That Was The Year That Wasn't

What follows was written quickly. Rather like this year it's a bit disjointed but, rather like this year, it is what it is.

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‘For a minute there, I lost myself...’

Well. You know that things are getting weird when you find yourself quoting a line from a Radiohead song.

We're in the middle of the Christmas holiday, nearing the end of the strangest of years. Pretty much everyone I've talked to on the phone in the last few days is bored. Lost. Desperate.

When will this all end? Indeed, where will this all end? I've been asking myself that a fair bit lately. Maybe you have too? 

I miss people. I never really thought that I would, but I do. At least I think that I do. I've always spent a lot of time on own - not particularly through choice, it's just how things have worked out. I've never had lots of friends, I've not got much to say for myself, women get bored with me - often when they discover that I don't think about very much other than guitars - and I often find social situations with lots of people difficult to cope with.

Ah - but hang on a minute? I've got friends. I talk to people when I'm out and about, occasionally about things other than guitars. Every once in a while some of them are women. And aren't gigs 'social situations with lots of people'?

 

Gigs. I remember them. Maybe you do too? They were great weren't they? Well, I thought that they were. I wonder if they will ever happen like we used to know them again. 

Sometimes in the last few months I've wondered if I would ever play another gig. That's not a good thing to find yourself thinking. Having said that The Slogans have managed to play three shows since we last spoke - a Sunday afternoon 'sit-down-three-piece-without-the drums' show in The Dolphin in Uxbridge way back in August (I really must update this blog more often mustn't I? More about that in a minute...) and then a whopping two gigs in October, and on successive Fridays at that. We played another sit down show at The Horns in Watford on the 16th, then Dylan made a triumphant return behind the kit the 23rd at The Cavern in Raynes Park. All were highly enjoyable, although I'd be lying if I didn't say that the third show beat the the other two in the fun stakes. Mind you I realised that I wasn't anywhere near match fit at the Cavern show as I was sweating by the second song and not playing particularly well. I got going in the end (I wouldn't have mentioned it here if I hadn't!) and we were due to make a return visit to the venue in December - but, of course, we didn’t. 

It now feels as though Ruts D.C. have postponed more gigs than we've ever played - we haven't of course, but that’s what it feels like. Incredibly we’ve released two - count ‘em, two! - albums this year (since you were wondering- the live ‘40 Years Of The Crack’ recorded on our 2019 UK tour, and ‘ElectrAcoustiC’ which features reworked old songs; both are available on our website) and have somehow played two - count ‘em, two! - gigs. Both of these were sit down shows at The New Cross Inn earlier this month (the 14th and 15th December) and while both were ostensibly acoustic I used an electric guitar for a fair bit of the evening. We were supposed to play three shows, but as we were getting our gear together for the first gig we heard that London was going into Tier 3 of Coronavirus restrictions on the morning of our third show. Much incredulity followed, followed by much swearing... the shows went well, and then we all went home. That was that for this year.

And I even went to some - well, three - gigs. I saw Steve Simpson with his new band The Waders a couple of times at The Cavern (both shows were excellent) and witnessed the mighty Menace at The Holroyd Arms in Guildford. The bands were standing, the audience were seated and I don't mind admitting that I was almost euphoric at times. I really like music. That hasn't changed.

But at least I managed to play some shows. There are many increasingly despondent musicians that haven't played at all this year. Do you remember that ridiculously offensive 'Fatima' advert? Vile wasn't it? Leaving aside the fact that there were some excellent parodies out in no time at all it seemed to me that it was yet another example of how this increasingly appalling government have absolutely no idea whatsoever how to handle the situation. I for one have long been fed up with ghastly toffs telling us what we should think and do - now an endless procession of faceless ministers appear on television instead, none of whom take any responsibility for the current chaos. Tens of thousands of people have died, hundreds of thousands have lost their jobs, physical and mental health problems are increasing at a frightening rate and this gang of goons will all get peerages and houses big enough to be seen from outer space. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad. The tiers of a clown indeed.

