Where are we now?

Well it's been great to see the groundswell of support for Wilko Johnson in the wake of his diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer. Thousands of people have left messages of support on his Facebook page following the announcement of his condition, which goes some way to showing just what an impact he's had on the music world and indeed the lives of his fans and admirers. It was almost unworldly to read his manager's statement, as it tells of upcoming gigs, a live DVD (and that's something we fans have all hoped to hear about for ages) and a new album - there's so much to be optimistic about until it suddenly mentions 'farewell gigs' and brings us all back down to Earth. I for one read it with great sadness - I've written of my admiration for the great man's work many times in these hallowed pages, and it remains a great source of inspiration to me. So let's enjoy the remaining times that we have with Wilko - those farewell gigs should be unforgettable.

On a (considerably) brighter note, David Bowie released a new single this week. Now there's something no one expected - it's incredible that in these days of social media overload there was apparently no anticipation of 'Where Are We Now?'. It just goes to show that it's still possible to stay under the radar, although you may need Bowie's money and status to be able to do that as effectively as it's been achieved here. It's a haunting piece, very nostalgic and reflective, and very good in my not-so-humble opinion. There's an album 'The Next Day' due in March which is apparently 'rockier' that the single; this should be very interesting to hear not least because he's been working with Tony Visconti again, a collaboration has given us some of The Thin White Duke's best and most acclaimed work. Definitely something to look forward to.

First gig of the year for your humble narrator was on Friday night at The Admiral Nelson in Twickenham with The Upper Cut. I'd hardly got through the door before a fresh-faced young barman came over and told me that unless I gave him an invoice he wouldn't be able to pay us. I said something like 'erm, I'll just put my guitars down' but he carried on regardless. 'I think we normally email one in on Monday' said I - he looked confused. Fortunately Terry our singer arrived and spoke to him - 'we normally email one in on Monday' were pretty much his exact words, which for one reason or other the fresh-faced young barman suddenly seemed happy with. It must have made more sense coming from Terry than from me.
We'd spent Wednesday evening at Bush Studios in Shepherds Bush running through perspective songs to add to our repertoire - our first set included four-in-a-row (I bet you're wondering which songs we played aren't you? Well, since you asked nicely they were 'Ooh La La', 'Why Did You Do It?', 'Day Tripper' and 'The Last Time') and our second set included a go at 'In A Broken Dream' which we've tried before but never quite managed to get right. Happily all of them sounded good (I wouldn't be telling you about them if they hadn't!) which is more than could be said for 'I Heard It Through The Grapevine' which was going well before I managed to lose the plot a bit during the guitar solo then played the riff in the wrong key... the normal course of action when this sort of thing happens is to glare at the keyboard player so that it (hopefully) looks as though it's their fault; however since we don't have a keyboard player I opted for Plan B - attempt to laugh it off then apologise to the band at half time. Aside from these incidents it turned out to be a really good gig, not least because we somehow found ourselves playing 'Whole Lotta Love' in the middle of 'Superstition'. That's never happened before - I wonder if it'll happen again?

Saturday saw the first live music at The Load Of Hay in Uxbridge for quite some time, when acoustic bluesman Michael Roach played a splendid set at pub regular Gary's 50th birthday party. I must admit that I'd not heard of Mr. Roach before, but aided and abetted by a slide guitarist and a double bass player he sounded good to me. Gary revealed that he'd attended one of the man's workshops on acoustic blues guitar, had kept in touch and then invited him to play at his birthday bash. A good choice, and it went down well with all concerned.

And yesterday myself and Terry the bass journeyed to The Nags Head in Sunningdale to see about a gig for The Upper Cut. Terry played there a while back depping in a band and had got on well with Jack the guv'nor; when we got there A Bit On The Side were roaring through 'Sunshine Of Your Love' and Jack distinguished himself by (a) offering us both a drink and (b) offering the band a gig on Sunday 24th March which we of course accepted. Result! If only it was always that easy...

Third time lucky?

