'Hey hey hey - we're all riding on the ghost train...'

Ruts D.C. in Aarhus, Denmark, Friday 14th September 2018

Well - so much for me getting back into blogging eh? Maybe I should just try for a monthly bulletin? 

In my defence your honour I have been updating my Facebook page regularly, which I suppose is for want of a better word 'easier' than writing extended pieces here. I think it's the immediacy of being able to put something up more-or-less as it happens that's so appealing, whereas it takes a fair bit more work to get things onto here. 

So - since last we spoke... 

Ruts D.C. played three shows in Germany and visited Denmark for the first time - a splendid if rather tiring 4 days. The good news is that in time honoured tradition I took the usual scribbly notes, the bad news is that I can't find them. Bugger! Oh well... there are enough other scribbly notes that need to be written up here before those!
As we're playing the '40 Years Of The Crack' tour in February we're obliged to go underground from now until then, although I'm pleased to say that we're appearing at The Inkmas Tattoo Festival in France on November 18th. Hopefully a few other shows will come in too... that said we've got plenty to do between now and the tour - there are 5 songs on 'The Crack' that we've never played live, and in addition to learning them we've got to put a show together. There are talks of back projections and stage sets - maybe we'll use them, maybe we won't. It's the music that's important - well, I think that it is anyway. And that magnificent music will be available again on vinyl very soon - Dave, Segs and myself spent a day in the hallowed confines of Abbey Road Studios last month with noted mastering engineer Geoff Pesche cutting a new vinyl master of the album. Well I didn't do much, other than stumble around thinking about The Beatles - who incidentally were working on the song 'Piggies' from the soon-to-be reissued 'White Album' 50 years to the day earlier on September 19th 1968. The things I know eh?

So then - Hallowe'en. I'm obviously far too miserable to have anything to do with it under normal circumstances, but these are far from normal circumstances... today sees the release of the new single by Alvin Gibbs & The Disobedient Servants - the appropriately-titled 'Ghost Train'. Alvin is of course the bass player in The U.K. Subs who's also previously played with Iggy Pop and Cheap 'n' Nasty among many others - here he's joined by Subs sticksman Jamie Oliver and Godfathers guitar hero Steve Crittall, alongside guest guitarists Brian James (yes that's right, the chap that wrote 'New Rose') on the B-side 'Clumsy Fingers' and, incredibly, your humble narrator on the A-side. How on Earth did that happen? Anyway I might be a bit biased here but I think that it's a great record - you can hear and indeed buy a copy here. See what you think - there are only 300 vinyl copies so I wouldn't hang about if I were you...

And talking of tattoo festivals (now there's something that I never thought that I'd ever type!) Neck played The London Tattoo Convention last month, supporting the excellent King Kurt. 'Twas a roaringly good event with some frankly astonishing sights - let's see what we see next month... and I may well have a bit more time to play with them and indeed a few other people now, as my time with Big Al and The Blistering Buicks has come to an end. I'll miss playing with the lads, but when you've gotta go, you've gotta go. And you never know, it might leave me with a bit more time for blogging. 

Well, as I say, you never know.

'One last bout before the year is out? Thought you'd never ask...'

Following on from last weekend's Islington extravaganza Ruts D.C. have 12 gigs this month, starting in Leeds this Thursday - as the accompanying flyer shows we'll be covering a fair few miles, and it goes without saying (but I'm going to say it anyway!) that I'm really looking forward to getting out and about again. If you coming to a show then please say hello!

Meanwhile it's been three gigs in three days for your humble narrator, starting with Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks at The Sunningdale Lounge in Sunningdale. It being the night before Halloween Al suggested that we play 'Monster Mash' - I remember the record well from when I was a lad (by the splendidly-named Bobby 'Boris' Pickett and The Crypt Kickers, although I believe The Misfits among others have covered it) and even though we hadn't had chance to rehearse it beforehand we played it well with the only downside to an otherwise good night for the band coming when somebody knocked Al's saxophone over. Fortunately it wasn't too badly damaged, but sadly the same thing happened the next night when the band played at The Black Horse in Eastcote. This time it was more serious as one of the keys got bent, to such an extent that we were obliged to leave several songs out of the show. Bah! Still I'm told that it's since been repaired, and once again 'Monster Mash' went well as indeed did the rest of the show. There are some pictures from the show on Al's Facebook page - as you can see I was too miserable to dress up for the occasion... ah well, maybe next year? And last night The Upper Cut played at Ye Olde George in Colnbrook. We've not played together very often lately so there were a few dodgy moments - still judging by people's comments afterwards everyone there everyone there enjoyed our efforts, and we managed to play the Cream (yes I know that it's a Robert Johnson song, but most people heard it first by Cream or Eric Clapton didn't they?!?) classic 'Crossroads' for Jack Bruce which has got to be a good thing if you think about it.