In an attempt to make some sort of sense of things and indeed to put my time to good use I decided to try to learn a few things on the computer. Among other things I've had a go at making DVDs (you want a gig bootlegging from YouTube? I'm your man!) and perhaps more constructively I've been finding my way around Garageband. This as you may know is a recording app, and after much brow-furrowing I used it to contribute guitars to 'World Of Sunlight' by Pete 'Joyless' Jones back in the summer - since then I've recorded my parts for a new Alvin Gibbs & The Disobedient Servants single (our 'History' EP was also released back in June - under normal circumstances this would have been a really good year for me in terms of record releases!) and quite a few new song ideas. I still get a bit stuck here and there, but I'm quite pleased with progress so far. Lots of people are recording at home these days - so does this mean the end of recording studios? Will they be yet another casualty of 2020? Let's hope not - the three days Ruts D.C. spent at Perry Vale Studios with Pat Collier recording 'ElectrAcoustiC' were highlights of my year. Admittedly highlights have been few and far between this year, but you know what I mean I think. And surely I could have written more blog posts? Well I could - if there was anything to write about. You'd soon get tired of me ranting on and on about how evil The Tories are over and over again - I'm certainly getting fed up with thinking about it.

So - what now? There's a vaccine or two around, and talk of 'getting back to normal' sometime soon - but will we? Will the world we knew ever return? It's quite a thought isn't it? I'm optimistic that it will - most of the time. Pubs are closing at a depressing rate, often as a result of governmental incompetence which has resulted in the rules changing so often, and I fear that many venues will go the same way. I wonder if people are losing the habit of going out - then again a lot of folk sound as though they would go to the opening of an envelope if it got them out of the house. 

Well - that was 2020. Let's see what 2021 has to offer. It will be better.

It will be better - won't it?

New Year's Resolution revisited

Nothing ever really changes does it?

2015 began with your humble narrator watching Martin Turner in Ruislip, playing a Sunday afternoon gig in Colnbrook with The Upper Cut and spending rather a lot of time at The Resolution Festival at The 100 Club. 

2016 began with your humble narrator watching Martin Turner in Ruislip, playing a Sunday afternoon gig in Colnbrook with The Upper Cut and spending rather a lot of time at The Resolution Festival at The 100 Club.

As I say, nothing ever really changes does it?

I hadn't been to Tropic At Ruislip for a while; having now seen two shows there within a week of each other (I saw The Rollin' Stoned there last Friday in addition to the former Wishbone Ash man the previous Saturday) it's great to see so many people at what clearly is a thriving venue. I know that some people locally criticise the booking policy - mostly tribute acts with the 'first Friday of the month' show featuring an artist or band performing original material - but if it attracts the sort of audience numbers that these shows did it surely can't be a bad thing. And both the shows were excellent, with Martin Turner and his band sounding every bit as classy as they did last year and The Rollin' Stoned playing a great set of songs from every era of the Stones's long career to a sold out crowd.

My first gig of the year as a musician as opposed to as a spectator was with The Upper Cut at The Queen's Arms in Colnbrook. I'd not played at this pub before although the band played a short notice gig there with Pete depping on guitar last month; it being the first Sunday of the New Year it wasn't as busy as it might have been but there were still more than enough people there to make it work. That said although it was by no means a bad show the band wasn't as tight as it can be so it might well be time for a rehearsal or two before our next gig.

The Resolution Festival opened at The 100 Club last Monday with spirited sets from The Ramonas and The Duel - booked by The Crucial Talent Agency and featuring artists and bands from right across the punk rock spectrum highlights have been many and varied, although I have to say that last night's U.K. Subs show and The Members gig on Tuesday night stood out for me. I joined T.V. Smith and Vom for a few songs during their excellent performance supporting the afore-mentioned Members, and Segs joined us for the set closer 'Gary Gilmore's Eyes' - with Gaye Advert in the audience he confessed to being nervous before the show, but it all went brilliantly well as this short clip shows. All in all a great event which will hopefully take place again next year.

And tomorrow Segs and myself will be in the studio at Jamm in Brixton reviewing and working on last month's Ruts D.C. recordings. 2016 then...

Many Happy Returns

Well there you have it - the biggest gap between postings that these hallowed pages have ever seen. Well, these have been busy times. Since last Tuesday I've been working in Balcony Shirts as well as playing 3 shows with Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks and appearing at The Boomtown Fair with Ruts D.C. - all of which means that this is the first chance I've had to post anything since The Rebellion Festival. 

