My mate knew Hendrix!

...and indeed it was, for many reasons...

The Woodman in Northwood seems to be that rare thing- a thriving pub music venue. Us muso types are always moaning about lack of venues, no one wanting to see live music these days etc etc- but here's somewhere that's looking at putting on more bands, not less. Excellent! I really MUST get a band together to play there one day (cue me moaning about not playing rock'n'roll. Oh and lack of venues, audiences not wanting to see live music...). The Cane Toads are regular visitors there and it shows- they seemed at home from the first notes which considering it was their first gig with a new drummer was no mean achievement. We're in 'rock covers land' here- Thin Lizzy, Guns'n'Roses, Stones etc- but what I like about them is that they step outside of the obvious from time to time, not least by covering other people's cover versions; so we get 'Baker Street' as done by The Foo Fighters, The Lemonheads' take on 'Mrs. Robinson'- get the idea? And any group that plays 'Ever Fallen in Love' and 'Turning Japanese' can't be all bad can they?

Now the exciting bit (not that the band weren't exciting but you'll see what I mean in a minute). I got my acoustic guitar back from Stuart the guitar repair man. Hurrah! I bought it a while back- it's a Fender electro-acoustic, the model of which escapes me just at the moment- and finally got it to Stu for a set-up. When it left me it was ok- guitars 'straight-out-of-the-box' almost always need a bit of tweaking- but now it's amazing! The man is a genius! I intend to spend a good amount of tomorrow testing it fully...

And if that wasn't enough I ran into two old rock'n'roll buddies. John Kerrison was the drummer in Episode Six all those years ago- he's now wheelchair bound but- incredibly- still drumming. Shirley knows him through her work- he's coming into the shop this week so I'd better tidy up a bit! Alan Barratt is the singer in local legends The Good Old Boys, used to be the singer in Jo Jo Gunne amongst others and never tires of telling me that he was in a band that supported Jimi Hendrix; just as well that I never tire of hearing it eh? Seriously though, it was great to see them both, I'd all but lost touch with them (especially Alan) which is bad; people are only a phone call away aren't they? Must make the effort- you shouldn't be lazy with your mates...

Right- I'm off to Birmingham to play the guitar. At last.

http://www.canetoads.co.uk