Another three memorable gigs this weekend, but with nowhere near enough time to write up a detailed account this is about the best that I can do at the moment...
If you had happened to find yourself in The Costa Coffee Shop next to the Kings Cross Premier Inn at around one o'clock on Thursday afternoon then you would have seen the various members of the Ruts D.C. touring party amassing in anticipation of three shows in the Midlands. Before very long we were wending our way to The Donkey in Leicester, a splendid establishment which we first encountered after we'd played a show with The Damned at the nearby Academy almost a year ago. Warren and Zoe run a great venue, and I for one was very pleased when we were booked to play there. Electric River were due to support but sadly they were unable to make it leaving us as the only band on the bill. After soundchecking I met up with my old mate Mac, who I first met the best part of 30 years ago when he used to book The Price at The Square in Harlow and who now plays bass with Roddy Radiation and The Skabilly Rebels. After having a drink in the pub next door (I can't remember the name but they serve really good Indian food!) we returned to the venue which by then was filling up nicely - by showtime the place was packed and we gave a suitably raucous performance to the general approval of all concerned. A great gig.
Talking of The Damned we also played The Assembly in Leamington Spa with them on last year's tour, and we returned there on Friday evening. I don't mind admitting that I was concerned that the venue was too big for us but in the event there was more than enough people there to make the evening work. When we arrived there was a Wishbone Ash setlist on the drum riser, an item which would play an unexpected part in the evening's proceedings, as Segs used it to perform a paper tearing version of 'Human Punk'. Strange but true - and if you don't believe me here is visual evidence... in the meantime band biographer Roland Link came to the show as did Captain Sensible's guitar tech and Abatis Studios supremo Jon Priestly, and we all took photos in Tammy Wynette's old touring caravan which is one of the many unlikely items in the backstage area. A highly enjoyable evening.
And on Saturday night we headlined the 'Skahumbug!' festival at The Hairy Dog in Derby. When we got there Random Hand were about to begin - they played an agreeably noisy and energetic set to the near-full room before we set about setting up; often all-day events in pubs aren't particularly great, especially if you're on near the end as the audience can be somewhat jaded by then - but not in this case, and we went on to play a storming set to the very enthusiastic audience and to bring our three-shows-in-the-Midlands to an excellent end.
I'd hoped to be back in time to play at The Horns in Watford with Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks on Sunday afternoon but sadly travel chaos (why oh why does the whole bloody country fall apart when it rains?!?) meant that this wasn't possible - however I did make it along to Tropic At Ruislip in the evening to see Willie Nile. I'd missed him on several previous occasions due to having gigs elsewhere but I'm glad I got along this time as I really enjoyed the show. And with Christmas coming things are getting busy at Balcony Shirts so I'll be in there this week before heading to Manchester and Buckley at the weekend for two more Ruts D.C. shows. More is more...
Showing posts with label Abatis Studios. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Abatis Studios. Show all posts
Monday, November 24, 2014
Monday, June 23, 2014
'You don't know anywhere that I can borrow a bass from do you?'
It's 10 o'clock on Friday morning and I've just answered the phone to John 'Segs' Jennings, bass guitarist (and vocalist, lest we forget) with popular punk rock / reggae combo Ruts D.C.; the above line was not perhaps one that I was expecting to hear him say, although if the time that I've spent mucking around with guitars have taught me anything then it's to expect the unexpected...
