"A 12-String Bassist writes.."

Badger.......... Goodbye for now.

2009-07-06T04:26:00.000-07:00

This last weekend, I was fortunate enough to catch the last two gigs by Badger with their bassist Gian, who has been with the group for 29 years. The group played an absolute blinder. Gian is emigrating to Canada and his dry wit and droll humour (not to mention The Spanish Inquisition) will be missed. Here are a few photos from the two gigs.

The White Hart, Burnley:

Bridge End, Helmshore:

June 2009: Group News and some photos...........

2009-06-20T07:07:00.000-07:00

GROUP NEWS: June 2009:

June 6th:
Interesting to finally get to play The Albion, Warrington after a cancellation and a rescheduling, because the landlord has had some problems with his diary. We have had two other gigs booked in for later this year and the crowd (who absolutely loved us and who also touchingly went quite demonstrably bananas) seemed to be aghast to hear that these have been cancelled by the venue and so... we now have no more gigs there. A guy from another band complained to us of how his group have had problems with the venue. We went down incredibly well and everyone was telling us of other places to play. Great crowd.

The Griffin at Earlestown keeps coming up as a suggestion for us to play, as everyone seems to say they'd love to come and see us there. Apparently we'd rule the place and be the top band there if we took it on..... We have been in touch with them before, but they seem to have their fixed circle of bands that they book - Please, go ahead and put a word in for us if you are there! We are more than happy to play anywhere and everywhere!

June 10th:
The Wheatsheaf, Altrincham have thrown in the towel regarding bands. All credit to them for trying very hard to keep music live in the area though. All groups are cancelled there, henceforth. We have been offered a very nice replacement gig for the October date.

June 11th:
Did we mention cancellations in Altrincham? The Flamin' Gallah rang to cancel tomorrow night on us with just 24 hours notice. We were offered Saturday night at the Town Hall in Eccles, but we were already booked....

June 13th:
The Railway Bromley Cross.

June 16th - OK - Let's just get out there and play!!! :
We have replaced one of the cancelled Altrincham shows with a gig at the Jolly Masons, Wrexham in October , which sounds like it's going to be quite a brilliant night. We have also taken two new shows in Oldham at the Coach and Horses. Another show at The Bridge Bar, Latchford, Warrington on July 25th came in while I was typing this! Finally, we have a return Monday night show at Amore in Frodsham in September. Good stuff.

June 17th:
More gig news in the shape of another new venue on December 6th - the venue is to be announced. Thanks very much to Kee, who got us that one. We are now opening the diary up for next year.

June 19th:
Ian is pretty much down with some lurgy that is affecting his voice and making him feel ill all the time. For a change. Our gig at The Fleece, Ashton went pretty well, but there were a few songs we just couldn't do. Tonight's gig at The Poacher, Wigan was therefore going to be pretty interesting. Ian got a migraine 30 minutes before the gig, but he took some tablets and fortunately got rid of it, but his voice refused to behave and started to 'do one' during the gig, leaving him croaking miserably afterwards. But the show went on (as the show must always go on) and the punters and the pub staff all enjoyed it.

June 20th:
Ian spent Father's day sulking in bed most of the day with absolutely no voice but at least a return gig at The Spinners, Hindley came in. This is the venue where we played our first ever show wth Steve and Ian H on guitars. It will be nice to go back there.

June 26th:
Our first gig at The Coach and Horses, Oldham. Marred only by some utter arseholes breaking into Ed's car, while we were busy playing. It can happen anywhere, but we really could have done without finding that at 1am and having to try to start his car up, despite the damage done.

June 27th:
Winston's, Wigan. An enjoyable night. Many thanks to our mates in Rent A Crowd for turning out en masse. Lovely people. Hope you liked the new songs. We are back there twice in August as they have now also asked us to do the Bank Holiday weekend. We did have that weekend down as not available, but no-one has planned anything else - so, Winston's it is! Message to the chap at Winston's who said we play Roadhouse blues faster than Status Quo: "I checked. We don't".

Picture this...

GROUP NEWS: May 2009:

2009-05-30T04:48:00.000-07:00

GROUP NEWS: May 2009:

The group will rehearse on Thursdays for a while, to add some new songs into the set, if we can, and also to get Ed fully back on board.

May 9th:
Old Isaac's, Atherton. Ed was back on board and the band played their socks off to a very appreciative crowd. Not a big place, but it was absolutely chocka and the punters loved it. Great atmosphere. Looking forward to being back there later in the year. One new song in the set... about 'Time' too!

May 30th:
Last night we played at The Bell and Barrel, St Helens. The gorgeous landlady was very happy with us as we kept all the crowd in til we finished playing, which was very late on. We are really looking forward to going back there - it's a real rock venue with everyone going there to watch the bands.

We put two new songs in the set - the result of recent rehearsals - and they worked out nicely and went down very well.

Tonight's show at The Old Bank Inn , Blackpool is off, as the Health and Safety people are to inspect a new volume meter before any more bands are allowed to play. Not the venue's fault. We will be back there later in the year.

Picture this - May 2009

2009-05-10T06:21:00.000-07:00

Old Isaac's, Atherton:

GROUP NEWS: APRIL 2009:

2009-04-27T13:24:00.000-07:00

GROUP NEWS: APRIL 2009:

6th:
This last weekend we did a fine show at The RAOB club, Tyldesley. A cracking venue with a great landlord and some quite stunningly marvelous 'ornamentation' for all the chaps to look at. You should all check it out.

For those asking, Ed's hand is still not working properly, so we wait to see what happens. We will continue to play as a trio for as long as it takes, as we are quite enjoying it. There is no plan to replace (or even get a stand-in) for Ed, so can a few of you please stop emailing us? Thanks.

Tonight was a quite rare midweek gig at Amore in Frodsham. Colin thought it would be rather character building for the rest of us to all get home at 1.30am and then get up at 7.45am, but Ian has foiled him by booking a day off work. We played ok and went down very well and are looking at a couple of return bookings later this year.

7th:
We are really pleased to have taken three new bookings at The Hulton Arms, Bolton - the first being on April 25th. We will be back there again in August and December. Just about all of our available Saturdays have now gone, so we are now looking at a few Fridays, then we can close down this year's diary.

17th:
Tonight, after a little much-deserved time off, the group played our first show at The Griffin, Mold - as a trio - and Steve played out of his skin. What a rocking little venue! For those of you who are familiar with Whittle's in Oldham, the layout is fairly similar, but with the most welcome addition of a good sound. A very enjoyable and very comfortable gig and a lively and enthusiastic, listening crowd and, even if the stage area is tiny. The kind of place that we like to play.

Thanks to John for helping us to move our gear. We didn't play the requested 20 Beatles songs in a row to repay him, as the thought of playing too many tunes by The Fabs bring Steve out in a rash. Ed looks like he may be back in with us shortly, so it will be a case of squashing up when we are back there again - probably next year, as we are pretty much booked up for this year!!

Ho and furthermore, hum:
We have had our Friday December 4th show at the Albion, Warrington cancelled, as the venue are hosting a function and the people want a DJ rather than a band that night, so we are now very available on that date. The Albion have now managed to move a date and cancel another date on us - and that's before we have even played there.

