Rebels with a cause

You know how every so often you get one of those 'did that really happen?' moments? I had one of them on Sunday evening. And it was good!

But more about that in a minute. With your humble narrator's famous finger nearly back up to full strength (whatever 'full strength' is for a finger) things have thankfully been getting much easier, both on guitar and in everyday life generally. It's amazing what problems a little cut can cause isn't it? Anyway hopefully that's more-or-less the last we'll hear of it (thank gawd!) so it's on to bigger and better things - and not a moment too soon, as Ruts D.C. return to the stage next Saturday (April 30th if you're counting) at The 'Scotland Calling' Festival in Glasgow. Rehearsals will occur next week, and maybe some other things as well. It'll be great to get back into things - the 'Psychic Attack' single comes out next month and there's still work to do on our 'Music Must Destroy' album so I'm very relieved that my finger seems to be better at last.
Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks were out and about the weekend just gone, on Friday at The Black Horse in Eastcote and at The Halfway House in Barnes on Saturday. We've played both venues several times before, and since there's not much room at either Al decided not to play electric guitar, thereby saving stage space (or to be pedantic floor space as neither pubs have a stage) normally taken up by his amplifier. He still played acoustic guitar and saxophone (although not at the same time!) but it meant that we had to rethink things a bit - some songs featured acoustic rather than electric strumming (and dare I say it sounded all the better for it) while others were dropped altogether. A recently-purchased alto sax (he usually plays tenor) featured on the new-to-the-band 'Baker Street' and both shows saw much dancing and cavorting from various audience members so I guess we must have been doing something right. Two good shows - but neither prepared us for the goings-on at The Battle Of Britain Club in Uxbridge on Sunday… 

Chas & Dave at
The Battle Of Britain Club
in Uxbridge. Really!

Sid Phillips played saxophone for a great many artists and bands over the years, not least Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers back in the day. He sadly died last year, and Sunday's gathering was something of a celebration of his life and work. Big Al had been asked to provide the PA as well as playing a few songs, and the news that ex-Rebel Rousers Chas and Dave were also to be appearing went down well with all concerned. The first set of the day started at around 4 pm and featured Cliff Bennett with a makeshift Rebel Rousers line-up with Geoff Nicholls on drums and guest appearances from Searchers bass man Frank Allen and Good Old Boys singer Alan Barratt. It was unrehearsed and therefore a bit shaky in places but that hardly seemed to matter given the circumstances. We were next up - our six songs flew past in no time at all, which is generally the sign of a good performance; given the fact that we were offered two gigs on the back of it I suppose you can say that it was! I managed to miss a short set from Roy Young as I was in the nearby chip shop (a big mistake - but I was hungry!) but I'm reliably informed that he was excellent. By now Chas and Dave were in the bar and the scene was set for a memorable performance. Aided and abetted by five saxophone players (referred to as 'The Sid Ensemble' by Chas during the show) they were simply brilliant - I first saw them supporting Led Zeppelin at Knebworth in 1979 and they remain a band that it's pretty much impossible to dislike. Well I think that they are - I can't pretend to have followed their career intently but they are great musicians and, as is evidenced by their presence at an event such as this, decent blokes. As they finished with 'Ain't No Pleasing You' (lump in the throat time for your humble narrator as it was one of my mum's favourite songs) drinks were raised and the waltz was waltzed - it didn't take much imagination to think that a similar scene might have occurred 70 or so years earlier in The Battle Of Britain Club, albeit under rather different circumstances. As I say, it was lump in the throat time for me, and I wasn't alone.

Did that really happen?

'We're a garage band, we come from garageland...'

In a week that saw the extraordinary news that Wilko Johnson is 'free of cancer' the music world lost reggae singer extraordinaire John Holt, glam rock hero Alvin Stardust, Chas & Dave drummer Mick Burt, 'Baker Street' sax man Raphael Ravenscroft and Cream bass legend Jack Bruce. Talk about not getting something for nothing eh?

On Saturday night Ruts D.C. headlined The Garage in Islington. We gathered at The Music Complex in Deptford on Friday to rehearse for the show - our time together began in the cafe opposite for what Segs dubbed a 'bonding breakfast' and a tactical discussion. Sometime in the next few hours we also found time to visit a secondhand clothing shop (I bought a black jacket which I wore next night at the show) and a Vietnamese restaurant (sweet and sour tofu - excellent!) as well as putting together a 75 minute set which included 'Different View' for the first time since 1982. I remember seeing them play the song several times and have always thought it to be one of the band's best songs so it was great to see it on the setlist at last. Needless to say we then repaired to The Little Crown for a couple of pints of their always - wonderful Guinness, during which Segs and myself suddenly remembered that we'd had a conversation with U.K. Subs guitarist Jet a few weeks earlier when we'd discussed the idea of him playing with us at the gig; text messages were sent, phone calls were made and a plan came together...

