' 'Smell The Glove' is here...'

Ruts D.C. with 'Love In Vain' - at last!

Well last night promised much, and I'm pleased to say that it delivered much more, as 'Love In Vain - The Story Of The Ruts and Ruts D.C.' by Roland Link was finally unveiled after many years in the making. Edited by Paul Trynka and published by Cadiz Music and Sosumi Records it really is an amazing piece of work - I know you'd expect me to say that, but I'd like to think that I've still got some level of objectivity here... mind you, if you'd told me a few years ago that there would be a time when I'd be asked to autograph a book then I'd probably have told you that you'd gone completely mad - but it happened last night. Incredible. Said event took place at The Islington in Islington where Ruts D.C. played an acoustic and electric set, participated in two Q & A sessions with the afore-mentioned Messrs Link and Trynka and met what felt like the entire audience. And I'm going to say that every moment of it was enjoyable - and that's a great thing to be able to say.  

The previous evening The Upper Cut played at The Dolphin in Uxbridge. We'd rehearsed at Bush Studios in Shepherd's Bush the previous evening - this coupled with the fact that we've been playing regularly lately (well, regularly by our standards!) and that it was Big Al's birthday (he bought down quite a few family and friends) meant that we were on fine form throughout. Such was our enthusiasm that I managed to cut a finger by windmilling and being silly - I really should watch things like that shouldn't I?

Once again there's a busy week in prospect, meaning that once again blogging time is limited. The London Sewage Company play The Dublin Castle in Camden Town on Thursday, I'm joining Neck at The Curcus Festival in Dorset on Sunday and there are a couple of Buicks gigs in between - how on Earth am I going to find time to read Roland's book?!?  

Where are we now?

Well it's been great to see the groundswell of support for Wilko Johnson in the wake of his diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer. Thousands of people have left messages of support on his Facebook page following the announcement of his condition, which goes some way to showing just what an impact he's had on the music world and indeed the lives of his fans and admirers. It was almost unworldly to read his manager's statement, as it tells of upcoming gigs, a live DVD (and that's something we fans have all hoped to hear about for ages) and a new album - there's so much to be optimistic about until it suddenly mentions 'farewell gigs' and brings us all back down to Earth. I for one read it with great sadness - I've written of my admiration for the great man's work many times in these hallowed pages, and it remains a great source of inspiration to me. So let's enjoy the remaining times that we have with Wilko - those farewell gigs should be unforgettable.

On a (considerably) brighter note, David Bowie released a new single this week. Now there's something no one expected - it's incredible that in these days of social media overload there was apparently no anticipation of 'Where Are We Now?'. It just goes to show that it's still possible to stay under the radar, although you may need Bowie's money and status to be able to do that as effectively as it's been achieved here. It's a haunting piece, very nostalgic and reflective, and very good in my not-so-humble opinion. There's an album 'The Next Day' due in March which is apparently 'rockier' that the single; this should be very interesting to hear not least because he's been working with Tony Visconti again, a collaboration has given us some of The Thin White Duke's best and most acclaimed work. Definitely something to look forward to.

