Have you ever fallen in love with somebody the moment you first saw them? I was walking through a shopping centre once when I bumped into - literally bumped into - a young lady. She was an acquaintance of mine, I didn't know her well and I hadn't seen here for ages - but at that moment, as we stood awkwardly apologising to each other, I suddenly and abruptly thought she was the most beautiful woman, maybe the most beautiful thing that I had ever seen. It was like being hit by the proverbial ton of bricks. I'm not sure that I've ever recovered. She doesn't know anything about it of course - unless she felt it too, although if she did then she hid it well… I sound shallow don't I? Maybe I am.
I was reminded of this moment last Friday evening when I was getting my guitar and amp set up for a gig with Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks at The Crock Of Gold in Ruislip. I'd been looking forward to the gig all day, as my old mate Johnny Squirrel was depping on bass and I hadn't seen him for ages. We hadn't played there before so we were working out how to position the various band members in the space allowed - I looked across to the bar where a woman was walking towards a table carrying two drinks. One was a pint of Guinness, the other a smaller glass of clear fizzy-looking liquid. She sat down at the table where her friend was waiting, they smiled cheerily and chatted - while doing so she picked up the pint of Guinness and drank a fair-sized gulp from it.
'Al, Al!' I said excitedly to the big man, 'Al, that girl over there, she's got a pint of Guinness'.
'Right' said Al half-interestedly.
'I think I'm in love' I said, hardly believing that I'd just said it.
Al laughed. I released how ridiculous it must have sounded.
I carried on setting my gear up.
The next night The Upper Cut played at Dave's 70th birthday party at The Queen's Arms in Colnbrook. I managed to get through the evening with most if not all of my emotions intact, although I couldn't get the Guinness Girl out of my mind. Strange but true. Shallow but true.
It seems to me that it's time I had a holiday - which is just as well as it's The Rebellion Festival in Blackpool this week. Ruts D.C. are playing an electric set on Saturday night and are closing the acoustic stage the next evening; I'll also be playing a few songs on Thursday with the great T.V. Smith and joining Department S for a tune or two as well as working behind the Cadiz Music merchandise stall and attempting to catch as many bands as I can in the meantime. I'm all too aware that several days of punk rock doesn't sound like most people's idea of a holiday, but it'll do me just fine. If you're going I'll see you there, maybe even for a pint of Guinness. All together now - 'Ever Fallen In Love With Someone...'
Showing posts with label Guinness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guinness. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 03, 2016
Friday, January 08, 2016
Ruts D.C. 'Psychic Attack' recording sessions, December 2015
Saturday 19th December, 10.54am on a tube train going into London.
And so it begins.
Today is the first day of recording sessions for the Ruts D.C. album 'Psychic Attack'. We've spent two days this week with producer James Knight at The Music Complex in Deptford running through 6 songs - 'Psychic Attack', 'Secondhand Child', 'Surprise', 'Tears On Fire', 'Soft City Lights' and 'Golden Boy' - with a 7th song 'Innocent' on (for want of a better term) the subs bench. We played the first 3 on the Psychic Attack Tour this autumn, while 'Golden Boy' was played acoustically at The Rebellion Festival back in August. The other songs have yet to be played on stage although we've been working on them and quite a few other ideas throughout the last year or so. As often happens before a song is recorded there are changes to be made to rehearsal or live versions - James (a.k.a. Jim) suggested some arrangement alterations alongside different drum patterns and bass and guitar parts. It can sometimes feel a bit odd to have someone come in with ideas as to how songs might be played but in this case pretty much all of his suggestions were accepted by the band. I guess it's back to an oft-repeated adage that a fresh pair of ears will often hear something that the band may not; recording is very different to playing live as you're (hopefully) creating something that is potentially going to be listened to many times (and let's face it, will be around a long time after we're all gone!) whereas a live performance is just that i.e. over in the time that it takes to play. Sounds serious doesn't it? Well I suppose it is! That said I've got a really good feeling about these sessions - the band is playing well, Jim seems to be very easy to work with and no one that I've spoken to has a bad word to say about Perry Vale Studios or engineer Pat Collier. A good three days are in prospect - let's get on with it then...
10.27pm in South London.
So - day one is done.
Just as we were about to start the first run through of the first song Segs turned to me and smiled - 'right, we're really doing it then'. I smiled back and said 'yes, yes we are' - not perhaps the wittiest reply that I've ever given but entirely accurate under the circumstances. Dave was in the drum booth (fairly obviously!) with myself and Segs in the main studio room and James and Pat in the control room - a 'rock' Ruts D.C. album (as opposed to a reggae or dub release) was indeed underway. Dave was playing his trusty Gretsch drum kit, Segs had bought along the Mark Bass amp that he'd bought while we were on tour in Germany and I'd plugged my Les Paul into the studio's Selmer Treble And Bass 50W amplifier (which in turn was plugged into a Marshall 4 x 12" cabinet isolated in another part of the studio so that the sound wouldn't bleed over onto the other microphones) and we were sounding good. Very good. That said it might have been a bit overambitious for us to start with 'Psychic Attack'; it's a fast song and since we were playing to a click track it required some serious
concentration. Also while Dave and Segs have done this sort of thing many many times I'm well behind them in the experience stakes and don't mind admitting it. It took us all a while to get used to the click track - I'm not actually sure that I 'got used to it' but I at least worked out a way to play to it - and as Segs and myself were only recording guide parts to be replaced later the drum track was the important part of proceedings; I think we've got a good one but we're going to listen again tomorrow and decide whether or not the last one recorded can be used.