4.30pm the next day and we've just soundchecked with the afore - mentioned 'Different View', it's sounding great and spirits are high. We've got Bob behind the mixing desk, Owen is stage managing the evening and we've finished well within our allotted time. But surely we've forgotten something... as if by magic another guitarist appears, plugs into my spare amplifier (a Fender Blues Junior in case you were wondering; I'm using my 'usual' Blues Deluxe) and within seconds we're blasting through 'In A Rut' and sounding, well, like we usually do but with Jet joining us on guitar - in other words, pretty good!  
After meeting up with various people at The Wig And Gown (an excellent punky pub just along the Holloway Road) it was back in time to catch most of the set from opening act The Duel, who sounded the best that I'd seen them for quite a while. Evil Blizzard were up next - with only 30 minutes to work with (I'm sure that they've got songs longer than that!) they got straight into things and left many - an audience member looking bewildered by the end of their first song. Surreal moment followed surreal moment - at one point they even had someone mopping up on the stage! - and I'm sure they had five bass players instead of the usual four at one point. Great stuff, and not an easy act to follow. We'd better get on with it then... and get on with it we did. Even though I say so myself we started well and got better as the show went on, with the only hiccup being a fault with Segs's bass during 'SUS' (Dave stated 'I bet you never thought you'd hear a drum solo at a Ruts show' then proceeded to play one!) Once that was fixed we carried on where we left off, with 'Different View' going down particularly well. In no time at all we're at the end of the set, and Jet joins us for a thunderous 'In A Rut' that brings the proverbial house down. We're on a curfew (there was a club night after our gig) but there's still time for an encore of 'Something That I Said' and 'Society' to finish a truly memorable show. Afterwards there time for a few drinks and to chat to quite a few people, after which we return to The Wig And Gown for, er, a few drinks and, er, to chat to quite a few people - which explains why I didn't get this written up yesterday. Well, I wasn't feeling too good...

But I felt better after reading this review from the always - excellent Elvis In The Clouds blog. Thank you Mr. Presley!

Time gentlemen please

Bad news - it wasn't 'a bit of a cold' it was manflu, that most terrible of illnesses. Many are the ladies that say that manflu doesn't exist, but they are of course sadly deluded - I didn't feel too bad on Monday but by Tuesday I was in it's evil clutches with a headache from hell, all sorts of nasty stuff pouring out of my nose and a voice that sounded like I'd been gargling with paint stripper. Not good frankly. After taking mountains of paracetamol and drinking gallons of water (I only exaggerate a couple of million times a day) throughout Tuesday and Wednesday I heroically dragged myself down to The Crown And Sceptre for the Good For Nothing performance by Scott from Balcony Shirts - as I stumbled around trying to plug my acoustic guitar into the P.A. system Scott asked me if I would like to play on the whole set rather than just the bread and Q.P.R. songs as we'd originally planned. I thought I'd said something like 'I would if I was feeling better, and anyway I don't know your songs' although I think I actually said something more like ' Argh were ef Iwa fellin bitter' then coughed for about 40 seconds; either way he played a couple of his own songs (and very good they were too) before beckoning me up to join him. The bread song went well before he introduced another of his own songs -pausing to say 'it's just C, F and G with a capo at the second fret' to your humble narrator he launched into a song that I'd not heard before. After listening to the first verse I started with a few tentative notes; by about halfway through I'd more or less got the hang of it and would have tried a few more bits than I did if my nose hadn't started running during the last verse. Then he started strumming with the words 'Chas And Dave' - I recognised 'Ain't No Pleasing You' but made a dreadful mess of the chord sequence. Bah! Still never mind, it's time for the Q.P.R. song, he's changed the key (actually come to think of it he changed the key to the bread song too!) but I can play this one and it ends to cheery applause. Excellent. Even though I'm feeling rough (did I mention that I had manflu?) it was good fun although it would have been good to have been familiar with the other songs. Still if I've learned anything from playing this music lark it's that once you've made a mistake then it's gone forever and there's not much point in worrying about it. Time for a drink then...

'Last orders at the bar'.

The manager (I think he's the manager, he seemed to be running the place) walked around to tell everybody personally. It was just after 10.30. We hadn't been that bad had we? Mind you there weren't many people in... looks like I'd attended the only two Good for Nothing club nights at the Crown And Sceptre. Shame. Oh well, it might be a good thing to go home early, after all I'm not feeling too well... as I was leaving Darren thanked me for playing then added 'Simon bootlegged it'. Bugger! What was that I was saying about mistakes being gone forever?

P.S. - I found out on Saturday morning that they will be carrying on with the club night on Wednesdays after all - good news!