Not Rocking The Boat

Never played the Renfrew Ferry before. Never played on any boat before. We’ve played the back of a truck before but not a boat. It was a good night but we didn’t have our best ever gig thanks to some technical issues, my JCM 600 which was giving me feedback trouble and also Joe had guitar tuner issues which meant he was spectacularly out of tune for the first few songs. We sorted these problems eventually and the second half of our set was fine, but unfortunately the damage was done as far as we were concerned. We would normally expect to be at least as good as This R 2 Tone who we were supporting, but that night we weren’t, in my humble opinion, also in part because This R 2 Tone were on such good form. In addition, if you only have a short set to play with you have got to be 100% for the whole set in my opinion. Oh well. The good thing that came out of it is that Joe went out and bought the most expensive guitar tuner in the shop, so no one can say we don’t learn from our mistakes. Also we got to advertise our forthcoming gig in Glasgow which is remarkably prescient of us. Other highlights for me include catching up with Gordon and continuing our eternal debate about the pro’s and con’s of ska covers bands.

I also got to talk to him about the new Amphetameanies album. Its been six years since their first album (we played at their album launch back then) and we chatted about how difficult being in a big band is in terms of writing and recording material. We have never managed to record a full album before because of that very reason. I can fully appreciate how long the new album took to make as we are going through a similar very slow, very costly and very methodical process, which happens by painstaking inches. The end result is hopefully worth all the effort, but when you are in the middle of it, it can be frustratingly slow. The Meanies finally got the album done a few months ago, but it really is terrific and worth the wait.

On that very subject, more recording. More horns and vocals recorded. Gav is already talking about a remix album. Its all quite exciting. Our next gig is in Leslie with Mr Greenfinger’s latest incarnation. The last time we were there we had a hell of a party afterwards so it should be cracking, and this time we are playing with the amazing Joe Viterbo. Awesome.