Still burning

Malcolm Owen died 40 years ago today. 40 years! Where on Earth has that time gone eh? 

As someone who is lucky enough to play the music of The Ruts on a regular basis I know, both from speaking to countless people and from the reaction that music still receives, just how much it still means to people - and I know that music will live on forever.

To reflect this Episode 9 of Ruts TV was a something of a Malcolm special, although it also featured Paul Fox heavily too. Dave and Segs reminisce about them alongside footage of The Ruts, Henry Rollins talking about the influence they had on the punk bands in America and more - if you missed it when it went out live last Friday you can see it and all the previous shows here. That's the end of series 1 - Ruts TV will return in the not-too-distant future, albeit in a slightly different way, but there'll be more news as and when we have it.

With Britain attempting to claw it's way out of lockdown Ruts D.C. are looking at yet more cancelled shows (bah!) and are still waiting for copies of our '40 Years Of The Crack' live album. This is all but inevitable due to backlogs at printers, pressing plants etc but we'll hopefully have the first batch soon - at which point Dave, Segs and myself will have to sign 500 albums and 500 CDs. Quite how we're going to do that in these days of social distancing remains to be seen, but I'm sure we'll find a way. It can be ordered along with all other band merchandise including face masks - yes that's right, face masks as demonstrated by Dave and Segs here in possibly the most bizarre advert ever! - via the band's online shop.

Talking of record releases the new Alvin Gibbs & The Disobedient Servants EP 'History' is available now from Time & Matter Records - it's currently available as a 500 copy limited edition 2 x 7" single numbered set (how cool is that?!) which I'm told is selling well, so if you'd like one it might be good to move quickly. You can also order it via the T&M link above, and why not get volume one of Alvin's autobiography 'Diminished Responsibility : My Life As A UK Sub And Other Stories' while you're at it?

Retro Man is an excellent blog that's well worth following - Steve's always-enthusiastic writing covers all manner of bands from the obscure and oblique to the mainstream and more, and I was delighted to be asked to contribute to his series of Lockdown Lowdown podcasts. He asked some interesting questions as well as inviting me to choose some music, and you can hear the result here - cheers Steve!

And life in lockdown has produced a very unexpected - from my point of view anyway - collaboration with ex - Public Image Ltd and Department S bass player Pete Jones; a few weeks ago (gawd knows how many weeks exactly, time doesn't seem to matter anymore does it?) he sent me a backing track with a 'see what you can do with this' directive. In a situation such as this I tend to default to either (a) backwards guitar, (b) slide guitar or (c) a bizarre combination of the two; in this case option (a) seemed to be the best bet, along with a riff that might sound just a little bit like a rather obscure Deep Purple track. I'll leave you to find out which one - it was an accident, honest! 
One of the things I've been attempting to do lately is to learn how to use GarageBand, the free recording thingy (that's a rarely used technical term!) that comes on a Mac computer; I've been doing reasonably well, but hadn't encountered how to record backwards guitar - at which point I discovered Pete Johns, an Australian chap with a mind-boggling command of said recording medium. After a wee while - ok, quite a long while - on his website and YouTube channel I was ready - the resulting track 'World In Sunlight' can be heard here, and incredibly will be available as a download next Friday 24th July. That's my birthday, and I'm bound to say that having new music released on that particular day is one of the best presents I'll ever get, particularly in these uncertain times.

Oh and Liverpool have won the Premier League. I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever get to see that happen again - well done lads, I never doubted you for a minute... well, not that often anyway... 

To Blackpool! Again! And, er, Faversham!

The 2018 Rebellion Festival beckons, and once again I'm pleased to report that Ruts DC will be journeying up to Blackpool - we're on The Club Casbah stage at 11.30 pm on Saturday (before The Wildhearts - oh yes!) while on Sunday we close The Almost Acoustic Stage at 10.45 pm (at the same time as Public Image Limited are on the main stage - bugger!)

Usually I'd be up at the festival for the duration working on the Cadiz Music merchandise stall, but this year we're playing at The New Day Festival in Faversham on Friday at 6.30 pm - a bit annoying in some ways as I love going to Rebellion, but it's always good to be gigging. And we're on after John Otway and before The Martin Barre Band (Martin Barre? Isn't he the bloke out of Jethro Tull? Crikey!) which should be, erm, interesting... as always I'll be attempting to update my Facebook page as often as possible, and will no doubt return with tales of drunkenness and cruelty... excellent!