First gig of the year for your humble narrator was on Friday night at The Admiral Nelson in Twickenham with The Upper Cut. I'd hardly got through the door before a fresh-faced young barman came over and told me that unless I gave him an invoice he wouldn't be able to pay us. I said something like 'erm, I'll just put my guitars down' but he carried on regardless. 'I think we normally email one in on Monday' said I - he looked confused. Fortunately Terry our singer arrived and spoke to him - 'we normally email one in on Monday' were pretty much his exact words, which for one reason or other the fresh-faced young barman suddenly seemed happy with. It must have made more sense coming from Terry than from me.
We'd spent Wednesday evening at Bush Studios in Shepherds Bush running through perspective songs to add to our repertoire - our first set included four-in-a-row (I bet you're wondering which songs we played aren't you? Well, since you asked nicely they were 'Ooh La La', 'Why Did You Do It?', 'Day Tripper' and 'The Last Time') and our second set included a go at 'In A Broken Dream' which we've tried before but never quite managed to get right. Happily all of them sounded good (I wouldn't be telling you about them if they hadn't!) which is more than could be said for 'I Heard It Through The Grapevine' which was going well before I managed to lose the plot a bit during the guitar solo then played the riff in the wrong key... the normal course of action when this sort of thing happens is to glare at the keyboard player so that it (hopefully) looks as though it's their fault; however since we don't have a keyboard player I opted for Plan B - attempt to laugh it off then apologise to the band at half time. Aside from these incidents it turned out to be a really good gig, not least because we somehow found ourselves playing 'Whole Lotta Love' in the middle of 'Superstition'. That's never happened before - I wonder if it'll happen again?

Saturday saw the first live music at The Load Of Hay in Uxbridge for quite some time, when acoustic bluesman Michael Roach played a splendid set at pub regular Gary's 50th birthday party. I must admit that I'd not heard of Mr. Roach before, but aided and abetted by a slide guitarist and a double bass player he sounded good to me. Gary revealed that he'd attended one of the man's workshops on acoustic blues guitar, had kept in touch and then invited him to play at his birthday bash. A good choice, and it went down well with all concerned.

And yesterday myself and Terry the bass journeyed to The Nags Head in Sunningdale to see about a gig for The Upper Cut. Terry played there a while back depping in a band and had got on well with Jack the guv'nor; when we got there A Bit On The Side were roaring through 'Sunshine Of Your Love' and Jack distinguished himself by (a) offering us both a drink and (b) offering the band a gig on Sunday 24th March which we of course accepted. Result! If only it was always that easy...

Animal Now (and then)

As I mentioned in the post-before-last the first Ruts D.C. album 'Animal Now' is about to be re-issued - indeed the Plastic Head edition of the album marks it's first appearance on CD. I bought the album when it was first released in 1981, along with the 'Different View' / 'Formula Eyes' single that if I remember rightly pre-dated it by a couple of months; I loved them both then, and you won't be surprised to hear that I love them both now - except that these days I'm playing in the band which is currently getting ready to play some gigs that will include songs from the album. It seems that truth really is stranger than fiction sometimes... our two rehearsals on Wednesday and Thursday this week saw us running through songs from all parts of the band's recorded history, from early Ruts numbers to material that hasn't been released yet. Molara couldn't make last week's session but joined us (Segs on bass, Dave on drums, Seamus on keyboards and myself on guitar) on vocals and percussion for both of these - even though I say so myself the band sounded great, and to say that I'm looking forward to the upcoming shows redefines the word 'understatement'. In addition to me attempting to get used to some new-ish guitar effect pedals that I've bought to replace the ones that I lost back in November Segs bought along an old Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble that Paul Fox used with the band; it gave exactly - make that exactly - the guitar sound of the afore-mentioned album (which I suppose it would if you think about it!) although I don't think I'll use for the shows as it's mains-powered and as it hasn't been used for many years I think it needs checking over electrically! Still it was weird to be playing Paul's riffs through it - I'm still not sure how I feel about it several days later.


It was something of a rehearsal marathon for your humble narrator on Wednesday, when after the Ruts D.C. session I travelled across town from Deptford to Shepherds Bush to meet up with The Upper Cut at Bush Studios for a 'let's-learn-a-couple-of-new songs' evening. In the event the band was in an industrious mood, not only running through several songs new to us but also tightening up a few of our less-played songs with a view to bringing them back into the act. Everything we rehearsed was played at The Dolphin in Uxbridge on Friday evening at a show which started slowly (both Roger and myself agreed that we took a while to get going, possibly because the place was unusually empty when we started playing although it filled up later) but that ended with a suitably raucous display from both band and audience. I suppose that there can't be that many bands who include 'Sha-La-La-La Lee' and 'Black Night' as new numbers on a set that also features 'Monkey Man' and 'Hold Back The Night', but I for one am glad that we do. A good gig - we're back there on July 27th, which is perilously close to my birthday. Excellent!


