It seems like only yesterday that I was moaning on about having just had a tooth out but it was actually back in September ('Tooth Fairy'). Doesn't time fly when you're having fun eh? Still, here we go again...
CHRIST MY BLOODY FACE HURTS!
But I guess it should- this time it took two of 'em 40-something minutes to tear an otherwise innocent looking little toothy peg from my lower left jaw. That's a 40-something minute glimpse into what awaits us all in hell- bone crunching, toe curling, stomach turning hell my friends.
'Don't worry' said the cheery, really rather good looking young Indian lady who'd just tested the strength of my jawbone virtually to destruction, 'you've still got over 20 left'.
Well, yes, she's right. But only until she gets hold of them.
'You two seem like really nice people' I heard myself say. 'So why do you do this?'
Neither of them answered. Then again that's what I thought I said to them. What actually came out of my mouth was probably just a noise.
'Here you are' she said, handing me one of those antiseptic tissues that you never normally have handy when you need one, 'we can't have you leaving here looking like a vampire can we?'.
No, I suppose not. Mind you, it might have been a laugh.
All of that was yesterday. Today it just hurts. I've taken enough painkillers to knock Pete Doherty over but to no avail- it still feels like someone's ripped something out of my face. Funny that.
Only one course of action can possibly remain- to the pub with East (Price webmaster and merchandise supremo). I believe they sell anaesthetic there.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Sunday, January 07, 2007
'Drummer brilliant, guitarist terrible, singing in a foreign language, bassist optional'
So says punk rock goddess and legend Gaye Advert. We're on a Westbound Central line train and we're discussing Scandinavian Death Metal. But how did we get there?
Friday and it's another 'we were punks once' evening for my brother Terry and myself. We're off to the 100 Club in London to see Eddie and the Hot Rods, supported by the mighty T.V. Smith. We catch the tube in to Tottenham Court Road and meet up with old mate Andy Knight in The Tottenham pub. I've known Andy many years- he used to come to see The Price regularly and I've also been to quite a few gigs with him (The Godfathers were particular favourites of ours). He's a great bloke and I always look forward to seeing him. Terry had never met him before but within a couple of minutes they were like old friends 'though I'm not too sure how much of this was to do with the fact that Andy had been drinking with former workmates all day and was therefore even more talkative than usual.
We got to the 100 Club just as T.V. Smith was taking to the stage. I first met him and his girlfriend Gaye around 1990 at The Anglers Retreat in West Drayton (I think!) when he was playing in Cheap; The Price went on to play with them on several occasions and I've kept in touch with him ever since- he played at The Rayners with us a couple of years ago for our 20th anniversary gig (see The Price website for pictorial evidence). Before his second song he mentions that it's '30 years and 10 days' since the first Adverts gig; then he plays 'No time to be 21'- he says he played it that night too. I thought it sounded great, maybe even better than when I first heard it somewhere around 28-and-a-bit years ago. An amazing thought... he plays a tremendous set, just him and an acoustic guitar, old Adverts songs next to new material, it all making perfect sense. He's so brilliant, he should be so much more successful than he is- but since when was quality any guarantee of commercial success?
Eddie and the Hot Rods were the first band I ever saw. Well I suppose they were actually the second band I ever saw since No Dice were on before them, but anyway... it was Autumn '77, it was at Brunel University in Uxbridge and they'd just released 'Do anything you wanna do'. They were just fantastic- I remember standing there and thinking 'why would anybody not like this?'. And by the end of the show I was thinking 'maybe I could do something like this...'. There's only Barrie Masters left from those far off days- I saw them a couple of times in the mid-'80's when John from our band was drumming for them and have seen them here and there ever since. But it really did all start for me that night at Brunel. Nowadays they've got Richard Holgarth on guitar who used to be the sound man at The Square in Harlow- a great guitarist who also plays with John Otway. They kicked off with 'Teenage Depression'- they started with that on the night I first saw them and I can never help but smile whenever I see them play it. Somewhere during 'The Kids are Alright' Simon the drummer drops his right hand stick- he just carried on playing without it, using his hand... there's new songs from new albums, old songs from old albums- it's great stuff and not just from a nostalgic point of view either. A terrific show- the last song's 'The Beginning of the End' which my mate Tom describes as 'the best punk rock song ever written'. Normally I would have to say that would be something of an overstatement- but from the performance given here I'd almost believe him.
