'Time and the devil is gonna bring me everything I need...'

Well it seems like ages since my last blog posting - probably because it is ages since my last blog posting. It turned out that it was a long two weeks, not one… it's been a busy, one might even say intense time since last we spoke - here, in no particular order, is what's been happening...

- Work has continued on the Ruts D.C. album 'Music Must Destroy'. 
Myself and Segs recorded some guitars at Jamm in Brixton and even though I say so myself, we made a pretty good job of it. There's still a way to go, but we'll get there in the end.

- I saw The Blockheads in Chelsea. 
I'd not been to Under The Bridge before - what an extraordinary venue. And what an extraordinary band The Blockheads were, are, and will continue to be. A great gig.

- Ruts D.C. rehearsed for and played at the 'Scotland Calling' festival.
A couple of short sessions at The Music Complex in Deptford set us up for a barnstorming 40 minute set at The ABC in Glasgow, which in turn set your humble narrator up for a barnstorming evening that saw much drinking, merriment and a fair bit of time spent in The Ramonas's' dressing room (no, I'm not quite sure how that happened either!) among the other many and varied highlights. Excellent!

- I worked many-a day at Balcony Shirts. 
It's a busy time in the shop so I've been helping out whenever I can.

- We made a promotional video for the new Ruts D.C. single 'Psychic Attack'. 
Filmed by Graham Trott and featuring noted actor Peter O'Connor, I've seen a rough cut and it looks bloody great. The single and indeed the video is out at the end of next week. Exciting stuff!

- Big Al Reed and The Blistering Buicks played at The Queen's Arms in Colnbrook.
It was Al's birthday, which went some way towards explaining the lightness of the mood - right up until the moment that someone shouted 'IT"S ALL KICKING OFF OUTSIDE' and virtually the whole pub ran to the windows or indeed went outside, presumably in the hope of witnessing said 'kicking off'. I always think that people who do things like that have never been unfortunate enough to have been caught in a violent incident, as anyone who has generally moves quickly in the other direction… incidentally it didn't all kick off outside, or indeed anywhere else for that matter. Good.

- I guested with Department S at The Fleece in Bristol supporting The U.K. Subs. 
I joined Dept. S for their last three songs and they sounded great with or without me; The Subs were of course as mighty as ever, and first band on Knock Off were pretty good too.

- Probably some other things as well.
It's hard to remember sometimes...

Obviously there's a lot to more to say about all of the above but, rather like the tale of The Giant Rat Of Sumatra, that's a story for which the world is not yet prepared. Or that I haven't got time to write up. Or something. 

More this week. Or next week. Or something.

'Vinyl Rules!' Episode Four - Wilko Johnson

Regular readers (assuming of course that I have any!) of these hallowed pages will be well aware of my admiration for the guitar playing talents of Wilko Johnson. I first became aware of the great man's playing when I came in from school one day early in 1975 to be confronted by the sight of Dr. Feelgood on 'The Geordie Scene'. From the moment I saw him flailing at a Fender Telecaster with a maniacal bug-eyed stare whilst careering jerkily across the stage I was hooked - and the rest of the band weren't too bad either. I discovered that the band came from a semi-mythical place called Canvey Island and had released an album called 'Down By The Jetty' which was clad in a stark black and white sleeve and had been recorded in mono. I loved it. My mates didn't and thought I was mad. I've followed his career avidly ever since.

After he left Dr. Feelgood in 1977 he put together The Solid Senders and released a single and an album on Virgin Records. The 'Solid Senders' album is readily available on CD and very good it is too, especially when you factor in the six-track live album that accompanied the first vinyl pressing and is included on the CD re-issue. Sadly this edition doesn't include the single 'Walking On The Edge' which is a shame since it's a terrific reworking of a track that first appeared on the final 'Feelgoods-with-Wilko' album 'Sneakin' Suspicion'. The B-side saw the first appearance of the Wilko classic 'Dr. Dupree' which later featured on the album in a slightly different (remixed?) form. It remains unique in the Wilko cannon with it's reggae-inspired rhythms and somewhat surreal lyrics penned by Hugo Williams. It's importance as a Wilko song is underlined by it's appearance in virtually every live performance since it's release (an accolade also bestowed upon 'Everybody's Carrying A Gun' from the album) and it's an audience favourite to this day. Overall a great single - and there's apparently a promo video for the A-side although I for one have never seen it. Maybe one day? In the meantime click here for some marvellous live footage of the band around this time (which was when I first saw him play, having been just a bit too young to catch him in The Feelgoods) and links to footage from the rest of the show.

