European Son

So - the people of Great Britain are to vote on whether or not they think that the country should stay in the European Union. Exciting eh? 
Actually most people that I've spoken to seem to think that 'exciting' is probably the very last word that they'd associate with it. Is it just me or is nobody outside of headbanging right wingers and careerist politicians even the slightest bit interested in it? Nevertheless it gave rise to an amusing start to the week yesterday, when a BBC film crew turned up in Uxbridge to film local shopkeeper's opinions on the upcoming EU referendum. Excellently they started in Balcony Shirts - I managed to keep well out of the way of the camera (do not play, do not give the game away!) while Scott did a splendid job, making a 'EU IN OR EU OUT?' t-shirt while recounting the story of the shop's 'Uxbridge Says Yes To Boris' and 'Uxbridge Says No To Boris' shirts. All good stuff, and lots of publicity for both the t-shirt shop and our friends in Nightfly Records and Horsepower Hairdressing. And why not?

Meanwhile it's been four gigs in four days for your humble narrator, starting on Thursday night with the first visit this year for Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks to The Sunningdale Lounge. A friend of Al's got up and played two songs on bass ('Mustang Sally'  and 'My Babe' since you were wondering - I thought that he crammed in a few too many notes, but that's probably just me) and a similar thing happened next night at The Halfway House in Rickmansworth where another of Al's pals got up and played harmonica (rather well as it happens) on 'Hoochie Coochie Man'. We got through our Saturday night show at The Black Horse in Greenford without any similar incidents and it was probably the best show of the three although none of them were exactly bad gigs. Then on Sunday afternoon The Upper Cut returned to The Queen's Arms in Colnbrook for a boisterous performance which wasn't perhaps our most technically accurate show ever but which certainly had plenty of energy.

This week it's back to Dollis Hill and Harefield for Big Al and the boys. Continuation continues...