Our evening ends with Terry talking to Barrie about boxing and me talking to Richard about Gibson SG's. Oh and both of us talking to Gaye and T.V. about heavy metal. Excellent.
Friday and it's another 'we were punks once' evening for my brother Terry and myself. We're off to the 100 Club in London to see Eddie and the Hot Rods, supported by the mighty T.V. Smith. We catch the tube in to Tottenham Court Road and meet up with old mate Andy Knight in The Tottenham pub. I've known Andy many years- he used to come to see The Price regularly and I've also been to quite a few gigs with him (The Godfathers were particular favourites of ours). He's a great bloke and I always look forward to seeing him. Terry had never met him before but within a couple of minutes they were like old friends 'though I'm not too sure how much of this was to do with the fact that Andy had been drinking with former workmates all day and was therefore even more talkative than usual.
We got to the 100 Club just as T.V. Smith was taking to the stage. I first met him and his girlfriend Gaye around 1990 at The Anglers Retreat in West Drayton (I think!) when he was playing in Cheap; The Price went on to play with them on several occasions and I've kept in touch with him ever since- he played at The Rayners with us a couple of years ago for our 20th anniversary gig (see The Price website for pictorial evidence). Before his second song he mentions that it's '30 years and 10 days' since the first Adverts gig; then he plays 'No time to be 21'- he says he played it that night too. I thought it sounded great, maybe even better than when I first heard it somewhere around 28-and-a-bit years ago. An amazing thought... he plays a tremendous set, just him and an acoustic guitar, old Adverts songs next to new material, it all making perfect sense. He's so brilliant, he should be so much more successful than he is- but since when was quality any guarantee of commercial success?
Eddie and the Hot Rods were the first band I ever saw. Well I suppose they were actually the second band I ever saw since No Dice were on before them, but anyway... it was Autumn '77, it was at Brunel University in Uxbridge and they'd just released 'Do anything you wanna do'. They were just fantastic- I remember standing there and thinking 'why would anybody not like this?'. And by the end of the show I was thinking 'maybe I could do something like this...'. There's only Barrie Masters left from those far off days- I saw them a couple of times in the mid-'80's when John from our band was drumming for them and have seen them here and there ever since. But it really did all start for me that night at Brunel. Nowadays they've got Richard Holgarth on guitar who used to be the sound man at The Square in Harlow- a great guitarist who also plays with John Otway. They kicked off with 'Teenage Depression'- they started with that on the night I first saw them and I can never help but smile whenever I see them play it. Somewhere during 'The Kids are Alright' Simon the drummer drops his right hand stick- he just carried on playing without it, using his hand... there's new songs from new albums, old songs from old albums- it's great stuff and not just from a nostalgic point of view either. A terrific show- the last song's 'The Beginning of the End' which my mate Tom describes as 'the best punk rock song ever written'. Normally I would have to say that would be something of an overstatement- but from the performance given here I'd almost believe him.
Our evening ends with Terry talking to Barrie about boxing and me talking to Richard about Gibson SG's. Oh and both of us talking to Gaye and T.V. about heavy metal. Excellent.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Stop me if you've heard this one before
My first day of 2007 back in the shop and it's busy. Very busy. And I've got toothache. Again. The dentist's put a temporary filling in- next week it's root canal work or extraction.
There's something to look forward to.
This year can only get better. Can't it?
Can't it?!?
There's something to look forward to.
This year can only get better. Can't it?
Can't it?!?
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Happy New Year!
