'Is that too loud? 'Cos I don't care!'

Well I may not be playing any gigs this week, but at least I've had chance to catch up on a few YouTube clips:-

After depping with them on Christmas Eve I've got another gig with The Atlantic Soul Machine next Saturday at Patrick's Bar in Crystal Palace. This is one of Pete Feenstra's venues - I haven't seen him for years so it'll be good to see him if he's there. Some of their material is tricky stuff as this clip demonstrates - still they've asked me to play with them again so I guess I must have done something right!
And with our new album 'Rhythm Collision Vol. 2' about to be released there are Ruts D.C. shows on the horizon - March sees shows in Newport, Bristol, Leeds, Stockton-on-Tees, Dundee and Liverpool along with an album launch party (oh yes!) in Birmingham; there are also appearances coming up at The Bearded Theory Festival in Derbyshire (I'm really looking forward to this one - apparently every year they attempt to break the World Record for the number of people wearing false beards in one place as this story shows; perhaps unsurprisingly every year they succeed!) and a return show at The Rebellion Festival in Blackpool, full details of which can be found on the band's website - in the meantime here's 'Staring At The Rude Boys' from last year's Rebellion Festival which seems to have just surfaced. Is that really me up there with a guitar in my hand? Yes, yes it is...
And it's really me in this footage of The Chicago Blues Brothers at Proms In The Park 2012 too. It's unedited so nothing much happens for the first three minutes or so, then you see us walk out as Tony Blackburn introduces us (yes, you read that bit correctly!) and we play our 25 minute set in front of approximately 50,000 people. That's around 2,000 people a minute! This turned out to be my last public performance with the band (I played a corporate show a few weeks later which if nothing else made me realise that my decision to leave the show was the correct one, sad though it was) and it really is extraordinary for me to see me and my mates all up there on that stage in front of all those people. I believe the show is now continuing with a new band - I don't know what it's like now, but it was pretty good then... 
And here is another clip that's well worth nine minutes of your time - it's Wilko Johnson (seen here demonstrating his guitar technique - very entertaining!) appearing on BBC Breakfast Television last week. I think it's an amazing, inspirational interview - have a look and see if you agree.

In God we trust

...which means that the final word written in these hallowed pages in 2012 was 'paracetamol'. And last year was a headache for many wasn't it? 

I know it may look like it,  but I don't just throw this stuff together you know! 

From the guitar-playing point of view for me it saw some amazing highs - Ruts D.C. gigs rarely if ever fell below very high expectations, it's always great to work with T.V. Smith and I really did play in front of an estimated 40,000 people at Proms In The Park. At the other end of the scale unless things change radically it's unlikely that I'll play for The Chicago Blues Brothers again. I won't go to deeply into the reasons why here (maybe another time!) but suffice to say that whilst I've had some terrific times with the show over the years I've found myself increasingly uncomfortable with the way that it's all been going lately. I should perhaps have finished with the Proms show (you've got to admit, that would have been a laugh!) but at least the gig that I played after that confirmed to me that I was right to be leaving. You could argue that anyone who walks away from paid employment these days has to be either either stupid or mad (and I could very easily be both here - mind you, who hasn't been?) but it got to the stage where I honestly couldn't be part of things anymore. It's a shame, but sadly nothing lasts forever. I'm going to have to get some more work from somewhere though - anybody need a guitarist?

In the meantime with no gigs of my own to play (maybe I have been a bit hasty in leaving The CBBs!) I've been out and about watching four shows in four days - 

Friday night it was off to London's glittering West End to see The Members supported by The Pukes at The Borderline. I received a call from my old mate Tom on Thursday asking (a) if I was going to the show and (b) if I knew anywhere that Chris the bass player could borrow an amplifier from. Apparently his got left behind in Bordeaux after a gig there - ooops! A quick call to Upper Cut bassman Terry and it's all arranged... the next morning Terry called to say that Chris had just been on the phone to say that he'd plugged Terry's amp in and there'd been a flash and the smell of burning. Oh dear! 
I met the afore-mentioned Tom in The Spice Of Life around 8 o'clock; from there it was down to The Royal George to meet Chris before arriving at the venue just in time to miss The Pukes. Bugger! Still I saw most of them making a cameo appearance during 'The Sound Of the Suburbs' which I'm told gave a fairly good idea of the general scheme of things - lots of punky ladies dancing around with a chap strumming a ukulele. Sounds great doesn't it? I believe the ladies play ukuleles too... and The Members were great if a little ramshackle here and there, not least when the Roland Cube combo that Chris had borrowed for the show went wrong. After the show he described his day as 'frazzle Friday' - it certainly wasn't his day was it?

