Jamming!

And so it begins - I spent much of Tuesday in the labyrinth that is the Jamm club in Brixton with Segs running through possible songs for the upcoming Ruts D.C. shows. With the new Alabama 3 album being mixed in the studio a few doors down he occasionally had to leave to listen to a possible finished track, which makes the fact that we managed to run through something like 14 perspective numbers all the more remarkable. I left with a CD of 6 rough mixes of new material and some scribbly notes that detailed key changes, endings, segues and other possible arrangement ideas. I'm likely to be back over there for some more work sometime this week - I'll let you know how it goes. In the meantime the return of Ruts D.C. has made it onto the Alabama 3 website, and the Aural Sculptors blog currently features a downloadable gig from 30 years ago in Edinburgh - excellent!

Last night saw an extended Chicago Blues Brothers band play at a very large house in the splendidly named Weston-Under-Lizard. We were playing for the Earl of Bradford at a party for his wife Penny's birthday; normally I end up coming away from events like this spouting left wing rants about the British class system (click here to see what I mean!) but I don't feel too bad about this one. Perhaps it's because I'm really tired as I didn't get in until after 4 a.m., perhaps it was because they all seemed like nice people - who knows? Mind you I didn't like the 'too many cats, not enough recipes' sticker on the back of a Land Rover that I saw on the way into town so maybe it's best that I keep this posting short... band-wise Andy joined us on trombone with Dave on trumpet and Jimmy depping for Richard on saxophone; Pete was added next to Tracy on backing vocals and Steve was on drums with Marc on percussion. Other than that it was business as usual with Squirrel on bass, Ian on keyboards and Matt and Mike as Jake and Elwood - add me on guitar and there was a mighty twelve (twelve!) of us on stage with Big Tel and Dave DJ-ing. Apparently the organisers wanted a 'big' line-up on stage - who said size isn't everything? We were due on at 10 o'clock but finally went on 45 minutes later - our 75 minute performance included rarely-played versions of 'Superstition' and 'Hard To Handle' and saw a fair amount of dancing from the assembled multitude. Big Tel and Dave saw the evening out until 1 a.m. with what sounded to me to be a good selection of seventies disco material although they told me afterwards that they were a bit put out by people requesting Blues Brothers material. Maybe we should have played for longer?

Well, maybe. Again.

And there's just time to mention that Kris Dollimore returns to the Load of Hay next Sunday 23rd - if you're in the area it'd be good to see you...

Diddy wah diddy

Shameless self-publicity time again, and I'm trying desperately to think of a vaguely witty way to use the word advert in connection with T.V. Smith; I'm failing dramatically so I'll just say that I'm playing 2 gigs with the man himself this coming weekend - Saturday we're at The Ropetackle Centre in Shoreham (Attila The Stockbroker's 30th anniversary gig with John Otway - excellent!) and Sunday we're at The Load of Hay in Uxbridge. Details are on T.V.'s website, hope you can make it to either or indeed both of them.

Since the last posting Morrissey has gone mad again, this time about the Chinese - not quite this mad though! Meanwhile East, Big Tel and myself watched a DVD of the Broadway stage show (what could our seemingly sudden interest in musical theatre signify?) of 'Rent', and very good it was too. I also spent a highly enjoyable afternoon in a rehearsal studio running through a variety of rock classics with some familiar faces (more about that another time) and The Chicago Blues Brothers played at a very peculiar venue in Arundel...

Back in the 1980's there was a club called The Carioca in Worthing. No, I hadn't heard of it either although I wouldn't have minded being there on this night... Mike and Graham used to go there all the time, not least on the disco nights when the likes of Tony Blackburn, Peter Powell and David 'Kid' Jensen used to appear there. I know this because I read it on the posters on the walls of the barn that we played in on Saturday night, which the afore-mentioned Mike and Graham had decked it out to be a painstaking recreation on the original club for their joint 50th birthday party. Tracy returns on backing vocals, Chris is on keyboards and Eric is on drums but other than that it's the same line-up as last week's Abingdon show, and soundcheck is more of a rehearsal for Eric's benefit with medleys figuring prominently. Our first set is at 9.30, then it's a set from 'Radio 1's David Hamilton' (that's what it said on the poster!) before our second set at 11.30. There's time for a visit to the burger van that's been laid on for the occasion (oh yes!) before our first set which get a fair bit of dancing despite the odd hiccup here and there on stage . David Hamilton comes on while I'm queuing up at the bar, he wearing a gold lame jacket and plays 'Blame It On The Boogie' and it's suddenly 1978 at The Carioca Club on Saturday night with 40 and 50-something men and women turning into their teenage selves again (I'll leave you to think about that for a minute shall I?) amid much dancefloor merriment. By the time we're back on for our second set the free bar has had quite an effect on proceedings, and we encore with 'Gimme Some Loving' to more than a little hysteria. Sad to say it had also turned some of the revellers into inconsiderate imbeciles, at least judging by the number of beer bottles on or around various group members cars - or maybe they were inconsiderate imbeciles anyway? A depressing end to an otherwise enjoyable evening. I blame it on the boogie myself.

Must go - I've got some T.V. Smith songs to re-learn. That's more like it.