In the meantime I'm typing this on a Saturday evening that feels like it should be a gig night, but isn't. Bah! Still there's a Cool Britannia rehearsal this week followed by two gigs next weekend - let's hope these don't get cancelled...

Sideways promotion?

Time for another mention for something that's getting closer by the day - COOL BRITANNIA. We've got a set list (at last! - although I bet there are still a few changes to be made...) we've got a website, a poster (that's it on the left, sorry it's a bit small but despite Gawd knows how many years doing this blogging lark I still don't know how to make these things different sizes either before they get onto this page of after they've got here. Still, size isn't everything...) and we've even got one of those Facebook pages that everyone apart from me seems to have these days (yeah, I know I 'should' have one, but this takes up enough of my time - and besides, have you seen the unmitigated cobblers some people write? Don't they realise that it's out on the Internet? Don't they realise that people can actually read that stuff? Argh!) so things are getting serious. There's an impressive list of gigs from May through to July, and with that in mind the band convened at Mushroom Studios (which used to be mushroom barns! Really!) near Southend yesterday. We managed to run through around two-thirds of the show, and despite the odd mad moment here and there we sounded pretty good, and I for one can't wait for the shows.

Talking of rehearsals I've spent a fair bit of this week attempting to decipher the bass lines on the excellent new Department S (you remember 'Is Vic There?' don't you? Of course you do!) album 'Mr. Nutley's Strange Delusionarium'. Why? Because I've got two gigs depping on bass with them next month, and I'm due to rehearse with them somewhere in Loughton next weekend. Strange but true - more news as and when I have it.

And talking of rehearsals (again) The Uppercut found themselves re-visiting Bush Studios in Shepherds Bush on Wednesday evening for a 'we-haven't-played-together-for-a-while-so-let's-see-what-we-remember' session, which rapidly turned into a 'actually-why-don't-we-try-some-new-songs?' session. As a result 'How Come', 'Monkey Man' and 'Crossroads' found their way into our set at The Dolphin on Friday evening, a show which I felt was a bit on the scrappy side, but which everybody I spoke to afterwards thought was great. The customer is always right, so I made no attempt to dissuade any of them - after all we were asked to play at a birthday party, Noel the guv'nor loved it and I got told that I'm 'the best guitarist in West London' by Simon of 'Ace!' club fame (that's a weird thought isn't it? I mean, has he seen all the other ones?!?) so I guess we couldn't have been that bad.

Saturday in the shop was one of the busiest ever, good fun but with lots to do (obviously!) and after a fairly late night I was certainly feeling it by the end of the day. No time to worry about that though as I was depping in The F.B.I. Band at Lillebrook Manor near Maidenhead. It was Rebecca and Luke's wedding reception, and it took place in a converted barn which to our collective horror had one of those volume restriction devices fitted - you know, the pnes that cut the power if you're playing too loud. Bah! Still the DJ's soundcheck didn't set it off which gave us all a bit of encouragement; not so encouraging from my point of view was seeing 'Celebration' on the setlist. 'We haven't played that one for a while, we used to play it all the time' said Jon the bass player cheerily; 'I've never played it before in me life' said your humble narrator not-quite-so-cheerily. 'You'd better tell Tony then...' Yes, I better had. He just laughed - 'remind me not to do that one then'. I've worked with less co-operative singers!

Halfway through the first number I looked at the band - everyone was looking up at the volume restriction device up to the left of the stage. We weren't playing loud and everything was working fine - then suddenly the power went off. But we weren't playing loud, honest... thankfully it was the only time that it went off, and despite the band being a little short of match practice our efforts were well received.

