Wey Hey Bonny Lad!! Canny Bag O Tudor!!

I’ve mentioned it before but Newcastle reminds me of Glasgow. Except that its in England and it full of the English. We played The Cluny in Newcastle on Saturday which is located under the Byker Bridge, and is our first time in Newcastle since touring with Mark Foggo in 2002. That’s a story in itself.

It was a great night, even though we were a man down because Matt was fulfilling his last obligation as keyboard player for Carwash (corporate disco outfit). I’ll never under appreciate you again mate; you don’t realise how much it changes the sound until its not there. We played a relatively short set to open for This R 2 Tone (about fifty minutes) and it went down really well I thought. It was an unusual crowd for us as not one person in the place was under the age of 35. I agree with Gordon from the Meanies, that south of the border is different for ska bands; they really do expect lots of covers and classics. But hey, that’s what This R 2 Tone are for. We played a couple of Toots and the Maytals covers and refrained from doing covers of Frank Zappa, so as not to upset the natives, and stuck for the most part on our own ‘classics’. We went down really well I thought considering everyone was waiting for This R 2 Tone. The place went mental when they came on as you would expect, and they played two brilliant sets. Highlights for me included a version of Skinhead Moonstomp but with Richie singing ‘give some of that old skinhead moonwalking’. John and I immediately burst into our Michael Jackass moonwalking, chamone!! Apart from that bit of light entertainment, those guys are serious ska meisters. Even though no one was there to see us we still sold a stack of our cd’s. Cheers for that Fiona.

Big shout to Kev Rude Boy (nice black eyes) and everyone else who came down from Scotland to show support. And of course thanks to my main man Big John who drove Colin and I there and remained sober so we could make it safely back across the border. And thanks to Bobby and This R 2 Tone for inviting us down for a cracking night.