For our last gig of 2006 myself and the long-suffering Shirley decided to treat ourselves to a night away (life in the fast lane eh?) in Lincoln- just outside it anyway, Thorpe-on-the-Hill to be precise where we're playing at Jocasta's which I think is a kind of mobile events company which puts up varying sized marquees as and when required 'though we were playing at their 'home' site. My toothache, which had started sometime before Christmas, was by now reaching epic proportions and the world swearing record is probably mine... that said the journey there was livened up no end when we spotted a new shop on the A1- the 'Adult Pit Stop' which I guess is a sex shop. (we didn't visit it, honest!) I'd have thought that 'just South of the Black Cat roundabout on the A1' would be a strange address at the best of times although I suppose it's handy if you're arranging to meet someone you've just been talking to on the internet? The mind boggles. Well, mine does anyway.
After booking into our Travelodge and a quick bite to eat (ouch!) it's down to the venue for a soundcheck/rehearsal. Joining the usual suspects (myself, Squirrel on bass, John on drums, Gary on keys and sole horn player Andy on sax) tonight are C.J. and Austin as the Blues Bros. I've worked a fair bit with Austin in his duo Liquid and the two of them have done a couple of shows with us before but as we're playing for 2 hours in total we need to play pretty much everything that we can think of so we run through some rarely performed songs- 'Take me to the River'. 'Hard to Handle' etc. We're playing 2 sets, 10.30-11.30pm then after the fireworks (if it stops raining) from 1-2am. A long night, but should be fun if the audience is up for it... which it turns out they are, with plenty of dancing from the word go and the band playing well, though by the second set I'm reduced to taking painkillers on stage which probably looked very 'rock'n'roll' but actually felt anything but... washing them down with lager may have been a mistake though, as I discovered when I went to play the intro to 'Sweet Home Chicago' and found that I couldn't remember it!
3.15am and we're back at the Travelodge. The manager's come out to see who's arriving so late. He likes a chat, mostly about hotels. Then again, I suppose he would.
Happy new year- see you somewhere, sometime in 2007.
After booking into our Travelodge and a quick bite to eat (ouch!) it's down to the venue for a soundcheck/rehearsal. Joining the usual suspects (myself, Squirrel on bass, John on drums, Gary on keys and sole horn player Andy on sax) tonight are C.J. and Austin as the Blues Bros. I've worked a fair bit with Austin in his duo Liquid and the two of them have done a couple of shows with us before but as we're playing for 2 hours in total we need to play pretty much everything that we can think of so we run through some rarely performed songs- 'Take me to the River'. 'Hard to Handle' etc. We're playing 2 sets, 10.30-11.30pm then after the fireworks (if it stops raining) from 1-2am. A long night, but should be fun if the audience is up for it... which it turns out they are, with plenty of dancing from the word go and the band playing well, though by the second set I'm reduced to taking painkillers on stage which probably looked very 'rock'n'roll' but actually felt anything but... washing them down with lager may have been a mistake though, as I discovered when I went to play the intro to 'Sweet Home Chicago' and found that I couldn't remember it!
3.15am and we're back at the Travelodge. The manager's come out to see who's arriving so late. He likes a chat, mostly about hotels. Then again, I suppose he would.
Happy new year- see you somewhere, sometime in 2007.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Brighton's Burning
In our next attempt to re-visit our punk rock pasts myself and my brother Terry made another journey down to the Concorde 2 in Brighton, this time to see Bad Manners supported by Foxy's Ruts among others. The 'Foxy' in question is guitarist Paul Fox; the 'Ruts' are his old group. And it's at this point that I have to go back in time rather a long way...
...to schooldays in fact, and the day I raved on at my mate and fellow punk rock fan Mark Wyeth about this amazing band that I'd seen. They were called The Ruts and they were, well, amazing. They had a single out which I was going to try to buy at the weekend; if it's as good as they are it'll be, well, amazing. Or very good at least, great even. You've got to see them Mark, you really have...
20-something years later and a lot's happened since then. I've seen Paul play many many times in various groups and now even own one of his old guitars. Early on in the Price's illustrious career we supported his then-band Choir Militia a few times and he played with us here and there as well as producing one of our singles. And Mark has gone on to wave The Ruts's flag just about everywhere that'll let him (and probably a few places that wouldn't) even though he never did get to see them. Mind you he now plays bass for them which I guess is better.
