Closing the night at the Chaos Acoustic Club/ 1956 Les Paul for sale: £20

Great to bump into local folk legends Billy and Lozz at the excellent Chaos Acoustic Club yesterday. They did a superb set, as always!

After my run of solo performances, it was also great fun to welcome Marie back on-stage to accompany me. She did a first-class job helping me finish off the night at the Chaos Club. Always such an appreciative crowd at the venue. My faith in the future of live music is always restored after a visit to Pete and Tony's aforementioned club.

Sadly we didn't see anyone demonstrating how the sponge-throw door on the back wall of the stage works though -lol! (PS I'll be hosting a whole night of live music down at the Chaos Club in November. I'll be inviting a few special guests to perform before finishing the night off with a set of my own music.

I'll announce the details a bit closer to the time. In the meantime for anyone wishing to support the club:

It runs every Sunday night at the Old Moseley Arms, 53 Tindal St  Birmingham, West Midlands, B12 9QU, (UK). Admission is free.

PS At the end of the night, whilst I was chatting with the sound engineer, he informed that his friend is now the proud owner of a vintage ('1956,' I think he said) Gibson Les Paul. Apparently it had lain in a loft for a decade and a half (where it was before that, I don't know), the current owner wasn't a guitarist, and was only too pleased to part with the instrument for the humble fee of £20. Yes, £20! It's the stuff of legend: an event seemingly too good to be true.

Indeed, during my days working in a guitar shop, such stories were 10-a-penny, and almost always turned out to be either 100% urban myths or vastly exaggerated stories (i.e. the supposedly vintage guitar someone had bought for a few pounds would turn out to be copy etc.). But, in this case, astonishingly, the tale appears to be true. So I guess miracles do happen after all  ... But certainly not very often, so don't get your hopes up. Still it wouldn't hurt to always have a carefully folded £20 note about your person at all times, just in case -lol!

If such an event has happened to anyone else, do please email and let me know!

Tragic Death of Some Like It Hot Bass Player

This post is to say a sad goodbye to my talented bass-playing friend Ian, who passed away unexpectedly. He was one of the finest bass players I ever worked with.

 

Throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s, we were in a kick-ass, 5-piece band together, called Some Like It Hot. No gig was too big or small: from humble pubs to universities and massive sci-fi conventions – weirder venues included a prison, a masonic lodge (boy, did we play the huge security guard up there!) and a millionaire's back garden – you never knew what type of gig would crop up next!

 

And through it all, as I'm sure all the other ex-members (singer Gary, guitarist Tony and drummer Graham) would agree, Ian was the backbone of the band. His pounding finger-style bass rhythms cemented everything together, helping to create the rock-solid musical platform that drove the songs along, and from which I could unleash the wild guitar solos that became the hallmark of the band's live shows.

 

Ian was never one to seek the front of the stage and the limelight. He put all his energies into his playing. Also, no matter how complex the musical arrangements I'd dream up for the band – arrangements that sometimes raised beads of terror-sweat upon on the foreheads of the fine but (until I'd corrupted them ;) more conservative band members – Ian would dive right in with genuine enthusiasm where lesser mortals might fear to tread! Truly a musician's musician.

 Here's a couple of photos of Ian, playing with the band (including me on lead guitar). I think this particular gig was at Birmingham University circa 1993 – though I'm not 100% certain that I have the correct year or venue. We played so many gigs together in Some Like It Hot that it's hard to remember all the exact details -lol!

My condolences to Ian's family. Unfortunately, I hadn't seen much of Ian (or the rest of the band, with the exception of Graham, the drummer) in recent times. But from our time together in some Like It Hot, I'd just like to say that Ian was great company, possessed a fine musical talent and had a wonderfully dry sense of humour – all of which I shall fondly remember him for!

 

Anyway here's a close-up of the great man in action, followed by a full band shot with Ian at the back-left of the shot and a very young me, on the right!  

 

 

 

 

PS As a possible future project: if I happen upon any of the excellent old live or studio recordings of the band (some of which might possibly be in my archive), then, time allowing, I'll see about re-mastering them digitally to release as a tribute to Ian.

 

Rock in peace, old friend!