Big Boss Man

Now this is exciting - Ruts D.C. have secured an endorsement deal with Roland who make a lot of excellent musical equipment, among which are Boss guitar effect pedals. When I was a lad (and believe it or not I was once a lad) Boss were the pedals to have, not least because there were nowhere near as many manufacturers as there are now. I had the CE-2 chorus and the DM-2 analog delay pedals, both of which went missing in action in the early days of my time with Ruts D.C. (click here for the full sad story) but I'm pleased to say that I have now been able to replace them with their modern-day equivalents. Hurrah! I'm looking forward to plumbing them into my pedal board and seeing how they sound with the band, but initial experiments at home are very encouraging indeed.

Incidentally the first time I remember speaking to Paul Fox was when I stumbled up to him (I was even shyer than I am now in those days) at a gig and blurted out something like 'excuse me Paul, what guitar pedals do you use?' He told me he used a Boss chorus pedal so of course I had to have one... for those of you interested in such things he actually had the now highly sought after CE-1 which had been discontinued by the time I was in a position to buy anything - this 'new' Waza version of the CE-2 claims to replicate it's near-legendary sound. We shall see...

Your humble narrator in what
those in the know call MV3.
That's Ruts D.C.'s gear behind me.

And talking of exciting things, last Friday saw the much-anticipated (by me at any rate) BBC Radio 6 Music 'Christmas Punk Party' hosted by Steve Lamacq at the famous Maida Vale Studios. Back in the day I remember recording sessions by the likes of The Ruts and indeed Ruts D.C. from the radio, many if not all of which were recorded at said studios - and now little old me found himself participating in the digital equivalent. Amazing. It certainly was a day to remember - The Damned played a great set, with Captain Sensible and Dave Vanian were as iconic as ever and Paul Grey back on bass and looking as though he was loving every minute of it. Stuart Pearce introduced the band, Brix Smith Start DJ'd before their set and Ruts D.C. played a 20-something minute set to a wildly appreciative audience - but that only tells a fraction of the story. As someone who has been known to get over-emotional about music and the power it can have in people's lives I will go so far as to say that it was one of the most enjoyable musical adventures that I've ever been lucky enough to be part of. From meeting up early afternoon in The Prince Alfred (during which Mr. Lamacq appeared through one of the pub's many doors and nearly went flying over my guitar case) to returning there after the show for advanced drinking and jollity it was everything I and indeed we could have hoped that it would be. If you missed it you can hear the whole show here on the BBC 6 website for the next few weeks, and Adrian at Aural Sculptors has been quick off the mark by getting the Ruts D.C. and Damned sets up for download here. Great stuff.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've go some guitar pedals to try...

Punky Reggae Party

At this time of year a busy few days in mad-guitar-land is all too often followed by a bout of ManFlu, and that is indeed the case once again here. Bah! But it's also been a good few days in mad-guitar-land, beginning last Thursday with a Ruts D.C. gig at The Talking Heads in Southampton. The Riverjuke amp went wrong (again) in our soundcheck (it blew a fuse - time for a 'proper' service perhaps lads?!?) but thankfully my amp sounded great (again) and we played a splendid set to a nearly-sold-out room. It's good when that happens - but as I said last time, we're lucky as it happens to us quite a lot these days.

The next two nights saw your humble narrator catch a couple of great gigs, the first of which was at Koko on Friday where The Undertones reduced grown men to tears with a magnificent performance. As 'Teenage Kicks' drew to a close and the entire place erupted around us Adrian of Aural Sculptors fame commented 'John Peel was right about that one wasn't he?' Indeed he was Adrian, indeed he was. The following night Daniel Romano played at The Borderline, a venue which has been completely transformed since I was last there. The stage is in the same place but everything has been painted black, the bar has moved and the walk to the toilets resembles something out of a science fiction film. Weird! Mr. Romano is a big favourite at Balcony Shirts - Scott plays his albums in the shop all the time - and myself and the lads saw a blistering display of garage-y rock from the man and his band. Great stuff - if you're not familiar with his work he's well worth checking out.

On Sunday afternoon Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks played at Ye Olde George in Colnbrook. At the end of our second set the guv'nor approached Al with the immortal words 'there's a one-er in it for you if you play another 25 minutes' - I think Al surprised said guv'nor with his reply of 'can you make it £120, it divides easier between the six of us?', but either way we played an extra 25 minutes and everyone went home happy. Well I certainly did, until I woke up the next day with a cold. Ah well - you don't get something for nothing do you? Which reminds me - Ruts D.C. will be joining The Damned, Brix Smith Start and Stuart Pearce (oh yes!) on Steve Lamacq's BBC Radio 6 Music Live radio show 'Christmas Punk Party' on Friday 8th December. As I said in the last posting, I can't quite believe what I type here sometimes... anyway if you'd like to come along this link tells you how to apply for tickets - I wouldn't leave it too long if I were you...

