Purple Hayes

So- how did you get on with the 'names in the frame' question from last time? Not too good eh? Tell you what, I'll give you until next time to work it out. It's not too hard, honest!

Yeah, I know I said I'd give you the answer this time- but you can't always get what you want, as someone once sang...

Well if it's Thursday it must be string-changing day at We Will Rock You, and indeed it is although Stu and myself spent our time there today attempting to get our work finished before they started rehearsing; we just about managed it, after which it was over to Denmark Street to meet up with Pete from local heroes The Cane Toads who's in the market for a new guitar. Myself and hisself (is that a word?!?) made our way up the stairs to the excellent Angel Music where there were a couple of Gibson Les Paul Juniors deemed by Pete to be worthy of attention. And he wasn't wrong- they are both great rock'n'roll guitars with one being particularly good, leaving him with the ever-popular 'should I/shouldn't I?' dilemma that is oh-so familiar to us guitar junkies... from there it was along to Wunjo Guitars to catch up with Stu (where they've just got some new t-shirts in- I bought one! How sad is that?) before winding our way home, leaving Pete up in the West End pondering furiously.

There's changes afoot for The Chicago Blues Brothers at the moment; we've got a new promoter working on our behalf meaning that next year's gig schedule is already taking shape, as well as a website re-vamp with new content and photos- there's even one of me smiling!
In the course of working with The CBB's (and indeed, Dave Finnegan's Commitments) it has often amused me to answer questions like 'what do you do for a living Leigh?' by saying something like 'I'm Steve Cropper at weekends'. Well, it makes me laugh... since I spent much of yesterday attempting to learn some songs for an upcoming show that CBB producer Pete is putting together I'll hopefully soon also be able to answer 'I'm Chank at weekends'- 'REACH OUT' features music from the Motown record label, which means that us boys and girls in the band have to attempt to recreate the sound of the fabled Funk Brothers, and your humble narrator gets to lock horns with such guitar legends as Robert White, Joe Messina and the mighty Eddie 'Chank' Willis. Focusing mainly on the music of The Temptations and The Four Tops with the likes of Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder thrown in, it promises to be a great show- you forget how many fabulous songs were written and recorded by the Motown artists over the last 50 years...

Talking of shows there's just time to mention 'Dancing With The Rude Boys', a new programme starting this Saturday on Hayes FM. It's presented by Andy Peart and Colour Me Wednesday singer Jennifer- I first met Andy sometime in the early 1980's when he was writing the excellent 'So What' fanzine, after which he went on to write for Sounds magazine amongst other publications. It's on between 4 and 5 pm (91.8FM if you're in the Hayes area and online from the above link if you're not) and promises a mix of ska, punk and reggae. It should be well worth a listen- let's face it, anything named after a line from a Ruts song has got to be good hasn't it?

Time for some more acupuncture tomorrow- I'll let you know how I get on...