30/9/2022 Lips Can Kill 2 @ The Water Rats

I seem to have missed Lips Can Kill 1 - it went under my radar somehow, but this seemed a pretty good bill so down to The Water Rats I went. It's swings and roundabouts at this refurbished venue - the eternally stinky downstairs toilets no longer stink although it has become a bit maze like down there - but they no longer serve real ales, so this looks like another venue where I will no longer be spending as much at the bar.

For the second time this month I'm at a show that proves the doom and gloom 'Rock and roll/live music is dead' merchants are totally wrong - even for the opening act on a four band bill the place is absolutely rammed!

I've seen PollyPikPocketz quite a few times now and they are always fun!

A great mix of cultures and punk attitude makes them a unique and entertaining band who I never get tired of seeing.

Next up are Healthy Junkies - another band who I never get tired of seeing.

Now having to play more gigs outside their natural habitat of Camden as their 'home' venue The Unicorn has closed down. This Friday night they bring a polished and highly energetic performance to this newly refurbished Kings Cross venue.

Healthy Junkies lively brand of catchy songs and punk attitude tinged with a hint of grunge is well suited to places like this, and they go down a storm with tonight's crowd.

Next is an act who have changed since their early days and ditched their guitar player to slim down their core Brazilian duo of bass & drums - this is Yur Mum.

Not sounding as heavy these days without a guitar player - they have made up for it by featuring even more attitude and aggression than before - this is very much in-yur-face punk rock.

The headliners tonight are the only act who are new to me. Tokyo Taboo are also 'in-your-face', but in a very different way.

Like tonight's previous acts, this is still very much a rock band ,but in a much more performance orientated way - this is a show designed to grab your attention.

With the singer Dolly Daggerz top half clad only in silver paint and the words EAT THE RICH written across her front I am not sure exactly what point she is trying to make, but I suspect it is not connected with songs of that title by either Motörhead or Aerosmith.

She can sing well enough, and the band can play - and rock out when needed, but to be honest I don't really 'get' what all this is actually about. Oh, and during the changeover between bands a pole seems to have appeared from nowhere. Now we find out why.

There is no doubting Dolly's skills with the pole, and her ability to writhe around on it while still managing to clutch a microphone and sing - she must have put a lot of work into this part of her act. However, I have to admit to not being able to remember any of the actual songs. I've seen the Soap Girls and thought the music was actually pretty decent, but unlike the other bands tonight the music from Tokyo Taboo didn't really make any impression on me at all - although I can't say I wasn't entertained.

The evening drew to a close with a raffle or competition of some sort - the lucky winner got to take home the stage backdrop from the Lips Can Kill 2 tour. I've got to say it does look good.

So all in all a good night's entertainment - even if the headliners did leave me somewhat baffled. Good value for money anyway - and I am pleased to report that live music post-lockdowns is very much NOT dead! I met some interesting new people too.

24/09/2022 Grand Theft Audio, CJ Wildheart & Scott Sorry @ XOYO

XOYO in Shoreditch is a new venue to me, but turns out to be really easy to get to as it's virtually a stone's throw from the Cowper Street entrance at Old Street station. This is a good bill and a show I've been looking forward to for a while, but almost at the last minute it nearly didn't happen...

I was worried about being late and arrived at XOYO around the time the first band was due to hit the stage, but the doors weren't even open and there were a load of people hanging around outside waiting to get in. Via social media I discovered that the toilets were flooded and they could let anyone into the venue until the problem had been sorted. Apparently they were working on it, but I discovered some of my friends were in a pub round the corner so I decided to join them instead of hanging around outside the venue for who knows how long?  Better to wait in comfort with a beer or two - beer which would no doubt be far better quality and far cheaper than anything available in the venue... This worked out rather well as one of my friends had a 'direct line' to what was going on in the venue as her boyfriend was playing in one of the bands - so we effectively got 'real time' updates on the venue toilet/flooding situation. 

