Tuesday brought a really busy Revolver gig. I went down with Carrie, and I just felt the time was suddenly right again to lift the suspended state I'd put Dizzy Tiger in, so I texted that news out to some of the others. We were joined shortly after by my workmate Crystal, then Kim and Lethwyn, and finally Tom. Dean & Bonj went on first and, the odd bum-note aside, played a good opening set of some of Dean's slower songs. Two-thirds of Regular John were there: Lee chatted about their near-completely recorded album, and Matt & Bonj played another strong set of reinterpreted John tracks, with a clever version of Hyeshin to finish. Rufus played a handful of his soul songs, as Kim tried to interest us all in a bagful of half-empty bottles of after-shave he'd decided to throw out. People kept turning up, and at different points I must have said hello to Reuben (who was ill), Jonathan, Chuckie, Joe & Kate, Helen and her sisters and friends, Paul Phillips and Wookie, I think (it blurs). I tried to persuade Kim to go up and do some songs, but then Dean & Bonj were back on for a climactic second set. I got Dean to bring Kim up afterwards to do Chicken In A Box, which as a result became anticlimactic, as Kim knew. He then improvised a couple of songs, one of them apparently being about how bent I am, which was nice. Everyone dispersed to different bars afterwards, though I ducked-out and headed home to crash.
The following evening I didn't expect much to be going on, so I'd got a bottle of beer and turned in for the night. But then Reuben, who was feeling a bit healthier, rang to say Tim Hoyte was supposed to have a gig at Gritti Palace. Once Reuben had got there he texted me to confirm it, so I got up again and headed down to the Pier. By the time I got there, I basically caught Tim's second set of the evening, and the bar was really full with a great atmosphere to walk into, out of the rain. Reuben was with Richard Hart, Paul was at the bar, Tara was in a corner, and while I was there Helen Driver, Christa & Matt Jukes, and evenutally Jamie all turned up. Tim's songs (a mix of new stuff, and ones he reckoned were old but that he hadn't performed for a while, so they felt new to me) were all quite lengthy and dreamy, and he dropped in a couple of covers too (Neil Young and Gomez, I recall), though he failed to honour Richard & my requests for various Sham 69 numbers. We just all hung around after for ages, chatting about general stuff, until it was looking like time to move on. Again, I declined to carry on in another bar, and, because of the heavy rain, ran all the way home, soaked.

The Gilded Palace Of Sin promoters had finally bitten the bullett and booked Rumiko Jr as support act to the Loose Recordings groups that were coming to Brighton. Last Thursday, I finished work and got the train straight from Bexhill to Brighton, bumping into (formerly Crazy)Joe and his partner Kate on the platform at Lewes. We headed up to the Hanbury Ballroom from Brighton Station on foot: I've been that far into Kemp Town a couple of times before, but forgot what a long way it was. I kept wanting to ask "Are we nearly there yet?", and if I'd not been with the lovely couple I'd have had to try and get directions, 'cos I'd have been sure I'd have gone past it (I've got lost looking for bars and pubs in St James'/Kemp Town most of the previous times I've been there in fact, and it's a straight road!) But we passed Michael and arrived eventually, meeting Adam Diabo and a friend outside. Paid to get in, but Marcus ran over and sorted me out with a late guestlist place, which was handy (£3.10 for a pint?) Paul and Carolyn were already there, as were Alfie and his partner, and Leigh had driven the band over with Maya on board. It's a very attractive venue, and there was a fair crowd, so things were looking quite hopeful for the evening. Rumiko started up with Broken Vessel, I got some drinks in, and Lisa and Helen made it in. After a song or two I decided that it would be politer to stand up (as most of the audience already were), as it quickly became clear that the group were gonna go down well. It helped that they all played very tight and strong, and the sound was great; furthermore they'd picked out a set from the old and the new albums without any covers (too little time), so good move. I recall Sweep The Ashes Away, On A Hinge and Carve My Way, and by the time New Found Lonely Friend came along Paul had stood up and joined me too. In a generous and smart move, Alfie had joined the band to add his harmonica for this song (his first appearance onstage with them for over a year, as far as I remember, since leaving the group), and he stayed on for the concluding We Get Lost. It's fair to say they went down brilliantly, as the Gilded Palace Of Sin compere, and the headlining bands, all acknowledged onstage. They were followed by Roger Dean Young & The Tin Cup, playing very bluesy Tom Waits-styled country, and The Corb Lund Band, who were a much more cheerful goodtime country act. I'd got steadily and happily pissed by then, yammering away to Paul and Carolyn about all our various problems (or lack of them) in turn. Paul headed off for an earlier bus, leaving Carolyn to follow on when it was time for me to get to the station. Maya (whose place on Leigh's van had been taken by Lisa and Helen) left with us, and (due to drunkeness) the three of us seemed to be down by the Pavilion in an instant. Carolyn jumped on a bus, and Maya and I part-ran up tho the station and got on the Seaford train. We chatted the journey back, me partly to keep myself awake so we didn't miss the connections, though I soon found out that Maya was far more sober and able to get us home without the aid of forcing out conversation. I walked her to the top of the West Hill, then made my way down the other side to my place. This had been, at last, my first chance all year to get out of Hastings and Bexhill, and I'm really glad that when I finally did it was for such an excellent night out. As for the group's perspective on the evening, and to find out how well their subsequent London debut went on the Saturday (I stayed home for that one, would've been too much extra trouble to make the gig in a fit state) see, for example, the Dizzy Tiger Message Boards. Here's to more rock-action...

