Leave them wanting more!

It's nearly time for The Flying Squad to return to show business - as with most of our shows it's at Tropic At Ruislip where we're supporting Dr. Feelgood. Since our set usually features a fair few of their songs we're obviously been obliged to have a bit of a rethink, and to this end emails have been er, emailed between band members over the last few weeks with song suggestions a-plenty - I think we've come up with some great songs for the show, which will be taking place on Friday 14th December. I for one am definitely looking forward to this - while there may not be any original members in the band these days The Feelgoods are an institution in British rhythm and blues - and maybe most importantly as far as this gig is concerned they're still a very fine band. We'll have to be at the top of our game for this one...
I went to the afore-mentioned Tropic at Ruislip on Friday night, partly to talk to promoters Philip and Dave about the upcoming gig and partly to see Bootleg Blondie. I first saw many years ago at The Rayners in Rayners Lane; I remember them being good then but I have to say that they were great this time, and it must be said that you forget how many Blondie songs you know (I'd totally forgotten 'Maria' for example) until you hear them played. Debbie Harris (I'll be really disappointed if I ever find out that's not her real name!) does a splendid job as the lovely Ms Harry, and the band were absolutely excellent. (Yes, I noticed them as well!) A recent addition is bassman Russ Strothard a.k.a. Russell Strutter who played in Tonight all those years ago before going on to play with Eddie And The Hot Rods, Wilko Johnson and Lew Lewis (I think that's where I first saw him) and who depped with us in the Chicago Blues Brothers several times a few years ago. I managed to grab a few words with him at the end (the gig was sold out so there were a lot of people about) and he seems to be really enjoying being in the band, which is good news.

Last night saw The Upper Cut wend our way to Windlesham for a show at The Windlesham Club. (How do they think of those names eh?!?) Bob the guv'nor was friendly as were the locals, and the band played well despite there not being much of an audience to play to. Apparently everyone was at home watching The X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing - well that's what the ladies who arrived halfway through our second set said anyway. Still the people who were there enjoyed the show (I should know, I spoke to most of them!) and the afore-mentioned ladies were so disappointed that they'd missed us playing 'Maggie May' that we played it again for them. Well, it seemed like to best thing to do... one of them asked if we could do 'Itchycoo Park' - when we said that we'd already played it they tried to get us to do that one again as well. We might have done if we hadn't already ran well over time! A fun if slightly odd evening.
And there are two shows from The Upper Cut this coming weekend - we're back at The Crown and Treaty in Uxbridge on Friday then we're playing at the wedding of two of our regular gig-goers on Saturday. Now that should be interesting...

Jam yesterday (and maybe next month too)

Let's continue with the sad stuff - Dave Beal has died. I hadn't seen him for a few years, but remember him very well from his days promoting in Rayners Lane back in the 1990s. Along with Pete Feenstra and the late George McFall he worked tirelessly to promote live music in and around London - often in the face of no little adversity - and latterly he'd been involved with Club Ska as well as working with Los Pacaminos. I'll remember him as being a wonderfully enthusiastic man, whether he was expounding the virtues of the latest band that he'd booked to play or talking passionately about his beloved birdwatching, of which he had the most extraordinarily detailed knowledge. I'll also remember him as being a very nice guy.

Time for the first Flying Squad gig of the year, supporting The Clashed at Tropic At Ruislip on Friday night. I saw The Clashed at the same venue last year when they played with The Pistols - this show was better than that one, a 1 1/2 hour set that spanned the whole of The Clash's amazing career. They've still got things the wrong way round (the little chap in the middle sings like Mick, the tall chap on the end sings like Joe) but they made a good job of some very tricky material - it's hard to go from punk to funk and back again via reggae and rock but I thought they did it well. And even though I say so myself The Flying Squad played a very good show, with everyone on top form and a great audience reaction. We're back there in December supporting Dr. Feelgood which should be a very interesting evening, not least because we'll be obliged to learn an almost completely new set of songs - after all, we can hardly play 'She Does It Right' and 'Back In the Night' now can we?

The rest of the weekend saw two shows with Big Al Reed, the first of which was at The Royal Oak in Knowl Hill. It's a year since John the landlord first took the pub over, and comedian Adga Brown was also on the bill. Gigs with Al are always good fun if a little nerve-racking from my point of view since there's no telling what song Al's going to call up next - still it keeps me on my toes, as they say. Barring the odd 'how does this one go?' moment it was a good show, as was the gig at The Feathers in Chalfont St. Giles yesterday afternoon, which was distinguished by Al's mate Ekkie making an unannounced appearance with us by walking in through the front door playing saxophone, and the amusing (not to say astonishing) sight of Al's 84 year old mum dancing to several songs. I hope I'm as fit as she is at her age. Actually I hope I make it to her age at all!
We finished our last song around 7.30pm; after packing our gear away in record time we arrived at The Swan in Iver an hour or so later, where an open mic night was in full swing. Now I've always shied away from events such as this - the idea of jamming (maaan!) has always struck me as being far too hippie-ish for an old punk like myself to get involved in, although there are a lot of jam nights taking place these days and I'm often told that they're generally good fun and well worth going along to. This one is run by John who's an accomplished musician and guitar builder, and who has been cajoling me into coming along for quite a while. So it was then that Al and myself (accompanied by Tony on bass and Mark on drums) performed two songs which went down well enough for us to be asked to perform three more at the end of the session, the landlady approached Al with an offer of a gig, and I had a chat with the legend that is Les Payne - good stuff all round. I can't see myself seeking out too many similar events (although I suppose you never know - after all, plenty of people do!) but I enjoyed playing and I'll be making an effort to attend the next session (it takes place on the first Sunday of every month) on October 7th. 

In the meantime I'm playing at The Proms in Hyde Park this weekend - now that's a sentence that I never thought I'd ever type...