Magic And Loss

Some of these blog pieces more-or-less write themselves, some take a bit of coaxing and some take a lot of work. A lot of work, as in a 'why am I doing this to myself?' - style lot of work. This one is quite hard to write because of the subject matter, which is strange as there should be a lot of positive things to say about friendship, kindred spirits, feeling part of a team... they're all good things, but you don't get something for nothing do you?

I was on my way home on Thursday night when my phone made the slightly annoying car horn - type noise that it makes when I receive a text message. I should change the sound, but I never seem to get around to it. Or something. Anyway I took the phone out of my pocket and read the message. Then I read the message again. And again. It was telling me that Tom Edwards had died. But he can't have. He's only young. And he's Tom, he can't have... 
I first meet Tom a couple of years of years ago, but he's one of those people that it's hard to remember a time that you didn't know them, if you know what I mean. I played the 'I Need A Dodge' gig at Koko with him in 2015, went to the Marshall factory with him, saw him play with Adam Ant, played the riff to 'Day Tripper' on his guitar in Abbey Road Studios... I still don't really know what to say about it all, other than that he was a fabulous musician and a lovely man. I'll miss him - and I know that I won't be the only one.

Harlow is perhaps not the most obvious place to provoke any real emotion, or so you might have thought - but if you'd have been there on Saturday night then you'd have known that 'emotion' was most definitely on the agenda, as after several false alarms The Square finally closed it's doors for the very last time. I first played there with The Price in 1986, and just over 30 years later I played three songs at the last ever gig there. But what a last ever gig it was my friends... 
First band on The Orphans feature Oliver son-of-Simon-from-The-Newtown-Neurotics Lomond on guitar (to be pedantic, on my guitar for most of their set as he broke a string on his) and roared through a breathless half hour set (guitar, drums and vocals - not a bass guitar in sight!) to the approval of the rapidly arriving audience. After saying a quick hello to Steve Lamacq - if I remember rightly he was involved in getting The Price our first gig at the venue - in the downstairs bar it was back upstairs to catch local heroes The Newtown Neurotics who bought the proverbial house down. To be fair they were on safe hometown ground but their excellent performance didn't rest on any laurels, with frontman / songwriter Steve Drewett in fine form throughout. And what can I say about Eddie And The Hot Rods that I haven't already said in these hallowed pages? They've always been one of my favourite bands, and this show was as good as any I have ever seen them play. But it was different, very different - from my point of view at least.
Back in December I went to see The John Otway Big Band at The Borderline; I'd have gone along anyway as they're always well worth seeing but I went up to meet Hot Rods guitar hero Richard Holgarth (who also plays for Otway and was the sound man at The Square when The Price used to play there) to discuss the possible purchase of a Gibson SG guitar that he was considering selling. During the evening the subject of the Square's imminent closure came up, and he invited me up to the gig. At some point I said something like 'I'd love to play at that' - at which point he suggested that I play with Eddie And The Hot Rods. I thought about his offer for, ooh, two or three milliseconds before saying yes...
As I fought my way through the sold out crowd towards the stage I reflected on the situation - no rehearsal, not even a run through at the soundcheck, although I did have a chance to try my guitar through the amplifier that I was borrowing for the occasion. We only decided which songs I was going to play with them in the pub opposite around 3 hours ago. I eventually got to the stage as Hot Rods singer Barrie introduced me  - I never thought that would ever happen I can tell you - and I picked up my guitar. 'Are you ok?' said Richard cheerily as I tried a couple of chords - yes I was ok, and I was even more ok when 'Hard Driving Man' started. And there I was, little old me playing with Eddie and his Hot Rods. If you'd have told me that I was going to do that 40 years ago... 'Gloria' was next before we were joined by Jim Jones (he was DJ-ing after the gig) for 'Born To Be Wild' - and all too soon it was over. The gig, my time in The Hot Rods, one of the great independent venues, everything. There were more than a few tears, with more than a few of them coming from me. It had  been a lousy few days. You don't know what you've got until it's gone do you?

