Punky Reggae Party

At this time of year a busy few days in mad-guitar-land is all too often followed by a bout of ManFlu, and that is indeed the case once again here. Bah! But it's also been a good few days in mad-guitar-land, beginning last Thursday with a Ruts D.C. gig at The Talking Heads in Southampton. The Riverjuke amp went wrong (again) in our soundcheck (it blew a fuse - time for a 'proper' service perhaps lads?!?) but thankfully my amp sounded great (again) and we played a splendid set to a nearly-sold-out room. It's good when that happens - but as I said last time, we're lucky as it happens to us quite a lot these days.

The next two nights saw your humble narrator catch a couple of great gigs, the first of which was at Koko on Friday where The Undertones reduced grown men to tears with a magnificent performance. As 'Teenage Kicks' drew to a close and the entire place erupted around us Adrian of Aural Sculptors fame commented 'John Peel was right about that one wasn't he?' Indeed he was Adrian, indeed he was. The following night Daniel Romano played at The Borderline, a venue which has been completely transformed since I was last there. The stage is in the same place but everything has been painted black, the bar has moved and the walk to the toilets resembles something out of a science fiction film. Weird! Mr. Romano is a big favourite at Balcony Shirts - Scott plays his albums in the shop all the time - and myself and the lads saw a blistering display of garage-y rock from the man and his band. Great stuff - if you're not familiar with his work he's well worth checking out.

On Sunday afternoon Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks played at Ye Olde George in Colnbrook. At the end of our second set the guv'nor approached Al with the immortal words 'there's a one-er in it for you if you play another 25 minutes' - I think Al surprised said guv'nor with his reply of 'can you make it £120, it divides easier between the six of us?', but either way we played an extra 25 minutes and everyone went home happy. Well I certainly did, until I woke up the next day with a cold. Ah well - you don't get something for nothing do you? Which reminds me - Ruts D.C. will be joining The Damned, Brix Smith Start and Stuart Pearce (oh yes!) on Steve Lamacq's BBC Radio 6 Music Live radio show 'Christmas Punk Party' on Friday 8th December. As I said in the last posting, I can't quite believe what I type here sometimes... anyway if you'd like to come along this link tells you how to apply for tickets - I wouldn't leave it too long if I were you...

'We're off to see the wizard...'

There's not been much blogging time over the last few days, and I'm tired so I'm going to bed soon. Poor little me... anyway, apologies if this all seems a bit garbled :-

Last Tuesday and Wednesday I joined Dave Ruffy and Segs at Jamm in Brixton for a couple of days of studio sessions - no playing or recording this time as we were going through some old material as well as listening to a show recorded in Bremen last year. I'm pleased to say that the live stuff sounded great, so much so that we're hoping to put it out as a live album later this year. And the old material was just fantastic - we've had lots of requests for a re-issue of 'Rhythm Collision Volume 1' which has been unavailable on CD for many years, and this seems like a good time for it re-appear. We also went through some BBC recordings made by The Ruts and Ruts D.C. in the late '70s and early '80s - I remember recording some of the sessions on cassette from The John Peel Show back in the day, and it really was fantastic to hear them again. There were also a fair few things that I'd not heard before, including a Ruts Kid Jensen session and a Ruts D.C. session for The Richard Skinner Show. Great stuff! The older material was all being remastered while the live recording from last year was being mixed - and at this point I must say that Greg the studio engineer was absolutely incredible; they call him 'Wizard', and it's not difficult to see why... and it was good to see Rob and Jake from The Alabama 3 who were there working in the other studio and who I'd not seen for quite a while. A very good couple of days work.

Talking of work (or what I rather euphemistically call work anyway! Mind you I've been in the shop in between all this music lark so no wonder I'm tired...) I had three gigs in three days over the weekend. With my good mate Pete depping for me with Big Al Reed and the Blistering Buicks somewhere in Harrow I found myself at Nettlebed Village Hall for a gig with The Repertoire Dogs. Their usual guitarist is Mick Ralphs (yes, that Mick Ralphs!) who wasn't playing the show but who I was told might be along to collect the money on the door. Sadly he didn't make it to the gig, a shame as I'd like to have met him if only to discover why I was playing instead of him... I played the same venue with the band back in July last year - that was a good night, but this one was even better with a bigger crowd and plenty of dancing and merriment. After the show a chap came up to me and asked if I still saw Richard Cole - he was somewhat disappointed when I explained who I was...