'The hope that springs eternal...'

The word 'legendary' get overused these days doesn't it? It seems to me that you only have to get through the opening stages of a television talent programme to find yourself referred to as a genius, and if you get through to the final you're a legend within minutes, maybe even seconds. Ah well - at least that means that it'll never be applied to me...

The Hope And Anchor in Islington is, I think it's fair to say, a legendary venue. The Stranglers, Madness, U2, - they and many more played there back in the day, although you wouldn't know it from the pub's website. Have a look at it here - unless I'm missing something (which let's face it is more than possible!) there isn't one mention of it being a live music venue. In a way I suppose you could say that this is a good thing - there are so many people and places that have talked up what they've done to the point that it's either barely believable or just plain embarrassing - but I can't help but think that it's a shame that a place like this seems to be all but unaware of it's history. That said the walls of the staircase down to the basement venue are adorned with reproduction posters and tickets so perhaps I'm reading more into this than I should. Imagine that eh? I saw a few shows there over the years although oddly enough the only band I can really remember seeing there were The Gas; the last time I was there was to see Ipanema who featured former Mega City Four mainman Wiz and who played upstairs rather than downstairs - I'd never played there myself and so it was indeed a pleasure to play there with The London Sewage Company last night. Apparently the official capacity of the venue is only 80 people - sadly we didn't get near to that figure, but those that were there certainly made a lot of noise. With the Ruts D.C. Autumn schedule looming it'll be my last gig with the band for a while although there's talk of a single release in the not-too-distant future - more news as and when I have it, as they (whoever 'they' are) say.

Talking of Ruts D.C. we've been gearing up for this month's European gigs (full details on the Muttis Booking website) by spending some time at The Music Complex in Deptford. Tour rehearsals begin next week, but part of this year's PledgeMusic campaign involved us offering drums, bass and guitar lessons - nobody wanted a guitar lesson (!) but bass and (especially) drums proved to be popular, and as a band we decided to go a bit further by all turning up for the last hour of the session which gave the pledger a chance to play with the whole band. Somewhat inevitably this also involved us all visiting The Little Crown for some Guinness - it's a tough old life sometimes isn't it?

In the meantime Big Al and The Blistering Buicks played at The Kings Arms in Harefield on Saturday evening, an odd show which was marked by an unusually high amount of equipment malfunction. As we went to start the first number Pete's guitar amp refused to make any sound at all - fortunately Al had a spare but it wasn't a good way to begin the show. Chris's keyboards then mysteriously turned themselves off, and when he turned them back on he'd lost his pre-programmed Hammond Organ sound - and then my overdrive pedal went wrong. Towards the end of the Bournemouth gig earlier this month the overdrive sound had stopped working even though the indicator light was still lit - this, a classic case of 'the lights are on but no one's home', usually means that the battery has nearly run out so changed it believing that to be the problem. However it happened again at this show, something which I chose to attempt to remedy by jumping up and down on it in an increasingly futile (and indeed childish) display of anger. Not big and most definitely not clever, although it did give Al something to laugh at! Closer inspection revealed that the power switch on the back of the pedal was set for 18V rather than 9V (it's an Ibanez Tube Screamer TS808DX - this review tells the story should you wish to indulge) so I've since taped it in the 9V position which should hopefully sort things out. We shall find out this weekend as Big Al and Co. play at a private party in Uxbridge on Saturday night... and The Upper Cut return to showbusiness with a gig at Ye Olde George in Colnbrook on Sunday afternoon - which means that I've got from now until then to re-learn the songs. I'd better stop sitting here typing and listening to 'Album' by Public Image Ltd (it is bloomin' good though isn't it?!?) and get on with it then hadn't I?

'Weren't you here last night?'

Another busy few days with very little blogging time - well, it's better than having nothing to do isn't it?

With the first ever Ruts D.C. acoustic show upcoming on Monday 10th February at The 12 Bar Club in London Segs, Dave and myself met up on Tuesday morning armed with two acoustic guitars and a variety of percussion instruments to put together a set for said show. A few hours later it was all starting to make sense - some unlikely songs from the band's illustrious back catalogue may well find their way to the stage alongside the more familiar material, and we all agreed that it should be a very interesting evening. Segs and myself found ourselves at The 12 Bar Club that night too, along with Ruts D.C. (and quite a few other people's) sound man Nick and Tara from The Duel (she's putting the Monday night shows together for 13 weeks following our gig) ostensibly to discuss the show but somewhat inevitably to also have far too much to drink. Well, I certainly did. Ooops! The next day in Balcony Shirts was a little, shall we say, fragmented from my point of view, as well it might have been...

