Lights, camera, action (pact)

Friday just gone- yesterday as I type this- my Blues Brothers buddies and I played at Elstree Film Studios. Sounds grand eh? Well... it was and it wasn't. My brother Terry works in films and I know from visiting studios with him that these places (a) are celebrity free (most of the time) and (b) remove your ability to believe anything you ever see on film, T.V. etc.
Things that look big are really small, things that look small are really big, and things that look real actually aren't (A bit like celebs then...). That said I still couldn't resist telling my mate Big Andy that I'd got changed next to one of the leather clad 'Avengers' girls and the cast of 'On The Buses'. Little things for little minds eh? Actually we got changed in the White House.

See what I mean?

Anyway I spent the afternoon rehearsing with Gary the keyboard player. He's got a Hammond Organ. A REAL Hammond organ. You hear 'em on recordings and at gigs all the time but that's nothing like being next to them when they're played, especially when played by someone like Gary. He played a bit of 'Time Is Tight' and it just sounded amazing. And I mean amazing. After spending a bit too long playing Booker T. tunes we made it to the gig in the nick of time, only to be greeted by the sight of Richard's car parked in the space 'RESERVED FOR CHRIS TARRANT'. Hope he likes the Blues Brothers... by now seriously running out of soundcheck time a seemingly unconcerned Jeff (Geoff?) the soundman unveiled my amplifier for the evening- an Epiphone 'Valve Junior' combo. This little monster boasts 5 watts of class A valve power. It sounded like a bomb going off. I must have one.

Then my phone rang. It was Andy C. telling me our radio station was on the air. Really.

The gig was a good one too, with more than enough drunken dancing down the front to keep Pete & Michael happy; our 'regular' trumpet man Dave Land back in the band and blowing up a storm, and mine & Gary's M.G.'s obsession well catered for by a 'surprise' version of 'Green Onions'. A good day then.