More about them in a minute. Terry and myself arrived after a somewhat stormy journey, parked down on the seafront near the venue and spent ages watching the sea. It was raining and very windy and I had toothache which wasn't helped by the weather but none of that seemed to matter- the sea always fascinates me and, it turns out, Terry too. Eventually we tore ourselves away from it and made it to the venue in time to catch Max Splodge battering 'Two Little Boys' into submission. Local heroes The Fish Brothers were up next, good fun 'though I must admit we spent most of their set backstage ligging. By the time we went back out the front Kevin the promoter was on stage with some of Bad Manners treating the audience to an unusual version of The Police's 'So Lonely' and a suitably bizarre tribute to The Macc Lads who had been on some of the other dates of the tour. Very strange.
Then it's John Otway with solo renditions of 'Really Free', 'Beware of the flowers...' and an excellent new number 'You're Breaking Up' (mobile phone madness ahoy!) before he too was joined by some of Bad Manners for 'Bunsen Burner', 'Crazy Horses' and 'We Rock', all performed with his customary lunacy. Good stuff.
Then, at last, Paul and his boys- except they've got Bad Manners's drummer 'cos Laurie (Paul's son and their usual drummer) is ill. And Mark's got bass problems- it's miles out of tune which Mark the singer finds hilarious and Mr. Wyeth very definately doesn't... and 'Staring at the Rude boys' sounds slow, and 'Something That I Said' isn't much better, and 'Your just A...' has gone wrong in the middle and me and Terry are getting really worried... thankfully things improve and by 'Give Youth a Chance' it's all hotting up nicely; 'In a Rut' has the obligatory BIG DRUNK BLOKE on stage singing it in all the wrong places, 'Jah Wah' sees the Manners horns joining in and 'Babylon's Burning' nearly starts a riot. The encore's 'Human Punk' which maybe follows the live version a bit too closely but is still a song I never thought I'd ever see performed again. Talking to Paul afterwards he seems to think that this could all have a future- by what I saw and, maybe most importantly, by the audience's reaction to it, he might just be correct.
Bad Manners were always a band that I had a bit of a soft spot for. I was never a big ska fan 'though I really like The Beat (are they ska?) and some of The Specials stuff but I always liked the Bad Manners singles; also it's great that they're still going (did they ever stop?) even though I believe it's been 'Buster-and-some-blokes' for quite a while now. Still they sounded excellent- it'd been a long night and I felt the crowd was flagging a bit (I certainly was!) but they got everyone up and moving. All the songs you'd hope they play were there, though I particularly liked their version of Deep Purple's 'Black Night' (it works, honest!), and the final number 'The Can Can' saw much madness (if you pardon the expression). A fine evening 'though I'm a little concerned that Terry's trying to persuade me to go with him to see The Cockney Rejects there in February.
I think I may be away on tour then.
http://www.humanpunk.com
...to schooldays in fact, and the day I raved on at my mate and fellow punk rock fan Mark Wyeth about this amazing band that I'd seen. They were called The Ruts and they were, well, amazing. They had a single out which I was going to try to buy at the weekend; if it's as good as they are it'll be, well, amazing. Or very good at least, great even. You've got to see them Mark, you really have...
20-something years later and a lot's happened since then. I've seen Paul play many many times in various groups and now even own one of his old guitars. Early on in the Price's illustrious career we supported his then-band Choir Militia a few times and he played with us here and there as well as producing one of our singles. And Mark has gone on to wave The Ruts's flag just about everywhere that'll let him (and probably a few places that wouldn't) even though he never did get to see them. Mind you he now plays bass for them which I guess is better.
More about them in a minute. Terry and myself arrived after a somewhat stormy journey, parked down on the seafront near the venue and spent ages watching the sea. It was raining and very windy and I had toothache which wasn't helped by the weather but none of that seemed to matter- the sea always fascinates me and, it turns out, Terry too. Eventually we tore ourselves away from it and made it to the venue in time to catch Max Splodge battering 'Two Little Boys' into submission. Local heroes The Fish Brothers were up next, good fun 'though I must admit we spent most of their set backstage ligging. By the time we went back out the front Kevin the promoter was on stage with some of Bad Manners treating the audience to an unusual version of The Police's 'So Lonely' and a suitably bizarre tribute to The Macc Lads who had been on some of the other dates of the tour. Very strange.
