Saturday Club

Ruts D.C. played their last gig of this year on Saturday 23rd December at The 100 Club. It was everything that we could have hoped it would be - sold out in advance, we gave one of our best shows of the year alongside great sets from our friends Department S and The London Sewage Company. And there were plenty of friends in the audience too - I hadn't seen ex - U.K. Subs guitar hero Jet for ages, Rupert Orton bought along Newtown Neurotics drummer Simon Lomond while Nigel Bennett introduced me to his friend Steve who, he said, 'wanted to meet me' - and I don't mind admitting that I wanted to meet Steve Lillywhite too... all well and good (and if I'm honest, very exciting!) but none of it would have mattered if there hadn't been an audience. And what an audience they were. People had travelled from far and wide to see the show - you never think that people are going to do that for something you're involved with (well, I don't anyway!) so when it happens it's quite something. Plenty of locals too, and even though I say so myself they saw a good one. You know when you've played well, and we played well - some nights it all falls into place, and this was one of those nights. One to remember forever - but it's been a year to remember for the band. So much has happened - The Stranglers tour seems an age ago now, as do the 'big gigs' with Die Toten Hosen and Stiff Little Fingers, the outdoor show at The Rebellion Festival and so many terrific nights up and down the country, not forgetting The BBC6 Punk Party with The Damned... as I say it's been quite a year for Ruts D.C., and next year we tour Australia and New Zealand with The Stranglers, Great Britain with Stiff Little Fingers and more. 

See you in 2018 - there's work to do.

And in the meantime here's 'Kill The Pain' and 'Psychic Attack' from the 100 Club show - enjoy! 

Big Boss Man

Now this is exciting - Ruts D.C. have secured an endorsement deal with Roland who make a lot of excellent musical equipment, among which are Boss guitar effect pedals. When I was a lad (and believe it or not I was once a lad) Boss were the pedals to have, not least because there were nowhere near as many manufacturers as there are now. I had the CE-2 chorus and the DM-2 analog delay pedals, both of which went missing in action in the early days of my time with Ruts D.C. (click here for the full sad story) but I'm pleased to say that I have now been able to replace them with their modern-day equivalents. Hurrah! I'm looking forward to plumbing them into my pedal board and seeing how they sound with the band, but initial experiments at home are very encouraging indeed.

Incidentally the first time I remember speaking to Paul Fox was when I stumbled up to him (I was even shyer than I am now in those days) at a gig and blurted out something like 'excuse me Paul, what guitar pedals do you use?' He told me he used a Boss chorus pedal so of course I had to have one... for those of you interested in such things he actually had the now highly sought after CE-1 which had been discontinued by the time I was in a position to buy anything - this 'new' Waza version of the CE-2 claims to replicate it's near-legendary sound. We shall see...

Your humble narrator in what
those in the know call MV3.
That's Ruts D.C.'s gear behind me.

And talking of exciting things, last Friday saw the much-anticipated (by me at any rate) BBC Radio 6 Music 'Christmas Punk Party' hosted by Steve Lamacq at the famous Maida Vale Studios. Back in the day I remember recording sessions by the likes of The Ruts and indeed Ruts D.C. from the radio, many if not all of which were recorded at said studios - and now little old me found himself participating in the digital equivalent. Amazing. It certainly was a day to remember - The Damned played a great set, with Captain Sensible and Dave Vanian were as iconic as ever and Paul Grey back on bass and looking as though he was loving every minute of it. Stuart Pearce introduced the band, Brix Smith Start DJ'd before their set and Ruts D.C. played a 20-something minute set to a wildly appreciative audience - but that only tells a fraction of the story. As someone who has been known to get over-emotional about music and the power it can have in people's lives I will go so far as to say that it was one of the most enjoyable musical adventures that I've ever been lucky enough to be part of. From meeting up early afternoon in The Prince Alfred (during which Mr. Lamacq appeared through one of the pub's many doors and nearly went flying over my guitar case) to returning there after the show for advanced drinking and jollity it was everything I and indeed we could have hoped that it would be. If you missed it you can hear the whole show here on the BBC 6 website for the next few weeks, and Adrian at Aural Sculptors has been quick off the mark by getting the Ruts D.C. and Damned sets up for download here. Great stuff.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've go some guitar pedals to try...