Sunday, March 27, 2011

There's no business like shoe business (sorry!)

It was a good if rather different evening on Tuesday when myself and the long-suffering Shirley went to The Peacock Theatre in London to see Chicago Blues Brothers saxman Richard Pardy in the musical 'Shoes'. Actually it wasn't that easy to see him even though he was on the stage for the whole show as the band were behind a curtain onto which various projections were, er, projected although we did spot him from time to time; it was certainly possible to hear him and indeed the rest of the band, all of whom sounded very good in what was a fine energetic show, with some spectacular dancing and brilliant singing from the cast in a 2 hour blitz of sound and light. I don't mind admitting that a musical on the subject of footwear wasn't something that I ever thought I'd enjoy, but it was very well put together and as such was a very impressive production.

On Thursday it was off to The Royal Albert Hall to see Roger Daltrey perform 'Tommy' as part of the latest series of Teenage Cancer Trust concerts. Myself and Big Andy called in at The Queens Arms on our way to the venue to meet up with legendarily fervent Who fan Steve Whiston; when we got there he'd obviously been there enjoying the hospitality for a while and was in good form - by the time we left he'd distinguished himself by coming back from the bar and walking up to 2 lads who he thought was us and carrying on talking to them where he'd left off with us. They were about 20 years younger than us! (And if you're thinking 'well he must have been pretty out of it to make that mistake' then have a look at this clip from the show - he's the chap in the suit and striped shirt to Daltrey's right... yes, he's my mate!!)
Now as someone who could politely be described as a fan of The Who I must say at this point that 'Tommy' is one of my least favourite albums by them - the original album always sounds rather weak to my ears, although I must admit that live recordings from the late '60's / early '70's are almost uniformly amazing and show how well it worked as a stage piece. As the show began (appropriately enough with 'Overture') I wondered how it was all going to go - Daltrey looked as great as ever but only Simon Townshend was recognisable from Who shows (I think the band backed Daltrey on last year's American gigs) and there was much speculation as to whether Simon's big brother would make an appearance. 4 or 5 numbers in it was evident that, yes, it's much better live than on record, although much improved by the films on the screen above the band. A rare (and to honest rather uncertain) performance of 'Cousin Kevin' ended with the lights dimming and some acoustic guitar picking that wasn't coming from anyone already on the stage - and suddenly Pete Townshend was at the microphone singing a solo version of 'The Acid Queen' amid scenes of audience pandemonium that made you realise just how much the crowd missed his contribution to proceedings. Then, as suddenly as he'd arrived he was gone, and 5 seconds into 'Do You Think It's Alright?' everything had returned to normal i.e. everybody speculating when / if he would return. Meanwhile 'Tommy' continued with 'Pinball Wizard' sounding like the classic we all know it to be and the finale of 'See Me Feel Me' / 'Listening To You' bringing the proverbial house down. A new Daltrey composition 'Days Of Light' followed before 'Pictures Of Lily' was prefaced by a story of how John Entwistle's high harmonies were an underrated part of The Who's sound. 'I Can See For Miles' sounded fabulous, but you could feel the audience willing Townshend to return; he eventually reappeared - rather reluctantly I thought - for 'Baba O'Riley' (which also featured Charlie Siem on violin) before 'Without Your Love' finished off the evening. It had been an interesting night, with Daltrey in fine voice and where slick session men ruffled their immaculately unkempt hair as they attempted to recreate the sound and fury of The 'Orrible 'Oo. I'm not entirely sure that they achieved that particular goal, but they sounded good - if a little 'nice' - to my ears.