Then it's John Otway with solo renditions of 'Really Free', 'Beware of the flowers...' and an excellent new number 'You're Breaking Up' (mobile phone madness ahoy!) before he too was joined by some of Bad Manners for 'Bunsen Burner', 'Crazy Horses' and 'We Rock', all performed with his customary lunacy. Good stuff.
Then, at last, Paul and his boys- except they've got Bad Manners's drummer 'cos Laurie (Paul's son and their usual drummer) is ill. And Mark's got bass problems- it's miles out of tune which Mark the singer finds hilarious and Mr. Wyeth very definately doesn't... and 'Staring at the Rude boys' sounds slow, and 'Something That I Said' isn't much better, and 'Your just A...' has gone wrong in the middle and me and Terry are getting really worried... thankfully things improve and by 'Give Youth a Chance' it's all hotting up nicely; 'In a Rut' has the obligatory BIG DRUNK BLOKE on stage singing it in all the wrong places, 'Jah Wah' sees the Manners horns joining in and 'Babylon's Burning' nearly starts a riot. The encore's 'Human Punk' which maybe follows the live version a bit too closely but is still a song I never thought I'd ever see performed again. Talking to Paul afterwards he seems to think that this could all have a future- by what I saw and, maybe most importantly, by the audience's reaction to it, he might just be correct.
Bad Manners were always a band that I had a bit of a soft spot for. I was never a big ska fan 'though I really like The Beat (are they ska?) and some of The Specials stuff but I always liked the Bad Manners singles; also it's great that they're still going (did they ever stop?) even though I believe it's been 'Buster-and-some-blokes' for quite a while now. Still they sounded excellent- it'd been a long night and I felt the crowd was flagging a bit (I certainly was!) but they got everyone up and moving. All the songs you'd hope they play were there, though I particularly liked their version of Deep Purple's 'Black Night' (it works, honest!), and the final number 'The Can Can' saw much madness (if you pardon the expression). A fine evening 'though I'm a little concerned that Terry's trying to persuade me to go with him to see The Cockney Rejects there in February.
I think I may be away on tour then.
http://www.humanpunk.com
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
'A Bentley at Twenty' and other stories
2 good gigs on the 2 days before Christmas is a nice thing to be able to write about:-
Saturday 23rd and the last 'A-team' gig of 2006 (we're playing on New Year's Eve but I've no idea who'll be in the group that night!) was a Christmas party in the wonderfully named Crook Suite at the Webbington Hotel and Country Club near Weston-super-mare. I'd never been there before but have seen it up on the hill when passing by on the M5. After a quick-ish soundcheck Pete suprises us all by handing round envelopes of cash- he was paying us for recent gigs and had ran out of cheques in his cheque book!
After the good news that we were all getting a meal at the venue (you sometimes do, you sometimes don't) we decided to do the decent thing and go for a drink at the hotel bar. Everyone's in good spirits and on fine form with John the drummer's stories of his early gigging in Essex being particularly entertaining, if rather unrepeatable in parts.
Gigtime and there's people up and dancing pretty much from the word go. We play a straight (i.e. there's no interval) 80+ minutes including a, shall we say, interesting version of 'Mustang Sally' which finds it's way into 'Jingle Bells' and 'Silent Night' and back out again. Good stuff.
Christmas Eve and myself and Gary are out with The Briefcase Blues Brothers (Mario & Matt) at Butlins in Skegness. We played with these boys a couple of months ago (see 'Depping Blues' posting) somewhere in Essex; this time the rest of the band's different- Kes (Kez?) is on bass and a different Adam from last time's on drums. When Adam and myself get into Matt's car he's listening to The New York Dolls- a good sign methinks, though playing me B.B. King's 'Live at Cook's County jail' on the way to the gig doesn't seem to help my inferiority complex... we meet the rest of the lads at the venue (Centre Stage) and get the beers in.