With the demise of The Solid Senders Wilko joined Ian Dury And The Blockheads for their 'Laughter' album and tour before teaming up with Lew Lewis to form (you've guessed it!) The Wilko Johnson / Lew Lewis Band. I saw them a couple of times and they were as great as you'd hope they'd be, but sadly the partnership was to be short-lived - Lew didn't stick around but Wilko continued with Russ Strutter on bass and Alex Bines on drums, releasing the 'Casting My Spell On You' / 'Looked Out My Window' single and the 'Ice On The Motorway' album. I think the album might well have been available on CD at some point (Wilko's back catalogue is very difficult to pin down!) but I'm fairly sure that the single tracks remain vinyl only. The A-side takes it's cues from the version recorded by The Pirates way back in 1963 (it came out the next year along with 'My Babe' as their 'solo' single released when they were backing Johnny Kidd; have a listen to it here - the influence of the late great Mick Green on Wilko's playing is all too apparent as you hear here) while the b-side made it into the live set for the next few years with a particularly fine version appearing on the excellent 'Watch Out!' live set. The 'Ice On The Motorway' album is well worth a listen (if you can find it!) and again several of the songs have been live staples ever since.

From there Wilko teamed up with uber-bassman Norman Watt-Roy (who he still works with today) and drummer Salvatore Ramundo to form what for many was the classic line-up of The Wilko Johnson Band - click here for a fabulous clip of them in action. These days Dylan Howe is behind the kit, and they remain one of the best live acts that it's possible to witness. In the wake of the brilliant 'Oil City Confidential' documentary he's getting more recognition than ever these days, even appearing in the T.V. series 'Game Of Thrones' playing a mute assassin (!) as well as being the subject of a Facebook campaign for him to replace Patrick Moore on 'The Sky At Night'. Strange but true. He remains a  brilliant musician and an iconic live performer who has stayed true to himself and the music he plays. The outpouring of support that followed the announcement that he's suffering from terminal cancer shows just how much he and his music mean to many people, and with the farewell shows on the horizon the level of interest in his work will surely only increase.

NB - I actually wrote most of this a couple of days before the announcement earlier last month that Wilko is suffering from terminal cancer. I'd intended to post it in early January, and after much musing in the meantime have decided to leave it more-or-less as originally written, adding only the last line and tidying it up here and there.

Enemy of the state

I'd originally intended to write an overview of my '11-gigs-in-9-days' but reading back over the 'daily bulletins' as I rather pretentiously called them (they're not quite daily but they're not far off!) I haven't really got too much to add, other than to say that maybe I should try writing short daily postings more often as they seem to me to capture things in a way that longer pieces don't - or is that just me? Anyway the gigs were mostly good and often great, the mood was generally upbeat and I can't think of many better ways to spend my time. I'm a simple soul aren't I?