On Thursday Ruts D.C. were back in the familiar surroundings of The Music Complex in Deptford - this time Segs and myself had electric instruments and Dave was back behind a drum kit for a rehearsal that saw us continue to work on new material as well as revise songs from last year's live shows and try a few more tunes from the back catalogue. Any or all of the material attempted might find it's way to the stage at this coming weekend's German shows - and it might not as well! On the way home I stopped off at The Ship in Wardour Street for a birthday drink with Richard England of Cadiz Music - when I left things were in full swing, and Richard certainly seemed to be having a good time. Excellent!

Sam, Leigh and Pete
prop each other up after
an epic BTZ rehearsal.

By an odd twist of fate I played two consecutive shows with two different bands at The Admiral Nelson in Twickenham on Friday and Saturday. The first night featured The Upper Cut (our singer Terry was suffering from the full horror of ManFlu but gave a good performance all the same) while Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks gave a suitably energetic show on the second night. And today Back To Zero had their first rehearsal of the year - we've got a gig in Stoke-on-Trent on Saturday 15th February and with regular bassman Johnny Squirrel unavailable for the show friend-of-the band  Pete Jones (he used to play in Public Image ltd - excellent!) has stepped into the fray alongside founder members Sam and Andy. Judging by how he played today he's going to make a very good job of things. I also recorded some guitar parts for an upcoming 7'' vinyl single - more news on that in the not-too-distant future.

Ok - this week more studio stuff, more rehearsing, and I'm playing with Big Al and co. in Colnbrook at Ye Olde George Inn (again!) on Sunday afternoon - if I get back from Germany in time...

Rebellion Festival 2012 - with my little stick of Blackpool (punk) rock!

Ruts DC at The Rebellion Festival, Blackpool, Saturday 4th August 2012.
From left to right - Seamus Beaghen, Leigh Heggarty (me!), Segs Jennings, Dave Ruffy, Molara. 

I spent last weekend at the 2012 Rebellion Festival in Blackpool. Between Thursday and Sunday I saw all or part of the performances by The Buzzcocks, The Business, Snuff, The Filaments, The Heavy Metal Kids, Atilla The Stockbroker, Social Distortion, Anti Pasti, Chelsea, The Piranhas, Conflict, Seven Seconds, Citizen Fish, Vince Ray and The Bone Shakers, Eastfield, Kevin Seconds, The Dirty Folkers, Neck, Public Image Limited, Slaughter And The Dogs, The Slackers, Penetration, 999, King Kurt, The Lurkers, The Downtown Struts, Thee Spivs, The Crows, T.V. Smith And The Valentines, Rancid, Argy Bargy, Goldblade, Stiff Little Fingers, Ginger Wildheart, Louise Distras, T.V. Smith (solo), Arturo Bassick, Texas Terri, Henry Cluney and probably some more that I've forgotten. I also caught book readings from T.V. Smith and Esso from The Lurkers and saw John Robb interview John King, former SLF man Henry Cluney, Tom Hingley from The Inspiral Carpets and Gaye Advert. Oh and I played with Ruts D.C. and did a duo show with T.V. Smith. A busy few days then... it certainly felt as though it was a long few days, although that may have something to do with the fact that I was at the aftershow party until gone 3 o'clock on Monday morning then walked back to my accommodation through a raging thunderstorm. My shoes were still soaking wet the next morning. Urgh! But it was also a great - make that great - few days with more than a few magical moments. Rancid were brilliant as were Stiff Little Fingers, The Buzzcocks and T.V. Smith And The Valentines. I also thought The Downtown Struts were absolutely superb, with the Clash-style 'three man front line' reminding me of, well, The Clash such was their excellence. And Ginger from The Wildhearts gave an extraordinary performance, maybe the only time that I'll ever see crowd surfing at an acoustic show (although for an acoustic show there were rather a lot of electric guitars involved!) and with the whole thing being a reminder of just how great so many of The Wildhearts songs are. I don't mind admitting that I had a lump in my throat during '29 x The Pain', such was the passion of his performance. Wonderful stuff. And as I say, I also played a couple of shows myself...