Saturday saw The Flying Squad return to the stage for the first time this year, for a gig at Tropic At Ruislip supporting Eddie And The Hot Rods. We were offered the gig last month, and it was too good to turn down despite the fact that Andy (vocals) and myself didn't actually have a band; he suggested that he ask his old friend and drummer extraordinaire Simon Ash (he of the 'Ash Bash' gig back in June 2008) if he'd be interested in depping with us, and with Mike was reinstated on bass Andy and myself came up with a setlist, e-mails were e-mailed and we met at Ruff Rockers at 4 p.m. for a run through. We played the songs once, ran over a couple of the trickier numbers again, checked beginnings and endings and finished 2 hours after we started. Had we done enough? We'd all know soon enough...
We arrived at the venue just as The Hot Rods were loading their gear in - great to see Richard Holgarth again (he mixed the sound at The Square in Harlow when The Price used to play there back in the '80's and '90's) who has just started using Stratocasters rather than SGs as he broke the headstock off one of his old ones and has 'moved on to something sturdier'. This gave us chance for some guitar nerdery as we compared our guitars with plenty of observations along the lines of 'ooh this one's got a different neck radius' that easily scared off anybody unfortunate enough to get caught within earshot.
9.10 and with a healthy crowd in we kick off with 'I Can Tell'. I think I was a better guitarist at the rehearsal than at the show (bugger!) and we had the odd mad moment here and there but overall the band played well even getting an encore which is always a good thing for a support band. Afterwards we did a roaring trade in CD's and t-shirts (thanks to Shirley and East on the merchandise!) and declared our evening to be a success. Oh and in case you were wondering, Eddie And The Hot Rods were absolutely brilliant - but you knew I'd say that didn't you? Well - I've never made any secret of the fact that they're one of my very favourite bands, and with a setlist drawing heavily on their first album 'Teenage Depression' (can that really be 35 years old? Yes it can, and I should know as I bought it when it came out!) as well as some later songs alongside the inevitable 'Do Anything You Wanna Do' they showed just how underrated they were and indeed continue to be. A great evening all round.

And it should be a great evening this Sunday 3rd April at The Load of Hay with The Duplicates - come on down!

Monday, March 21, 2011

'This could be the last time' - until next time...

I found out on Friday morning if I'd managed to learn 'Livin On A Prayer' well enough when I joined Glee Club U.K. supremo Richard in his Bracknell recording studio to record the guitar parts. Richard spent a fair amount of time attempting to recreate the talkbox effect that's used on the guitar during the first half of the original recording (I didn't have one handy!) and did a very good job; I used my Relic Stratocaster as I needed a guitar with a tremelo arm for one section of the song (in case you're wondering, it's the 'divebomb' effect halfway through the second verse - I very rarely use one, to the extent that when I came to practice that part I couldn't find it!) and even though I say so myself, it all turned out rather well. Mind you I wouldn't be writing about it here if I'd played terribly...

Saturday evening I went to The Old Fox in Ickenham to see Awaken, and a very odd evening it was too - when I arrived they were halfway through their first set, with a young man slumped unconscious in his seat near the front door and beery builder blokes alternating between ignoring the music completely and slapping each other around the face roaring 'you're my best mate you are' before dancing with each other. The band played a good set but not a great one, seeming a bit out of sorts and committing a setlist faux pas of monumental proportions when they switched from playing material like 'Brown Sugar' and 'I Saw Her Standing There' to a version of 'I Predict A Riot' that cleared the dancefloor in seconds, an incident that somehow summed the evening up for me. So down was I when I got home that I had to watch the Henry Rollins interview from the 'Punk: Attitude' DVD to get my spirits back up - it worked, but that's punk rock for you...

...which brings me to The Price. Malcolm called me mid-afternoon to say that he was halfway to the venue and had forgotten his microphones - as he put it during the show, 'it wouldn't be a Price gig if something didn't go wrong' - and there were the almost inevitable 'sorry I can't make it' messages from various people throughout the day but from the opening of 'Memory' (we hadn't played that one this century!) to the last unrehearsed encores of 'Too Many People' and 'Turning Japanese' it was one of the best and most enjoyable reunion shows that we've done. We were bit scrappy here and there (we had just one 3 hour rehearsal for a 1 1/2 hour show! Mind you that doesn't explain my appallingly out of tune solo at the end of 'The Price You Pay'...) but overall we played well, even including a new song (so new that it doesn't have a title yet!) put together in about 20 minutes from an idea that Malcolm bought in to the rehearsal - you could argue that we'd have used our limited time better by learning the old songs properly, but The Price always did things like that! Plenty of old faces gave us a rousing reception, and it was great to see a few people that hadn't been along for ages; sadly with band members ever more committed to other things it seems that events like this will get more and more difficult to organize which is a shame - still there's always the Sunday nearest to East's birthday next year... talking of whom, I left the man himself outside a kebab shop bemoaning the fact that they weren't serving anymore. I think he'd been drinking...

