See You Up There!

Time for a belated report on three Ruts DC gigs the weekend before last, the first or which was at The Waterfront in Norwich. Support came from The East Town Pirates who I thought were very entertaining although I missed the second half of their set as I was summoned to a nearby pub by Segs where he was meeting Stiff Little Fingers bassman Ali McMordie. I walked in to find them both ensconced around a small table - if you'd have told me back in (say) 1979 that I would one day have been meeting up with them never mind being in a band with one of them then I don't know what I would have said... our show saw the return of my Marshall DSL100 amplifier after a repair at the factory, and without wishing to tempt fate I have to say that it sounded terrific. We also have a spare - hereinafter referred to as 'the Riverjuke amp'  as Harry, Adam and co. currently own it - but more about that in a minute. We played well although for me it was the weakest of the three shows - not bad, just not quite as good as the others, if you know what I mean.

The next day - Saturday 4th November, if you're taking notes - saw us journey across the country to Wolverhampton for The Midlands Calling Festival. There was time to check in at our hotel before making our way to The Civic Hall where Harry and Adam went in to set up our merchandise while Segs and myself walked the short distance to the Blooms clothes shop - we'd spotted it on the way there and Segs thought that it 'looked interesting'... he couldn't have been more correct - it was how I imagine tailor's shop would have been years ago, with a brace of cheery immaculately-dressed assistants with tape measures around their necks all only to happy to attend to your every clothing needs. It got a bit 'suit you' here and there - rarely a bad thing I'm sure you'll agree - and I loved it. I found a suit in the sale which I liked the look of, but as I said to the assistant, the trousers were 'a bit David Essex' (I like his music, but not the flares!) and I'd prefer three buttons while the jacket only had two - within seconds I was told that it could be altered and ready for collection the next morning. Sold! I must wear it on stage sometime soon... in the meantime we played a thunderous 45 minute set to the enthusiastic appreciation of the assembled multitude and everybody seemed to be very happy with our efforts. We'd decided to use the Riverjuke amp but to our dismay no sound was forthcoming - with only a short changeover between bands we decided to use the backline amp provided and resolved to have a proper look at it the next night in Wakefield. 

I'd not been to Warehouse 23 before, but it seems to me to be an excellent venue which is putting on a lot of very diverse entertainment, which is always a good thing to see. At the soundcheck we plugged the Riverjuke amp in again - still no sound. I set up my DSL 100 while Harry set about investigating - when he opened the amp up to his and indeed my astonishment he discovered that the four power valves were missing. Well, that would do it! It had gone to Marshalls at the same time as mine but they had clearly forgotten to put the valves back in after testing them. Doh! (Harry called them the next day and they have since sent a new set of valves free of charge, so hopefully all's well that ends well...) Thankfully my amp sounded great, and we went on to play what to me was the best show of the three. Again that's not to say that the other two were bad, just that this one just edged it. We're lucky, we play some good gigs - talking of which, it's just been officially announced today that we're supporting Stiff Little Fingers on their 'Down To The Bone' British tour next March. Once again, if you'd have told me when I was 18 that one day I'd be typing that sentence I don't know what I would have said...

'The skill in attending a party is knowing when to leave...'

So there I was, minding my own business on the main stage at Butlins in Skegness as Ruts D.C. were in the process of closing this year's Great British Alternative Music Festival - to my left Segs is flanked by Jake Burns and Kirk Brandon, behind me Dave Ruffy is on the drums and steering the ship in customary fashion while Stan Stammers is with me at my microphone; we're all singing 'if you're in a rut, you've gotta get out of it' - as the song ends Stan throws his arms around me and I shake hands with Kirk and Jake before the three of them leave the stage. We're about to slam into 'Babylon's Burning' when I allow myself a moment's thought - 'how the bloody hell did that just happen?' followed swiftly by 'and didn't Richard Jobson say that he was going to join in too?'
All in all it was a suitably surreal end to a wonderful run of Ruts D.C. shows. In the last month or so we've played all over Britain and Ireland and barring the odd mad moment or two it's been an absolute pleasure from start to finish. Our new friends Harry, Adam and Mike from Riverjuke have shown devotion above and beyond the call of duty (well I think that they have, they'd probably say that they're 'just doing their jobs') which has made the band's job immeasurably easier, and even though I say so myself we've played some really great shows. After a batch of gigs like these there's often one or two that stand out as being better or indeed worse that the rest, but I can honestly say that's not the case this time. Ok, maybe Aberdeen (where we were to say the least concerned that the P.A. system wasn't up to the job but which turned out to be a classic evening) and Cardiff (which saw my Marshall amp go wrong again meaning that I was in a less-than-cheery mood; thankfully the Riverjuke boys had thought to bring a spare and the show saw one of the best audience reactions of all) stand out, but not by much. Incidentally my amp's back at the factory for repair and I'm looking at buying the spare - there go the wages. Again. But maybe nothing tops the 'crikey, I'm on stage with members of Theatre Of Hate and Stiff Little Fingers' moment. Strange days Indeed. Most peculiar mama.

