'A working class hero is something to be...'

I've just heard that Bob Crow has died - shame. He seemed to me to be a decent man who stood up for the rights of working class people, which in these days of evil presidentes is something that should always be applauded don't you think? I've just heard that two-faced clown Boris Johnson describe him as 'a man of character', a term that could never be applied to The Mayor Of London. A sad loss.

The second Gypie Mayo tribute gig took place at Surrey Blues Club on Friday evening - house band Game On started proceedings with a half hour or so of blues standards (enlivened no end by their guitarist playing violin on one number) before The Band Of Sceptics took to the stage. With frontman / guitarist Pete Sargeant in fine form their varied set included an excellently jazzy version of 'Only Happy When It Rains' next to the likes of 'The Pusher' and 'For What It's Worth'. Once again they invited me to join them for 'Gimme Dat Harp Boy', and once again they then asked me to stay for the rest of the set - Rick Danko's 'Java Blues' (also recorded by Dr. Feelgood with Gypie on guitar) and 'Dream Within A Dream' by the latter-day Gypie-featuring line-up of The Yardbirds. All good stuff, and it set the scene for a Flying Squad performance that I felt was a bit better than last week's Ruislip show. Pete joined us to play harmonica on 'Ridin' On The L&N' and slide guitar on 'Back In the Night', and we once again finished the evening with 'Killing Floor'. A good night at an excellent club.

Saturday night saw a rare occurrence - a short notice Upper Cut gig. We were only asked to play at The Jameson in West Kensington a few days earlier - with the Hammersmith Roundabout teeming with Stranglers fans (they were playing at The Odeon) we found the venue with surprising ease, and were set up and ready to play in no time. It's always a bit depressing when the staff are telling you to play quietly before you've even picked your instruments up, not least because as we'd not played there before we had little if any idea of what constituted playing quietly in that particular place; needless to say it didn't take long before they were asking us to turn it down. Bah! However by the end of our first set there was a fair bit of dancing, and with more people arriving all the time our second set turned out to be good fun with the band playing well and the audience responding well. As we were leaving Gavin the guv'nor said that he'd be in touch about a return booking, which I for one would not have predicted at the start of our show It just goes to show how little I know doesn't it?

And last night it was back to The 12 Bar Club for another Reggae Punk Monday which featured among others the astonishingly-named Dogshite. I must say that they were nowhere near as bad as their name might have suggested, although I suppose you could argue that it would be quite hard for them to actually be that bad... in the meantime Cadiz Music supremo Richard England and his assistant Blaise joined myself and Segs in a worrying amount of drinking - well, a worrying amount for a Monday night. Actually it was a worrying amount for any night, judging by how my head feels this morning... 

Ruby Tuesday

I have just - just! - returned from playing with Ruts D.C. at The Fat Tuesday Festival in Hastings. And what a great night it was - we played three sets in three venues (The Dragon Bar, The Lord Nelson and The Carlisle - this timetable shows how well-planned the schedule was) and played a different set each time - it really was a terrific event to be part of. I must say it was quite an intense evening - as our first set finished the next band were queueing up to get on stage and we were being told that we had to get a move on to get to our next venue, which might not sound particularly 'intense' here but certainly felt it at the time. And in the midst of the madness Girlschool bass player Enid came over and introduced herself - I saw them play with Motorhead all those years ago. Mind you, so did lots of people!

We rehearsed for said Hastings gig(s) in the familiar surroundings of The Music Complex in Deptford on Friday. A jovial first hour or so some very unexpected oldies both from the band's back catalogue and elsewhere (did we really play 'Roxette'? Yes, incredibly, we did!) as well as attempting to put three sets together for the shows. After a coffee break progress was swift, although I'm still not sure how so many Spandau Ballet lyrics managed to find their way into quite a few of the songs... 
Rehearsal finished at 4 o'clock - 2 hours later I was back at home readying myself for a Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks gig at The Paddington Packet Boat in Cowley. Due to other commitments it had been quite a while since I'd last played with the band (my good friend Pete Kerr has been dong a splendid job in my absence) and with this in mind I ran through a few songs on Thursday afternoon before leaving for The Brewery in Moorgate to see a Q&A session with Roger Daltrey and Wilko Johnson. This was an interesting evening (you knew I'd say that now didn't you?) with Daltrey bemoaning the amount of time people spend with their mobile phones held in front of their faces and Wilko telling a hilarious story about Lew Lewis attempting to syringe his own ears with a bicycle pump (!) among the many highlights. It goes without saying that I'm really - make that really - looking forward to getting their 'Going Back Home' album later this month but, well, I'll say it anyway - I'm really looking forward to getting their 'Going Back Home' album later this month! 
Anyway back to the Cowley gig, which was, erm, ok... the band played well but I made a few too many mistakes for my liking. I always find this annoying although it didn't seem to bother anyone else (or if it did then they didn't say anything to me!) However the next night's show at The Three Wishes in Harrow was much more like it; indeed I'd even go so far as to say that it was one of the best shows that the band has ever played. That's more like it!