Saturday saw BAR and The BBs (ooh that's much easier to type!) return to The Chippenham in Maida Hill (where it was Christine's 50th birthday party) while on Sunday we made a 5pm appearance in Colnbrook at Ye Olde George Inn (didn't I play there last weekend?!?) Two great and very enjoyable shows - if ever there was a band that's getting better and better it's this one, and Al's already got 40-something gigs booked for this year with more coming in all the time. Excellent!

Right - time for some Ruts D.C. rehearsals. Acoustic tomorrow, electric on Thursday, the shop in between, busy busy busy...

'Back to life, back to reality...'

The Damned at The Corn Exchange in Cambridge, December 5th 2013

'Information is not knowledge, 
Knowledge is not wisdom, 
Wisdom is not truth, 
Truth is not beauty, 
Beauty is not love, 
Love is not music, 
Music is THE BEST'

                           - from 'Packard Goose' by Frank Zappa

So. How do I even begin to sum up the last 2 1/2 weeks in a few hundred words? I suppose that the short ideologically unsound answer is - I don't. there are so many magical moments that I will remember forever (and quite a few that sadly I won't - what on Earth did I say to that oh-so-beautiful girl in The Red Squirrel after our Edinburgh show?!?) but unfortunately I don't think that I have the writing skills to convey them here. Suffice to say that while I'm not going to say outright that it's the best musical adventure that I've ever been involved in, the fact that I've even considered saying it probably tells you all that you need to know. Still, let's see what comes out next...

Ooh look -
it's the size of a door!

Firstly, the shows. Without exception they were all very enjoyable from a playing point of view, and in some cases were absolutely extraordinary. Wolverhampton was a mid-tour highlight - there just something about that area, which has given us so much wonderful music over the years (Led Zeppelin, The Move, Slade, Black Sabbath, The Wonder Stuff, The Idle Race and many many more) that always seems to be conducive to a good show. We seemed to fly from the very first moments of the very first song (possibly fuelled by Ruts D.C. - branded Werther's Original - infused vodka that our good friends Annette and Phil presented us with before the show) and things just got better and better, with the last few songs seeing scenes of audience hysteria that wouldn't have been out of place in 'A Hard Day's Night'. Then again thinking about it pretty much the same thing happened the next night in Edinburgh (without the vodka, that had all gone by then!) and at quite a few other shows. Amazing.
And then there was The Roundhouse. My day began with a trip to Denmark Street to buy a replacement valve for my amplifier (one blew the previous night - I got through the show but felt like I was on tiptoes throughout, if you know what I mean) and ended with my dad meeting Dave Vanian. Strange days indeed. In the meantime we played one of the best shows that I can ever remember being part of - and then the next night in Manchester was if anything even better. And did we really finish the last show of the tour in Northampton by both bands together playing 'Merry Christmas Everybody'? Yes, incredibly, we did. Me playing guitar with The Damned? Who'd have thought it eh?

The Damned crew -
a fine body of men,
with very strange hands.

And talking of The Damned - what an absolutely amazing band. I've always been a fan (except perhaps for their mid-'80s non-Captain Sensible phase where it all got a bit too Goth for my not-particularly Goth tastes) and these shows have reminded me just how great they really are. Yes they had a shaky start in Bristol (in-ear monitor problems I'm told) but they rarely if ever slipped up for the rest of the tour. Dave Vanian remains The Prince Of Darkness, one of the great frontmen of the punk or indeed any other era; Captain Sensible is a woefully underrated musician and songwriter who kept up a consistently high standard of playing ever night, and with Monty, Stu and Pinch matching them every step of the way I've come away from this tour with even more respect for them as players and people than I started it with - and that's saying something. And their crew (from left to right in the accompanying photo) - guitar tech Jon, sound man Martin, lighting wizard Todd and drum tech Alex, not forgetting Chris the tour manager - are some of the friendliest, most helpful people that I've ever encountered in the wild 'n' wacky world of rock 'n' roll. They're good to drink with too...

This is Jed.
Be afraid -
be VERY afraid...

