I would like to rant about the fact that the Armstrong Gun in Englefield Green is no more. Whilst the 'bricks and mortar' still remain, and I suppose it continues to be public house of sorts, its no longer exists in my little world. Stu, the landlord, left several months ago and as normally happens in these circumstances the succession of relief managers have cancelled all the gigs. This is a sad day indeed. The Gun is the spiritual home of Rough Justice, and we had played many gigs here. In fact, it was at this venue that the 'last' gig of the Rough Justice classic era was undertaken, and also the world record 29 and a half minute version of Freebird was performed here.
On a practical level, it leaves us with holes in our diary and affects a number of bands in the Rough Justice group of companies.
I would like to take this opportunity to remember the great times at this pub via the gift of some old pictures.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
The Armstrong Gun
Thursday, July 17, 2008
From The Ashes is no more.....
Brad's announces his retirement from pop-ular cover band 'From The Ashes'....
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Y.M.C.A. Brads
Brokeback Bradley is no more!
Arise Y.M.C.A Brads!
The King is dead.... Long live the King!!!
fREAKJAM - The Rising Sun
Thursday nights gig was at the fREAKJAM at the Rising Sun in Slough, featuring the ringmaster, Ian Jam.
If I am being honest, after a weeks holiday, I am struggling to remember what happened! But I will raid my memory banks and see what comes up!
First off, The Mighty Mammal was busy with his charity work (which he does not like to talk about) so we were graced with the talents of Rob 'Metal' Utley on the drums. As ever, rob did a fantastic job behind the kit, and we all look forward to his drumming talents and prowess. Tonight 16/17 year old drumming sensation Lee Aaron decided to pay us a visit to show off his drumming skills. It was also nice to see the Big Man Bal on vocals, and Tricky Richard on the bass - fresh from his string breaking antics from the other night. Lee also debuted his new 'bird' and we all wished him all the best.
Guitar Jake was down, as was Johnny D. Pretend Pop Star Mark Chudley was also in attendance as was the Hardest Working Man in Rock Gary Reece. I played my Les Paul Yoshi this evening, and decided the bridge pickup should be changed - a candidate for eBay me thinks!
After the traditional Adrian ending, we packed up our hearts and souls and went home where no trouble was observed.
Stonehenge!
Rough Justice - The Camphill Club
Saturday nights gig was with the earth's most powerful pub rock covers band 'Rough Justice' at the Camphill Club in West Byfleet. Tonight was depapalooza with not one, but two deps 'in the mix'! First off, The Mighty Mammal was called away unexpectedly, so we were graced with the drumming talents of Rob 'Metal' Utley on the drums. With the Replicant / Rough Justice bridge now fully constructed, it was a rock union! On the bass this evening was Owl da Bass, original bass player of the ill fated Rough Justice 2000 project and musician extrodinaire of Mo'Rockan Soul.
The Camphill is one of the bands favourite venues to play. The combination of a small and friendly setting and some very enthusiastic fans makes for a good evening indeed.
After a catastrophic failure of the Peavey UL15's at concert for Linda, tonight was the Rough Justice début of the Mo'Rockan Soul Mackie's, which elevated our rock to new levels, it must be said.
It was a night of many surprises indeed. Firstly, Hog was Lemsip Max fuelled for almost the whole evening, and despite this his stand up routine was in full working order. The Stoner was on top rocking form, and his levels of rock were so great, he managed to blow a speaker in his Gender-Bender 2x12 cab! The Stoner almost had to retire from the second set, but luckily some cable twiddling ensured the rock continued!
However, highlight of the evening was the Owl stroke Caesar guitar bass swap! In our regulation Freebird, I made the mental decision to swap with Owl, and the rest was history! Owl rocked a fat one, PunchMonkey style whilst I kept down the low end on the Fani Bass stack!
As we packed up our wares, we all were happy with our rock! A great night for King and Country.
What a lot of mist!
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Lee Aaron Band - The Flowerpot
Friday nights gig was with the Lee Aaron band at the Flowerpot in Walthamstow.