Back in 2010 The Band Of Sceptics and The Flying Squad played together at Tropic At Ruislip; on Sunday evening the two bands reconvened at the same venue to play a tribute show to the late and undeniably great Gypie Mayo who had played with The Band Of Sceptics at the afore-mentioned gig and who also of course played for Dr. Feelgood, The Yardbirds and many more. Joining myself and singing stalwart Andy in The Squad were Johnny Squirrel on bass and Andy Moore on drums, and with regrettably no chance for the band to rehearse before the show we all resolved to get to the venue early to run through as many songs as time would allow. When we got there John had already set up the (excellent) P.A. system, so all that remained was for us to set up and get going - we managed to play quite a few songs and work out some endings before time caught up with us and we made way for The Band Of Sceptics to soundcheck. By the time the doors opened it was raining heavily and there were fears that this would put people off from coming, but in the event there were more than enough people in the audience to make the evening work. The Band Of Sceptics were up first - led by the irrepressible Pete Sargeant their engaging West Coast-powered set found favour with the Tropic crowd. They very kindly invited your humble narrator to join them on stage for Captain Beefheart's 'Gimme Dat Harp Boy' - I ended up staying with them for the rest of their set, which was great fun to say the least. Our set started strongly with 'I Can Tell', and despite the odd mad moment here and there it all went well with a great reaction from those present. We finished with the Dr. Feelgood classic 'Down At the Doctors' before Pete joined us to jam on Howlin' Wolf's 'Killing Floor' which bought a highly enjoyable evening to a close. We raised several hundred pounds for The Dorothy House Hospice who cared for Gypie towards the end of his life, and we're doing it all again on Friday at Surrey Blues Club. Excellent!

This week's Reggae Punk Monday at The 12 Bar Club featured Bug on the stage and GLM at the bar - both fine sights to see. I'd not seen the three ex-Lurkers together for a while - when 'Shadow' came on over the P.A. I attempted to get them all on stage to mime to it, but sadly to no avail... Bug roared through a breathless half hour set before an increasingly appreciative audience. Frontman Phil described the band as 'Northern monkeys' on more than one occasion - maybe he was trying to get the put downs in before anyone else did, but if he was then there was no need as the band sounded great. And Monday nights at The 12 Bar Club really are getting better and better, which is a good thing to see in these troubled times. 

Right, time for some food. Or some sleep. Or something. Hmmm... I think last night is catching up with me... I told you it was intense...

Dr. Who!

Another busy few days for your humble narrator - ah well, it's better than sitting around doing nothing isn't it?

Two Upper Cut gigs in two days is always a good thing to be able to report on - Saturday saw the band return to The Kings Arms in Harefield for the first time in quite a while, and we made our first ever appearance at The Horns in Watford on Sunday afternoon. We got together on Thursday evening to run through a few new songs (well they're new to our act, we didn't write any of 'em!) and to brush up on a few oldies - in the event we concentrated more on the new than the old which I for one think is no bad thing. I tend to think that if you're in a cover band then there's no point in not learning new songs - after all we've all seen bands that have had basically the same act for years haven't we? Anyway the Saturday show was a raucous affair, with the very drunk man who wanted to play harmonica with us (we eventually let him join in on 'Rock Me Baby' which I must admit he played very well, especially considering his advanced state of alcoholic disrepair - mind we couldn't get him to stop after that!) and the larger lady (she really shouldn't have worn that outfit!) who sat on the P.A. amplifier being among the many 'characters' present; indeed after a while I realised that quite a few people were watching the other audience members antics almost as much as they were watching the band... the Sunday gig was one that I'd been looking forward to for quite some time, and I'm pleased to say that it more than lived up to expectations. The Horns is an absolutely splendid venue, and with Paul the soundman getting everything balanced we played two highly well-received sets to the assembled multitude. Here's one of the new-to-us songs 'I Wish It Would Rain' from the show - see what you think. Hopefully we'll be back there soon.