Ah yes, The Rebellion Festival. That seems a long time ago now. And in many ways it was a long time ago, or maybe to be more accurate it feels as though it was another time. 5 days in Blackpool, during which I managed, oh I don't know, maybe 20 hours sleep at the most. No wonder I couldn't keep my eyes open several times in the succeeding few days. Still that's alright - sometimes things are too interesting to sleep through aren't they?

So - what happened?

Well some details are necessarily sketchy, while others will remain with me forever. Did I, as a teenage Damned fan, ever think that I'd be in a backstage bar discussing the merits of The Prisoner with Captain Sensible? No, I did not. But this happened, and more besides. In musical terms the two Ruts D.C. shows - one on the 'big' stage in The Empress Ballroom. the other in the cramped confines of the acoustic stage - were both as good as we ever hoped that they would be, while the show with Noel from Menace and Rob from King Kurt was better than any of us could believe! The London Sewage Company show went well, an unscheduled appearance with T.V. Smith reminded me just what a genius the man is, and a song with Bug was great fun even though my guitar chose to go wildly out of tune as soon as I bent a string. It turned out that the top nut had come loose - I spent the next morning buying superglue to repair it... all this muscling onto other people's stages (that's a joke, I was invited!) meant that I played on every day of the festival, as well as working on the Cadiz Music merchandising stall the rest of the time. Maybe it wasn't just lack of sleep that was making me tired... 

I'd attempted to use my Facebook page as a kind of 'live diary' as the festival progressed, but a mixture of bad phone signal in The Winter Gardens and being too bloody busy to remember to do it meant that I didn't manage to update it as often as I'd have liked. And it wasn't all good - I had several nosebleeds (I wasn't doing anything naughty, honest!) and received a frantic phone call from my Dad telling me that my bank had called to say that my credit card had been compromised (it seems that I'd bought several ill-defined items in quick succession while working behind the stall - the very helpful young lady on the phone sorted it out in no time) but nothing could ruin what really was a wonderful festival. But that was then, and this is now. Back to life, back to reality. Same time next year? Let's hope so.

'Euston, we have a problem...'

Well I've just had three 18-ish hour days in a row and have had little if any time today to sit blogging about 'em. So, in a nutshell...

Thursday - Ruts D.C. rehearsal during the day, Menace rehearsal in the evening.

Friday - Ruts D.C. rehearsal during the day, Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks gig in the evening.

Saturday - working in Balcony Shirts during the day, Neck gig in the evening.

...which all looks reasonable straightforward written down here, and I suppose in many way it was exactly that. The only bit that caused any real problems was getting stuck at Harrow-On-The-Hill Station on Friday as I was coming back from The Music Complex in Deptford (a disembodied voice repeatedly told us that the line to Uxbridge was closed due to 'signal failure at Rayners Lane'; incidentally 2 splendid sessions at said studio may well mean several new songs appearing at the coming weekend's Ruts D.C. shows - oh yes!) for a gig with Big Al and the boys at Hayes Working Men's Club. This resulted in several increasingly sweary phone conversations before the heroic efforts of fellow six-stringer Pete went above and beyond the call of duty by meeting me at Northwood Hills Station. We made it to the gig in time which went well although I felt that I played badly in the first set; it had been a long day on Thursday with the Menace rehearsal at K Town Studios in Kentish Town running on until after 10 o'clock so maybe it was all catching up with me? Still that rehearsal had also gone well, with drummer Noel sounding good on acoustic guitar (he's usually on drums!) and vocals and and Rob excelling on double bass - we're getting together again tomorrow evening so with a Ruts D.C. session also happening another long day is in prospect. Still I wanted to play the guitar didn't I? And it was definitely good to play guitar last night, when Neck played at The Good Ship in Kilburn at an evening to celebrate the 85th anniversary of The Morning Star newspaper. With Naomi Bedford and Paul Simmonds, Comrade X and Attila The Stockbroker also on the bill a fine night was in prospect, and I'm pleased to say that a fine night was had. Personally after a l-o-n-g day in Balcony Shirts I could perhaps had done with an early night, but as I said earlier, I wanted to play the guitar didn't I?