So - what now? Well Ruts D.C. return to the stage at the start of November so it was back to basics on Friday night when I rejoined Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks for a show at no lesser venue than Hayes Working Men's Club. Al was recovering from a minor operation on his left hand and so wasn't playing acoustic guitar (we usually start the evening with a few acoustic numbers) and so Pete and myself split the duties on his very nice Martin HD 28 - I really must get myself a good acoustic guitar one day... I'd spent a while revising the songs as I'd not played with the band for over a month and had restrung my Stratocaster accordingly - shame I'd neglected to try it through an amplifier as the volume pot had developed a fairly serious-sounding crackle when used. This sort of thing can happen when a guitar isn't played for a while, and hopefully will be cured with a squirt or two of switch cleaner when I get five minutes. (Thinking about it I should perhaps be doing that instead of typing this? Hmm...) And last night I went to The Hope And Anchor in Islington to see the debut performance by RiVeR who feature Matt on guitar - he writes the excellent Elvis In The Clouds blog and attends many of our gigs so it was good to go along and give him a bit of support. A highly enjoyable night saw your humble narrator chatting to quite a few people who had seen and indeed enjoyed Ruts D.C. on this tour, and one gentleman who recognised me as a member of Big Al's band. As I say, strange days indeed... but proof were it needed that you don't get something for nothing in this godforsaken life comes with the news that this coming Friday's Upper Cut gig at The Dolphin in Uxbridge looks like being the band's last ever show. Shame - but nothing lasts forever (sadly!) and we've had a good run so hopefully we'll go out on a high. What was that line that Michael Stipe said when REM split up? A lofty comparison perhaps, but a comparison nevertheless - let's we don't leave our dignity at the front door eh?

Magic And Loss

Some of these blog pieces more-or-less write themselves, some take a bit of coaxing and some take a lot of work. A lot of work, as in a 'why am I doing this to myself?' - style lot of work. This one is quite hard to write because of the subject matter, which is strange as there should be a lot of positive things to say about friendship, kindred spirits, feeling part of a team... they're all good things, but you don't get something for nothing do you?

I was on my way home on Thursday night when my phone made the slightly annoying car horn - type noise that it makes when I receive a text message. I should change the sound, but I never seem to get around to it. Or something. Anyway I took the phone out of my pocket and read the message. Then I read the message again. And again. It was telling me that Tom Edwards had died. But he can't have. He's only young. And he's Tom, he can't have... 
I first meet Tom a couple of years of years ago, but he's one of those people that it's hard to remember a time that you didn't know them, if you know what I mean. I played the 'I Need A Dodge' gig at Koko with him in 2015, went to the Marshall factory with him, saw him play with Adam Ant, played the riff to 'Day Tripper' on his guitar in Abbey Road Studios... I still don't really know what to say about it all, other than that he was a fabulous musician and a lovely man. I'll miss him - and I know that I won't be the only one.

Harlow is perhaps not the most obvious place to provoke any real emotion, or so you might have thought - but if you'd have been there on Saturday night then you'd have known that 'emotion' was most definitely on the agenda, as after several false alarms The Square finally closed it's doors for the very last time. I first played there with The Price in 1986, and just over 30 years later I played three songs at the last ever gig there. But what a last ever gig it was my friends... 
First band on The Orphans feature Oliver son-of-Simon-from-The-Newtown-Neurotics Lomond on guitar (to be pedantic, on my guitar for most of their set as he broke a string on his) and roared through a breathless half hour set (guitar, drums and vocals - not a bass guitar in sight!) to the approval of the rapidly arriving audience. After saying a quick hello to Steve Lamacq - if I remember rightly he was involved in getting The Price our first gig at the venue - in the downstairs bar it was back upstairs to catch local heroes The Newtown Neurotics who bought the proverbial house down. To be fair they were on safe hometown ground but their excellent performance didn't rest on any laurels, with frontman / songwriter Steve Drewett in fine form throughout. And what can I say about Eddie And The Hot Rods that I haven't already said in these hallowed pages? They've always been one of my favourite bands, and this show was as good as any I have ever seen them play. But it was different, very different - from my point of view at least.
Back in December I went to see The John Otway Big Band at The Borderline; I'd have gone along anyway as they're always well worth seeing but I went up to meet Hot Rods guitar hero Richard Holgarth (who also plays for Otway and was the sound man at The Square when The Price used to play there) to discuss the possible purchase of a Gibson SG guitar that he was considering selling. During the evening the subject of the Square's imminent closure came up, and he invited me up to the gig. At some point I said something like 'I'd love to play at that' - at which point he suggested that I play with Eddie And The Hot Rods. I thought about his offer for, ooh, two or three milliseconds before saying yes...
As I fought my way through the sold out crowd towards the stage I reflected on the situation - no rehearsal, not even a run through at the soundcheck, although I did have a chance to try my guitar through the amplifier that I was borrowing for the occasion. We only decided which songs I was going to play with them in the pub opposite around 3 hours ago. I eventually got to the stage as Hot Rods singer Barrie introduced me  - I never thought that would ever happen I can tell you - and I picked up my guitar. 'Are you ok?' said Richard cheerily as I tried a couple of chords - yes I was ok, and I was even more ok when 'Hard Driving Man' started. And there I was, little old me playing with Eddie and his Hot Rods. If you'd have told me that I was going to do that 40 years ago... 'Gloria' was next before we were joined by Jim Jones (he was DJ-ing after the gig) for 'Born To Be Wild' - and all too soon it was over. The gig, my time in The Hot Rods, one of the great independent venues, everything. There were more than a few tears, with more than a few of them coming from me. It had  been a lousy few days. You don't know what you've got until it's gone do you?

Oh and in case you're wondering, I bought the SG. Of course I did. Well, something good had to come out of it all didn't it?    

Yeah I know this isn't very well written and is all a bit garbled - as I say, sometimes this is quite hard to write... sad times...

Mad dogs and Irishmen

It's hot isn't it? There - I thought we'd get that out of the way... 

And the busy times continue - last week I worked 6 (6!) consecutive days in Balcony Shirts which to a sad little man like me is all too close to having a real job... I also played The Three Wishes in Harrow and Ye Olde George in Colnbrook with Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks - with my usual six-string partner in crime Pete unavailable it fell to your humble narrator to attempt to cover his parts as well as my own (that intro to 'Wicked Game' is deceptively difficult I can tell you!) and while I somewhat inevitably didn't have as much time as I would have liked to work on them I made it through the shows reasonably unscathed. He's back for this week's shows - good!