Sometime late on Friday afternoon I decided to go for a walk and get a bit of fresh air. It was rather hot and stuffy in The Winter Gardens, and it was time for a break from things. I was minding my own business eating some chips and musing on how calm the sun's reflection on the sea looked (poetic eh?) when my phone made that annoying honking sound that it makes when someone sends me a text message. It was from T.V. Smith - 

'Valentines delayed. We're playing tonight on main stage.'

T.V. was due to be playing three times at the festival - 8pm on Friday with The Valentines in The Empress Ballroom, a duo show with me at 7pm on Saturday in The Bizarre Bazaar and a solo show on The Almost Acoustic stage on Sunday at 8.30pm. The Valentines were flying in for their show - timings were always going to be tight, and the band were stuck at Frankfurt Airport. Time I got my guitar then!

T.V. and Leigh face the braying hoards.

An hour or so later I'm in dressing room 3 with T.V. and Pascal Briggs. T.V. and myself are considering what songs to play and in what order while Pascal is ensconced in the corner with headphones and guitar. He was due to join us for the last few songs of our set as he done at last year's festival, but thought he had another day to revise the songs, and as we were expecting to play in a smaller room we had planned a low key opening to our show which we decided to reconsider since we were now on the largest stage of the festival. We ran through a couple of songs and checked some endings before deciding that we could do no more, and anyway it was nearly showtime.

Pascal, T.V. and Leigh in
'rockist posing' incident.

I walked up the stairs towards the stage. We were about to go out in front of a couple of thousand people who are expecting a full-on guitar-bass-and-drums punk band playing songs from the Adverts albums armed with just two acoustic guitars. This should be interesting... two songs in and I'm thinking that we're doing well, a few more songs (including 'Ready For The Axe To Drop') and there's every indication that this is one of the best shows T.V. and myself have ever played together, and by the time Pascal joins us and we finish with 'Gary Gilmore's Eyes' and 'One Chord Wonders' to scenes of audience pandemonium I remind myself that we're not just playing any old songs, we're playing T.V. Smith songs, and they don't let you down. And they didn't let us down here. A great gig.

Would you buy a t-shirt
from this man?

Ah-ha, an electric guitar.
That's better!

Judging by the comments I received from people at the festival before the Ruts D.C. performance a lot of people were looking forward to it. Some wondered if would we be doing old Ruts numbers, some asked who would be singing? In the event we played a fair few old songs alongside new material and all points in between, Segs and Molara both sang brilliantly and the band rose to the occasion to give a performance that even several days later I'm still trying to think of a way to write about here. The best that I can say at the moment is that it reminded me that music can be such an important thing in people's lives that it catches you unawares sometimes, and we caught quite a few people - including I suspect ourselves - unawares on Saturday. I felt as though I shook hands with half of the audience on Sunday, with people telling me that it was the best show of the festival, even the best show that they had ever seen. They were all correct of course, because that's what it meant to them. I coaxed Dave and Segs out onto the merchandise stand after our show where they were treated like film stars - a lot of people had been waiting for this moment for a very long time. I know I certainly had - I looked out from the stage at a crowd of people who were fans of the band I was playing in, whilst myself also feeling like a fan. It's really hard to describe, it's like you're on the stage but you're also in the audience. Weird... but as I saw people punching the air during 'West One (Shine On Me)' and attempting to stage dive during 'Babylon's Burning' I found myself wishing I was out there with them while trying as hard as I could to give a performance that lived up to their expectations. And I'll be very honest with you here - I haven't had many better feelings during a gig than I had during this one. I always consider myself very fortunate to do what I do - there are a lot of better players than me that never make it out of a rehearsal studio let alone on to a stage, and I've been very lucky to do what I've done with a guitar in my hands. But last Saturday night - well, we did what we did and we did it well. If you were there I hope you enjoyed the show as much as I did, because that means you'll never forget how it made you feel. And you can't ask for much more than that can you?

You see - I told you that I'd write something hopelessly over-emotional didn't I? Sorry if it doesn't make much sense, but the whole thing is still sinking in. Maybe I'll manage something a bit more sensible in the future... in the meantime here and here are the Louder Than War reviews of the shows, and I must say thanks to T.V.'s mate Craig Casson for the Pascal/T.V./Leigh photo, Dave of Balcony Shirts fame for the merch man pic and Dave's mate Greg for the others. Well, I couldn't take them myself could I? 