After the Cool Britannia rehearsal I made it down to The Load of Hay in time to catch the ever-excellent Kris Dollimore. Sadly one of the best guitarists that any of us will ever see began his performance to a mere five (count 'em, FIVE) people, an audience that would fit comfortably into most people's front room. There were a few more watching him by the end, and the man himself was philosophical about things, even offering to return in the Autumn - but as he left I realised that my time putting gigs on at The Load of Hay was very likely over. It's a shame as I've (mostly) enjoyed my attempts at being a promotor and I'm really proud of the shows that I've been involved with there, but audience apathy means that it's time for a rethink. I might put the odd evening together, but it a lot of work for something that I don't earn anything out of, and hopefully I'm going to be busy gigging from May onwards. Oh well - I guess nothing good lasts forever... mind you nothing bad lasts for ever either, so I'll hopefully be involved in putting gigs on again somewhere at some point in the not-too-distant future. In the meantime you must excuse me - I've got to practise some bass guitar...

Third time lucky?

What better way for your humble narrator to continue the euphoria of the previous evening than with an impromptu gig at the Load of Hay last Sunday, when I joined Alan (vocals) and Pete (guitar) from The Good Old Boys for a spontaneous acoustic set. Actually it wasn't totally spontaneous - Grant the landlord had been running a weekend in aid of the Help For Heroes campaign, and had asked The 'Boys to play; when only Pete and Alan were available we came up with the idea of trying something a bit different. With no rehearsal possible due to time constraints we met at the bar around 7.30 to see what we could come up with to play - we decided to start with a couple of Good Old Boys numbers then see where it took us, a policy which could have all gone horribly wrong... it turned out to be a really good gig (I wouldn't be writing about it here if it had been terrible!) with us playing for much longer than we were originally supposed to. Alan came up with the name The Ricardo Brothers (or is that Richardo or even Rikardo?) for reasons best known only to himself and Grant offered us a gig at the end of May. Excellent!

Monday evening saw the first Upper Cut rehearsal for some time, at Bush Studios in Shepherds Bush. Our drummer Roger has been out of circulation for a while so it was a chance to get some new songs together as well as running through a few flash points from our standard repertoire. Of the new material 'Hold Back The Night' turned out to be the surprise of the night; we based our version on the Graham Parker and The Rumour recording which features a horn section as well as an introduction played on two harmonised guitars - I managed to find this clip of them playing the song on YouTube the next evening which enabled me to see what Brinsley Schwarz and Martin Belmont were playing, as well as making an attempt at playing something that suggested the horn parts especially in the run-up to the chorus. It turned out well enough for us to try it out at the weekend's gigs, the first of which was on Friday at The Halfway House in Rickmansworth. We were due to play there back in December but it got cancelled because of the snow - judging by Friday's gig it could turn out to be a good venue for us, with Rusty the guv'nor promising us 2 more shows this year after a performance that wasn't without it's shaky moments but that received a good audience reaction and even a fair bit of dancing. When a band hasn't played together for a while there are always going to be a few things that go wrong - we started 'Knock On Wood' before Terry the bass was ready (he was blowing his nose!) and missed a couple of cues here and there but overall it was a good show for Roger to return with.

