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!