Leonard Smalls

It's quite likely that John Zorn (on sax, for it is he and he alone) either wrote every note for everyone who played, or just as likely drew comedy phalluses in brown crayon and told his crew to go from that... As Frank Zappa said "Does humour (oops, humor) belong in music?". And both me and Mr Zorn think it probably ought to.

I've listened to that gig many times too when I'm in the mood for some easy listening dinner jazz. 😁 Remember seeing Derek Bailey once with a dj and keyboardist which was pretty out there; I also used to play in an improvising band where the drummer and I would play funk grooves and former associates of Lol Coxhill would go all Brotzmann over it. But for ultimate fusion, try this - it's like a fusion of all the hells from all the religions crossed with punk and jazz...

We had a rehearsal yesterday to get ready for Hereford gig next Saturday and the guitarist didn't turn up! So no annoying noodling between songs, no unnecessary feedback drowning out the vocals, no poorly set up pedals making almost as much noise when there's no sound going through 'em... So it was just bass, bass, drums and 3xvocals, which was great! Everybody could hear everything, and excitingly, when we did a dead stop there was no extra bit of guitarnoise cos he hasn't worked out how to properly damp the strings. So we were tight as, and ready to gig without guitar if that happens!

It's definitely not too wild for me, more a bit safe! This pushes the boat out a tad more: https://music.apple.com/gb/album/mirakle/1189663910

I've been listening to it, but agree with Pete! Good effort, but a bit fusion-by-numbers. The only slightly less formulaic bits are some of the guitar solos. Keys in particular are completely What Is Expected. I prefer a slightly more leftfield, creative approach:

A vid I made for my occasional band...

Funky things to play with!

On 6music

Punk Classics: Chinese pink torpedos - Johnny Thunders God shave the Queen - Sex Pistols Babylon's Gurning - Ruts Lust for Wife - Iggy Pop I wanna be your bog - The Stooges Long Dong Garden - Siouxsie and the Banshees Nasty Pasty - 999 Farty in Paris - UK Subs I'm not a tool - Cockney Rejects

I can't cope with more than about 30 seconds of even just acoustic drums without my plugs... So I always wear 'em! And bands are still often far too loud. Frinstance, at Rebellion back in August the Introducing Stage is in a large auditorium that's well know for sounding bad - loads of hard parallel reflective surfaces etc. And the soundmixer's solution? To turn it up so loud that it's painful, even with plugs. While lots of damping might not be possible, turning it up is bound to make the situation worse! In contrast, last week we played a small pub in Birmingham which had a capacity of at very most, 150. I was a bit worried because even in this small room, everything was mic-ed up and DI-ed. However, the sound was great - crystal clear, with thwacky bass drum, audible bass and vox and still not too loud, though still rockin'. I could even take my plugs out for a minute or so without pain, which was nice!

There's not much better than A Kick In The Eye... But I'll take Bela Lugosi on mediaeval instruments 😁

Acoustic Bauhaus in the pub! I'd definitely be up for that... A pint of Butty Bach with a Kick In The Eye!

My dad's local boozer was there! They lived just up by Ladyurd Hill...

I remember doing London NW2 to Romannobridge just south of Edinburgh on my old Yamaha TR1 up the A1, then A68, in five and a half hours, with 2 stops for fuel! That was in the days long before speedcameras and gave me an average speed of just inside the motorway speedlimit. I was knacked, mind, especially as the bicycle was unfaired! I suspect nowadays you'd have to add 2 hours to that!

A snippet someone sent us from our 999 support... 388892917_699781945021895_7568735487361311918_n.mp4

I used my final test to discover that it's a mere cold or perhaps flu. Though last time I had COVID (a year ago) I was under the weather for a day, this has been going since Tuesday and still feeling duff! Perhaps COVID jabs work! Or perhaps this happened to be my nemesis ManFlu... My Mrs has it now and is showing a slight sniffle! Still, it proves you can use a Wal for punk!!!!

I didn't even stay as I felt so sh?t! And I'd never seen 'em before. But I did have a chat with them, decent blokes, carrying their own gear... Hopefully I didn't infect them - mask may have helped.

We supported Original Punks, 999 at a cosy little pub (The Victoria) in Birmingham. It's probably about 100 people max allowed in! Unfortunately, I had The Cold From Hell (first for years!) - I'd got over the aches'n'chills and was on the dribbling and feeling a tiny bit less duff stage. I even wore a mask in the car to make an attempt at protecting 2 of my bandmates who were getting a lift from me, though who knows? Anyway, deliberately arrived only half an hour before we were due to go on as it was line check only, after we finally managed to get the previous band off stage (they took forever unplugging a guitar and bass, possibly to to over-refreshment) and found a space for my Markbass 4x10 with Crown PA head (firing across the stage!), plus a little niche for me, my Wal and Helix to stand in, we could get going. And despite the venue being tiny, and everything mic-ed/DI-ed up it was not too loud (unheard of!) and sound was great both on and off-stage. Cheers Mr Soundman! I was also very pleased with a new patch I'd made with some GK drive and Ampeg sound in parallel and mixed with a spot of reverb compressed both front and back end - it cut through beautifully and I managed to get far more of The Funk into our songs than usual (normally, as the sound is an overloud unholy mess there's no point!), which was nice! Crowd were very appreciative, though being mainly Original Punx Of A Certain Age too there wasn't much dancefloor action. Still, we sold some merch, and one of the CD buyers insisted on us all signing it. Fame!!! Sneaked off immediately afterwards making sure that everyone had congratulated me for being a brave soldier, to discover that the Hagley Road was closed, meaning teh quickes way was via M6, M54 and Much Wenlock, probably 20 miles extra. But rewarded myself with a rather fine dram of Ludlow single malt whisky.

I take exception to such elitist and exclusional language! Talent is a concept foisted on The Workingman by The Bourgeoisie in order to cement their position of dominance.

I've done a cover for quite a few months now! Though I have changed the lyrics, the rhythm, the melody (or often completely discarded such a bourgeois notion), the tempo, and instrumentation. Frinstance I've somewhat improved on Spandau's original this month, as I've got rid of all that funky nonsense and coherent lyrics in favour of much more meaningful ones, such as: unus septem est septem avem in manu valet duos in rubo duo septem quattuordecim numerus bestiae sescentorum sexaginta sex

I've found that it doesn't embed from a mobile phone browser, though I've only tried Chrome and DuckDuckGo on mine. On a PC/Laptop works fine with Edge, Chrome and Firefox.

Next one is tonight (12th) In Birmingham, supporting OPs 999 And then it's almost a local gig (an hour away!) at the Heart Of Anarchy Halloween Punx Party:

Back in my rockabilly rebel days we used to go to the Klub Foot too! I even saw the Chilli Peppers there when it was just the plain Clarendon...

Scott Devine's fusion band!