Wrecking Crewe, Crewe Cut, We Are The Road Crewe etc etc

Ruts D.C. return to show business this week (fank gawd!) with what we hope will be an annual event - Kirk Brandon has been doing Westworld weekenders for a few years now, they feature his various bands with guest artists (we played it one year) and are excellent gatherings so we thought it was high time we did one too. We'll be playing both electric and acoustic sets, and the Saturday night show will feature the Ruts classic debut album 'The Crack' in it's entirety for the first time since our '40 Years Of The Crack' tour and indeed for the last time this year. Joining us at Langtry's in Crewe will be the afore-mentioned Mr. Brandon along with Auntie Pus, Tara Rez, Dealing With Damage and Criminal Mind - if you're going I'll see you there, and we'll see you at the bar!

Work, rest and play

As the '40 Years Of The Crack' tour gets ever nearer Ruts D.C. have been rehearsing. And rehearsing. And rehearsing. Well - failure is not an option; this can't be good, it has to be great, and it can't be great, it has to be brilliant... without wishing to sound too complacent, it's all going well although there's still a lot of work to do. But do it we will!

After one such rehearsal Dave, Segs and myself found ourselves in the hallowed confines of The Little Crown in Deptford drinking Guinness (which is excellent there, and well worth trying if you find yourself in the area!) and signing posters (like you do - well, like we do these days, there's a tour coming up you know!) when Sinead the barmaid (first name terms and everything!) asked if we'd play a show there one day. Well said Dave, we could maybe do an acoustic show - at which point someone (me!) suggested that we play there to mark the 40th anniversary of the first Ruts single 'In A Rut'. We could invite some friends, stream it live on the band's Facebook page, it'd be great... and so at 7 pm on Friday 11th January 2019 we did indeed play an acoustic show at The Little Crown in Deptford to mark the 40th anniversary of the release of 'In A Rut'. We invited some friends (including Ali McMordie of Stiff Little Fingers and MC Spee from Dreadzone - celebrity mates ahoy!) streamed it live on Facebook and it was great. I'd tell you more but details are necessarily sketchy.. well, remember how I good I said that their Guinness is... 

Besides rehearsing and drinking I managed to get along to a couple of shows from this year's Resolution Festival at The 100 Club - The Vibrators give a boisterous performance while The U.K. Subs played their first album 'Another Kind Of Blues' to the riotous approval of all concerned. And I've played my first gig of the year last night with Punky Reggae Party, at The Bread And Roses in Clapham where the heat inside contrasted with the cold outside and a fine time was had by all. I'm at The Cavern in Raynes Park with them on Saturday 2nd February, after which all roads lead to the Ruts D.C. tour, if they don't already. Not a bad start to the year then.

And in case you missed it, you can see the Deptford performance from soundcheck to gig and beyond here. Enjoy!

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!

Stand and deliver

Well it's been a long week. I've been working in Balcony Shirts every day since Tuesday and somewhere along the line have hurt my back and picked up a bit of a cold. Or is it the dreaded ManFlu? And although it wasn't a particularly late night at The Three Wishes in Edgware where Big Al and The Blistering Buicks played a sweaty show to the general appreciation of all concerned last night I've been asleep for much of today. I'm back in the shop tomorrow. I could really do with a day off. 

Of course none of this illness, tiredness and no doubt some other words ending with 'ness' has anything with The Rebellion Festival in Blackpool last weekend, where I played electric and acoustic shows with Ruts D.C., joined T.V. Smith for much of his set, played several songs with The Crows (during which I somehow managed to make the up-until-that-point excellent-sounding PA system dissolve into a wall of feedback - oops!) and finished the festival by playing three songs with Department S. Oh and I worked every day on the Cadiz Music merchandise stall too, and wasn't exactly early to bed every night. So it goes.

The shows were great. Really great. The T.V. and electric R.D.C. gigs took place in The Opera House, which is without doubt one of the best venues I've ever been lucky enough to perform in, while the Ruts D.C. acoustic show ended with an actual standing ovation, which is something that you don't see every day. 
Well, I certainly don't anyway… but if you'd like to see it click here! 
Department S were as excellent as ever and The Crows survived their encounter with your humble narrator with aplomb. I didn't get to see many bands play which was a shame in some ways but only to be expected considering my (over) commitments elsewhere. Still it was a terrific few days, and I'm sure that I'm not the only person looking forward to next year's festival already.

In other news Ruts D.C. release our new single 'Music Must Destroy' on September 9th, with the album of the same name coming out one week later. The song was played live for the first time in The Opera House last Saturday - we should be recording a promo video for it in the next week or so (the track features the mighty Henry Rollins, and hopefully he's going to feature in the video too) but in the meantime you can click here for the live version. See what you think...

'You disturb my natural emotions...'

