Horse latitudes

So then, Thursday morning in Balcony Shirts, Uxbridge. The person behind the counter in this photograph is Scott, who is wearing his latest creation, an 'I Could Eat A Horse' t-shirt. And that's Toby talking a picture of Scott. A photo of someone taking a photo? Very arty eh? Anyway Toby works for the local paper The Uxbridge Gazette who are running a story on said t-shirt in the light of the news this week about horse meat in Tesco beef burgers. (Maybe that should be 'beef' burgers?) After taking this photo the pair of them walked to the other end of the High Street where they photographed Scott outside Tescos - it'll be interesting to see if the newspaper's legal team let them print that one. As a namby pamby poncey vegetarian I have little to add here other than to say that (a) I think it's a really good t-shirt and (b) it's stories like this that make me remember why I stopped eating meat in the first place. Then again I suppose if you're going to eat it then should you really differentiate which animal it comes from? Now there's a question!

In the meantime it's been snowing, and as usual when this happens the entire country has ground to a halt. Well it feels as though it has - I was hoping to go to see a Led Zeppelin tribute band called The Black Dogz at Tropic At Ruislip but according to the venue's website the show was 'cancelled due to bad weather'. Maybe it's just as well that I don't have any gigs until next weekend? Actually it's never good not to have any gigs but I doubt that there would have been anyone watching us if we had have been playing - no doubt they'd all have been elsewhere panic buying bread or milk or something. And I was due to meet up with Andy and Sam from Back To Zero last night for a 'get-the-ball-rolling' discussion about the Cambridge gig in May and more, but common sense prevailed (that and the fact that half of The London Underground was being dug up) and we decided to postpone our meeting until the roads were a bit safer. Still there are two shows to look forward to next weekend - on Friday Big Al Reed and the Cardiac Arrests visit The Swan in Iver while the next night I'm depping with Mr. Tibbs at Tropic At Ruislip. And on Sunday evening I'm making my first appearance of the year on Music Scene Investigation podcast. That's more like it.

To end this posting on a somewhat sombre note, Wilko Johnson's farewell gig dates have been announced - tickets go on sale tomorrow (Monday) and I'm intending to be at the London show. It seems so strange to think that it'll be the last time I and many others see the great man play - if you're there I'll see you for a drink or two...