Leonard Smalls

It was, at least in the acoustic stage! Couldn't see you because of the acres of black cloth on the sides of the stage! I found the Empress, Opera and Casbah all suffered from over loud kick swamping everything at the bottom. Insufficient gating, perhaps coupled with metalhead drum obsession?

After our Rebellion afternoon gig went and watched @cheddatom 's band Headsticks - they were, as usual properly excellent... So following some refuelling with pizza, tiramisu and double espressos we carted our gear 200m to the Washington pub which was surrounded by punks watching Year Zero (decent band!). We schlepped everything (actually, twas only Raph's bass amp, our instruments and cymbals) through the throng, set up and proceeded to play. And we made far fewer mistakes - slight speed errors here and there but starts, stops and changes were perfect. Good thing we'd had a rehearsal at Rebellion earlier 😁. All seemed to go down well, folks jigging about and no complaints when I did unnecessary slap'n'widdle solos. Which was nice! Gear and clothes exactly the same as earlier, apart from provided big Ashdown combo that sounded pretty awesome once I'd tamed the feedback. And the rest of the band went to watch Bad Manners in the Strictly Ballroom while I had a Glenfiddich 15yo in the hotel bar...

It's Raining Mendelssohn - Weather Girls

We've just done the first of two gigs today... We had the 1350-1420 slot at Rebellion Festival Arena. We played there two years ago and the sound was awful, boomy, feedback and generally horrible. So now they've put the stage facing across the room, and it's now the best sounding room at the Festival! For the first time in many years I went directly into the PA from my Helix. Our other bass player used the supplied AmpegSvt and Fridge. As a result, he was happy with trousers flapping indistinct mush, and I was very happy with a slightly slappier JJ Burnell-esque tone which suited my far too many notes style. We played ok, a number of mistakes due to nerves from our two new members and also a serious lack of rehearsal, but I shall eventually beat the songs into them good'n'hard. However, audience of 2-300 seemed happy (we were up against 4 other bands in the other Winter Gardens venues, plus the Typhoon and Red arrows flypast at Blackpool airshow. Afterwards we didn't get a kicking, and even sold some merch... Gear- Sandberg Basic, Helix, PA. Shoes - TUK zebra creepers. T-shirt - original UKSubs Another Kind of Blues from about 1978-9.

Funk, not Fight! - Bootsy Collins

I once played a gig wearing 9 different hats on top of each other... There was an Aussie bush hat, a fez, a trilby, a straw boater, 4 baseball caps and a beanie. I realised as I tried to stop 'em all toppling that I looked like a bit of a cock 😁 Might try it again one day. With 4 pairs of sunglasses.

1. Catchy little melodies; this is just a fop to those who think that music is just a ditty to whistle while doing their milk round. Real music isn't for enjoyment or fun, it's meant to be difficult and exclude those who lack understanding. I don't include bone-crunching riffs, or earworms such as Joe Dolce's "Shaddapa ya face", obvs. 2. Vocalists - see above 3. Boring arrangements - straightforward 1234 should be illegal. Syncopate or be exterminated! 4. Musicians who do the bare minimum - see 3. 5. Sound engineers who think that the only thing that the audience wants to hear is a kidney-jarringly-loud kick drum and a general mush in the rest of the bass. Learn your craft yer eejits!

Being Boiled - The Human League

Georgie Lame

Mockney Rejects Swell Paps Boy Division

Back in the early 90s my old band had a bunch of followers called The Bromley Boys... They'd dress up like the Monty Python housewives and leap about in rather a crazed but generally peaceful fashion. We'd played a couple of times at The Joshua Tavern in Oxford, one of them supporting Gaye Bykers On Acid, and were offered a headline there. The Bromley Boys came as usual but just before we played there must have been some argy-bargy with locals - I saw the biggest of the BBs chasing this bloke with an iron bar shouting "we're from faackin Laaahnden!". We played the gig and all was fine, but they never asked us back...

Saw the Daley-Crowe Blues Band in a pub garden in Bishops Castle on Sunday early eve... It was their first gig, but you'd never know it - they were excellent. Basically just blues covers with a couple of Hendrix and ZZ Top numbers but all played very well indeed. Though I knew they would, I used to be in band with Tim D and so was familiar with his guitar stylings!

We had our final rehearsal before Rebellion Festival - we're playing on Sunday twice... I was a bit worried before that we lacked practice, and this would result in sloppy, missed or messed up changes (we have quite a lot!), or songs would be started at dirge-like pace when they're meant to be punkfunk stompers. However, if it goes like last night we'll have no problem at all; Knockout stopped on 3 as it should, there was distinct variation between the funky chorus, punk verse and funkabilly middle 8. All 9 changes in Reaper were perfect, Conspiracy had a millisecond tight ending, and I'd managed to download the filthiest bass tone from Line6 which worked surprisingly well with my Parker bass. However, after some solo fiddling this morning (Keep your filthy minds out of the gutter!) I've decided to use my Sandberg through a tube driven Aguilar sound with a spot of reverb and chorus which clanks'n'danks like a Sherman tank dragging a chain over a steel pontoon bridge. I'll probably change my mind again though!

Better Than I Imagined - Robert Glasper

I'm going on Thursday morning, dumping my stuff in the hotel then straight in to see MC16 followed by Mannequin Death Squad...

I've got a mate who used to work for Anchor Housing Trust... He took great joy in answering the phone with "Hello Anchor".

No doubt see you there!

I fought the law - The Clash

In a Rut - the Ruts

Let's Get Physics-al - Olivia Newton John

I want to be Three! - Toyah

You cheddar you better you bet - Th'OO

Please Cheese Me - The Beatles

I think that rather than passing thousands of new laws which basically legislate against BellEndery, they should just do it properly and make Unfettered Bellendery And Acting Like A Knob a crime in itself.

wart pigs - black sabbath