Have you ever fallen in love with somebody the moment you first saw them? I was walking through a shopping centre once when I bumped into - literally bumped into - a young lady. She was an acquaintance of mine, I didn't know her well and I hadn't seen here for ages - but at that moment, as we stood awkwardly apologising to each other, I suddenly and abruptly thought she was the most beautiful woman, maybe the most beautiful thing that I had ever seen. It was like being hit by the proverbial ton of bricks. I'm not sure that I've ever recovered. She doesn't know anything about it of course - unless she felt it too, although if she did then she hid it well… I sound shallow don't I? Maybe I am.
I was reminded of this moment last Friday evening when I was getting my guitar and amp set up for a gig with Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks at The Crock Of Gold in Ruislip. I'd been looking forward to the gig all day, as my old mate Johnny Squirrel was depping on bass and I hadn't seen him for ages. We hadn't played there before so we were working out how to position the various band members in the space allowed - I looked across to the bar where a woman was walking towards a table carrying two drinks. One was a pint of Guinness, the other a smaller glass of clear fizzy-looking liquid. She sat down at the table where her friend was waiting, they smiled cheerily and chatted - while doing so she picked up the pint of Guinness and drank a fair-sized gulp from it. 
'Al, Al!' I said excitedly to the big man, 'Al, that girl over there, she's got a pint of Guinness'. 
'Right' said Al half-interestedly. 
'I think I'm in love' I said, hardly believing that I'd just said it. 
Al laughed. I released how ridiculous it must have sounded. 
I carried on setting my gear up.

The next night The Upper Cut played at Dave's 70th birthday party at The Queen's Arms in Colnbrook. I managed to get through the evening with most if not all of my emotions intact, although I couldn't get the Guinness Girl out of my mind. Strange but true. Shallow but true.

It seems to me that it's time I had a holiday - which is just as well as it's The Rebellion Festival in Blackpool this week. Ruts D.C. are playing an electric set on Saturday night and are closing the acoustic stage the next evening; I'll also be playing a few songs on Thursday with the great T.V. Smith and joining Department S for a tune or two as well as working behind the Cadiz Music merchandise stall and attempting to catch as many bands as I can in the meantime. I'm all too aware that several days of punk rock doesn't sound like most people's idea of a holiday, but it'll do me just fine. If you're going I'll see you there, maybe even for a pint of Guinness. All together now - 'Ever Fallen In Love With Someone...'

'If you see Sid, tell him...'

Another week, and I still can't hear properly thanks to earwax. Bah! June going into July is not a good time of year for us hay fever sufferers... still there have been some good musical goings-on in the last few days, not least the latest 'first-Wednesday-of-every-month' Fallen Leaves show at The 12 Bar Club. Support this time came from Sid Sings who I thought were absolutely excellent, to such an extent that I thought that The Fallen Leaves might have a bit of trouble following them. However halfway through their first number it was clear that they were on top form, with Rob's guitar sounding as mighty as ever and the band with him every step of the way. A fine evening.

Last July I saw Sylvain Sylvain supported by The Duel and The Bears at The 100 Club. This July I saw Sylvain Sylvain supported by The Duel and The Bears at The 100 Club. Both were highly entertaining evenings but this year things had changed... Sylvain appeared in a trio last year whereas this time he played a solo show on acoustic guitar - his triumphant 'hello London!' as he arrived on stage was somewhat tempered by his realisation that he has forgotten it and would therefore have to go back to the dressing room to collect it! Last year I joined The Duel on stage to play 'Babylon's Burning' - no Ruts songs were performed this time (although Segs was DJ-ing between the bands, and making a very fine job of it I must say) and the band played to backing tracks (I never did find out where Pumpy the drummer had got to) which made for a very different show from the band. Indeed the only thing unchanged on both evenings was The Bears, and they may even have played the same set both times. And why not? 

  

On Saturday night The Upper Cut played their first show at The Salmon And Ball in Bethnal Green. We used to play down the road (literally!) at The Misty Moon, and while there was nothing particularly wrong with that venue I must say that I very much preferred playing here, although I was a little disappointed to find that it wasn't a Cannon And Ball theme bar; thinking about it I suppose that if it was it would have been called The Cannon And Ball rather than The Salmon And Ball... 

I made my second appearance of the year on Music Scene Investigation on Sunday evening, participating in an excellent show with Rich, Ian and Tom. You can watch it here if you like - there were some very good songs sent in this time weren't there?

And last night it was time for a London Sewage Company rehearsal - we're playing at The 100 Club next week, which isn't bad for a band that formed to play at a birthday party back in May. And I must say that we're sounding good - we're getting together again before next Thursday's show, after which it's time for some more Ruts D.C. gigs. Busy times... oh yes!

Reggae Punk Mondays at The 12 Bar Club

Just a quick reminder that Ruts D.C. are playing the band's first ever acoustic show this coming Monday 10th February at The 12 Bar Club in Denmark Street London. The Duel and Freedom Faction are also on the bill with Segs is DJ-ing until the early hours of Tuesday morning; there's one of those new-fangled Facebook 'Event' pages dedicated to it that you can find here if you so desire, and it's the first of thirteen Reggae Punk Mondays at the venue promoted by FFRUK. The whole thing has the makings of a classic evening and tickets are only £3 - so what are you waiting for? See you down the front!

'Monday Monday, so good to me...'

Commercial time - following on from the successful club nights hosted at Madame Jojos last year the first night of a 13 week run of Reggae Punk Mondays takes place on the 10th February at The 12 Bar Club in Denmark Street London. In addition to performances from The Duel and Freedom Faction, Ruts D.C. will be playing our first British gig of 2014. It's a new departure for the band - an acoustic show. Dave Ruffy, Segs and myself will (hopefully!) be playing a new song or two in our set alongside older Ruts and Ruts D.C. material, Segs will be DJing throughout the evening and the whole thing kicks off at around 8pm. A fine evening is in prospect, and with the whole thing being streamed live on the Internet (details on how you can connect with this are at FFRUK - it's no good asking me how to do it I'm afraid!) you can watch it in the comfort of your own home if you can't make it along. Oh yes!