And The Flying Squad return to show business this coming Saturday (26th) when we support the ever-wondrous Eddie And The Hot Rods at Tropic At Ruislip - we're rehearsing at 4 in the afternoon and on at 8 in the evening!!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Devon is a place on Earth (sorry!)

...and I just about got them learned, for a show depping with Utter Madness at Seaton Town Hall in Devon on Saturday night. I'd received an e-mail from Tony (vocals) a couple of weeks ago asking if I'd be available for the gig - I replied that I was, but then heard nothing. When I asked Ian (saxophone) about it at The Hilton gig last month he said something like 'oh yes, it's on, but that's all I know about it'. I eventually got another e-mail from Tony last Wednesday evening with the venue details, set list (2 x 45 minute sets, with several songs that I'd not played before - gulp!) and a musing along the lines of 'our drummer's got a slipped disc so if I can't find a replacement then we'll have to blow the gig out'. Thankfully a drummer was found (well, put it this way - I didn't hear that the gig was off!) and when myself and Jon (bass) arrived everything was set up and ready to go. After saying hello to regular keyboard man Richard (more about him later) I met Dan (drums) and Aaron (backing vocals, depping for Ray who normally handles the Chas Smash role in the band) for the first time. They're both in ska covers band Big 10 and from the first moments of the soundcheck it was obvious that they knew exactly what they were doing, and with everything sounding good a fine evening was in prospect.
Showtime is 8.30 so there's time for some chips and a couple of drinks before we made our way to the stage. From the moment I picked up my guitar it was obvious that something was wrong - high-pitched, almost ultrasonic feedback meant that a hearing aid loop had been switched on in the venue. We asked for it to be switched off, and a couple of numbers in that seemed to have happened, but it was clearly switched back on during the interval and remained on for the rest of the show, making my job trickier than it might have been - I had to make sure I turned my guitar volume down in between the songs, and be careful not to face my amplifier during the songs. Still none of this seemed to bother the audience who behaved as though it was the real Madness on stage, with much dancing and merriment throughout. I managed to start 'Special Brew' in the wrong key (yes, I know it's not a Madness song - the band added several songs by the likes of Bad Manners and The Beat to the set) which caused first shock and then amusement among band members - remind me to check that next time!

Much of Sunday was spent recovering from getting in around 3 a.m., as well as still feeling a bit out of sorts after the Zurich journey - recovery was so much easier when I was younger! Still it was a cracking evening at The Load of Hay, where the ever-wonderful Kris Dollimore gave another astonishing performance which showcased material from his new album 'No Ghosts In This House' alongside the established favourites. Highlights were many and varied although his version of Jimi Hendrix's 'Castles Made Of Sand' has to be seen and indeed heard to be believed. All of this in front of 20 or so people - if I hear one more person moaning that they've got 'nothing to do', 'nowhere to go' or that there's 'nothing happening locally' then I fear I will do something that will result in me ending up in prison... on a lighter note it Kris told me a couple of excellent stories, about working with Adam Ant, (Kris told him that he liked his jacket - when the tour was over Adam sent him it!) about how Johnny Thunders was playing Kris's Zemaitis guitar when he started to have a coughing fit ('I thought he was going to die while he was playing my guitar!') and how Dee Dee Ramone once phoned him up in his mum and dad's kitchen - a much funnier story than it would sound written here, honest!

After a busy Monday in the shop (don't forget to have a look at our 'bread song' video here - over 2,000 views so far!) it was time for The Price to return to Ruff Rockers for a rehearsal for this Sunday's gig. We've not played together since last May (the story why is on our website forum) and it took us a while to get going again but after a few songs we were starting to sound like a band again. Memories were strained as we attempted to remember some of the less obvious songs from our back catalogue, and there should be a couple of surprises in the show. Let's hope they're not surprises to us...