At one point it was looking as though the entire show might be cancelled. In fact the club night after the show did get cancelled, but at least that gave more time for the bands to go on later if they got the toilets fixed. Fortunately this is exactly what happened - no, the bands didn't have to fix the toilets themselves but somebody else did. And having a direct line to a band member already in the venue meant we knew when the show was just about to start so could stay in the pub until then instead of standing in a queue.

Fortunately the flooded bogs were eventually sorted out and the show could go ahead. So much later than planned the venue opened it's doors and let the mob outside in. And knowing the first band were finally about to hit the stage I left the pub having had time for about 3 pints. Unfortunately the gents toilet in the venue had changed into a unisex one - I don't know if this is because it was the ladies toilet that flooded and was now closed or the gents had already been changed to unisex, but there was queing to get in and I could see that many people of both sexes were very uncomfortable with the situation. Hopefully once the plumbing is fixed properly normal service will be resumed 'cos unisex toilets really are shit (no pun intended) and I'm sure most people hate them - they are certainly bad at the Black Heart and Islington Assembly Hall.

It seems that one of the UK's best but most dysfunctional bands have recently split up. Again. Possibly for the final time. But a tour has been put together featuring 3 bands - all of which feature ex-members of that band. Regular readers will probably have already guessed that I'm talking about The Wildhearts

Grand Theft Audio surprised everyone a couple of years ago by announcing they were reforming after 17 years and making a brand new album. I saw them a few times back in the day at places like The Garage and The Barfly and they were great fun! They released the album Blame Everyone along with some singles and got airplay on stations like the much missed Xfm. Then their record company went bust the band split up and all went quiet... Until this year. Original guitarist ex-3 Colours Red Chris McCormack was not involved when the band reformed, and original bassist and producer Ralph Jezzard parted ways with the band before the new album was recorded. This left the core of ex-Real TV frontman Jay Butler and Wildhearts drummer Ritch Battersby to make the new album. Prior to it's release new single 'Ruin Your Youth' announced the band's return, followed by another single 'Ici mon decree'. The band's second album Pass Me The Conch has been released to coincide with the band doing an actual tour! The new album is actually rather good - different from the first one, but still recognisably the same band - most of the time anyway. Grand Theft Audio were always great fun as a live act - and guess what? They still are. The chemistry of the band may have changed somewhat - along with half the band, but if anything the band are even more fun than before!

The new boys: Ben Marsden - ex-The Main Grains with ex-Wildheart Danny McCormack and currently in The Spangles and the Warner E. Hodges Band, and Rob Lane AKA Laney74 - who has played with Bullet Boys, Ryan Hamilton & The Traitors, DIP, Teenage Casket Company, and even Let Loose! Plus many more...

I arrive in the venue from the pub just as opening act Grand Theft Audio hit the stage. None of the 3 bands on the bill are well known outside of this scene, but I can tell you that all the naysayers who say the live music scene is now dead are talking out of their arse - the place is packed!

Live music is very much back for those music fans who actually want to go out and have a good time. The bands have been dying to get back out there playing, and we are more than ready to welcome them back! Not just single gigs, but full tours are happening again - and tonight's show is part of a UK tour by these 3 bands. And they and the fans are loving it! The atmosphere in the room tonight is electric - the live music fans have been gagging for nights like this, and tonight it's all going off! Grand Theft Audio are on fire tonight and frontman Jay seems to have more pent-up energy than ever. That's if you can even see him? I spend most of the band's set trying to work out where he is - because although I can hear him I certainly can't see him as he spends hardly any of the time actually on the stage! Jay is very much a man who believes in taking his performance to the the people. Suddenly he appears - on the bar!

Note the lack of punters at the bar buying drinks even though the venue is full - I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions as to why that is...

Next time I see Jay he's on the other side of the room - anywhere except on the actual stage. He certainly believes in keeping the audience on their toes.

Although to be fair he does actually spent some time on the stage.

Personally I think most the best songs are from the band's first album, but the band have a new album to promote and we get the best songs from the new one and well as the pick of the finest from the first album - so we get the best of both and it's pretty good.