Saturday saw us brave Sweeneys in Ruislip for a show that was nowhere near as enjoyable as the one the previous evening. We've played there twice before and there's been a fight both times - this time that thankfully didn't happen (or if it did then it happened outside or before we got there) but the atmosphere was as unpleasant as ever. When we got there we were told that '2oo drunks' had just left (it was St. George's Day after all) and most of our first set was played to a sparse but actually quite appreciative audience, although an odd moment occurred during 'Knock On Wood' (again!) when a chap from the audience invited himself up onto the stage to sing a few lines then walked from the stage straight out of the front door. Maybe he had a cab waiting? By the time we started our second set the place was full (and I mean full) of impressively built young ladies looking for a footballer or two to help them start off their modeling career, alongside any number of less impressively built young men anxious to assure them that it actually them that they were looking for. A couple of girls get on to the stage (why do they keep doing that?) during 'Maggie May' - I think it was more of a case that they wanted everyone to see them rather than thinking that they could somehow contribute to the performance - which set the tone for the rest of the gig, with people walking up and talking to Terry while he was trying to sing and a clearly totally out-of-it guy with a rather disturbing Afro hairdo deciding that he knew all the words to 'You Really Got Me' (he didn't) then spending most of 'Hold Back The Night' attempting to remove my glasses from my face. Moments like this are always very difficult - I'm not a violent person (although I've a funny feeling that I'm about to sound as though I am!) but I just felt as though I wanted to flatten him; the problem with that is that his 40-or-so mates who are laughing at his antics will then of course want to flatten me, which is obviously not a good position to be in. I looked across at the bouncers - they weren't even looking at the stage (and of course if I'd have walloped Mr. Afro they'd have clobbered me, not him - funny old life sometimes isn't it?) so I did what I've had to do in every other situation like this - humour him and wait until he gets bored, all the while thinking 'WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF?' Not a good moment, and not a good gig. Our set ended to no audience reaction whatsoever - we packed our gear away then braved the pavements outside, threading our way through young men swearing on their mother's life and young women swearing generally. Roger and myself both declared that we wouldn't care if we never set foot in the Godforsaken place again, and I still feel the same now. This really upsets me as I love to play the guitar and whatever else Sweeneys might be they are a venue for live music at a time when such places are disappearing left, right and centre - but I can't help thinking that the people who go there would still do so whether there was a band on or not... and maybe that's the problem here; in a place like Sweeneys people aren't there to see a band so they consider it to be just something to be toyed with (let's face it, anyone who wears glasses is there to be laughed at, right?) like everything else that magically appears in their little World. And anyway, I'm sitting here agonising over the evening's events whereas they've long since forgotten it all. Perhaps I should do the same?!?

Then again I've just (just!) got back from playing an informal show at a party in Horsepower Hairdressing supremo Adam's back garden - myself and the two Terrys ran through a fair bit of the Upper Cut's material with Adam's mate Steve playing along on a cocktail drum kit. Great fun, friendly people - in short it was everything that Saturday's show wasn't. Ah well - you can't win 'em all, but at least the ones that you do win make up for the ones that you don't. Well, I think they do.

Happy Halloween!

Another blog posting, another death to report - this is getting depressing! However I can't let Reg King of mod legends The Action leave the building without a show of respect in these hallowed pages. I've just played the 'Action Packed' compilation CD and can only join the likes of Monkey Picks in lauding him as one of, if not the greatest, British soul singers. If you're not familiar with him or the band then (a) shame on you from a great height, and (b) have a listen to 'I'll Keep On Holding On' and 'Since I Lost My Baby' and see what you think - you are very unlikely to be disappointed. Another very sad loss to the music world.

Friday evening saw an ever-improving Upper Cut play The Dolphin in Uxbridge. We appeared there back in the summer at Horsepower Hairdressing supremo Adam's birthday party, and reaction among the locals was positive enough for Noel the guv'nor to offer us a date in our own right. In an ongoing quest to decide which is the best guitar for me to use in the band I'd opted for my Relic Stratocaster this time (I've been using the SG for most of our gigs although the FMT Telecaster has made a few appearances) which took a bit of getting used to from my point of view, although by the end of the first set it seemed to be making sense so maybe I've found the right one for the band. I've always tried to avoid changing guitars during gigs if possible especially in small pub gigs - there's often no stage which makes any instrument vulnerable to being knocked over by passing punters, so having more than one out increases the risk - and while it's very difficult to find one guitar that'll cover the material that a band like our plays the Strat seems to be the closest one yet. I'll try it at again at next month's Bethnel Green bash and see how it sounds then. In the meantime our 2 sets caused an increasingly good reaction from the assembled audience, and a euphoric Noel offered us a return date next year. Excellent! And once again Pete from Awaken joined us for a couple of numbers - he's playing there with his band on the 26th of next month so maybe I'll get up and do a couple of songs with them that night.