...which brings me on to the audiences. I've shaken so many hands, heard so many tales, been in so many photographs (I never ever thought that people would want to have their picture taken with me - amazing!) and shared so many laughs that I'm really not sure how to make sense of it all. Maybe I should stop trying to find some sort of higher meaning to it all (I'm really not sure that I am, but you know hopelessly emotional I get about this stuff!) and just say again what I said earlier - that this tour has given me so many magical moments, whether it's the looks that I saw on people's faces as I looked out from the stage, speaking to fans from behind the merchandise stall (and at this point I must say a very big thank you to Jed, the high priestess of The Damned's merchandising, for all her help - if I don't she'll probably wallop me! - and to Mayumi who does the good Captain's merch) or having many-a drink with people in the venue bar or a local hostelry. I guess I'll always be a fan at heart, and so will never tire of hearing people's stories of when the first heard the band on The John Peel Show, or when they saw them first time around with Malcolm and Paul, right through to their thoughts on what the band is doing now. I've always said that I'm very lucky to be able to play music of any kind, and I'll keep saying it for as long as I'm able to say anything at all.

So what next for Ruts D.C.? Well we've got some German shows coming up in February, and before that there are new songs to work on. Excellent. And for me - my next gig is with Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks this coming Saturday at The Three Mariners in Bagshot, and I'm really looking forward to it. No, really, I am. It may not be playing in front of thousands of people at The Roundhouse, but there will be people there who want to be entertained, and we will be doing our best to send them all home happy. And I want to go home happy myself, and hopefully I will - because music is good. Oh yes my friends, music is good.


And in case you thought that I made it up, here is 'Merry Christmas Everybody' from the Northampton show - that's me on guitar on the very far left. Enjoy!

I'm not free - but I'm Cheap

Good news my friends - 'Anthology' by T.V. Smith's Cheap is available now on Easy Action Records. It contains the band's posthumous album 'R.I.P... Everything Must Go!' plus outtakes, John Peel sessions and more. Hurrah! The package has some great photos of the band from back in the day alongside sleevenotes by T.V.'s biographer Dave Thompson and, incredibly, me. Why me? Well back in the dim and distant past your humble narrator made a very brief appearance as guitarist in the band - many details from that fateful evening are a bit sketchy (when I asked East to help me recall what happened his reply of 'you're asking me to remember something that happened in a pub that served beer over 20 years ago' pretty much sums up his and indeed my approach to things at the time) but it's an incident that I do get asked about from time to time, especially when I'm playing duo gigs with the mighty Mr. Smith.

So here, as far as can be recalled, is what happened...

Dramatis personae - 

T.V. SMITH'S CHEAP -   T.V. Smith- vocals 
                                   Mik Heslin - guitar  
                                   Andy Bennie - bass  
                                   Martin Deniz - drums

THE PRICE -                 Malcolm Andrews - vocals  
                                   Leigh Heggarty (me!) - guitar  
                                   Huggy Harewood - bass  
                                   Mick Francis - drums  
                                   East - roadie, merchandise man and probably some other things as well

The show in question took place at The Samuel Beckett (which I believe is now called The Three Crowns) in Stoke Newington in January 1991. The Price were supporting Cheap - I'd probably have been there anyway to watch the band but that explains why I had a guitar and amplifier with me - and as we arrived we were told that the evening had taken an unexpected turn. As you'd expect we were due to go on first, but as their guitarist Mik had become unavailable (his wife was having a baby, the timing of which is obviously unpredictable) T.V. was going to do an acoustic set, aided and abetted by Martin on percussion. From memory I don't think Andy was originally going to play as well; having said that I think he had his bass with him, although he might have borrowed Huggy's for what was to come? Anyway it was suggested (I think by T.V. himself) that we went on last as it would be a better end to the evening - I'm not sure that I agreed with him! - and after a short discussion about set times it was all arranged. We soundchecked, then T.V. strapped on an acoustic guitar (I think this was the first time I ever saw him play one) and ran through a couple of numbers. At some point around this time in proceedings I said something along the lines of 'I'd have learned your set if you'd told me that Mik wasn't going to be here' - although I hadn't been 100% serious (I don't think I had anyway) when I'd said what I said the moment was seized upon and what might politely be described as an 'intense discussion' between T.V., Andy, Martin and myself followed. Did I actually think that I could play some of their songs? Well, I'd got the 'Third Term' single so knew that song quite well; there was also a much-listened-to John Peel session to consider, and I'd seen the band play many times... Andy and I picked up our instruments and played the chord sequence to 'Third Term' - it sounded good, we could do this! 

