'...like the moon, and the stars, and the sun...'

Ruts D.C.'s 'Psychic Attack Tour 2015' ended last week with five 'Beautiful Nights' shows in Southend, Reading, Doncaster, Wolverhampton and Blackpool with The Levellers and Dreadzone. And what shows they were my friends, what shows they were. I don't think there was a moment of them that I didn't enjoy. No, really. Ok that might be a bit fanciful, but you know what I mean I think. As is customary I made notes as I went along - these have been added to the seemingly interminable scribble from the other 35 shows, and one day I'll get around to writing them up here. Probably.

Now it's back to basics - gigging with Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks and The Upper Cut, working in Balcony Shirts, trying to get on course for Christmas - except that it's not. I've got to do all of those things and more, but Ruts D.C. have a new album to make. We've been working on some of the songs today, and start recording next week. Good.

In the meantime 35 years ago today John Lennon was shot dead in New York. I reflected on the 30th anniversary in these hallowed pages 5 years ago (fairly obviously!) which you can read here if you like, and you can click here for a clip of the great man performing 'Instant Karma!' on 'Top Of The Pops'. Go Johnny go... we all shine on...

Beautiful Nights, Beautiful Poster

Of course after saying that I couldn't find a poster for this week's 'Beautiful Nights' gigs I then found a poster - maybe I should say something like 'I can't find a million pounds' next time... mind you, what would I do with a million pounds? Well I'd spend it I suppose... anyway here's the poster. It's good isn't it? We're due on stage at 7.40 pm for 40 minutes every night, so if you're coming to a show get there early! And we'll no doubt see you in the bar afterwards - we usually do don't we?

Beautiful Days, Beautiful Nights

So there you have it - after travelling somewhere between 25 - 30,000 miles (I must work it out one day!) we have returned from our epic journey to Australia and New Zealand. To say that it was great is an understatement of monumental proportions but I'm going to say it anyway - it was great. Once again I have pages and pages of barely legible scribble which I will attempt to decipher at some point in the coming weeks (months? years?!?) and type up on here, but suffice to say that despite being incredibly tiring it was every bit as enjoyable as I for one hoped that it would be. Great stuff - and there's more from Ruts D.C. next week when we play five 'Beautiful Nights' shows in Southend, Reading, Doncaster, Wolverhampton and Blackpool with The Levellers and Dreadzone. Full details of the shows can be found on this YouTube clip - I can't find a poster for the gigs so instead here's a photo of Dave, Segs and myself in front of a blooming great tree a couple of hours before we left for home. And why not?

Pretty cool huh? Well, I like it... in the meantime I'm off to sleep. This jet lag lark really gets to you doesn't it? 

Beautiful Nights in December, busy nights (and days) in June

After a relatively quiet few days the busy times are back, as with one of the Balcony Shirts staff on holiday and the shop the busiest it's been for ages I should be in there most days this week. Whilst this is hardly bad news as it's a chance to earn a bit of money but it does leave little time for anything else aside from working in there and learning songs in the evening. The latter is about to become particularly important as not only am I about to play a couple more gigs with Neck but I'm also going to play an acoustic set with Noel Martin from Menace at The Rebellion Festival in August. All this (ahem!) frenzied activity (by my standards!) means that there's precious little time for blogging - there's just time to mention that I saw The Godfathers blow the roof off The 100 Club on Wednesday (a 30th anniversary show that was up there with many that I saw them play back in the day) then returned to said venue on Saturday night to see '60s soul man James Royal - backed by several Good Old Boys it was sadly a somewhat scrappy show as the band hadn't played together or indeed in some cases even met before the show. That said I'm glad I got there early enough to see a great support set from The Mynd Set - I'll be keeping an eye out for them in the future. Oh and Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks (aided and abetted by Back To Zero drummer Andy depping for a holidaying Dave) had a riotous night at The Dolphin in Uxbridge on Friday - fellow guitarist Pete can't make this weekend's shows in Harrow and Colnbrook so I must remember to run through some of his parts before then.

In the meantime and following on from last week's Australian tour poster here's one for 'Beautiful Nights', a series of shows due this coming December that will feature The Levellers, Dreadzone and Ruts D.C. - I must say that it's shame that there's no London gig scheduled (sorry if that sounds a bit greedy!) but they look set to be a great run of gigs even if they do seem a long way off at the moment. Well they are a long way off at the moment. But they'll come around...

Stairway to Devon (sorry!)

...and with post - Rebellion euphoria still rattling around my warped mind I found myself on stage at The 12 Bar Club with The London Sewage Company less than 24 hours after Ruts D.C. had blitzed the building in Blackpool. We were supporting the Australian band The Go Set who sounded pretty good to me, although by the time they came on I don't mind admitting that I was flagging a bit; all things considered our gig went well - and have we really been offered a gig with The Men They Couldn't Hang at The Shepherd's Bush Empire next April? Yes, incredibly, we have! 

And it looks as though I'm not the early person suffering from post - Rebellion euphoria, as Louder Than War have posted this review of our appearances at the festival. Thanks Phil!

In the meantime I've spent far too much time attempting to fill in a tax return, and in doing so have spent far too much time on the phone to my bank attempting to order copies of some bank statements that I've somehow managed to lose. Doesn't anyone answer the phone anymore? Well they don't seem to at my bank. Bah!

Big Al and The Blistering Buicks made their first appearance at The Black Horse in Eastcote on Friday evening. With Dave away Roger from The Upper Cut depped on drums for a most enjoyable 3-set show; the band also played at The 3 Steps in Cowley the next night but I rather wildly decided to give myself the night off to go to see The Damned at The Forum in Kentish Town - and I'm glad that I did as they were in fine form, with Dave Vanian in his best rock 'n' roll undertaker outfit and Captain Sensible as crazy as ever. 'Nasty' was played for Rik Mayall, 'Disco Man' sounded ever bit as good as when I first heard it all those years ago, and the final encore of 'Smash It Up' bought the proverbial house down. Great stuff all round.

It was an early start on Sunday, as Ruts D.C. journeyed down to Devon to play at The Beautiful Days festival. The bus came around for me at 8.15am, and a splendidly - straightforward journey meant that we were all checked in at The Thistle Hotel in Exeter not long after midday. From there it was a somewhat less - than -straightforward journey to the festival site, with sat. nav. chaos and swearing a-plenty. Eventually Nick (our soundman, and for this journey our driver) pulled the bus up next to a rather dilapidated - looking van that was parked just off the road. He then got out of the bus with the words 'if you want to know the way to a festival, ask a hippy' - within minutes of his return we were on the right road at last. Beautiful Days is run by The Levellers, and I must say that it was one of the best and most well - organised gatherings that I've ever been part of. As I got to our dressing room I was greeted by the smiling face of Ian Bond, who I first met when he was soundman for The Chicago Blues Brothers; I'd not seen him for ages and it was good to catch up with him again, he's about to spend several weeks in America with King Crimson so things certainly seem to be going well for him. Our set was scheduled for a quarter to five - such was the efficiency of the stage crew we were on 5 minutes early which is a very rare occurrence. John Robb introduced our set, and with Molara back in the band our set went down well with the very enthusiastic crowd. We managed to see some of Reverend And The Makers and Jimmy Cliff (both of whom were very good) but it had been a long day so we decided to leave before The Levellers played - a shame as I'd really like to have seen them play. Ah well - maybe next time... back at the hotel it's time for beer and pizza all round, and we all agreed that it had been a good day. And we were right - it had.

Right - that's all from Ruts D.C. until next month - this weekend it's back to basics with The Upper Cut and Big Al and the boys...