'Keep your head high, and your middle finger higher...'

Well I don't want to tempt fate - after all, who does? - but I'm pleased to report that the famous finger seems to be getting better at last. At least I think that it is - the original cut is still pretty painful, and it generally doesn't look how it should look but hopefully it'll improve further over the next few days. You know it's strange - it was just a silly little scratch from a piece of cardboard…

Proof that things are going in the right direction comes with the fact that I played three gigs in three days over the weekend, starting with a Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks show at Ye Olde Swan in Burnham. I'd not been to the venue before but the band had gigged there in my absence and had all said things like 'they like it rocky there' - in the event we played a good show to an appreciative crowd although I don't recall it being any more 'rocky' than any other gig, or indeed the following night's show at The Three Wishes in Edgware. I'd been at said establishment only a few days earlier for the Easter Monday jam night - I used to go along to these gatherings fairly regularly (they have a regular jam night on Mondays) but I got fed up with various people making sarcastic comments along the lines of 'oh aren't you too famous to come along here now?' It's amazing how far things like jealousy, bitterness and spite will get you isn't it? Well they certainly got them a long way… anyway Big Al and Pete from The Buicks were going and invited me to go with them, and with the likes of Gary Sandford, Dzal Martin and Pete Parks all in attendance it turned out to be something of a guitar-fest. Maybe I should go along more often? Then again, maybe not - there were still more than enough sneers to remind me why I stopped going along in the first place… there was a sneer or two from one of the same people on Saturday night too, but that didn't stop it from being a good gig. And why should it? They were having a bad night, not me.
I was supposed to have been playing with The Upper Cut at The Salmon And Ball in Bethnal Green on Saturday night, but the gig was cancelled a few days earlier when we were given the slightly peculiar news that all the pubs in the area were closing at 10 pm as there was to be a Chess Boxing match at the nearby York Hall (and no, I'd not heard of Chess Boxing before either, but it looks mad doesn't it?!) We did however play an afternoon show the next day at The Queen's Arms in Colnbrook, where my 'I'd better be careful in case I hurt my hand' restraint of the previous couple of nights was abandoned in favour of 'oh bugger it, I'm just going to play' - yes, you've guessed it, I took some of the 'new' skin off my finger and generally managed to hurt myself more than I should have just by windmilling and being silly. Good fun though! 

This week, more of the same with Big Al and the boys in Sunningdale and Northwood and The Upper Cut in Uxbridge, along with some time in Balcony Shirts and murmurings of activity from the Ruts D.C. camp. As I say, things are going in the right direction… hopefully...

Boys (and girls) will be boys...

Well I didn't play any shows myself last weekend (or at least I wasn't intending to...) but I did see a couple of bands :-

Friday night at The Crown and Treaty in Uxbridge and a young band called Girl In the Garden take to the stage. I'd seen a poster for them in the venue the previous weekend and Sam had said that he'd seen them and they were good so Pete, him and myself decided to go along. Sam was correct, they were good, very tight and well-rehearsed - something that we all agreed we were not even close to being at their age! I was a bit disappointed when they played a few cover versions as their own material was very good but I suspect it was to allow them to play in places like this where a lot of the audience want to hear familiar material. They reminded me a bit of The Arctic Monkeys (no bad thing) although I must say that overall I was very struck by what good players they all are - I suppose that in these days of guitar institutes and online tuition everybody is a virtuoso now. Is it just me or does it make them sound a bit, for want of a better term, grown up? It'll be interesting to see where they go next. 

Rockstock at The Halfway House in Barnes couldn't have been more different than the previous night's band. They feature the ever-excellent Pete Parks on guitar, Andy Heart on bass and vocals and the brilliantly-named Ivan Hoe (you don't know how much I hope that's his real name!) on drums and they offer what I guess could best be called 'classic rock covers'. Unlike Girl In The Garden this wasn't exactly a slick performance, being basically Pete and Ivan having a go at whichever song Andy called up. Well either that or the rehearsal studio was closed... that said they attempted some very ambitious material (as I was to discover!) and they mostly pulled it off, albeit with the odd wrong turn here and there. In the interval Pete asked me if I fancied doing a couple of numbers with them - somehow I found myself attempting 'Pinball Wizard' and (gulp!) 'Stairway To Heaven' (whatever happened to a bit of 12 bar rock 'n'roll eh lads?!?) and all things considered I didn't make too bad a job of them, although as usual I wouldn't have mentioned it here if it had...

Time for the first studio rehearsal (as opposed to getting together around one of our houses) for Back To Zero, at Soundlab Studios in Loughton. In the course of the session we looked at seven songs including both sides of their 1979 single 'Your Side Of Heaven' / 'Back To Back', and without wishing to sound too big headed they all sounded pretty good to me. It certainly sounded good for our first time in a studio together, although I guess that proves the worth of our earlier meetings. There's still a lot of work to do before our gigs in May but talking to Andy and Sam in the pub afterwards (Squirrel sadly couldn't stick around) we all agreed that this is a band that we're all getting really excited about. Excellent!