Do you remember rock 'n' roll radio?

It's been far too long since The Ramones have featured in these hallowed pages, and with The Rebellion Festival happening in Blackpool this coming weekend it seems to me to be a good time to feature one of the greatest punk rock bands of them all again - so here they are in Lego form. The more cynical among us may see items such as this as proof that some people have too much time on their hands, but it made me smile so I thought I'd include it here. And since I do this blogging lark maybe I'm one of the people with too much time on their hands? Hmm... Rebellion-wise I'm playing with both Ruts D.C. and T.V. Smith on the Saturday night (thankfully the venues are within walking distance of each other!) with Public Image Ltd headlining. Sounds good doesn't it? It goes without saying that I'm really looking forward to it (but I've said it anyway - see what I mean about time on my hands?) and I'll no doubt write some hopelessly over-emotional piece on it here sometime around this time next week, but in the meantime if for some unfathomable reason you don't get the 'Hey! Ho! Lego!' gag then here is a fabulous clip of  'Blitzkrieg Bop' (and quite a few other songs too) at The Rainbow in 1977. Great stuff. And talking of Ruts D.C. I received an unexpected (and almost definitely unintentional!) birthday present on Tuesday when Steve Lamacq played 'Mighty Soldier' on his Radio 6music show. Excellent! 


In the midst of last week's Croatian adventure I heard the sad news that Jon Lord of Deep Purple had died. I think 'Black Night' must have been the first thing I heard by the band as a youngster, but like many people it was their live album 'Made In Japan' that really did it for me. Yes the songs were a bit too long (well it was the early Seventies maaan!) but the standard of playing was so exceptionally high that it somehow didn't matter. The sound of Lord duelling with Ritchie Blackmore sounded incredible to me (it still does!) although by the time I heard it that line-up of the band had split up - I eventually saw them in late 1993 just before Blackmore left the band for the last time, and although tensions were obvious the band gave a tremendous performance. Here is a clip of the man himself demonstrating his mighty Hammond Organ sound - he was indeed a great musician who leaves behind an extraordinary legacy of work.


Last Friday saw The Upper Cut play The Dolphin in Uxbridge. When I realised that we were playing on the same evening as the Olympic Games opening ceremony I suggested to Noel the landlord that we should perhaps change the date of our show, but he was confident that not everybody would be watching the ceremony on television, and indeed there would be people actively looking to avoid it and would therefore come out to watch a band. I wasn't so sure myself, but it turned out that he was absolutely correct (good!) and there was indeed a good sized audience. I could see the ceremony on the television above the pub fireplace - by the time we got to our second set the teams were arriving in the stadium, which created the slightly unsettling feeing that they were marching to our music. Well, that was how it looked to me... it was our first gig for a while so there were inevitably a couple of mad moments here and there but overall we played well and those present seemed to love it, and after encores a-plenty I finally got to have a couple of belated birthday beers, during which our drummer Roger's wife Jill told me that a fella had just said to her 'that guitarist should be on the stage'. Let's hope he was right! A top evening.
There were more than a few mad moments the next night with Big Al Reed at The Kings Arms in Harefield, where myself and Upper Cut bassist Terry joined Dave on drums and Chris on keyboards (both of whom play with Big Al in Midnight) to form a band labelled by Al as The Cardiac Arrests. Al gave us all a perspective setlist and some CDs to work from, and with no rehearsal it was a case of turning up and seeing what happened... considering how difficult some of the material was (have you any idea how many chords there are in 'Born To Run'?!?) we made a good job of things, and the audience seemed prepared to forgive the bits where it went wrong. Probably the worst aspect of the evening was Al's Egnater guitar amplifier going wrong; his and Terry's amps went off for a second or two (presumably there was a power failure to the back wall where they were both plugged in) and while Terry's came back on Al's sadly didn't. There were no nasty burning smells (!) so hopefully it's something simple like an internal fuse. Overall however it was a good enough show to have us all considering looking for some other gigs for the band, which can't be a bad thing if you think about it.


In the meantime I've just returned for rehearsing with T.V. Smith, and am rehearsing with Ruts D.C. tomorrow. Time to set the controls for next weekend then - and that's not a bad thing if you think about it either.