We (Ruts D.C.) are off to Yorkshire to play a show at The Willowman Festival near Thirsk; Segs, sound man Nick and driver / backline man Jon (making his debut working with the band, we met him on the Damned tour last year and he also runs Abatis Studios) had met at Driving You Crazy in Brentford to collect a splitter bus, and when Segs got the merchandise and his bag out of the taxi he discovered that he'd left his bass guitar at home. Bugger! As we talked over options (Did I know anyone? Did he know anyone? Would it be simpler if he just went home and got his?) he then revealed that due to a booking mix-up we were going to have to come straight back after the show as we would have to get the bus back to DYC before 9am Saturday morning rather than later in the day as we'd thought when we booked ourselves a hotel near the festival site. Bugger! Again! So far, so bad - but as always with this sort of thing there's no point in worrying or moaning about it (although we did try a fair bit of swearing!) as you just have to get on and sort the situation out. After we'd both rang around trying to find a suitable instrument for him we quickly realised that it would indeed be easier if he just went home for his and then travelled up by train to meet us at the hotel that we would have been staying in (!) We also steeled ourselves for the long late night drive home - or rather Jon did, as it was him who would be doing the driving... meanwhile Dave was driving to Kensington with merch girl Rhiannon to pick up the drum mat that he'd mistakenly left in Brighton at last weekend's gig - he was originally going to leave his car near me and then travel up with us in the bus before returning the next day to collect his car and drive to his Saturday night gig, but as he was running late he opted to drive up to Yorkshire and stay the night at the hotel (well, we had the rooms booked and it was too late to cancel them, and we were meeting Molara there anyway) before driving back for his gig the next day. Keep up at the back there...
Actually once all of this had been decided upon the rest of the day went remarkably smoothly - we all met up at The Black Bull in Northallerton (pity we weren't staying there, it looked like a really nice place!) and from there made our way to The Willowman Festival where we played a storming set headlining The Willow Wobbly Stage (!) and had a very good ending to what might have been a very bad day... except of course that wasn't the end of the day, as we then had to drive back to London, a job that Jon (ably assisted by a suitable amount of coffee) accomplished with great aplomb. Hopefully his first day hasn't put him off working with us in the future, as it was a great pleasure to have him along with us.
I spent a fair bit of Saturday morning drifting in and out of consciousness before admitting defeat and going back to bed. As I went to lie down my phone rang - Segs's opening line of 'are you still alive?' gives you some idea of how he (and indeed I) was feeling... still it's amazing what a bit of sleep can do, and come the evening I was readying myself for an Upper Cut gig at Ye Olde George in Colnbrook. With Roger drumming elsewhere we've got Richard Hudson (a.k.a. 'Hud') on loan from The Good Old Boys - by the time I arrived at the venue he was all set up and ready to go. Rehearsal consisted of a drink and a talk through some of the songs, and barring the odd mad moment we played two 45 minute sets to the increasing approval of the assembled multitude, with Hud playing brilliantly and a good time being had by all. Well, we certainly enjoyed ourselves... I think this was the first Saturday show at the venue (it's usually a Sunday afternoon gig) and they're talking about making it a regular occurrence - with more and more venues closing it's great to see somewhere that's increasing the number of shows that they're putting on. Excellent!
And last night Back To Zero played at The 100 Club, on a splendid bill that also featured The Fallen Leaves and Eight Rounds Rapid. I was told that our set was a bit loud in the room - hopefully that masked the appalling amount of errors that I made (I was away for Friday's rehearsal - well, that's my excuse anyway!) although Sam's grin as I fluffed the opening riff of 'Talking To Myself' meant that I certainly hadn't managed to hide anything from him! Meanwhile The Fallen Leaves and Eight Rounds Rapid were both as brilliant as ever, with the only downside to things being the rather low audience numbers. To be fair the place did fill up as the evening went on, but surely it should have been packed for a bill as good as this - shouldn't it? Well, I think that it should!