Oh and in case you're wondering, I bought the SG. Of course I did. Well, something good had to come out of it all didn't it?    

Yeah I know this isn't very well written and is all a bit garbled - as I say, sometimes this is quite hard to write... sad times...

'Is she really going out with him?'

And no record looked like it either!

'New Rose' - the first single by The Damned - was released on Stiff Records on October 22nd 1976. I first heard it blaring... no, blasting... no, SCREAMING out of a transistor radio a few days after it's release. It sounding utterly unlike anything that I'd ever heard before. I'm not sure that I've heard anything like it since. It remains one of the greatest records ever made, a sub-three minute blitzkrieg of melody and noise that completely wiped the floor with all that had gone before it. I had no idea if I liked it or not, but I was desperate to hear it again. And when I did, it didn't disappoint. It's one of those very rare recordings that it soars above and beyond the sum of it's parts - although at this point it must be said that the performances of Brian James, Dave Vanian, Captain Sensible and Rat Scabies are all absolutely remarkable in pretty much every way, and Nick Lowe's still-astonishing production created a soundscape that captured every nuance of the band's blistering attack - to make something that almost stands outside of time. If it were released today it would still sound unique, and that's after 40 years of familiarity. I guess that's art isn't it? Well if it is 'New Rose' is important a piece of art as anything that's ever been created. I think that it is anyway. 

40 years to the day after BUY 6 hit the shops Ruts DC played at Norwich Arts Centre as part of the 'Punk In the East' celebrations. I'd not played or indeed ever been to the venue before but have seen it in gig guides for as long as I can remember - the list of bands and artists that have played there is endless, and it's also well-known as the place where Richey Edwards of The Manic Street Preachers cut '4 Real' into his arm in front of then-NME scribe Steve Lamacq. It's a great - no, make that great - venue, which seems to be well-supported locally as the show was sold out well in advance. This always bodes well for a good gig, and I'm pleased to say that it more than lived up to expectations. Ex - Jim Jones Revue guitar-slinger Rupert Orton joined us for part of the encore, and the whole evening was a pleasure to be part of from start to finish. But don't take my word for it - this review of the evening sums it all up and includes photos and footage from the show. Excellent!

Now if you'll excuse me, it's time to play 'Damned Damned Damned'...

Back for good?

I've just been listening to the splendid new live album 'Triumph Over Adversity' by The Newtown Neurotics. Recorded at Brunel University in Uxbridge back in 1987, The Price supported along with a local band called In Session at a benefit night for Multiple Sclerosis research. Contrary to what the sleeve notes say Steve Lamacq didn't provide the recording of the show - I did. As a big fan of the band I gave the sound engineer a cassette and asked him to record their set - I then copied it for a few friends including Steve (who I don't remember actually being at the gig, despite what the sleeve notes say) who then inadvertently played it to Neurotics singer / songwriter Steve Drewett when he gave him a lift one day. The sleeve notes are correct on that point - although I don't think the bomb scare that occurred after our set was a terrorist threat; I recall it being an animal rights organisation who objected to the use of animal experimentation in MS research. Anyway after hearing it Steve D. asked me if I still had the master tape, which I did and subsequently passed on to him.

So - it's all my fault!   

It really is a great show, every bit as exciting as I remember it being on the night, and although it's been available for official download for quite some time it's wonderful to see it receiving a 'proper' release at last. Highly recommended - even if the final encore of 'I Fought The Law' has gone missing! - and the band gave a fine performance at The Rebellion Festival earlier this month so they're still well worth seeing live if you get the chance.  