That petrol emotion

You see some funny things when you work in a shop, especially an 'outside-of-the-mainstream' place like Balcony Shirts. Last week saw Iain Lee make a visit to do some filming - he's long been a Twitter acquaintance of the shop, and rather splendidly agreed to do some promotional work on our behalf. You can view that results on YouTube here - aren't Chris and Scott good actors?

Continuing the theme of strange things there's an upcoming election for the position of Mayor of London - on Thursday a large red bus with the words 'BETTER OFF WITH KEN' emblazoned along it's sides blocked traffic in Windsor Street and indeed blocked the daylight in the shop. Ken Livingstone was in town, accompanied by film crews, clip-board carrying young assistants and probably more besides. I always rather liked him, not least because I believe that he's something of an expert on newts; I also saw him respond to being asked how much alcohol he drinks with the answer 'I've no idea how much I drink, but I can assure you that it's nowhere near enough' which made a refreshing change from the whiter-than-white answers most politicians give to questions like that. You may argue that these are not the best reasons for voting somebody into power, but in my view it puts him light years ahead of Boris Johnson, who also found his way to Uxbridge this week, presumably by accident although I guess you never know. The sight of a bunch of fat deformed sycophants plying him with compliments and requests for photographs was nearly enough to cause my breakfast to make a return appearance.

We had a budget last week, which gave the coalition Government another chance to reduce the tax burden on the richest members of society by victimising the least well off and the old age pensioners. And then there's the petrol 'crisis' - did YOU fill up your jerrycan with fuel that you didn't know you needed just because that nice Mr. Maude told you to? After all you don't want those nasty smelly loony-lefty tanker drivers ruining you Easter driving for you now do we? Ah - there's nothing like a bit of panic buying to take the country's mind off the fact that it's just been ripped off left right and centre, and of course to turn everybody against the unions in the process. In the event it all seems to have backfired on the Government for once and they're now saying that there's was no need to top up on petrol after all, which presumably means that they've raised in increased duty revenue from the last few day's hysteria to fund another tax cut for the wealthy. The next thing they'll say is that they never said that we should buy extra petrol in the first place - after all, Francis Maude still seems to have a job, and surely he'd be out of office if he'd made a mistake like that - wouldn't he?

And then there's VAT on hot takeaway food - who'd have thought that politicians would be so serious about pasties? I hope that next time some chinless wonder on the election trail in Cornwall is forced against his will to eat some of the local produce for a photo they're given a freezing cold one because it's cheaper.

Cynical? Me? Maybe - but I've mused here before on how I can never see how any working class person can vote for the Conservative Party and I still can't, although I'm beginning to apply the same criteria to the Liberal Democrats too.

Meanwhile The Uppercut gave a riotous performance at The Kings Arms in Harefield on Saturday evening. The band played there back in October while I was away - my good mate and ex-Awaken guitarist Pete filled in for me then and by all accounts a splendid time was had by all then, and it certainly was this time. That said things began badly for your humble narrator when our opening number 'Dock Of The Bay' was interrupted by some particularly unpleasant buzzing and crackling sounds from my amplifier. It got so bad that I had to leave the lads to finish the song without me while I attempted to discover what was going on. I thought that perhaps a valve had worked loose so pushed them all back into their sockets; sadly the same problem remained. Out of increasing desperation I unplugged my guitar lead from the amplifier and the noises stopped - I'd never heard a dodgy guitar cable make a sound like that before but replacing it seemed to do the trick. That said I'll still check the amp over in the next few days. Our first set built up well, with a chap doing some particularly animated dancing in front of us and more and more people coming in from the front bar to have a listen; the second set really took off with much dancefloor action and a great reception for our efforts with the only downside coming when our singer Terry was hit in the teeth by his microphone when the particularly animated dancing man got even more animated and bumped into him. Ouch!

Sunday I made my way over to Loughton to rehearse with Department S, who I'm depping with on bass for two gigs this month. This may sound an unlikely state of affairs and indeed probably is however you look at it, but as often happens there's a simple enough explanation. The 'new' guitarist in the band is Sam Burnett who I played a gig with on bass a couple of years ago. (Click here for the story.) When regular bassman Mark said he was unavailable for these shows Sam suggested me - top man! So it was then that I joined him, Mike (guitar) Stuart (drums) and Eddie (vocals) at Soundlab Studios for a very enjoyable blast through the songs for the gigs. I borrowed Sam's Tokai bass which sounded great through the Ampeg set-up in the studio - I hope it sounds as good on the gigs, and I hope the band sounds as good as it did in Loughton where we got on so well that we finished 90 minutes early. Now that's something that doesn't happen in rehearsals too often.

