Blues-Rock-Til-You-Drop at the Fiddlers

I have to confess I was dreading the soundcheck for the Blues-Rock-Til-You-Drop gig last night; 4 bands, 18 musicians. 1.5 hours. Guitarists plus-plus, Keyboard players times-two. It would have been a total nightmare, if Creak and Dove Jones hadn't boldly forfeited their soundchecks, the former due to the late arrival of their drummer, and the the latter because they are so used to a 'plug and play' approach to gigging.

Thanks to them then, the evening kicked off on time with Bang To Rights' whose take on the blues, included a great rock cover of You Keep Me Hanging On by Diana Ross, before it edged towards that less-well known sub-genre, disco-blues. And why not?

This got Creak thinking that now they were in, and once they were on, their version of the blues could follow this liberal view. Fairly well oiled, as a result of hanging around for about three hours to set foot on stage, they proceeded to romp through a set of blues-rock classics, throwing in the odd T-Rex number - in this case 20th Century Boy - and ending with their customary set-closer Creakin' All Over.

It is always a pleasure to watch my friend Dove Jones performing, and last night he was on fire as usual, offering up a set of blues-covers and throwing in an original at the end for good measure, appropriately entitled I Got The Blues. Imagine Mick Jagger fronting the Stones while playing keyboards and sweating like Joe Cocker at Woodstock, and you get an idea of the energy and passion of Jones's semi-sedentary performance.

It's 11 o'clock before the final act of the night take to the stage. Unfortunately, the room empties by half. It's not personal. It's just bed-time for many of those here, including The Beast. But those who exit don't know what they are about to miss. The Beast come on stage after a twenty year break and play the loudest, ballsiest, filthiest rock set I've heard in a while, crossing the vocals and drums of Led Zep with the dirty blues riffola of early AC/DC.

With 22 paying customers, 18 musicians, 10 or so non-paying barfly regulars, one of which tells me "at last we got some decent music in 'ere", and a few WAGs who blag their way in, there were enough people at the gig that the place wasn't rattling; a handful were even dancing at points during the evening, which was great.

So it was not a great night door-takings-wise. Bar-takings-wise, maybe? But I'm not out of pocket, which is good, and the whole night is worth it simply because it is both a musicians' social-networking opportunity and a chance to hear some great music and see some great musicians play. It was a chance too for some of those who know each other on-line to meet in the real world.

Patrick Begley of the Dipsticks comes down to support his former band-mates, Toby and John from The Beast, and in the process ran into a former brother-in-law, who is drumming for Bang To Rights. Small world. I put two and two together and realise that Maggie Brown for whom Mark McKendrick of the Dipsticks plays bass occasionally, is the backing singer in Dove Jones' band. Small world, again. Stephen Denholm and John from local blues band The Mighty Caretakers are also in attendance. You'll be seeing more of these two in the new year.

The Libertine gig

So after the debacle that was the Guildford gig, once again there is hope, in the form of the Libertine pub in Borough. What a nice little pub venue it is. Run by a friendly bunch of people in their late-20s/early 30s, who made sure the bands were fed and watered, with pizza and beer. It has a small stage at the front of the venue with tables and chairs. And couches at the back end. The bar runs down the left hand side of the oblong pub. If you got 30-50 people in there, at least at one end of the pub, it would seem busy. A hundred in the whole pub, and it would be rammed.

The stage is tight with five up there. Very. Four is okay, but still a bit tight. They have a vocal PA, which you could put an acoustic or keyboard through too. You have to keep the guitar volumes down or I think you'd lose the vocals in the mix; that's what it felt like on stage anyway. There's no fold-backs either. It's a basic set-up, but I kinda like that. In some respects I prefer control of the sound, as opposed to handing it over to a sound-man, who doesn't know your band. Having said that, I know how to turn down - some don't have that ability. (is this a dig? Ed.)

The result was that when my band Pocket Rocket played, I left most of the guitar duties to Lex, my left-hand man, to ensure the songs had space to breathe, and vocals we're clear. This meant the rhythm section was more prominent than usual, but this accentuated our 'danciness' and an aspect of our music which often gets lost during more raucous performances. We were on roll anyway, helped by a rapturous reception, and a small group of gyrating friends of our drummer, Nigel.