It's often a bit weird to think back to earlier times. The past is a funny place isn't it? Musically I've always tried to leave it behind as much as possible - I rarely if ever listen to recordings by previous bands, and have never been one for over-analysing shows. They may have been good, they may have been bad, but they're done and you're only as good as your next show. Still between the above live album and last Friday's gig I've been travelling backwards and forwards in time a fair bit over the last few days, as on Friday evening I played a corporate show with The Amazing Blues Brothers at The Ocean View Hotel in Bournemouth. I worked a lot with Mike and Matt in The Chicago Blues Brothers, which all ended a few years ago amid no little chaos. I've stayed in touch with them and the other good guys in the band since it all ended, and it was a great pleasure to be asked to play with them again. With former CBB bassman Johnny Squirrel also on duty the band was completed by Josh on keyboards and Dion on drums - although everybody was set up and soundchecked by 2 pm we then had a 7 hour wait until stage time (I'd all but forgotten the 'hurry up and wait' aspect of many corporate shows) which might normally have been rather tedious, but with The Bournemouth Air Festival taking place the afternoon literally flew by.  
Although I played any number of shows with the boys back in the day I hadn't played many of the songs since, and so had spent a fair bit of time earlier in the week revising the material. Most of it came back to me surprisingly easily, which was good news from my point of view as they were also playing a batch of songs that I was considerably less familiar with. Basically they lose the Blues Brothers suits and sing a set of what might best be described as 'party music', which includes a few songs that I'd not played at all before. We'd had a bit of time in the soundcheck to look at some of them, but it was all still a bit nerve racking from my point of view. And of course the other thing that I was reminded of is that these sorts of things are not 'gigs' as such i.e. nobody is there to see the band, but are actually there to eat, drink and be merry. All well and good you might think, but it does mean that your performance is often all but ignored by all and sundry. Matt and Mike were having none of that however, and soon had the dance floor full. I'd all but forgotten just how good the pair of them are both as individual singers and as Blues Brothers clones - as we finished our first set with 'Gimme Some Loving' the place was going crazy. This bode well for the second set - however although we only had a short break quite a few people had drifted away by the time we went back on, some to watch the fireworks taking place on the beach and some because they had, shall we say, peaked too early... still after a few songs the dance floor had filled up again and we were even asked to play for an extra 30 minutes. From my point of view I thought it was a good show although if I'm asked to play with them again I'll make sure I've changed the battery in my overdrive pedal - the bloody thing ran out halfway through the set. Bugger! I had a spare, but I really should have checked it first shouldn't I? 

'Twas a very different show last night, when I was invited to play a couple of songs with Department S at The Lexington in King's Cross. Since I played with them in February Eddie the singer and Pete the bass player have put together a new line-up with Phil on guitar and Alex on drums, and having played a few low key shows last month this was to be their first London appearance. Thanks to the rigours of the London Underground I arrived just in time to miss the soundcheck, but did get chance to talk the songs through with the band - they had a new extended arrangement of 'Is Vic There?' but 'I Want' was the same as when I last played with them. From there it was time for a drink and a catch up before first band on Los Pepes opened the evening with an excellently raucous set. Next up were Duncan Reid and The Big Heads, whose blazing power pop performance bought the proverbial house down. A hard act to follow, but Dept. S weren't in the slightest bit intimidated - or if they were they certainly didn't show it. Kicking off with 'Clap Now' and 'Monte Carlo Or Bust' they were clearly in no mood for messing around - new songs mixed with old favourites and the audience loved every minute of it. By the time I fought my way across the packed dance floor to join them for their last two songs the place was going crazy, and my time on stage went by in a blur of pogoing and power chords. A fine evening all round, and the future looks good for the revamped Department S.

So there you have it - a bit of looking back, and a bit of looking forward. And why not?

'Oooh look, it's that DJ bloke...'

I have just - just! - returned from rehearsing with Department S. Having depped with them back in December at The 229 Club supporting The Members I'm pleased to say that I've been asked to play a show with them this coming Saturday at Electrowerkz in Islington. We're supporting Spizzenergi with Jonestown on first - I first met them around 30 years ago! Doesn't time fly when you're having fun eh?

The mighty Mighty Mustang

Talking of time flying, my mum died 14 years ago yesterday. I don't mind saying that it seems like only yesterday. I wasn't playing many live shows at the time as I was involved in looking after her, but I went on to work with quite a few people in the next few year, including Dave Finnegan's Commitments. Dave played Mickah Wallace in the film 'The Commitments', and I don't mind saying that the shows that I did with him were some of the most enjoyable that I've ever been part of. Last Tuesday I saw Dave at Ain't Nothin' But... with his new band Mighty Mustang - they also feature John Sorrell aka Johnny Squirrel on bass who I first met while we were both playing in Dave's band. I'd not been to the venue before, and it was great to see somewhere that successfully puts on live music ever night of the week. And it was great to see Dave and John on a stage together again too - it was the band's first gig and although there was the odd rough edge here and there if this show is anything to go by the future looks good for Mighty Mustang.

And the future looks good for Ruts D.C. too - we met up on Wednesday to work on some perspective new material, and by the end of our time together we'd roughed out five new song ideas. We've got at least as many again to look at this week, and gigs are starting to come in for the summer and beyond which has got to be good news if you think about it.

Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks have been out on the boards again too - Thursday evening saw our first show at The Riverside Club in Staines while on Saturday we returned to The Wishing Well in Hayes for the first time in quite a while. Well it's the first time I've been there in a while - I think the band have been there with Pete on guitar in my absence a couple of times since my last visit. Ironically Pete didn't make this show as he wasn't feeling too well - it was a good gig although I felt that we played a bit better a couple of days earlier. This week we're in Rickmansworth and Watford, and the band has over 40 shows booked already this year - the Buicks roadshow rolls on!

Spot the ex-Top Of The Pops presenter!

Friday night I returned to The 100 Club (I really have spent a lot of time there this year haven't I?!?) for another Human Punk night. I missed the first band Skurvi (I saw a bit of their performance at last year's Rebellion, they're very good so I must catch them again sometime) but arrived in time to catch a few songs by The Angry Agenda - again I've seen them before, and judging by what I saw they're still angry and they still have an agenda... but with no disrespect to these bands (or the excellent Control who closed the evening) for me the night was all about The Newtown Neurotics. Been-there-for-a-while bassist Adam Smith and returning-for-the-first-time-in-ages drummer Simon Lomond joined ever-present guitarist / vocalist / songwriter Steve Drewett to give a show that although a little under-rehearsed in places bought the proverbial house down. I saw the band many times back in the 1980s when their openly left-wing stance was such a necessary part of the times - as they swung into 'Kick Out The Tories' it was impossible not to think that (a) things sadly haven't changed, and (b) we need bands like them more than ever these days. After the show I spoke to Steve Lamacq for the first time in ages - we were both regulars at the band's gigs back in the day, and there we were again nearly three decades later. The more things change, the more they stay the same...

Do you remember rock 'n' roll radio?

It's been far too long since The Ramones have featured in these hallowed pages, and with The Rebellion Festival happening in Blackpool this coming weekend it seems to me to be a good time to feature one of the greatest punk rock bands of them all again - so here they are in Lego form. The more cynical among us may see items such as this as proof that some people have too much time on their hands, but it made me smile so I thought I'd include it here. And since I do this blogging lark maybe I'm one of the people with too much time on their hands? Hmm... Rebellion-wise I'm playing with both Ruts D.C. and T.V. Smith on the Saturday night (thankfully the venues are within walking distance of each other!) with Public Image Ltd headlining. Sounds good doesn't it? It goes without saying that I'm really looking forward to it (but I've said it anyway - see what I mean about time on my hands?) and I'll no doubt write some hopelessly over-emotional piece on it here sometime around this time next week, but in the meantime if for some unfathomable reason you don't get the 'Hey! Ho! Lego!' gag then here is a fabulous clip of  'Blitzkrieg Bop' (and quite a few other songs too) at The Rainbow in 1977. Great stuff. And talking of Ruts D.C. I received an unexpected (and almost definitely unintentional!) birthday present on Tuesday when Steve Lamacq played 'Mighty Soldier' on his Radio 6music show. Excellent! 


In the midst of last week's Croatian adventure I heard the sad news that Jon Lord of Deep Purple had died. I think 'Black Night' must have been the first thing I heard by the band as a youngster, but like many people it was their live album 'Made In Japan' that really did it for me. Yes the songs were a bit too long (well it was the early Seventies maaan!) but the standard of playing was so exceptionally high that it somehow didn't matter. The sound of Lord duelling with Ritchie Blackmore sounded incredible to me (it still does!) although by the time I heard it that line-up of the band had split up - I eventually saw them in late 1993 just before Blackmore left the band for the last time, and although tensions were obvious the band gave a tremendous performance. Here is a clip of the man himself demonstrating his mighty Hammond Organ sound - he was indeed a great musician who leaves behind an extraordinary legacy of work.