And last night I saw Public Image Limited at Heaven in London's Charing Cross. At times the 2 1/2 hour set often trod a very fine line between repetition and monotony, although somehow they always seemed to be on the right side of the line. John Lydon was as engaging a performer as ever - in other words, one of the very best you're ever likely to see - and the band played with skill and precision throughout. The new songs sounded every bit as good as the old ones, the old ones sounded every bit as good as I remember them sounding and the capacity crowd loved them for it. Great stuff all round -and if I see as performance as intense as last night's version of 'Religion II' ('turn up the bass' said Lydon repeatedly - it ended up being so loud all my clothes were vibrating. And I've just shaken off an earwax problem... mind you it gave me some ideas for the Dept. S gigs!) then, well, it'll probably be PiL playing it somewhere else, if you see what I mean.

As the show ended an chap stopped me, told me to take no notice of him as he was drunk, then said that he though Lydon was 'turning into Yes, turning into everything he hated'. I took no notice of him - he told me not to after all - and anyway, he was wrong. Very wrong.

And there's just time to mention that I'm guest panellist on Music Scene Investigation this coming Sunday 8th April at 9pm - let's see what songs they throw at me this time!

First things first

It's the first week of the year and it's been snowing. This happened last year and previously rational people lost their minds. It's happened again this year and the same previously rational people have lost their minds again. What can this mean?

I've written a revue of the year for the last couple of years but haven't this year, not least because in thinking about what to write about I've found that the same names are turning up as in previous years. I guess this means that I've not found anything new or watch or listen to, or maybe it's not found me? Hmm... perhaps I should get out more? Mind you, look what (sometimes) happens when I do!

Anyway my first gig to go to this year is a real nostalgia-fest for someone like myself as it's The Rich Kids at The Islington Academy last Thursday. This is a benefit show for guitarist Steve New who is sadly suffering from cancer; this venue is a bit of a strange one for your humble narrator as the Paul Fox benefit and the Wiz memorial shows both took place here which might account for the fact that I find it a rather 'cold' place. It was a highly enjoyable if somewhat chaotic evening- I felt as though it needed a compere or D.J. to keep it moving as between-band changeovers as it lost the atmosphere that each act created once they'd finished. Myself and Big Andy arrived just in time (7 o'clock!) to catch the opening act of the show, the mighty T.V. Smith whose 3 (3!) song set went down excellently well with the rapidly arriving sold out audience. From there the evening wound it's way towards it's climax through a succession of good to great performances, the most controversial of which had to be Beaststellabeast who bewildered much of the audience that I suspect had been looking forward to seeing Steve New's latest band (they were pretty confrontational although I did smile when their singer threw her bottle of water over the first couple of rows of the audience and then complained that she was thirsty a song or two later- very rebellious dear...) whilst Carbon/Silicon turned in an excellent performance with Rusty Egan sitting in on drums (don't know where their regular man was?) and Mick Jones and Tony James both in great form- when Jones sang a few lines from 'Police On My Back' during 'Why Do Men Fight?' the audience intensity leapt so who knows what would have happened if they had played a Clash or Generation X track. There were obviously quite a few people in to see Midge Ure who played a solo acoustic set of hit singles before returning with The Rich Kids to roar through a splendid blast-from-the-past which, though slightly under rehearsed in places went down a storm. I'd always liked their stuff and as expected 'Rich Kids' and 'Ghosts Of Princes In Towers' both sounded brilliant 'though I'd forgotten what a good song 'Marching Men' is- time to get their album out again methinks. Oh and Gary Kemp joined them for a couple of songs and behaved like the punk rock'n'roll guitar hero that I'd guess he'd always wanted to be, which was something to behold I can tell you. An excellent evening.

And I saw some great gigs last year, from the likes of The New York Dolls, Kris Dollimore, Oasis and P.i.L. - and I'm already looking forward to Iggy And The Stooges in May...

