From Breakspear to Bethnal Green

And the obituary column continues - my mate Tony has died. I met him through Stuart the guitar repair man, he was a very clever chap, a bit of a boffin who worked at the BBC, played some guitar and liked motor sports among other things. Shirley and myself went to his funeral at Breakspear Crematorium last week and she realised that she knows his son Richard through her work. Stu tells me there might well be a memorial gig for him with donations to Cancer Research UK, and there's an interesting idea for people to play his guitars rather than their own. I'll do my very best to be at that one.

Talking of guitars (for once!) the excellent Steve Simpson (aided and abetted for some of the show by his brother Bruce on guitar and mandolin) gave a splendid performance at The Load of Hay last Sunday. He's playing some shows with the reformed Slim Chance in the not-too-distant future which should be well worth catching as well as continuing to play with Roger Chapman (we're thinking of playing the Family classic 'Burlesque' in The Upper Cut - Steve showed me the 'correct' way to play what is a very tricky song on guitar. Top man!) but it always seems to me that his solo shows are a chance for him to play what he wants rather than what he plays as part of someone else's act. Highlights were many and varied 'though I have to mention his version of the Meal Ticket song 'Golden Girl' (here is a recent version that also features fellow ex-Meal Ticket man Willy Finlayson - good song don't you think?) and the Bob Dylan song 'When I Paint My Masterpiece' as standout songs. A fine performance.

Sunday night gigs for the rest of the year feature the wonderful Kris Dollimore this coming Sunday (21st) then The Upper Cut 'pre-Christmas / Terry the bassman's birthday' gig on December 5th followed by the legend that is John Otway on December 12th - that's not a bad line-up is it? And my fellow blogger and Blue Five member Voltarol is on the radio at 8.45 tomorrow evening playing some of his beloved Brazilian music - click here to join him!

An interesting Wednesday saw your humble narrator accompany Stuart the guitar repair man (him again! - now there's a name that's been absent from these hallowed pages for a while; remind me to tell you why sometime...) to Westmount Music, a new instrument shop in Marlow Bottom. Paul the boss seems a nice chap, and the shop's an interesting mix of stuff so let's hope they can make a go of it. I was left thinking was that they should play some music or show some DVD's in the shop as the atmosphere was a bit 'cold' although maybe that was just me? In the meantime it was off to visit Miles (a longtime customer of Stu's who features in this posting among others) where we dropped a guitar off and where I, after a look at his rather mind-boggling collection of instruments, somehow ended up taking one of his guitars back with me with a view to possibly buying it off him. How did that happen? 'Try it at your gig on Saturday' said he cheerily. Ok, I will... from there we made our way to a farmhouse near Cobham for a visit to Electric Wood, the home of Wal bass guitars. Stu worked for them a few years ago, and Paul the luthier had asked him to come across to have a look at a MIDI bass that wasn't working properly - while he looked at that I spent a bit of time in the spray booth where a badly damaged 1959 Gibson Les Paul Special was being refinished. All very interesting stuff - no, really, it was. Well, I liked it!

The Good Old Boys returned to The General Elliot in Uxbridge on Friday evening, and gave a suitably boisterous performance in front of a suitably boisterous audience. The twin guitar attack of Pete and Simon sounded as excellent as ever, Hud and Nick didn't put a foot wrong all night and Alan sang as well as I've ever heard him - and if you ever wanted to see Nick Simper play 'Hush' then here's your chance. Afterwards East and myself ended up discussing life, the universe and everything with Hud, who regaled us with tales of touring Christian venues in America with Rick Wakeman and much more besides. As I stumbled off homewards at (gulp!) 2.30 a.m. I said something along the lines of 'I've got to be in Balcony Shirts in 6 1/2 hours' (well, that's what I intended to say; it probably sounded more like 'I'f gotta being Bacony Shirs in sis anna haf ours'. Mind you, East understood me although we can only wonder what his reply of 'Warrghh!' was actually intended to be...) and realised that maybe, just maybe, we should have left when the band finished at midnight as we'd originally intended...

Considering the previous evening's antics Saturday at Balcony Shirts could have been a lot more difficult than it turned out to be, although judging by the increase in customers Christmas is definitely on the horizon - mind you I did have to have a sleep pretty much as soon as I got home. All this 'getting older' stuff isn't all that it's cracked up to be I can tell you... still it was back to The Misty Moon in Bethnal Green for the latest Upper Cut gig, and a very enjoyable one it was too - we went on after the boxing for 2 well-received sets with much dancing and general jollity, although I did wonder what was going on when a large chap walked past carrying a tall blonde lady over his shoulder... I used Miles's guitar for the first set and mine for the second - the general consensus was mine sounded better (it should, it's a lot more expensive!) but that the other one could be a good addition to my guitar army. Oh well - there go the wages. Again. Perhaps I should sell something first... hmm... I'll have a think over the next few days...

Everybody had a hard year

First things first- happy new year! Happy new decade! Hurrah!

So- how was 2009 for you? Almost everyone I've spoken to on the subject uses words like 'awful', 'dreadful', 'terrible'... but it can't have been that bad- can it? And how about the last decade, the 'noughties' as they (whoever 'they' are) like to call it- any thoughts on that as a decade?