Back in September a commercial to raise funds and awareness for this year's poppy appeal was filmed in Windsor Street in Uxbridge. Some (actually rather scary) soldiers marched up and down the street as your humble narrator and the rest of the Balcony Shirts team (they were filming right outside the shop) joined the locals in forming a mock-Remembrance Day parade. In a moment of amusement / madness Scott and Dave attempted a high-five (I believe that's what the young people call it - and no I didn't join in, not least because I kept doing it wrong!) every time the camera panned across the shop. It's perhaps for the best that none of these gestures are visible in the finished article, which you can see if you click here - the shop in the background as the main character stand on the mini-roundabout looking around. Which reminds me - I must buy a poppy. Well, you should shouldn't you?

As mentioned last time it was the first anniversary of the Balcony shop opening yesterday, and myself and Scott spent the first hour of our day putting up balloons and the rest of it dispensing cake and Cava to the customers and selling an inordinate amount of stock, much of it at reduced prices. We took delivery of a Danelectro Pro earlier in the week - judging by the amount of attention it's been receiving it won't be in the shop too long, and it's great to see the musical equipment side of the shop developing so quickly. And given the success of the day there's a good chance of mince pies in the shop in the run up to Christmas...

No gigs now for 2 weeks. I wish I was doing the '80's Rocked' shows. Actually I wish I was doing any shows. Boo hoo. Then again Shirley and myself are celebrating 6 years together today - yes I know, on Halloween! We've spent the afternoon at The Westfield Shopping Centre, buying all sorts of things that we didn't know that we needed. Ahhh...

Shepherds Bush city limits

I met Kirsty MacColl once. I was at a music trade show at, I think, The Wembley Conference Centre sometime in the mid-1990's when I ran into ex-Ruts drummer Dave Ruffy who was playing for her at the time - we were talking and she sort of appeared from behind him if you know what I mean (he's a big chap, she was a small lady) and said hello. She seemed to be a very nice person, and we had a mock-argument over who would buy the last guitar stand from one of the stalls there (there was no argument, I let her have it of course!) as well as talking for a couple of minutes. I always enjoyed her music - great songs don't you think? - and was very saddened to hear of her untimely death back in 2000. On Sunday night I missed Delta Echoes at The Load Of Hay (I'm told they were excellent so we'll have to get them back so that I can see them!) as myself and Squirrel attended the Kirsty MacColl tribute concert at The Shepherds Bush Empire, and a very fine evening it was too. With a house band that included the excellent Gary Sandford on guitar the highlights were many and varied - I thought Alison Moyet was particularly excellent as was Billy Bragg who despite suffering from a heavy cold bought the house down with 'Free World' and 'A New England'. Compare Phill Jupitus sang 'Fifteen Minutes' and 'There's A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis' (!) although probably the most unlikely vocal of the evening was the duet between Amy MacDonald and Mr. Ruffy on 'Fairytale Of New York' - Phill announced that Shane MacGowan was 'ill' whilst barely able to keep a straight face before recounting how the event organiser had answered his mobile phone earlier in the day with the words 'oh it's Shane's agent, I wonder what this could be about?' Great stuff. We were invited to the aftershow party at the nearby Shepherds Bar (oh it's wild'n'wacky showbiz world dah-ling!) where Dave revealed that he'd been singing 'Fairytale' at rehearsal all week - just as well under the circumstances - while ex-Ruts bassman Segs sported a fine line in gangster suits and everybody ran off when Billy Bragg approached for fear of catching his cold. Oh and they didn't serve coffee which was a shame as Squirrel wanted one. Nice bar though!

