Tea for one

Well it's been a while since we've had a caption competition in these hallowed pages but I think it's time for one now, as a new cafe called The Wonky Teapot has opened in Uxbridge. This in itself might not normally be cause for any particular excitement but it's been attracting quite a bit of attention locally - as the accompanying photograph shows the shop sign is, er, interesting... so see if you can come up with a suitable caption for the picture. Come on, you know that you want to - actually that's not a bad caption in itself is it?!

Anyway it's Sunday afternoon, and I was expecting to be playing with Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks at Ye Olde George in Colnbrook today - however we were told this week that a new landlord is arriving soon and all live music has been cancelled, apparently never to return. Bah! It seems strange to me that having built up a successful venue Sally the landlady is being moved to another pub (which apparently will also not be having bands) and being replaced by someone who won't be carrying her good work on. Hmm... I don't think that I'll never understand the grown-up world... but it was a good gig for the band last night at The Wishing Well in Watford, and the one on Thursday at The Sunningdale Lounge in Sunningdale was also fun despite there not being too many people there - I hadn't played with the band since New Year's Eve so I spent a bit of time that afternoon revising the material, and given the amount of 'how does this song go again?' moments I was very glad that I did.

On Friday night myself and fellow Buicks guitarman Pete went to see The Yardbirds at The 100 Club. Advertised as 'the last show with the current line-up' it featured original members Jim McCarty on drums and Tony 'Top' Topham on guitar alongside three younger newer members, and was a terrific show from start to finish. Topham may have been overshadowed in history by Clapton Beck and Page but here he showed himself to be no slouch on both rhythm and lead guitar (although I must mention Ben King who played some fabulous stuff on the other side of the stage) while McCarty was as reliable as ever behind the kit. Pete and myself had debated whether we would go to this gig or to Tropic At Ruislip to see Hats Off To Led Zeppelin - we eventually concluded that it was better to watch the current line-up of one of the bands that started it all (especially given the Zeppelin connection) and I'm certainly glad that we went where we went although it'll be good to catch the Led Zep boys at some point in the future.

And in the immediate future Big Al and Co visit Staines and Hayes this week, and I really must visit The Wonky Teapot. Well, you've got to hand it to them haven't you - after all they've made quite a splash... tea hee...

So THAT'S how they got their name!

Big Jim Sullivan died on Tuesday. In a career that spanned over fifty years he played on countless recordings for any number of artists as diverse as David Bowie and Englebert Humperdinck (his Wikipedia page has a mind-boggling list of records that feature him - take a look here and be amazed!) He pioneered the use of effects like wah-wah and talk box, was involved in the development of Marshall Amplifiers, gave guitar lessons to Ritchie Blackmore, taught Jimmy Page to read music (Page became known as 'Little Jim' when playing sessions in the 1960s to differentiate him from Big Jim - they appeared on many records together) and may well have owned the first Gibson Les Paul in Britain. And if all that wasn't enough, we was from down the road from us in Uxbridge. You may not have known his name, you almost certainly won't have known his face, but you've definitely heard him play - a true guitar great if ever there was one, he leaves behind an extraordinary contribution to British guitar playing and popular music in general.  Cheers Big Jim.

Two gigs for your humble narrator this weekend, the first of which saw The Upper Cut make their latest visit to The Dolphin in Uxbridge on Friday. With heavy rain all evening I for one was fearful of a low turnout but the pub was filling up by the time we went on at 9.30, and the scene was set for a good night. It wasn't all plain sailing however - we went to start our first song Terry the bass signalled that he was in trouble, with no sound was coming from his instrument; a process of elimination revealed that his guitar lead had failed so I found him one and we were off into an even better gig than last week's Harefield bash. No new songs this time (we always try to play something different at regular venues but time constraints meant that we didn't get time to rehearse for this one) but we pulled out some older  songs that we hadn't played for quite a while, and by the end there was a full dancefloor and an offer from Noel and Bridie to play at their 25th anniversary party later this year. Excellent! Oh and my Blues Deluxe sounded great - apparently the fault was a dry solder joint on a PCB that was causing the channels to switch indiscriminately of their own accord; since I had the volume of the channel that I wasn't using set to zero this had the effect of turning the sound on and off. Very strange!

