'Everything seems to be ready - are you ready?'

So here we are two weeks into January, and there have been no gigs yet this year for your humble narrator - not good frankly! Then again I did play 18 shows last month so I'm not going to complain too much... and it's been good to be out watching rather than playing (well, that's what I'm telling myself anyway!) as well as catching up on things at home and with people that I've not seen for a while. And anyway the gigs start again for me this weekend when The Upper Cut play The Dolphin (again!) in Uxbridge on Saturday night followed by a 5pm show the next day in Colnbrook at Ye Olde George Inn, so as I say it's not all bad news.

Monday night I made another visit to The Three Wishes in Edgware for the weekly jam night. There have been a few odd moments there for me lately (can people really be jealous of little old me? Surely not?) but it was odd for a different reason this week, when a not-been-there-for-a-while Big Al decided to try 'Dumas Walker' with the house band augmented by myself and Pete from The Blistering Buicks on guitars. We play it with The Buicks and it usually goes down well; however it's not an easy song to jam if the whole band don't know it but he wanted to try it anyway... three-and-a-bit minutes later and it was all too obvious that it wasn't an easy song to play if the whole band don't know it! Still we redeemed ourselves with 'Blues About You Baby' so it wasn't too bad in the end. And, as I keep saying here, I really must write a blog piece on jam nights one day... 

I actually started writing it (at last!) on Thursday during my tube train journeys to and from London where I was meeting up with Dave and Segs from Ruts D.C. for a few hours to talk about what we're hoping to achieve in 2014. Plans were planned, discussions were discussed and, yes, drinks were drunk... our first shows of the year are in Germany in February, and with this in mind we're having our first rehearsal since December's Damned dates next week - it'll be great to get back to it again. And I must read what I wrote on the train - the words written the way home could well prove to be a little, shall we say, spikier than the words written on the way there!

Friday night it was back to Tropic At Ruislip, this time to see The Rollin' Stoned. With the gig sold out the place was packed - and I mean packed - as promoter Philip introduced the band - except he didn't introduce the band, he introduced Chris Eborn. He has one of the biggest collection of Rolling Stones memorabilia in the World, and co-wrote 'Not Fade Away : The Rolling Stones Collection' with Geoffrey Giuliano which features much (though by no means not all) of his collection. I first met him in the early 1990s, he's a great character who's had more than his fair share of difficulties over the last few years so it was great to see him introducing the band and indeed to catch up with him after the show. The band took a while to get going - monitor problems plagued their set - but by the end the place was, as they say rocking. And why not? You sometimes forget how many great songs The Stones have written don't you?

Anyway must go - I've got a jam night to get to...