Next up - 'Secondhand Child'. We've been performing this in various forms for over a year and so you might think that recording it would be reasonably straightforward, and indeed Dave got a great drum track down in only a few takes. Segs then overdubbed bass and a guide vocal before I started on the electric guitar parts. Generally speaking I'm not too bad at this sort of thing, but things were compounded somewhat by Sean turning up to record some footage for use in out current PledgeMusic campaign. Suddenly there seemed to be lots of people watching me and nerves began creeping in meaning that I maybe took longer over things than I might have liked, although plenty of good takes were recorded including a solo using a Maestro Universal Synthesiser System which Jim had bought along and which sounded ever bit as mad as I for one was hoping that it would. I'm not 100% sure that it'll make it to the final track but it certainly lightened the mood! Segs also added acoustic guitar (he came up with the original idea for the song that way so it seemed right that he played it) and Dave added percussion - 'Secondhand Child' is sounding very good indeed.
We then turned our collective attention to the third song of the day, 'Surprise'. After running through it a couple of times Segs made the somewhat radical suggestion that Dave record the drum track without us playing along with him but with Segs on a vocal mic saying whereabouts they were in the song i.e. 'verse 1', 'chorus 1' etc. At best this might be described as 'unconventional' but amazingly it seemed to work and although we'll have a critical listen tomorrow I think it sounds great.
We finished 20 minutes before the allotted time of 8 o'clock (9 hour days starting at 11 am is very civilised don't you think?!?) so it was obviously time for a drink. The nearby Blythe Hill Tavern serves magnificent Guinness, and a couple of pints augmented by bags of peanuts were a most welcome end to our day. As we left a chap on a nearby table was bursting into song, with his friends either looking as though they wanted to join in (but perhaps significantly didn't) or that they wished that he would stop. It somehow seemed a shame to leave.
Sunday 20th December, 10.47pm in South London.
Another day in the studio. I can't believe that I've just written that, after all it's only the second day. Mind you it's amazing just how 'at home' you can feel sometimes isn't it?
Today began with work on 'Surprise' after the drum track had passed a critical listen. This 'work' involved recording a lot - and I mean a lot - of guitar parts. It's interesting - we've been playing the song live for a few months now with only one guitar part (obviously!) but as previously mentioned the studio is a very different place to the stage, and suddenly there seems to be room for loads of the bloody things. There's been lots of doubling of parts and I doubt that everything that we've recorded will make it to the finished track - after all, I might come up with some more ideas... there was also bass and guide vocals from Segs, and an abortive attempt to use an overdubbed hi-hat part to trigger a Moog Voyager synthesiser which for whatever reason didn't want to work so phasing was used on the hi-hat instead. Even though I say so myself it all sounds terrific.
Time for another song - after running through 'Tears On Fire' a few times we decided to leave that one until tomorrow and instead looked at 'Soft City Lights'. This featured a pre-recorded bass synth part prepared by Dave and Segs a few days earlier - this may or may not make it to the finished track but it was easy to play along with and we got a good drum take in no time. The 'finished' version included a section where the drums drop out and then build up again - this hadn't been rehearsed but was incorporated when Dave stopped because he thought that he'd made a mistake (he hadn't!) and we all though that it sounded so good it stayed in the track. Jim then overdubbed a piano onto the song (some relentlessly pounding chords that reminded us all of 'I'm Waiting For The Man' which can only be a good thing if you think about it) and Segs added the by now inevitable bass and guide vocals. Once again Sean shot some film, and Rhiannon came along to take some photos and to give me the rather bizarre news that she'd had a dream in which I'd been 'a one man version of Department S'. What can this mean? Oh and we went to The Blythe Hill Tavern again, but you probably guessed that we would. In the meantime it's tomorrow tomorrow, which means more recording. Good
Sunday 21st December - except that it's after midnight so it's actually Monday 22nd. Oh well.
The third day of three, and as often happens the last day of sessions is often a bit, er, 'bitty'. Still good though...
We began with some guitar parts for 'Psychic Attack' (more about that in a minute) and 'Soft City Lights'. This began life in the key of B major but in the songwriting slalom that followed it's found it's way to the 'new' key of E major, meaning that what was once a jangly guitar riff featuring open strings is now played with a capo at the fifth fret. This has made it all a bit more difficult to play (that's my excuse anyway!) but I got through it in the end - that said it's been suggested that we borrow a Rickenbacker 12-string and re-record it on that as that might give a more appropriate sound so we'll see what happens next on that one.