At the edge

I've got no gigs this coming weekend - it's been quite a while since I've heard myself say that so I'm not going to complain too much (for once!) as it'll hopefully give me time to get all my stuff together for the upcoming Damned / Ruts D.C. tour. With this in mind Dave, Segs and myself met up on Thursday to discuss tactics for the shows - we also found time to look at some new song ideas, and with Segs and myself trading ideas on acoustic guitars the songs are shaping up to be much rockier than the 'Rhythm Collision Volume 2' material. All good stuff, and lots to look forward to.

Friday night Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks played at The Three Wishes in Edgware. With England playing Chile down the road at Wembley Stadium we didn't start our first set until the game finished as it was on television in the venue and they were hoping for people who had attended the match would be coming down later - in the event we started to a fairly empty bar and finished to a fairly full one, which has to be better than the other way round doesn't it? It was my last show with the band until after the afore-mentioned tour (my good friend Pete will be depping for me in my absence) and it was an enjoyable enough affair without being anything too out of the ordinary, if you know what I mean. Still that's much better than it being a bad show!

I went to Tropic At Ruislip on Saturday evening to see Roadhouse. I've seen their name around regularly over the past few years and had always heard good things about them so it was good to get chance to finally catch a show - it would be churlish to suggest that the inclusion of two female vocalists in their line-up also effected my decision to attend, but I will admit that it didn't count against it... I guess you'd describe them as a 'blues rock' band, and overall it was a good show although it was rather hampered by a less-than-excellent sound - the girls's voices we often far too loud and had a somewhat 'boxy' sound while the guitars were nowhere near loud enough (after all, whoever heard of a guitar being too loud?!?) meaning that the band had less power than perhaps they might. Still as I say it was a good show - and it's always great to see a band that plays mostly it's own songs rather than cover versions. Well, I think that it is... and while I was there I spoke to the promoters Philip and Dave about a Gypie Mayo tribute show that'll be happening on March 2nd. It should feature The Flying Squad and The Band Of Sceptics, with the proceeds going to the hospice that cared for Gypie during his illness. I'm helping to organise it with Band Of Sceptics mainman Pete Sargeant, so expect any amount of increasingly desperate 'please come to our gig'-type publicity from me nearer to the time.

And last night I once again returned to The Three Wishes jam night with Pete and Big Al - this time we corrupted Howard and Andy from the house band into playing 'Sweet Home Chicago' and 'Jilted John' with us - yes, you read that correctly. It's hard to imagine two more diverse songs isn't it? Well, that was the idea!  

Right - only a week-and-a-bit to go...

September song

This month begins with the news that GLM - the band formed by ex-Lurkers Pete Stride, Nigel Moore and Pete 'Manic Esso' Haynes - have released a new single (well you can download it for free from their website, I think that's how things work these days?) For what my opinion is worth 'The Future Is Calling' is probably their best work to date, sounding more like The Lurkers of old rather than their recent 'Chemical Landslide' album. And if that wasn't enough the band has a new Facebook page which you can find here - it looks as though things are going well for Ickenham's finest... 

After last weekend's gig frenzy things have backed off a bit this week, with 'three-gigs-in-three-days-with-three-different-bands'; actually they haven't really backed off that much have they? Good!

Big Al Reed And The Blistering Buicks played at The Dolphin in Uxbridge on Friday evening; the show got off to a late start due to the Chelsea match being on the television but the band certainly got straight into the swing of things and gave an energetic performance in front of a small but enthusiastic audience. I'm going to miss some gigs with the band over the next few weeks as I'm off gigging with Ruts D.C. (more about that in a minute) so my good friend Pete Kerr will be depping for me - he joined us for a few songs at this show and it sounded to me as though he'll make a very good job of things. A good gig all round.

Saturday saw Balcony Shirts designer and t-shirt printer Dave get married to Kate in The Four Seasons Room at Uxbridge Register Office. I was trying to remember when I last went to a wedding at this venue - I'm pretty sure that I haven't been to one there this century (!) and I'm absolutely sure that I hadn't been to one like this before, with Dave in his punk rock finery, both bride and groom sporting splendid haircuts courtesy of Horsepower Hairdressing and Dave's brother Mick wearing what might best be described as a 'tuxedo onesie' (it looked something like this and had to be seen to be believed!) among the many highlights. Their reception was held the same evening at The Old Vinyl Factory in Hayes, an extraordinary venue on the site of the EMI record factory. Musical entertainment came from myself and my old mate Matt - between us we came up with a varied selection of material performed on two acoustic guitars and with Matt in fine voice throughout. The unusual nature of proceedings was underlined by the fact that there was coffee, curry and cupcakes but no alcoholic drinks - I'm sure I haven't been to a  reception like that before either!