18th:
The Wheatsheaf, Altrincham: Oh well... Nothing at all wrong with the venue at all, but it must just have been one of those nights. A very sparse turnout and it was rather dis-spiriting after the previous night's very excellent work. There must be EEC regulations against clapping in that part of Altrincham, as they resolutely didn't do anything like it last night, until Ian asked them if there was any law against it and then we got a couple of halting and rather embarrassed ripples.

'A group is only as good as its audience', they say... if so, then they are talking utter crap.

At one point, it looked like we out-numbered the punters (and that's playing as a trio), though the pub is an awkward L-shape, so we couldn't see half of them.

Every now and again someone will come up and ask us if we will play certain songs. One punter came up at the Wheatsheaf and asked us if we were playing any Fugs (!!!!!) or 'Fireball' or 'Flight of the diseased fruitbat' (or some similar thing with a similar name) by Deep Purple. We don't play any Deep Purple (it's generally a bit too 'old' for us), but we did obligingly sound check with a lovely knock together of 'Smoke on the water' - then he staggered out of the pub. It was just like being 16 again. They stop you straight away if you try to play that in a music shop, you know. All things being equal, we will be rehearsing with Ed on Thursday of this week.

24th:
The Fleece, Ashton: The group played as a trio tonight. Ed came along to watch us, but didn't play, as we all agreed during our rehearsal the other night that he needs a little but more rehearsal time to get back into the swing of things. Apparently his hand is quite ok now, so that's good news. We possibly got the best reception that we have ever had yet at the Fleece and once again, the group played out of their skins. We played one song as a request that we have actually never played before as a group. That may actually end up getting worked on and added into the set.

25th:
The Hulton Arms: Tonight we got a request for 'some Simon and Garfunkel'. Hmmmm. We didn't play any. We did however do two other odd requests - one being the 'new' song from last night, the other being an off-the-cuff version of 'Smoke on the water'. So there you go, we can pull weird things out of the hat. A fantastic and very attractive crowd and we can't wait 'til we are playing there again.

-----------------------------------------
MOANERS CORNER:

Quite often some of our audience (mainly the women) will ask us for a nice selection of Meat Loaf classics, generally the ones that are either quite impossible to play or which have women singing duets with The Great Man - such as 'Dead ringer for love', 'Paradise by the dashboard light'. Nothing against Meatloaf, at all. Ian has been to see him three times in the last couple of years, but, errrmmm, yes, well, like I say, they are impossible for mere mortals to perform, without a karaoke machine and of course, you know that we would do anything for love.... but we don't do that.

Other top pop favourites that many people ask for are:
U2 (Generally can't stand 'em),
The Beatles (They're good, yes, but too over played),
Lynyrd Skynyrd (If we ever hear 'Freebird' again, we are likely to have a mental collapse. No no no no no).
Metallica (One of us likes them, the rest really don't).
How about some punk rock? (In short, no).
Miscellaneous song that everyone else plays? (Go and watch them instead)
Oasis? (Not our thing at all, sorry)
Yes? (No)

Thanks very much - also- for the most valuable critique from the gentleman who rudely walked up to Ian and interrupted everything that we were doing mid-gig, earlier this month by complaining at some length, while standing right in front of his microphone, that we play some songs too fast..... Too fast for him, yes, as he hasn't got the mental capability to listen to something he doesn't quite expect (how sad). If you want to hear the records, get yer flares on and go to a discotheque!

OUR MISSION STATEMENT:
"We know exactly how we want the songs we play to sound and our first task as a group is to do what pleases and interests us and to ensure that our audience are greatly impressed with what we do. Unless songs are quite sacred to us (it happens), we will play the songs how we personally like to play them and we try put our own stamp on them, to make them different and interesting and also so we don't sound exactly like every other band, who may have been playing 'Twist and Shout' for the last 40 years in the same floral shirt. We don't play Freebird.

If we want to make 'Summer of 69' into a 'reggae dub mix ganja extravanganza' with backwards guitars and a kazoo orchestra, we will. If a Bryan Adams fan is offended by this, he can just go home and put the CD on and pray for us all to go to Hell. We can assure you that Bryan Adams really doesn't care."

MORE NEWS SHORTLY.

GROUP NEWS: MARCH 2009

2009-04-03T08:39:00.000-07:00

GROUP NEWS: MARCH 2009:

1st:
Recovering from last night's marathon at Georgia Brown's and arranging return shows both there and at the Flamin' Gallah bar in Altrincham. Ed is busy moving house this week and he will no doubt spend all next week trying to work out how to finally get his laptop out of the box. Technophobe!! Next rehearsal due on Tuesday night, working on two ideas brought forward by Ed.

4th:
Last night we rehearsed and looked at a bunch of new ideas. A couple of things are a bit out of our reach as there just aren't enough of us in the band to play all of the essential required parts, but not being discouraged, we had a go. Sometimes, we will adapt a song to suit us, but these two... well, they had to go. We agreed on 3 new songs to start work on and look forward to getting them in the set shortly. Ian took two new gigs at the Flamin' Gallah, Altrincham for June and August. New pages on the site - both under development. You lot! and Playmates of the month

7th:
The group played at The Railway, Bromley Cross. The landlord is very concerned that groups should bring a good following along to add to the numbers of the existing clientelle. The problem is that, for a lot of people, the pub is out of the way for a Saturday night and a way to travel. Thanks to the people who did come along particularly to see us. We had a fair enough night, though Ian really wasn't on the ball part of the time and had the kind of 'fun' you wouldn't believe with some of the song words (well, he's been a little poorly, etc etc).

20th:
The group are going to be working as a three piece again for the foreseeable future. Ed is having significant problems with his left hand, which are preventing him from playing guitar at all. He has been advised not to play by his doctor, certainly not 'til he has been to see a specialist.

21st:
The group played a very good show as a trio at The Last Orders in Preston, where we were very warmly received by the audience. We got a lot of compliments on our playing and a couple of other good venues were mentioned to us, so we'll see what we can do. The group will - as mentioned above - be continuing as a three piece band for the foreseeable future and eagerly await news of how Ed is doing and of whether he will be returning to the group or not.

28th:
The Bridge Bar, Latchford. A great venue, which we really enjoyed playing at. Looking forward to arranging return shows there later this year.

31st:
Some very good news - The group have booked 3 shows at THE CHERRY GARDENS, WIGAN - starting in July.

Group news, February 2009.

2009-03-01T13:17:00.000-08:00

Hi folks. Welcome to a snowy and cold February.

2nd:
Well.... you may well ask.... what's new? The group have been gig hunting and we have taken some more bookings at The Wheatsheaf, Altrincham, which is now under completely new management. We always used to like playing there, so that's good news. We will also be playing at Ululru - which is a really funky little place and we expect to have a terrific night there. Later this month, we are at Georgia Brown's in Hindley - always a good venue.

