Turning Japanese / Hong Kong Garden

Well let's start 2018 as we mean to go on - with some ridiculously good news! Well it's certainly ridiculously good news from my point of view - the first three Ruts D.C. gigs of the year have been announced, and they're all in previously uncharted territory for your humble narrator. We're playing two shows in Tokyo - yes, that's right, Tokyo - on the 27th and 28th of January followed by a show in Hong Kong on the last day of the month. 

You know that bit in these postings where I put something like 'I can hardly believe what I type here sometimes'? Well here it is again - I can hardly believe what I type here sometimes. Seriously though, one of the first live albums I remember hearing was 'Made In Japan' by Deep Purple - it would have been a couple of years after it was originally released, and for whatever reason it made a big impression on me. I think that it was due to a number of factors - Ritchie Blackmore's still-incredible guitar playing, the power that the band played with, the songs, the sound... strange, because I didn't really like very much music like that at the time. Come to think of it, I still don't... anyway it loomed large in my mid-1970s listening, and as a result Japan attained a somewhat mythical status in my teenage mind. I've not been there or to Hong Kong before, and I genuinely cannot wait to do these shows. I'm very lucky to do what I do. I say that a fair bit too don't I? 

We then travel to New Zealand and Australia for the previously - mentioned shows with The Stranglers. I can hardly believe what I type here sometimes. But you know that already.

Garden of serenity

Tommy Ramone, the last surviving original member of The Ramones, has died. It may well be something of a cliche but I'm going to say it anyway - The Ramones's first album changed everything. Well, it did for me and others like me. I remember hearing the 'Blitzkrieg Bop' single for the first time and I can honestly say that I'd never heard anything like it before. (I had a similar experience with 'New Rose' by The Damned a few months later) I'm certainly not one to say that all mid-70s rock music was tired and uninspired, but as I recall there were far too many badly-dressed people singing half-hour long songs about goblins - the time was right for change, and The Ramones were definitely at the forefront of that change. For many they remain the definitive punk rock band, with their extraordinary stripped-down approach inspiring a lot of bands and musicians to take a similar view on how rock music could and indeed should be played. Have a look at this magnificent footage recorded at London's Rainbow Theatre on New Year's Eve 1977, the night their seminal 'It's Alive!' album was recorded - that, my friends, is actual rock 'n' roll. R.I.P. Tommy Ramone - Hey Ho, Let's Go, to heaven...

In the meantime I played two gigs with two different bands this weekend, both at private parties. At events such as these I always remind myself that the guests are not there to see a band but to see their friends and family, and as such it can often appear as though they're all but ignoring the musical entertainment. Mind you sometimes they are! On Friday night The Repertoire Dogs played at a 60th birthday party at Mapledurham Golf Club. I was depping for regular guitarist Mick Ralphs who was away in America with Bad Company (talk about getting a better offer!) and since it was a warm night the club had all the bar doors open. When we went on for our first set at 9.15 most people were outside on the patio, and many of them stayed there although a few came in to listen and to watch. With bacon sandwiches and chips on offer more were in for our second set, and by the end pretty much all the guests were up and dancing. Not so the following

The Blistering Buicks equipment,
sneering at the threat of rain
from the safety of the gazebo.

evening, when Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks played a garden party (apparently there was no event, they just fancied a party) near Woking. Initial confusion as to which side of the swimming pool we were to set up on gave way to discussions along the lines of 'it looks like it could rain so shouldn't we perhaps be under that gazebo over there?' After all, we wouldn't be too close to the inflatable beach volleyball court, and we'd be nowhere near the bungee run... eventually we set up under said gazebo and played two sets to initial curiosity, general indifference and, somewhat inevitably, complaints at the end that we weren't playing an encore even though no one had actually asked for one. Still it wasn't a bad performance (and it didn't rain!) although having not played in the band for the best part of a month I forgot a few too many cues than I would have liked. Time for some revision before our next gig methinks.

And talking of next gigs, mine couldn't be a greater contrast to these two, as it's with The London Sewage Company this Thursday at The 100 Club supporting Menace and The Morgellons; after that it's three shows with Ruts D.C., details of which can be found here on the band's Facebook page as well as a last minute appearance (I only got the call yesterday!) depping with The Sex Pistols Experience at Guilfest on Saturday. Great stuff!

Titanic days

I've not seen or heard the news much lately, and so have only just heard that Mick Farren died last month after collapsing on stage at The Borderline in London during a gig with The Deviants. I remember reading his work in The New Musical Express back in the day, and 'The Titanic Sails At Dawn' remains a classic piece of pre-punk angst that rails against the complacency then rife among the successful rock bands and artists of the day. Reading it now it still seems to me as though it could have been written yesterday - nothing ever really changes does it? And Mel Smith has died - I loved 'Not The Nine O'Clock News' in the late '70s / early '80s with it's all-too-accurate parodies and outrageous (for the time) portrayals of the politicians of the day. We could do with a show like that now don't you think?