Meanwhile back in the real-ish world I've been working in Balcony Shirts for most of this week, spending a fair bit of time writing copy for the new shirts appearing on the website. Unlike here where I can ramble on for pretty much as long as I like on any subject I like (I bet you'd never have guessed that eh?) I've only got 100-150 words per shirt to play with which makes it quite tricky sometimes, particularly when you consider that for search engine optimisation (no I didn't know what it was either!) I'm obliged to include certain words - have a look at the new shirts on the site and see if you can work out which they are! In the meantime I had a visit in the shop from my mate Dave who's just returned from working in China, and who tells me that when he tried to access these hallowed pages while he was over there he was unable to as they're considered to be 'subversive material'. Have you any idea how happy this makes me? Excellent! (Yeah I know it's probably blogging in general rather than mine in particular that it frowned upon as it can't be regulated - but allow me a moment of glory why don't you?!) I wonder what they'd make of the excellent Monkey Picks blog of 'revues and indulgence' (his term not mine, though I wish I'd thought of it!) which is written by a near relative of one of the Balcony boys - recent posts include a visit to a scary East End shop, a revue of Ginger Baker's autobiography and a 'Your Best Bob Dylan Album Calculator' (click here and have a go! It tells me that mine is 'Highway 61 Revisited' although I nearly ended up with 'Bringing It All Back Home' - it obviously works!) which gives a good cross-section of what Monkey sees and Monkey do's...

Talking of subversive material (of a sort) I finally go round to watching the first two episodes of the (ahem) 're-imagining' of 'The Prisoner', and very ordinary it was too - something that could never be said of the original '60's series. It was so ordinary that I nodded off during the second show - Patrick McGoohan must be spinning in his grave.

'Oil City Confidential' received it's U.K. T.V premiere last week on BBC Four (it's out on DVD in June - hurrah!) although discerning folk like myself who have already seen it would have been more excited by the re-broadcast of a 'Sight and Sound In Concert' that featured The Feelgoods alongside the then up-and-coming Ian Dury and The Blockheads. Mr. Dury had the look of a man who wasn't going to let his moment pass him by whilst although Dr. Feelgood were terrific you got the feeling that they were trying a bit too hard for the cameras - then again it can't have been easy to follow what had gone before... I remember watching it all the time and it was great to see it again after all these years, but I wonder how many more items like this are lying in the vaults, and maybe more to the point how many have sadly been lost forever. Let's hope they re-broadcast the Tom Robinson Band show next!

No gigs this week as observed in the previous posting (although mad as it may sound I nearly ended up playing in Bucharest on Thursday - then again nearly isn't nearly enough is it?) but I did have a rehearsal with the mighty T.V. Smith on Wednesday afternoon - I'm playing three shows up in Yorkshire with him next month (full details on his website) and since one of them is at his annual 'Earthbound' fan convention we're learning quite a few songs that I've not played with him before. It should be fine gathering... and I might not be gigging myself this weekend but I am going to see Iggy And The Stooges - now that's something to look forward to!

Down on the farm

The long-suffering Shirley and myself have just (just!) returned from a much needed break in sunny Dorset, hence the lack of blogging for nearly 2 weeks. It's been a fine few days, not least when we went into the Town Mill Cheese Mongers in Lyme Regis (I like cheese, ok?!?) where we were greeted with a comment about 'dead pigs noses'... I was wearing a Blockheads t-shirt, and it turns out that my new friend and cheese monger Justin 'did a bit of work' with Ian and co. back in the late 70's. Excellent!- and proof were it needed that Leigh's mad world of guitars never really closes, it just goes on holiday occasionally... but now it's back to Blighty and to work- 2 gigs this week with the mighty T.V. Smith (oh yes!- details are on his website) as well as rehearsing with The Flying Squad for an upcoming recording session and getting things together for a new venture with bassist and old mate Terry Peaker. Good job I've just had a holiday!

Last Saturday it was all the way up to Low Farm in Dewsbury for a Bootleg Blues Brothers playback gig at a wedding. I travelled up in a hired van with Big Tel and Dave who were P.A.-ing and D.J.-ing for the evening, with Big Tel doubling on sax during our performance. After a 3-and-a-bit hours journey up the M1 we arrived to find Pete (Jake) on hand to direct us to a parking space,and to tell us that Mike (Elwood) was sleeping off the effects of the previous night's festivities- they'd been to regular BB Matt's wedding in York- in the car. Good boy! I must say that when he emerged he certainly looked as though he'd had a good night...