Last Friday The Who played Hyde Park. I arrived just as Johnny Marr was playing the introduction to 'Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before' - he looked great, sounded even better and by the time he swung into an unlikely cover of 'I Fought The Law' (well, I thought that it was unlikely, maybe he does it all the time!) he had the crowd on his side. He finished with 'There Is A Light That Never Goes Out' and 'How Soon Is Now?' - The Smiths really were rather good sometimes weren't they? Next up were The Kaiser Chiefs who I've always had a bit of a soft spot for - I'm not really sure why as I've got their first two albums but have lost touch with them since then. Their excellent performance was more than enough for me to rectify that situation, or at the very least look out for a 'greatest hits' collection. (Don't worry, I'll wait until it's cheap somewhere!) Main support came from Paul Weller, whose singles-packed set had the audience on his side from the word go. You forget how many hits someone like him has had sometimes don't you? Miles Kane joined him for 'That's Entertainment' in the middle of the set, 'Friday Street' was a forgotten classic (well I'd forgotten it!) and the set-ending one-two knockout punches of 'Start!' and 'Town Called Malice' provoked an audience reaction that wouldn't have been out of place for a headline act. Ah - but they were up next...
'You're a long way away' said Pete Townshend in typically obtuse tones - halfway through the opening song  'I Can't Explain' it was as though we were all on stage with them. And so began two hours of stunning rock 'n' roll brilliance, probably the best I've seen them play since, ooh I don't know when. Highlights were many and varied - 'Bargain' soared, 'Love Reign O'er Me' had jaws dropping left right and centre, the biggest E chord ever on 'Sparks' shook the ground beneath our feet and the inevitable set closer 'Won't Get Fooled Again' bombed out the last pockets of resistance with effortless aplomb. A textbook performance from a band who, incredibly, just seem to get better and better. It won't be the same without them will it? 

Tuesday was spent in the company of Adam Ant guitarist and all-round good bloke Tom Edwards. I worked with him back in March when he told me that he was due to make a trip sometime soon to the Marshall factory near Milton Keynes to pick up some amplifiers and would I like to come along? That, my friends, may well be the very definition of the term 'silly question'... we spent a splendid few hours there during which he introduced me to Artist Liaison Manager Joel - maybe, just maybe I might be using Marshall amps in the not-too-distant future. 

And yesterday I (re)joined my old buddies Neck for a gig at The Mevagissey Feast Week in Cornwall. Yes yesterday, Wednesday 1st July 2015, officially the hottest July day on record. Well I don't know about that but it was bloody hot in the van - and it was a bloody long way, although the countryside looked fantastic and Stonehenge was clearly very popular indeed. I spent much of the journey down listening to the songs on headphones, something which I generally don't like doing (my ears are bad enough as it is!) but was something of a necessity as, you've guessed it, I hadn't been able to spend as much time as I'd have liked on the material. Mind you, fiddle player James had arrived back from Peru only a few hours earlier (other people's lives eh?) so if anything he was even more of a disadvantage - fortunately my headphones did the trick for him, and a highly enjoyable show went down well with all concerned. (Incidentally, am I the only person that thinks there should be a Mega City Four tribute band called The Mevagissey Four? They could play all their songs a sea shanties, or something... I think the heat must be getting to me!) Mind you that all seemed a very distant memory when I walked thorough the front door at some unearthly time this morning - it was a bloody long way home too, although I suppose it would be if you think about it. And it's bloody hot now too. Too hot for me. Mind you, we'll all be moaning that it's too cold soon...

Neurotic outsider

Colin Dredd, bass player with The Newtown Neurotics, died last week. I saw The Neurotics (as they were also known) play many times and our group The Price shared the bill with them on quite a few occasions - their uncompromising left wing stance ensured that (a) they achieved virtually no mainstream recognition as the terror of the Thatcher years unfolded all around them and indeed us, and (b) people like me loved them. Colin (real surname Masters) was always friendly, approachable and ready to talk to anybody about anything - it always seemed to me that he simply adored everything about being in the band. He will be missed by everyone who knew him and - I'd like to think - remembered by everybody who ever met him.
And Mac Poole died after a long battle with cancer. He will it seems always be remembered as the man who turned down the job in Led Zeppelin, but he drummed with great distinction for many acts in the succeeding years. He depped with Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks several times, and I'll remember him as a great character with a rock 'n' roll story for every occasion. He was a heck of a drummer as well.