More rehearsing on Tuesday, this time with T.V. Smith. We're playing at The 100 Club on April 16th (I've never played there before - excellent!) and with his new album 'Coming In To Land' going to be available for the first time on the night we're going to be playing several songs from it - not sure how many yet, but we ran through a few to see what would and wouldn't work. He gave me an advance copy of the album to work from, it's playing in the background as I type this and it sounds absolutely excellent - I'm off to do my homework on the songs before getting together with him prior to the gig. In the meantime he's on tour in Britain playing a set of Adverts songs backed by Italian punksters The Valentines which should be unmissable. So don't miss it!
In the evening it was off to the Academy in Oxford to see The Stranglers with support coming from Wilko Johnson. Not a bad bill don't you think? As I found myself a vantage point in preparation for Wilko taking to the stage a cheery chap asked me what the first band had been called - I said that we should be able to get the name of the front of the bass drum when the kit gets carried off, as it was obscured by a monitor speaker at the front of the stage... ah there we are, Mike Marlin. The cheery chap said that he thought they were brilliant, one of the best bands he'd seen in ages - I decided not to tell him that I thought they'd been almost unspeakably bad, a tuneless sub-hippie dirge with a singer who should just stop trying to be a singer and a band who put so little into their performance that not one of them appeared to break sweat despite being under stage lights and all hearing hats, scarfs and jackets, and who all sounded so dull that they wouldn't have noticed if you'd blown the venue up around them; instead I just said 'Wilko Johnson's on in a minute, see what you think of him'. Well I don't know what he thought but I think it was a great gig from someone who finally seems to be getting the recognition that they deserve. Wilko was back on the Telecaster after using a Stratocaster for the last few gigs that I've seen him play (good!) and he sounded fabulous, assisted as always by the mighty Norman Watt-Roy on bass and an unnamed drummer (I wonder where Dylan Howe has gone?) as he powered through 30-something minutes of rocket fuelled rhythm and blues. And he looked great too, as these photos show... The Stranglers looked pretty good too, and they certainly sounded good, with the expected classics sitting alongside some of the more obscure tracks from their dim and distant past that even had some of the diehard fans scratching their heads in half-recognition. I first saw them over 30 years ago, and when I see them these days I always think 'I really must get myself one of their compilation albums one day' - and I'm right, I must. A great show.

Right - back to Utter Madness keyboard player Richard, who among his many attributes is involved with Glee Club UK. Now I must admit to not knowing very much about all things Glee-related, but somewhere during the course of Saturday evening I somehow agreed to record the guitar parts on his / the club's version of Bon Jovi's 'Livin' On A Prayer', despite being possibly the least qualified guitarist ever to attempt the style of playing required by the song. To this end I've been attempting to decipher the playing on the track (having heard it what feels like a million times today I'm almost starting to like it, although am I the only person who thinks it was lifted from this?) and leaving aside the fact that I don't have a talkbox handy I haven't done too badly. At least I don't think that I have - we'll all know soon enough...

Friday, March 11, 2011

Casino Royale

Time is funny stuff isn't it? Well, it feels as though it is just at the moment - I was in Switzerland 4 hours ago...