Steve is now going to be playing at The Boulevard on Thursday nights with his side blues project - that looks to be a very promising night indeed. Mandatory attendance. Ian will be helping on bass for about a month to help start it off.
Ian H was back in the country last week for a quick visit. A couple of pints were had. Rehearsals continue apace to get a couple of new things into the set, though they are dependent slightly on the miserable weather. On the down-side, The Hulton Arms, Bolton and The Queen Anne, Bolton.remain as firmly shut as Ian's wallet, so all of our shows there look to be off.

Hello Howie. We haven't forgotten you. Rehearsals tend to clash with the jam night, so it's hard to do both.

3rd - Still freezing out:
Ian and Colin went out gig-hunting and have got a number of further shows sorted, which will be on the site shortly.

5th - Perishing cold:
Ian and Steve rehearsed at The Boulevard for the start of the blues nights there. With Col from the Boulevard on drums and MadDog on vocals, they will be supporting Blues And Beyond on Thursday 12th February. Ian will be helping on bass for about a month to help start it off.

10th - Brrrrrrrr!!!
The New Inn, Walkden is under new management and all bands shows there - including ours - are now cancelled. At least they told us. Ed has awful man-flu, so no rehearsal tonight. Colin has been doing some sterling work contacting a couple of venues regarding bookings. We have taken some dates at Winston's, Wigan.

12th - Wet and cold:
The Boulevard, Wigan for the blues night. We (the house band, including Steve and Ian) were supporting Blues and Beyond. An encouraging, if not that huge, turn-out. It could be a good night when it picks up. A 'mystery bassist' seems set to replace Ian (who has asked to be electronically tagged) on bass in the house band shortly. Our thoughts and prayers are with Chris M, who had two teeth out today and therefore didn't have too much to laugh at tonight.

Friday the 13th:
Hawker's Social Club, Farnworth. Thanks to everyone who turned out to support a worthy cause and have a great night. Photos in the gallery.

19th:
Steve and Ian's spot at the blues night was cancelled this week.

21st:
Winston's, Wigan. Hi to Rent-a-crowd who came out en masse to see us. Lovely to see you all. Hope you all enjoyed your first sighting of Ed - great isn't he? We have another 4 dates in at Winstons this year.

22nd:
Rose Grove, Burnley. What a really cracking club with a great crowd who were really into it and were very vocal in their appreciation. We were very impressed with both the venue and the punters. A couple of people wanted it LOUDER!! and there were some rather lovely laydeez in attendance. We're hoping to be back there in a while. Pix on this blog.

28th:
Last night we played at the Galoot bar in Altrincham. It used to be called Uluru and has suddenly changed its name. At least our gig was still on. A good night was had by all and we are going to be arranging to go back.

Tonight we played at Georgia Brown's in Hindley and had a rather spiffing night. A very atractive crowd indeed. We are arranging to go back there for a number of shows and are looking forward to it immensely.

FOR EVERYONE THAT HAS ASKED US WHEN WE ARE BACK AT THE MOSES GATE, FARNWORTH, BOLTON:
We're not. Sorry about that. After a couple of failed attempts to see the landlord in person and get the diary done (involving standing for a boring half an hour plus, watching two of their least attractive and least fragrant punters play pool in the tap room and being ignored when Ray did appear), Ian has emailed the venue, only to be told that they are totally booked up for 2009. The only nights we can now be offered are the ''poor relation' nights (Thursdays and Sundays) which we have no intention at all of taking. Their loss. We are playing a lot of other places, where you won't be charged a cent on the door - please come along and see us.

February 2009 photos

2009-02-16T13:51:00.001-08:00

Group news: January 2009

2009-02-02T09:33:00.000-08:00

January 3rd:
Thanks to everyone who came along last night to The Boulevard, Wigan, where we covered a cancellation. Colin at the venue got us a really good sound and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We crertainly had an exceptionally good night there and the place was really really buzzing. We again played as a trio. Colin played his acoustic kit and leathered the Hell out of it. Ian was doing his bass thing and doing it very well, while Steve played out of his skin yet again and constantly amazed us all.

Huge Thanks to RentACrowd for coming along and deciding to stay on and get a taxi back rather than the last train. We thought we'd play a whole bunch of 'rare stuff' (for us) and make it well worth it for you! Probably one of the best gigs we've ever done........

5th:
We are pleased to have confirmed a private show at Hawkers Social Club in Farnworth for a local bike club on February 13th. Thanks to Andrea for putting us in touch.

6th:
Ian called with some posters at The Queen Anne, Deane, only to find it closed down. No-one there bothered to tell us. Marvelous. A few calls later, we have added gigs in Blackpool and Didsbury. Thanks to Ki and also to NorthWestBands.

8th:
We have added a show at Rosegrove Unity WMC near Burnley in February. Watch out St Helens, we're coming to the Bell & Barrel !! We are due to rehearse with Ed next week to get him back up to speed to play more shows with us and to add some new songs into the set.

21st:
It has been more than a wee bit quiet on the news front, but basically what has been going on is a couple of good rehearsals with Ed (whose last gig with his current band is at The Opera House in Manchester later this month) and some more gig hunting. Ian has been working some things up for his next couple of recordings, as well as dealing with some really annoying headaches. Our MySpace page has just been updated and the songs have been rotated a little, so you can now have some of Colin's dulcet tones in the background, as you sweep the net for porn.... if you so choose. Steve is getting some info together for a page on the site relating to his guitar tuition. We are going to do some brand new questions for the profile pages, so if you have any (clean) ideas please send them in. Thanks.

22nd:
Some more new shows booked in Ashton (to be fully confirmed with the venue). Thank you Colin.

Ian went out to a couple of venues locally. One of them looks like it is shutting down and at the other one, the landlord didn't have the courtesy to find two free minutes to stand and put two dates in the diary, even though Ian had stood there and waited for about 20 minutes for him to come downstairs. Wonderful. It only goes to show that some venues think the bands are nothing and that they are everything. Wrong. Without the actual bands, some places that think of themselves as venues are just scruffy, crappy old pubs that no-one would dream of going into without the prospect of something to look at that isn't the immediate grotty surroundings and they would be promptly and deservedly boarded up. Oh well. Press on.

24th:
Last night the band played an absolutely storming show at The New Inn, Walkden to an appreciative crowd. It looks like it's going to be the top venue in the area again, as a nearby venue is still ditthering and slowly deciding what to do about bands for 2009.
We were really pleased to have ED back on board with us. We have seriously missed him while he has been away.

The group sounded like the 'classic' Kerbcrawlers should sound. Tonight he plays his last show with Abba Forever at The Opera House in Manchester - quite a prestigious venue - and we played as a three piece in Didsbury, just down the road. That show went really well too, but the pub has just been sold to another company, so we'll have to wait and see what happens there in the future.

The UK licensed trade tirade.

2009-01-10T08:36:00.001-08:00

The UK licensed trade.

Why is it that certain landlords do certain things without telling bands?

Cancel shows

Change dates of shows

Book bands instead of /as well the originally booked bands and leave both bands to argue the toss over who is playing

Decide that they have a policy of not coming downstairs to talk to bands who make the trip to their pub to see them

Decide they are going to argue to reduce the fee paid to theband - after they have finished slogging their guts out for two hours.

