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December My first December gig was with Broadband at the Green Shutters on Portland on the 3rd. The three regular members, Tim Broad, Grant Day and I, were joined by Chris Page on drums and Nick Gomer on harmonica. The ever-cosmopolitan Shutters crowd loved it. On the Saturday and Sunday the Mutter Slater Band went into Loudbox Studios in the sticks of deepest Somerset to record five Slater compositions. The sessions went amazingly smoothly, due in large part to the fact that we’d been gigging the new material over the last few months, so there was virtually no tinkering with arrangements and suchlike to slow proceedings. After using my Manson bass for the first track, The Old Dog, I used my little Danelectro for the other four and it sounded great. £159 well spent! We decided to get some band photos done while we were all together, and Mutter’s son Aaron did the honours. At one point a dog called Or decided he wanted to get in on the act, and he thanked us for our friendliness by pissing in the cup of tea that I had put on the ground next to me. It was pure luck that I happened to turn round and see him in the act, or I’d have had an unpleasant surprise when I went to finish my tea. To make matters worse, that was the last teabag in the studio. Bastard hound. The classic C Sharp Blues line-up (Mike Biggs, Smudge, Chris Page and I) played one of its best-ever gigs at the Old Ship in Dorchester on Friday 10th December. It was one of those occasions where the whole band was firing on all four from the first number to the last. The following day The Vancoovers played at the Axminster Guildhall to a disappointingly small but nonetheless hugely receptive audience of about 25 souls. The band played its socks off, though, and I’m convinced we’ll get a great following once the word gets out. On Sunday 12th December the Million Dollar Bash returned to No.6 in Weymouth for an afternoon of Dylan and The Band. We were without keyboard wonder Tom Hughes, but made a great sound anyway. It’s still kind of odd to see people boogying to Dylan! Custer’s Last Blues Band assembled at The George in Bridport on Sunday 19th. The band’s previous gigs here have all been great occasions, and this one was no exception. The place was rammed, and the normally genteel George was transformed into a sweaty (very sweaty) blues club for the night. The one downer was that Tim Broad lost his guitar whilst we were swapping gear from one van to another before the gig, but Mutter Slater came to the rescue by lending Tim his beloved Strat. The annual pre-Christmas Jess Upton Soul Band reunion took place at the splendid Electric Theatre in Bridport on Thursday 23rd December. Our regular guitarist Terry Cottam was unavailable, so my fellow Vancoover Dan Anderson stepped into the breach and did a fantastic job. He learned the entire regular set, plus some new numbers, in the course of two rehearsals. As with the previous two of these occasions, the venue was sold out and the atmosphere and reception was fantastic. The Steamer Ducks finally got to play at No.6 in Weymouth on Monday 27th, and it was well worth the wait. It featured the definitive Ducks line-up of Robbie McIntosh, Steve Burholt on keys, Clive Ashley (sax) Nick Gomer (harp), Steve Mutter (percussion) Ady Milward (drums) and yours truly. My last gig of 2010 was at the Grand Hotel in Swanage as one of the Steve Darrington All-Stars. Steve, a great blues/boogie pianist and vocalist, is the organiser of the Swanage Blues Festival, and he recruited Nick Gomer, vocalist Barbie, guitar virtuoso Paul Sundt and a drummer from Bournemouth called Fred for the occasion. As a bass player, it’s always a bit worrying working with a drummer that you’ve never played with before, but in this case my concerns were unfounded – we quickly got the measure of each other, and it was a pleasure to work with him. We were also joined by vocalist Martin Jenkins, something of a local legend by all accounts. The band sounded truly excellent, drawing comments like, “You guys are so tight! How long have you been playing together?”, followed by looks of disbelief when you tell them, “Since 8.30 tonight”. While I was playing in Swanage, my son Jack was depping for me with Broadband on a gig on Portland. He played really well, apparently, and I felt immensely proud of him. Gigs like this and the jazz session that he does with his mum Tanya are invaluable experiences for Jack. January My first gig of 2011 was a feast of funky, swinging blues with C Sharp Blues at the Royal Exchange, Portland on Friday 7th January. There followed nearly three gigless weeks before I played with Skatmandu at the Admiral Hardy on Weymouth on Saturday 29th. The highlight of the Skat’s set for me is a Santana segue of Black Magic Woman and Oye Como Va, a feature that always seems to move the most inattentive of audiences. The following afternoon Custer’s Last Blues Band played at the Hope & Anchor in Bridport. The band was in fine form. February I joined Barbara Stanley, Nick Gomer, Paul Sundt and Paul Fancy for a cracking session with The Skint Imperials Blues Edition at Bar Se7en in Swanage on 6th February. We were joined for a couple of numbers by a 14-year-old guitarist (forgotten his name) who played Peter Green/Eric Clapton-style licks on a lovely Epiphone Casino. Such taste in one so young! The Mutter Slater Band returned to The Platform in Southampton on Thursday 17th, where we were again given the kind of warm welcome that you get used to in Europe but is such a rarity in this country. This time we brought our own PA, which made for an even more enjoyable experience, and the band acquitted itself admirably, with Mutter claiming it to be one of our best-ever performances. We had a right old mix-up on the following night, when MSB turned up for a gig at the George Inn on Portland, only for the guv’nor to claim he’d booked us for the following night. That well and truly pissed on our fireworks. The night wasn’t entirely a wash-out for me, though, as Jack was depping for me with Broadband again at a pub five minutes away, giving me the chance to see my boy in action. He did a great job, playing with maturity far beyond his 17 years. The guv’nor at the aforementioned George Inn asked me to put something together for the following night, Saturday 19th, so Tim Broad, Chris Page and I did a ‘power trio’ version of Broadband, and it was very well received. It’s a lovely little gig with a great acoustic. On Saturday 26th the Jess Upton Soul Band made a cameo appearance at the band’s trombonist Matt Barge’s 40th birthday bash at the Brownsword Hall in Dorchester. It was great to play with the guys again, and I think we’ve all developed a taste for doing more gigs. The following night Custer’s Last Blues Band returned to the George Hotel in Bridport, where we played to a packed house of really up-for-it punters. Sadly, it was drummer Danny Wheeler’s last gig with Custer’s, and he marked it with a particularly blinding performance that included an impromptu pots and pans solo. Chris Lonergan |
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