Having missed the previous Reggae Punk Monday night at The 12 Bar Club due to, er, not feeling too well (it had been a l-o-n-g few days!) I was keen to get along this week, not least because the evening was simply too good to miss. I arrived just in time to catch The Featherz, whose shouty power pop impressed many a Bowie fan (visually at least!) present. Next up were The Duel who rarely fail to impress and certainly didn't here - Chris looks to be settling in well in his new role as guitarist (he was previously on bass) and Tara somehow kept her Clash hat on for the whole set despite the temperature in the room rising all the time. And Alabama 3 frontman Larry Love managed to cram an impressive number of people onto the tiny stage to deliver a brilliant set of 'music littered with last chances, seaside lovers and dreams which have melted like ice cream on the promenade'. Well that's how they describe it on their website, and oddly enough that's pretty much how it sounded! A fine evening - and next Monday features the excellent Bug who supported Ruts D.C. in Preston last year. See you at the bar... and talking of Ruts D.C. we're playing at the 'Fat Tuesday' charity event in Hastings next (you've guessed it!) Tuesday 4th March. Three shows in three different venues in one evening - should be fun! And The Flying Squad play a Gypie Mayo tribute evening alongside The Band Of Sceptics (featuring Pete Sargeant) at Tropic At Ruislip this Sunday - the same line-up will also be playing at The Surrey Blues Club next Friday 7th March. Time I dusted off my Dr. Feelgood riffs then!

There were more than a few Dr. Feelgood riffs on display at The Shepherds Bush Empire last night, when Wilko Johnson and Roger Daltrey (why on Earth didn't they call the band Dr. Who?!?) played a one-off show together in anticipation of their 'Going Back Home' album due out next month. After playing for around 40 minutes (and it must be said, playing very well!) Wilko sounded almost incredulous as he said the words 'ladies and gentlemen, Roger Daltery' before leading the band into album's title track. What followed was an at times loose but thoroughly enjoyable performance, with Wilko spending much of the gig smiling broadly (that doesn't look right somehow!) and Daltrey joking about having to read the lyrics from crib sheets - he even waved them in the air at one point to prove it! A brilliant evening, not least because I managed to meet the man himself afterwards. Oh yes!

'Stoke adds life where there isn't any, so freeze man freeze!'

It's been a slightly quieter few days... sort of...

I saw Johnny Warman play several times with The Mods, and was always impressed. both with his not-inconsiderable vocal ability and his choice of songs - if you're going to have a covers band then you might as well play songs by The Who, The Kinks, The Small Faces... well, that's pretty much how we run The Upper Cut! His new band Magic Bus (great name!) were playing at Tropic At Ruislip on Friday, and expectations were high. Well they were from my point of view anyway... in the main the band lived up to them, being excellent musicians although perhaps a little 'heavy' sounding for some of the material (for example 'You Really Got Me' was more Van Halen than The Kinks - I'd have much preferred it to have been the other way round!) I also felt that they played the set in a slightly odd order - finishing the evening with 'Won't Get Fooled Again', 'Love Reign O'er Me' and 'See Me Feel Me' / 'Listening To You' is unlikely to disappoint a Who obsessive such as myself, but none of them can exactly be described as great dance songs, and since up until that point in proceedings the area in front of the stage had been heavily populated with people shaking a leg or two they somewhat dissipated the atmosphere. A good rather than great evening then, although I'll try to catch the band again as it'll be interesting to see where they go from here.

And talking of Tropic At Ruislip Sunday 2nd March sees a very special night there, when The Flying Squad and The Band Of Sceptics play a tribute show to the late and undeniably great Gypie Mayo - more news nearer to the day, but it should be a great night!