Interestingly, a large proportion of the crowd seem to already know the songs from the brand new album even though they have barely had a chance to get hold of it - but they are singing along and well into the new stuff as well.

This tour seems to have gone extremely well - for Grand Theft Audio in particular who seem quite taken aback at how well they have been received. I get the feeling we haven't seen the last of them...

Next we go from a band featuring the Wildhearts longest serving drummer to a man who served the Wildhearts for one album and tour followed after a break by a covers album and tour before another album and tour of original songs. Scott Sorry was previously a member of Amen and Brides of Destruction. He has now put a pretty good solo band together.

I'm not very familiar with Scott's solo stuff or his old band band Sorry & The Sinatras, but he does a great version of 'People Who Died' by the Jim Carroll Band.

Unusually, although all the band are good musicians the best performer is the bass player - top quality 'rock star' chops and shape throwing.

After having had bands featuring Wildhearts rhythm section players we now get a set from a Wildhearts guitar player.

Regular and long term readers may recognise a couple of faces from CJ Wildheart's band - Ben Marsden was on stage earlier this evening playing guitar in Grand Theft Audio, and Lee Wray is better known from playing bass in his own band Zen Motel as well as his previous band Johnny Zhivago. Lee was also in CJ & The Satellites and even went on tour to China with them - which must have been an interesting experience!

CJ seems to be having a great time on this tour! He has said that the atmosphere and inter-band camaraderie is terrific and so much better than the often dysfunctional tourbus vibe on his last tour in the Wildhearts. The rest of his band seem to be really enjoying themselves too.

There is no need to rely on playing Wildhearts classics as CJ now has a few solo albums under his belt so has plenty of heavy and tuneful material of his own.

CJ and his band turn in a cracking set of bouncy pop/punk/rock songs and the atmosphere in the room is terrific!

Oh, and CJ just had to use his new oil can guitar as well.

CJ's set was riff laden, heavy, and melodic. It went down a storm with the crowd at this sold out show - all those who say that the live music scene is now dead really need to get out more instead of swallowing what the media ('Social' included) are telling them - get out there and see for yourselves like all these people.

Final set of the night is the 'All Star' band with members of all tonight's acts playing a mixture of all the bands they have been involved with.

What a great night! In spite of all the earlier problems with the venue's plumbing and the show very nearly not happening at all this has turned out to be one of the very best gigs of 2022!

11/09/2022 London SS & Dead Hombres @ The Dublin Castle

Another great night of rock 'n' roll at Camden's legendary Dublin Castle. Making their return to this venue tonight are Dead Hombres.

This lot kick out a dirty gritty raw version of 1950's rock & roll - with a hint of punk attitude. Guitarist Nigel seems to have now resigned himself to permanently handling vocal duties after they tried adding a new singer to the band earlier this year but it didn't work out.

I'm pleasantly surprised to hear 'Baby Moonrider' - a song from frontman Nigel's old band the Gasoline Queens with more than a hint of Dogs D'Amour about them. The rest of the band's set are originals with an authentic old school rock 'n' roll sound and understanding of the feel of music from that era.

Next up is a taste of rock 'n' roll from a much later era, but still decades in the past - the mid 1970's to be precise. This is actually a gig to promote the release of their first ever single 'Star' - it's only taken them 47 years! It is actually quite good though.

After the demise of "The greatest band you've never heard of" the influential and ahead of their time Hollywood Brats (for the full outrageous story read singer Andrew Matheson's brilliant book Sick On You) guitarist Brady formed a new band - using the ill-advised name London SS. This was before punk rock was even a thing, but the band contained future members of The Clash, The Damned, Generation X, and The Boys. The band never released anything and went through various lineup changes - falling apart before punk happened. In 2012 Brady reformed the band - with himself as the only original member. Hollywood Brats were effectively the UK's version of the legendary New York Dolls - although Andrew Matheson in his book claims they weren't actually aware of the New York band at the time. The new London SS lineup definitely owes something to the highly influential US band though.

