Are you experienced?

Well it's been a relatively quiet week in mad-guitar-World, although given what's on the horizon (and indeed what's happening over the last few weeks) this may not be a bad thing. Still I managed to play a couple of gigs, the first of which was with Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks at The Three Mariners in Bagshot. It's a good little venue but it does have a very low ceiling with even lower beams, meaning that anyone approaching six feet in height has to watch themselves for fear of bumping their head. Well the clue is in the name - Big Al had more than a few near misses before eventually banging his forehead halfway through our first. 'I'd just took my hat off as well' said the man himself before putting said hat back on - but it was a good gig, as was last night when The London Sewage Company played at The 12 Bar Club. Considering that we've only played a few shows we're really starting to sound good, and with new songs being added all the time and recording being planned the band is developing well. Most of all it's good fun, which means a lot in these troubled times - talking of which it seems that the days are numbered for The 12 Bar Club as Denmark Street is due to be redeveloped in the near future. This is a terrible shame - the area has so much musical history, not to mention some of the best instrument shops that you're ever likely to visit. Knocking it all down seems like madness to me - mind you, there's a lot of that about sometimes isn't there?

On the subject of musical instrument shops myself and Big Al guitarist Pete (sometimes he deps for me, sometimes we play the show together, sometimes I do them on my own) found ourselves at Charlie Chandler's Guitar Experience in Hampton yesterday morning. Simon Bishop from The Good Old Boys works there teaching guitar and had recommended that we paid the shop a visit; I'm pleased to say that we weren't disappointed to the extent that we both said words to the effect of 'we'd better get out of here before we start buying things'. Mind you I suppose that's the idea of a shop... still it was great to see such an excellent selection of guitars and gear, and I have a feeling that we'll be there again before too long.
A busy Saturday also saw Flying Squad singer Andy celebrating his 50th birthday with a party at his place. Myself and Squad sticksman Andy went to see him late afternoon as we both had gigs in the evening (he was depping with Big Al and co!) and it was good to catch up with him. We all agreed that we really must get The Flying Squad back onto a stage as soon as possible. And we really must!

This week all roads lead to Islington, as Ruts D.C. are playing at The Garage this coming Saturday 25th October with Evil Blizzard and The Duel. To this end myself and Segs got together last Thursday to discuss tactics, and with rehearsals booked for this week it's looking like being a fine evening. Well, I'm certainly looking forward to it...