Why is it that landlords......

Ring bands up to move show dates, when bands rarely need to do that?

Are never available to answer the phone, even when we are going to the trouble of returning their call, which was despearately important in the first place?

Leave the pub and don't tell the new landlord that bands are booked?

Are surprised when bands tell them to fuck off en masse when word get round about their inefficiency, disorganisation and stupidity?

It's little wonder after dealing with most of the above this month, I am seriously considering making this my last year ever of playing with a band. I am sick and tired of dealing with people who obviously can't get a real job and who think they can run a pub so badly and get away with it.

January photos

2009-01-04T10:34:00.001-08:00

GROUP NEWS: December 2008

2009-01-01T04:58:00.000-08:00

GROUP NEWS: December...

Ian has been in contact with a few venues.... who say they are already booked up for next year. As the 'credit crunch' closes more and more local venues down, we are seeing it getting tighter and tighter and more difficult for bands to get work. Only the really good bands are going to survive. If venues book rubbish bands, they will lose crowds, as the public won't keep coming back, week after week to watch inept musicians. That, bizarrely, makes it harder for bands like us, who pride ourselves on our level of musicianship. We have cut out a bunch of venues that we really do not want to play at, but we will hopefully still manage to get our diary filled to the level that we want it filled to!

5th:
Thanks to everyone who turned out to watch us play as a trio at The Fleece, Ashton. Steve again played out of his skin and it was a pretty good show.

14th:
Last night we played at Winston's, Wigan. Great crowd. Thanks to the Mad Dog for getting up to sing Jimi Hendrix's 'Red house' with us. We have had some tip-offs about new venues to get ourselves booked into for next year and we will be getting some of our friends (the ones who pass on these gig tip-offs to us) into these venues, too.

18th:
Ian has updated his MySpace page at www.myspace.com/12stringbassist with some 'new' songs.

19th / 21st:
The trio version of the group played at The Stocks, Walkden and at The Moses Gate. Both were excellent shows and we hope to be be playing return shows at both venues next year. A Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to everyone who comes to see the group and to the venues that book us.

27th:
Whittles, Oldham - Thanks to everyone for a good night and also to the PA guys for some useful advice on our own system. We had a pretty good turnout until most of the way through the second half, when a whole bunch of people went to see some local band (mates of the pub staff) who were playing round the corner. not dis-spirited, we carried on and played a sterling set. Hopefully Whittles will be able to put us on next year, as we went down really well.

New Year's Eve:
The Fleece, Ashton In Makerfield: A very good crowd. The band played a bit of a marathon set, including a few songs we don't normally do, to give it a bit more of a party atmosphere.

Thanks to everyone who has had us play at their venues this last year, everyone who has come to see us play.

Thanks to Chris M who has taken the vast majority of the photos that appear on this website.

Huge thanks also to Ian H, Mike and Ed for playing guitar with us.

December piccies..........

2008-12-12T11:51:00.001-08:00

New Year's Eve:

The Kerbcrawlers - WINSTON'S, WIGAN

The Kerbcrawlers -THE FLEECE, ASHTON.

The One after 'The Last One'

2008-12-07T09:05:00.000-08:00

The One after 'The Last One'

Group news - November 2008

2008-12-07T08:57:00.000-08:00

November...

Ian has set up a musicians forum here - so if you want to talk about gigs, guitars, drums or whatever, go along, register and join in!! Membership is free - there are no annoying adverts, etc.

5th:
We are now going through the diary with venues for next year. We intend to take every other week off next year and have some holidays that we are building in as well, so we imagine the group diary will fill up to capacity quite quickly. If you have a venue and are interested in booking the group, please contact us!

8th:
Last night at The Boulevard, Wigan was a cracking show. We played as a three piece and Steve played right out of his skin. We went down really well. All of the comments made were that the group sounds just great as a 3 piece. That's a good two fingers to everyone who ever thought Steve couldn't do it!

Fashion note: Tonight Colin played his acoustic drum kit.

Thanks very much to Colin from The Boulevard for having us play and also for doing the PA for us. We will be back there for a couple of shows (Saturday nights) next year.

Ian called at The Cherry Gardens on the way into Wigan and was disappointed to find out that the venue are not booking at all for next year. This may change, but it is unlikely. One of Wigan's best venues gone.

Also gone as a venue is The Woolpack, Radcliffe. The last landlord scarpered without telling anyone anything, allegedly, and the new people of course have taken the place on knowing nothing about any groups and are trying to get their licence sorted, as well as a big refurb on the pub. They won't be having bands.

The Southport Cruisers bike club made their annual 'too late' phone call this morning (nice and early, getting Ian out of bed) to try to book the band for a rock night next week. As usual, they ring up at the very last minute and find we have been booked up for about a year in advance. We keep telling them and all they ever say is they'll try again. Oh well.

15th:
A cracking show at The Abbey Lakes, Orrell. How very sad that the excellent landlord leaves this week and that it isn't known whether the new landlords will re-book in the new year. At least bookings for this year are being honoured. Another venue possibly gone, but that's the way it seems to be going these days.

20th:
Some more bookings for the new year have come in, which is good. We also may have New Year's Eve this year sorted out. We won't be available at Christmas and New Year in 2009.

Oh yes... and hello Howie.

21st:
The Nag's Head Macclesfield. Better than the last time we were there... with our PA speaker horns blowing out, a stand in drummer (who at least played marvelously) and a guitarist quitting after the gig. This time we played a great show and probably secured a private booking as a result. Great crowd. We won't be back at The Nag's in 2009 as they told us their diary is full up. Also getting home after 2am makes for us seriously thinking whether it is worth the trip.

Steve told us an amusing story about a local Wigan band who are seen as our 'rivals' for some reason. Steve said one of them insulted him recently by saying Steve 'plays by numbers' when soloing and couldn't do anything else... meanwhile this other great player / critic gets on with knocking his anaemic Oasis / Britpop band covers out and declaring to others that he is better than his bandmates. You have to laugh.

New musicians forum

2008-11-05T15:25:00.000-08:00

New forum here.

Cheap Trick "Live At Budokan" 30th Anniversary DVD and 3 Disc Set Coming Soon!

2008-11-02T15:17:00.000-08:00

Cheap Trick "Live At Budokan" 30th Anniversary DVD and 3 Disc Set Coming Soon...

Retro Music Snob Report
Release date Nov. 4th...

This is going to be quite nice...

The history of rock and roll is fraught with more than its share of unforeseen circumstances. But none so unforeseen as those in the life of Cheap Trick – Rick Nielsen (guitar), Robin Zander (vocals and guitar), Bun E. Carlos (drums), and Tom Petersson (bass). Circa 1978-79, they jumped from being the biggest band ever to emerge from Rockford , Illinois , to becoming platinum-selling headliners on the cover of Rolling Stone.

Chalk it up to Japan, the most unpredictable rock nation on the face of the earth, who held Cheap Trick so close to their hearts that the band’s record company there decided to reward the fans with a live concert album, a souvenir of the band’s incredible two-night stand at the country’s most revered sports stadium in 1978.