In fact this new version of London SS sounds like it has more in common with the New York Dolls than the later British punk bands featuring ex-members. There is definitely more of a sleazy glam influence here - maybe partly because of having Taj from Paradise Alley on guitar alongside the legendary Brady. Basically this is a good fun rock 'n' roll band and worth seeing if you get the chance.

10/9/2022 Battle of Britain Airshow @ Duxford

 Off to an airshow for the third weekend running - this is exactly the sort of thing I need a motorcycle for. The weather forecast is good - which is particularly important if I'm going on the bike. So I am somewhat dismayed when it absolutely pisses down when I am about five miles from my destination! Particularly as I am wearing my new lightweight 'summer' leather jacket which isn't really a proper motorcycle jacket in spite of it's styling instead of my usual heavier duty armoured item from Lewis Leathers. I am also wearing my new 'summer' Goldtop gloves from the Bike Shed which due to being ventilated I don't expect to be waterproof. Much to my surprise the top half of me remains dry through the deluge! My legs fare less well, but I'm not too bothered as it's not cold and my jeans have already started drying off in the breeze before I arrive at the airfield. Note the partly soaked gloves, and also that the ground at Duxford shows no sign of rain even though me and the bike got a good soaking only a few minutes before.

As usual there is a wide variety of old aircraft at this show, and although it is billed as the 'Battle of Britain' airshow there are many other interesting and rare machines on display as well as the ones you would expect.

Sadly not flying was this very rare Hawker Fury from the 1930's

Also from the 1930's but seeing action in WW2 was the Gloster Gladiator.

It's certainly very unusual to see not just one but two Beech Staggerwings together.

Another very rare sight is this Curtis Hawk. Pre-dating the Battle of Britain planes like this one in French markings are similar to those that fought in the Battle of France.

At one point the Hawk comes uncomfortably close to it's former deadly enemies...

Before it's formidable adversaries encounter their own deadly foes...

...as a Lysander circles overhead.

Actually these 'Messerschmitts' aren't quite what they seem. They are actually post war Spanish built Buchons. They are a license built Bf 109, but ironically powered by a British Rolls Royce Merlin engine - the same motor that powered the Spitfire and Hurricane! Like most survivors of the type they took part in the epic 1969 film 'Battle of Britain' - some of the biggest scenes of which were filmed at this very airfield.

Continuing the France in 1940 theme the 'Messerschmitts' are overflown by a Lysander and the world's only airworthy Bristol Blenheim.

Another taste of France in 1940.

France 1940 adversaries but never seen together on the ground. Very rare to see two Westland Lysanders together.

The world's only Mk1 Bristol Blenheim - unlike last year actually seen in the air this time.

More Spitfires than you could shake a (joy)stick at - although I don't know why you'd want to shake a stick at them?

And 4 airworthy Hurricanes isn't to be sneezed at either.

And here's another one that didn't actually fly today.

And one that did.

But if Spitfires are your thing, then Duxford today is the place to be: Spitfires from the earliest Mark 1s...

To Mk Vs.

Various Mk IVs and Mk XVIs

And not all Spitfires wore camouflage - this silver one has recently flown right round the world!

There was actually a single silver Spitfire flown operationally over France during WW2, but that's another story... This silver one is a Mk IX, but the blue Spitfire is a very rare Mk XI photo reconnaissance variant - the fastest of the Merlin engined Spits at well over 400 MPH.

And faster still were the later Griffon engined models like this Mk XIV - the earlier Rolls Royce Merlin V12 motor had a capacity of a mere 27 litres, but the later Griffon engine was much larger at 37 litres and produced over 2000 BHP which could propel a Spitfire to over 440 MPH.

After seeing a 'Russian' Spitfire here last year - this year we get an American one.

Yes, both the USA and the Russians actually used Spitfires in WW2 as well as the British!

Continuing the American theme but turning the tables - here is an American Grumman Wildcat Naval fighter in Royal Navy markings - the British called it the Martlet when used on Royal Navy aircraft carriers.