T.V. Smith's Cheap
Mik, T.V.,Andy and Martin.

Or could we? Was it a bit of a daft idea? Much musing followed, culminating in a plan - T.V. would play his acoustic set as he'd planned, Martin would join him on percussion for a song or two and then Andy and myself would take to the stage for 'Third Term' to finish his show. All well and good - except... except... I really liked 'Luxury In Exile' (I still do!) and I know it, really I do, it's on the Peel session, I've heard it loads of times, let's do that one as well, please... ok, so we'll do that, then 'Third Term' - but what happens if they want an encore? 

It's nearly showtime and things are going well with the venue filling up nicely. East has set up the Price merchandise stall and is facing some controversy over his 'BUY BEFORE WE FRY' and 'PRE-WAR PRICES' signs (Operation Desert Storm in The Gulf War was looming!) although most people are taking it in the spirit that it was intended (whatever that was!) News was filtering out to the Price people as to what was going to happen - the fans were bemused and amused; I'm not sure that Malcolm and Mick were too happy about it but I don't think Huggy was too bothered. Either way I spoke to T.V. just as he was going on - Andy and myself were to join him and Martin on stage after 'Gather Your Things And Go', and whatever was going to happen next, would happen next...

These days I do a fair few gigs depping in bands that I haven't played or rehearsed with before, but in those days things was very different. I was the guitarist in The Price, and if you were in a band then you played in that band, and that was more-or-less it. I had an impromptu acoustic blues trio with my good friends Paul Cope and the late (and undeniably great) John Saxon called The Diving Ducks that did the odd pub gig here and there but that was all, and even that was seen as an unusual thing to do. (I don't think Malcolm or Mick liked that either, although again I don't think Huggy was too bothered.) However you looked at it, I was about to attempt something that I hadn't done before - get up and play in public with a band that I hadn't rehearsed with. I remember feeling a bit nervous but not to the point of shaking or anything like that. 
East and myself were watching from the side of the stage as 'Gather Your Things And Go' ended. I turned to him and said something like 'right, here we go then'. For a split second he looked as though he was going to say 'what - you're really going to do it?' but I don't think he said anything. And anyway, it was too late to turn back now.

I had always thought 'Luxury In Exile' was a great song from the moment that I first heard it. The riff is brilliantly insistent, the chord sequence is a killer - but the words are something else again. It concerns Nazi war criminals being protected thanks to wealth and power; not exactly a simple subject to tackle, but as with most things T.V. writes about, he makes it look easy. There's two lines in the second verse that still make me shudder, even when (or maybe especially when) we play the song together today - 'swimming pool by the black museum, a pile of bones to put your feet on' - how scary an image is that? 

I picked up my gold Gibson Les Paul Deluxe, the guitar I used for the majority of Price shows. It's a fabulous instrument. If you're about to play a song that you don't know with people that you've never played with before, that's a pretty good guitar to have in your hands. Martin counted it in, and three or so minutes later the song ended. Applause. Easy. Everyone on the stage smiled a relieved smile. 

'Third Term' had been issued as a single with 'Buried By The Machine' the previous year. I don't know how many copies were sold but I had one, and suddenly that was important. I knew the song. Good. We played it well. Applause. Easier. We took our instruments off and left the stage. More applause. We've got an encore. Now what?

We went back onto the stage, and got ready to play. But to play what exactly? Well - how about 'The Newshound'? I played the first few notes of the riff - T.V. said 'yeah, he knows it, let's go!' and before we had chance to even think about changing our minds we were off. Now this one we hadn't thought of earlier. I'd only heard it live. What did I think I was doing suggesting it?

The song ended. Yet more applause. Leave the stage again. Don't go back on!

T.V. shakes my hand. Andy shakes my hand. Martin shakes my hand. Was that alright? Martin smiles - 'flash c@*t!' - then bursts out laughing. I take that as a 'yes'... Malcolm asks what time we're on and Mick make comments like 'he's ours, you can't have him!' to The Cheapsters. I told you that they weren't too happy. Huggy says nothing, but he still doesn't look as though he was too bothered. I must ask him one day. Gaye Advert tells me that it sounded great. That'll do for me.