I've decided to continue this Blog for a while longer, though it gets boring sometimes forcing myself to try and write stuff, so I may drop it again at a later date. Anyway, I've got along to a few things since I last posted, the first of which was a late-booked Rumiko Jr gig at Brass Monkey a couple of weekends ago. Paula was visiting from the Scilly Isles that weekend, which was fortunate timing, 'cos it pretty-much guaranteed that everyone would be able to meet up at the gig. I went over to Caroline's flat to meet them both beforehand, and after a fair few drinks we all headed into town. It was a bit early for the Monkey, so we went into The Pig for a few more drinks first, though not much was happening there really. Outside in Robertson Street we ran into Tim Hoyte, Jamie, Karen, Wookie, and a few of the others, and certainly by the time we were all in the Monkey, Reuben, Helen, Lisa, Helen and loads of our friends were about. After their gig up in Heroes that evening, Regular John made it along too, as did much of Mumm-ra, who seems to be out & about more recently, so it was a real all-bands together night. Unfortunately, my poor mood from earlier in the day was (as I knew inside would happen) worsened the more I drank, and I was feeling quite down and out of sorts by the time Rumiko started playing. Though Paula was able to talk me round quite well, the evening ultimately proved the point that the quality of a group's performance is very closely linked to the individual witness' mood. Several people I spoke to that night, and in the following week (including Jamie and Tim) though Rumiko were tight and on blinding form; but I kept noticing the missed cues and songs that fell apart at the end. Undeniably, there were too many (three) covers played though, especially seeing as Dean indtroduced the first of them with the, quickly patently false, assertation that "We don't play many covers..." Mind you, it was a late start for tha band, and they do like a drink too (we all like a drink!). The rest of the night degenerated into Regular John horseplay, as they ran about stickering everyone with, um, stickers! Mine were still attatched the next morning.
The following Tuesday brought some restoration of confidence with Dean's Revolver session, again backed by Bonj, and with another Matt & Bonj performance in between Dean's two sets. The Regular John chaps are improving their acoustic version of the band every time they appear at Revolver now, and were really fierce. Dean and Bonj zipped through loads and loads of newer Rumiko (and yet-to-become Rumiko) songs, and our table (including Christa, Kim, Wookie, Reuben, Jamie) had a fine old time messing about. Jamie was supposed to be keeping his attendence at Revolver that night to a minimum, due to house-moving commitments, but he kept reappearing, stop-out!
At the end of the week, I put in an appearance at the private view of the new group exhibition at St Mary In The Castle's SoCo Gallery (at the invitation of Dave Arnold, who was exhibiting), though I kept myself to myself, and only stopped to chat to the Flying Marrows boys while I was there.
The Saturday finally came around with Rashamon supporting man-of-the-moment Nathan Fake, along with Uneven Dots, at Harpers. I went down at 9:00 and caught up with Lee, who was pretty nervous about the evening, for several reasons. We also chatted to a guy called Joe who'd come over from Eastbourne especially for this show, as well as the Unven Dots fella, and Nathan and his friend/collaborator Vincent. Michael and Caroline had joined us by the time Lee started up, and though he was playing an excellent set of largely new material, there were evident problems with the clarity of the sound. Lee finished up, and was putting the distortion's cause down to the PA, when Uneven Dots began with a set of crystal-clear electronic gorgeouness. So Lee had to blame himself for his own sound after all! Michael and Caroline had headed-off after Lee's Rashamon performance. but Rufus had joined us by then, and eventually both Reuben and Jamie made it along too. By the time Nathan Fake was beginning, I was getting very sleepy, and as a result I nodded-off through the main central part of his/their set, The bits I did hear, at the start and end, were fine enough though, but the effects-box-abuse was too much for my tired ears by then. Once he'd finished his encores, I was ready to go, so Lee picked up his fee from Tim Prochak (who was generous to a fault all evening, good on him), and we both dragged ourselves back to the Old Town (Lee was tired too, as Rufus had been in fact). It's fair to say that things between Lee and I had been a little strained on occasion during the last year (and things such as me disappearing during the Four Tet gig there, last time I was supposed to be putting him up) can't have helped, but it does now feel that we're all on an even keel with one another again. There's always new and unrelated problems to cope with, and life's too short to hold onto such awkwardness. So, onwards! Again!

