'Is that too loud? 'Cos I don't care!'

Well I may not be playing any gigs this week, but at least I've had chance to catch up on a few YouTube clips:-

After depping with them on Christmas Eve I've got another gig with The Atlantic Soul Machine next Saturday at Patrick's Bar in Crystal Palace. This is one of Pete Feenstra's venues - I haven't seen him for years so it'll be good to see him if he's there. Some of their material is tricky stuff as this clip demonstrates - still they've asked me to play with them again so I guess I must have done something right!
And with our new album 'Rhythm Collision Vol. 2' about to be released there are Ruts D.C. shows on the horizon - March sees shows in Newport, Bristol, Leeds, Stockton-on-Tees, Dundee and Liverpool along with an album launch party (oh yes!) in Birmingham; there are also appearances coming up at The Bearded Theory Festival in Derbyshire (I'm really looking forward to this one - apparently every year they attempt to break the World Record for the number of people wearing false beards in one place as this story shows; perhaps unsurprisingly every year they succeed!) and a return show at The Rebellion Festival in Blackpool, full details of which can be found on the band's website - in the meantime here's 'Staring At The Rude Boys' from last year's Rebellion Festival which seems to have just surfaced. Is that really me up there with a guitar in my hand? Yes, yes it is...
And it's really me in this footage of The Chicago Blues Brothers at Proms In The Park 2012 too. It's unedited so nothing much happens for the first three minutes or so, then you see us walk out as Tony Blackburn introduces us (yes, you read that bit correctly!) and we play our 25 minute set in front of approximately 50,000 people. That's around 2,000 people a minute! This turned out to be my last public performance with the band (I played a corporate show a few weeks later which if nothing else made me realise that my decision to leave the show was the correct one, sad though it was) and it really is extraordinary for me to see me and my mates all up there on that stage in front of all those people. I believe the show is now continuing with a new band - I don't know what it's like now, but it was pretty good then... 
And here is another clip that's well worth nine minutes of your time - it's Wilko Johnson (seen here demonstrating his guitar technique - very entertaining!) appearing on BBC Breakfast Television last week. I think it's an amazing, inspirational interview - have a look and see if you agree.