'Normal service has resumed...' - or has it?

So - how much do you think that you use a computer?

How much do you think that you need a computer?

Until the events of the past few weeks I probably would have answered along the lines of 'well, not that much really' and 'not at all, after all we did ok before they were invented didn't we?'

Oh dearie dearie me...

It turns out that - rather like most of us I suspect - I use a computer a lot more than I thought that I did. A hell of a lot more than I though that I did. Not all day every day (honest!) but there's always something to do isn't there? Do you order things from places like Amazon? I do. You do as well? That's tricky without a computer, or at the very least one of those new-fangled smartphones. But you kinda need a computer if you've got one of those don't you, for syncing (now there's a word that none of us used until comparatively recently) and all that other stuff... and do you pay your household bills online? Your car insurance? All those other bills and things that we pay for almost without realising it because you're not actually handing over money and therefore it doesn't feel as though you're actually spending anything? Yep, me too. So does that mean that I, or indeed you, 'need' a computer? Can we (gulp!) really not live without one?

Well let's put it this way - I'm typing this somewhat hesitantly on an iPad that I've rather wildly just bought myself as my ageing MacBook has had to go back to the menders after not quite doing what it's supposed to do... after years of being permanently bunged up with several days worth of noisy rock 'n' roll music the hard drive finally gave up the ghost at the start of November - I took it to my friendly neighbourhood computer repair people who have fitted a new hard drive and restored it to it's former glory. And that, as they say, was that. Except of course, it wasn't. Things are never quite that simple are they? Attempts by your humble narrator to 'restore the last backup' (the things that you hear yourself say these days eh?) have sadly proved fruitless so I've had to get a grown-up - or indeed, a young person - to help me. I feel like Fred Flintstone sometimes. 'Twas ever thus. 

In the meantime I've realised that I do indeed 'need' a computer (or at least something very like one) these days, hence the appearance of the iPad. It's been an interesting 3-or-so weeks - I've gigged with Ruts D.C., T.V. Smith, Department S, Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks and more, shared stages with the likes of The Damned, The Vapors and Eddie And The Hot Rods, worked a fair bit in Balcony Shirts, seen the David Bowie musical 'Lazarus', held a python and a tarantula in a haunted pub in Devon (oh yes!) and probably lots more besides (there's been updates etc on my Facebook page which you can see here if you're interested in such things) but somehow it's all taken place to a backdrop of me thinking things like 'I wonder if they've fixed my computer yet?'. Strange but true. And I still haven't got the bloody thing back...

Stairway to Devon (sorry!)

...and with post - Rebellion euphoria still rattling around my warped mind I found myself on stage at The 12 Bar Club with The London Sewage Company less than 24 hours after Ruts D.C. had blitzed the building in Blackpool. We were supporting the Australian band The Go Set who sounded pretty good to me, although by the time they came on I don't mind admitting that I was flagging a bit; all things considered our gig went well - and have we really been offered a gig with The Men They Couldn't Hang at The Shepherd's Bush Empire next April? Yes, incredibly, we have! 

And it looks as though I'm not the early person suffering from post - Rebellion euphoria, as Louder Than War have posted this review of our appearances at the festival. Thanks Phil!

In the meantime I've spent far too much time attempting to fill in a tax return, and in doing so have spent far too much time on the phone to my bank attempting to order copies of some bank statements that I've somehow managed to lose. Doesn't anyone answer the phone anymore? Well they don't seem to at my bank. Bah!

Big Al and The Blistering Buicks made their first appearance at The Black Horse in Eastcote on Friday evening. With Dave away Roger from The Upper Cut depped on drums for a most enjoyable 3-set show; the band also played at The 3 Steps in Cowley the next night but I rather wildly decided to give myself the night off to go to see The Damned at The Forum in Kentish Town - and I'm glad that I did as they were in fine form, with Dave Vanian in his best rock 'n' roll undertaker outfit and Captain Sensible as crazy as ever. 'Nasty' was played for Rik Mayall, 'Disco Man' sounded ever bit as good as when I first heard it all those years ago, and the final encore of 'Smash It Up' bought the proverbial house down. Great stuff all round.