Here are a few thoughts on the decade's popular music- can it really have been this bad?!?

Well my decade ended with myself and the long-suffering Shirley watching a 'Tomb Raider' film and 'Jools Holland's Hootenanny' on T.V. (since you've asked I thought the film was good escapist fun whilst The Hootenanny was about as enjoyable as any show presented by the increasingly nauseating Mr. Holland can be...) which was something of a surprise to us both as I'd been expecting to be out gigging with Huggy's band as reported at the start of my last blog posting. So- why wasn't I?

Having helped arrange the gig for the band I'd been enlisted as guest guitarist several months ago; my friend Cliff is a member at the club and through him I'd got Huggy's band a gig there back in the summer which had gone well and resulted in them being offered the coveted New Year's Eve show. However since the last show at the club they had parted company with their guitarist/singer and had recently recruited a replacement who, being less than confident of his abilities to sustain an evening's entertainment without adequate rehearsal had asked a friend of his from another band to help out on the night. The 5 of us rehearsed on Tuesday evening and very good it sounded too; all agreed that with a bit of homework before the gig we should be able to deliver a good performance which, let's face it, is pretty important- not least because we were being well paid for the show.

So it was then that around 2 p.m. yesterday your humble narrator found himself in front of a computer with a guitar on his knee and (gulp!) Queen on the screen playing 'Now I'm Here' on YouTube. Having just about got the hang of it (and I guess I should admit here that despite my often-mentioned disinterest in the band's music this is a good song. There- I said it!) I was about to swallow what was left of my pride and attempt 'We Are The Champions' (which listened to now is every bit as boring as I remember it to be. Ah- that's better!) when my phone rang.

It was Huggy. He didn't sound too happy, and he got straight to the point. The drummer had decided that the money shouldn't be split equally between the 5 of us; rather that the 3 'real' band members should receive more, considerably more than the 2 guest players as they had 'done all the work' and therefore should be rewarded accordingly. I won't mention the actual figures involved but the maths of his idea meant that 80% of the money would be split between the 3 of them with the remaining 20% split between us 6-stringers.

Now- bearing in mind that we'd all be there for the same amount of time and all be on stage for the whole show, does that sound fair to you?

No, me neither. It didn't sound to good to Huggy but, well, that was what the drummer was saying. 'Let me think about it' said I, promising to call him back in a few minutes with some sort of vague plan... virtually as soon as I put the phone down on him Cliff rang to see how things were going; to say that he was disappointed with my reply is a strong contender for the understatement of the year or indeed the decade. He was LIVID. I don't remember the last time I heard someone sound so angry. In between the swearing he stated clearly- and I mean clearly!- that I was not to do the show under those terms which I must admit I'd already decided for myself. (Initially he was going to call the club to tell them to cancel the band altogether but I talked him out of that- maybe I should have let him!) In the meantime Shirley arrived home and heard some of our phone conversation; when I'd finished talking- maybe that should be listening!- to Cliff I explained the situation to her but before she could say much Cliff was back on the phone to say that he'd called the club and they'd put my 10% in an envelope with my name on it which I could collect anytime and to reiterate that under no circumstances was I to play the show. I told him I felt bad about taking money for a show that I wasn't playing- then again I'd turned down subsequent gig offers as I thought I was working so I guess it's a cancellation fee? His opinion was rather more forthright...

I spoke to Huggy again, and told him that I wasn't doing the show. He described himself as 'distraught'. He sounded it. I wonder how his drummer felt?

As I sat on the settee tinkering with my (unplugged) old Les Paul Deluxe Lara Croft's hair got burned- it had fallen into the black acid that Pandora's Box was floating in as she was suspended upside down above it. I'd never been paid for watching T.V. before- I looked at the clock and said something like 'they'll be playing now' to Shirley, 'I hope Huggy's alright'. Her reply of 'there's not much you can do about it now' summed the situation up- once I'd decided not to do the show it was all out of my hands- but I still hoped that Huggy was alright. We went through a lot together in The Price, and although the end of the band caused a rift that took many years to heal it couldn't detract from the fact that me and him always played well together and always play well together now. In an odd way it also seemed to sum 2009 up, a year which promised much but delivered surprisingly little when you think about it- I lost my work at Pro Music (remind me to tell you that story one day!) which coupled with a lack of gigging resulted in me nearly staring bankruptcy in the face (and with an income tax bill looming if I'd not been able to get some work at Balcony Shirts that might well have happened) which obviously impacted very seriously on the last few months in my little life- but that's nothing compared to some people's stories. Is it possible for a year to be 'bad'? A lot of people think that last year was!

I spoke to Huggy this morning. His verdict on the gig- 'we got away with it'. I thought he meant musically but I was wrong- he nearly rang me from the venue to try to persuade me to play after the other guest guitarist had threatened to walk out when he heard what had happened to me and what the drummer was proposing to pay him. He only stayed after Huggy and the singer agreed to chip in and give him some of their money- the drummer refused to give him any of his, but I bet you'd guessed that already. Nice guy huh?

Greed is funny stuff isn't? And people are really disappointing sometimes aren't they?

Happy new year y'all, let's hope it's a 'good' one...