There was a duo playing when we arrived, everything from 'Jumpin' Jack Flash' to 'Dueling Banjos' ('name any Beatles song and I'll give you a tenner if we can't play it' said the one without the hat; I thought of going for 'Revolution 9' or 'The Inner Light' but they seemed like nice enough chaps so I went for 'I'll Cry Instead'. They kept their tenner.) We're playing in a structure that's probably best described as a series of interlocking teepees (!) with the girls from Weddings and Wellies bringing food and drink through from an adjoining tent. As we're setting up it looks as though the bar's been open a bit too long for some people- one guy is shouting (he probably thought he was just talking) about how he's a 'party animal' (half right!) and how everyone else is 'boring' (or just bored by him perhaps?) except for him and his mates, they eventually get more drinks and go outside to watch the bride and groom having their pictures taken in a cart that's being pulled along by a tractor... it's around 5.30 when the first fight starts 'though it's more of a scuffle really, two girls shout and swear at each other as half-hearted attempts are made to hold them back and no one looks too concerned. By the time we've done a soundcheck there's been a more serious incident out in the nearby lane- I went out to get my stage clothes in from the van to see a large shaven-headed man throwing punches and insults at all and sundry, there are quite a few people involved but it ends with the man and his entourage roaring off down the lane, turning the area into a near-dustbowl in the process.

As it turned out I needn't have bothered bringing my clothes in as there was nowhere to get changed so we all ended up doing so in the back of the van. It's all glamour this showbusiness lark I can tell you... by the time we're on for our first set the atmosphere's better- Tel and myself struggled manfully with some unfamiliar songs from Pete and Mike's playback set, many of which stretch the Blues Brothers brief to near breaking point. I was particularly grateful for Big Tel's collection of percussion bits'n'pieces during 'Loco in Acapulco' (is there a worse song than this? I can't think of one- can you?) and there's a full dancefloor by the time we hand over to Dave for the interval. The Weddings and Wellies girls came out to dance to 'Love Shack' as the hog roast was unveiled (potatoes and coleslaw for me again then!) and everyone seems happy... suddenly the party animal from earlier is back, careering and lurching his way towards our equipment, Tel retrieves the microphones as Pete takes the saxophone of it's stand and I move my guitar out of harm's way- with nothing to amuse him there he grabs hold of a girl in a blue dress who'd been standing by the dancefloor and picks her up, he staggers around for a second or two until he looses his balance and she lands on her back with a thud, her head bouncing slightly as it hits the dancefloor. Pete is among the people who go to her aid as the party animal goes back to the bar, no doubt he's forgotten what he'd just done and is wondering what all the fuss is about? She's shaken but not stirred, asks Dave if he'll play a Girls Aloud song for her which she sings along while dancing rather unsteadily...

Our second set sees a perilously full dancefloor and the BB's brief abandoned totally- either that or I missed 'Hi Ho Silver Lining' in the films? (I certainly missed most of it on this occasion as the battery in my Bad Monkey pedal went as I trod on it at the start of the guitar solo and I spent the rest of the song trying to change it- I must remember to change these things more often!) Meanwhile the party animal is back near the bar, he's the one throwing punches around this time but picks the wrong guy and they both go outside followed by their respective followers and I wonder if I'm the only person who hopes that he gets what he deserves. (Yeah I know that's a nasty thing to say- but if ever someone deserved a black eye it's that fool.) Meanwhile our set ends with 'Everybody Needs Somebody To Love' after which we leave Dave to keep 'em dancing and go back out to the van to get changed. We're told it 'all went off'' out in the lane- don't these people care that it someone's wedding (presumably one of their friends) that they're ruining?

We're all packed up and on the road home not long after 1 o'clock; we stop at the Watford Gap services on the M1 for a coffee and to reflect on the finer points of the evening's work, it's recently been renovated and looks a lot different from the place I remember visiting as a youngster when my Dad used to drive us up to Merseyside to see our family. It had been a long haul but somehow we found the good points among the bad- then as we left there was a large rat on the ramp leading back down from the service station to the car park. It was definitely time for a holiday.