What better way for your humble narrator to continue the euphoria of the previous evening than with an impromptu gig at the Load of Hay last Sunday, when I joined Alan (vocals) and Pete (guitar) from The Good Old Boys for a spontaneous acoustic set. Actually it wasn't totally spontaneous - Grant the landlord had been running a weekend in aid of the Help For Heroes campaign, and had asked The 'Boys to play; when only Pete and Alan were available we came up with the idea of trying something a bit different. With no rehearsal possible due to time constraints we met at the bar around 7.30 to see what we could come up with to play - we decided to start with a couple of Good Old Boys numbers then see where it took us, a policy which could have all gone horribly wrong... it turned out to be a really good gig (I wouldn't be writing about it here if it had been terrible!) with us playing for much longer than we were originally supposed to. Alan came up with the name The Ricardo Brothers (or is that Richardo or even Rikardo?) for reasons best known only to himself and Grant offered us a gig at the end of May. Excellent!

Monday evening saw the first Upper Cut rehearsal for some time, at Bush Studios in Shepherds Bush. Our drummer Roger has been out of circulation for a while so it was a chance to get some new songs together as well as running through a few flash points from our standard repertoire. Of the new material 'Hold Back The Night' turned out to be the surprise of the night; we based our version on the Graham Parker and The Rumour recording which features a horn section as well as an introduction played on two harmonised guitars - I managed to find this clip of them playing the song on YouTube the next evening which enabled me to see what Brinsley Schwarz and Martin Belmont were playing, as well as making an attempt at playing something that suggested the horn parts especially in the run-up to the chorus. It turned out well enough for us to try it out at the weekend's gigs, the first of which was on Friday at The Halfway House in Rickmansworth. We were due to play there back in December but it got cancelled because of the snow - judging by Friday's gig it could turn out to be a good venue for us, with Rusty the guv'nor promising us 2 more shows this year after a performance that wasn't without it's shaky moments but that received a good audience reaction and even a fair bit of dancing. When a band hasn't played together for a while there are always going to be a few things that go wrong - we started 'Knock On Wood' before Terry the bass was ready (he was blowing his nose!) and missed a couple of cues here and there but overall it was a good show for Roger to return with.

Saturday saw us brave Sweeneys in Ruislip for a show that was nowhere near as enjoyable as the one the previous evening. We've played there twice before and there's been a fight both times - this time that thankfully didn't happen (or if it did then it happened outside or before we got there) but the atmosphere was as unpleasant as ever. When we got there we were told that '2oo drunks' had just left (it was St. George's Day after all) and most of our first set was played to a sparse but actually quite appreciative audience, although an odd moment occurred during 'Knock On Wood' (again!) when a chap from the audience invited himself up onto the stage to sing a few lines then walked from the stage straight out of the front door. Maybe he had a cab waiting? By the time we started our second set the place was full (and I mean full) of impressively built young ladies looking for a footballer or two to help them start off their modeling career, alongside any number of less impressively built young men anxious to assure them that it actually them that they were looking for. A couple of girls get on to the stage (why do they keep doing that?) during 'Maggie May' - I think it was more of a case that they wanted everyone to see them rather than thinking that they could somehow contribute to the performance - which set the tone for the rest of the gig, with people walking up and talking to Terry while he was trying to sing and a clearly totally out-of-it guy with a rather disturbing Afro hairdo deciding that he knew all the words to 'You Really Got Me' (he didn't) then spending most of 'Hold Back The Night' attempting to remove my glasses from my face. Moments like this are always very difficult - I'm not a violent person (although I've a funny feeling that I'm about to sound as though I am!) but I just felt as though I wanted to flatten him; the problem with that is that his 40-or-so mates who are laughing at his antics will then of course want to flatten me, which is obviously not a good position to be in. I looked across at the bouncers - they weren't even looking at the stage (and of course if I'd have walloped Mr. Afro they'd have clobbered me, not him - funny old life sometimes isn't it?) so I did what I've had to do in every other situation like this - humour him and wait until he gets bored, all the while thinking 'WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF?' Not a good moment, and not a good gig. Our set ended to no audience reaction whatsoever - we packed our gear away then braved the pavements outside, threading our way through young men swearing on their mother's life and young women swearing generally. Roger and myself both declared that we wouldn't care if we never set foot in the Godforsaken place again, and I still feel the same now. This really upsets me as I love to play the guitar and whatever else Sweeneys might be they are a venue for live music at a time when such places are disappearing left, right and centre - but I can't help thinking that the people who go there would still do so whether there was a band on or not... and maybe that's the problem here; in a place like Sweeneys people aren't there to see a band so they consider it to be just something to be toyed with (let's face it, anyone who wears glasses is there to be laughed at, right?) like everything else that magically appears in their little World. And anyway, I'm sitting here agonising over the evening's events whereas they've long since forgotten it all. Perhaps I should do the same?!?