It was back to Colnbrook on Sunday afternoon for an Upper Cut gig at Ye Olde George Inn. We've played some good shows here over the last few months but this was probably the best so far, with our three sets seeing much dancing and jollity from the assembled throng (no shortage of of alcoholic drinks here!) and a chap in the audience offering us money to play another set. When our drummer Roger declined saying that he had to be elsewhere I couldn't resist asking him if he really had to get away or if he just didn't fancy playing any more - he replied that he did have to leave but that he'd also put so much into the show that he felt that he physically couldn't play any more. I knew how he felt - and believe me, that's a great way to feel at the end of a show.

And to finish the weekend off I went to the jam night at The Three Wishes in Edgware last night. Myself and the afore-mentioned Pete and Big Al played 'My Babe' and 'Born To Run' to the general approval of all concerned, and I was very pleased to be invited to play 'It Hurts Me Too' and 'Natural Born Bugie' with Danny the bass player and some very young and talented chaps and chapesses. All good stuff, and indeed good fun.

This coming weekend sees Ruts D.C. play shows in Preston and Newcastle - there are gigs for the band over the next four weekends, and full details are on the band's website. And if that wasn't enough I'm making an appearance on Music Scene Investigation this Sunday evening - provided of course that I get back from Newcastle in time...

Ruts D.C. and T.V. Smith at The 2013 Rebellion Festival

What follows is an attempt to write a piece about my four days at The Rebellion Festival last weekend. Most of it was written while I was there (or has been taken from notes made at the time) and while it's a bit disjointed here and there it does reflect the general feel of the weekend complete with a very unexpected incident along the way. Enjoy.

Thursday - a good journey up to Blackpool with Andy Peart and 'Fast' Tony Clarke saw your humble narrator arrive at Grampian House bed and breakfast establishment around 7.15pm. 'Oooh you've got wi-fi, we haven't got wi-fi' said Fast Tony ruefully. Yes, but you've no doubt got a jacuzzi - mind you, wi-fi is probably more useful... room 5 looks good to me so I sort my stuff out then walk along the seafront to The Winter Gardens to collect my AAA wristband then join Andy and Tony for veggie burgers at Nando's. Rock 'n' roll eh? By the time we've eaten it's nearer to 10 o'clock than 9; at the venue we meet up with Esso, John King, Phil from Bug and his wife Annette and more in the Spanish Bar, all of which means that the first act the I actually see is Walter Lure whose set in The Arena starts at midnight with 'One Track Mind'. I last saw him play nearly 30 years ago with Johnny Thunders And The Heartbreakers, and I'm pleased to say that the ensuing years haven't dulled his Les Paul swagger one bit. From there is was off to The Bizarre Bazaar for a few songs from The Ramonas (who played 'Chinese Rocks' just a few minutes after Walter Lure - weird!) before heading to The Empress Ballroom for a brilliant set from New Model Army with Justin Sullivan as intense as ever and the band sounding superb. A good start to proceedings.

Friday - I made it down to The Winter Gardens in time to catch around half the set from Taurus Trakker and very good they were too, although it was impossible not to be distracted by The Good-Fer-Nothing Circus who were to one side of the stage inviting people to have their photos taken standing on top of a chap laying on a bed of nails. Scary! In the meantime I had to find Stuart the head of merchandising to find out if I could store the two boxes of t-shirts and CDs that I'd bought with me somewhere in the venue ready for Saturday's gig; if that proved to be possible I then had to work out how to get them to the venue as I couldn't carry them all on my own. Sounds simple doesn't it? Well the first part certainly was, and Stuart turned out to be a very nice chap who couldn't have been more helpful and who offered to store the shirts in a room where he kept all the event merchandise. So far so good. So now all I had to do was collect the shirts and take them to the venue. Simple eh?
Have you ever been to Blackpool? I used to go there with my family when I was a lad and so have a lot of good memories about the place, but that was before the words 'one way system' meant anything to me. Myself and the afore-mentioned Phil and Annette (who had rather wildly volunteered to help) spent the best part of an hour attempting to find the back doors of The Winter Gardens - well, that's not strictly true as we knew where it was, we just couldn't work out how to get to it thanks to the psycho drama that is the Blackpool one way system. Several people offered directions, but they always said things like 'well it depends on whether (insert road name here) is open today or not' - many of the roads have those bollards that can be raised or lowered according to which way they're running the roads that day, which means that no one really knows how to get anywhere on any given day. It's mad! Still we got there in the end after a predictably huge amount of swearing and general insanity. After that it was time to see some bands so I did, catching all or part of sets by Eastfield, Charred Hearts, Long Tall Texans, Attila The Stockbroker, Hazel O'Connor, Wob, The Beatlesons, The Crows, The Duel, Peter And The Test Tube Babies, The Guitar Gangsters, Eddie And The Hot Rods, The Damned, Ed Banger And The Nosebleeds (no sign of Morrissey or Billy Duffy sadly) The Vibrators, Neck, The Buzzcocks, Justin Sullivan And Dean White, Space and probably some others. During this time any number of bars were open selling any number of beers - you can work the rest out for yourself...

