'Felicitations on the anniversary of the commencement of your journeys around the sun'

...and what a splendid night the second anniversary party for Ruislip's Sounds Of The Suburbs record shop turned out to be, with excellent sets from The Witchdoktors and Religion Equals Decay (aka RED) alongside a show from Punky Reggae Party which saw your humble narrator reunited with an old friend. Back in the 1980s The Price played several gigs with a fine band from the Acton area called 1926 - I'd not seen any of them for the best part of 30 years so it was great to discover that their singer / guitarist John now plays in Punky Reggae Party. I was invited by bassist Chris to join the band 'for a few songs' when I met him back in April at Ruts D.C.'s Balcombe gig - somehow over the last couple of weeks this progressed to 'why don't you do the whole show?' Well why not indeed? So I did - which means that as well as sharing the stage with my old mate John I also got to play 'Up Against The Wall' with Tom Robinson Band keyboard maestro Ian Parker (he was in the band, he didn't just suddenly appear there!) among other highlights. Which reminds me - I also joined The Witchdoktors for their encore of the Damned classic 'Neat Neat Neat' which, as I'd already played it with PRP, meant that I got to play the same song with two different bands on the same night. Weird!

Talking of splendid nights Sunday just gone saw Sylvain Sylvain play The Dublin Castle in Camden Town. Like all sensible people I'm a big New York Dolls fan, and I'm pleased to report that the man himself was in fine form, promoting his new book 'There's No Bones In Ice Cream' with some great stories from the rock 'n' roll frontline and an acoustic set of Dolls classics and more. But some of the most memorable moments for your humble narrator were away from the stage - I went over to say hello to Gaye Advert and found myself being introduced to Bobby Gillespie and Thurston Moore. I'd just finished talking to them when I got a cheery wave from Damian O'Neill of The Undertones. The things I type here sometimes eh? And did Thurston Moore really say that he liked The Price? Yes, incredibly, he did. As I say, weird - and getting weirder!

Anyway it's my birthday today. I know that some people don't like having birthdays but I really like them, especially given the rather basic alternative... I often find that I get a bit introspective at this time of year, and reading through this posting I do seem to be looking back more than I'm looking forward... ah well - it's only once a year. At at the same time every year. Hopefully. 
I called Price merch man East earlier (it'd be difficult to him call later and be able to comment on it here if you think about it!) about meeting up tonight - his opening line was so brilliant that I've shamelessly stolen it for the title of this posting. And I've got 'Torn And Frayed' by The Rolling Stones playing in the background at the moment - 'just as long as the guitar plays'... see what I mean? Introspective. 

Hmm... time for a drink, or two, I think - don't you?

Jet Boys, Joyriders and a jaunt to the seaside...

Well it's been a relatively quiet weekend here in mad-guitar-land - although given what's on the horizon this coming weekend that may not have been a bad thing, as Ruts D.C. are playing at The Rebellion Festival in Blackpool. We're playing an acoustic show at 9.30pm on Saturday and a 'regular' electric show on Sunday at 11.30pm - I'll also be working behind the Cadiz Music merchandising stall at various times throughout the festival which runs from Thursday to Sunday - to say that I'm looking forward to the whole thing is, as they say, the understatement of the year, not least as we're playing before Glen Matlock and The Philistines on the Sunday evening. I spoke to Glen at last month's Sylvain Sylvain show at The 100 Club when he cheerily advised me to make our show a good one as he would have Earl Slick in his band. 'So...' I thought to myself, 'that means I'm going on after the bloke that I've seen playing in The New York Dolls and David Bowie's band...' 

It looks as though we had better make it a good one hadn't we?!?

I may have just said that it's been a quiet weekend but it certainly wasn't particularly quiet on Friday night, when I returned to the afore-mentioned 100 Club to see Guitar Wolf. The show was promoted by Rupert Orton of The Jim Jones Revue, who I met at last month's Ruts D.C. gig in Brighton - he invited the band along to the show, and to this end myself and Dave (Segs sadly couldn't make it) met in The Champion before the show, where we bumped into Gary and Martin from The Bermondsey Joyriders. Much jollity followed, to such an extent that by the time we got to the club Guitar Wolf were a couple of songs into their set. They describe themselves as 'jet rock 'n' roll' which as mad as it may sound isn't a bad description as this clip from the show shows - as Dave put it, 'I don't really have a reference point for this'. Well said! Still I thought they were good fun, and with the packed crowd behind them all the way a suitably raucous performance ended with singer Seiji being joined by The Mutants for a blazing rendition of 'Dead Beat Generation'. Afterwards there was time for a quick chat with Rat Scabies (he and Dave are old mates) before the inevitable 'on-no-we'd-better-go-as-it's-nearly-time-for-the-last-train-home' moment. A fine evening all round.