Last Friday saw The Upper Cut play The Dolphin in Uxbridge. When I realised that we were playing on the same evening as the Olympic Games opening ceremony I suggested to Noel the landlord that we should perhaps change the date of our show, but he was confident that not everybody would be watching the ceremony on television, and indeed there would be people actively looking to avoid it and would therefore come out to watch a band. I wasn't so sure myself, but it turned out that he was absolutely correct (good!) and there was indeed a good sized audience. I could see the ceremony on the television above the pub fireplace - by the time we got to our second set the teams were arriving in the stadium, which created the slightly unsettling feeing that they were marching to our music. Well, that was how it looked to me... it was our first gig for a while so there were inevitably a couple of mad moments here and there but overall we played well and those present seemed to love it, and after encores a-plenty I finally got to have a couple of belated birthday beers, during which our drummer Roger's wife Jill told me that a fella had just said to her 'that guitarist should be on the stage'. Let's hope he was right! A top evening.
There were more than a few mad moments the next night with Big Al Reed at The Kings Arms in Harefield, where myself and Upper Cut bassist Terry joined Dave on drums and Chris on keyboards (both of whom play with Big Al in Midnight) to form a band labelled by Al as The Cardiac Arrests. Al gave us all a perspective setlist and some CDs to work from, and with no rehearsal it was a case of turning up and seeing what happened... considering how difficult some of the material was (have you any idea how many chords there are in 'Born To Run'?!?) we made a good job of things, and the audience seemed prepared to forgive the bits where it went wrong. Probably the worst aspect of the evening was Al's Egnater guitar amplifier going wrong; his and Terry's amps went off for a second or two (presumably there was a power failure to the back wall where they were both plugged in) and while Terry's came back on Al's sadly didn't. There were no nasty burning smells (!) so hopefully it's something simple like an internal fuse. Overall however it was a good enough show to have us all considering looking for some other gigs for the band, which can't be a bad thing if you think about it.


In the meantime I've just returned for rehearsing with T.V. Smith, and am rehearsing with Ruts D.C. tomorrow. Time to set the controls for next weekend then - and that's not a bad thing if you think about it either.

I knew I should have kept a box of them under the bed...

Now here's a funny thing - the first Price single for sale on eBay. Most of these were sold at gigs out of cardboard boxes, and incredibly it was made 'single of the week' in the NME although that was a bit of an inside job as the writer in question already knew of the band; his name was Steve Lamacq - I wonder what happened to him? It feels a bit strange to see it there - how naive does 'pay no more than £1.30' look now? - but it's nice to think that we haven't been totally forgotten. You can see the full listing here - and no, I don't have any spare copies!

Following on from Muhammad Ali's 70th birthday last month it was sad to hear of the death of his trainer Angelo Dundee. Boxing was very popular in our house when I was young (my brother Terry was a boxer and dad a big fan of the sport) and so I know his name very well - he was a great character as these quotes show Would Ali have made it without him? Now there's a question... and Witney Houston has died - I don't know much about her music as it's not really my type of thing but with the media gearing up for another paparazzi-powered feeding frenzy I'm sure we'll all have chance to find out far too much about her over the next few days and weeks.

Anyway, amazing news - I actually played two gigs this weekend. At last! Every musician I talk to seems to be suffering at the moment, and while I'm lucky enough to have gigs on the horizon these are definitely tough times for all and sundry. Still The Uppercut returned to The Half Moon in Harrow on Friday evening for a show that didn't start well - even before we'd played a note we were being asked to turn the volume down. Bah! Our first song 'Dock Of The Bay' was so quiet I could hear the unamplified strings of my guitar louder than the sound from my amp. Not good, and although we managed to sneak the volume up a bit later in the evening it put a bit of a dampener on proceedings. Under these circumstances I thought we played well but it was harder work than it should have been.

Sunday night I accompanied Big Al Reed at The Anglers Retreat in Staines; once again Barry the slide guitar player got up for a few blues numbers (and very good he was too) and Al was his usual larger-than-life self; his spontaneous Frank Spencer impression during 'Polk Salad Annie' induced audience hysteria and had to be heard to be believed. It was something of an experimental evening for the venue as it was the first Sunday gig - let's hope they decide to continue.

And last week I saw T. Rextasy at The Beck Theatre in Hayes. I got there early to meet up with ex-Chicago Blues Brothers drummer John Skelton who's been playing with T. Rextasy for several years now; it was good to catch up with him and great to see him doing so well with the band, whose 'Children Of The Revolution' tour celebrates 40 years since the release of 'The Slider' (How long? I remember saving up my milk round money to buy that when it came out!) as well as marking the 35th anniversary of Marc Bolan's death in September. This was only the second date of the tour - John said that they were due to play several songs for the first time at the show, having spent most of their soundcheck running through them. It all sounded good to me, with Danielz as mind-bogglingly like Bolan as ever, and the band sounding solid and strong. The audience loved it too, with plenty of dancing and even a fair bit of screaming from some of the ladies present. Despite playing in several tribute bands myself I still can't make my mind up about them, but for people like myself who didn't see the original band T. Rextasy deliver as faithful a rendition of Bolan's music as we're ever likely to witness. Great stuff - mind you, where was 'Buick MacKane', 'The Slider', 'Shock Rock'... (continued on page 94)