Meanwhile Music Ruined My Life has continued posting old Price material. It's strange in some ways to see it there, and yet some of the comments left by readers show that people do still seem to enjoy our work. If only there had been more of them when we were together! You can find our second single and mini-album alongside this compilation album (which I must admit I'd all but forgotten about - it's very good though!) on there now - once again have a look and a listen and see what you think.

Only one gig for your humble narrator since the last posting but it certainly qualifies as a good one. Utter Madness had been booked to play an outdoor show at Cliveden House last July, but the show was cancelled due to the ground being waterlogged. The band were promised a rebooking this year, and that promise came good this weekend when we played there as part of the 'Cliveden Rocks' weekend. Paul from The Lettuceheads is on drums, Richard is back on keyboards with Ian on saxophone, Jon on bass and Tony as our surrogate Suggs, and we're on first with Queen B topping the bill. There was an odd moment during our soundcheck when it was raining to the left of the stage but dry and sunny to the right - fortunately the weather stayed good all evening other than that. By the time we started our show at 7 o'clock there were apparently around 2,000 people in attendance, and they saw a good-going-on-great-in-places set of Madness and ska classics. Having said that I made a terrible job of 'It Must Be Love' (I think that it's always better to admit it when it's your fault!) and there was the odd moment of madness (if you see what I mean) here and there but overall it was the best of our three shows this year, and it went down very well with the assembled multitude which is only ever the main thing. Queen B certainly went down well too - I'll never be the World's biggest Queen fan (now that my friends just might be the understatement of the year so far!) but what they did they did very well.

And the local paper liked them and indeed us, as you can see from this review...

And it's time (at last!) for some more Ruts D.C. gigs, beginning with The Rebellion Festival in Blackpool this coming weekend. We're on at midnight on Saturday (yeah alright, I know that means that we're actually playing first thing on Sunday morning - stop being so pedantic!) on The Bizarre Bazaar stage, and I have just - just! - got in from rehearsing all day for the show. It should be a great weekend - if you're going then I'll see you there...

Back to Back To Zero

Back when I was a lad there was a band called The Jam. They were good. Very good. Actually they were a bit better than that, but we haven't got time to go into that here - their success in the late 1970s coupled with the release of the 'Quadrophenia' film precipitated a mod revival that saw sharp dressed bands on 'Top Of The Pops' and scooters and parkas everywhere. One of the bands that was part of this 'scene' (I believe that's the correct term for this sort of thing) were Back To Zero, who released one single 'Your Side Of Heaven' / 'Back To Back' (find out all about it here) and participated in the 'March Of The Mods' tour in August and September 1979 with Secret Affair and The Purple Hearts. They also played with The Lurkers, The Cure and Joy Division among others and were supported by U2  - yes that's right, supported by U2 - at a London show. So - why am I telling you all of this? Well something like 33 1/3 years after their last public appearance Back To Zero are, er, back - on Thursday 2nd May they are playing at The Fiddlers Elbow in Camden and are at The Mods Mayday 2013 in Cambridge two days later. But when I say 'they' I should really be saying 'we' as alongside founder members Sam Burnett (guitar/vocals/songwriting) and Andy Moore (drums) is my old mate John Sorrell a.k.a. Johnny Squirrel on bass and your humble narrator on guitar. We'll also have Stuart Bates on keyboards, and one of the band's original singers Craig Lappin will be joining us for a few songs - I'll be meeting them for the first time at rehearsal this coming Sunday. The songs are great, four-piece rehearsals have been going well and after these shows we're going to record all the songs we've learned so far for an album - great stuff all round. Oh and the Camden show is to publicise the recently-released Paul Fox tribute CD 'See You On The Other Side', which I think you'll agree is more good news. Oh yes!

The Evil Dead

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher died earlier today. I expect you've seen or heard about it on the news. I must say that I'd never wish anybody dead (not even her!) but as someone who remembers only too well the horrors of her evil reign of terror back in the Eighties and Nineties - the poll tax and the subsequent riots, the miners' strike, the Falklands War, the list goes on and on - and who has a dim recollection of the 'milk snatcher' from back in the Seventies, I for one won't be grieving too much. But lots of people will - I've just seen some bloated sycophant praising her 'warmth and kindness' (!) on one channel and then turned over to see that there's a tribute programme on another - so I guess that means we've got days, weeks, maybe even months of fellow Conservatives like Jeffery Archer (a convicted criminal remember) bleating on and on about her and what a great leader she was. Oh well, one can only hope that there will also be room for a more realistic view of things... and you never know, we might all get a day off for the funeral - after all, she gave all those three million or so unemployed working class people lots of days off while she was in power didn't she?

I'm sure that there'll be more ill-considered attempts at sarcasm from me on the subject another time, but until then here is some music. Enjoy.