It was 7 a.m. yesterday when myself and Matt blearily arrived at Heathrow Airport's Terminal One. When I got into his car 30 minutes earlier 'Blank Expression' by The Specials was playing on the CD player - both of us were singing it as we got off the courtesy bus from the long stay car park. It seemed an appropriate song for such an early hour, and for the faces of the rest of the Chicago Blues Brothers party (!) all of whom were on their way to Zurich for a corporate show. Mike's joining Matt in the hats 'n' glasses with Tracy and Pete on backing vocals, Dave and Richard are on trumpet and sax, Squirrel's on bass, Chris is in Ian's place on keyboards and with Marc busy elsewhere Dave Ruffy joins us on drums for the first time. I'd been over to his house a few days earlier where armed with a DVD of a theatre show we'd ran through a fair amount of material in preparation for the gig. Also working with us for the first time are Claire and Laura a.k.a. The Abba Sisters (can you guess what they do?!?) who with Pete and Mike are playing a show the following night in San Moritz and are also doing a short set with us.
After checking in and going through security there was time for breakfast (eggs, chips and beans - excellent!) before the epic walk to gate 33. I spent much of what I considered to be a reasonably uneventful flight engrossed in Guitar And Bass Magazine; as we got off the plane Pete remarked to me that he 'didn't enjoy the take-off or landing' - I hadn't really noticed anything untoward going on. Maybe that's what God made guitar magazines for... as we waited to go through passport control Pete messes about - Claire looked worried, 'don't do that or we'll get ...er...' she searched for the word '...er... apprehended...' adding 'all I could think of saying was yogurts'. Hmmm... after collecting our baggage we met up with Ronnie the promoter, and with Mr. Ruffy supplying a seemingly never-ending amount of jokes we arrived at The Best Western Hotel in Baden in good if somewhat bleary spirits. After Ronnie telling us how picturesque the village is I resolved to take a walk for a look around - I was however asleep within a few minutes of arriving in room 111.
We all met up in the lobby around 4.30 before walking - yes, walking! - over to the Grand Casino where we're playing at an event for 100 or so casino staff. The room is far too small for me to make full use of the Marshall JCM2000 half-stack that I've been provided with (it's actually pretty difficult to think of a less appropriate amp for the job in hand!) although I managed to get a reasonable clean sound at a level suitable for the show (i.e. with the volume on about 1 out of 10!) After a jam on 'Bring It On Home To Me' with Pete on vocals we ran through a few songs and checked endings for Dave's benefit - it sounded very loud and there were a few worried faces, interspersed with comments like 'it'll sound good when there's a few people in the room'... from there it was down to the restaurant for a bewildering amount of food, the atmosphere was good (helped by several bottles of wine!) and a good gig was in prospect.
After eating I sat down with Dave to talk through the show - we're playing an hour set with a 3 song interlude from The Abba Sisters. They're using backing tracks, and there is some debate as to whether we leave the stage while they're on, attempt to play along (and I mean ''attempt'' - Abba songs are notoriously tricky to play, and I for one didn't have a clue how they went!) or to simply mime along with them... it was decided that we should stay on stage and mime... or play along... or something...
10.30 and we're on, the audience are up for it from the first number and it's looking like being a great gig. There are a few odd moments in the songs, not least because it was hard to hear what was going on sometimes - Dave remarked to me afterwards that he had real trouble hearing what Squirrel and myself were playing which didn't make his job particularly easy. But it all went down well, although when the girls came on there was some confusion from the audience - that said they were nowhere near as confused as I was by the chords to 'Mamma Mia'! I'd just about got the hang of them and the song finished! 'Voulez-Vouz' and 'Dancing Queen' caused a near riot, and by the time we returned with the near-inevitable 'Mustang Sally' the place was going into meltdown, with some very adult dancing from a couple down the front (I'll leave you to think about that for a moment shall I?!?) as a raucous 'Gimme Some Loving' bought our set to a close. We encored with 'Sweet Home Chicago' to finish a great gig.
It could be argued that one of the most potentially perilous situations that a band can be put in after a gig involves a free bar in a casino which is walking distance from the hotel. With this in mind details of the next few hours are sketchy at best, although I remember Matt singing along with the Blues Brothers recording of 'Everybody Needs Somebody To Love' into the D.J.'s microphone...
I got back to my room about 3 a.m., and left my room to leave for the airport less than 2 1/2 hours later. Not good frankly. 'That's the quietest band bus I've ever been in' said Dave as we pulled up at the terminal, waking up half the group in the process. After negotiating the automatic check-in (successfully for once!) I deposited my guitar at the outsize baggage area (it was the same man in the pink vest as it always is! He must never go home!) and stumbled into the departure lounge where bloodshot eyes and general malaise betrayed the previous evening's festivities just a few hours earlier. I had to take my guitar effect pedal out of my hand luggage for inspection when we went through security but other than that everything went smoothly - we landed at Heathrow just after 8 a.m., under 24 hours since we left it. I feel tired now, and well I might. Still, no time to waste - I've got some Madness songs to learn for tomorrow night...

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

For what we are about to receive...