And there's lots of guitar playing in store for your humble narrator this coming weekend, as it's The Rebellion Festival in Blackpool - in addition to appearing with Ruts D.C. and Menace I'm also playing with The London Sewage Company, working on the Cadiz Music merchandising stall and maybe doing a few songs with a couple of other acts too. I am intending to give a kind of 'running commentary' by regularly updating my Facebook page as the festival progresses, but there are a lot of bars and they're all open all day...

'And red mutant eyes gaze down on Hunger City'...

It's my birthday on Friday, and starting then I've got 3 gigs in 3 days with 3 different bands. I realise that for most people that would not constitute a reasonable way to celebrate such an event, but you won't be surprised to hear that it fits the bill just fine for me... The Upper Cut play The Dolphin in Uxbridge on the day itself, the next night Big Al and the Blistering Buicks are back at The Brushwood Inn in Hillingdon and on Sunday Neck play The Ambition Festival in Croydon. Excellent!

And it's been 3 gigs with 3 different bands since last we spoke, starting with The London Sewage Company at The 12 Bar Club in Holloway on Friday. It was singer Barnet Mark's birthday, and with The Fallen Leaves and Chris Pope among the other acts on the bill a splendid time was guaranteed for all. I'd spent the day with Noel and Rob (incidentally that's Rob on bass in this legendary clip. Oh yes!) from Menace rehearsing for our upcoming acoustic show at The Rebellion Festival - when I got to the venue The Love Me Tenders were roaring through their set and sounding good to me. Next up Chris Pope who played with customary commitment and energy, with new songs and Chords classics sitting together well. By the time we went on around half past nine the place had filled up nicely and our set saw much merriment on the dance floor. It also saw various items of underwear thrown at Mark who then got covered in silly string followed by an inordinate amount of flour amid scenes that wouldn't have been out of place at a King Kurt gig. He took it well, but I suppose he had to if you think about it. The Fallen Leaves then gave a wonderful performance - I hadn't seen them for a while and had all but forgotten how much I like them. After that it was time to leave for the train home, but not before bidding Mark goodnight - he was wearing a loud Hawaiian shirt and an increasingly confused expression. And why not?

On Sunday afternoon The Upper Cut made their latest appearance at Ye Olde George in Colnbrook. It being a very hot afternoon I for one was half-expecting a low audience turnout but I'm pleased to say that there were plenty of people present, including Blistering Buicks Big Al and Pete both fresh from The Uxbridge Auto Show. Despite the heat we gave an energetic show that wasn't without incident - I was interrupted mid-solo by a young lady who I think was trying to tell me that I was playing too loud (I couldn't hear what she was saying as I was playing too loud) while later a table collapsed for no apparent reason (at least none that I could see) and a young couple kept telling us that they'd tried to book us for their wedding a year or so ago (we hadn't been available, although no one could quite work out why). All in an afternoon's work.

And last night Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks played The Ox And Gate in Dollis Hill. A Tuesday night gig is rare enough, but a seven o'clock start at a Hungarian food night qualifies as 'previously uncharted territory' on more than one level. Howard once again made a great job of depping on drums, I met Aussie Rob who used to play in Swervedriver and Curve and who knows the lads out of Menace and everyone else enjoyed the free food, especially Al who at one point had possibly the biggest sausage that I've ever seen (oo-er missus etc) on his plate. 

Me? I bought myself a veggie burger. Of course I did. 'If they give you lined paper, write the other way', as someone once wrote...

Grin and bear it

Malcolm Owen died 35 years ago today. I'm listening to 'The Crack' by The Ruts even as we speak - maybe you are too? It sounds amazing. It is amazing. There's a nice tribute piece on the band's Facebook page that you can see if you click here - shine on Malcolm, shine on...

In the meantime I had my first nosebleed of this year's hay fever season yesterday - actually to be pedantic I had two of the damn things, one in Balcony Shirts (much to the horror of Erin who had started work experience there that morning - she must have wondered what she'd let herself in for!) and one early evening in The Queen's Head when Al and Pete from The Blistering Buicks did their best to keep the conversation going despite the (ahem!) gallons of blood pouring from my face. It left me feeling pretty rough, to such an extent that (a) I couldn't concentrate on the Who DVD 'Live At Shea Stadium 1982' which I attempted to watch when I got home and (b) I got up after 9.30 this morning which is very late for me. I don't mind admitting that I don't feel too good now either. Summer eh?