The Friday just gone (March 1st in case you're getting confused - I know I am!) saw Tropic At Ruislip invaded by punk rockers (mostly middle-aged punk rockers, but punk rockers nonetheless) for an evening with The Pistols and The Ramonas. I'd been looking forward to seeing The Ramonas for a while as I'd heard good things about them, and I must say that they didn't disappoint. I suppose an all girl Ramones tribute band is only ever going to be a bit of a one line gag - but it's a good gag, and the girls do a fine job of emulating Da Bruddas, even if the shouts of 'One-Two-Three-Four!' are in a rather higher pitch than I remember them. And The Pistols were great too - it's always interesting to see a band that I've recently depped in, and the excellent Steve Tones was in fine form throughout as were the rest of the band. Paul / Rotten did however break rule number 1 in the live music performance handbook when he decided to take the mickey out of Phil the soundman - I suppose Phil could have chosen to retaliate with a wall of feedback so the resulting silence from Paul's microphone was probably the best option, at least from the audience point of view. It was great to see plenty of people at the gig too - a fine night all round.

Saturday night I depped in The Atlantic Soul Machine at Patrick's Bar in Crystal Palace. I played with the band on Christmas Eve which must have gone well since they asked me back (!) and although there wasn't chance to get together for a rehearsal this time the show was if anything better than my first outing with them. We were joined by John O'Leary for a version of Howlin' Wolf's 'Who's Been Talkin'' ('It's on the 'Rocking Chair' album' said John cheerily, which only added to the confusion of the band members that hadn't heard the song) and started the second set with the previously unrehearsed 'Ooga-Boo-Ga-Loo' by The Jazz Crusaders (no,I'd not heard it before either) both of which could have gone horribly wrong but thankfully sounded good. There was much dancing and merriment from the enthusiastic audience, and everyone seemed to be happy with the show which is always a relief from my point of view as a sub-sti-tute. And it was good to see Pete Feenstra again too - he remains as tireless as ever in his promoting of live music in London, which can only be a good thing for all concerned. 

And talking of seeing bands that I've recently depped in, last night I saw The Good Old Boys at The Brushwood Inn (it'll always be The Turks Head to me!) in Hillingdon. Bill's depping for Nick on bass but other than that it was The A-Team of Alan on vocals, Pete and Simon on guitars and Hud on drums; with an early start in prospect I got there around 7.40 pm to find them already into their first set which sounded good if a bit loud for the room. (God I must be getting old!) Add to that the fact that they were mostly playing to lads who had been there all afternoon for the Arsenal vs. Chelsea match and so weren't too interested in the music and you've got the recipe for a somewhat patchy first set. Things improved considerably in the second half not least because more of the band's followers had arrived by then, and by the last few songs it was definitely a case of 'all's well that end's well' - at least it was until the aforementioned lads decided to get a bit too boisterous with each other and a small set-to ensued. It's always a shame when that happens, and it's definitely a shame when there's a band on as it might put people off from supporting live music at the pub in the future. Let's hope not, as the pub is only just starting to put groups on and the area could definitely do with a venue.

Right - this week sees Ruts D.C. play in Newport and Bristol, Wilko Johnson's farewell gigs and another Back To Zero rehearsal. A good few days in prospect then...

(Deep) Purple Hayes

So there I was, minding my own business sometime around twelve hours ago, when my phone rang - it was Alan Barratt, lead singer with local rock 'n' roll legends The Good Old Boys. The conversation went something like this :-

ALAN - 'Are you working tomorrow night?'
LEIGH - 'Er, no.'
ALAN - 'You are now.'

- which means that I'm playing at Hayes Working Mens Club with The Good Old Boys tonight. Original Deep Purple member Nick Simper is on bass, Richard 'Hud' Hudson from The Strawbs, Hudson Ford and all those other famous bands is on drums, amazing country rock guitar comes from ex - Renaissance man Simon Bishop and the afore-mentioned Alan (ex - Jo Jo Gunne) is on vocals. Their usual guitarist Pete Parks isn't well - he played in Warhorse with Nick. Do you ever get the feeling that you could be out of your depth? Oh and I don't know any of their material. Attempts to point this out to Alan received a response along the lines of 'it's easy, it's just rock ' n roll'. I've got their album 'Live At The Deep Purple Convention' playing in the background as I type this - what they're doing doesn't sound too 'easy' to me. Still, I'm not going to learn any of it by sitting here typing am I? Better get the guitar out - this should be a very interesting evening...