Saturday - ok, here we go then. All this drinking and cavorting is all very well (and it must be said, tremendous fun!) but the real reason that I'm here is that tonight Ruts D.C. headline The Bizarre Bazaar stage. After spending a lazy morning running through a few of the songs on guitar I arrived at the venue around half past twelve to be told that our merchandise table would be available at 2pm so I got some lunch and saw a couple of numbers from Texas Terri Bomb before retrieving the shirts and discs and setting up our stall. Our slot was next to The Bizarre Bazaar which meant that I managed to see at least a couple of songs from most of the bands playing there that afternoon (all of whom have released material on All The Madmen Records) and met a lot of very nice people, many of whom made comments that confirmed what had become more and more evident since I first arrived at the festival - that a lot of people were really looking forward to our show. No pressure then...
The rest of the band arrived around half past five - after they'd bought our equipment in Segs heroically offered to take over the stall (I say 'heroically' as he was immediately besieged with people wanting autographs and to have their photo taken with him) while I went to get some food and to collect my guitar from my room. Upon my return we formulated a plan - Mark the driver would take over on the stall and we'd all meet in our dressing room at 10 o'clock to warm up for the show. This gave me chance to see a couple of songs from Chas And Dave and to catch up with a few people before climbing the four flights of stairs (!) to our dressing room at the allotted time. Myself and Segs had ran through quite a few songs or bits of songs before Dave joined us; Molara and Seamus arrived soon after that and it was suddenly half past eleven and time to get ready for the gig. And what a gig it was - the place was packed (and I mean packed) and with people dancing from the word go the next 75 minutes passed by in what felt like seconds. An extraordinary show, followed by an equally extraordinary time back out on the merch stall, where hands were shaken, CDs and records were signed and we all agreed that the gig had been everything we hoped it would be. Oh yes!

Sunday - first things first, and it's back to the venue to load up the van and wish the rest of the band a safe journey home. As I walked back through the venue I saw T.V. Smith behind his merchandise stall and decided to go over to say hello; when I got there here was taping a piece of cardboard to the front of the table - it said that his show was being bought forward a half an hour to 9 o'clock and would feature your humble narrator as 'special guest'. Oo-er! It turned out that Pascal Briggs should have been on before T.V. but hadn't made it to the festival so a longer set was now required - 'I've been trying to call you but couldn't get through - do you know anyone who could lend you an acoustic guitar?'
I went back to base camp, had a shower and got my (electric) guitar out. I hadn't played a show with the mighty Mr. Smith since back in March but fortunately I had all the songs that I play with him on my mobile phone for just such an emergency (if only it worked as a telephone as well!) and so set about revising some songs. I also managed to get an hour and a bit of sleep - well, it was going to be a long evening...
As I walked back to the venue The Red Arrows were displaying over the sea - Blackpool appeared to be at a standstill with people parked up on street corners and all the pavements crammed with onlookers. I wended my weary way through them and went straight to the venue office where I arranged to borrow a guitar; there was was time for some food before catching a few songs from The Riffs, I, Ludicrous and Lene Lovich. I'd arranged to meet T.V. at The Almost Acoustic stage at half past eight, where the very helpful soundman Huggy produced a guitar that had been left there for me by Jennie from The Crows. (Thanks Jennie - that's another drink I owe you! Oh and thanks to Billy Liar for lending me a capo too.) After a (very) quick soundcheck T.V. took to the stage for 30-odd minutes of excellence before beginning 'Immortal Rich' which was my cue to start getting ready to go on. I knew he'd be doing two more songs after that -  plenty of time to go to the toilet (even guitar heroes need to have a pee before the show you know!) and get a drink. Or so I thought - I met several people who had enjoyed the Ruts D.C. show and who wanted to tell me all about it. Well I don't want to be rude but I'm on in five minutes...
I just - just! - made it to the stage as my name was announced. Phew! I just made through the set too, with T.V. calling a couple of songs that I hadn't revised - I didn't know that I had quite so much skin on my teeth! By the end of our set we were treated to the unusual sight of massed poging at an acoustic gig, an amazing end to a great show. 
Afterwards it's handshakes and photos all round before heading to the Empress Ballroom to see Sham 69. I was never their biggest fan but I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed their show - and no one is more surprised than me to be typing that sentence.
Only one thing could follow that - the after show party upstairs in The Spanish Bar. Now it's at this point that details get sketchy. Very sketchy. I definitely spent a fair bit of time talking to Gaye Advert, and Richard from Cadiz Music, and Arturo Bassick, Eugene from Vive Le Rock and no doubt quite a few other people too; when that ended at 4am I went to The Orbiston Hotel with various members of The Duel where incredibly the bar was still open. Details are even more sketchy after that... but what a weekend it had been my friends, what a weekend it had been. Same time next year? Let's hope so.

You upset me baby

It's been something of a 'bits-and-pieces-week' since last we spoke...

The last time Ruts D.C. visited The Music Complex in Deptford was to rehearse for last month's show at The Underworld in Camden; rather than busy ourselves with serious work as our 'big London gig' was on the immediate horizon we chose to attempt most if not all of our set in a rockabilly style before going to the pub opposite. Last Tuesday's gathering was a bit different, as with no gigs for a while we decided to get together to look at some other songs from the band's back catalogue as well as trying out some ideas for new numbers. Well that was the plan - what actually happened was that decided to play a few songs from our set in the style of The Upsetters (well, we'd jammed a few chords that we thought sounded a bit like them and then found ourselves playing 'West One (Shine On Me)' in a similar way. Strange but true. Incidentally if you follow this link you'll see the afore-mentioned song from our Southampton show a few weeks ago - watch the chap in front of me during the guitar solo and you'll see him making a well-known gesture at me throughout. I didn't think it was that bad!) before... no, not going to the pub (we did that after the session!) but actually getting down to what we were there for. Many an-idea was tried, arrangements were altered, and we all felt that progress was made. Another similar session is planned for the not-too-distant future - more news as and when I have it, as they say.