Next we started work on 'Golden Boy'. This is usually played by Segs and myself on 2 acoustic guitars and Dave on percussion - Segs recorded a guitar part by playing along to a drum loop made by Dave based on the feel of 'How Do You Sleep?' by John Lennon which seemed right in both tempo and feel for the song. He then recorded a guide vocal (as usual!) and James suggested that we consider putting strings on the track - with this in mind we decided to think about it (I've thought about it, it's a brilliant idea!) and in the meantime started the 7th 'we haven't quite finished this one yet' song 'Innocent'. Although more of a jam than a song at the moment we all agree that it's got a lot of potential so we recorded a few minutes of it to give us something to work with before the next sessions. We then returned to 'Tears On Fire' which hadn't quite worked the previous day but came together well today - most of the track is in the tricky time signature of 7/4 (well, I think that it's tricky!) which took a while to get hold of but went well in the end.
At this point our good friend and U.K. Subs guitarist Jet arrived - he'd been recording with Charlie and co. the previous week and so had thought he'd come down to say hello. Much jollity ensued, after which it was decided that we should listen to 'Psychic Attack' and see if anything else might be needed. Earlier in the day we'd deemed the drum track to be ok (I thought it had sounded great when it was recorded!) and so had overdubbed rhythm and solo guitars - it sounded good but needed to be madder... with this in mind we set up the studio's 1970s Marshall JMP 100W head and turned it up as James issued his instructions - 'you've already lost the gig because you're drunk and now someone's slipped you 3 Es - play it like you don't care about anything anymore...'
The resulting cacophony received a round of applause from all in the control room. I wonder what it actually sounded like?
So that's it for now - studio days have been booked to record more new songs in February and there's work to do on these tracks in the meantime at various locations so next year should start with a bang...
Well that's what the scribbly notes say happened last month - work starts again soon!
And so it begins.
Today is the first day of recording sessions for the Ruts D.C. album 'Psychic Attack'. We've spent two days this week with producer James Knight at The Music Complex in Deptford running through 6 songs - 'Psychic Attack', 'Secondhand Child', 'Surprise', 'Tears On Fire', 'Soft City Lights' and 'Golden Boy' - with a 7th song 'Innocent' on (for want of a better term) the subs bench. We played the first 3 on the Psychic Attack Tour this autumn, while 'Golden Boy' was played acoustically at The Rebellion Festival back in August. The other songs have yet to be played on stage although we've been working on them and quite a few other ideas throughout the last year or so. As often happens before a song is recorded there are changes to be made to rehearsal or live versions - James (a.k.a. Jim) suggested some arrangement alterations alongside different drum patterns and bass and guitar parts. It can sometimes feel a bit odd to have someone come in with ideas as to how songs might be played but in this case pretty much all of his suggestions were accepted by the band. I guess it's back to an oft-repeated adage that a fresh pair of ears will often hear something that the band may not; recording is very different to playing live as you're (hopefully) creating something that is potentially going to be listened to many times (and let's face it, will be around a long time after we're all gone!) whereas a live performance is just that i.e. over in the time that it takes to play. Sounds serious doesn't it? Well I suppose it is! That said I've got a really good feeling about these sessions - the band is playing well, Jim seems to be very easy to work with and no one that I've spoken to has a bad word to say about Perry Vale Studios or engineer Pat Collier. A good three days are in prospect - let's get on with it then...
10.27pm in South London.
So - day one is done.
 |
| Guitars and amps in the main studio room. |
Just as we were about to start the first run through of the first song Segs turned to me and smiled - 'right, we're really doing it then'. I smiled back and said 'yes, yes we are' - not perhaps the wittiest reply that I've ever given but entirely accurate under the circumstances. Dave was in the drum booth (fairly obviously!) with myself and Segs in the main studio room and James and Pat in the control room - a 'rock' Ruts D.C. album (as opposed to a reggae or dub release) was indeed underway. Dave was playing his trusty Gretsch drum kit, Segs had bought along the Mark Bass amp that he'd bought while we were on tour in Germany and I'd plugged my Les Paul into the studio's Selmer Treble And Bass 50W amplifier (which in turn was plugged into a Marshall 4 x 12" cabinet isolated in another part of the studio so that the sound wouldn't bleed over onto the other microphones) and we were sounding good. Very good. That said it might have been a bit overambitious for us to start with 'Psychic Attack'; it's a fast song and since we were playing to a click track it required some serious
 |
| Drum booth in the background, bass on the right. |
Next up - 'Secondhand Child'. We've been performing this in various forms for over a year and so you might think that recording it would be reasonably straightforward, and indeed Dave got a great drum track down in only a few takes. Segs then overdubbed bass and a guide vocal before I started on the electric guitar parts. Generally speaking I'm not too bad at this sort of thing, but things were compounded somewhat by Sean turning up to record some footage for use in out current PledgeMusic campaign. Suddenly there seemed to be lots of people watching me and nerves began creeping in meaning that I maybe took longer over things than I might have liked, although plenty of good takes were recorded including a solo using a Maestro Universal Synthesiser System which Jim had bought along and which sounded ever bit as mad as I for one was hoping that it would. I'm not 100% sure that it'll make it to the final track but it certainly lightened the mood! Segs also added acoustic guitar (he came up with the original idea for the song that way so it seemed right that he played it) and Dave added percussion - 'Secondhand Child' is sounding very good indeed.
 |
| 'Music Maestro please...' |
We then turned our collective attention to the third song of the day, 'Surprise'. After running through it a couple of times Segs made the somewhat radical suggestion that Dave record the drum track without us playing along with him but with Segs on a vocal mic saying whereabouts they were in the song i.e. 'verse 1', 'chorus 1' etc. At best this might be described as 'unconventional' but amazingly it seemed to work and although we'll have a critical listen tomorrow I think it sounds great.