But if that was a good night - and it definitely was a good night - then Saturday took things to even greater heights, as Ruts D.C. ventured up to Birmingham for a gig at The Hare And Hounds. I must admit I spent much of the journey North drifting in and out of consciousness (it'd had been a late night and I'd been working in the shop all morning... I must be getting old!) although I did wake up in time to hear Seamus exclaim 'Did you see that road name? It's an anagram!' as we passed Sarehole Road...

Mick the promoter is a friend of Dave and Seamus having put The Duplicates on several times, and he's an absolutely splendid chap who distinguished himself by taking orders for curry when we arrived and then driving off to get them himself. Top man! 

With Nick behind the mixing desk our soundcheck went well, and with people already arriving spirits are high. Support band The Cracked Actors got things off to a good start - nothing to do with David Bowie (sadly!) but very good all the same. I spend a bit of time behind the merchandise desk during their set - from what people are saying they like me have been looking forward to this show for a long time...

By the time we go on at half past ten the place is so full that we can hardly get to the stage. It doesn't take too many songs before it's clear that this is going to be a night to remember for all concerned, and when we finish our show there are people literally queueing up to to shake hands and say thanks. One guy tells me that my guitar sounded great and then says that he had been 'waiting 30 years to hear those songs' - I just say thanks and then say something like 'I've been waiting that long to hear them too'. And I have. Well - haven't we all?

Dave called early Sunday afternoon. He'd been at the venue until 3 am talking to people, he couldn't believe the reaction that we'd got and labelled the show 'a triumph'. It's hard to disagree.

What better way to finish a fine weekend's gigging than to go to The Swan in Iver on Sunday evening for this month's open mic night. Myself and Big Al Reed teamed up with Bob Pearce on drums and Tony Eden on bass to deliver a five song set to the assembled multitude, and very good fun it was too. I also enjoyed seeing Les Payne playing some acoustic songs - he told a great story about meeting John Lennon in Germany in 1961; apparently Lennon was less than friendly, claiming that he would make it in the music business before Les would. 'And he did' said Les with a smile, adding 'and that's why they spelt their group name with an 'a' instead of an 'e' - ''Beat Les''...'

Well I don't know about you, but I really hope that's true!!

We got a hit!

So there we are then - we've had over 12,000 viewings of the Balcony Shirts song for Queens Park Rangers on YouTube and are in the top 30 country music downloads on iTunes as I type this, as well as getting a revue in no lesser publication than The Guardian! We'll be playing it live on the centre spot before for the first home game of next season at this rate!

Your humble narrator wasn't expecting to have any gigs over the weekend just gone, and so was readying himself for another episode of the all-too-sporadic 'Vinyl Rules!' column as I'd have time to transfer some more records over to digital format - however sometime on Wednesday I was asked by the long-suffering Shirley if I would like to contribute to a charity evening that she's involved in at The Battle Of Britain Club in Uxbridge on Friday. 'They're having a 'Britain's Got Talent' theme and Nick the organiser wondered if you'd like to do some solo guitar in the interval, maybe 10 minutes or so?'

What I should of course have said is something like 'I haven't really got time to get anything together at such short notice' - you and I both know I didn't say anything of the sort...

With Voltarol's radio show playing in the background (he played a 'Tommy' medley by Victor Biglione for me as well as mentioning this blog! Thanks Mr. V.!!) I re-strung my acoustic guitar and wondered just what I'd let myself in for. Solo acoustic guitar pieces are generally not very long - well the ones that I can play aren't anyway! - so I'd need five or so to manage the allotted time. Well there's the stuff that I played a Dave's funeral last week, and there's an Ike Isaacs piece called 'Just Funky' that I had a go at ages ago and might be able to remember, and I've been looking at 'Some Summer Day' by John Fahey, and there's that little idea of mine that I've been working on, and I've always fancied a go at 'Bron Yr Aur' by Jimmy Page... that should be enough shouldn't it?