Ruts D.C. played two gigs over the weekend, the first of which saw us visit Italy for the first time. Arriving at Heathrow Airport Terminal 4 at the not-too-early (for once!) time of quarter to eight in the morning I met up with Dave and Segs, checked in and after a less-than-straightforward journey through security (shoes off, belts out of trousers, hand baggage unpacked) we launched ourselves enthusiastically at breakfast. We're playing at The Sottotetto Club in Bologna at an evening organised by Bologna City Rockers - I'd not played in Italy before so I'd been looking forward to this show for a while. Our first flight took us to Paris  - no, I'm not sure why we didn't / couldn't get a direct flight either - where we renegotiated security (shoes off etc) before flying to Bologna where we were met by the Bologna City Rockers team who took us to The Hotel Astor. After checking in an abortive attempt at finding a coffee shop followed (it seems that they close during the afternoon) after which we headed to the venue where things were ready for soundcheck. I had an excellent Marshall JCM 900 half stack (oh yes!) while Segs had a not-quite-so-excellent Ampeg set-up - it sounded bad from the word go so while Dave struggled with a faulty hi-hat clutch some anxious-sounding phone calls were made... eventually a gentleman arrived with another clutch, and after fiddling with the bass amp he announced that it was set in stereo mode, flicked a switch and everything sounded great. After soundchecking we walked over to a nearby bar where we were interviewed for the Bologna City Rockers radio show (or to be more accurate Dave and Segs were interviewed as the questions were about the original band) after which Lorenz took us to the La Perla restaurant where a frankly mind-boggling amount of food was provided - I'd been told that Bologna's nickname 'La Grassa' means 'the fat one' and refers to the local cuisine, and on this showing it wasn't hard to see how it got it's name. (Incidentally I can't find a website for the restaurant but it's highly recommended, if only because it serves a 'Metro Pizza' which we're told is 1 metre wide! Maybe next time!) By now it was nearly 10 o'clock but since we weren't due on until after midnight we decided to go back to our hotel for some much-needed rest. Well, it was certainly much-needed in my case.
Lorenz got us back to the venue for around 11.15 - there were people everywhere, and with the front part of the club resembling a record fair with vinyl, CD and t-shirt stalls all doing a roaring trade it was clear that this was going to be quite a night. Klaxon took to the stage just as we got to the dressing room, their set included a fine version of The Clash's 'Garageland' which is never a bad sign. We start with 'Something That I Said' and with the venue packed with people the sound has changed which prompts Segs to ask me to turn up as he can't hear what I'm playing. His mic stand collapses during 'Mighty Soldier' which causes much amusement, not least from him; by the middle of our set things are well on course for a great gig with people singing along with both the old Ruts songs and some lesser-known Ruts DC material. 'West One (Shine On Me)' triggers a mini stage invasion, 'Love In Vain' gets an almost football crowd - style singalong and the new song 'Secondhand Child' is greeted like an old friend. 'Staring At the Rude Boys', 'Babylon's Burning' and 'In A Rut' clearly are old friends to all concerned and the final encore of 'H-Eyes' finishes a great - make that GREAT - show. Afterwards there are numerous record covers for Dave and Segs to sign while a man who in my imagination resembles a Roman Centurion has tears in his eyes as he tells me that he'd 'waited 35 years for this show'. Amazing. 
Meanwhile the DJ is spinning old ska and rocksteady records (yes, records!) and no one is going home, we stay for a while before being reminded that we've got a plane to catch in a few hours...

My alarm goes off at 7am. Bugger. Three hours sleep didn't feel like nearly enough. Oh well. I have a shower then meet Dave at breakfast, there's no sign of Segs so Dave goes to knock on his door, he returns after no response so I suggest he calls his room from reception. Segs answers him with the news that he 'thought he'd heard some banging when he'd been in the shower'. Our taxi takes us to the airport where we attempt to pre-empt security by removing our shoes and belts first. It works - good. From there it's yesterday in reverse - there's time for a quick coffee at CDG before gate K53 takes us back to Heathrow where after a bit of 'how do we meet the bus?' shenanigans we hook up with Bob the soundman, Rhiannon the merch girl and James the new-to-us driver and set the controls for Cheadle Hulme where we're closing The Strummercamp Festival at Manchester Rugby Club. No, I'm not sure why we didn't fly to Manchester either... I guess ours is not to reason why sometimes?
We arrive in the Strummercamp backstage area just as Barnstormer are playing a, well, barnstorming set. Attila The Stockbroker dedicates a song to Colin from The Neurotics, they were old friends of course and he's got a picture of him taped to his mic stand which is a nice touch. Meanwhile we meet Phil and Mike from Bug who are lending us their guitar and bass amps for the gig, they played the day before and by all accounts got a great reception, to the extent that Phil has been stopped by people wanting to buy merch so many times that he's taken to walking around with a bag full of it! After finding out what time we need to be backstage to set up we take the only possible course of action under the circumstances and go to the bar, where it's clear that a lot of people are looking forward to our show. No pressure then... Dave and Segs go off to do another radio interview while I use my meal ticket to get a jacket potato - rock 'n' roll eh?
We return backstage in time to catch the last few songs by King Kurt who sound as great and indeed as mad as ever; the tent empties while we're setting up but fills up to capacity by the time 'S.T.I.S.' kicks things off once again. There's dancing from the word go and everybody is on top form - 'Secondhand Child' gets another good reception which as Dave says 'means a lot to us', and we encore with 'Brand New Cadillac' for Joe Strummer amid scenes of no little audience pandemonium. Afterwards the organisers go on stage to thank the audience for coming but it's us that should be thanking them - it was a real pleasure to be part of such a great festival.

These two gigs were bookended by two shows with Big Al and co., the first of which took place on Thursday at The Sunningdale Lounge in Sunningdale. I'd been rehearsing all day with Ruts D.C. so felt quite tired by the time I got to the venue but it turned out to be an enjoyable show with several new-to-the-act songs (they're old numbers, we didn't write any of them!) alongside the usual crowd pleasers. But if I was 'quite tired' on Thursday then I'm not sure what word describes my condition during Bank Holiday Monday's 5pm show at The North Star in Iver. Let's go for 'out on my feet' shall we? I got home less than an hour before I had to leave for the show - I played the gig, but I'm not sure how. I don't think that I played too well, and I was pretty wound up, especially when some fat drunken oaf kept on saying that he wanted to get up to sing 'Mustang Sally' with us... I think the contrast between successive shows sometimes gets the better of me, or something... perhaps I should call everyone to apologise... in fact I might do that now... hmmm...