Tonight's festivities were a literal adventure in the making! After eating what could only be described as a slap up veritable feast, I had the luxury of being collected by the Big Man in one of the vehicles of the Browning Industries fleet. As the Rolls was in the garage, the Aston was being valeted, tonight's vehicle of choice was a Citreon van, so we loaded up the rock weapons of mass construction, and headed round the M25 to the site of the gig. After being treated to Lee's extensive questioning techniques, and discussing all manner of questions, we soon arrived at the venue.
We had played this venue before, and it seems to be a real locals affair, with pretty friendly natives. So with this in mind, we launched into our set of rock, modern and Guilty Party to a reasonable reception. At first, things were pretty quiet, but as the evening went on, we had all manner of people old and confused up dancing to Lee's 'over the top' drumming prowess! Highlight of the evening, however, was Tricky Richard breaking a bass string! Its not often that we are treated to this rare event, and I am pleased that I for one could be there to witness it!
I must also say that I was very pleased to see Luke, the 5th member of the band and manager, in attendance this evening. If he keeps up his attendance maybe we might not have to take him to the KFC after all.
As the last 'throws' of the gig were winding down, including some karaoke vocals from a random punter, we packed up our hearts and headed for a greasy key-babb and burger combination, in one of East London's most exclusive diners, before heading back on the M25 home. I must commend Lee for his random questions on the way home, which reached a pinnacle with 'Have you ever been tortured'. I laughed so much my sides almost split!
Will do it soon Barry, as soon as I get back.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
fREAKjAM - The Rising Sun
Thursday nights gig was at the fREAKJAM session at the fabulous Rising Sun Public House in that great town, Slough
After a Caesar fuelled drive to Slough, little time passed unit we were jamming away like it was going out of fashion! For the duration of the evenings festivities, I decided to play Yoshi, my fabulous Les Paul, and, dear readers, you will all be pleased to know that I was lucky enough to break a string! Beautiful!
Rob 'Metal' Utley was on the drums this evening, making him very much the drummer of the moment!
Pretend Pop Star Mark Chudley was in attendance. Sadly the hardest working man in rock, Gary Reece, was attending to a 999 jazz emergency call elsewhere - he was missed dearly.
Other jammers included Red Rocket Mike on the drums and a few others on other instruments. The Stoner was in attendance, and displayed levels of hard rocking that had not previously been seen in this partic-ular venue stroke jam session.
Despite a quieter start, the evening ended with a big brassy tart of an ending, and everyone went home with candy floss and smiles on their faces.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
A Concert For Linda
This is the big one.......
A CONCERT FOR LINDA 2008.
Well its hard to know where to start with an event of this sheer magnitude, but I think a 'Caesar's Eye' view of the festivities is probably the order of the day.
After eating a slap up breakfast of Waffles & Maple syrup, and a very tasty apple literally 'thrown into the mix', I put my equipment in my Spritzer and headed along to LW, otherwise known as Jagger mansions for the rock event of the summer. On arriving, I was greeted by Hog and Linda and various ancillary staff beginning to create the day.
First job of the day was to dry run test my rooftop escapade. I had decided again to use a radio system on the roof of the house, and of the 2 I had borrowed, I managed to get one to work (courtesy of Stoner Industries) and got up the rickety ladder to test the range. All was in order (so I thought) so a time for reflection was ion order. I cracked open my first Diet Cola of the day and enjoyed a burger from the on-site catering facilities.
We were soon close to the day beginning, people in their droves began to arrive and I was so happy to see lots of familiar faces and members of the extended Rough Justice family.
First band on of the day were Shine. This is a new band and venture with Rough Justice founder member Taffy, and various members of staff from Dion's underwear empire and even some of the Stoner's employees too! Playing a set of mostly uncharted works, they did a sterling job with the amount of time they had to prepare.