And it was a fine evening all round last night, when Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks made their debut appearance at The Red Lion in Isleworth. With Dave elsewhere Roger from The Upper Cut depped on drums and made an excellent job of things - mind you, he usually does... with Al on fine form our show went very well indeed, and with a return visit planned I for one will certainly be looking forward to it as it's a great pub which lives up to it's reputation as one of the best venues on the circuit. And it was great to see Charlie who used to run The Globe all those years ago too - another splendid evening. Maybe it wasn't such a quiet weekend after all? 

And, as previously discussed, it's unlikely to be quiet next weekend either - 

- excellent!

'If you see Sid, tell him...'

Another week, and I still can't hear properly thanks to earwax. Bah! June going into July is not a good time of year for us hay fever sufferers... still there have been some good musical goings-on in the last few days, not least the latest 'first-Wednesday-of-every-month' Fallen Leaves show at The 12 Bar Club. Support this time came from Sid Sings who I thought were absolutely excellent, to such an extent that I thought that The Fallen Leaves might have a bit of trouble following them. However halfway through their first number it was clear that they were on top form, with Rob's guitar sounding as mighty as ever and the band with him every step of the way. A fine evening.

Last July I saw Sylvain Sylvain supported by The Duel and The Bears at The 100 Club. This July I saw Sylvain Sylvain supported by The Duel and The Bears at The 100 Club. Both were highly entertaining evenings but this year things had changed... Sylvain appeared in a trio last year whereas this time he played a solo show on acoustic guitar - his triumphant 'hello London!' as he arrived on stage was somewhat tempered by his realisation that he has forgotten it and would therefore have to go back to the dressing room to collect it! Last year I joined The Duel on stage to play 'Babylon's Burning' - no Ruts songs were performed this time (although Segs was DJ-ing between the bands, and making a very fine job of it I must say) and the band played to backing tracks (I never did find out where Pumpy the drummer had got to) which made for a very different show from the band. Indeed the only thing unchanged on both evenings was The Bears, and they may even have played the same set both times. And why not? 

  

On Saturday night The Upper Cut played their first show at The Salmon And Ball in Bethnal Green. We used to play down the road (literally!) at The Misty Moon, and while there was nothing particularly wrong with that venue I must say that I very much preferred playing here, although I was a little disappointed to find that it wasn't a Cannon And Ball theme bar; thinking about it I suppose that if it was it would have been called The Cannon And Ball rather than The Salmon And Ball... 

I made my second appearance of the year on Music Scene Investigation on Sunday evening, participating in an excellent show with Rich, Ian and Tom. You can watch it here if you like - there were some very good songs sent in this time weren't there?

And last night it was time for a London Sewage Company rehearsal - we're playing at The 100 Club next week, which isn't bad for a band that formed to play at a birthday party back in May. And I must say that we're sounding good - we're getting together again before next Thursday's show, after which it's time for some more Ruts D.C. gigs. Busy times... oh yes!

One day it will please us to remember even this

What follows was written last night on the train home from the gig. I've thought about rewriting it as it's a bit disjointed (to say the least! Well the bar had been open...) but have decided to include it here with very little editing. It's nothing if not honest...

Now you know how I feel about this guitar playing lark don't you? Yeah, of course you do. But just in case you don't...

I have a lot of what I sometimes call 'are you sure Leigh?' moments. As in 'are you sure that you can do this Leigh?' moments. I've found that a lot of musicians are more insecure about their ability than they might first appear, or might look when they're up on a stage. I know that there are much better guitarists than me that never get out of their bedroom or a rehearsal room let alone make it to a stage or do some of the things that I find myself doing. And that's not false modesty or fishing for compliments, it's just true. I don't always feel very lucky, but I know that I'm always lucky to be able to play the guitar. 
So why am I telling you this. Well I'm not sure really. Maybe I'm telling myself it? Again.