Last Thursday Ruts D.C. visited Rough Trade East in Brick Lane to promote the recently-issued 'Love In Vain - The Story Of The Ruts and Ruts D.C.' book by Roland Link. The date had been changed several times over the last few months, so it was rather ironic that it fell on the same day as the biggest train strike for many years. How dare these loony lefties still mad enough to be part of a trade union exercise their right to withdraw their labour on a day of such cultural importance? I mean, they're only being asked to work all day and night for practically no reward - they'll be wanting lunch breaks next...

On a more serious note, good luck to the train TUs - after all, who wants to work for nothing eh?

Anyway all this militant action meant that audience numbers were lower - make that much lower - than expected, but those who were there saw not only an acoustic performance but also took part in a Q&A with Dave, Segs and myself. We sold a good few books, chatted to all those who attended and generally had a great time. Well I certainly did, although my unsuccessful attempt to buy the new album by The Sonics - it was sold out - somehow summed up the day, if you know what I mean.

Friday night saw The Upper Cut return to The Admiral Nelson in Twickenham for the first time in quite a while - a hot and sticky night included several 'new' songs alongside the old favourites (they're new to us, we didn't write any of 'em!) and the obligatory Very Drunk Bloke being, well, very drunk while dancing (ok to be more accurate he was stumbling around waving his arms about, but you get the picture) just a bit too close to the band for comfort and attempting to high five everybody in the building. He failed.

A very hot Saturday in the shop gave way to a Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks gig at The Three Wishes in Eastcote. Again several 'new' songs found their way into the set while a gang of birthday - celebrating young ladies livened up the dancefloor no end and another V. D. B. attempted to attract their collective attention. He also failed.

And on Sunday I rehearsed with Noel and Rob from Menace in preparation for our acoustic set at The Rebellion Festival in August before going to The 12 Bar Club to see the legend that is T.V. Smith - except that I only saw four songs from the great man (in case you were wondering - 'Only One Flavour', 'First One To Sign Up', 'No Time To Be 21' and 'Coming In To Land') before I had to leave to get the last tube train home. If only they ran all night eh? Oh hang on...

Beautiful Nights in December, busy nights (and days) in June

After a relatively quiet few days the busy times are back, as with one of the Balcony Shirts staff on holiday and the shop the busiest it's been for ages I should be in there most days this week. Whilst this is hardly bad news as it's a chance to earn a bit of money but it does leave little time for anything else aside from working in there and learning songs in the evening. The latter is about to become particularly important as not only am I about to play a couple more gigs with Neck but I'm also going to play an acoustic set with Noel Martin from Menace at The Rebellion Festival in August. All this (ahem!) frenzied activity (by my standards!) means that there's precious little time for blogging - there's just time to mention that I saw The Godfathers blow the roof off The 100 Club on Wednesday (a 30th anniversary show that was up there with many that I saw them play back in the day) then returned to said venue on Saturday night to see '60s soul man James Royal - backed by several Good Old Boys it was sadly a somewhat scrappy show as the band hadn't played together or indeed in some cases even met before the show. That said I'm glad I got there early enough to see a great support set from The Mynd Set - I'll be keeping an eye out for them in the future. Oh and Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks (aided and abetted by Back To Zero drummer Andy depping for a holidaying Dave) had a riotous night at The Dolphin in Uxbridge on Friday - fellow guitarist Pete can't make this weekend's shows in Harrow and Colnbrook so I must remember to run through some of his parts before then.

In the meantime and following on from last week's Australian tour poster here's one for 'Beautiful Nights', a series of shows due this coming December that will feature The Levellers, Dreadzone and Ruts D.C. - I must say that it's shame that there's no London gig scheduled (sorry if that sounds a bit greedy!) but they look set to be a great run of gigs even if they do seem a long way off at the moment. Well they are a long way off at the moment. But they'll come around...