Five alive

...and as predicted last time that was indeed a very busy few days :-

I arrived at the Air Serbia check-in at Heathrow Airport about 15 minutes early for our allotted meeting time of 11.30am on Friday morning. After meeting up with Dave, Segs and Nick (Molara was on her way) and checking in Segs and myself took our instruments to outsize baggage then joined Dave and Nick to go through security. Despite taking off my watch and emptying my pockets I still managed to set the alarm off - I was eventually allowed through after removing my shoes and standing in another (presumably more elaborate?) scanner. With a while to go until we were due to leave we got some food, after which I decided to look for an iPod in the duty free shops. I somehow managed to lose mine a while back and have been looking around for a new one ever since, I suppose I always hope to find a bargain but always end up thinking something like 'well, they're the same price as on Amazon so maybe I should just buy one from there?' Mind you, then I'd have nothing to do at airports...
Our flight was full, and got off to an entertaining start as the chap doing the safety announcements clearly had a rather dry sense of humour - 'In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure an oxygen mask will magically appear in front of you. When you have stopped screaming place it over your face'... he finished with 'if you have been listening to this announcement then I wish you a good flight, if you haven't then I wish you good luck' to the amusement of those who (presumably) had been listening.
We landed at Belgrade Airport just after 5 o'clock. I'd not been to Serbia before and so was hoping to see a bit of the country during our journey to our gig; since our driver chose to take the smaller (and therefore bumpier) roads to Novi Sad rather than the motorways we saw more of the countryside than we otherwise might have. Along the way we stopped at a shop (don't ask me where it was!) where Pardon crackers and Jalen beer was purchased, to the general approval of all concerned. On arriving at The Hotel Putnick (where I'm sharing room 415 with Nick) we met Igor the promoter and dropped some of our stuff off before walking around the corner (literally!) to the venue, a large open air stage in the town square. As Dave checked the drum kit over and I was shown the Marshall JCM 900 provided for my use 'Plan 9 Channel 7' by The Damned played over the PA system - a good sign for the evening ahead.
After eating in a nearby bar I walked back out into the town square - the first band were on and thousands - literally thousands - of people had arrived to watch the show. This was going to be good. I went back to the hotel to get changed and to write out some set lists - by the time I'd done that it was time for us to get set up. As I was plugging my pedal board in Segs asked me if I had a spare guitar lead ('I don't think mine is working') which fortunately I was able to give him; after what felt like only a few minutes we were on and into 'Whatever We Do'. My amp sounded great, in fact everything sounded great, and a potentially classic show is in prospect. It certainly had the makings of that - until during 'Something That I Said' when some worrying buzzing and crackling sounds started to come from Segs's side of the stage. We start 'Mighty Soldier' and everything seems to be ok - until the bass cuts out completely - Segs fiddles with his lead (my lead!) and it comes back on, goes off again... he's given another lead but the same thing happens so it must be the jack socket on his bass. Bugger! Can anyone lend us a bass please? After what felt like ages (but what according to Nick behind the sound desk was actually no time at all) a bass guitar is found - but it's a 5-string model, and Segs has never played one before. He introduces 'Jah War' and then realises that it's got one of the most prominent bass lines in the show - 'let's play it anyway' says he with a smile, and halfway through the first verse the guitar strap comes off and he just catches the instrument before it hits the ground. Oooo! By now we're running short of time so it's straight to the last two songs of the set - 'Staring At The Rude Boys' and 'Babylon's Burning' cause a near-riot and a breathless (and at one point bass-less!) 'Society' close our show. As we walk off some of the crowd are singing 'In A Rut' - oh well, that'll have to wait until next time... as Segs stands at the side of the stage ruefully eyeing his bass he looks at me and smiles - 'you have to laugh don't you?' Yes, I suppose that you do... Dave and Segs went off to do a television interview (The Ruts played in the-then Yugoslavia back in 1980 and there was a lot of interest in their return) while I took my guitar and pedals back to our hotel before joining the others for a drink. Before long liberal application of Lowenbrau along with a plum brandy called Slivovitz have easily banished any possible negative thoughts about our performance - and why not? It really was great to be able to come over to play, and while the technical difficulties made it a difficult gigs in some ways it was also a good one as the audience's reaction proved. Well, I enjoyed it!

Saturday began with (you've guessed it!) a headache. That Slivovitz is strong stuff... I managed to get a bit of breakfast (it finished at 10 o'clock, I got there just before they started clearing it all away) before going back to the room for a shower and (you've guessed it again!) going back to sleep. I did however remember to set an alarm, and so Nick and myself were downstairs in the lobby for our midday rendezvous with Igor who thanked us warmly for coming over and playing before putting us in a taxi to take us back to the airport which this time took a more direct route. Annoyingly our aircraft then sat on the tarmac for over an hour before eventually taking off at quarter past four - no wacky announcements this time, just the rather ominous prediction of turbulence throughout our journey. This fortunately proved to be mostly unfounded, although the pilot did say that he was expecting 'a bumpy landing' as we approached Heathrow - it could have been better, but it could have been a whole lot worse! No time to worry about that now though - my cab got me home for just before 7.30 and I had to be back out an hour-and-a-half later. Oh well - I guess that's why God gave us takeaway food...
I arrived in The West End just after 10 o'clock - it was raining but the streets were still crowded, and the walk from Tottenham Court Road station to The 12 Bar Club took longer than perhaps it should have. Then again, maybe I was flagging a bit? Either way I arrived just in time to catch the last song by The Legendary Groovymen before saying hello to Chris Pope's bass player Mic who was celebrating his birthday by playing with both Pope and a new band called (wait for it!) The London Sewage Company, who feature him and Ken the drummer from Pope alongside 12 Bar Club manager Mark a.k.a Barnet on vocals and their mate Pete and your humble narrator on guitars. Mark asked me if I'd be interested in doing the show the while back, and emailed me a few of the songs he and Mic had been working on - when I heard the first song 'Bridget' start with the line 'he's in love with a cross-dressing midget' (I bet you can guess what that line rhymes with!) I got on the phone straightaway to put myself up for the job. Well, wouldn't you have? We're on later but in the meantime Chris Pope and co. played a storming set in front of a very enthusiastic audience - the band seem to sound better and better each time I see them, which admittedly has been rather a lot recently! There's a while before we're due on - the place is very full, and with a couple of other birthdays in the house it looks like we should be in for a good debut gig. We kick off with 'Night Of A Thousand Beards' (this band really does have some very, er, 'interesting' lyrics!) and I realise that although the rest of them had rehearsed together the previous day I'd only had a brief run through with them a few weeks ago. Ah well, 'in for a penny' as the old saying goes... 30-odd minutes later we all agree that our debut had gone well - after all, we did get to play 'Bridget' twice which I think you'll agree constitutes a good gig by anyone's standards.