We finished 20 minutes before the allotted time of 8 o'clock (9 hour days starting at 11 am is very civilised don't you think?!?) so it was obviously time for a drink. The nearby Blythe Hill Tavern serves magnificent Guinness, and a couple of pints augmented by bags of peanuts were a most welcome end to our day. As we left a chap on a nearby table was bursting into song, with his friends either looking as though they wanted to join in (but perhaps significantly didn't) or that they wished that he would stop. It somehow seemed a shame to leave.
Sunday 20th December, 10.47pm in South London.
 |
| A not-so fantastic Voyager. |
Today began with work on 'Surprise' after the drum track had passed a critical listen. This 'work' involved recording a lot - and I mean a lot - of guitar parts. It's interesting - we've been playing the song live for a few months now with only one guitar part (obviously!) but as previously mentioned the studio is a very different place to the stage, and suddenly there seems to be room for loads of the bloody things. There's been lots of doubling of parts and I doubt that everything that we've recorded will make it to the finished track - after all, I might come up with some more ideas... there was also bass and guide vocals from Segs, and an abortive attempt to use an overdubbed hi-hat part to trigger a Moog Voyager synthesiser which for whatever reason didn't want to work so phasing was used on the hi-hat instead. Even though I say so myself it all sounds terrific.
Time for another song - after running through 'Tears On Fire' a few times we decided to leave that one until tomorrow and instead looked at 'Soft City Lights'. This featured a pre-recorded bass synth part prepared by Dave and Segs a few days earlier - this may or may not make it to the finished track but it was easy to play along with and we got a good drum take in no time. The 'finished' version included a section where the drums drop out and then build up again - this hadn't been rehearsed but was incorporated when Dave stopped because he thought that he'd made a mistake (he hadn't!) and we all though that it sounded so good it stayed in the track. Jim then overdubbed a piano onto the song (some relentlessly pounding chords that reminded us all of 'I'm Waiting For The Man' which can only be a good thing if you think about it) and Segs added the by now inevitable bass and guide vocals. Once again Sean shot some film, and Rhiannon came along to take some photos and to give me the rather bizarre news that she'd had a dream in which I'd been 'a one man version of Department S'. What can this mean? Oh and we went to The Blythe Hill Tavern again, but you probably guessed that we would. In the meantime it's tomorrow tomorrow, which means more recording. Good
Sunday 21st December - except that it's after midnight so it's actually Monday 22nd. Oh well.
The third day of three, and as often happens the last day of sessions is often a bit, er, 'bitty'. Still good though...
 |
| Choose your weapon... |
We began with some guitar parts for 'Psychic Attack' (more about that in a minute) and 'Soft City Lights'. This began life in the key of B major but in the songwriting slalom that followed it's found it's way to the 'new' key of E major, meaning that what was once a jangly guitar riff featuring open strings is now played with a capo at the fifth fret. This has made it all a bit more difficult to play (that's my excuse anyway!) but I got through it in the end - that said it's been suggested that we borrow a Rickenbacker 12-string and re-record it on that as that might give a more appropriate sound so we'll see what happens next on that one.
Next we started work on 'Golden Boy'. This is usually played by Segs and myself on 2 acoustic guitars and Dave on percussion - Segs recorded a guitar part by playing along to a drum loop made by Dave based on the feel of 'How Do You Sleep?' by John Lennon which seemed right in both tempo and feel for the song. He then recorded a guide vocal (as usual!) and James suggested that we consider putting strings on the track - with this in mind we decided to think about it (I've thought about it, it's a brilliant idea!) and in the meantime started the 7th 'we haven't quite finished this one yet' song 'Innocent'. Although more of a jam than a song at the moment we all agree that it's got a lot of potential so we recorded a few minutes of it to give us something to work with before the next sessions. We then returned to 'Tears On Fire' which hadn't quite worked the previous day but came together well today - most of the track is in the tricky time signature of 7/4 (well, I think that it's tricky!) which took a while to get hold of but went well in the end.
At this point our good friend and U.K. Subs guitarist Jet arrived - he'd been recording with Charlie and co. the previous week and so had thought he'd come down to say hello. Much jollity ensued, after which it was decided that we should listen to 'Psychic Attack' and see if anything else might be needed. Earlier in the day we'd deemed the drum track to be ok (I thought it had sounded great when it was recorded!) and so had overdubbed rhythm and solo guitars - it sounded good but needed to be madder... with this in mind we set up the studio's 1970s Marshall JMP 100W head and turned it up as James issued his instructions - 'you've already lost the gig because you're drunk and now someone's slipped you 3 Es - play it like you don't care about anything anymore...'
The resulting cacophony received a round of applause from all in the control room. I wonder what it actually sounded like?
So that's it for now - studio days have been booked to record more new songs in February and there's work to do on these tracks in the meantime at various locations so next year should start with a bang...
Well that's what the scribbly notes say happened last month - work starts again soon!