It was an early start on Sunday, as Ruts D.C. journeyed down to Devon to play at The Beautiful Days festival. The bus came around for me at 8.15am, and a splendidly - straightforward journey meant that we were all checked in at The Thistle Hotel in Exeter not long after midday. From there it was a somewhat less - than -straightforward journey to the festival site, with sat. nav. chaos and swearing a-plenty. Eventually Nick (our soundman, and for this journey our driver) pulled the bus up next to a rather dilapidated - looking van that was parked just off the road. He then got out of the bus with the words 'if you want to know the way to a festival, ask a hippy' - within minutes of his return we were on the right road at last. Beautiful Days is run by The Levellers, and I must say that it was one of the best and most well - organised gatherings that I've ever been part of. As I got to our dressing room I was greeted by the smiling face of Ian Bond, who I first met when he was soundman for The Chicago Blues Brothers; I'd not seen him for ages and it was good to catch up with him again, he's about to spend several weeks in America with King Crimson so things certainly seem to be going well for him. Our set was scheduled for a quarter to five - such was the efficiency of the stage crew we were on 5 minutes early which is a very rare occurrence. John Robb introduced our set, and with Molara back in the band our set went down well with the very enthusiastic crowd. We managed to see some of Reverend And The Makers and Jimmy Cliff (both of whom were very good) but it had been a long day so we decided to leave before The Levellers played - a shame as I'd really like to have seen them play. Ah well - maybe next time... back at the hotel it's time for beer and pizza all round, and we all agreed that it had been a good day. And we were right - it had.

Right - that's all from Ruts D.C. until next month - this weekend it's back to basics with The Upper Cut and Big Al and the boys...

Devon is a place on Earth (sorry!)

...and I just about got them learned, for a show depping with Utter Madness at Seaton Town Hall in Devon on Saturday night. I'd received an e-mail from Tony (vocals) a couple of weeks ago asking if I'd be available for the gig - I replied that I was, but then heard nothing. When I asked Ian (saxophone) about it at The Hilton gig last month he said something like 'oh yes, it's on, but that's all I know about it'. I eventually got another e-mail from Tony last Wednesday evening with the venue details, set list (2 x 45 minute sets, with several songs that I'd not played before - gulp!) and a musing along the lines of 'our drummer's got a slipped disc so if I can't find a replacement then we'll have to blow the gig out'. Thankfully a drummer was found (well, put it this way - I didn't hear that the gig was off!) and when myself and Jon (bass) arrived everything was set up and ready to go. After saying hello to regular keyboard man Richard (more about him later) I met Dan (drums) and Aaron (backing vocals, depping for Ray who normally handles the Chas Smash role in the band) for the first time. They're both in ska covers band Big 10 and from the first moments of the soundcheck it was obvious that they knew exactly what they were doing, and with everything sounding good a fine evening was in prospect.

Showtime is 8.30 so there's time for some chips and a couple of drinks before we made our way to the stage. From the moment I picked up my guitar it was obvious that something was wrong - high-pitched, almost ultrasonic feedback meant that a hearing aid loop had been switched on in the venue. We asked for it to be switched off, and a couple of numbers in that seemed to have happened, but it was clearly switched back on during the interval and remained on for the rest of the show, making my job trickier than it might have been - I had to make sure I turned my guitar volume down in between the songs, and be careful not to face my amplifier during the songs. Still none of this seemed to bother the audience who behaved as though it was the real Madness on stage, with much dancing and merriment throughout. I managed to start 'Special Brew' in the wrong key (yes, I know it's not a Madness song - the band added several songs by the likes of Bad Manners and The Beat to the set) which caused first shock and then amusement among band members - remind me to check that next time!