By the time Sunday afternoon's Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks gig at Ye Olde George in Colnbrook came around I was feeling tired. Very tired. I'd got in well after 4am and hadn't managed to sleep for anywhere near long enough, and as a result I personally don't think I played too well although nobody else seemed to think that there were any problems (or if they did then they didn't tell me!) The band had played a long show the night before and as a result were all on top form so maybe I was just feeling a bit 'left behind' or something? Anyway it had been a great weekend, which I managed to all-but-ruin for myself by going to The Three Wishes in Edgware for the first time in ages - I though it might have been good fun to go to the regular Monday jam night, but as has occasionally happened at these events there was more than one unpleasant moment of spitefulness from someone who really ought to know better. While I'm not going to let this sour a memorable few days, I really must get around to writing a piece about jam nights one day... 

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...

One day it will please us to remember even this

What follows was written last night on the train home from the gig. I've thought about rewriting it as it's a bit disjointed (to say the least! Well the bar had been open...) but have decided to include it here with very little editing. It's nothing if not honest...

Now you know how I feel about this guitar playing lark don't you? Yeah, of course you do. But just in case you don't...

I have a lot of what I sometimes call 'are you sure Leigh?' moments. As in 'are you sure that you can do this Leigh?' moments. I've found that a lot of musicians are more insecure about their ability than they might first appear, or might look when they're up on a stage. I know that there are much better guitarists than me that never get out of their bedroom or a rehearsal room let alone make it to a stage or do some of the things that I find myself doing. And that's not false modesty or fishing for compliments, it's just true. I don't always feel very lucky, but I know that I'm always lucky to be able to play the guitar. 
So why am I telling you this. Well I'm not sure really. Maybe I'm telling myself it? Again.

I was talking to the lead singer of The Duel Tara Rez at The 100 Club when The U.K. Subs and T.V. Smith played there back in May. She mentioned that The Duel were due to be supporting Sylvain Sylvain of The New York Dolls at said venue on July 25th, and I resolved to attend the gig; among the other subjects that we then touched upon were the band's excellent version of 'Babylon's Burning' as played at the Fiddler's Elbow show also in May when Back To Zero also appeared - at which point, a plan of sorts loosely formed...

I arrived at The 100 Club just after quarter past six. Sylvain Sylvain and the band were soundchecking with a wonderfully raucous instrumental - as I said hello to members of The Duel and The Bears (the first band on) they played a few snippets and a few full songs, all sounding great. 'We'd better get off and give the other guys a chance' said the man himself (a lot of headline acts don't think like that!) as he took his guitar off, left the stage and walked over in my general direction. 
Now as I said earlier, you know how I feel about this guitar playing lark don't you? And you also know that I think that the New York Dolls are one of the greatest rock 'n' roll bands of all time. (Well if you didn't know that then I'm sure that you could have worked it out!) But you also know that I'm basically a very shy person. I try not to be, but I am. So I said to myself, go and say hello to him. Go on, you might not get a chance later on. Look, he's nodded at you, he seems to be alright. Say hello. What's the worst thing that could happen?

'Hello, my name's Leigh. That sounded great.'

He smiled and shook my hand.

Hey Leigh man, thank you.'

I said how good I thought that the guitar sounded - he told me that he's got an old pedal, bought in 1968, a combined fuzz / wha, quite unusual...
And there I was, little old me, talking to Sylvain Sylvain, the bloke out of The New York Dolls, about guitar effect pedals and how he gets his sound. Who'd have thought it eh? Little old me. I played along with his records all those years ago. I still do sometimes.
By now people wanted him - I said that I wouldn't keep him as he was busy but that it had been great to meet him.

'Great to meet you too Leigh' he said, remembering my name as he shook my hand. 

Back to work. Time is running out and there are two bands to soundcheck. The Duel are providing drums and a bass amp, The Bears have two guitarists and I thought I was using Lionel's Marshall set-up but Neil's got a Fender Blues Deluxe combo for me to use. I've got one of those myself. Good. The Duel play half a song without me and then we try 'Babylon's Burning', it all goes right until it all goes wrong - don't worry, it'll be alright on the night. But hang on - this is the night...

The Bears start their set at a quarter to eight. The club is already quite full, and they play a good set which goes down well with all concerned. No pressure then. I set up my guitar as quickly as I can; Tara tells me how nervous she's feeling and I say that it'll be great, probably sounding a bit glib as I realise that I'm feeling quite nervous too.

Andy, Pumpy and Tara from The Duel
attempt to ignore the poser in their midst. 