Monday, October 27, 2014
'We're a garage band, we come from garageland...'
In a week that saw the extraordinary news that Wilko Johnson is 'free of cancer' the music world lost reggae singer extraordinaire John Holt, glam rock hero Alvin Stardust, Chas & Dave drummer Mick Burt, 'Baker Street' sax man Raphael Ravenscroft and Cream bass legend Jack Bruce. Talk about not getting something for nothing eh?
On Saturday night Ruts D.C. headlined The Garage in Islington. We gathered at The Music Complex in Deptford on Friday to rehearse for the show - our time together began in the cafe opposite for what Segs dubbed a 'bonding breakfast' and a tactical discussion. Sometime in the next few hours we also found time to visit a secondhand clothing shop (I bought a black jacket which I wore next night at the show) and a Vietnamese restaurant (sweet and sour tofu - excellent!) as well as putting together a 75 minute set which included 'Different View' for the first time since 1982. I remember seeing them play the song several times and have always thought it to be one of the band's best songs so it was great to see it on the setlist at last. Needless to say we then repaired to The Little Crown for a couple of pints of their always - wonderful Guinness, during which Segs and myself suddenly remembered that we'd had a conversation with U.K. Subs guitarist Jet a few weeks earlier when we'd discussed the idea of him playing with us at the gig; text messages were sent, phone calls were made and a plan came together...
4.30pm the next day and we've just soundchecked with the afore - mentioned 'Different View', it's sounding great and spirits are high. We've got Bob behind the mixing desk, Owen is stage managing the evening and we've finished well within our allotted time. But surely we've forgotten something... as if by magic another guitarist appears, plugs into my spare amplifier (a Fender Blues Junior in case you were wondering; I'm using my 'usual' Blues Deluxe) and within seconds we're blasting through 'In A Rut' and sounding, well, like we usually do but with Jet joining us on guitar - in other words, pretty good!
After meeting up with various people at The Wig And Gown (an excellent punky pub just along the Holloway Road) it was back in time to catch most of the set from opening act The Duel, who sounded the best that I'd seen them for quite a while. Evil Blizzard were up next - with only 30 minutes to work with (I'm sure that they've got songs longer than that!) they got straight into things and left many - an audience member looking bewildered by the end of their first song. Surreal moment followed surreal moment - at one point they even had someone mopping up on the stage! - and I'm sure they had five bass players instead of the usual four at one point. Great stuff, and not an easy act to follow. We'd better get on with it then... and get on with it we did. Even though I say so myself we started well and got better as the show went on, with the only hiccup being a fault with Segs's bass during 'SUS' (Dave stated 'I bet you never thought you'd hear a drum solo at a Ruts show' then proceeded to play one!) Once that was fixed we carried on where we left off, with 'Different View' going down particularly well. In no time at all we're at the end of the set, and Jet joins us for a thunderous 'In A Rut' that brings the proverbial house down. We're on a curfew (there was a club night after our gig) but there's still time for an encore of 'Something That I Said' and 'Society' to finish a truly memorable show. Afterwards there time for a few drinks and to chat to quite a few people, after which we return to The Wig And Gown for, er, a few drinks and, er, to chat to quite a few people - which explains why I didn't get this written up yesterday. Well, I wasn't feeling too good...
But I felt better after reading this review from the always - excellent Elvis In The Clouds blog. Thank you Mr. Presley!
On Saturday night Ruts D.C. headlined The Garage in Islington. We gathered at The Music Complex in Deptford on Friday to rehearse for the show - our time together began in the cafe opposite for what Segs dubbed a 'bonding breakfast' and a tactical discussion. Sometime in the next few hours we also found time to visit a secondhand clothing shop (I bought a black jacket which I wore next night at the show) and a Vietnamese restaurant (sweet and sour tofu - excellent!) as well as putting together a 75 minute set which included 'Different View' for the first time since 1982. I remember seeing them play the song several times and have always thought it to be one of the band's best songs so it was great to see it on the setlist at last. Needless to say we then repaired to The Little Crown for a couple of pints of their always - wonderful Guinness, during which Segs and myself suddenly remembered that we'd had a conversation with U.K. Subs guitarist Jet a few weeks earlier when we'd discussed the idea of him playing with us at the gig; text messages were sent, phone calls were made and a plan came together...
4.30pm the next day and we've just soundchecked with the afore - mentioned 'Different View', it's sounding great and spirits are high. We've got Bob behind the mixing desk, Owen is stage managing the evening and we've finished well within our allotted time. But surely we've forgotten something... as if by magic another guitarist appears, plugs into my spare amplifier (a Fender Blues Junior in case you were wondering; I'm using my 'usual' Blues Deluxe) and within seconds we're blasting through 'In A Rut' and sounding, well, like we usually do but with Jet joining us on guitar - in other words, pretty good!