Saturday saw the first Back To Zero gig of 2014, at The Gardeners Retreat in Boothen near Stoke-on-Trent. Also on the bill were Robby Allen and The Kite Collectors and The Found, and proceeds from the evening went towards buying an FM licence for Alan May's 'Glory Boy Mod Radio Show' on 6 Towns Radio. With Squirrel away elsewhere Pete is depping on bass, and Stuart returns on keyboards - when we arrive all the bands are there but there's no sign of a sound man or indeed a P.A. system. They both eventually turn up around half past five, and with door due to open at 7.30pm sound check is therefore a rather rushed affair. Still with over 150 tickets sold for a 200 capacity venue a good evening is in prospect - we take the short walk back to The Plough Hotel where we're staying to get changed before coming back to the venue in time to catch the first band The Found. Introduced by Alan as 'a band from a small town in Sunderland called Newcastle-upon-Tyne' (cue a predictably raucous reaction from the band members!) they play a good set that perhaps owes a little too much to Paul Weller but that is very enjoyable all the same. Next up are Robby Allen and The Kite Collectors - I remember seeing Mr. Allen in The Mild Mannered Janitors back in the day, he was good then and he's good now, with his young band matching him move-for-move and the audience getting behind him from the word go. By the time we go on the place is packed - starting and finishing with our new single 'Love Like Suicide' (7'' vinyl available soon - oh yes!) we play a good set to a very appreciative audience, and we all agree that it's a great start to the BTZ year. Afterwards there's time for a few drinks with some of the audience before stumbling back to our hotel for some well-earned sleep. A fine evening - and here's 'Your Side Of Heaven' from the show. My guitar is loud isn't it? Good!

And yesterday it was back to Jamm in Brixton to continue working on the various Ruts D.C. projects currently being prepared for release - it's all sounding good but there's still work to be done... and The Upper Cut play The Kings Arms in Harefield this Saturday followed by a 4pm show at The Horns in Watford on Sunday afternoon so we're rehearsing tomorrow night - still busy... 

At the edge

I've got no gigs this coming weekend - it's been quite a while since I've heard myself say that so I'm not going to complain too much (for once!) as it'll hopefully give me time to get all my stuff together for the upcoming Damned / Ruts D.C. tour. With this in mind Dave, Segs and myself met up on Thursday to discuss tactics for the shows - we also found time to look at some new song ideas, and with Segs and myself trading ideas on acoustic guitars the songs are shaping up to be much rockier than the 'Rhythm Collision Volume 2' material. All good stuff, and lots to look forward to.

Friday night Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks played at The Three Wishes in Edgware. With England playing Chile down the road at Wembley Stadium we didn't start our first set until the game finished as it was on television in the venue and they were hoping for people who had attended the match would be coming down later - in the event we started to a fairly empty bar and finished to a fairly full one, which has to be better than the other way round doesn't it? It was my last show with the band until after the afore-mentioned tour (my good friend Pete will be depping for me in my absence) and it was an enjoyable enough affair without being anything too out of the ordinary, if you know what I mean. Still that's much better than it being a bad show!

I went to Tropic At Ruislip on Saturday evening to see Roadhouse. I've seen their name around regularly over the past few years and had always heard good things about them so it was good to get chance to finally catch a show - it would be churlish to suggest that the inclusion of two female vocalists in their line-up also effected my decision to attend, but I will admit that it didn't count against it... I guess you'd describe them as a 'blues rock' band, and overall it was a good show although it was rather hampered by a less-than-excellent sound - the girls's voices we often far too loud and had a somewhat 'boxy' sound while the guitars were nowhere near loud enough (after all, whoever heard of a guitar being too loud?!?) meaning that the band had less power than perhaps they might. Still as I say it was a good show - and it's always great to see a band that plays mostly it's own songs rather than cover versions. Well, I think that it is... and while I was there I spoke to the promoters Philip and Dave about a Gypie Mayo tribute show that'll be happening on March 2nd. It should feature The Flying Squad and The Band Of Sceptics, with the proceeds going to the hospice that cared for Gypie during his illness. I'm helping to organise it with Band Of Sceptics mainman Pete Sargeant, so expect any amount of increasingly desperate 'please come to our gig'-type publicity from me nearer to the time.

And last night I once again returned to The Three Wishes jam night with Pete and Big Al - this time we corrupted Howard and Andy from the house band into playing 'Sweet Home Chicago' and 'Jilted John' with us - yes, you read that correctly. It's hard to imagine two more diverse songs isn't it? Well, that was the idea!  

Right - only a week-and-a-bit to go...

Be seeing you

Sad news - Gypie Mayo died today. He's one of the best guitarists - make that one of the best musicians - that I've ever seen. 

He's probably best known for replacing Wilko Johnson in Dr. Feelgood, but he also worked with The Yardbirds, The Band Of Sceptics, The Practice and many others. I saw him play many times over the years in all of those bands and more and he was always absolutely brilliant, an inspiration to me and many others. I last saw him back in June 2010 at Tropic Of Ruislip when The Flying Squad supported The Wolftracks, who were basically The Band Of Sceptics playing Howlin' Wolf songs. Johnny Squirrel was playing bass for us that night - he knew Gypie from back in the day when Squirrel played with Lew Lewis and Gypie was in The Feelgoods and he introduced me to the man himself after our set; unprompted he told me how much he'd liked my playing in 'Dirty Water'. I could have been happier, but not much. At the end of the evening he and I chatted as he put his equipment away, I'd meet him a couple of times before and he always seemed to be a genuine, humble man who loved to play music. That's a pretty good thing to be don't you think?

