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.

Word may or may not be out about this, but if you’ve not heard the news yet you may as well hear it from me (even though I’ve not been ‘officially’ told myself..and don’t expect to be). Anyway, it turns out that the Stupids are doing a few more gigs this year, but as a trimmed-down 3 piece (I assume) and most definitely without yours truly doing the awkward frontman thing with the mic and no guitar - and I was just warming to the whole idea finally!! No-one from the band has actually been in touch to say they don’t want me to sing onstage anymore despite the fact that the gigs are already booked and I was bound to find out at some point, but as shit as that makes me feel (the ‘not being told’ bit, not the ‘not being in the band’ bit), I can’t say I’m too surprised. Ho hum. Anyway, thanks to Sean Forbes for telling me almost immediately he found out and thanks to Aston for calling a few days later to talk it over.I’m not sure of the details of all of the gigs, but the one I definitely know about is at The Grosvenor in Stockwell (London) on Dec 19th with The Shitty Limits and Hardskin also on the bill. I’ll be there for sure; it’s the annual Hardskin Christmas gig and with The Shittys supporting it’ll be one not to miss.