The Price
Leigh, Malcolm, Mick and Huggy.

Then The Price played. When you do a lot of shows with a band you tend to only remember the very good ones and the disasters. This one I can't recall as being either of those so I guess it was good. We were a consistent band around this time so it was more likely to be good than bad, but if you're reading this and you were there and can remember anything about our show (or indeed any other bits of the story that I've forgotten) then please let me know. Maybe what happened before our set has overshadowed the rest of that evening in my warped mind?

Eighteen years later The Price and T.V. Smith were playing at The Load Of Hay in Uxbridge. It was East's 50th birthday - you can read the story here if you'd like to. I joined T.V. for a couple of songs that night, and thus we accidentally formed the duo that we perform as today. We played 'Third Term' that night too. As we went to start the song I realised that I had no idea how the chord sequence went - well, it had been a long time. Halfway through I was playing it without thinking. Good. Again. I guess that means that I'm still a flash c@*t?

'Anthology' by T.V. Smith's Cheap can be ordered from the online shop on T.V. Smith's website by clicking here. Do it now - you won't regret it!

'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!!

'Vinyl Rules!' Episode 3 - Laurel Aitkin / The Screamin' Lobsters / Choir Militia

Time at last for a very belated episode 3 of 'Vinyl Rules!' - here are three 7" singles, all of which feature the talents of Paul Fox on guitar.

Spring 1980, and with The Ruts in limbo as singer Malcolm Owen battled heroin addiction Paul, Segs (bass) and Dave Ruffy (drums) backed Laurel Aitkin on two singles - 'Rudi Got Married' / 'Honey Come Back To Me' and 'Big Fat Man' / 'It's Too Late'. The band were credited as The Unitone, and both were released on Secret Affair's label I-Spy Records; I've not got the first one but I have the second one, which was produced by Paul and John Sparrow. It's something of a curio from my point of view (I'm not much of a ska fan to be honest) but the band play it well, and if nothing else it shows that they were capable of turning their hands to pretty much any style of music with ease. They also recorded a John Peel session with him around the same time, although things changed irrevocably for the band in July when Malcolm died from an overdose. They regrouped as Ruts D.C. and made some very fine music - but that's another story for another time...

When Ruts D.C. finished in 1982 Paul formed the splendidly-named Foxes And Rats with Rat Scabies from The Damned on drums and Martin from Watford (!) on bass; I saw them at (you've guessed it!) The Fulham Greyhound where their psychedelic power trio set (think Hendrix, Cream and, er, Steppenwolf and you'll get the idea) left the mainly punk-powered audience somewhat bemused. After that he and Martin stayed together in The Screamin' Lobsters, who were basically a rock'n'roll band that mixed a few original numbers among the old classics. One such original song was 'Lobrock' which emerged on a single in 1983. It rocks along in a suitably cheery 'we're-not-taking-this-too-seriously-and-nor-should-you' manner as did the doo-wop styled B-side 'Oh Oh I Love You', and as such is a good representation of the band. I saw them a couple of times (I bet you can guess where!) and they were an entertaining bunch although once again Ruts fans were seen leaving the venue with furrowed brows.

Paul's next move was to team up with the Lob's singer Harry Matthews to form a rather more commercially orientated act which went through several names (The Cut, Wildlife and The Big Boys among them) before settling on Choir Militia. Their only single 'Sharpen The Knife' / 'Nothing That Would Interest You' came out in 1986. The A-side is interesting in that it's a re-write of an unfinished Ruts D.C. song that was colloquially known as 'Jangly Boo' when it opened their live sets in an instrumental form in late 1981. The single itself follows the same basic structure (it's since been issued as 'Last Exit' on various Ruts compilations) and sounds very much 'of it's time', with slap bass, string synthesizer and a huge 'gated reverb' drum sound that could only have been recorded in the mid-80s. To my ears it sounds a bit dated next to the stripped-down sound of 'Lobrock' which ironically hasn't dated quite as much, but it's still a pretty good record with some great playing from Paul. The b-side's not bad either, although the band had several better songs like 'Bombs Away' and 'Take It Out On You' that would have made better records in my opinion - I remember hearing studio recordings of them at the time but I fear they'll never get heard now. Shame! Oh and before you ask, yes I did see them at The Fulham Greyhound (and very good they were too) and indeed The Price supported them a few times early on in our (ahem) career which meant a great deal to me personally as Paul was and indeed still is one of my all-time favourite guitarists. (I stayed in touch with him right up to his untimely death and was involved in his final gigs, the story of which can be found in the July 2007 section of these hallowed pages.) In the meantime these singles show a very different side to his playing in than was heard in The Ruts, and are all far better than their current obscurity suggests.