As it turned out it was more than enough. I would estimate that 95% of my audience were young bank employees (Nick is a bank manager) unlikely to be interested in the likes of Isaacs and Fahey (I didn't bother playing either of their pieces - oh well, maybe next time?) even if they hadn't been queuing for their meals. Up until that point in proceedings they'd been entertained by 5 acts in 'Heathrow's Got Talent', although a better description of things might be 'watched some of their workmates make idiots of themselves and watch some others be surprisingly good at singing / dancing / comedy etc'. That said there were a few people listening, and a mention of Mr. Page got a beery cheer from the darkness to my left; I was just about to start said tune when a large gentleman came up to me repeating a car number plate several times in my general direction then demanding that I tell the driver to move it immediately. I referred him to the D.J.... I left the stage to what I thought was total indifference and thinking something along the lines of 'huh - I've been ignored by bigger and better audiences than this lot'; however quite a few people came over to say that they'd enjoyed it, and the long-suffering Shirley (who by now had been given the job of distributing the aforementioned food!) said that plenty of people had been listening. From my point of view I was relieved that I hadn't been as nervous as I'd been at Dave's funeral, and I played quite well although I feel there's still a long way for me to go before I (ahem!) launch my solo career - if indeed I ever do!

After the show Shirley and myself made the short journey to The Gardeners Arms to catch an hour or so of the Ace! club night, and very good it was too. Scott from Balcony Shirts basked in the glory of The Guardian piece, Shirley's brother Trevor introduced us to what felt like everyone in the place (he's a regular there, fairly obviously) and every record that was played was a classic. A good first night for Darren and Simon - let's hope there are many more to come.

In the meantime it's been very busy in the shop - maybe thanks to the song, maybe not? - and there is more acoustic guitar playing on the horizon this week. Following on from our impromptu performance last month I'm teaming up with Alan and Pete from The Good Old Boys for a performance at - you've guessed it! - The Load Of Hay next Sunday. Now officially christened The Rikardo Brothers (don't ask me, I only work here etc) we're rehearsing this evening- not entirely sure sure what material yet, but it should be fun...

All fingers and thumbs

In addition to beginning the long road to Balcony Guitars (the lads there want to open a shop called 'Leigh's Mad World Of Guitars'! Really!) the first 'no-gigs-this-week' week for a while included myself and Scott losing the keys to the shop on Saturday (if I told you where we found them you'd never believe me) and a Sunday evening viewing by East, Big Tel and myself of a DVD of the Madness musical 'Our House' (if I told you why we watched it you'd definitely never believe me!) I also had chance to catch the ever-amazing Kris Dollimore at The Crown in Leyhill last Thursday where he was as fabulous as ever, with a remarkable version of 'Castles Made Of Sand' standing out among an evening of standout performances.

The gap in gigging has given me a bit of time to do something that I actually don't get chance to do very often - practice (as opposed to play) the guitar. I've been promising myself that I'd spend some time with my acoustic guitar working on my fingerpicking and slide playing for quite a while now - Mr. Dollimore is something of a master of these styles, and when I mumbled to him something like 'I must get around to practicing some of that stuff' he replied enthusiastically 'yes, you must!' After discovering that we're both big fans of Rory Gallagher (especially this number) he went on to advise that I listen to John Fahey (a master of solo, or as he himself called it, 'primitive' guitar) among others. So sometime in the last few days I dug out my copy of 'Death Chants, Breakdowns and Military Waltzes' (now THERE'S an album title!) along with '6 and 12 String Guitar' by Leo Kottke and 'Folk, Blues and Beyond' by Davy Graham (I'm ambitious if nothing else!) and got to work.