My first gig with a guitar in my hand of 2010 was on Saturday with The F.B.I. Band at The Penta Hotel in Reading; it was a Christmas Party (yeah I know- but lots of companies are having them after Christmas these days) for Marc Antoni Hairdressers. Lots of musicians I've spoken to have had gigs cancelled due to the adverse weather conditions so I for one was grateful that this one went ahead, and very good it was too. When we arrived there was already some musical equipment on the stage- a Gibson SG, a Line6 combo and a Freshman acoustic guitar- we were told that there was to be a 'spoof X Factor' before our gig featuring some of the company's employees. Hmm... joining the omnipresent Tony (vocals) and Ian (sax) were regular band members Jon (bass) Richard (keyboards) and Jim (trumpet) with Steve depping on drums who I'd not met before but is the nephew of CBB trumpet supremo Dave Land. After a quick soundcheck of 'Soul Man' we gave way to the X Factor boys- the guitarist had an immediate problem as the jack socket on his amplifier came loose and fell inside, I lent him some pliers but they didn't help so we ended up using a plastic drinks stirrer to hook it out. He played lots of notes with lots of distortion, not a good approach in my not-so-humble opinion but he seemed happy enough. The other lads sang over backing tracks and sounded... well, like X Factor contestants to my old ears, or at least the ones that I've heard.

Out in the lobby bar the guests are arriving- young men who made Julian Clary look like Rambo mingled with very tall and very thin young ladies, all with immaculate hair and clothes, they were all hugging and kissing each other although if there had been a bitch-o-meter on the premises I think it would have melted. With the scene set for a good gig we went through to the dining room where initial attempts at finding some vegetarian food proved disappointing ('how about a prawn sandwich sir?') although when a goat's cheese pastry eventually arrived it was very nice indeed. By the time the X Factor boys are on things are hotting up with the girls (and indeed the boys) in the audience screaming louder than the music before speeches and awards kill the atmosphere totally. As we walk towards the stage to play Jon wonders to me if we're the right band for the occasion- judging by the reaction we received I'd say that we were although as often happens at these sort of events I remain convinced that they'd all forgotten we'd played before we'd left the stage.

And I played some good gigs last year too, especially with The Price in Cowley, The Chicago Blues Brothers in Fribourg and T.V. Smith in Kentish Town- and I'm playing with him again this Friday at The Square in Harlow...

Last night it was time for this year's first Acts Less Ordinary gig at the Load of Hay, featuring the wonderful John Hegley. By 8 p.m. I'd set the P.A. up and by 8.30 we had a good sized audience, but sadly we didn't have John- he eventually arrived just after 10 o'clock ('no trains on the Metropolitan Line') and after a quick introduction from Y.H.N. ('turn your mobile phones off and keep your glasses on- it's John Hegley!') he gave a breathlessly brilliant performance before asking around for a lift back to Ealing from where he could still get a last train home. He was in the building about an hour, and he left without being paid! Amazing!

And there's lots to look forward to at The L of H this year, starting with the splendid Steve Simpson on Sunday 7th February...

So that's how my year started- let's see where it takes us shall we?

Anger is an energy

Public Image Ltd. (Pil) were never the easiest band to like. A brilliant eponymous first single was followed by an album 'First Issue' which could politely be described as 'challenging'; it's follow-up 'Metal Box' was if anything even more uncompromising and the third 'Flowers Of Romance' blew away pretty much any fans of the lead singer's first band who were still gamely hanging on in the hope that he'd return to a sound that approached that band's former glories. Me? I loved the first single (I bought it in it's mock newspaper sleeve) but struggled with the first album (I bought it anyway) 'though I made more sense of the second album (which I bought in it's original, er, metal box format) and I liked the title track of the third... as the 1980's progressed they moved through various line-up changes with the aforementioned lead singer as the only constant member, releasing some excellent singles and some fine albums along the way before winding up in 1992. Against most if not all of the odds they've just reformed for a series of live performances, one of which I saw at The Electric Ballroom in Camden Town last night. Opening with 'Public Image' and playing for over 2 hours they (John Lydon, Lu Edmonds, Scott Firth and Bruce Smith) touched all parts of the band's catalogue in a fine set which showed the diversity of their material, from the synth-pop of 'This Is Not A Love Song' to the near metal funk of 'Death Disco'. And Lydon was, well, Lydon with all that that entails- with a voice that literally went from a whisper to a scream via all points in between and an unrivalled line in dealing with the inevitable hecklers and missile throwers ('you are in a house of friends here, do not make yourself into an enemy') he remains a total one-off, as brilliantly captivating as the band itself. It really wouldn't be the same without him, and after Pil's performance last night it wouldn't be the same without them- let's hope they don't leave it 17 years before the next gigs...