And two more American carrier based fighters: A Grumman Bearcat and a Vaught Corsair - both fast and formidable machines.

And a home grown carrier aircraft: A Hawker Sea Hurricane - the navalised version of the famous Battle of Britain fighter. This is the only one left in the whole world.

And hiding over on the left is another earlier British carrier based fighter - a Hawker Nimrod. This is basically a Navalised version of the Hawker Fury shown earlier. The 'Nimrod' name was later reused for the Hawker Sidley Nimrod - a 4 jet engined maritime reconnaissance aircraft based on the pioneering 1950's de Havilland Comet airliner.

This show isn't just about the Battle of Britain or even just about World War 2 aircraft - there is plenty of other stuff happening too. Naturally my attention was drawn a load of old WW2 vintage motorcycles!

And back in the air the Diamond 9 team in their Tiger Moths put on a rather slower paced formation display compared to the other aircraft flying today.

A comparison of American and Russian WW2 fighter aircraft. The P-51 Mustang is in the colours of the famous Tuskegee Airmen - recently immortalised in a feature film. Due to Putin's current war in Ukraine any Russian marked aircraft are not very popular with the public these days - so this Yak 3 has had it's red stars overpainted by Ukrainian markings to show support for that country. The Spitfire in Russian markings that appeared at this show year ago is conspicuous by it's absence in 2022...

This de Havilland Vampire is the only jet aircraft at this year's Battle of Britain display. Although this type didn't enter service until after WW2 the prototype first flew in 1943.

The only modern aircraft to appear were a bit of a surprise last minute addition to the bill - a pair of currently serving helicopters from the Czech air force - a Mi-35 Hind and a Mi-171SH Hip.

These fearsome looking machines were certainly an interesting addition to the show with a rather special historical paint scheme on the Hind.

Smoke on.

The British weather threw a spanner in the works towards the end of the flying display and it rained for about half an hour. This delayed the show's usual 'Grand Finale' and it was quite strange as for some time I was standing in bright sunshine while still getting rained on! The lighting became rather weird, but the sun/rain combination did produce a nice rainbow!

And so eventually the weather cleared enough for the now traditional show closer - the massed flypast of fighter aircraft. This year it consisted solely of Spitfires and Hurricanes - 20 in all.

And so ended a great afternoon of flying. I think I have managed to picture virtually every aircraft that flew (apart from the mighty B-17 - which I pictured last year and other years in the past) although mostly shown on the ground due to my lack of a telephoto lens - without which you would just be seeing small distant dots in a big sky. 

As I walked around looking at the parked aircraft after the show in my brown leather jacket and flying (actually motorcycle) boots carrying my brown leather effect motorcycle helmet and matching 'WW2 vintage' looking goggles I was surprised to be mistaken for one of the pilots who had been flying in the display! If only! To be fair, my helmet and goggles did look very similar to the ones many of the actual pilots had been wearing today and my helmet/goggles had been attracting quite a lot of attention. I guess the WW2 style USAAF 'crusher cap' I was wearing only added to the effect, but although it might seem a bit 'cosplay' I was actually dressed in a highly practical manner for my activities during the day - riding a motorcycle, and my 'aircrew' cap was actually very good for protecting my head from both the sun and rain so very suitable for use on a windswept airfield. At least I had removed my smoked aviator shades by then so didn't look a total poser! 😎😂 After receiving comments from members of the public like "Well done!" for my perceived flying prowess I could only sheepishly mumble 'Thanks' and give a wave of acknowledgement... 😳 If I stopped and took the time to try and explain that I wasn't actually a pilot it would probably only have spoiled their moment so... 😇 To be honest it did make me feel good though, and little did anybody know that once upon a time I was training to be a pilot and have a few hours at the controls of various real aircraft in my pilot's logbook, and although I never got as far as getting my pilots licence I do have some experience and do actually know how to fly a plane. I still really miss those days.

Note - not actual pilot! 😂

I wish...