An hour or so later and your humble narrator was getting frustrated and not a little annoyed. I'm normally quite good at working out how to play things from recordings, but this stuff - well I couldn't get anywhere with it. It's not that I couldn't hear what was happening, it's more that I couldn't work out how to play what is often 2 or even 3 independent rhythms and melodies at the same time. And if that's not bad enough all of these players sing at the same bloody time. Bah! Still, no-one ever got anywhere by giving up so I kept playing... and playing... and playing... and eventually hit upon the idea that transcriptions of this music must be out there on the Internet somewhere (yeah, I know it's second nature to most people these days to 'google it', but I'm really old ok?!) and so launched myself into cyberspace in search of some help. It turned out that there's acres of transcriptions including some on the afore-mentioned player's websites. Excellent!

Well I've all but worn out a set of strings but I'm still not much nearer to being able to play anything other than a faltering version of 'Anji' and I could already play that! (If you don't know the tune or you've never heard it before then here it is; if you want some more from Davey Graham then try this and indeed this - Jimmy Page was listening carefully at the time wasn't he?!?) Still I'm making some headway with John Fahey's 'Some Summer Day' and have, since I stumbled upon something that sounded a bit like the opening riff, attempted to put together a solo version of 'Every Little Thing' by The Beatles. Like I say, nothing if not ambitious... but in addition to it becoming increasingly clear to me that the term 'primitive' is highly subjective I fear a career as an acoustic troubadour specialising in fingerbusting fingerpicking will always elude me although it's something that I'd like to develop in the future if only for the practice at playing something different. Then again, perhaps I should just stick to this sort of thing... and I haven't got around to trying any slide stuff yet. But I will. Probably. After all, did I really think I'd master an entire style in a few days?

I've got a gig this weekend. Good.

'It Might Get Loud' and other distractions

I'm still ill - I've actually had a day off sick today (apologies to the Balcony boys, I'll be back in tomorrow... hopefully...) which is a thankfully rare occurrence in mad-guitar land, and I've decided against going to Tropic at Ruislip tonight (The Hamsters are on and it would have been good to give out some leaflets for our gig there on Sunday; then again it would be better to be well for our gig there on Sunday don't you think?) which is an indication of how rough I'm feeling. This can only mean one thing - I've got the dreaded ManFlu. Bah!

In an attempt to take my mind of the terrible suffering that I'm currently enduring I watched 'It Might Get Loud' this morning - well, 'watched' might be a bit optimistic, 'had-on-in-the-background-as-I-drifted-in-and-out-of-consciousness' might be a better description. I bought the DVD a couple of weeks ago and finally got chance to watch it (maybe this ManFlu thing isn't all bad?!?) and very good it was too - I suppose it helps that I'm a fan of all 3 featured players but it's still an interesting idea for a film and one that works really well. Jack White is splendidly eccentric, The Edge wonderfully, er, edgy and Jimmy Page is the true elder statesman of rock guitar. There are a few (presumably deliberate) moments of controversy - White bemoaning the over use of guitar effects (he's obviously never heard U2!) and The Edge criticising long guitar solos (no Led Zeppelin live recordings in his collection then!) among them - but what really came over to me was their obvious love for what they do and the instrument they use. (Jimmy Page playing air guitar to 'Rumble' is absolutely priceless - if you don't believe me click here!) All in all an excellent film which I really must watch again when I'm feeling better...

Aside from that I've slept for a couple of hours, listened to 'Our Favourite Shop' by The Style Council (I picked it up cheap the other day, easily their best album don't you think?) and 'Down By The Jetty' by Dr. Feelgood (can't have too much of The Feelgoods at the moment) whilst attempting some tidying up (not over-successfully but, hey, I'm ill!) and have 'Live At Leeds' by The Who playing in the background (the best live album ever?!?) as I type this; it actually sounds like quite a good day doesn't it? If only I wasn't feeling so bloody awful... oh, did I mention that I've got ManFlu? It's bloomin' 'orrible, you get a headache, runny nose, you ache all over... (continued on page 94)