Respect the chemistry

After the madness of the Bank Holiday weekend it's been a quieter week in mad-guitar-world, which as I occasionally observe here isn't necessarily been a bad thing from time to time. Balcony Shirts is very busy at the moment so there's been a fair bit of work there with more to come, and I've been doing dangerously-grown-up things like putting all the last few month's receipts and bank statements in order with a view to filling in this year's tax return in the not-too-distant future. This seems to have come around rather quickly again, but with Ruts D.C. gigs starting in August and continuing for much of the rest of the year I think that it's better to get it done now while I've got a bit of time rather than rush it before gig frenzy breaks out. Well that's the plan anyway - we'll see what actually happens... I've also finally caught up with the rest of the world and begun watching 'Breaking Bad' - it's very good isn't it?  

In the meantime it's been back to the pubs for your humble narrator this weekend, with Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks playing The Halfway House in Rickmansworth on Friday evening and Ye Olde George in Colnbrook on Sunday afternoon. In between times The Upper Cut returned to The Kings Arms in Harefield on Saturday night for a gig that started slowly (The F.A. Cup Final had not long finished when we arrived) but which livened up considerably with the arrival of several young ladies out on a hen night. 'Caan yew plaay 'Go Yer Own Waay' by Fleetwood Mac?' slurred the really rather good looking blonde girl as her friends passed the bottle of champagne around - sadly we couldn't which was a bit of a shame as I'd love to have seen what would have happened if we could... our inability to perform what presumably was one of their favourites didn't seem to hamper their enjoyment of the evening, and fairly soon they were joined on the dance floor by more than a few likely lads (at least one of which ended up flat on his back on more than one occasion - pace yourselves boys!) along with people asking if they could play harmonica with us, people asking if their mate could play harmonica with us, people asking if their boyfriend could play harmonica with us - all in a day's or indeed night's work. Oh and my old friend Steve and his wife Jan turned up, I played our last few songs on his old Les Paul because, well, he asked me to and it would have been rude not to! The Big Al bashes went well too, with Al and the band on top form and everything going in the right direction. A good weekend all round then, and with The Upper Cut are out and about again this week in Barnes on Friday and Colnbrook on Sunday, and The London Sewage Company playing their second gig at The Dublin Castle in Camden Town on Thursday there's plenty to look forward to in the next few days.

Now - do I sort out some receipts or watch the next episode of 'Breaking Bad'? Tricky...