Dove Jones' band kicked things off and warmed up the audience with a series of classic rock covers including Hendrix and the Stones. He is an enthusiastic, charismatic performer, and always a pleasure to watch. He and his band went on at 8:15 and my lot took the stage about 9:15. We both played for 45 minutes. If it has a downside it's the 10pm curfew for live music. 10:30pm would be better, though the neighbours obviously don't agree. I think a 3 band bill would be pushing it, too. You wouldn't want to start live performance any earlier than 8:15 - not on the weekend anyway.

The venue has a licence til 1:30am every night and DJ decks (vinyl). It filled up even more about 10:30 when the 30-somethings arrived in larger numbers. And Jim, DJ and friend of Pocket Rocket, played a great mix of 80s/90s/00s edgy-guitar music, and synth-pop.

'Take the old gits gigging, take them gigging..'

Okay. The Dublin Castle. I was pleasantly surprised with the turnout. I was so pleased Colin Gillman came with his bassman Adam Donovan in tow. I was pleased to meet John Rigby - lovely guy, and local, and knows about web sites, and wants to put together a post-punk type band, if you're interested. I was pleased that the band Creak came along, it was nice to meet them, and Gray Dourson came too, as you may have noticed from his discussion on the subject entitled The Dublin Castle: A view from the floor. Colin too has written a review of his experience of the night and in particular seeing 14 Carat Grapefruit. I couldn't beat it, so read his blog Hats off to the Grapefruit here.

Now Colin arrived too late to see the Dipsticks so his blog doesn't include comment on their performance. So I will. Led by the blue suede shoed Patrick Begley, ambulance driver by trade and songwriter and guitarist by nature, and supported by the rock steady rhythm section of Mark McKendrick (who incidentally hadn't played or even been in the Dublin Castle for 32 years!) and Angie Thedrummer (who's could well have been born that same night, judging by her youthful looks), the band entertained a home crowd with their mid-tempo blues rock and Patrick's lyricism. They even had the females in front dancing in the first few minutes. It was an early goal for Rock-Til-You-Drop. Did this mean it would all go down hill from here? It did for Everton over the weekend. Thankfully it did not.

Spirit of Play also brought a decent crowd, and entertained them successfully with their witty lyrics and four-part harmonies. And Wendy wowed the McGuinn fans among us with her electric twelve string.

While I defer to Colin's review of 14 Carat Grapefruit, I do have to say what a lovely bunch of guys they were, and like all the bands on the night, punctual, reliable and very friendly. They had us all in stitches for just over 30 minutes.

Unfortunately, the division between live area and bar took it's toll on the last band The Great Outdoor Experience who played to a fairly empty room. Apparently, they'd played on the Saturday previous and therefore shot their load for that week. Naughty. Oblivious though, they played a blistering set.

Dove Jones was a wonderful MC as usual, and Steve 'Dog-Headed Man' Musham, left me singing Holiday in Cambodia and Take the Skinheads Bowling for the next few days.

The social network takes effect (off-line, i.e: in the real world)

I got a call from Grant from I,Thalamus yesterday afternoon. His keyboard player was not going to be able to make their gig on Saturday night. "It's a real rock-til-you-drop moment" he said, "do you know of anyone who could sit in for the night?"

"Yes I do", I said.

So Dove Jones, who incidentally is an excellent piano/keyboard player, will be sitting in with I, Thalamus at the Dublin Castle tonight (Saturday 2nd May). If I hadn't woken up with chicken pox (I knew I wasn't feeling right all week) I'd be going. Well, that's not entirely true; if I hadn't woken up with chicken pox I'd be playing a gig myself tonight at a 21st birthday party out in the sticks).

It is also worth noting another RTYD Effect, and that is that I originally booked I,T at the Dublin Castle. The venue liked them so much - they're a crowd puller and pleaser - that they offered them a Saturday night slot. This is great for I,T but not so good for me, 'cos I could have done with them playing the next Rock-Til-You-Drop night. That of course is only a Wednesday night gig.

One day, eh?...

....there'll be RTYD gigs, festivals, records, TV shows, oven gloves, la la la la la....