Well so far so good - except that by the time I got home I wasn't feeling too well. We'd only had a couple of drinks (honest!) so that wasn't the cause; however after an early night I woke up the next day feeling as though I hadn't been to sleep, all heavy limbs and heavier head. I managed to stumble through a day at Balcony Shirts before going home and falling asleep for an hour-and-a-bit. Rock'n'roll eh? Still I felt a bit better so made it back into Uxbridge to meet Scott from the shop at Harris + Hoole where he was due to play a short acoustic set with your humble narrator joining him for a couple of songs. When I got there a chap who's name escapes me (Sorry! But I'd not been well!) was playing some difficult sounding jazz piano (I'm not entirely sure that there's any easy sounding jazz piano, but that's another story. Mind you, what do I know?!?) which sounded very appropriate in the context of the venue and indeed the evening. Next up was John Napier who I first met back in the 1980s when his band Hector's House played a few shows with The Price. I always thought that he wrote good songs back then and if his set here was anything to go by he still does. Scott then played a couple of songs before asking me to join him for 'Ain't No Pleasing You' and 'Taarabt's Too Good For You', both of which went well not least considering that the extent of our rehearsal was to decide on keys and talk through the songs when I arrived at the coffee shop. It could all have gone horribly wrong but thankfully it didn't. Last on was R.W. Hedges, a good friend of Scott's who did very well in the Mojo magazine 'New Voice' competition a couple of years ago. He'd put the evening together and finished proceedings very well. All in all a highly enjoyable evening in an excellent venue - let's hope they put more musical events on there in the future.

Fridy evening saw The Upper Cut return to The Admiral Nelson in Twickenham for the first time in quite a while. I took the opportunity to try out my newly-acquired Marshall combo as mentioned in these hallowed pages last week - I didn't get as much time as I would have liked to get to grips with it during the week (I've not been well you know!) but overall I think I've made a good purchase as it certainly sounded good where I was standing. It's definitely a 'rockier' sounding amplifier than my Fender (as you would expect) and to be honest it might be a bit much for The Upper Cut but I might give it another go this weekend (we're at Patrick's Bar in Crystal Palace this coming Friday) and see how it sounds. The show was a good one too, with everyone playing well and ending with Sue the landlady offering us money to play for longer. This happened in Colnbrook last month too - maybe we should just charge more and then play for longer?

After a Saturday in the shop (not too busy but busy enough) I had what felt like my first Saturday night off in ages - at last a chance to catch up with things that need doing and maybe even have an early night given that I'd not been feeling well earlier in the week... obviously I didn't do anything of the sort as I went to The Crown And Treaty to see punk covers band No Lip. They feature my old mate Pete Bradshaw on guitar (back in the day he was known to many as 'Suts' after attempting to adopt the stage name Peter Sutcliffe - they were odd times...) and did a pretty good job of summoning up the spirit of '77. And Pete and myself did a pretty good job of drinking far too many drinks after the show. Well - Saturday night out and all that...

And last night it was back to The Three Wishes in Edgware for the the Monday night jam session. An enjoyable evening all round, and it's a regular event that's well worth a visit - you can find their Facebook page here if you're interested. I'm still a bit surprised that I like it as much as I do...

And if you're in the Hayes area this Saturday evening Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks have a short notice gig at The Wishing Well (it's on the Uxbridge Road opposite the police station - you can do your own 'that'll be handy for when the fight breaks out'-type punchlines if you like...) which should be an interesting evening, not least because they've only just started putting bands on there. Let's hope there's an audience!

I'm not free - but I'm Cheap

Good news my friends - 'Anthology' by T.V. Smith's Cheap is available now on Easy Action Records. It contains the band's posthumous album 'R.I.P... Everything Must Go!' plus outtakes, John Peel sessions and more. Hurrah! The package has some great photos of the band from back in the day alongside sleevenotes by T.V.'s biographer Dave Thompson and, incredibly, me. Why me? Well back in the dim and distant past your humble narrator made a very brief appearance as guitarist in the band - many details from that fateful evening are a bit sketchy (when I asked East to help me recall what happened his reply of 'you're asking me to remember something that happened in a pub that served beer over 20 years ago' pretty much sums up his and indeed my approach to things at the time) but it's an incident that I do get asked about from time to time, especially when I'm playing duo gigs with the mighty Mr. Smith.

So here, as far as can be recalled, is what happened...

