That'll do

Last rehearsal before recording at the weekend. Rocking along. 

Michael's friend John came along to take some photos too - he took excellent live shots at Tuts earlier this year. 

We played : 

Comin From The Hills

Way Beyond Tore Up

Rightful Duty

Hit The Peaks

Undertow

In A Violent Way

Campfire Vibe

All set for Saturday. The songs have come together really well. Looking forward to blasting them out and hearing them properly. 

Now, as it is Saint Andrew's Day, a wee dram. A Jura Superstition. 

Friday 23 Dec, Mono, Glasgow

We've confirmed a gig to help raise funds to support people sleeping rough over the winter. 

Mono, Glasgow, with The Reverse Cowgirls & Sleepy Eyes Nelson. 

The gig will feature the music of Jeffrey Lee Pierce - a motherlode of blues and rock and freedom

It'll be a rockin' humdinger!

Too much guitar ?

How do you make room for 3 guitars ? 

Well. Maybe one of you can stop playing so much ? How about one stops entirely ? 

Good. How little can you play and still have it rocking along ? Ooh, bring it back up a little more. 

We cracked through a bunch of tunes tonight. 

Undertow (first Rooney-Rafferty composition since 1983!), John's Bass Riff thing which will grow into a monster. Way Beyond Tore Up. Rightful Duty. Freewheelin' Frank - a much faster version than how we were playing it live, more stripped down. 

Lots of work tonight on pacing tunes, especially Undertow, and on arranging guitar parts so that we (a) provide both rock AND roll (b) leave space for the vocal and (c) leave room to crank it up a notch. 

 A positive, collaborative night - it isn't every band where every guitarist will happily take direction from the drummer, and he bassist, and the singer, and the other guitarists. 

 Now a fab Berberana - Reserva 2006, Etiqueta Negra and some mature Welsh Cheddar, with a soundtrack of some very gentle hissing in my ears. I stood too close to the drumkit. I'll never learn. 

 Gigs coming up - Mono, Glasgow, Fri 23rd Dec. Charity gig for the homeless. This is most likely a Gun Club tribute night. We loved those guys, supported them in late 84 and they were magnificent. Kid Congo is still fantastic too. We went to see Kid Congo's Pink Monkey Birds a couple of years ago in Glasgow - as uplifting a gig as you'll see in many a long year. joyful rock & roll, with tributes paid to 2 rock & roll titans that he worked with - Lux Interior & Jeffrey Lee Pierce. After the show, we went to say hi to Kid - me, Michael (singer) & Rhod Burnett (original Primevals drummer). Kid looked at us and said "I know you guys - you played with us in Glasgow, a long time ago, didn't you ?" which was pretty amazing. 

 At that gig, we had been invited up to the Gun Club's dressing room after our set. Jeffrey Lee was trying to offload the bottle of Jack Daniels & the bottle of Smirnoff that were part of their rider - he was pouring huge amounts of it into any glass we offered him, saying "Jesus, if you guys don't drink it my guitarist will!". Kid has been through it all, and is now many years sober. 

We have been approached to play in Barlinnie, too. [it's the HM Prison in Glasgow]. That may be the Jock & Roll gig to end all Jock & Roll gigs. We'd be honoured to play there. 

More blethering

I had great fun being interviewed by Paddy Hoey for his podcast. The second part is here blethering for Scotland . If you want to hear it, I recommend downloading it rather than streaming on the site.

It was a really interesting process - Paddy's thoughtful questions took me back to the earliest music that I connected with, and I throughly enjoyed chatting with a great music enthusiast.

Ain't she pretty?

First rehearsal with the new De Armond went well. 

She stayed in tune, I didn't break any strings. 

We played a bunch of new songs, including Undertow which is one of mine, one built round a lovely bass riff from John, and a new one from Michael that has a Tim Buckley vibe. Plus we blasted through a couple of covers, and played some songs that the guys had played before but for one reason or another had never been released. Way Beyond Tore Up was one of them.

Really good fun. 

Now, a Masterpeace Shiraz, and some Tim Buckley live to relax.