After meeting up with various people at The Wig And Gown (an excellent punky pub just along the Holloway Road) it was back in time to catch most of the set from opening act The Duel, who sounded the best that I'd seen them for quite a while. Evil Blizzard were up next - with only 30 minutes to work with (I'm sure that they've got songs longer than that!) they got straight into things and left many - an audience member looking bewildered by the end of their first song. Surreal moment followed surreal moment - at one point they even had someone mopping up on the stage! - and I'm sure they had five bass players instead of the usual four at one point. Great stuff, and not an easy act to follow. We'd better get on with it then... and get on with it we did. Even though I say so myself we started well and got better as the show went on, with the only hiccup being a fault with Segs's bass during 'SUS' (Dave stated 'I bet you never thought you'd hear a drum solo at a Ruts show' then proceeded to play one!) Once that was fixed we carried on where we left off, with 'Different View' going down particularly well. In no time at all we're at the end of the set, and Jet joins us for a thunderous 'In A Rut' that brings the proverbial house down. We're on a curfew (there was a club night after our gig) but there's still time for an encore of 'Something That I Said' and 'Society' to finish a truly memorable show. Afterwards there time for a few drinks and to chat to quite a few people, after which we return to The Wig And Gown for, er, a few drinks and, er, to chat to quite a few people - which explains why I didn't get this written up yesterday. Well, I wasn't feeling too good...
But I felt better after reading this review from the always - excellent Elvis In The Clouds blog. Thank you Mr. Presley!
Monday, April 14, 2014
To Helsinki and back (a.k.a. Oh Lordi!, Seven Deadly Fins etc etc)
Time for the first ever Ruts D.C. show in Finland, at a night celebrating the 25th anniversary of Stupido Records at The Circus in Helsinki.
Dave, Segs and myself met up at The Music Complex in Deptford at 11 o'clock on Thursday morning; after a three hour rehearsal we then made our way to Jamm in Brixton to resume work on our upcoming live album. Up until this point we had been listening to a show recorded last year in Bremen but we since we have just been provided with a multi-track recording of our gig at The Carlisle in Hastings from March earlier this year we decided to have a listen through that to see if anything could be considered for release. It was an energetic show if a little rough around the edges in places (it was our third show of the evening and they'd all been in pubs...) but even so a couple of songs stood out and so were earmarked for further consideration. Work then continued on Friday afternoon before I took the tube up to Angel Station to catch punk covers band No Lip supporting The Sex Pistols Experience at The Islington Academy. I've known No Lip guitarist Pete for many years - he used to play in a band with my brother Terry back in the day, and since their old bass player Steve was depping with the band it seemed like a good opportunity to both meet up with them and see how the band was getting on. They sounded good, better than when I saw them back in June last year, although I don't mind admitting that it was a bit odd to see them playing Ruts songs and dedicating them to me. Weird! I had only intended to stay for a few songs from The Sex Pistols Experience as I had an early start on Saturday morning, but they sounded so good that I ended up watching the whole show (and it must be said that a few beers from the No Lip lads were quite persuasive in this area too!) Somehow I found myself behind their merchandise table too - I'm really not sure how that happened, but it was good to spend a bit of time talking to Dave their drummer after the show. A good if possible ill-advised evening, as my alarm was set for 4am...
...which was exactly when it went off. I'd had a little under four hours sleep, and too much to drink at the gig. Not good frankly. Still no point in worrying about that now - there's a cab booked and I've got to be in it. And somehow I made it to Heathrow Airport in time for our intended meeting at the Finnair check-in - in no time at all we were through security and in The Bridge Bar getting breakfast (or in the case of Segs and Nick the soundman a pint of Guinness!) I managed to sleep for much of the flight despite the best efforts of some noisy children in the seats in front of me and some nasty turbulence; after collecting our luggage and guitars we met Ollie from Stupido Records who drove us to The Hotel Presidentti (narrowly avoiding a collision with a car just as we left the airport) where there was a certain amount of confusion over our reservations and indeed who was paying for our rooms. Fortunately it all got sorted out in the end.
Judging by the posters in and round the venue The Circus seems to be a thriving place, with the likes of Television, The Manic Street Preachers and Primal Scream all making appearances in the not-too distant future. When we arrived at our allotted time for setting up and soundchecking we found all the doors to be locked - after spending a couple of minutes attempting to call the promoter and to attract the attention of somebody inside we went to the restaurant next door for a coffee before someone from the venue eventually came in to find us. We were on with The Valkyrians, JMKE and the astonishingly-named Anal Thunder - remember this is the country that unleashed 'Hard Rock Hallelujah' by Lordi on the unsuspecting Eurovision Song Contest - I was using the latter band's Marshall JCM900 set-up which despite looking a bit tatty (I went to grab the handle in the side of the 4x12'' speaker cabinet and my hand went right inside as there was no handle there!) sounded excellent. Soundcheck went well, after which we met Stupido Records mainman Joose and went back to the restaurant for something to eat before walking back around the corner to our hotel.
I woke up around half past eight, which meant that I'd missed Anal Thunder. Bugger. (I realise that I haven't perhaps used the best word there, but you get the idea...) Still I did see a bit of their soundcheck and they sounded good, as did JMKE and The Valkyrians, who included a splendid version of Wire's 'I Am The Fly' in their set. We went on at midnight - there could have been more people there (apparently there was a punk festival on nearby) but there was more than enough of an audience to make it work, and it's a great show from start to finish. Afterwards there's a 3 litre box of vodka (Ooo!) in the dressing room and lots of people to talk to (including members of local band The Rude Boys who specialise in Ruts cover versions) before heading back to our hotel - the night club is still open, where the music is not particularly to our taste but we're still in there until gone 4 o'clock...