The other evening I went to the Load of Hay with East for a few beers (nothing too unusual there) and a tactical discussion (that's what we call it anyway) regarding the upcoming Price gig at said venue. The evening went on a little longer than we were expecting it to, and we ended up having rather more than a 'few' beers (nothing too unusual there either) meaning that the next day dawned rather earlier than I would have liked it to. I managed to get myself together in time to get a lift into Uxbridge from the long-suffering Shirley ('don't breathe on anyone, you still smell of beer') and stumbled into Balcony Shirts to find Scott (he baked the loaf in the above picture, and very nice it was too!) enthusiastically setting up a video camera. 'Here you are' he said as he cheerily handed me a 'Real Man Bake Bread' t-shirt then explained that we were going to shoot some footage for the video to go with the song he'd written and that I'd recorded some guitar for in the shop several Saturdays ago. Around an hour later we'd recorded everything that he needed; we'd also seriously worried several passers-by who'd innocently looked through the shop window during filming, received some free coffee from Scoffs cafe opposite the shop (you can see Geno from the cafe around 2.15 into the film) and sent Dave out into the street dressed as a well-known biblical character. The video is on YouTube now, and if you'd like to see it then click here. It's worth it. No, really, it is. Oh and in case you were wondering, The Price play what is likely to be our last ever show with the (ahem) classic line-up of Malcolm, Huggy, Paul and myself at 8.30 p.m. on Sunday 20th March at The Load of Hay in Uxbridge. It's East's birthday, so it'll be time for a few beers... and Kris Dollmore is there this Sunday (13th) which should be a good night, and they'll no doubt be serving beer there that night too... perhaps I should stick with bread?

Saturday, March 05, 2011

Caravan club

Just one gig this weekend, on Friday at The Hilton Hotel in Park Lane. They don't normally let people like me into places like that...

It being Friday afternoon I set off in good time to get to the venue for a 4.30 soundcheck, although I also set off early to give myself time to visit (a) the H.M.V. shop on Oxford Street (I've still got some vouchers left from Christmas) and (b) Sister Ray in Berwick Street - unsurprisingly (b) turned out to be a far more interesting option, with your humble narrator heroically resisting various Sex Pistols live recordings (not all of them entirely legal methinks - excellent!) in favour of a 'Punk: Attitude' DVD (for only £3.99! I got one for myself last time I was there, this one's for Dave at the shop) and a CD of the legendary 'Nuggets' album which I've got as a double album on vinyl but have been meaning to get on CD for ages. Great stuff. From there it was down to Green Park on the Victoria line to meet up with everyone in the hotel ballroom, where we're playing at Caravan Diamond Ball charity event. Matt returns as Jake, Tracy's back for the first time this year on backing vocals, Chris is on keyboards and Ian's on saxophone - other than that it's the usual faces in the usual places. Also on the bill are Carwash - I spoke to their guitarist Simon the night before who very kindly let me use his Mesa Boogie Mark V combo, and very fine it sounded too. We've got The Hartford Suite to use as a dressing room, it looks out across Park Lane and it takes a bit of finding but we get there in the end.

We're not on until 10.30 and food is at 8 o'clock so Squirrel, Chris and myself decided that we were actually tourists and that we'd walk down to The Hard Rock Cafe for a visit to The Vault. The first time I visited I chanced upon it when we were playing at one of the other hotels in the area and I managed to have a go on some very rare guitars - these days they're all in cabinets but it's still great to see them. From there we walk to The Kings Arms for a drink or two before returning to the hotel at the allotted time for food in The Harvest Suite - coleslaw sandwiches for me (no vegetarian option! How much does it cost to stay at this hotel?!?) with chicken curry for everyone else. Mine doesn't take quite as long to eat as everybody else's (!) so I decide to take the lift to the 28th floor to visit the Galvin at Windows restaurant (I wonder if there was a veggie option on the menu?) where you can see out across town - it's a clear night and it has to be said that the view is pretty extraordinary. From then on it's 'hurry-up-and-wait' time - it often is at these sort of events - there's a dance troupe on before us, a similar type of thing to 'Stomp' which seems to warm some of the audience up and intimidate others, at least judging by the looks on their faces. We play a short (45 minutes) set which goes down very well, with a fair amount of dancing and a breathless encore of 'Jailhouse Rock'. Simon and myself spent a large amount of time discussing Eric Clapton's guitar sound (he's thinking about bidding for the 1980's Soldano set-up in this Wednesday's 'Crossroads' auction! Good man!) through the ages, Matt spotted Phil Tufnell in the bar and we finished in time for me to get the last train home - a good night all round.