I was talking to the lead singer of The Duel Tara Rez at The 100 Club when The U.K. Subs and T.V. Smith played there back in May. She mentioned that The Duel were due to be supporting Sylvain Sylvain of The New York Dolls at said venue on July 25th, and I resolved to attend the gig; among the other subjects that we then touched upon were the band's excellent version of 'Babylon's Burning' as played at the Fiddler's Elbow show also in May when Back To Zero also appeared - at which point, a plan of sorts loosely formed...

I arrived at The 100 Club just after quarter past six. Sylvain Sylvain and the band were soundchecking with a wonderfully raucous instrumental - as I said hello to members of The Duel and The Bears (the first band on) they played a few snippets and a few full songs, all sounding great. 'We'd better get off and give the other guys a chance' said the man himself (a lot of headline acts don't think like that!) as he took his guitar off, left the stage and walked over in my general direction. 
Now as I said earlier, you know how I feel about this guitar playing lark don't you? And you also know that I think that the New York Dolls are one of the greatest rock 'n' roll bands of all time. (Well if you didn't know that then I'm sure that you could have worked it out!) But you also know that I'm basically a very shy person. I try not to be, but I am. So I said to myself, go and say hello to him. Go on, you might not get a chance later on. Look, he's nodded at you, he seems to be alright. Say hello. What's the worst thing that could happen?

'Hello, my name's Leigh. That sounded great.'

He smiled and shook my hand.

Hey Leigh man, thank you.'

I said how good I thought that the guitar sounded - he told me that he's got an old pedal, bought in 1968, a combined fuzz / wha, quite unusual...
And there I was, little old me, talking to Sylvain Sylvain, the bloke out of The New York Dolls, about guitar effect pedals and how he gets his sound. Who'd have thought it eh? Little old me. I played along with his records all those years ago. I still do sometimes.
By now people wanted him - I said that I wouldn't keep him as he was busy but that it had been great to meet him.

'Great to meet you too Leigh' he said, remembering my name as he shook my hand. 

Back to work. Time is running out and there are two bands to soundcheck. The Duel are providing drums and a bass amp, The Bears have two guitarists and I thought I was using Lionel's Marshall set-up but Neil's got a Fender Blues Deluxe combo for me to use. I've got one of those myself. Good. The Duel play half a song without me and then we try 'Babylon's Burning', it all goes right until it all goes wrong - don't worry, it'll be alright on the night. But hang on - this is the night...

The Bears start their set at a quarter to eight. The club is already quite full, and they play a good set which goes down well with all concerned. No pressure then. I set up my guitar as quickly as I can; Tara tells me how nervous she's feeling and I say that it'll be great, probably sounding a bit glib as I realise that I'm feeling quite nervous too.

Andy, Pumpy and Tara from The Duel
attempt to ignore the poser in their midst. 

'What will you do when the money runs out?' The Duel sound terrific and the crowd loves them. And why not? When Tara says that they've got two songs left I realise that it's nearly my turn. The song ends. It's my turn. How does 'Babylon's Burning' go again?
Pumpy taps his sticks together four times and the intensity (in my head at least) leaps by approximately 1000% - 'and with anxiety'...
It ends. The crowd explodes. Goodnight. Tara smiles at Andy, Andy smiles at me - mission accomplished FAB.
I turn Neil's amp off and unplug my guitar. That felt good. I wonder if it sounded good too?
Over the next few minutes I got my answer. I shake hands with what feels like half of the audience. They loved it. And do you know, I loved it too.

9.35pm and London Town becomes New York City before our very eyes. 'OW!' cries our hero. 'Ow!' replies the audience with typically British restraint. 'Ouch!' says Sylvain in a manner that perhaps could best be described as 'beyond camp'. Hilarious.
What followed was a masterclass in out-and-out rock 'n' roll. With Jerome Alexandre on bass and Gary Powell on drums they played old songs, new songs and somewhere-in-between songs with a swagger and a style that all of us want but few of us will ever have. There were some great stories too, about selling jeans to Janis Joplin and how The New York Dolls got their name - that's really him up there on the stage. And it was really Glen Matlock and Clem Burke playing 'Personality Crisis' with him as an encore too. Wow.

After the show - more hands to shake, a hello to Mr. Burke, a few words with Mr. Matlock and probably some other things as well.

So now I'm on my way home trying to write it all down. How you ever tried to write while you're on a tube train? I doubt that I'll be able to read it in the morning. But that was a night to remember, a night never to forget. I told you that I was lucky didn't I?

