upside downer

Bravo squire 👏

Not that he likes being defined as a certain genre but this chap's pretty good.

U Roy if you want to. Personally, I Roy 😁

Or not set in your ways. Good for you. Take what you like, discard stuff that doesn't float your boat. Don't stick rigidly to 'genres'. It's all music.

Here's my Smiths title-referencing effort for February. Have kept it pretty simple and I've taken time out from vocal duties so my thanks for this month's squawkings go to Gulls Aloud. Hello, my name is Upside Downer and I am a punoholic.

Jah Wobble and the Invaders of the Heart at Nottingham Rescue Rooms. What a fantastic evening. As Wobble said at the end, this is how he always envisioned the Invaders to sound. The band take their cues from Wobble but are allowed to express themselves and with good reason, superb musicians one and all. A few new album tracks to open with, some covers (Liquidator, theme from Midnight Cowboy), four PiL tunes (Socialist, Poptones, Fodderstompf and Public Image) and live dubbing, the songs simply soar. And the man's as mad as a box of frogs, too. Hugely entertaining. Recommended.

Off to The Rescue Rooms in Nottingham tonight to see bass behemoth Jah Wobble and his band The Invaders of the Heart, should be a good'un.

Those blasted humans are up to their old tricks again 😫 https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/instruments/double-bass/smashed-turkish-airlines-flight/

That makes two of us! 😧

carl /kɑːl/ noun ARCHAIC a peasant or man of low birth. Great. I've never been prouder to be called Carl. Thanks a lot, Caaaarl 😒

Congrats yet again. Have yourself a pot of Cherry Garcia ice cream to celebrate 🍨 😋

First - I think Public Image Ltd at Hammersmith, 89. Last - Baba Zula, Jazz Cafe Nov 19. Best - Probably Sex Pistols at The Odeon. Worst - S*M*A*S*H, somewhere in Wellingborough 94 or 95, or Guns n' Roses, Wembley 91. Loudest - Iron Maiden, De Montfort 91 or 92. Seen the most - PiL Most surprising - Little known Welsh band called Gouge who supported S*M*A*S*H, they were fantastic. Next - Jah Wobble in Nottingham, Feb 20. Wish - Too many but The Jimi Hendrix Experience would've been cool.

The Looters. Winstone, Jones, Simonon and Cook, what a line-up!

They don't take up much room. Here's mine. One or two hooks and you're good to go!

Did you buy the saz in the end? They are great instruments to play. In my old band we used to do 'Kashmir' with yours truly on saz, the tuning I use (GDA) is ideal for it.

Can't stand Place Your Hands by Reef but my old band played it and the bassline's good fun to play.

Hello again, composition chums. Just like Lurksalot, I gave the Dead a good few listens to get a feel and a vibe of where to take the track. However, apart from purloining a snippet or two of lyrical content, I've quite clearly veered off down a different path as I've ended up with something that sounds like Tom Waits sings the Fun Lovin' Criminals. Hey, that's schmoovve. Guitar Epiphone Gibson Special, Westfield Violin Bass, drums thanks to Looperman and a gruff vocal by yours truly that gave me a really sore throat. It's true that I suffer for my art.

Smells Like Teen Spirit Song 2 Chelsea Dagger

Couldn't agree more, this should get the creative juices flowing and hopefully get you out of your musical torpor. Probably means investing in other instruments so if expenses allow then grab a guitar, buy a bouzouki, purchase a pipa, snag a shamisen. Get writing and good luck 👍

Be Grateful......

In our covers band we only played a few times last year due to a violent and distressing incident at a February gig. It had been slowly going downhill due to a combination of the drummer struggling to balance two bands' and the singer's lackadaisical attitude to rehearsing, learning words (over-reliance on a music stand 🙄) and lugging the gear in and out, his catchphrase of the last two years being, "This is doing my head in". A friend since schooldays, his viewpoint had managed to wear me down so it was a relief when we finished in November, mojo well and truly redundant. I'd resigned myself to that being that, I'm 50 this year with a football team's worth of grandchildren (and a twelfth man/woman due in February!) and didn't want to do all the groundwork that is required to start up again. Might do the odd open mike night. That'll do. Then the singer rings me just before Christmas, he's desperate to gig again and wants to do some 'classic' tunes. That'll be wall-to-wall AC/DC and Led Zeppelin then. Oh no, not again.. Also, he's the size of Meatloaf and mentioned perhaps doing a Nirvana tribute act? Maybe we could do a twist on the genre. "Tonight at the Lamb and Flag, A Tribute to Nirvana if Kurt had lived, kicked heroin and discovered pasties and pies instead". I did point out all his foibles from our recent gigging experiences and he just asked me to think about it. I've thought about it. How does 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' go again? 😜 Bloody singers.

Bravo all 👍

Voted. What a splendid way to spend an hour listening to these diverse tunes, well done all 👍

A bumper crop of tunes in December's Composition Challenge.