Green for the blues

Today I spoke to the manager of a blues-rock band who was keen to take up the offer of a headline at the Fiddler's. Until, that is, she realised that there was no money in it -  at least no guaranteed fee. She was also put off by the fact that there would be two other bands and an acoustic act to open, and that her band would have to share their backline. They wouldn't like the size of the bill, she said, and they definitely wouldn't want to share their backline.

Camden. This is Camden. The home of indie-rock. And untold pub music venues (as opposed to simply small pubs that put on blues and covers bands) that need punters. Paying punters. Not post-Beatles/Stones punters. Not post-Bowie and Roxy punters. Not post-Pistols/Clash punters. Not post-Nirvana/Red Hot Chili Peppers punters. But-post-Blur/Oasis punters. Post-Strokes/Arctic Monkeys punters. Young people, who actually still go out. To get more of them out, they have to put on more bands than two. The young bands accept this. And this is because two bands bring out half the people that four bands do. And when I talk about half the people, I mean half of 30. This is the sorry state of the local live music scene, in Camden anyway. It may be different in Putney or Chiswick or wherever. But as I say, this is Camden. And this is where I live. And some of these venues are still cool and still worth playing.

Anyway, I'm moving away from the point.

As I've said from the beginning, generally speaking, the blues bands don't need RTYD to promote their gigs. They can get their own gigs and get paid to play them; they can do pub gigs galore, village festivals, parties, weddings, jams and more. They approach gigs like freelance work. With an hourly-rate, of sorts. They have a job to do; To entertain. And they won't do it for nothing.

Nor should they? Not with the sort of regularity that they gig.

I'd like to play regularly. I'd start with once a month. I could manage and enjoy twice or three times a month, taking into account my other commitments. But there must come a point when you start to feel like you want something more than kicks for playing more often than that. A following? Press? Fame? CD sales? Money?

And as for twice a week, like some of these bands, travelling all over the place, with no record deal, playing blues covers or blues originals (catch the oxymoron?); That's not just about the fun.

I guess that's why they call it 'the blues'.

Yours post-Bowie and Roxy.

Punk is dead....but we're still dying

My sister reminded recently that I used to have this slogan on my bedroom door when I was a kid. It's taken from the label on Stiff Little Finger's Alternative Ulster 7" single.

I went to see Stiff little Fingers last night. Not the first time. I think its probably the third or fourth time. I didn't get to see them back in the day, though.

My friend is mate's with the bass player Ali McMordie, who is one of the two original members in the current line-up (the other being lead singer and guitarist Jake Burns), so he kindly gets me on the guest list when they're in town.

I was 11 in 1978 when I got into new wave and punk music. I remember buying the first edition of Smash Hits whilst still at Primary School. That year it featured bands like Blondie, Elvis Costello & the Attractions, the Jam, and the Police, as well as some of the punk bands like Sham 69 and the Buzzcocks.

I remember around that time being played X-Ray Spex's Oh Bondage! Up Yours at a family friend's house, and knowing immediately that it was anti-something, maybe anti-everything, and that I liked it.

I must have expressed my interest in this music to my older cousin Richard, 'cos for the next year or so he proceeded to regularly and generously feed me lovingly-made compilation tapes containing a wide range of punk and Oi bands. These 13 or so tapes, unfortunately long-gone, formed the basis of my love of punk and inspired me to independently explore those bands that I particularly liked, such as the Adverts, The Outcasts and The Stranglers.

I was too young and not hard enough to be a punk. But that didn't stop me trying. I could upset and convince adults with my attempts at punkness - I remember not being allowed into my mate's house 'cos his mum was so offended by my spikey hair, my DMs, skin-tight jeans with turn-ups, and God Save The Queen t-shirt - but my punk-peers were less convinced - I was once spat at in Woolworths in Guildford, and often jeered at by other more punk-by-nature boys at school for my attempts to be one of them.

Okay, I didn't know much about Crass, but I knew I genuinely liked some pretty crass stuff (with a small 'c') like Cockney Rejects and the Angelic Upstarts, so I lived with it.

I had to wait until I was 15, to see my first punk band though. The Stranglers, had nearly topped the charts with Golden Brown, and were basically mainstream by the time I saw them at the Civic Hall, Guildford in 1982. But they still played with the contempt and vileness that you would expect of any proper punk band.