Well as I say, it's a bit disjointed here and there - even the title doesn't really make sense in this context... many thanks to Big Andy for the photo - I had to use my Les Paul Junior didn't I? Well if it was good enough for Johnny Thunders then it's good enough for me!

Do you feel lucky, punk?

I spend a fair bit of time in these hallowed pages musing on the subject of punk rock, and rightly so in my not-so-humble opinion. Whilst it would be churlish to suggest that early-to-mid '70's rock music had nothing to recommend about it there can surely be no doubt that it needed shaking out of it's complacency by a music and an attitude more reminiscent of the early days of rock 'n' roll rebellion than by that shown by bands wearing capes and singing about goblins. I've been lucky enough to see two shows this week - one featuring one of the foremost figures of the British punk scene and the other from a band without whom that scene might never have existed - that have reminded me just how much that music, and indeed that attitude, can still mean to me...

Tuesday it was time for T.V. Smith's 'Best Of The Adverts' tour to come to London - to be precise, The Underworld in Camden Town. Backing him on these dates are Italian punk heroes The Valentines, and judging by this performance they're doing an absolutely brilliant job - but more about them in a minute. As we (myself and Dave from Balcony Shirts) walked through from the bar into the venue Condition Dead were roaring through their set - well, most of them were, as one of the guitarist's guitar strap came off his instrument just as the song started. Get some strap locks young man! They sounded ok if a bit 'identikit punk' to my old ears, although to someone hearing this type of music for the first time they probably sounded wonderful. The Hi-Fi Spitfires were up next, with a set that won over most the people who had bothered to come through from the bar. They reminded me of Stiff Little Fingers which is no bad thing in my world - and let's face it, any band that finishes their set with a rendition of 'I Got A Right' by Iggy And The Stooges have to have something going for them haven't they? Worth keeping an eye on for the future methinks.
Opening with 'No Time To Be 21' and Safety In Numbers' T.V. Smith and the Valentines were clearly in no mood for anything other than getting on with the job in hand. Adverts songs are tricky to play (trust me, I should know! Which reminds me, I'm playing with T.V. at The 100 Club on Saturday 16th April, which I'm sure I'll mention again between now and then!) but the band handled them brilliantly, and it was wonderful to see T.V. fronting a band again. They featured all the songs from the first album, quite a few from the second, and in doing so they reminded everyone just what a criminally underrated band The Adverts remain. The last encore of 'Lord's Prayer' and 'Good Times Are Back' bought everything up to date, and when the lights came up more than a few people looked almost shell shocked by what they'd seen. And rightly so, as they'd seen a fine show by a great band fronted by one of the best songwriters of all time. It doesn't get much better than that does it?

Or maybe it does, as last night I saw The New York Dolls. Rather like The Sex Pistols any number of words have been written about The Dolls, many to their detriment and often along the lines of 'they can't play'. And, rather like the stuff that gets written about The Pistols alleged lack of ability. it's all absolute rubbish. Of course it is. Somewhere in the last 30-odd years The Dolls have been somewhat re-evaluated, and their influence and importance in the grand scheme of things has been acknowledged - these days surviving original members David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain lead a band whose current line-up features the mighty Earl Slick on guitar, and if last night's performance is anything to go then the best from the band may be yet to come. That said the venue didn't do them any favours - The Old Vic Tunnels is an extraordinary labyrinth of (you've guessed it!) tunnels which provided a clammy, dank atmosphere that no doubt reduced anybody unfortunate enough to suffer from asthma or a similar respiratory complaint to a pile of clothes on the floor. It also contributed to a muddy, indistinct sound mix that rendered the opening number 'Looking For A Kiss' almost unrecognisable. Fortunately by the time they'd got to 'Cause I Sez So' the sound had improved sufficiently for it to be obvious that the band were playing brilliantly, and that we were all present at a classic gig. An almost casual rampage through 'Who Are The Mystery Girls?' stood out in the middle of the set among songs from their latest album 'Dancing Backwards In High Heels' ('Funky But Chic' and 'I'm So Fabulous' from said album were also real highlights, showing that they're certainly not finished as songwriters) and the set ended with 'Jet Boy' re-confirming it's status as one of the greatest rock 'n' roll songs of all time. They encored with a careering, chaotic 'Personality Crisis' before 'End Of The Summer' finished a unforgettable show. Two fabulous, inspirational performances - like I say, it doesn't get much better than that. Now, where did I put that guitar..?