And it's the 4th annual Paul Fox tribute night at The Breakspear Arms in Ruislip on Saturday 15th October - I can't be there myself but it should be a good night...

Coming soon to a venue near you!

I'm not been out gigging this week, a situation that normally has me moaning my head off in these hallowed pages (and occasionally in real life too) and wondering if I'll be able to survive past teatime without swinging my right arm at a guitar; however since there's rather a lot of live shows on the horizon I'm telling myself that it's good to have a few days calm before the proverbial storm breaks. So in yet another blatant bit of shameless self-publicity here's what you'll hopefully be reading about in the next couple of weeks:-

This coming Friday (the 16th if you're taking notes) sees The Price following up our 25th anniversary shows last month with a gig supporting The Members (I haven't seen them play for about 30 years!) at Tropic At Ruislip. The Attendants are also on the bill (I haven't seen them play for about 30 years either!) and you can get in cheap by going on the venue website and booking a ticket (make sure you're coming to see us, it'll look as though we've got some fans!) or by printing off the leaflet that's currently on our website. It should be a great night! In a desperate attempt to ensure that we have a few people watching us Huggy and myself are appearing on Hayes FM this coming Tuesday evening - we're on Hughie Dixon's show at 9 p.m. so listen out for some off our favourite music, quotable quotes that mean absolutely nothing and no doubt lots more besides...

Saturday night it's time for a Youngblood (or whatever we're called these days) gig at The Pear and Partridge (great name!) in London Colney. I really enjoy our gigs - having spent years playing along with the recordings when I was learning to play it's great to be playing songs by the likes of The Stones and The Faces in a band at last! Sad to say I've missed a fair few gigs due to me being out gigging elsewhere - they always seem to clash which is a shame as I don't really want to end up depping in my own band. Let's hope I don't!

The next night sees your humble narrator returning to what was on paper at least one of the unlikeliest musical situations of his (ahem!) career. If you were looking to buy a musical instrument in the Uxbridge area in the late '70's/early '80's then the chances are that you bought it from a man who is these days known to members of the blogosphere as Voltarol. In those days he ran various shops ('Thames Valley Guitars' and 'Pete's Gig Shop' among them - I bet you've just guessed his first name!) and before that he was a member of The Jugular Vein, of whom John Peel once said 'The Jugular Vein also played'... quite how a miserable punky depressive like myself ended up playing in an acoustic guitar duo with him is a story perhaps best left lost in the mists of time, but somehow I did, and very good fun it was too. We played everything from jazz standards to Pete's own compositions, and left many-a folk club audience almost as confused as we often were; our antics were unfortunately curtailed when Pete moved away, but he's back in the area for a few days so we're opportunistically squeezing in a gig at - you've guessed it! - The Load of Hay. I'm not quite sure what we're going to play given the lack of rehearsal time available to us, but it should be good fun - well, it always was so why should this time be any different?

(Talking of The Load Of Hay there's a potentially extraordinary gig happening there on Sunday 25th - have a look at this website and tell me that you're not intrigued..!)

Around 2 years ago The Chicago Blues Brothers played a thoroughly enjoyable string of dates at The Theatre Royal in Windsor, and I'm pleased to say that from Monday 19th through to Saturday the 24th we're doing it all again. Excellent! Tickets are still available from the venue website (2 for the price of 1 on the first night!) and I for one am really looking forward to a great week's work. If only we had a few more week's like this! Ah well, mustn't be greedy I suppose.

Blogging opportunities may be few and far between given what's going on - my intention at the moment is to try to do some sort of short daily bulletin (Pretentious? Moi?) and then maybe some sort of overview when it's all over, but we'll see how it all goes. I'll see you sometime in the next couple of weeks...