At this point, it was deemed that I should officially open the event with my rooftop antics and festivities. I strapped on Roxy, switched everything on and tested she worked for the last time before making that journey up to the roof. With the help of many ladder holders, I embarked on my mission to play the National Anthem to the good people of Concert for Linda. However disaster struck! I stood at the back of the roof and there was silence from my guitar! I thought that maybe moving to the front of the roof would make it work... Um no! Hog was down below, bigging me up, and all I could do was smile and shrug my shoulders! I believe this event has gone down in history as one of rock and roll's greatest disappointments.
After a sheepish retreat, the next band of the day, From The Ashes were set to play. With their usual mix of jam night classics, with Sir Ian Jam leading the pack ensuring the audience were the lucky jack! Following the jam theme, a few local luminaries joined them on the bass, vocals and rock. I even joined them for the famous last line of the Tribute stroke Stairway finale, to critical acclaim!
With the last song ringing out of the 'Ashes set, I had re-configured a 'hard wire' setup on the roof and was ready to do my rooftop National Anthem part 2. This time, everything was great! I played my Anthem, and as the Mighty Mammal described, I created a 'Raining Picks' scene for all to enjoy!
Next up was a solo acoustic guitar player, who had travelled up from Wales especially for the event. He played some really nice laid back tunes for everyone.
Replicant were up next, and played their usual brand of heavy rock and metal anthems to the delight of the audience! I must say that I was very disappointed that it was not Replicant that blew up the Rough Justice cabs. Actually come to think of it, I believe it was a minor rimshot with a pair of brushes from Rob 'Metal' Utley that did it in the end.
With this metal mayhem setting the scene, next up were the Souths Premier Showband, Mo'Rockan Soul. With a power pardy set the band were ready for one serious pardy! You should have seen the crowd, there was some serious air guitar and people joining the band in the reg-ular Andy Williams Pogo! Linda was, how can I put it, relaxed for the set and enjoyed communicating to the audience that she was only on her 2nd case of wine. The biggest compliment was from The Stoner who said that the band sounded like a CD - probably Semen or Saliva in Stonerworld.
With the pardy mood in full swing, next up were Britain's #1 pub rock covers band, Rough Justice. For me, this really was the highlight of the day. Rough Justice gigs are really always my favourite, and Hog's impersonation of Nelson Mandella singing 'Rehab' was a comedy classic! I must commend The Stoner for his lucky string breakage about 15 seconds into the set! Despite various members of the band a little worse for wear, we 'pulled it off' to critical acclaim. I was also pleased to throw about 200 more picks, which is a very beautiful thing to do!
After a short break in the proceedings, Daft made their way to the stage. They were the headline band of the day, and I think quite rightly deserved this 'slot'. They played a more contemporary mix of songs, and by the time they did their Queen medley, the whole of the LW estate was up on their feet! In fact, during the Queen medley Linda literally wrestled Graeme to the floor for the mic to sing 'We are the champions'!
The raffle was up next, and despite the fact the Evans family rigged the whole thing, it was a success! The Peavey Generation EXP guitar was the star prize, and surprisingly the Evans family decided to swap it for a blanket instead!
After Hog had said some words about the day, A super worse for wear Linda and her daughter Heidi did a beautiful reading of 'Don't Let You Son Go Down On Me'. This performance featured Mark on keyboards, and I can confirm that getting the cables out of the living room was a 'bitch of a cable run'.
The finale was, as you would expect from the Rough Justice group of companies, Freebird. And ladies and gentlefolk, it was spectac-ular! It featured me, The Stoner and Owl da Bass on guitar and The Mighty Mammal on 5 string guitar too! Dangerous was on bass, and Dion, Red Rocket Mike and Taffy on drums! In fact, it was an honour to have Taffy open the song, as if it was not for him, there would be no Rough Justice! As guitar pyrotechnics were flying abound, the fireworks were let off creating a rock masterpiece in the making. As the song ended, there was a record breaking guitar hat! Beautiful!
To conclude, it was a simply superb day, and my congratulations and thanks goes to Hog for masterminding it!