To get things ready for last week's Other Words, I had to pick a mic and amp up from Michael & Caroline's flat on the Wednesday, and walk them back to my place in the Old Town. After work on Thursday I had to go up to the flats again, get the mic stand off Duncan, and take it over to Tara's. Then I went back to the Old Town to get changed and fed, and had to carry the mic and amp back along the seafront to Bar Blue to rendezvous with Tara and Richard. It was as I was making that walk that I realised how worn out I've got recently trying to get all this Dizzy Tiger stuff done. Other Words itself was quite fun, a really mixed bag of (mostly) poets this time, and both Kim, Jonathan and Richard performed again. But a few pints and a brandy wasn't helping me, so I switched to water, and even then I was falling asleep as it got beyond midnight. And, apart from when I was talking to Wookie, Reuben etc, all I could think about was how long I've been running the label on my own for now, and whether I really want to be or even should be running one anyway when sometimes I think it'd be better just to step away into the background, 'cos by now the local scenes seem to be running themselves just fine. I couldn't stay awake, so I left all the gear in the charge of Tara and Bar Blue, and headed home. At work the next day, I just decided during the afternoon that, rather than do anything as drastic as axeing the label completely, I'd just put it in a state of suspension, so I went downstairs to the staffroom and texted the news to a handful of people on my phone. When I got home, I'd decided that I'd keep most of the websites going (though I may not do this blog any more after this, I'm not sure), at least until I've managed to get through the various pro & con thoughts in my head. The rest of the weekend was spent at the Electric Palace twice (for Radio On and Dig!), at a party at Rufus & Bonj's new flat, and down the FILO for the quiz. My head is fucked from drink, illness and stress, so hopefully that'll clear up soon, and I'll be able to work out what it is I should be doing. I'm hoping that won't take too long, 'cos I do want to keep the label going, but at the moment I need this break. I think most of my friends can understand this. Nobody's fault but mine!

February has been so wet and cold, I've been so hard up (not entirely through paying bills, but 'cos we've been paying for our ATP tickets too), and, in the last few days, have had brief spells of having colds and food poisoning, so cumulatively there's not been a lot of socialising going on. So, despite feeling very very rough, I determinedly went along to Revolver on Tuesday for Dean's fortnightly gig. Fortunately, after last time's Valentine's aberrations, this night's gig only co-incided with Shrove Tuesday, so things could get on more normally. I went for the super-strong Leffe beer option (a half, then a pint, was all that I needed to be warm). Dean went first, backed by Bonj again (as was everyone this evening, which was brave of him), with a bunch of new songs; typically, some were being performed for the very first time, and even Bonj hadn't heard them. There were a few exceptions, they rattled through Here Comes Your Man Again, and opened with the now-familiar All The Lovers (title courtesy of bar-staff request) which is becoming a real favourite, especially 'cos it's sparseness reminds me of those precious early Donkey Kong gigs at the Jenny Lind, where you could hear a pin drop (but more usually a dropped pint). I went online for a bit so Reuben could check if anyone had bid for him on Ebay (courtesy of The Heaters' Muz, who's evidently getting tired of blues-rock, and has started pimping his friends out as well). Matt & Bonj whipped through some Regular John songs, much more successfully than the previous gig (and I've just realised I ought to have mentioned that to them at the time, 'cos I wasn't too enthusiastic previously when Matt asked me my opinion afterwards); then Rufus took over Matt's chair for a few of his blues/soul songs too. Rufus was also unsuccessfully trying to purchase an ATP chalet online during the evening; not sure who he's intedning on bringing with him when he's successfully bought it, but keep your eyes to the Dizzy Tiger message boards, or go see him in the bookshop maybe?). Jonathan managed a few songs with Bonj then, though by this point Kim was getting very feisty, and ribbing most of us at our table (which also included Jamie, Pete Regular-John and his girlfriend, and a couple of other people who I see out a fair amount, but who's names have escaped me just at the moment). Jonathan mainly had to put up with good-natured, but probably irritating, heckling from that guy who hangs out at the Anchor all the time, but he coped with it. Finally, Dean and Bonj thrashed out a few more of the uptempo quickies off the next Rumiko album (at least, they're on there if the latest Rumiko mail-out is correct), and I slumped in the corner full of illness and Leffe, watching near-horizontally. Everyone was heading on to see The Heaters and Josie at the Brass Monkey, or possibly Richard at Harpers (and if Richard would remember to text me when he's got these gigs, as he keeps meaning too, I'd have known for sure whether he was on or not), but I went home and got under extra bedding and slept.