Now- the number of people who laughed when I mentioned that I was playing at a Butlin's camp on New year's Eve were only slightly outnumbered by the number of people who had major league hysterics when they found that it was in Skegness (everyone else just kind of shuddered) so it's with no little amusement that I can say that it turned out to be a really great gig- a bit loose here and there but any errors were more than made up for by the energy of the band and the reaction of the audience; this was probably the most 'up for it' Butlins crowd I've encountered which made for a highly enjoyable show. Afterwards there's time for a drink and a mince pie or 2 (nice one Kes) before a drive home accompanied by Billy Bragg on the CD player and good vibes all round. Happy Christmas indeed.
Saturday 23rd and the last 'A-team' gig of 2006 (we're playing on New Year's Eve but I've no idea who'll be in the group that night!) was a Christmas party in the wonderfully named Crook Suite at the Webbington Hotel and Country Club near Weston-super-mare. I'd never been there before but have seen it up on the hill when passing by on the M5. After a quick-ish soundcheck Pete suprises us all by handing round envelopes of cash- he was paying us for recent gigs and had ran out of cheques in his cheque book!
After the good news that we were all getting a meal at the venue (you sometimes do, you sometimes don't) we decided to do the decent thing and go for a drink at the hotel bar. Everyone's in good spirits and on fine form with John the drummer's stories of his early gigging in Essex being particularly entertaining, if rather unrepeatable in parts.
Gigtime and there's people up and dancing pretty much from the word go. We play a straight (i.e. there's no interval) 80+ minutes including a, shall we say, interesting version of 'Mustang Sally' which finds it's way into 'Jingle Bells' and 'Silent Night' and back out again. Good stuff.
Christmas Eve and myself and Gary are out with The Briefcase Blues Brothers (Mario & Matt) at Butlins in Skegness. We played with these boys a couple of months ago (see 'Depping Blues' posting) somewhere in Essex; this time the rest of the band's different- Kes (Kez?) is on bass and a different Adam from last time's on drums. When Adam and myself get into Matt's car he's listening to The New York Dolls- a good sign methinks, though playing me B.B. King's 'Live at Cook's County jail' on the way to the gig doesn't seem to help my inferiority complex... we meet the rest of the lads at the venue (Centre Stage) and get the beers in.
Now- the number of people who laughed when I mentioned that I was playing at a Butlin's camp on New year's Eve were only slightly outnumbered by the number of people who had major league hysterics when they found that it was in Skegness (everyone else just kind of shuddered) so it's with no little amusement that I can say that it turned out to be a really great gig- a bit loose here and there but any errors were more than made up for by the energy of the band and the reaction of the audience; this was probably the most 'up for it' Butlins crowd I've encountered which made for a highly enjoyable show. Afterwards there's time for a drink and a mince pie or 2 (nice one Kes) before a drive home accompanied by Billy Bragg on the CD player and good vibes all round. Happy Christmas indeed.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Noise noise noise!
I went to see The Damned in Brighton on Monday night with my brother Terry. He's a big Damned fan and so am I 'though neither of us had seen them live this century ('not that big a fan then' I hear you cry- but I will explain myself in the course of this posting, honest!). For me their first album is one of THE great punk rock albums, with 'Machine Gun Etiquette', 'The Black Album' and 'Strawberries' not far behind although they're hardly 'punk' in the accepted sense of the word. And maybe that's why I like The Damned so much- having defined so much of what's now thought of as 'punk' with their earliest work they then went onto produce some of the most interesting and eclectic music to come out of any of the bands from that time.
Also, they were funny. REALLY funny. Well I think they were anyway.
Before we get to them there's 2 support bands to contend with. As we arrived The Texas Drag Queen Massacre are roaring through a number that I don't know the title of but that involved the singer (who's clearly, shall we say, aware of Marilyn Manson) waving a large hacksaw around whilst singing 'DISEMBOWEL YOU' at the top of his voice. Incredibly it's all much more entertaining than it appears written down here and the 4 or 5 songs that follow all go down well with the rapidly arriving audience. Good fun 'though I'm not sure I'll be buying the album, if you know what I mean.
