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Well - there you have it. It's all too rare that something lives up to it's promise quite as much as the weekend just gone, but I'm very pleased to say that this one did. It's good when that happens isn't it? Two Ruts D.C. shows supporting Stiff Little Fingers would be an exciting enough prospect at the best of times, but these really were great events to be part of. Friday night we supported them at The Academy in Dublin where our breathless 40 minute support set saw an amazing if unexpected amount of audience participation - we regularly see audience members singing along with songs like 'In A Rut' and 'Babylon's Burning', but to see the people joining in with 'Music Must Destroy' and 'Kill The Pain' really was a sight to behold. It set us up for an extraordinary night in Belfast where SLF celebrated their 40th anniversary with an open air show in Custom House Square. The Stranglers and The Outcasts were also on the bill, and with Terri Hooley of Good Vibrations Records DJ-ing it was an unforgettable evening all round. Well I say unforgettable - with poteen on the menu and our good friends Paranoid Visions on hand to help us, erm, celebrate the occasion things got a little hazy by the end. Still judging by the conversations we had with people at the airport on the way home we definitely did something right. Several people went as far as to say that it was the best night of live music that they had ever attended, and from what I saw and indeed felt I'm certainly not going to tell them that they were wrong.
Having played mostly festivals and support shows in the last few months we now set out on a series of headline gigs starting in Exeter on Thursday and Bristol on Friday - more shows have been added since this poster was produced (and indeed are still being added) so keep your eye on the Ruts D.C. Facebook page for more information. Sadly the Islington Academy show on September 2nd has been postponed until next year (!) but there is still plenty to look forward to. Well I'm certainly looking forward to it - if you're coming to a show then please say hello, and as always I'll be updating my Facebook page as regularly as possible as we wend our merry way up, down and around the length and breadth of Britain. See you up there, as someone once said...
So there I was, minding my own business at RnR Studios in Uxbridge (The Upper Cut were rehearsing for this Friday's 'it's Leigh's birthday - in - a - day - or - so's - time' gig at The Dolphin) last night, when I ran into local noisy boys Vain Galen. I remember the lads from back in the early '90's when they were in bands like Need and Substance - after exchanging pleasantries and catching up on our respective band's accent to megastardom (well, something like that anyway!) Wayne the singer observed that I'd 'stopped writing' my blog and that he still checked it every day to see if I'd put anything new up. I mumbled a suitably pathetic excuse about 'not having much time these days' and attempted to change the subject as quickly as possible - but by the time I'd got home I'd realised that it had indeed been ages - ages! - since I'd so much as looked at my blog, let alone written anything here. And I'd said all those things in the last few postings about how I was going to make more of an effort, and to get back into writing regular postings... yeah, right. OK, so I have been busy working in Balcony Shirts as well as gigging with Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks, Department S and more - but surely not so busy that I couldn't find time to write anything here for over six weeks. In my defence your honour I have been updating my Facebook page regularly but, well, that's not really the same is it? As my old English teacher used to put it - 'must try harder, C-'... so as I go back through all those very scribbly notes that I made during The Stranglers British tour and the German shows with Die Toten Hosen, I will once again say that I'm going to make much more of an effort to get some postings up here - after all The Rebellion Festival is on the horizon which is always a big event in my little calendar, and Ruts D.C. have plenty of shows coming up so there should be lots to write about. Well - there should be shouldn't there? In the meantime here's a photograph of some Ruts D.C. 'Kill The Pain' beer, courtesy of our fan and friend Mattais in Hamburg. And why not? It is my birthday on Monday after all. Cheers!
So. That's that then.
Except of course, it's not. Not while any of us are lucky enough to have a memory anyway.
The Stranglers / Ruts D.C. tour was everything that I / we hoped that it would be i.e. a thoroughly enjoyable experience from start to finish. If I ever get time to decipher the barely - legible notes taken sporadically throughout the three-and-a-bit weeks of motion and music then a fuller version of the story will appear here but in the meantime I'll just say that it was definitely one of the best tours that I've ever been part of. Both bands played well every night, but as always that's only part of the story - The Stranglers were absolute gentlemen, their crew were fantastic, Bittersweet Catering provided some of the best food that I've ever been lucky enough to taste and I feel almost as though I've shaken the hands of every audience member at every show. Something like that anyway. Great stuff!
There are quite a few reviews of various shows appearing on blogs and beyond, Louder Than War and Retro Man among them - the Ruts D.C. Facebook page will no doubt have links to most if not all of them at some point in the not-too-distant future. There are plenty of YouTube clips too, although I wonder if 'Kill The Pain' from the Manchester show will ever appear - did Baz and JJ really invade our stage dressed as scantily - clad Victorian strongmen wielding inflatable dumbbells..?
So - what now? Well Ruts D.C. return later this month but more about that then - in the meantime I've got gigs with both Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks and The Upper Cut as well as a guest appearance with my old mates Neck this Saturday supporting Ferocious Dog at The Garage in Islington. It's also back to working in Balcony Shirts. Business as usual? Maybe. Until next time.
The new Ruts D.C. single 'Kill The Pain' comes out today on Westworld / Sosumi Records - it's certainly one of my favourite songs on 'Music Must Destroy' (incidentally Pete Sargeant has just published a splendid review of the album on Just Listen To This which you can read here - thanks Pete!) so I for one am well pleased that it's out in it's own right. And after what seems like an age of anticipation our tour with The Stranglers finally kicks off in Lincoln next Tuesday; it then winds it's way up and down England, Scotland and Wales (no Ireland sadly, but more about that in a minute) before finishing in Manchester on (gulp!) April 1st. It promises to be an absolute classic, and if you're coming along to a show then do please say hello. Blogging opportunities are likely to be few and far between but I will be attempting to update my Facebook page on a regular if not daily basis so if you're interested in following how it's all going that's the place to be.
And if you are interested in following how it's all going then you can find my Facebook page here. See you in Cyberspace!
As I say it's a great shame that we're not going to get over to Ireland this time - but we are playing with Stiff Little Fingers in Dublin on Friday 25th August before a very special show in Belfast the next night with SLF, The Stranglers and The Outcasts with Terri Hooley DJ-ing. Crikey! Did I really just type that? Yes, incredibly, I did. Hurrah!
The new Ruts DC single 'Kill The Pain' comes out on Westworld Records on March 3rd just in time for our tour with The Stranglers - it's from our album 'Music Must Destroy' and features Jake Burns and Kirk Brandon on backing vocals. You can see the Graham Trott - directed promo video on YouTube by clicking here - excellent!
In the meantime I am once again currently in the grip of the dreaded ManFlu. Bah! I seem to have had it rather a lot lately, or it certainly feels as though I have - maybe I've not got rid of it properly, if you know what I mean. It's certainly getting a bit boring... since last we spoke I've cheered up a (little) bit - there have been gigs with The Upper Cut in Reading and with Big Al and the boys in St Albans, Burnham and Colnbrook, all of which passed without too much incident; I'm out and about with Al and co. this weekend although if I feel like I do now I fear that I won't be going anywhere. Time for some paracetamol and an early night - give me something to kill the pain, as someone once sang...
