'Back to the studio...'

Well with the German dates and The 12 Bar Club show in the horizon it was at last time for Ruts D.C. to get back into the rehearsal studio - but first a visit to Warwickshire was in order. On The Damned tour I spent a fair but of time with Captain Sensible's guitar tech and all round good bloke Jon Priestley, who revealed that in addition to working for the good Captain and playing guitar in Reign Of Fury also runs a recording studio in The Midlands. So it was then that Dave, Segs and myself made our way to Abatis Studios in Honiley (didn't Puff the Magic Dragon live there?) where we spent a very enjoyable few hours with Jon checking his studio out and even going so far as to making a test recording. What did we record? That would be telling...
  
Thursday saw the band make their first visit to The Music Complex in Deptford since before the afore-mentioned Damned tour. Segs and myself have been putting together some new song ideas over the last few months, and with three of them starting to sound more like songs than ideas it was time to get into the studio and see how they sound with the band. I'm pleased to say that the rehearsal went very well indeed, with the new ideas coming together well and everyone very optimistic about how things are going. After the session we adjourned to The Little Crown near the studio to meet up with Richard England from Cadiz Music - he promoted the show we played with Wilko Johnson at Koko back in October, and it was good to see him again.

Friday I returned to Tropic At Ruislip to see Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute band Aynt Skynyrd. I must admit that I'm not the biggest Lynyryd Skynyrd fan in the world, but I thought it would be interesting to see how the band handled the (many) guitar parts in the band's songs. I must say that they made a very good job of it - that said I missed pretty much the whole of the first set as I was on the phone to Segs, who had called to discuss our studio days from earlier in the week. Exciting stuff!

I played my first gigs of the year this weekend - good! It's been nice to have a bit of a break but it was great to get back on the boards again. On Saturday night The Upper Cut returned to The Dolphin in Uxbridge for a night of no little jollity, not least as Noel the landlord had a fair number of family members over from Ireland. The exact details are sketchy as I was still in there drinking at 3am... and the next afternoon we made our first visit to Ye Olde George Inn in Colnbrook for many months (I'll be there again next Sunday with Big Al and co.) for a 5pm show that saw us play two energetic sets to a very appreciative audience. 

And last night it was back to The Three Wishes in Edgware for the Monday jam night. Hmm... maybe I am getting just a bit fed up with some of the ruder people there... ah well, no time to worry about that now, as I'm off to meet Dave and Segs at another recording studio. Maybe, just maybe, those silly little people last night really are jealous of me. Oh well... let's hope so! He he...