We (Ruts D.C.) are off to Yorkshire to play a show at The Willowman Festival near Thirsk; Segs, sound man Nick and driver / backline man Jon (making his debut working with the band, we met him on the Damned tour last year and he also runs Abatis Studios) had met at Driving You Crazy in Brentford to collect a splitter bus, and when Segs got the merchandise and his bag out of the taxi he discovered that he'd left his bass guitar at home. Bugger! As we talked over options (Did I know anyone? Did he know anyone? Would it be simpler if he just went home and got his?) he then revealed that due to a booking mix-up we were going to have to come straight back after the show as we would have to get the bus back to DYC before 9am Saturday morning rather than later in the day as we'd thought when we booked ourselves a hotel near the festival site. Bugger! Again! So far, so bad - but as always with this sort of thing there's no point in worrying or moaning about it (although we did try a fair bit of swearing!) as you just have to get on and sort the situation out. After we'd both rang around trying to find a suitable instrument for him we quickly realised that it would indeed be easier if he just went home for his and then travelled up by train to meet us at the hotel that we would have been staying in (!) We also steeled ourselves for the long late night drive home - or rather Jon did, as it was him who would be doing the driving... meanwhile Dave was driving to Kensington with merch girl Rhiannon to pick up the drum mat that he'd mistakenly left in Brighton at last weekend's gig - he was originally going to leave his car near me and then travel up with us in the bus before returning the next day to collect his car and drive to his Saturday night gig, but as he was running late he opted to drive up to Yorkshire and stay the night at the hotel (well, we had the rooms booked and it was too late to cancel them, and we were meeting Molara there anyway) before driving back for his gig the next day. Keep up at the back there...
Actually once all of this had been decided upon the rest of the day went remarkably smoothly - we all met up at The Black Bull in Northallerton (pity we weren't staying there, it looked like a really nice place!) and from there made our way to The Willowman Festival where we played a storming set headlining The Willow Wobbly Stage (!) and had a very good ending to what might have been a very bad day... except of course that wasn't the end of the day, as we then had to drive back to London, a job that Jon (ably assisted by a suitable amount of coffee) accomplished with great aplomb. Hopefully his first day hasn't put him off working with us in the future, as it was a great pleasure to have him along with us.
 |
| Your humble narrator on Sunday evening - note the lack of audience! |
I spent a fair bit of Saturday morning drifting in and out of consciousness before admitting defeat and going back to bed. As I went to lie down my phone rang - Segs's opening line of 'are you still alive?' gives you some idea of how he (and indeed I) was feeling... still it's amazing what a bit of sleep can do, and come the evening I was readying myself for an Upper Cut gig at Ye Olde George in Colnbrook. With Roger drumming elsewhere we've got Richard Hudson (a.k.a. 'Hud') on loan from The Good Old Boys - by the time I arrived at the venue he was all set up and ready to go. Rehearsal consisted of a drink and a talk through some of the songs, and barring the odd mad moment we played two 45 minute sets to the increasing approval of the assembled multitude, with Hud playing brilliantly and a good time being had by all. Well, we certainly enjoyed ourselves... I think this was the first Saturday show at the venue (it's usually a Sunday afternoon gig) and they're talking about making it a regular occurrence - with more and more venues closing it's great to see somewhere that's increasing the number of shows that they're putting on. Excellent!
And last night Back To Zero played at The 100 Club, on a splendid bill that also featured The Fallen Leaves and Eight Rounds Rapid. I was told that our set was a bit loud in the room - hopefully that masked the appalling amount of errors that I made (I was away for Friday's rehearsal - well, that's my excuse anyway!) although Sam's grin as I fluffed the opening riff of 'Talking To Myself' meant that I certainly hadn't managed to hide anything from him! Meanwhile The Fallen Leaves and Eight Rounds Rapid were both as brilliant as ever, with the only downside to things being the rather low audience numbers. To be fair the place did fill up as the evening went on, but surely it should have been packed for a bill as good as this - shouldn't it? Well, I think that it should!
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
'Back to the studio...'
Well with the German dates and The 12 Bar Club show in the horizon it was at last time for Ruts D.C. to get back into the rehearsal studio - but first a visit to Warwickshire was in order. On The Damned tour I spent a fair but of time with Captain Sensible's guitar tech and all round good bloke Jon Priestley, who revealed that in addition to working for the good Captain and playing guitar in Reign Of Fury also runs a recording studio in The Midlands. So it was then that Dave, Segs and myself made our way to Abatis Studios in Honiley (didn't Puff the Magic Dragon live there?) where we spent a very enjoyable few hours with Jon checking his studio out and even going so far as to making a test recording. What did we record? That would be telling...