Dramatis personae - 

T.V. SMITH'S CHEAP -   T.V. Smith- vocals 
                                   Mik Heslin - guitar  
                                   Andy Bennie - bass  
                                   Martin Deniz - drums

THE PRICE -                 Malcolm Andrews - vocals  
                                   Leigh Heggarty (me!) - guitar  
                                   Huggy Harewood - bass  
                                   Mick Francis - drums  
                                   East - roadie, merchandise man and probably some other things as well

The show in question took place at The Samuel Beckett (which I believe is now called The Three Crowns) in Stoke Newington in January 1991. The Price were supporting Cheap - I'd probably have been there anyway to watch the band but that explains why I had a guitar and amplifier with me - and as we arrived we were told that the evening had taken an unexpected turn. As you'd expect we were due to go on first, but as their guitarist Mik had become unavailable (his wife was having a baby, the timing of which is obviously unpredictable) T.V. was going to do an acoustic set, aided and abetted by Martin on percussion. From memory I don't think Andy was originally going to play as well; having said that I think he had his bass with him, although he might have borrowed Huggy's for what was to come? Anyway it was suggested (I think by T.V. himself) that we went on last as it would be a better end to the evening - I'm not sure that I agreed with him! - and after a short discussion about set times it was all arranged. We soundchecked, then T.V. strapped on an acoustic guitar (I think this was the first time I ever saw him play one) and ran through a couple of numbers. At some point around this time in proceedings I said something along the lines of 'I'd have learned your set if you'd told me that Mik wasn't going to be here' - although I hadn't been 100% serious (I don't think I had anyway) when I'd said what I said the moment was seized upon and what might politely be described as an 'intense discussion' between T.V., Andy, Martin and myself followed. Did I actually think that I could play some of their songs? Well, I'd got the 'Third Term' single so knew that song quite well; there was also a much-listened-to John Peel session to consider, and I'd seen the band play many times... Andy and I picked up our instruments and played the chord sequence to 'Third Term' - it sounded good, we could do this! 

T.V. Smith's Cheap
Mik, T.V.,Andy and Martin.

Or could we? Was it a bit of a daft idea? Much musing followed, culminating in a plan - T.V. would play his acoustic set as he'd planned, Martin would join him on percussion for a song or two and then Andy and myself would take to the stage for 'Third Term' to finish his show. All well and good - except... except... I really liked 'Luxury In Exile' (I still do!) and I know it, really I do, it's on the Peel session, I've heard it loads of times, let's do that one as well, please... ok, so we'll do that, then 'Third Term' - but what happens if they want an encore? 

It's nearly showtime and things are going well with the venue filling up nicely. East has set up the Price merchandise stall and is facing some controversy over his 'BUY BEFORE WE FRY' and 'PRE-WAR PRICES' signs (Operation Desert Storm in The Gulf War was looming!) although most people are taking it in the spirit that it was intended (whatever that was!) News was filtering out to the Price people as to what was going to happen - the fans were bemused and amused; I'm not sure that Malcolm and Mick were too happy about it but I don't think Huggy was too bothered. Either way I spoke to T.V. just as he was going on - Andy and myself were to join him and Martin on stage after 'Gather Your Things And Go', and whatever was going to happen next, would happen next...

These days I do a fair few gigs depping in bands that I haven't played or rehearsed with before, but in those days things was very different. I was the guitarist in The Price, and if you were in a band then you played in that band, and that was more-or-less it. I had an impromptu acoustic blues trio with my good friends Paul Cope and the late (and undeniably great) John Saxon called The Diving Ducks that did the odd pub gig here and there but that was all, and even that was seen as an unusual thing to do. (I don't think Malcolm or Mick liked that either, although again I don't think Huggy was too bothered.) However you looked at it, I was about to attempt something that I hadn't done before - get up and play in public with a band that I hadn't rehearsed with. I remember feeling a bit nervous but not to the point of shaking or anything like that. 
East and myself were watching from the side of the stage as 'Gather Your Things And Go' ended. I turned to him and said something like 'right, here we go then'. For a split second he looked as though he was going to say 'what - you're really going to do it?' but I don't think he said anything. And anyway, it was too late to turn back now.

I had always thought 'Luxury In Exile' was a great song from the moment that I first heard it. The riff is brilliantly insistent, the chord sequence is a killer - but the words are something else again. It concerns Nazi war criminals being protected thanks to wealth and power; not exactly a simple subject to tackle, but as with most things T.V. writes about, he makes it look easy. There's two lines in the second verse that still make me shudder, even when (or maybe especially when) we play the song together today - 'swimming pool by the black museum, a pile of bones to put your feet on' - how scary an image is that? 

I picked up my gold Gibson Les Paul Deluxe, the guitar I used for the majority of Price shows. It's a fabulous instrument. If you're about to play a song that you don't know with people that you've never played with before, that's a pretty good guitar to have in your hands. Martin counted it in, and three or so minutes later the song ended. Applause. Easy. Everyone on the stage smiled a relieved smile. 

'Third Term' had been issued as a single with 'Buried By The Machine' the previous year. I don't know how many copies were sold but I had one, and suddenly that was important. I knew the song. Good. We played it well. Applause. Easier. We took our instruments off and left the stage. More applause. We've got an encore. Now what?

We went back onto the stage, and got ready to play. But to play what exactly? Well - how about 'The Newshound'? I played the first few notes of the riff - T.V. said 'yeah, he knows it, let's go!' and before we had chance to even think about changing our minds we were off. Now this one we hadn't thought of earlier. I'd only heard it live. What did I think I was doing suggesting it?

The song ended. Yet more applause. Leave the stage again. Don't go back on!