I woke up a little after midday. (Molara had very cleverly had the foresight to arrange for us to have the late check-out time of 2pm - excellent!) All things considered I didn't feel bad, although I'm not sure how. Still I've long missed breakfast so it's time for a shower and then to search for some coffee before meeting up with the rest of the troops and planning the rest of our day. We're not due at the airport until half past five so we put our bags and instruments into storage at the hotel and walk into town for a look around and something to eat. We then returned to the hotel and somewhat inevitably found ourselves in the bar. Nick and myself are following the Liverpool vs. Manchester City game on our phones until Nick has a brainwave and finds it on one of the computers in the lobby - we tune in just in time to see City's first goal. Bah!
At 5 o'clock Ollie arrives and takes us to the airport - we check in and go through security with no problems before waiting for what seems like an age in The Sports Bar, eventually we give up trying to get served (Nick attempted to catch the attention of a waiter who just said 'yeah yeah' and walked off!) and go to a cafe. Whatever happened to service with a smile eh? Still our flight home was pleasingly uneventful (no noisy children, no turbulence - hurrah!) and I got home just in time to see the Liverpool game on 'Match Of The Day'. Could they win the League? Oooh I hope so...
Dave, Segs and myself met up at The Music Complex in Deptford at 11 o'clock on Thursday morning; after a three hour rehearsal we then made our way to Jamm in Brixton to resume work on our upcoming live album. Up until this point we had been listening to a show recorded last year in Bremen but we since we have just been provided with a multi-track recording of our gig at The Carlisle in Hastings from March earlier this year we decided to have a listen through that to see if anything could be considered for release. It was an energetic show if a little rough around the edges in places (it was our third show of the evening and they'd all been in pubs...) but even so a couple of songs stood out and so were earmarked for further consideration. Work then continued on Friday afternoon before I took the tube up to Angel Station to catch punk covers band No Lip supporting The Sex Pistols Experience at The Islington Academy. I've known No Lip guitarist Pete for many years - he used to play in a band with my brother Terry back in the day, and since their old bass player Steve was depping with the band it seemed like a good opportunity to both meet up with them and see how the band was getting on. They sounded good, better than when I saw them back in June last year, although I don't mind admitting that it was a bit odd to see them playing Ruts songs and dedicating them to me. Weird! I had only intended to stay for a few songs from The Sex Pistols Experience as I had an early start on Saturday morning, but they sounded so good that I ended up watching the whole show (and it must be said that a few beers from the No Lip lads were quite persuasive in this area too!) Somehow I found myself behind their merchandise table too - I'm really not sure how that happened, but it was good to spend a bit of time talking to Dave their drummer after the show. A good if possible ill-advised evening, as my alarm was set for 4am...
...which was exactly when it went off. I'd had a little under four hours sleep, and too much to drink at the gig. Not good frankly. Still no point in worrying about that now - there's a cab booked and I've got to be in it. And somehow I made it to Heathrow Airport in time for our intended meeting at the Finnair check-in - in no time at all we were through security and in The Bridge Bar getting breakfast (or in the case of Segs and Nick the soundman a pint of Guinness!) I managed to sleep for much of the flight despite the best efforts of some noisy children in the seats in front of me and some nasty turbulence; after collecting our luggage and guitars we met Ollie from Stupido Records who drove us to The Hotel Presidentti (narrowly avoiding a collision with a car just as we left the airport) where there was a certain amount of confusion over our reservations and indeed who was paying for our rooms. Fortunately it all got sorted out in the end.
Judging by the posters in and round the venue The Circus seems to be a thriving place, with the likes of Television, The Manic Street Preachers and Primal Scream all making appearances in the not-too distant future. When we arrived at our allotted time for setting up and soundchecking we found all the doors to be locked - after spending a couple of minutes attempting to call the promoter and to attract the attention of somebody inside we went to the restaurant next door for a coffee before someone from the venue eventually came in to find us. We were on with The Valkyrians, JMKE and the astonishingly-named Anal Thunder - remember this is the country that unleashed 'Hard Rock Hallelujah' by Lordi on the unsuspecting Eurovision Song Contest - I was using the latter band's Marshall JCM900 set-up which despite looking a bit tatty (I went to grab the handle in the side of the 4x12'' speaker cabinet and my hand went right inside as there was no handle there!) sounded excellent. Soundcheck went well, after which we met Stupido Records mainman Joose and went back to the restaurant for something to eat before walking back around the corner to our hotel.
I woke up around half past eight, which meant that I'd missed Anal Thunder. Bugger. (I realise that I haven't perhaps used the best word there, but you get the idea...) Still I did see a bit of their soundcheck and they sounded good, as did JMKE and The Valkyrians, who included a splendid version of Wire's 'I Am The Fly' in their set. We went on at midnight - there could have been more people there (apparently there was a punk festival on nearby) but there was more than enough of an audience to make it work, and it's a great show from start to finish. Afterwards there's a 3 litre box of vodka (Ooo!) in the dressing room and lots of people to talk to (including members of local band The Rude Boys who specialise in Ruts cover versions) before heading back to our hotel - the night club is still open, where the music is not particularly to our taste but we're still in there until gone 4 o'clock...