A few weeks ago I received a letter from Band Of Sceptics mainman Pete Sargeant; he's been to Gypie's birthday party (he and I share the same birthday, July 24th) and during the course of the evening my name somehow came up - Gypie not only remembered me but asked Pete to send me his best wishes and gave him a commemorative plectrum to pass on to me. Amazing. 
I looked at the plectrum for a few seconds - he couldn't have known it but I was having a bad day. A really bad day. I picked up my Stratocaster, plugged it in, turned the amplifier up and played 'Milk And Alcohol'. Suddenly things weren't quite so bad.

God bless you Gypie - and thanks for everything.

'You think we look pretty good together...'

A interesting weekend's gigging just gone, with both shows involving previously unfamiliar faces...

Friday saw The Chicago Blues Brothers visit Shottle Hall in Derbyshire (on Derby Day!) for a 40th birthday party show. Joining the regulars (myself, Squirrel, Marc and Richard) are Steve on trumpet and Chris on keyboards (both of whom have played with us several times before) and 2 new inhabitants of the hats and glasses, Tony and Guy. And yes, they're really called that... I'd spoken to Tony on the phone a few times and agreed a provisional set of songs; when I met them at the gig we sat down for a while to discuss tactics before repairing to The Hanging Gate to meet the rest of the band. We're due back at the venue for food at 8.30 so there's time to put 2 50-odd minute sets together, including a few songs ('Sweet Soul Music', 'Land Of 1,000 Dances' and '634-5789') that go way back to the days of Dave Finnegan's Commitments.

We're playing in a marquee at the back of the hotel, it's a movie-themed evening so there's people walking around in fancy dress (Richard - 'you see a few sights at these sort of evenings don't you?' Yes Richard, you do!) and a jovial atmosphere prevails. Our dressing room is rather, shall we say, rustic - there are swallows nesting in the ceiling! - and the food is a buffet often found at gatherings such as these; your humble narrator is therefore seen enjoying bread, rice and potato salad while everyone else piles their plates high.

We were supposed to go on at 9.30 for two sets but ended up going on at 9.45 for one epic 2 hour show. I'm trying out a potential new purchase - a Fender FMT Telecaster currently put up for sale by Andy from The Flying Squad. I could do with a spare for CBB shows as my old Custom is starting to get quite valuable, and Andy lent me the guitar to try out on stage. Maybe I should have chosen a show other than this one as there's rather more to think about than usual, but Tony and Guy proved themselves to be very capable in pretty much every area, not least being utterly fearless when it came to audience participation - I don't think we'd been onstage for 5 minutes before they were out in the audience bantering with all and sundry. This kind of behaviour is fraught with danger from the performer's point of view (that's why most of us don't do it!) and while for the most part the 2 BB's were on top of the situation referring to the chap in the Batman costume as 'Fatman' proved to be something of an error - he came up to the stage and triumphantly replied 'I might be fat but at least I know the words to the songs'... overall it was a good, well received show with only the odd moment of madness - the best way to put it is to say that we went one way and the brothers went the other a couple of times! Oh and everybody in the band liked the guitar (including me) so it looks like Andy's made a sale.

Sunday's show was one that I personally had been really looking forward to since The Flying Squad were first asked to play it a couple of weeks ago, since the main act featured one of my all-time favourite guitarists - Gypie Mayo. Probably best known as the man who faced the daunting task of replacing Wilko Johnson in Dr. Feelgood he then went on to play in The Yardbirds, and if those two facts aren't enough to put him firmly in my 'top ten guitarists list' (I must work out who the other nine are one day!) then I don't know what is. It was an interesting booking for The Squad on a number of levels, not least because we were obliged to miss out the Feelgoods material from our set (there's no way I was going to play them in front of the man himself! And it would have been even weirder to play the Wilko-era songs wouldn't it?) although that wasn't the main issue... since last month's gig with Eddie And The Hot Rods Andy and myself have found ourselves without a band for the gig (I'll spare you the gory details - one of the worst things about being in a band is what happens when people have to leave) and therefore something of a dilemma - do we do the show or not? And if we do the show, who do we do it with? After much wondering we decided to try to put a line-up together and play the gig - to this end I asked Squirrel if he'd be up for it on bass, and I'm pleased to say that not only did he make himself available but he also suggested some other players - Chris Teeder who deps on keyboards in the CBB show, and ex-CBB and now T.Rextasy drummer John Skelton, who both declared themselves available. Andy and myself ran up a list of a dozen or so songs, made up some CD's which we gave to the lads and looked forward to a quick rehearsal on Sunday afternoon followed by a great gig.