The album turned into a tsunami whose impact catalyzed America, then engulfed the world – and now is celebrated three decades later with a four-disc (DVD + 3 CD) package, BUDOKAN!: 30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION, that brings the sight and sound together for the first time. The set will arrive in stores November 11th through Epic/Legacy, a division of SONY BMG Music Entertainment. Separately on October 28th, a new 12-inch vinyl LP of the Live at Budokan original 10-song album will be issued on 180 gram audiophile pressing.

This deluxe package is highlighted by the premiere commercial DVD release of a video recording of the second concert, a one hour 15-song program that was broadcast only once on Japanese television 30 years ago. The stunning DVD artifact features a new stereo mix and 5.1 Surround Sound by original 1978 producer Jack Douglas and engineer Jay Messina. At last, Cheap Trick fans can actually see and feel the moment come to life when – for the first time in history – lead singer Robin Zander exhorts the Japanese audience, “I Want YOU… to Want…ME!”

The DVD is complemented by the bonus documentary feature, “Looking Back,” a new conversation with the band about their original Budokan experience. In addition, there is video of one more song from 1978 (“Come On, Come On”) and two songs from Cheap Trick’s 30th anniversary return concert at Budokan in April 2008 (“Voices” and “If You Want My Love”)

The four-disc package goes on to include (on disc two) a CD that replicates the audio of the DVD in its full 19-song length, also produced by Jack Douglas and Jay Messina. Discs three and four represent the previous 20th anniversary (1998) double-CD Live at Budokan (culled from multiple night’s concerts, as was the original 1978 LP), beautifully remastered in 2008 to sound better than ever, produced by Cheap Trick and Bruce Dickinson.

“The album was never supposed to come out in America but thankfully it did,”

GROUP NEWS: October...

2008-11-02T14:14:00.000-08:00

GROUP NEWS: October...

The first few weeks of October have been devoted to rehearsal and having a rest. Our new guitarist Ed is getting nicely up to speed on our songs - doing some very hard stuff and doing it at an unbelievable rate, while making it look easy. He plays in
the perfect style for the band and has some great new ideas. He is committed to some shows in November, December and, to an extent, into January with his current group, which unfortunately clash with our existing schedule. We have rehearsed as a three-piece band and Steve played really well on his own: the results were extremely pleasing, so we intend to do all but one of the shows while Ed is away as 'a trio'. We plough on, determinedly! We are now booking for next year.

19th:
Ed's first full show with the group at The King Edward, Blackpool.

Ed was obviously just a little bit nervous, but on the whole, he played a blinder. We were all confident he would do a great job - and so he did. Colin is back in the fold too and on great form and both of them thoroughly enjoyed playing. Apart from two of the group getting parking tickets, it was a roaring success. We hope to be back there next year, when the venue are doing 'two band' packages.

29th:
The group played live as a three-piece for the first time last night at The Woodlands, Blackburn. It felt strange in parts but Steve did a great job and we went down extremely well and are very much looking forward to Ed being in full-time and also to the coming shows as a trio!

On a slightly bum note - our show at The Cherry Gardens in November is off. Steve was in touch with them about the date and unfortunately the venue gave it to another group when they were informed that Colin was ill. Colin is now fully recovered, but the date has been given away. We have been offered an alternative date there in December, which needs to be firmed up. We will be talking to the venue about playing there next year shortly.

We are now taking bookings for next year. Contact us!

Tonight we played at The Hulton Arms, Bolton. It was Steve's birthday (as he told us later on, so we didn't show him up on stage!!!). Happy birthday Steve!! The group played a blinder and we have taken 4 dates at the venue for next year. Thanks to the people who turned up specially to watch us.

GROUP NEWS: September 2008

2008-09-26T16:12:00.001-07:00

In which things get better......

Sept 1st:
Well...... Here we are in September and Colin is still not well enough to play onstage yet. In the meantime, Rick is doing an admirable job of keeping his seat warm until he's fit. The group have agreed to take an excellent new guitarist on to replace Mike, who suddenly left the group in mid-August. We will put some more information about Ed on the site shortly, when we are able to do so.

Sept 5th:
The Fleece, Ashton. Quite a night!! A huge thank you to everyone who came. We were very pleased to be able to play what will we have realised will be our last gig in Ashton with Hutch on guitar. Our talented new guitarist - Ed - got up for a couple of songs and he did a great job, despite using unfamiliar gear. We are going to be doing some work with him to get him up to speed on the setlist shortly. You are going to see a lot more of Ed. On drums, we had Rick, who has been covering for Colin in his absence. At the back end of the show, his son Alex joined us on drums and he played on the last 4 of 5 songs.

The biggest cheers of the night from a really receptive audience came for our drummer Colin, who got up and sang a few songs with us and played drums on 'Still in love with you'. Huge grins all round from the band. Absolutely wonderful to see Colin out and about and it was even more brilliant that he was up on the stage with us. It's going to be a little while before he's back full time with us, but this evening was a big step towards that.

Sept 9th:
The jam night at The Caledonian. Colin came along to this one and we only got time to do 4 quick songs, due to some VERY 'inventive' scheduling.... where a talented young lad with acoustic guitar was up for almost an hour. We had a mere 15 minutes and Howie and The Incredibles finished the night off in their own inimitable style when most decent people were asleep in their beds. We won't be going back to the jam night for a while, because of that and also, as we are going to get Ed rehearsed in, that is going to take more than 20 minutes a week to do.... so off to Colin's it is, then!

Sept 13th:
The Railway, Bromley Cross. Not exactly buzzing. Thanks to those of you who came. Tonight we played a one-off with Alex Lacey sitting in on drums. He did a fairly ok job on the whole, then he cheerfully confessed after the gig that he had only listened to the discs with our recordings on, on the same day... and had therefore just about busked it at the gig. Some 'interesting' versions of songs therefore resulted! What it is to be young, eh?

Sept 19th:
Tomorrow night at Winston's, Wigan is Ian H's last show with us. Don't miss it!

We rehearsed last night with our new guitarist, Ed. It went very well indeed. He has put in some hard work on the songs. Colin played very well, too, which pleased us no end. We came up with some new ideas for the set, which will be great when we get them together. We need to firm up our diaries for the remainder of the year, as Ed has a number of absolutely necessary commitments to fulfill with his current group, which will certainly interfere with our schedule. We are not very sure about going out as a three-piece for any of our shows. That has to be discussed. We have high standards to maintain. Short term pain = long term gain.

Sept 20th:
Winston's, Wigan. Ian Hutchings' last show with the group. Photos are in the gallery. Rick and Colin shared drum duties. Thanks to everyone who came to see us; Howie and his good lady, RentACrowd, Andy and Amy and various other good ladies... Getting Hutch back in the group marked he welcome end of a very unsettling era. Now he's off again, we have to get Ed up to speed and get out there and impress everyone all over again. We now have a bit of a rest (apart from some rehearsals).