T.V. shakes my hand. Andy shakes my hand. Martin shakes my hand. Was that alright? Martin smiles - 'flash c@*t!' - then bursts out laughing. I take that as a 'yes'... Malcolm asks what time we're on and Mick make comments like 'he's ours, you can't have him!' to The Cheapsters. I told you that they weren't too happy. Huggy says nothing, but he still doesn't look as though he was too bothered. I must ask him one day. Gaye Advert tells me that it sounded great. That'll do for me.

The Price
Leigh, Malcolm, Mick and Huggy.

Then The Price played. When you do a lot of shows with a band you tend to only remember the very good ones and the disasters. This one I can't recall as being either of those so I guess it was good. We were a consistent band around this time so it was more likely to be good than bad, but if you're reading this and you were there and can remember anything about our show (or indeed any other bits of the story that I've forgotten) then please let me know. Maybe what happened before our set has overshadowed the rest of that evening in my warped mind?

Eighteen years later The Price and T.V. Smith were playing at The Load Of Hay in Uxbridge. It was East's 50th birthday - you can read the story here if you'd like to. I joined T.V. for a couple of songs that night, and thus we accidentally formed the duo that we perform as today. We played 'Third Term' that night too. As we went to start the song I realised that I had no idea how the chord sequence went - well, it had been a long time. Halfway through I was playing it without thinking. Good. Again. I guess that means that I'm still a flash c@*t?

'Anthology' by T.V. Smith's Cheap can be ordered from the online shop on T.V. Smith's website by clicking here. Do it now - you won't regret it!

Where are we now?

Well it's been great to see the groundswell of support for Wilko Johnson in the wake of his diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer. Thousands of people have left messages of support on his Facebook page following the announcement of his condition, which goes some way to showing just what an impact he's had on the music world and indeed the lives of his fans and admirers. It was almost unworldly to read his manager's statement, as it tells of upcoming gigs, a live DVD (and that's something we fans have all hoped to hear about for ages) and a new album - there's so much to be optimistic about until it suddenly mentions 'farewell gigs' and brings us all back down to Earth. I for one read it with great sadness - I've written of my admiration for the great man's work many times in these hallowed pages, and it remains a great source of inspiration to me. So let's enjoy the remaining times that we have with Wilko - those farewell gigs should be unforgettable.

On a (considerably) brighter note, David Bowie released a new single this week. Now there's something no one expected - it's incredible that in these days of social media overload there was apparently no anticipation of 'Where Are We Now?'. It just goes to show that it's still possible to stay under the radar, although you may need Bowie's money and status to be able to do that as effectively as it's been achieved here. It's a haunting piece, very nostalgic and reflective, and very good in my not-so-humble opinion. There's an album 'The Next Day' due in March which is apparently 'rockier' that the single; this should be very interesting to hear not least because he's been working with Tony Visconti again, a collaboration has given us some of The Thin White Duke's best and most acclaimed work. Definitely something to look forward to.

First gig of the year for your humble narrator was on Friday night at The Admiral Nelson in Twickenham with The Upper Cut. I'd hardly got through the door before a fresh-faced young barman came over and told me that unless I gave him an invoice he wouldn't be able to pay us. I said something like 'erm, I'll just put my guitars down' but he carried on regardless. 'I think we normally email one in on Monday' said I - he looked confused. Fortunately Terry our singer arrived and spoke to him - 'we normally email one in on Monday' were pretty much his exact words, which for one reason or other the fresh-faced young barman suddenly seemed happy with. It must have made more sense coming from Terry than from me.
We'd spent Wednesday evening at Bush Studios in Shepherds Bush running through perspective songs to add to our repertoire - our first set included four-in-a-row (I bet you're wondering which songs we played aren't you? Well, since you asked nicely they were 'Ooh La La', 'Why Did You Do It?', 'Day Tripper' and 'The Last Time') and our second set included a go at 'In A Broken Dream' which we've tried before but never quite managed to get right. Happily all of them sounded good (I wouldn't be telling you about them if they hadn't!) which is more than could be said for 'I Heard It Through The Grapevine' which was going well before I managed to lose the plot a bit during the guitar solo then played the riff in the wrong key... the normal course of action when this sort of thing happens is to glare at the keyboard player so that it (hopefully) looks as though it's their fault; however since we don't have a keyboard player I opted for Plan B - attempt to laugh it off then apologise to the band at half time. Aside from these incidents it turned out to be a really good gig, not least because we somehow found ourselves playing 'Whole Lotta Love' in the middle of 'Superstition'. That's never happened before - I wonder if it'll happen again?

Saturday saw the first live music at The Load Of Hay in Uxbridge for quite some time, when acoustic bluesman Michael Roach played a splendid set at pub regular Gary's 50th birthday party. I must admit that I'd not heard of Mr. Roach before, but aided and abetted by a slide guitarist and a double bass player he sounded good to me. Gary revealed that he'd attended one of the man's workshops on acoustic blues guitar, had kept in touch and then invited him to play at his birthday bash. A good choice, and it went down well with all concerned.

And yesterday myself and Terry the bass journeyed to The Nags Head in Sunningdale to see about a gig for The Upper Cut. Terry played there a while back depping in a band and had got on well with Jack the guv'nor; when we got there A Bit On The Side were roaring through 'Sunshine Of Your Love' and Jack distinguished himself by (a) offering us both a drink and (b) offering the band a gig on Sunday 24th March which we of course accepted. Result! If only it was always that easy...