Things are never simple though are they? On Thursday afternoon John called to say that he's got problems - a recently broken finger and dislocated elbow (ouch!) were still causing him problems and it would be 'madness' for him to do the gig. But don't worry (what, me worry?!?) he had just the man for the job - do I know Geoff Britton?

Well the only Geoff Britton I can think of used to play for Paul McCartney and Manfred Mann.

Yes, that's the guy, he's heard the CD and is up for the show.

What, really? He does know that there's next-to-no money in it (we're only the support band after all!) and the band's not exactly a household name.

Yes, he just wants to play.

Oh, ok then!

So it was then that I found myself in the car park of The Hanging Tree on the phone to Macca's mucker (ha!) sometime around 7.30 on Saturday night (yes, that's right, the night before the gig) talking to Geoff for the first time. He seemed a very nice chap and very much up for the gig - we arranged to meet at the venue around 5.30 the next day to talk through the songs. Nothing like leaving it until the last minute is there?

It's just gone 6 o'clock on Sunday evening when this very unusual line-up of The Flying Squad all meet for the first time; we're standing near the side entrance of the venue near where Geoff has parked his van, I've got a guitar and we're running the starts and stops in the songs. Everyone's in good humour and after about 10 minutes we realise that the best thing to do is just to get on with it. Meanwhile the main band are arriving, and as I go back into the venue I see the unmistakable (to me at any rate) figure of Gypie Mayo at the back of the hall. I'm shy at the best of times but when it comes to meeting people like him I'm really shy although I have met him briefly a couple of times before and he seemed to be a really nice bloke. Squirrel goes across to say hello - he told me afterwards there'd been a moments hesitation and then a cry of 'Squirrel' from the great man, they were certainly chatting like old mates (Squirrel played on the same bill as The Feelgoods many times when he was with Lew Lewis, and was on the Oil City Sheiks single 'It Don't Take But A Few Minutes' with him) every time I saw them together in the next few hours which was good to see.

We're on just after 8 o'clock, for a 40-ish minute set that seemed to fly by, a sure sign that things went well. And indeed they did - there were a few moments where a bit more (or indeed any!) rehearsal would have helped things along, but overall it was a really enjoyable show.

How did we sound? Like this!

As I'm putting my gear away Squirrel comes over with Gypie who he introduces to me as 'a big fan' - now there's an understatement! My memory of him as being a nice bloke is thankfully correct, and he goes even higher up the 'Leigh's Top 10 Guitarists' chart by telling me how much he liked my solo in 'Dirty Water'; this may not look like much written here but I'd need the rest of time itself to be able to say how much that comment means to me.

The main act are calling themselves The Wolftracks although they're probably better known on the circuit as The Band Of Sceptics; they're led by Pete Sargeant who described himself to me as a 'psychedelic guitarist' and they normally play music that's more in that vein although as a big Howlin' Wolf fan he decided to do some gigs to honour the 100th anniversary of the great bluesman's birth. They certainly did what they set out to do, playing a set of songs that had me resolving to get my Howlin' Wolf albums out (and I have, and they sound great.) And Gypie played brilliantly, with all the same energy and power as I've ever seen him play with whichever band he's in. Fantastic. Damien McCabe did a guest spot singing 'Little Red Rooster', I'd not seen him for ages and it was good to catch up with him again.

After the show I go over to Gypie and tell him how much I'd enjoyed his playing, he seemed genuinely pleased with the compliments and went on to say that he doesn't gig much these days as he can't be bothered with band politics (I know what he means!) but that he'd really enjoyed the show. I tell him that I'd heard that he'd been playing jazz, he laughed as we both recounted our attempts at playing what is a notoriously difficult style of music for a rock 'n' roller to hold their own in, he says that you have to know The Real Book backwards and we both agree that we'll never manage it. Still we do what we do. And for a few minutes there the great Gypie was my mate, he knew my name and everything - it's things like that that keep you going sometimes.

Now - time for a 'Leigh's Top 10 Guitarists' chart don't you think?