Sept 25th:
Another good rehearsal at Colin's house. Thankfully, Colin is handling playing drums very well and is shaking off the cobwebs and hitting the things with the correct amount of determination! Ed is fitting in very nicely, making real progress with the songs and playing some really good guitar, more in the proper classic style of the band and improving some things immediately - and quite noticeably - which is just an immense relief to us all. We are talking new song ideas for the set, which will probably appear a few shows in and which will freshen things up no end.

ROCK AND ROLL Pt 6 - The Space Cadet soundman

2008-08-31T06:52:00.001-07:00

One of the main joys of being in a band sometimes is when you turn up at a place and know that you don't have to bring your own PA with you, haul it into the venue and set it up, etc.

A little while ago, we played a place where they have an in-house PA system. They don't like bands using their own PA. The soundman employed by the venue said that he knew what worked for the venue and argued with us about everything we asked for. Everything was too much trouble.

We generally put everything through the PA and let that do the work, keeping the backline amps at sensible and comfortable levels for ourselves. We are not keen on deafening ourselves needlessly. He very grudgingly put all the guitars into the PA and was rather dischuffed that we had 4 vocals. Through perseverance, we got an acceptable sound and he wandered off, unhappy that he had not been able to impose his will / ego on us.

We played there again, not long ago and I was actually dreading dealing with this idiot. In I walked with my gear and what happens the very first thing? Yes, he comes up to me and starts....

"I remember you lot. There are two ways to get a good sound in here. One is YOUR way, which is totally wrong. The other is mine, which is what we are going to do tonight."

"Whatever you want will be fine," says I - not really wanting a row.

"I'm not trying to fall out with you," he says - having managed to totally piss me off and make me want to go home with his first two sentences - quite an achievement.

"Don't worry about it. You do the sound here. You know how it works. I'm happy to let you do it. Just getting my gear in, right now.... 'Scuse me."

Would he let it go? Oh No. He insisted on getting me wound up to the point where after over five minutes of his nagging, I had to abandon my gear, unattended, basically go to the gents loo to avoid him.

I warned the rest of the band as they turned up. They were all wary of him as well from the last time and they all tried to avoid eye contact with him. He went to each of them in turn and upset them individually. He insisted on changing Steve's vocal mic for one of his own and then slagged the make of Steve's mic off unmercifully and without any real foundation, except that he wanted to impose his idiotic will on us.

The only funny thing he said to any of us (apart from his lunatic pronouncement that you can't put an entire group through a PA) was his gleeful statement that he actually wanted to make the bell behind the bar that they use for last orders ring with the sheer volume of a group he was mixing for. Idiot.

This time round, his chosen method of operating was to only put the snare and bass drum through the PA, along with three vocals and make us crank the backline amps up to the level where we couldn't hear each other properly. It was just unpleasant for all of us. It may have sounded fine out front, but onstage, it hurt.

The first half of the show came and went, as did the soundman. He isn't paid for when the band is actually playing, he said. That translates to me as if anything goes wrong with the sound, it's our hard luck and we're stuck with it. And also that he doesn't really care. He just went outside to smoke more of whatever it was that was making him come out with his endless streams of crap to each of us.

In the second half, stuck with a static mix and with nothing changed on our part, except for the odd guitar / bass change, the PA sound went straight to hell. The monitor mix for the vocals was pretty poor, despite them being huge things and the vocal mics were feeding back terribly. In desperation, I stopped playing in the middle of one song and actually switched the monitors off. Between songs, accompanied by the whistling of microphones on an otherwise silent stage, I announced what was now unfortunately going to be our last song, as the PA sound was straight from Hell.

We are taking our own PA next time and he can have the night off.

GROUP NEWS - August 2008

2008-08-27T16:10:00.000-07:00

And what was OUR August like?

1st:
Colin, our drummer, was urgently admitted to intensive care in Wigan hospital. We therefore regretfully cancelled four shows:
1st - Moses Gate, Farnworth - We found a replacement group for this show.
2nd - Cherry Gardens, Wigan - covered by Hare of The Dog.
8th - The Woodlands, Blackburn.
9th - The Abbey Lakes, Orrell - covered by Social Icons.

E-mails have been sent to friends of the group to let them know exactly what is going on. We all wish Colin a full and speedy recovery.

5th / 6th:
Steve went to visit Colin in hospital on Tuesday. He is still in intensive care. In a text from his daughter, we have been told that his condition had improved a little on Wednesday, which is very good news.

8th:
Colin is now thankfully out of intensive care and on a normal ward and seems to be much improved. He will possibly even be out of hospital in the next 7 - 10 days, all being well. Hello, Howie.

12th:
Ian went to visit. Colin is very much improved and looks likely to be allowed home shortly. We're hoping that Colin will be fit to play again in a few months and makes a full recovery. Rick Lacey and his son Alex (at a few shows) are helping us out on drums until then. PLEASE NOTE: All shows from here on in the diary are ON.

15th:
Ian says: "We turned up at The Queen Anne, Bolton, to find that our show had been passed on to The Stag's Head next door by the departing landlord. Panic averted. We managed to set ourselves up on the tiny stage, just about... and set about doing our first show without Colin (who is now out of hospital, by the way).

It was really strange in parts, even though I have played with Rick many times over the years. Rick made a pretty damn good job of his first show with us and was most of the way there on just about everything we played. No mean feat even for an impressive player like Rick. Everything - naturally - felt a lot different. Of course, we missed Colin's fills, his timing and feel in songs and especially his great vocals. We just missed Colin, really. Rick is covering just about everything with us 'til Colin comes back and is basically helping to keep the group alive and we are very grateful to him for that!"

16th:
The Nag's Head, Macclesfield. Rick played a blinder again and got just about everything right. We had a slight problem with our PA speakers - and another much larger problem that became apparent after the show - but apart from that, it was a really good night. Thank you to a really good audience.

After the show, our guitarist Mike Smith got into Ian's car and announced his immediate departure from the group, so now he is an ex-guitarist. It wasn't a complete shock or even a blow to us, though we could have done with some notice.
Ian H will be rejoining the group for shows up to October (Mike had asked him if he could help us out before he quit).

22nd:
So....... a basically un-tested new line-up (Ian, Steve, Ian H , Rick) played together for the first time at the Transport Club, Rochdale. A quiet night at the venue, but we went down well with our audience. A few things that haven't been played for some long time appeared tonight. All good fun!

The hunt is on for a new guitarist for the group, after Mike Smith decided to let us know he was leaving us, immediately after the show last Saturday. He had, at least, asked Ian H to assist us until early October, but after that, we are going need to have a new player ready. Mmmm, pressure. Lovely. We have a likely and very suitable candidate for the position in mind, but he has some other commitments at present and so we need to firm things up with him, so nothing is completely settled yet.

Colin hopes to be back onstage with us around October time, which is indeed truly excellent news.
Colin, your drum stool is waiting and Rick is just keeping it warm for you.

23rd:
So.... off we toddled to Winston's in Wigan. Always a pleasure to play in front of people we know and there were quite a lot in there tonight. No pressure then..... Ian E and Steve are basically the Everley Brothers at the moment while Colin is down, so the help was VERY much appreciated!!!! Us two going out as an acoustic duo (mmmm... what an interesting idea) would not really work quite as well, perhaps, as a full four-man line up. Even with bongos. Rick played a real blinder again and it is always great to play with Ian H.