'What will you do when the money runs out?' The Duel sound terrific and the crowd loves them. And why not? When Tara says that they've got two songs left I realise that it's nearly my turn. The song ends. It's my turn. How does 'Babylon's Burning' go again?
Pumpy taps his sticks together four times and the intensity (in my head at least) leaps by approximately 1000% - 'and with anxiety'...
It ends. The crowd explodes. Goodnight. Tara smiles at Andy, Andy smiles at me - mission accomplished FAB.
I turn Neil's amp off and unplug my guitar. That felt good. I wonder if it sounded good too?
Over the next few minutes I got my answer. I shake hands with what feels like half of the audience. They loved it. And do you know, I loved it too.

9.35pm and London Town becomes New York City before our very eyes. 'OW!' cries our hero. 'Ow!' replies the audience with typically British restraint. 'Ouch!' says Sylvain in a manner that perhaps could best be described as 'beyond camp'. Hilarious.
What followed was a masterclass in out-and-out rock 'n' roll. With Jerome Alexandre on bass and Gary Powell on drums they played old songs, new songs and somewhere-in-between songs with a swagger and a style that all of us want but few of us will ever have. There were some great stories too, about selling jeans to Janis Joplin and how The New York Dolls got their name - that's really him up there on the stage. And it was really Glen Matlock and Clem Burke playing 'Personality Crisis' with him as an encore too. Wow.

After the show - more hands to shake, a hello to Mr. Burke, a few words with Mr. Matlock and probably some other things as well.

So now I'm on my way home trying to write it all down. How you ever tried to write while you're on a tube train? I doubt that I'll be able to read it in the morning. But that was a night to remember, a night never to forget. I told you that I was lucky didn't I?

Well as I say, it's a bit disjointed here and there - even the title doesn't really make sense in this context... many thanks to Big Andy for the photo - I had to use my Les Paul Junior didn't I? Well if it was good enough for Johnny Thunders then it's good enough for me!

'What's that funny noise Pete? And it smells like something's burning...'

I have just - just! - returned from RnR Studios in Uxbridge where myself and my good friend Pete have spent a couple of hours comparing my new-ish Marshall Vintage Modern Combo with his old Fender Twin. Well that was the plan anyway; after only a few minutes of splendidly noisy noise a valve in mine blew. Bugger! I called Roger the amplifier repair man who suggested that (a) even though it would still work it probably wasn't a good idea to continue using the amplifier with a valve down, and (b) if I dropped it round to him he'd put a new matched pair of valves in as well as re-biasing the amp and checking it over generally. More expense! Oh well - these things happen... and at least up until that point it'd sounded great. Still we carried on using Pete's amp as I also wanted to try a few things with my pedalboard - which promptly made a funny noise and stopped working. I think the power supply has gone wrong. Yet more expense! Do you ever get the feeling that it's not going to be your day?

At least things went a bit more smoothly last Friday when I depped with The Repertoire Dogs (whose regular guitarist Mick Ralphs was unavailable) at Nettlebed Village Hall. No I didn't know where it was either... Nick's at the helm on vocals, Bob's on drums, Dick's on bass, Simon's on guitar and Freya and Ann are on backing (and fairly frequent lead) vocals - we all got there early enough for a reasonably long soundcheck which allowed us to play through a few songs and check a few beginnings, middles and endings. This stood us in good stead come showtime as a fair-sized audience had gathered to witness our efforts. They were an energetic bunch, in the mood for dancing from the word go and making a lot of noise throughout our performance. A good and very enjoyable evening.

Saturday Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks played at The Dolphin in Uxbridge. The afore-mentioned Pete had depped for me in the band the night before and joined us for a few songs at this show, which began with a surprisingly heavy version of 'Green Onions' and ended well after time with a raucous 'Born To Run'. The band is sounding better and better every time we play (which doesn't always happen in groups let me tell you!) and with more songs being added to the show on a regular basis and gigs coming in throughout the rest of the year this is definitely a good band to be part of. We've got three gigs this coming weekend - that's nearly a tour! And there's also a Back To Zero rehearsal to fit in on Sunday - busy times...

Sunday evening I ventured down to The Crown And Treaty in Uxbridge for their once-a-month open mic / jam night. As previously discussed I find myself at quite a few of these gatherings these days, and this one certainly seems to be growing in popularity. Overall I think this is a good thing as it gives people who don't usually get a chance to play or sing on a stage an opportunity to do so, although inevitably the quality of performance can vary dramatically. And there are quite a few mad moments here and there too - I really must write a blog piece about it all sometime soon... anyway I played bass with Simon the DJ (wielding a splendid Rickenbacker guitar) and my old drumming mate Grant on 'Baby I Love You' and 'You've Got To Hide Your Love Away' and jolly good fun it was too. (Which reminds me - The Upper Cut are playing at Simon's birthday bash on July 27th at The General Eliott in Uxbridge which should be a good night, and they're also playing at The Dolphin on July 19th, which is my birthday gig. If you're in the area it'd be good to see you!) 

I'm off to Brighton tomorrow to try some effect pedals. Mind you, I'm not sure that I can afford to buy them now...

