indeed Ruts D.C. are thought of in France - the 'Chorus' footage remains the best visual record of the original band playing live, and anticipation of our show was high. I don't think I'm being big headed when I say that we delivered the goods - you know when you've played a good show in the same way that you know when you've played a bad one, and this was definitely a good one. Our next gig is in Bedford on April 25th with The Neville Staple Band, and I'm looking forward to that being a good one too. Well you have to think like that don't you?

And then there was Saturday. After our Eurostar journey (isn't The Channel Tunnel an amazing thing?) I got something to eat before heading to Shepherd's Bush where I was playing at The Empire with The London Sewage Company supporting The Men They Couldn't Hang. The Empire. I've seen so many great gigs there over the years - The Who, The Sex Pistols, Iggy Pop... and then there are those OGWT gigs from back on the seventies that I used to watch in between dreams - Rory Gallagher, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Eric Clapton... I'd not played there before and it has always been a place that I hoped that I'd play at one

Your humble narrator on stage
at The Shepherds Bush Empire.
Or is it a dream?

day. Things like this have a habit of being something of an anti-climax, and I was all too aware that this could happen here - thankfully our breathless 30 minute set was all that I hoped that it would be. And it was impossible to look out from the stage and think of the other people who had stood where I was now standing. I get far too romantic about this stuff sometimes don't I? Or maybe I don't get romantic enough? I should perhaps had stayed there all evening, watched main support band Merry Hell and headliners TMTCH, had a few drinks, talked to anybody that wanted to talk - but no, I had work to do. Neck were headlining an Easter Rising Commemoration gig at The Water Rats at 10.30, and as I left The SBE just after nine I'd be lying if I didn't say that part of me wished I was staying - but the other part of me was looking forward to playing at another venue that had previously eluded me on my (ahem!) musical journey through the venues of the World. Two name London venues in the same night - well, why not? And the Neck show was great too - it's good when that happens. Then again The Metropolitan Line was closed so I had a long and circuitous journey home - I don't remember that being in any of the dreams... 

Yeah I know, this piece is all a bit garbled - you should see the stuff I've left out!!

The early bird catches the worm that turns

Well 'twas indeed a roaringly good night at The 12 Bar Club in Holloway last Friday, with great sets from The Bermondsey Joyriders and The Phobics and The London Sewage Company playing what we all agreed was one of our most enjoyable shows so far. The evening was also notable for the appearance of my old friend Leeson O'Keeffe, who I first met back in the mid-1980s when he was playing in The Shout and I was in The Price. These days he leads 'psycho-ceilidh' band Neck, who I did a stint with 10 or so years ago. During the course of our conversation I found myself taking possession of several CDs and a large number of song sheets - yes, I'm back in Neck for a couple of shows on or around St. Patrick's Day... and in the interests of over-committing myself I'm hoping to team up with some of my old Chicago Blues Brothers buddies (the ones that I still talk to!) for a wedding gig next month; there are also Clash songs to learn for a very special show at Koko in a few weeks time, and rumours abound of The Price making a return to show business - it looks as though I'm in for a busy few weeks. 

Hopefully in the midst of all this mayhem there will still be time for some shows with Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks. Last weekend's gigs in Hillingdon at The Brushwood Inn and at Sally B's in Hoddesdon were both excellent - the Saturday night show in Hillingdon saw my Dad attend his first Buicks gig, and it being his 83rd birthday he was definitely seen as something of a celebrity by the band if not by quite a few of the audience. And continuing the birthday theme the next afternoon's gig had Al's Mum celebrating her 87th birthday; Al often says something along the lines of 'the old lady you see dancing down the front here isn't some sort of nutter, she's my Mum' - and he's right, the old lady you see dancing down the front is his Mum. I hope I'm that fit at her age. Actually I hope I make it to her or indeed my dad's age!

Anyway with lots of songs to learn there is unlikely to be too much blogging time over the next few weeks; I'm not out playing this weekend, but given the amount of work I've got to get through at home this for once might not be a bad thing... still I'll be making my first appearance of the year reviewing new music on Music Scene Investigation this coming Sunday evening, so if you're lurking in Cyberspace at 9 pm I'll see you then. In the meantime it's just gone (gulp!) 6 o'clock in the morning and as I say, after what feels like a relatively quiet time I've got work to do. What's that old saying? No rest for the wicked? I didn't think that I was that bad...