Right - tomorrow it's a day in Balcony Shirts, Tuesday it's a Ruts D.C. rehearsal and Wednesday I'm back in the shop before the first batch of shows in Leeds, Newcastle and Stockton-on-Tees start on Thursday. Busy busy busy - the rest of today off methinks...   

Happy Halloween!

Another blog posting, another death to report - this is getting depressing! However I can't let Reg King of mod legends The Action leave the building without a show of respect in these hallowed pages. I've just played the 'Action Packed' compilation CD and can only join the likes of Monkey Picks in lauding him as one of, if not the greatest, British soul singers. If you're not familiar with him or the band then (a) shame on you from a great height, and (b) have a listen to 'I'll Keep On Holding On' and 'Since I Lost My Baby' and see what you think - you are very unlikely to be disappointed. Another very sad loss to the music world.

Friday evening saw an ever-improving Upper Cut play The Dolphin in Uxbridge. We appeared there back in the summer at Horsepower Hairdressing supremo Adam's birthday party, and reaction among the locals was positive enough for Noel the guv'nor to offer us a date in our own right. In an ongoing quest to decide which is the best guitar for me to use in the band I'd opted for my Relic Stratocaster this time (I've been using the SG for most of our gigs although the FMT Telecaster has made a few appearances) which took a bit of getting used to from my point of view, although by the end of the first set it seemed to be making sense so maybe I've found the right one for the band. I've always tried to avoid changing guitars during gigs if possible especially in small pub gigs - there's often no stage which makes any instrument vulnerable to being knocked over by passing punters, so having more than one out increases the risk - and while it's very difficult to find one guitar that'll cover the material that a band like our plays the Strat seems to be the closest one yet. I'll try it at again at next month's Bethnel Green bash and see how it sounds then. In the meantime our 2 sets caused an increasingly good reaction from the assembled audience, and a euphoric Noel offered us a return date next year. Excellent! And once again Pete from Awaken joined us for a couple of numbers - he's playing there with his band on the 26th of next month so maybe I'll get up and do a couple of songs with them that night.

Back in September a commercial to raise funds and awareness for this year's poppy appeal was filmed in Windsor Street in Uxbridge. Some (actually rather scary) soldiers marched up and down the street as your humble narrator and the rest of the Balcony Shirts team (they were filming right outside the shop) joined the locals in forming a mock-Remembrance Day parade. In a moment of amusement / madness Scott and Dave attempted a high-five (I believe that's what the young people call it - and no I didn't join in, not least because I kept doing it wrong!) every time the camera panned across the shop. It's perhaps for the best that none of these gestures are visible in the finished article, which you can see if you click here - the shop in the background as the main character stand on the mini-roundabout looking around. Which reminds me - I must buy a poppy. Well, you should shouldn't you?

As mentioned last time it was the first anniversary of the Balcony shop opening yesterday, and myself and Scott spent the first hour of our day putting up balloons and the rest of it dispensing cake and Cava to the customers and selling an inordinate amount of stock, much of it at reduced prices. We took delivery of a Danelectro Pro earlier in the week - judging by the amount of attention it's been receiving it won't be in the shop too long, and it's great to see the musical equipment side of the shop developing so quickly. And given the success of the day there's a good chance of mince pies in the shop in the run up to Christmas...

No gigs now for 2 weeks. I wish I was doing the '80's Rocked' shows. Actually I wish I was doing any shows. Boo hoo. Then again Shirley and myself are celebrating 6 years together today - yes I know, on Halloween! We've spent the afternoon at The Westfield Shopping Centre, buying all sorts of things that we didn't know that we needed. Ahhh...