I woke up a little after midday. (Molara had very cleverly had the foresight to arrange for us to have the late check-out time of 2pm - excellent!) All things considered I didn't feel bad, although I'm not sure how. Still I've long missed breakfast so it's time for a shower and then to search for some coffee before meeting up with the rest of the troops and planning the rest of our day. We're not due at the airport until half past five so we put our bags and instruments into storage at the hotel and walk into town for a look around and something to eat. We then returned to the hotel and somewhat inevitably found ourselves in the bar. Nick and myself are following the Liverpool vs. Manchester City game on our phones until Nick has a brainwave and finds it on one of the computers in the lobby - we tune in just in time to see City's first goal. Bah!
At 5 o'clock Ollie arrives and takes us to the airport - we check in and go through security with no problems before waiting for what seems like an age in The Sports Bar, eventually we give up trying to get served (Nick attempted to catch the attention of a waiter who just said 'yeah yeah' and walked off!) and go to a cafe. Whatever happened to service with a smile eh? Still our flight home was pleasingly uneventful (no noisy children, no turbulence - hurrah!) and I got home just in time to see the Liverpool game on 'Match Of The Day'. Could they win the League? Oooh I hope so...
Monday, March 19, 2012
'It's music based on fear...'
So - I still can't hear very well, but things do seem to be improving. Good! It's definitely a case of 'it gets worse before it gets better', but at least it does seem to be getting easier to hear. It's been a busy week in the shop and at times I've had real difficulty hearing customers but most people have been very understanding - indeed many have their own 'oooh that's horrible isn't it?' story of the times that they've had a similar problem. And I managed to play a rather muffled gig on Saturday night, with Big Al Reed at The Feathers in Staines. It's not the biggest pub in the World and we were a bit cramped to say the least, but the people there were friendly and seemed to enjoy our efforts. It being St. Patrick's Day I'd expected there to be Guinness posters (and indeed drinkers) everywhere but there were none to be seen; there were a few likely lads who thought they could put Al off with a bit of heckling but he was having none of it (he's also a stand-up comedian and as a result is pretty fearless once he's in front of a microphone) and our second set saw Barry joining us once again to play some slide guitar blues and tables being moved to give people more room to dance. A good gig - well, the bits I could hear of it were anyway.
An interesting evening at The Load of Hay last night saw the first public performance in many-a-year from Graham Barnes, and the first public performance ever from a Brunel band led by Michelle De Jong.
I remember Graham from way back in the late '70s when his band I Jog and The Tracksuits (oh yes!) released the 'Red Box' single on the short-lived Tyger Records which was based at the Unit One youth club in Uxbridge. John Peel played it often, and the band got to the stage of playing venues like Dingwalls before it all ended; he went on to take a more folkier path musically, including a stint in The Ministry Of Humour, who I remember seeing at The Load of Hay when it was home to Uxbridge Folk Club in the 1980s. His pre-match nerves were not helped by his electro-acoustic guitar not working ('I haven't plugged it in this century!') which meant him having to sing and play with just a vocal microphone set up in front of him rather than D.I.-ing his guitar and using the microphone solely for vocals; however his times in the folk clubs stood him in good stead, and his 20-odd minute set managed to more-or-less hold the attention of the assembled student multitudes. No sign of 'Red Box' (shame!) and he did make the grave tactical error of including a song by the hopelessly - make that criminally - overrated 'songwriter' Robb Johnson (*who I believe is still pedalling his overwrought, arrogant, self-righteous twaddle to the sheep who are scared to criticise him for fear of being called 'politically incorrect' by the hopeless sycophants that surround him; still, you can't fool all the people all the time...) but he has every reason to feel very pleased with his comeback to showbusiness.
Michelle De Jong introduced her band - an engineering student on cello and two fellow music students on guitar and keyboards - and began her first song, very laid back, very quiet, with vocals that a local wit back at the bar later described as being high enough to shatter the glasses behind the bar. Before the second number an audience member (presumably studying sound engineering) took it upon himself to adjust the P.A. in some way which made no audible difference to my ailing ears (mind you I suppose it wouldn't - maybe they were deafening!) and my fears that their material was sounding 'samey' by the third song were confirmed a few seconds into the fourth. As the keyboard player smugly took the cello from it's owner and played it like a bass guitar in their last number the afore-mentioned local wit groaned the words 'multi-talentless' before gleefully returning to his hobby of confusing the barmaid. He had a point - he usually has - but I've no doubt that their SoundCloud (whatever that is) has infinitely more followers than this blog will ever have, and that they'll all go on to have musical careers that will dwarf mine, so what do I know? Perhaps I should cheer up and leave the overwrought, arrogant, self-righteous twaddle to the Robb Johnson's of this world?
Either way let's finish this missive with some words of wisdom from the legends that are Spinal Tap. Click here for their thoughts on music played quietly - many a true word is spoken in jest, as they (whoever 'they' are) say...
*Sorry about the ranting about Mr. Johnson - I'll tell you where it all stems from one day. He's not that bad really... actually thinking about it, he's probably worse!!
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