Then again I've just (just!) got back from playing an informal show at a party in Horsepower Hairdressing supremo Adam's back garden - myself and the two Terrys ran through a fair bit of the Upper Cut's material with Adam's mate Steve playing along on a cocktail drum kit. Great fun, friendly people - in short it was everything that Saturday's show wasn't. Ah well - you can't win 'em all, but at least the ones that you do win make up for the ones that you don't. Well, I think they do.

Shepherds Bush city limits

I met Kirsty MacColl once. I was at a music trade show at, I think, The Wembley Conference Centre sometime in the mid-1990's when I ran into ex-Ruts drummer Dave Ruffy who was playing for her at the time - we were talking and she sort of appeared from behind him if you know what I mean (he's a big chap, she was a small lady) and said hello. She seemed to be a very nice person, and we had a mock-argument over who would buy the last guitar stand from one of the stalls there (there was no argument, I let her have it of course!) as well as talking for a couple of minutes. I always enjoyed her music - great songs don't you think? - and was very saddened to hear of her untimely death back in 2000. On Sunday night I missed Delta Echoes at The Load Of Hay (I'm told they were excellent so we'll have to get them back so that I can see them!) as myself and Squirrel attended the Kirsty MacColl tribute concert at The Shepherds Bush Empire, and a very fine evening it was too. With a house band that included the excellent Gary Sandford on guitar the highlights were many and varied - I thought Alison Moyet was particularly excellent as was Billy Bragg who despite suffering from a heavy cold bought the house down with 'Free World' and 'A New England'. Compare Phill Jupitus sang 'Fifteen Minutes' and 'There's A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis' (!) although probably the most unlikely vocal of the evening was the duet between Amy MacDonald and Mr. Ruffy on 'Fairytale Of New York' - Phill announced that Shane MacGowan was 'ill' whilst barely able to keep a straight face before recounting how the event organiser had answered his mobile phone earlier in the day with the words 'oh it's Shane's agent, I wonder what this could be about?' Great stuff. We were invited to the aftershow party at the nearby Shepherds Bar (oh it's wild'n'wacky showbiz world dah-ling!) where Dave revealed that he'd been singing 'Fairytale' at rehearsal all week - just as well under the circumstances - while ex-Ruts bassman Segs sported a fine line in gangster suits and everybody ran off when Billy Bragg approached for fear of catching his cold. Oh and they didn't serve coffee which was a shame as Squirrel wanted one. Nice bar though!

Last night it was back to Shepherds Bush for an Upper Cut rehearsal, at Bush Studios on the Uxbridge Road. We've not played together since August so in addition to trying a few new songs we went back over some nearly-new material and ran through a few old favourites. For the second night running there was no coffee (maybe it's a 'Shepherds-Bush-thing'?) but the band sounded good, and with a worrying lack of Chicago Blues Brothers gigs next month it'll be good to get out and play something a bit rockier for a change. If you're in the Uxbridge area we're back at The Dolphin on Friday 29th October so come along and see if we've learned the songs properly. And is it just me or is there always a police car racing around Shepherds Bush roundabout with it's siren blaring?

Talking of gigs this Saturday 16th October sees the 3rd annual Paul Fox tribute night at The Breakspear Arms in Ruislip - I can't be there myself as I'm gigging elsewhere but I've provided some CD copies of some rare singles that Paul played on which will be played over the P.A. in between the bands, and if you're a fan of all things Ruts-related it should be a good night. Maybe I'll make it along next year? I might even take my guitar...