Welcome to the cheap seats

It's been a case of 'played two, watched one' this weekend for your humble narrator :-

Friday saw The Upper Cut venture South of the River Thames for the first time; I depped with The Atlantic Soul Machine at Patrick's Bar in Crystal Palace back in March, and remembering it to be a basement venue I decided to take my Fender combo as it's a bit lighter than my recently acquired Marshall. (Yeah I know - but like all six foot tall men I'm a complete wimp!) When we got there the very nice young lady behind the bar told us that we were playing upstairs, and indeed the house P.A. system had already been set up for us. Given the fact that the guv'nor told us after the show that he thought that we'd been a bit loud maybe it's just as well that the mighty Marshall didn't make an appearance? While we were setting up a cheery chappie came over and told us that he was Phil Lynott's cousin; he then went on to tell us that he'd been in prison and The Army. He seemed happy enough... overall the band played very well if not excellently, and although it took a a while for things to get going (and indeed for the audience to arrive as there was only a handful of people in the bar when we started playing - the venue is on the Crystal Palace Triangle and we were told that people wander from bar to bar throughout the evening) we ended up playing a couple of encores and being rebooked for July 26th. It's good when that happens, although remind me to adjust the lights before we start playing next time as both Roger and myself were nearly driven insane by the strobe effect setting. Nasty!

The next night Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks played at The Wishing Well in Hayes. You know it's interesting - when you tell people that you're playing in Hayes you generally get comments like 'take a crash helmet', 'wear some armour' and even 'you're going to get killed'. It's funny how some places just have that sort of reputation isn't it? Well in this case they were all wrong (and yes I did get comments like that) as it turned out to be a highly enjoyable evening with everyone in the band on top form and our 2+ hour performance (I didn't realise that we knew that many songs!) going down very well with all concerned. The Blistering Buicks are becoming a very good little band!

And talking of good little bands last night I ventured over to The O2 Arena to see that well-known mod band The Who. I'd heard some very mixed reports about the venue, from some folk calling it the best 'big' venue in the country to others saying that they would never visit it again. I'd always much prefer to see a band in a smaller venue, and as I sat something like a quarter of a mile from the stage (I was in what I believe are referred to as 'the vertigo seats') wondering just how long I could make a £5 plastic glass of flat lager last I don't mind admitting that I was ready to unconditionally hate the evening - I'm pleased to say that any such thoughts disappeared a few seconds into Vintage Trouble's first song. I was first alerted as to their excellence by fellow former Chicago Blues Brothers man Matt who recommended this clip of them playing 'Blues Hand Me Down'; I subsequently bought their excellent 'The Bomb Shelter Sessions' album and so were really looking forward to seeing them play. Indeed if I'm honest it was their presence on the bill that convinced me to get a ticket, as I'd hesitated for a while not least due to the expense. (You and I both know that I'd have gone anyway, but I'm trying to play hard to get here! Incidentally I bought a ticket just a few days ago on Seatwave for well below than the face value. Result!) Great as the album is if anything they're an even more dynamic prospect live, with singer Ty Taylor an unstoppable ball of energy and charisma and the rest of the band up there with him all the way. Much of their set was presumably new songs (well, they're not on the album) but it's a testament to their quality that the rapidly-arriving audience was singing along with choruses and joining in at every opportunity. That said they weren't really given much choice - Vintage Trouble didn't come across  a support band, but more as a headline act, a great band from the moment they hit stage to when they left it to walk through the audience to sign merchandise at the back of the hall. I've never seen a band in a venue this size do that before. Absolutely brilliant. 

The Who, as seen from
Block 416, Row P, Seat 835.
Well it looked like them
on the screens...

So how do The Who follow that? Simple - with the sound of the sea. 'Quadrophenia' often splits the jury even among their most ardent followers, with many finding it overwrought and difficult to get close to, while others consider it to be the band's crowning achievement. Me? Well I'm definitely a long way nearer to the second analysis that the first, and as such I guess I'm very unlikely to give any show that features the album in it's entirety a bad review - that said the last time that I saw them perform it back in 2010 it was one of the least convincing shows that I'd ever seen the band play. Not so this time - with a completely new stage set and background films (no 'talking head' narration this time) and a lot of new faces in the band the whole thing worked wonderfully well, with Pete Townshend playing superbly and Roger Daltrey's vocals continuing to amaze. And thanks to the wonders of modern technology their departed bandmates both made appearances, with John Entwistle 'playing' a bass solo during '5.15' and Keith Moon's classic vocal in 'Bellboy' bringing a massed smile to the audience's faces. And it was great to hear 'Drowned' played by the band rather than as a solo acoustic piece by Townshend - I don't think I've heard it played electrically since way back in the early '80s. I thought the films worked particularly well especially during the two instrumental pieces 'Quadrophenia' and 'The Rock', with the former using footage from the end of World War II through to the mod era of the 1960s and the latter continuing the story up to the 9/11 attacks. As 'Love Reign O'er Me' bought things to a suitably epic climax the audience's reaction seemed to me to be more like the reverential applause that you might get at a classical concert rather than the euphoric type normally associated with rock shows - that's not to say that it didn't go down well, more that it seemed to get an extraordinary amount of respect from the assembled multitude. Maybe 'Quadrophenia' is now seen in a different, more 'serious' light? 
Meanwhile in the vertigo seats the beery bunch of lads next to me didn't seem to know it at all, wondering loudly if Ve Ooo were gunna to play any ov vere old stuff - they didn't seem too familiar with 'Who Are You' or 'You Better You Bet' either, although 'Pinball Wizard' seemed to get their attention to the stage for at least a couple of minutes. Meanwhile the rest of the audience had left their previous reverence well behind, and with mayhem and chaos erupting all around a thunderous end salvo of 'Baba O'Riley' and 'Won't Get Fooled Again' bought the band's contribution to the evening to a magnificent close. It only remained for Townshend and Daltrey to finish proceedings with an oddly fragile-sounding 'Tea And Theatre' - as I left my seat the beery lads were contemplating where vey were gunna get anuvver drink from, while the rest of us were safe in the knowledge that the two surviving members of The Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band In The World had kept us all from wondering what we would do without The Who for another day. 

A fine evening all round - and there's another one on the horizon this Thursday...