The second band were even better, old punks playing Rickenbacker guitars (always a good sign methinks) and noisy cover versions of old soul songs. Sadly not only did they not tell us the name of their band but no one I spoke to at the venue knew it either. A vacancy exists in their PR department...
After a warning from the DJ that 'if there's any spitting or throwing things at the band then The Damned will walk off stage' (times have changed!) there's thunder through the P.A. and lightning from the lights before 3 shadowy figures walk on stage and (with an invisible guitarist) start 'Wait for the Blackout'. Suddenly there they are- Captain Sensible on guitar and Dave Vanian on vocals, ladies and gentleman, The Damned. And that's why I've, for want of a better term, lost contact with them over the years- they seem to me to be Vanian, Sensible and some blokes. The fact that Pinch the drummer's probably been there longer than Rat Scabies ever was is one that, as a Dr. Feelgood fan, I would do well to remember... and they're sounding great, if a little less chaotic than I remember them. 'New Rose' is almost thrown away as the second number with 'History of the World' inducing mass hysteria among the front row faithful. Then some newer material mixed with classics ('Neat Neat Neat' sounding particularly good to me) and obscure oldies ('Rabid over you' anyone?) with some of the old mayhem surfacing during 'Ignite' which threatened to go off the rails at any moment. Sensible's as entertaining as ever, ranting about Tony Blair and religion amongst other things and playing excellent, underrated guitar; Vanian's in fine voice and an even finer suit; the rest of the band play their parts to perfection. By the time they finished with 'Love Song' and 'Smash it Up' I've remembered why I liked them so much in the first place; by the final encore of 'Looking at You' they're one of my very favourite bands again. Excellent.
Also, they were funny. REALLY funny. Well I think they were anyway.
Before we get to them there's 2 support bands to contend with. As we arrived The Texas Drag Queen Massacre are roaring through a number that I don't know the title of but that involved the singer (who's clearly, shall we say, aware of Marilyn Manson) waving a large hacksaw around whilst singing 'DISEMBOWEL YOU' at the top of his voice. Incredibly it's all much more entertaining than it appears written down here and the 4 or 5 songs that follow all go down well with the rapidly arriving audience. Good fun 'though I'm not sure I'll be buying the album, if you know what I mean.
The second band were even better, old punks playing Rickenbacker guitars (always a good sign methinks) and noisy cover versions of old soul songs. Sadly not only did they not tell us the name of their band but no one I spoke to at the venue knew it either. A vacancy exists in their PR department...
After a warning from the DJ that 'if there's any spitting or throwing things at the band then The Damned will walk off stage' (times have changed!) there's thunder through the P.A. and lightning from the lights before 3 shadowy figures walk on stage and (with an invisible guitarist) start 'Wait for the Blackout'. Suddenly there they are- Captain Sensible on guitar and Dave Vanian on vocals, ladies and gentleman, The Damned. And that's why I've, for want of a better term, lost contact with them over the years- they seem to me to be Vanian, Sensible and some blokes. The fact that Pinch the drummer's probably been there longer than Rat Scabies ever was is one that, as a Dr. Feelgood fan, I would do well to remember... and they're sounding great, if a little less chaotic than I remember them. 'New Rose' is almost thrown away as the second number with 'History of the World' inducing mass hysteria among the front row faithful. Then some newer material mixed with classics ('Neat Neat Neat' sounding particularly good to me) and obscure oldies ('Rabid over you' anyone?) with some of the old mayhem surfacing during 'Ignite' which threatened to go off the rails at any moment. Sensible's as entertaining as ever, ranting about Tony Blair and religion amongst other things and playing excellent, underrated guitar; Vanian's in fine voice and an even finer suit; the rest of the band play their parts to perfection. By the time they finished with 'Love Song' and 'Smash it Up' I've remembered why I liked them so much in the first place; by the final encore of 'Looking at You' they're one of my very favourite bands again. Excellent.
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