skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Another weekend, another two great Ruts D.C. gigs (this time in Manchester and Buckley, both places that we played on last year's Damned tour and both great shows in excellent venues) and another few days that leave me little if any time for blogging. Ah well - maybe I will write an extended account of this tour at some point in the not-too-distant future, if only to give me chance to mention that we played with Steve Ignorant (who's last song was a splendid version of David Bowie's 'Sweet Thing'. Good choice!) at the Manchester show. Then again the way things are going maybe I won't - I spent today in a very busy Balcony Shirts and am due to be in there again tomorrow, Wednesday and Saturday; I'm rehearsing with Department S on Wednesday evening as I'm depping with them at The 229 Club in London next Saturday when they're on with The Members and tomorrow evening will be the only chance I've got to run through the songs before rehearsal. And this Friday I'm DJ-ing - yes, DJ-ing! - at The Shacklewell Arms in Dalston this Friday when my mate Darren from Idle Fret Records is putting on the legend that is Johnny Moped. I've got little if any idea of how to do that DJ-ing lark so I'd better get learning! And on Saturday I've got my first gig for over a month with Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks - it's at The Dolphin in Uxbridge so at least I'm on familiar ground. Still however you look at it I've not really got time to be sitting here typing so I'd better stop and play some Department S songs. Or revise some of Big Al's material. Or read up on the art of the disc jockey. Or something.
'It's all glamour this touring lark' thought Leigh as he sat attempting to superglue his glasses back together. 'Shouldn't a guitar hero like me have somebody to do this for them? And for that matter shouldn't I be able to afford a new pair?'
Actually I didn't think anything of the sort. It was just another unlikely thing that I've been surprised to find myself doing over the past five days on The Damned / Ruts D.C. 2013 British tour. Expect the unexpected, as the old saying goes.
The Damned and indeed their crew are all very nice chaps, and after a sticky start in Bristol (Dave Vanian's in-ear monitors failed for the first three songs of the show meaning that he couldn't sing until they were fixed) they've been playing brilliantly. And our 50-ish minute set has been going down very well with all concerned - I was particularly pleased with Captain Sensible's comments to me after the aforementioned Bristol show ('your tone is immaculate - you're playing's shit!' I've taken it as a compliment!) and the next night in Portsmouth ('load of bloody rubbish!') especially since he spent much of our set in Leamington Spa on Saturday heckling Segs from the side of the stage. All good humoured stuff (I hope!) and a fair indication of the overall atmosphere of proceedings. I've been putting a daily photo up on my Facebook page, Dave and Segs have been putting reports up on Louder Than War (they're also on the band's Facebook page here) and there's already a fair bit of stuff already appearing on the Internet (for example here are three songs from Portsmouth from YouTube, and here's an audio clip of 'In A Rut' from last night in Buckley) so it's all going well. Today is a day off in Leicester (we're at The Academy tomorrow) and I've treated myself to a hotel room to have a break from the tour bus (the bunk beds on the tour bus are just about / not quite big enough for someone of my height!) and to spend a bit of time working songs that I've got to learn for a New Year's Eve gig depping with Mr. Tibbs (we never close!) In fact I'd better stop typing this and get on with that - more news next time...