Stiff Little Fingers were another one of my favourite punk bands. I was gutted 'cos my parents wouldn't let me go to the Civic Hall the year they played there to promote the Nobody's Heroes album. My cousin went and bought me the tour poster though, so I proudly blue-tacked over my bed.

Last night they played the Forum and they sounded as punk rock as ever. The audience as you'd expect comprised mostly of 40-50 year old males; boys slightly older than me, that probably would have spit at me back in the day. But tonight I am here and I belong here. I have the punk record collection and knowledge of the genre to easily qualify. I am as passionate and savvy about punk and S.L.F. as the best of them, basically, finally, as punk rock as them. Even as hard as them. Or rather as soft as most of them. A parent too, like most of them.

There were spine-tingling moments all the way through the set, and Jake Burns's voice sounds stronger than ever. Tin Soldiers sounded bigger and more anthemic than ever. Barbed Wire Love, which had a Forumful of old punks singing the 50s doo-wop middle-8, demonstrated why Inflammable Material stood out as such a punk classic. They encored with both Johnny Was, and Alternative Ulster, the former as drawn-out, dynamic, passionate and uplifting as I could ever hope for.

I still listen to this stuff, see. So hearing Wasted Life and Suspect Device doesn't feel nostalgic. It feels like the present to me.

I've been blogging about the blues and how I don't get it. Well, this is why. I get this. I get this energy. This passion. The immediacy of this. There was nothing 'Blues' about tonight. Or about the people present. Sure, we can all admit to liking Led Zeppelin now, but we will always be punk at heart. There's some argy-bargy at the front but the aggression and anger has long gone. The spitting, too. Good performance, musicianship and competence is now appreciated, admittedly. Virtuosity, however, is not an issue. Jake Burns's succint solos were artful in their brevity and beautifully adequate. To the point, like most of their songs.

I get introduced to Ali at the after-show party and while I could have said "I used to have a poster of you and Stiff Little Fingers on my bedroom wall", and asked loads of interesting questions about being a 'mature' musician and stuff; instead I just said "excellent gig, man" and stood listening to his conversation with my mate and examining his now mature facial features like he was an old school friend that I hadn't seen in 27 years.

By 12 o'clock I'd had enough crap lager - just a couple of pints of that stuff is enough. So I called it a night. A great night.

I ain't got the blues

Forgive me if I've just noticed this, but something has just struck me in my search for bands to fit the bill of a Rock-Til-You-Drop night in Guildford, and that is the proliferation of Blues bands that seem to have their shit together. They don't need no Rock-Til-You-Drop - they is already doin' it. What they have against them is the closing of many of pub-venues on their circuit. I hear from Ian Lloyd of Raw Deal that the Worthing circuit has greatly diminished, and a promoter told me recently that Brighton venues too are closing at a worrying rate.

So, too many bands, not enough venues.

But that aside for a moment, the Blues bands seem to have regular gigs and a circuit to play. They have their own festivals. They even tour abroad.

They have good websites, better than many of the younger bands who only have a dreadful myspace page. They have CDs or downloadable MP3s.

They often have a decent band photograph, too.

Now most of these guys are in their fifties, even sixties. So what have they got over the 40-50 year olds, who it strikes me, by and large are less well organised and presented?

Well, maybe thay have more time on their hands again, now that their kids have left home? More disposable income?

And, well, they got the blues.

Now, the blues is not my thing, as you may have gathered. I like Led Zeppelin, Hendrix and the Doors, and I appreciate a good Clapton-esque guitar solo when I hear one but I came in listening to punk rock and new wave. I like Roxy Music and Bowie. I like Fugazi and the Fall. I like Arctic Monkeys and Interpol. This is all white boy alt-rock - I'm sure you could argue that there is the blues in alot of the song structuring and sentiments and stuff, but the point is it's not the real blues.

I started playing guitar as a means to an end. To make songs of my words. I'm a songwriter first and foremost. I'm not interested in guitar solos and virtuosity. And that's coming from someone who likes a bit of Yes and Pink Floyd.

So I'm starting to realise where rock-til-you-drop has the most work to do. It needs to especially inspire and encourage non-blues, non-covers bands aged 40 (approx) and over to continue to make original music. As well as circuits for old bluesmen, which are largely organised for and by older musicians with a particular taste and musical history, we need live opportunites, showcases maybe, of those bands and performers who don't necessarilty play the blues.

But there's no gig without an audience, so rock-til-you-drop needs to raise the profile of mature musicians making original music so that people believe they are truly worthwhile coming out to see play.

I must be fucking mad.