Thursday saw the band make their first visit to The Music Complex in Deptford since before the afore-mentioned Damned tour. Segs and myself have been putting together some new song ideas over the last few months, and with three of them starting to sound more like songs than ideas it was time to get into the studio and see how they sound with the band. I'm pleased to say that the rehearsal went very well indeed, with the new ideas coming together well and everyone very optimistic about how things are going. After the session we adjourned to The Little Crown near the studio to meet up with Richard England from Cadiz Music - he promoted the show we played with Wilko Johnson at Koko back in October, and it was good to see him again.
Friday I returned to Tropic At Ruislip to see Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute band Aynt Skynyrd. I must admit that I'm not the biggest Lynyryd Skynyrd fan in the world, but I thought it would be interesting to see how the band handled the (many) guitar parts in the band's songs. I must say that they made a very good job of it - that said I missed pretty much the whole of the first set as I was on the phone to Segs, who had called to discuss our studio days from earlier in the week. Exciting stuff!
I played my first gigs of the year this weekend - good! It's been nice to have a bit of a break but it was great to get back on the boards again. On Saturday night The Upper Cut returned to The Dolphin in Uxbridge for a night of no little jollity, not least as Noel the landlord had a fair number of family members over from Ireland. The exact details are sketchy as I was still in there drinking at 3am... and the next afternoon we made our first visit to Ye Olde George Inn in Colnbrook for many months (I'll be there again next Sunday with Big Al and co.) for a 5pm show that saw us play two energetic sets to a very appreciative audience.
And last night it was back to The Three Wishes in Edgware for the Monday jam night. Hmm... maybe I am getting just a bit fed up with some of the ruder people there... ah well, no time to worry about that now, as I'm off to meet Dave and Segs at another recording studio. Maybe, just maybe, those silly little people last night really are jealous of me. Oh well... let's hope so! He he...
Thursday saw the band make their first visit to The Music Complex in Deptford since before the afore-mentioned Damned tour. Segs and myself have been putting together some new song ideas over the last few months, and with three of them starting to sound more like songs than ideas it was time to get into the studio and see how they sound with the band. I'm pleased to say that the rehearsal went very well indeed, with the new ideas coming together well and everyone very optimistic about how things are going. After the session we adjourned to The Little Crown near the studio to meet up with Richard England from Cadiz Music - he promoted the show we played with Wilko Johnson at Koko back in October, and it was good to see him again.
Friday I returned to Tropic At Ruislip to see Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute band Aynt Skynyrd. I must admit that I'm not the biggest Lynyryd Skynyrd fan in the world, but I thought it would be interesting to see how the band handled the (many) guitar parts in the band's songs. I must say that they made a very good job of it - that said I missed pretty much the whole of the first set as I was on the phone to Segs, who had called to discuss our studio days from earlier in the week. Exciting stuff!
I played my first gigs of the year this weekend - good! It's been nice to have a bit of a break but it was great to get back on the boards again. On Saturday night The Upper Cut returned to The Dolphin in Uxbridge for a night of no little jollity, not least as Noel the landlord had a fair number of family members over from Ireland. The exact details are sketchy as I was still in there drinking at 3am... and the next afternoon we made our first visit to Ye Olde George Inn in Colnbrook for many months (I'll be there again next Sunday with Big Al and co.) for a 5pm show that saw us play two energetic sets to a very appreciative audience.
And last night it was back to The Three Wishes in Edgware for the Monday jam night. Hmm... maybe I am getting just a bit fed up with some of the ruder people there... ah well, no time to worry about that now, as I'm off to meet Dave and Segs at another recording studio. Maybe, just maybe, those silly little people last night really are jealous of me. Oh well... let's hope so! He he...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