Back to Tropic At Ruislip on Saturday to catch Stranglers tribute band Straighten Out. As I walked towards the venue the unmistakable sound of 'Peaches' could clearly be heard - am I late or have they started early? And are they really as loud as that? 
Well in the first case they had started at half past nine as they were playing a two hour set, and in the second they were obliged to turn down after an hour or so as the council had been called to the club after local residents complained. There's rarely mystery in life is there? I'd missed their first 30-odd minutes but what I did see was undeniably impressive - I've always thought that The Stranglers are one of the great bands of the punk era, and even though I'm not over familiar with their later material their first few albums certainly qualify as classics of the time not least because they established a very distinctive sound. Straighten Out certainly got close, and even managed a bit of Stranglers-style crowd baiting here and there, although I had to smile when the bass player did the 'you're all a bunch of soft Southerners' routine - I always think that roughly translates as 'we're a local band and we don't leave our area much' although I suppose I could be wrong... but my Stranglers-disciple mate Big Andy said they were good and I have to agree - and I found myself being reminded just how many great Stranglers songs there are, which I guess is the mark of a decent tribute band.

Sunday I found myself a couple of stops further along The Metropolitan Line when I went to Champers in Eastcote to see The Power Of Soul. No, I don't spend too much time in places with names like 'Champers' either... but I first saw the band around 25 years ago, and these days they're something of an institution locally. It was Gavin the bass player's birthday, and an enthusiastic audience saw a good show from the band with much good cheer directed at the man himself. The more cynical among me (!) might make the point that as their act has hardly changed in a quarter of a century they should be getting good at it by now, but that would be a little unfair... maybe... but let's face it, things always goes downhill when band members swap instruments. It might make them laugh but it never sounds as good as it should do does it? Stick to what you're good at, that's what I say! Then again they were working and I wasn't so perhaps I should keep my bigoted opinions to myself?!?

And then there was last night, New Year's Eve. It's often a disappointing affair isn't it? As such it's sometimes an odd evening to be gigging on, as the weight of expectation often sinks the whole thing. This year was a bit different though, as thanks to my good friend and Cane Toads guitarist Pete I went to The Woking Leisure Centre to see local lad made good Eric Clapton who does an annual show there in aid of The Guildford Sunday Group (which I believe to be the local branch of Alcoholics Anonymous.) It was an unusual gathering - I've never been to a gig where the audience are encouraged to bring their own food and drink before, the result of which was the feeling that you were at some sort of giant indoor picnic. Interesting! Bags were searched on the way in (presumably for alcoholic drinks, which are fairly obviously banned) and the burly security men and women asked everyone in no uncertain terms not to use cameras including the one on your mobile phone. I was told that there were people queuing as early as 5 pm to get a table, which when there got to it was festooned with party hats, bunting and those neon circle thingies that you can wear around your neck. As I say, an unusual gathering.

Yes, I had to look up the meaning
of the band's name too.

I rambled on about E.C. in these hallowed pages when I saw him at The Albert Hall last year - you can read it here if you like - but the man himself looked to be having a great time playing old rock 'n' roll songs, blues numbers and even starting the show with a song from his Auntie Sylvia. The presence of Steve Winwood seemed to keep him on his toes, and he played brilliantly - then again, he usually does. All good stuff, if a little 'million-dollar-pub-band' in places - and was I the only person that thought Andy Fairweather Low couldn't have chosen a less appropriate song than 'Gin House Blues' at an A.A. event? Mind you after Gary Brooker's comment of 'you all look like you could use a drink' had gone down like the proverbial lead balloon I suppose anything was possible - after all this is the only gig that I've been too where I've been stopped in the toilet and asked if it was my first time at this sort of event. My rather lame reply of 'no, I've been to lots of gigs' was met with a triumphant 'ah, but they're all full of drunks!' I think they call that a 'good point well made'... before the encore Clapton announced that this was to be the last of these shows that he'd be doing and even mentioned possible retirement - if he does decide to stop playing then the world of the electric guitar will be a very different place without him. 

So there we are - 2012 and all that. Let's see what happens next - Happy New Year y'all...

Parklife

These two photographs show the stages that The Chicago Blues Brothers played on this weekend. The smaller indoor one was the scene of our performance at The Pheasantry in Chelsea, while the outdoor one is in London's Hyde Park and is considerably bigger, although as it turned out we probably had about the same amount of room at both shows... 

