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!

And there it was - gone!

Two great gigs to finish our Windsor week, witnessed by among many other people a young man called James who spent much of yesterday enjoying 'The Chicago Blues Brothers Experience' - an eBay auction raised a large amount of money for The Motor Neurone Disease Association and gave the (ahem) lucky winner the chance to spend a few hours in our esteemed company. I wonder what he thought of us? My main conversation with him centred around the fact that I was wearing a 'Prisoner' polo shirt - he's a fan and even has a blazer similar to those worn in the show. He also heard myself and Rob the backstage manager discussing The Ruts (always good to have a chance to tell my story!) and commented on how much he liked 'Staring At The Rude Boys' - good man!

The performances belied the fact that many of us were feeling tired after the week's efforts (God knows what we'd be like in the real world!) reflected by a very amusing onstage exchange between Tracy and the two brothers involving personal hygiene - I'll spare you the gory details but will just say that somewhere along the line 'Think' became 'Stink' and a bottle of Fabreze was used to great comic effect... but without wishing to sound too immodest the shows were both brilliant from where I was standing, and judging by the audience reaction I wasn't the only person who thought so - the man who did a voiceover for 'Paddington Bear' told me that we were 'enthralling' (he seemed to be a very nice chap who bought his bike with him backstage) and even my Dad and brother were impressed so we must have done something right?

No gigs for your humble narrator this week - I cannot begin to tell you how much I'm going to miss it...

St. Elsewhere

I'm sure Windsor was quite a lively place on St. George's Day - Uxbridge certainly was, if you count gangs of large shaven-headed men cheering drunkenly as they wended their way from pub to pub as 'lively'. Still Balcony Shirts did a roaring trade in printing ENGLAND on white polo shirts for quite a few of the afore-mentioned shaven-headed men so perhaps I shouldn't complain - well, not too much anyway, and I'm sure their Queen (and indeed St. George) was very proud of them... when we got to Windsor we saw someone dressed as a dragon in the car park near the theatre (hmm...) and the souvenir shops had noticeably less Union Jack flags (isn't that the flag of The United Kingdom rather than England? Just a thought, as they say...) and t-shirts than they'd had earlier in the week so I'm sure they were happy.

The theatre was certainly a lively place during our show - a much larger audience saw us play what for me was the best show so far. I was back on the white Telecaster and spent the first few numbers wondering why my guitar sound wasn't quite as raucous as the previous evening - maybe that's why I went into the middle section of 'Soul Man' a verse earlier than I should have, causing much amusement for Squirrel standing next to me and Pete in the wings. Bah! Oh and Phil the soundman distinguished himself by playing The Ramones, The New York Dolls and The Clash over the P.A. after our soundcheck - I always knew he was a man of taste!

Two nearly-sold-out shows today... can't wait!

'And I, wanna be...'

So - did you observe a 'Minute Of Mayhem'?

Your humble narrator attempted to touch the spirit of anarchy by playing The Sex Pistols in the kitchen - as the long-suffering Shirley and myself were having lunch with 'No Fun' roaring out in the background she rather ruefully asked 'wasn't it only supposed to be a minute?' as the clock ticked past 12.20. Sorry Shirl! Thanks Malcy!

Meanwhile we've had a revue in The Surrey Herald - modesty forbids me from saying any more than that but you can find it here if you'd like to see what they thought of us...

Two shows yesterday then, preceded by a soundcheck that included attempts at 'Get Ready' and 'Guilty', both possible additions to the show; the former sounded promising (I hope we play it again, I loved it!) and the latter actually made it into the afternoon show, replacing 'Natural Woman' in the second set to give Tracy's ailing throat a rest. Matt returned but Pete depped for Mike this time (this is getting confusing!) in a performance that included a lady falling asleep three rows from the front, a man asking to excused to go to the toilet and someone inexplicably shouting out 'Lady GaGa' which Pete misheard as 'where's your car parked?' Don't you just love matinee gigs?!?

Since it was Thursday and I was in a theatre I decided to change the strings on my main guitar during the interval, then in typically obtuse fashion play my spare guitar for the evening show - I hadn't used it for a while, it took a bit of getting used to as it sounded much 'rockier' to my ears. (Incidentally when I suggested to Matt afterwards that it might have been a bit much for our show he looked horrified! Good man!) Dave returned on trumpet and Matt 'n' Mike were in the hats 'n' glasses (I told you this was getting confusing!) and the show was somewhat more conventional than the earlier one, although it had it's moments - maybe mayhem for lunch wasn't such a good idea after all?

Practice makes perfect?

Show number three was witnessed by a full Balcony Shirts contingent, ex- Price manager Eddie Richards (that's him on drums in this clip!) and... well, not many other people really... actually that's not really true, it just wasn't as busy as the first two nights. Those that were there saw Pete depping for Matt in the role of Jake, an experimental version of 'Minnie The Moocher' (we tried it faster than usual, more like the version in the film - it didn't work!) and your humble narrator play a horrendously out-of-tune note in 'Stand By Your Man' amid much merriment from various band members; I'd just recovered from that when I made another mistake during the introduction of 'Do You Love Me?', this one even more noticeable as the intro is just guitar and vocals. It's strange - once you've done one you're almost allowed to do another one, or in my case another two as I then got the riff wrong in 'Jailhouse Rock'...

Two shows today - twice as many chances to make a mess of things!

Tuesday's gone

A smaller crowd for our second night, but a boisterous evening never-the-less, not least thanks to a birthday being celebrated in the front row of the circle - pity they were pretty much the only people up there! With Dave away for the next three shows Adam replaced him on trumpet, and we dropped 'Looking For A Fox' which will replaced, possibly tonight, by... well, another song, to be decided, possibly tonight. It's great to be back in showbusiness!!

Actually - it really is great to be playing these shows; in my not-so-humble opinion we've got a show that works really well, although like so my acts there's not been much work around for us lately. I for one really hope it picks up, and not just because it allows me to earn a living - as soon as a gig finishes all I want to do is play another one, if you know what I mean. Good job we're doing it all again tonight then!

Oops I did it again!

Oh dear - once again your humble narrator got carried away during his solo in 'Green Onions' (go back to the first posting in March if you're wondering what I'm blathering on about) and once again the end result is him having to wash his guitar after the show. Still, at least I took a picture of it this time... a fine start to our Windsor week saw Steve (depping for Marc on drums) playing the full theatre show without sheet music (no one can find it!) for the first time - he made an excellent job of it, and it was a very good show all round which has hopefully set us up for a memorable run of gigs. I'll try not to cut my hand again 'though - it really stings this morning!