'Well well well well - you're just a...'

Well the quiet couple of weeks are now but a distant memory - since the last posting there have been Ruts D.C. recording sessions with James Knight at Pat Collier's excellent Perry Vale Studios as well as rehearsals at The Music Complex in Deptford and a gig at The 100 Club along with a splendid Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks gig at The Horns in Watford. All good stuff (apart from a rather odd occurrence at the 100 Club show, but more about that in a minute) and it was great to busy again.

The studio sessions went well. Very well. Another seven songs were started, meaning that we now have 14 tracks coming together. There's still a long way to go and a lot of work to be done but I for one am very optimistic that we're going to release a great album in September. There should be a single out before then - more news as and when I have it as they (whoever 'they' are) say.

The recordings took place last Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; we'd rehearsed for them on Monday (and since we're being pedantic, the previous Thursday and Friday as well) leaving just Friday 12th available for us to prepare for our gig the next evening. We only booked three hours, which turned out to be just enough time - it had been over two months since our last gig, and it's amazing what you can forget in that time... also we'd decided to include a previously unperformed song 'Kill The Pain' in our set, which put a bit more pressure on us time-wise. Admittedly we didn't have to play it, but you know what it's like once you've got an idea in your head... 

Saturday was one of those nights where there were lots of things happening in good ol' London Town; with The Who at The Wembley Arena and The Godfathers, Department S and Eight Rounds Rapid at The Garage in Islington (guess which one I would have been at!) among other appealing events. I don't mind admitting that I wasn't sure that we'd have much of an audience. Still we were on with The Members and The Newtown Neurotics so it was a good bill, hopefully that would attract a few people?
As I queued up to get back into the venue (yes, I know I could have done the 'I'm in the band' thing but that's not really me is it?) I realised that any fears I had about a low audience turnout were thankfully unfounded - at not long after half past eight the place was already getting full and The Newtown Neurotics were going down a storm. They sounded great, as did The Members who I saw at the same venue only a few weeks ago and if anything sounded even better this time around. We went on around twenty past ten - by halfway through it was clear that this was going to be a night to remember, and afterwards several people told me that they'd already seen the best gig of the year. I wonder if they'll be proved right? As a performance it was an absolute pleasure to be part of - which makes the incident that preceded it all the more peculiar. I was told by a friend that the compare, who clearly has some sort of, er, problem, had used a very rude word to refer to your humble narrator during his bizarre appearance onstage after the Members's show. (Incidentally we'd banned him from introducing us - you're about to realise why!) I didn't hear it myself so I asked around a bit, and it seems that he'd made a comment along the lines of 'the guitarist in the next band is a Liverpool fan, but if he says that he's from Liverpool he's a lying c@*t'. A strange incident - I'd make more of it, but what's the point? After all, if said ugly overweight hysterical nonentity - perhaps he could market himself as 'The Fat Out-Of-Controller'? - wants to see an actual 'lying c@*t' then all he has to do is look into a mirror.

So there you have it - a great few days. Back to the pub gigs this weekend. But that's alright too.