A few songs got an airing that we haven't played at all this year - A hard day's night, Sabre dance, etc. A big hello to our local hero and occasional roadie, Howie.

24th:
Thank you very much to everyone at The King in Blackpool. What a great gig! One of the best shows we have ever done and a real confidence booster, after losing our ex-guitarist. The band is at about 98% strength at the moment. Thanks to the people who came from our end to the seaside to watch us - especially Howie. Must build him his own website one of these days!

26th:
Ian and Steve went round to see Colin. He's looking and feeling better, but still not up to playing yet. We sorted out and agreed our intended work pattern for next year and discussed our potential new member. This evening saw Ian and Steve go to a very productive jam night at The Caledonian.

30th:
Apologies to anyone who attended our show tonight. An amount of the second half was sadly marred by severe problems with painfully piercing whistling mics on the house PA, which we were unable to rectify, which really put us all off our stroke.

The last guitar

2008-07-29T12:40:00.000-07:00

I have finally reached the point where I have no need to buy any more guitars or basses. This Gretsch White Falcon guitar is the very last one.

GROUP NEWS: July 2008.

2008-07-28T13:41:00.001-07:00

GROUP NEWS: July 2008.

July 9th:
Ian's elongated 'Grumpy Old Man' style rants about British Airways are now up on this blog. A badly jetlagged Ian was about to go to the jam night last night, but eventually conceded to the effects of having gone without sleep for about 30 hours, while making frantic phone calls and waiting for his new Fender Jazz Bass to arrive at home. Colin and Ian (and possibly still Steve have voice problems). Hello, Howie.

July 12th:
Georgia Brown's, Hindley - A new venue for us and despite Colin and Ian's throats not being fully up to it (still), we did a really good show. They want us back - so we will be back there later in the year, schedules permitting.

July 13th:
Whittle's, Oldham. Our first time there and it was really an incredibly enjoyable show - playing to a crowd who really listened to what we were doing and a landlord who liked us a great deal. Back at the end of August and very much looking forward to it!!!

July 15th:
The Jam night at The Caledonian. Hello to Howie and the guys. The country gentlemen started the evening and were back on form and now they have an extra new member on guitar. They played what seemed like their full length set and a couple of encores.

In the few minutes that were left before the pub closed, after they had run out of songs, a couple of good new solo performers got up too, so The Incredibles had a very limited length spot. Ian and Ian H finished off the evening with a few songs, with guests Howie and Tommy. All good fun.

July 18th:
The Railway, Ramsbottom. Thanks to the lovely Tracey for having us and to everyone who braved the absolutely awful weather to come out and see us. We got Alex from the group Joon up with us for Tush. Great fun.

July 19th:
Steve's reunion show with Hunter at the Boulevard was very well attended and was a cracking night. You missed it? Shame on you!!!

20th July:
The Cross Axes, Great Harwood. A very good and enjoyable gig. Given the choice of playing indoors or outdoors, we decided to play outside at the rear of the pub, as the weather was fairly clement on the whole, plus we would get to finish at 11.00 instead of at midnight. The live sound was very good, considering we were outdoors and we could be heard clearly a good distance away and so we got people coming down to watch us from other pubs. What very understanding neighbours they have! The old 'open your windows and you'll hear us' joke wasn't really a joke on this occasion!! We superstitiously put off playing Quo's 'Rain' til a moderately-sized cloud had gone away.... just in case!!! The locals seemed to really like us and a fair number of them watched us most of the way through, which appears to be unusual there.

We had a nice chat with the landlord afterwards and he was very happy indeed with us, but the diary there is unfortunately now full up for the rest of this year (though we did try to get a return gig this year when we took this booking), so it will be next year before we are back. Let's hope we get a better summer next year, so we can play outdoors more often.

25th July:
The Boulevard, Wigan. Steve appeared to have set himself up with a short residency at one of our very favourite venues, as he was here last week with Hunter for their last reunion show. We used the venue's PA and monitors and it's probably fair to say that we didn't get the sound as good as we could, as we weren't familiar with the desk, etc. The lack of a good foldback sound really interfered with the show, though we tried our best to keep enthusiastic and to fix the sound in the interval.

26th July:
Unusually for The Hulton Arms, the crowd were very enthusiastic, in good voice and quite bonkers. A great night was had by all. Great to see Howie, Ian H and Chris. Tonight we discussed getting a few new songs into the show and will be finishing off rehearsing a new Pink Floyd epic (just about there) shortly, plus a few of our other favorite songs.

28th July:
A few cancellations: We are really sad to say that the lovely Tracy is leaving the Railway at Ramsbottom. All bands gigs there are now cancelled. The Stocks in Walkden are going down to fortnightly shows, so our October gig there is off.

On the up-side, we have had an offer from a Rochdale venue which we hope to confirm in the next day or so.

30th July:
New show for 22nd August added at The Transport Club, Rochdale.

THE ADVANTAGES OF FLYING CLUB CLASS WITH BRITISH AIRWAYS

2008-07-08T09:13:00.000-07:00

TAKE A LONG LOOK AT THIS BASS.

It was bought new in Boston USA, and Boston Airport was the last place that I saw it during our whole flight and our return, when a lovely lady on the check in desk covered it in fragile stickers and I handed it over to a baggage handler and watched sadly as it went through the curtain into oblivion and towards the British Airways Baggage Incompetence Department at BA Terminal 4, where it would later be subject to an attack of severe idiocy.

Anyway, back to the story:
In the duty free shop at Boston airport, we were told that we could only have ONE bottle with liquid (a rather nice bottle of perfume we got as a present for a friend), but we couldn't buy two bottles of Baileys and another bottle of alcohol - which were recovered from us - due to BA's restrictions on what liquids you can buy and carry and so they put it back on the shelf.

We got on the 747 to London and the cabin staff on the plane said what the duty free shop had told us about the number of bottles we could carry was basically incorrect. We were then sold a bottle of whiskey, duty free on the 747 from Boston to London and they didn't seal the carrier bag up. MORE OF THIS FOLLOWS:

Later on during the flight, we were treated like naughty children and basically told to shut up when talking briefly about what was on the in-flight TV, though various brats were squealing away in economy through a curtain and keeping everyone awake.

We were so hacked off by this that when breakfast was offered, I politely rejected it. "Well, if you don't have it now, that's your last chance", the lady snapped back. The thought of telling them where to put it came to mind, but I have never been that kind of passenger and never will be.

Next thing we know, my wife, my new bass, myself and our two cases have landed at London Heathrow and all made our own separate ways from BA at terminal 4 to BA at terminal 5.

When we went through security at Terminal 5, despite having the bottle unopened, a BA carrier bag and a receipt from the plane's duty free sales - it was argued that the bottle of whiskey was to be taken away from us, as the BA bag was not sealed.