Much of Sunday was spent recovering from getting in around 3 a.m., as well as still feeling a bit out of sorts after the Zurich journey - recovery was so much easier when I was younger! Still it was a cracking evening at The Load of Hay, where the ever-wonderful Kris Dollimore gave another astonishing performance which showcased material from his new album 'No Ghosts In This House' alongside the established favourites. Highlights were many and varied although his version of Jimi Hendrix's 'Castles Made Of Sand' has to be seen and indeed heard to be believed. All of this in front of 20 or so people - if I hear one more person moaning that they've got 'nothing to do', 'nowhere to go' or that there's 'nothing happening locally' then I fear I will do something that will result in me ending up in prison... on a lighter note it Kris told me a couple of excellent stories, about working with Adam Ant, (Kris told him that he liked his jacket - when the tour was over Adam sent him it!) about how Johnny Thunders was playing Kris's Zemaitis guitar when he started to have a coughing fit ('I thought he was going to die while he was playing my guitar!') and how Dee Dee Ramone once phoned him up in his mum and dad's kitchen - a much funnier story than it would sound written here, honest!

After a busy Monday in the shop (don't forget to have a look at our 'bread song' video here - over 2,000 views so far!) it was time for The Price to return to Ruff Rockers for a rehearsal for this Sunday's gig. We've not played together since last May (the story why is on our website forum) and it took us a while to get going again but after a few songs we were starting to sound like a band again. Memories were strained as we attempted to remember some of the less obvious songs from our back catalogue, and there should be a couple of surprises in the show. Let's hope they're not surprises to us...

More rehearsing on Tuesday, this time with T.V. Smith. We're playing at The 100 Club on April 16th (I've never played there before - excellent!) and with his new album 'Coming In To Land' going to be available for the first time on the night we're going to be playing several songs from it - not sure how many yet, but we ran through a few to see what would and wouldn't work. He gave me an advance copy of the album to work from, it's playing in the background as I type this and it sounds absolutely excellent - I'm off to do my homework on the songs before getting together with him prior to the gig. In the meantime he's on tour in Britain playing a set of Adverts songs backed by Italian punksters The Valentines which should be unmissable. So don't miss it!

In the evening it was off to the Academy in Oxford to see The Stranglers with support coming from Wilko Johnson. Not a bad bill don't you think? As I found myself a vantage point in preparation for Wilko taking to the stage a cheery chap asked me what the first band had been called - I said that we should be able to get the name of the front of the bass drum when the kit gets carried off, as it was obscured by a monitor speaker at the front of the stage... ah there we are, Mike Marlin. The cheery chap said that he thought they were brilliant, one of the best bands he'd seen in ages - I decided not to tell him that I thought they'd been almost unspeakably bad, a tuneless sub-hippie dirge with a singer who should just stop trying to be a singer and a band who put so little into their performance that not one of them appeared to break sweat despite being under stage lights and all hearing hats, scarfs and jackets, and who all sounded so dull that they wouldn't have noticed if you'd blown the venue up around them; instead I just said 'Wilko Johnson's on in a minute, see what you think of him'. Well I don't know what he thought but I think it was a great gig from someone who finally seems to be getting the recognition that they deserve. Wilko was back on the Telecaster after using a Stratocaster for the last few gigs that I've seen him play (good!) and he sounded fabulous, assisted as always by the mighty Norman Watt-Roy on bass and an unnamed drummer (I wonder where Dylan Howe has gone?) as he powered through 30-something minutes of rocket fuelled rhythm and blues. And he looked great too, as these photos show... The Stranglers looked pretty good too, and they certainly sounded good, with the expected classics sitting alongside some of the more obscure tracks from their dim and distant past that even had some of the diehard fans scratching their heads in half-recognition. I first saw them over 30 years ago, and when I see them these days I always think 'I really must get myself one of their compilation albums one day' - and I'm right, I must. A great show.

Right - back to Utter Madness keyboard player Richard, who among his many attributes is involved with Glee Club UK. Now I must admit to not knowing very much about all things Glee-related, but somewhere during the course of Saturday evening I somehow agreed to record the guitar parts on his / the club's version of Bon Jovi's 'Livin' On A Prayer', despite being possibly the least qualified guitarist ever to attempt the style of playing required by the song. To this end I've been attempting to decipher the playing on the track (having heard it what feels like a million times today I'm almost starting to like it, although am I the only person who thinks it was lifted from this?) and leaving aside the fact that I don't have a talkbox handy I haven't done too badly. At least I don't think that I have - we'll all know soon enough...