Now you see him, now you don't

Well that was a highly enjoyable weekend's gigging :-

On Saturday night Department S played at Electrowerkz in Islington. I'd not been to the venue before, and it's certainly worth a visit - good stage, sound and lights (even if they did overdo the smoke machine here and there!) although the promoter and door staff were a little, shall we say, over-enthusiastic - when I tried to go out for food and drink before the show I was told that I couldn't leave as I didn't have a wristband on. I attempted to joke about it with a comment along the lines of 'but you'll recognise me, I'll have the same face and everything' the promoter - well I think it was the promoter, I'd all but stopped caring whether the silly little man lived or died by that point - started whingeing about, er something or other... let's hope he hasn't got a really sad little life or anything like that eh?
Anyway aside from that oaf's pathetic antics the evening went swimmingly, with Jonestown kicking things off in style and Spizzenergi as entertaining as ever. Our show was well-received by the good-sized audience (I'd wondered if it being Valentine's Day numbers might have been down but there were plenty of people in attendance, even despite the clearly-incompetent promoter. Good!) and if anything was a better performance than our December gig. It's a great band to play in - they're looking for a permanent guitarist but I'll be happy to be there as often as they want me to be.

And here from Saturday night is 'Going Left Right' by Department S and 'Where's Captain Kirk?' by Spizzenergi. Watch out for Spizz falling off the stage at the end of the song - fortunately he wasn't seriously hurt but as the caption says, blink and you'll miss it!

That evening was bookended by two Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks gigs - on Friday night at The Halfway House in Rickmansworth, and on Sunday afternoon at The Horns in Watford. Both were good shows, with Sunday's gig being a particularly good one in my not-so-humble opinion. Mind you when the venue is as good as The Horns you've only got yourselves to blame if you don't play well! After our gig fellow guitar man Pete and myself stayed to watch a few numbers from Spiderbites, and very good they were too.

This week Big Al and Co. visit Hillingdon and Hoddesdon on Saturday and Sunday while The London Sewage Company play The 12 Bar Club in Holloway with The Bermondsey Joyriders and The Phobics on Friday. This night is to celebrate the first release on 12 Bar Records, a 7" single (remember those? Of course you do! Ruts D.C. are going to release one soon...) from the afore-mentioned Bermondsey boys entitled '12 Bar Beat'. Now that should be a good night! And all three gigs are in places with names that begin with the letter 'H' - what can this mean? Answers on a postcard please, usual address...

From The West End to The North Bank

January is normally a quiet month gig-wise, and while this one has been no exception in many ways it's been nice to have a bit of time at home. That said there are always a few musical goings-on going on...

On Friday night I returned to Tropic At Ruislip to catch a splendid performance from Like The Beatles. Being a big fan of The Fab Four (the less-charitable might use the term 'Beatle Bore') it was great to see them playing less-than-obvious material like 'Why Don't We Do It In The Road?' amid the expected hits; I was also very impressed with the accuracy of the vocal harmonies that are such a vital part of those amazing records. The all-but-sold-out crowd seemed to enjoy ever minute of it, and I don't mind saying that I did too. I was far too young to have been able to see the original band, and whilst it would be churlish to suggest that a show like this gets anywhere near the excitement of an actual Beatles show if nothing else it does reinforce just how good the songs are. As if we needed reminding?

Saturday saw your humble narrator journey to Holloway for a London Sewage Company gig supporting King Kurt at The 12 Bar Club. Yes, The 12 Bar Club. With Occupy London er, occupying the old club in Denmark Street many of the fixtures and fittings have been moved from the original premises to Phibbers on the Holloway Road - I must say that it was a rather surreal experience to see pictures, staff and indeed club regulars all transplanted from the old place in the new place. Not bad, but definitely surreal... anyway I arrived to find the rest of our band all present and correct and King Kurt setting up so I took the opportunity to visit the wonderfully-named Piebury Corner a couple of doors down for, you've guessed it, a pie. And very nice it was too.
Back at the club our soundcheck was somewhat tense affair, with feedback, monitor problems and everyone having trouble hearing each other. Still we got it all together in the end, and by the time we took to the stage at half past eight the place was filling up nicely. Our set saw a few of the aforementioned soundcheck problems rearing their ugly heads again, but despite it all we played well and got a great reaction from the audience. In the interval I caught up with John King, Sarah Pink, Lee from Infa Riot, Tara from The Duel and more - see what I mean about people being transplanted from the old to the new! - before King Kurt played a storming set. A great evening all round, right up to the moment that I got back to Holloway Road tube station to find the service in disarray and no chance of getting home by train. Bah! Oh well - I made it to Piccadilly Circus, Marble Arch and the night bus home - that used to happen at the old venue too!

And last night I joined Segs and Dave at Jamm in Brixton to work on Ruts D.C. material that should hopefully come out as a 7'' single in time for Record Store Day on April 18th. I'll keep the exact details to myself for the moment, but I did record some backwards guitar on one of the tracks. Great fun - I knew all that time spent listening to 'Tomorrow Never Knows' would come in handy one day...