The early bird catches the worm that turns

Well 'twas indeed a roaringly good night at The 12 Bar Club in Holloway last Friday, with great sets from The Bermondsey Joyriders and The Phobics and The London Sewage Company playing what we all agreed was one of our most enjoyable shows so far. The evening was also notable for the appearance of my old friend Leeson O'Keeffe, who I first met back in the mid-1980s when he was playing in The Shout and I was in The Price. These days he leads 'psycho-ceilidh' band Neck, who I did a stint with 10 or so years ago. During the course of our conversation I found myself taking possession of several CDs and a large number of song sheets - yes, I'm back in Neck for a couple of shows on or around St. Patrick's Day... and in the interests of over-committing myself I'm hoping to team up with some of my old Chicago Blues Brothers buddies (the ones that I still talk to!) for a wedding gig next month; there are also Clash songs to learn for a very special show at Koko in a few weeks time, and rumours abound of The Price making a return to show business - it looks as though I'm in for a busy few weeks. 

Hopefully in the midst of all this mayhem there will still be time for some shows with Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks. Last weekend's gigs in Hillingdon at The Brushwood Inn and at Sally B's in Hoddesdon were both excellent - the Saturday night show in Hillingdon saw my Dad attend his first Buicks gig, and it being his 83rd birthday he was definitely seen as something of a celebrity by the band if not by quite a few of the audience. And continuing the birthday theme the next afternoon's gig had Al's Mum celebrating her 87th birthday; Al often says something along the lines of 'the old lady you see dancing down the front here isn't some sort of nutter, she's my Mum' - and he's right, the old lady you see dancing down the front is his Mum. I hope I'm that fit at her age. Actually I hope I make it to her or indeed my dad's age!

Anyway with lots of songs to learn there is unlikely to be too much blogging time over the next few weeks; I'm not out playing this weekend, but given the amount of work I've got to get through at home this for once might not be a bad thing... still I'll be making my first appearance of the year reviewing new music on Music Scene Investigation this coming Sunday evening, so if you're lurking in Cyberspace at 9 pm I'll see you then. In the meantime it's just gone (gulp!) 6 o'clock in the morning and as I say, after what feels like a relatively quiet time I've got work to do. What's that old saying? No rest for the wicked? I didn't think that I was that bad...