I am not that keen on whiskey, but I do really hate being ripped off. I know exactly how the system they employ works: I was NOT leaving a bottle of whiskey for them to celebrate with at home. I would have dropped it on the floor and let it break first.

I said that if this was not resolved sensibly and quickly, I would kick off in such a big style that Naomi Campbell would want to have my babies from sheer admiration.

This approaching storm got a positive reaction from one of the guys who was dealing with us. We were escorted to another floor to see a guy who may (or may not) have been able to solve our problem.

He wrinkled his brow in a truly impressive demonstration of deep thought and examined the evidence in the precise and thorough manner of a real Sherlock Holmes:

A BA in-flight duty free sales bag.
A receipt.
An unopened product exactly matching the receipt.

He made a lightning deduction and came to the utterly splendid correct conclusion that the bottle and receipt definitely belonged in the bag.

I asked, could HE seal the bag, then we could be on our way?
Nope.

He decided, due to the overwhelming balance of evidence in our favour, to let us keep the bottle, but he had to put everything in yet another sealed carrier bag and it would have to go directly in the hold and we would have to collect it at the end of the flight off the baggage carousel. I had visions of collecting a smashed bottle and having to write off for compensation. More unnecessary hassle.

Ignoring his suggestion to nip over and buy a few newspapers to pad the carrier bag, I added in a guitar mag that I had been intending to read, to try to feebly cushion the bottle in the bag. I could then imagine reclaiming the cost of another magazine, too. He put the bottle on the conveyor and it didn't start moving, so he handed it back to us and asked us to take it with us and hand it in at the gate!

I then pulled myself together and thought 'the foolishness stops here'.

Everything went back into the BA bag and we just took it onto the plane, missing out the 'getting BA staff to either lose or steal the bottle' options and the 'probable broken bottle' stage entirely. No-one cared to check the bag with it in.

But wait!!! As promised.... More crap follows:

BA Terminal 5 is deservedly legendary for being the largest screw-up in aviation history since the famous crashing Zeppelin. There is a very good and ongoing reason for this. It is the actual new Bermuda Triangle for passenger baggage.

High profile peoples luggage has gone to various mystery locations at regular intervals and your humble correspondent - while not feeling I have been elevated to the peerage or anything - am no exception to the rule that if you pay £3000 for two return air tickets to the USA, there is a good chance that the BA baggage handlers will still lose your damn cases, no problem - especially with the amusement value to them of an expensive musical instrument inside.

My bass - after much chasing and complaining from myself - was found to have got on a later plane to Manchester. I doubt that it did this by itself. I am inclined towards thinking that an illiterate baggage handler misread the label and wanted to put it on a flight to Bahrain, Moscow or somewhere else suitably exotic.

Whatever... I couldn't wait around to see if the bass was going to arrive on the next flight in, as we had transport booked and our plane was already 30 minutes late in. The idea of sending my wife home in the taxi and making my own way with the bass - IF it arrived - wasn't an option.

Fortunately, it ended up in the hands of a courier firm who have, most helpfully, after a fair number of urgent calls from myself, managed to tell me that the bass that BA mislaid and which finally reached Manchester a good couple of hours after me, would reach me at 6pm the evening of our return. 30+ hours without sleep, due to chasing it up. Which it did. Thank God for the courier firm.

Thanks to the Customer Services Agent from BA who rang us back the next day and was profusely apologetic for 12 minutes about our utterly poor treatment on the return flight and who also promised to look into how duty free is sold on the planes (yes, the cabin staff ARE on commission).

Still... £3000 for round trip tickets and a return flight that was a total nightmare.

I will never EVER fly British Airways ever again.
I would rather walk.

Group news: June 2008:

2008-06-24T10:25:00.001-07:00

June 1st:
Steve did his wedding show with his old band HUNTER. Here's a photo.

June 4th:
Last night was the jam night at The Caledonian. Ian E got up with Tommy and Ian H to do a few things and a fast version of 'I saw her standing there' was forthcoming. The Incredibles were visibly (ie: they left the sheets of paper with the lyrics and chords out where they could be seen) hatching plots to cover more Del Amitri songs in the same stylee as their extraordinary version of 'Always the last to know'. You have to love them for their good taste. Today, Ian happened across a guitar shop in Bury.....

June 10th:
The group is still not all in the same country and so we haven't all seen each other since our last gig. It will be fun when we do our next gig and we find that we can't remember any of the songs!!

Off to The Caledonian again. It's nice to keep the fingers working by getting up at the jam night. Ian got up with Ian H and did some old songs that The Kerbcrawlers don't do anymore, such as 'I knew the bride'. The Incredibles (for it is they) played a nice long set with guests and tried their hand at a few new things. Good fun.

June 14th:
The group have been offered another couple of gigs for this weekend, but Colin will be on his way back from America and we go out as 'all 4 of us' or not at all these days.

June 20th:
The Stocks, Walkden - Three weeks off and it didn't really show. Thanks to our mates Nobby and Jane for coming to watch us - always a pleasure to see you. We have taken a booking at Whittle's Oldham on Sunday July 13th.

June 21st:
An excellent return to Winston's in Wigan. A very good turn out of people who had come especially to see us. Thanks to everyone who came out to see us.

Ian with new bass

June 24th:
After some looking at the group diary for the rest of the year, we have boxed off some more weekends as the group being not available, so that we can actually do other things than continually gigging.

June 27th:
Colin had sent a text round to say his voice was beginning to go and that his chest was tight, so we would probably have to re-jig the set a bit. To complicate matters, Ian's voice was turning nicely into a croak. We played at The Fleece in Ashton in front of a good-sized, enthusiastic crowd, mainly of people we know, who forgave us when certain notes didn't come off. Thank you everyone. The Incredbiles were there in force, looking to see which of us fell over first. We should have invited them to get up and do some of the show for us.

June 28th:
Tonight, Colin's pipes were holding up, but Steve's were now starting to go. Ian's were a shambles. Mike is quite clearly impervious to pain. But we don't let venues down unless there is no alternative.

We struggled gamely through our show at The Coachman's in Hartford: A half-appreciative listening crowd. They listened, but also had obviously decided clapping wasn't cool, so on the whole they didn't. One wag, who had been demonstrating all the way through the show (to a girlfriend who was far too attractive for him, via the means of air guitar) how he could play better than us, decided to ask if we'd do a request. Ian feebly croaked to ask him what he'd like. The idiot asked for 'Sweet child of mine'. Bearing mind that we hate it and that all of our voices were totally shot, Ian struggled to get out a polite reply.

During the last song before the encores, Ian introduced the band and explained the mandatory requirement for 13% of the audience to actually applaud in order for us to do encores. The Clapometer only showed 7% (and I think it was being generous, so we weren't embarrassed), so we didn't do the Floyd stuff and we just croaked our way home. The Jalopenos are on there next week. They are brilliant. I hope they get a better audience. A few people came up and told us this was not a typical crowd for the venue and that they had loved our show. Thanks.

June 29th:
Ian answered the phone and nothing came out of his mouth.
Lovely. What a way to start a holiday.
Back onstage and raring to go at Georgia Brown's and Whittles soon.