Libidinous

It was the final gig of 2025 (my 14th*) and a what a gig to end the year with: New Year's Eve with Stuart Pearce, the band, at JT Soar in town. It also doubled up as a fundraiser for striking workers. Did you know the Birmingham bin men are still out on strike? Nat Mason their head honcho (Stuart Pearce, not the striking bin men) and good friend of the Medds (he was at college with James) asked if I'd like to do a number with them - he'd got a couple of 'guest' slots he was dropping into the band's set.

So we did I Need You by The Kinks (the song was once described as libidinous by a music journalist). I think it went down well. The original clocks in at not much more than two minutes and we tracked it all the way. I think Ray would have approved.

★

* The first 13

1. Chuck Prophet - Metronome, Nottingham

2. DeWolff - Rescue Rooms, Nottingham

3. Joel Sarakula - Peggy's Skylight, Nottingham

4. Haggis Horns - Peggy's Skylight, Nottingham

5. PIL/Stuart Pearce - Rock City, Nottingham

6. Richard Hawley - Tower Ballroom, Blackpool

7. Gysai - The Lexington, Islington

8. John Reis & Swami - The Boat Club, Nottingham

9. Dodgy - The Drill, Lincoln

10. XGenerationX - Trades Club, Hebden Bridge

11. XGenerationX -  Òran Mór, Glasgow

12. XGenerationX - The Cluny, Newcastle

13. House of All - Brudenell, Leeds

(I've written contemporaneously about all these shows so I haven't bothered dating or hyperlinking them; though I only need to look at the list and I know how far along the road to recovery I was at the time of each.)

★ 

 Postscript

I also pulled in a couple of comedy shows along the way - BBC Radio 4's Dead Ringers at Nottingham Royal Concert Hall and the peerless Tom Wrigglesworth at The Canal House - part of Nottingham's Comedy Festival.

The One After 808

Sun Ra

Graham Massey, Madchester legend and the brains behind 808 State has put together a new combo. The one time Acid guru has collected a dozen of Manchester's finest, scooped 'em up and shared with them his love of Saturn dweller and jazz polymath Sun Ra: The Part Time Heliocentric Cosmo Drama After School Club are a twelve piece ensemble who, under Massey's orchestration, are currently tearing up venues in the North West. And one look at this video from their recent Liverpool gig will testify that the experience leaves everyone in the room shaken and stirred. The young lad on keys (front right) a.k.a. The Number One Son - who when he joined the band tweeted 'I've joined a cult' - tells me they hope to be recording an album real soon.

A Day in the Life

Left to right, Bernard Wright, Nat Mason, James Medd

Why don't we do it in the road?

House band

I knew when I asked Frozen Gin to play with me on Saturday they'd go down a storm. And so it proved. Bernard Wright, Nat Mason and James Medd came up on the Friday night and spent a couple of days with us jamming, drinking tea, busking, drinking more tea and generally ingratiating themselves with the locals. Prior to the gig they'd joined us at The Sun for a couple of looseners before taking to the stage and giving the crowd a master class in musicianship; they knocked out a multifarious set including Irish jigs and reels played at breakneck speed then gently applying the anchors for a dreamy set of French Canadian tunes before hitting the gas once again. We raised a lot of money for charity, not least the £48.92 the lads kindly donated from their hour's busking outside Boots the Chemist. A big thank you also to David Swann, Martin Robertson and Phil Wright for their dedication to the cause.

Frozen Gin: Valse Beaulieu/Sheepskins & Beeswax