Friday evening saw our first show at The Pizza Express on The King's Road. We'd been told that we could get into the basement venue at 4pm but there was a meeting there until 5 o'clock so I dropped my stuff off and walked back to The Saatchi Gallery. Many years ago I went through a period of visiting art galleries on a fairly regular basis (I think I thought it would do me good!?!) and I enjoyed my time here, although just under an hour was long enough for me, if you know what I mean. (Yes, I know, I sound like a complete heathen. Maybe I am!)
Back at the venue the troops were amassing - Matt and Mike as Jake and Elwood, Squirrel on bass, Chris depping for Ian on keyboards, Steve depping for Marc on drums, Richard on tenor saxophone with Ian joining on baritone saxophone, Steve depping for Dave on trumpet and Tracy on vocals. Considering how little we've been together lately (these shows doubled the number for 2012!) it all went very well; we've played at The Pizza Express in Maidstone on quite a few occasions (that's where this year's other shows have been) which is normally good fun, and this one certainly was too although I for one was interested to see that the often-held theory about London audiences being reserved compared to other parts of the country being for want of a better word, 'proven'. Whereas the Maidstone audience is often up on their feet dancing Friday's crowd sat and watched throughout - they joined in here and there and certainly seemed to be enjoying themselves, but you felt as though you were more 'on show' than at the other venue. Well, I certainly did anyway. Still I hopefully don't sound too cynical (ooh imagine that!) when I say that it was a good warm-up for the next day's show.

It's official - I'm an artist. At last!

When we were first told that we were going to be playing at The Proms In The Park I must say that found the whole thing to be 'amusing' in both senses of the word i.e. it made me smile and it was also an extremely unlikely (on the surface at least) place for the band to find themselves at. Actually it all makes a bit more sense when you see that the first part of the day featured theatre and tribute shows (Bjorn Again, the cast of 'Let It Be' etc) which we fairly obviously fitted into, while the latter part of the evening featured Kylie Minogue, Alfie Boe and Il Divo among others. This was pretty much a separate event to our bit and I was very much looking forward to seeing these acts (I'm not likely to see any of them anywhere else!) although as we'll discover things didn't quite go according to plan...
When I arrived around 12.30pm it was already getting very hot. It's often strange to see venues with no people in them, and Hyde Park (or to be more accurate, the part of the park where the shows are held) was no exception. As I walked towards the stage I became aware of the size of the area that we were going to be playing to - it was big. Very big. I've seen The Who here among others. Some bands play places like this all the time. The lucky buggers.

Our gear set up stage right.

Although the stage was the biggest one that I've ever played on (so far - let's be optimistic eh?) we actually only occupied a small part of it; as you look at the picture at the start of this posting we were on the far left hand end. This often happens at events such as these where several acts are set up on the stage at the same time, making for very quick changeovers between shows. We only had a short time to soundcheck, but with the mighty Ian Bond making a welcome reappearance behind the mixing desk things were sounding great in no time. The gates opened at half past two, and by the time Tony Blackburn (oh yes!) introduced us at exactly 5.15 (a good Who-approved time don't you think?) there were an estimated 40,000 people there to witness our 25 minute performance. And what they saw was, even though I say so myself, an absolutely excellent show from band and singers alike, with everybody rising to the occasion and a fine reaction from the audience. And then, suddenly, it was all over. We'd bearly finished 'Gimme Some Loving' before the afore-mentioned Mr. Blackburn had introduced The Gypsy Queens and we were taking our gear offstage. All the band seemed pleased with how it had went - there had definitely been some pre-match nerves floating around although you'd never have known from the performance. And me? I could have played all night!

The view from the stage
 at the start of our set.

Some of the band were off to play other gigs whereas the rest of us were looking forward to seeing the rest of the evening's proceedings. I walked out front to watch Bjorn Again - I was never the biggest Abba fan but was interested to see and hear them as they're one of the most successful tribute acts in the World. I was just attempting to use my phone to take a picture of them to put on this here blog when it rang - it was Big Al Reed. Was I busy? He was gigging in Amersham and Chris the keyboard player hadn't turned up, and he was of the opinion that it'd sound great with me and Bob his 'other' guitarist.

I thought about it for a minute. If I got myself into gear I could be there in an hour or so on the train, or I could stay and watch the rest of the evening's entertainment. So - what do you think I did?

Well it's obvious really isn't it? Three hours after playing to 40,000 people in Hyde Park I was playing to around 1/1000th of that number at a birthday party in a garden in Buckinghamshire with Al and Bob. Strange but true. Oh well - hopefully I'll see Kylie another time.

'Have you seen who we're on with?!?'

Well I may not have too many gigs at the moment, but at least there's something for The Chicago Blues Brothers to look forward to in September - let's hope this one doesn't get cancelled...

Excellent!