Last night it was back to Shepherds Bush for an Upper Cut rehearsal, at Bush Studios on the Uxbridge Road. We've not played together since August so in addition to trying a few new songs we went back over some nearly-new material and ran through a few old favourites. For the second night running there was no coffee (maybe it's a 'Shepherds-Bush-thing'?) but the band sounded good, and with a worrying lack of Chicago Blues Brothers gigs next month it'll be good to get out and play something a bit rockier for a change. If you're in the Uxbridge area we're back at The Dolphin on Friday 29th October so come along and see if we've learned the songs properly. And is it just me or is there always a police car racing around Shepherds Bush roundabout with it's siren blaring?

Talking of gigs this Saturday 16th October sees the 3rd annual Paul Fox tribute night at The Breakspear Arms in Ruislip - I can't be there myself as I'm gigging elsewhere but I've provided some CD copies of some rare singles that Paul played on which will be played over the P.A. in between the bands, and if you're a fan of all things Ruts-related it should be a good night. Maybe I'll make it along next year? I might even take my guitar...

Reversing into tomorrow

Behold the above photograph of 'miscreants watching The Shout at The Bull And Gate' in Kentish Town, sometime around 1989 - recognise anyone? That's Simon from Vicious Kiss on the far left, and Gary (usually seen with his brother Colin so I suspect that's him just out of shot) on the far right. And the bloke to Gary's right holding the worryingly red looking drink is me. Really. I've just shown it to Shirley who tells me that I 'still stand the same'. I still dress the same too. Excellent! This and lots of other splendid artefacts can be found on this Facebook site, and very good stuff it all is too, not least this flyer advertising gigs at The Opera On The Green in Shepherds Bush. There we are, bottom of the flier, bottom of the bill - t'was ever thus... and look at the other bands playing at the venue around the same time - some we gigged with, some we drank with and some went on to bigger (sometimes much bigger!) and better things. Ah, memories - some good, some bad, some best remembered and some best forgotten; nostalgia ain't what it used to be is it?

Then again, maybe it is. It's been 40 years since the original release of 'Live At Leeds' by The Who, and there's an excellent article in the current edition of Record Collector magazine detailing it's amazing journey from the 30-odd minute vinyl album to the 2-and-a-bit hour double CD version that's currently available. Reading it prompted me to get my copy (maybe that should be 'copies' as I've got pretty much every version including a bootleg of the whole show with no edits!) out and give it a listen for the first time in a while. It's often thought of as one of the best live albums released by any rock band, and as such is an absolutely vital document of what for many were the ultimate live act. Listening again now I have to say that if there has ever been a group of rock musicians that were more sympathetic to each other's playing then I've yet to hear them. OK, I'm biased (as regular readers of these hallowed pages will of course already know - assuming I have any regular readers of course...) but for an example of this just listen to 'Young Man Blues' (or indeed watch this version from The Isle Of Wight Festival a few months after the Leeds gig) and tell me the name of another band that sounds like that. Incredible.

And the England (maybe that should be 'En-Grrrrr-land'?) football team have finally managed to remember how to string more than two passes together (just!) and so are through to the next round of The World Cup where, somewhat inevitably, they meet Germany. No doubt by the time the match comes around on Sunday we'll all have seen the hallowed 1966 footage enough to be heartily sick of it, but I for one always enjoy seeing film of pretty much anything from that time. Think about it - Swinging London was swinging, 'Revolver', 'Blonde On Blonde' and 'A Quick One' were in the album charts with Hendrix waiting in the wings, Bond, 'Blowup' and 'Batman' were on at the pictures (and the latter was on the telly too!) alongside an air of optimism in society that's rarely been seen before or since; it's not hard to see why those who were young at the time talk about 'the sixties' with such reverence is it? Anyway I'm sure the newspapers will have stoked up the rivalry between the two teams to a previously unimagined level by the time kick-off comes around - let's hope nostalgia IS what it used to be after all...