Happy New Year, everyone. It’s been ages since I updated this blog, which is irritating seeing as how I have so much old stuff waiting to post and some new stuff hovering almost ready to take off too. Anyway, first gig of 2009 is an acoustic affair with the bloody marvellous John Ruscoe accompanying me on lead guitar and BVs. Deatils to be confirmed, but here’s what I received from Rich so far: 

• Saturday 24th January. 
• Doors at 6PM. £5.00 on the door. Free entry before 7PM. 
• “Wild Mooney Ricketts’ Life Affirming Tonic” is the name the promoters go under
• The Poetry Cafe
• 22 Betterton St
• Covent garden (London)
• WC2H 9BX

Will add more details incl flyer in the next few days. Do try and make it along. It’s so central there’s no excuse to miss it if you’re a Londoner and it could been a cheap night out if you get there early. Not sure what time we’ll be playing as yet. Venue is tiny apparently so no worries about it being embarrassingly empty. Hurrah!

Forgot to post anything here about the solo acoustic thing I did in Ladbroke Grove a couple of weeks ago, so i thought I’d do so now seeing as how I’ve got a few minutes. It was a very strange night, but in short, I had a ball, was quite happy with my performance and am now very keen to get some more of these set up. Hoping to do as many as I can with with the added genius of Herr Johnny Ruscoe obviously, but if he’s not able to make it then I’m very comfortable doing it solo too. The gig was 100% weird (bright lights, huge venue, small crowd 30 yards away, small children running around…you get the idea…or maybe you don’t), but despite everything I had a great time and was glad that the set went down well. It was all for a good cause and a lot of time and effort had gone into setting up the event, so it was great to be part of something worthwhile (albeit in my very peripheral capacity). I was hoping to get video and audio recordings of the songs like we did for the Cambridge one in April, but I was in such a rush leading up to actually playing that I didn’t have time to go out to the car and get the cameras etc…next time I’ll make sure I make more time.For the 1 or 2 Shred anoraks/completists out there, the 30 minute set (as far as I can remember it and not in this order) was:

• Shimmy
• Warhead
• House At Wilson
• Buzzing
• Shivers
• Missing A Train
• …and maybe one more. Or maybe not.

Next up may be a gig in Ipswich with some of the old crew. I called Clive about it last week and I’m hoping we can do something fun at Dave Hamer’s new venue in the lead up to Christmas. More on that if it happens. Obviously I’m always open to offers of acoustic gig so get in touch if you want to put me/us on anytime.

John Ruscoe’s had to drop out of this one so I’m flying solo, but if you’re free it’ll still be worth coming along - it’s a free gig after all! It’s part of a 4 day shindig being put on to promote debate about free speech. Films, speakers etc. On the last night there are 4 acts doing an acoustic set. Details as follows:

Liberty & LifeSaturday 20th September 7.00pm

In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith. A season of events exploring the recent erosion of civil liberties in the UK, and what is being done to defend them. All events are free entry and there will be a bar every evening. On Saturday 20th there will be an evening of acoustic music by various artists to round off the weekend.

Westbourne Grove Church, Westbourne Grove [Corner of Ledbury Road], London, W11 2RW. 
020 7034 0500
http://www.westbournegrovechurch.org

Tube stations: Notting Hill Gate, Central, Circle and District lines. Westbourne Park, Hammersmith and City
Bus routes: 7, 21, 27, 28, 31, 70, 328

It looks like John Ruscoe and I will be doing another acoustic gig on Sept 20th somewhere in London. Details will be added as and when I get them.

That very nice Ms Kirstie Green has uploaded to YouTube a few choice visuals from the recent acoustic show in Cambridge. Really good quality (much better than the preview images would lead you to believe), so well worth checking out. Here’s a tip for the trainspotters; every time I smile it’s because there’s either a tricky bit of singing or playing coming up. Click here if you want to go straight to YouTube and watch the videos there for any reason.

First up is the second half of Jigsaw Catch.

Next we have the 2nd verse and all of the lovely guitar solo of Missing A Train.

…and bringing up the rear is a minute or two of Missing A Train (again) this time from the soundcheck.