I finally got a full week off work last week, but various social commitments kept me from catching too much live music. At the start of my holiday, I was in Bexhill on the Saturday night, for Sarah-Jane's thirtieth birthday party at The Harp pub. She'd booked a live band called Rumboogie to play, and I'm only mentioning this because at least one of the three guys in the band was at school with us, and had been playing in pub-blues-rock groups even then (it was Nik Le Saux - was he in Full Frontal Nudity? PJ Blue & The Players? I can't really remember who was who by now...), and fifteen years of playing blues-rock meant that at least his current group were very tight and very good at what they do (Ok, no-one except Hendrix is ever gonna be able to justice to Jimi Hendrix Experience songs, but they made an excellent stab at more-coverable songs like 'Baby Please Don't Go'). I congratulated Nik afterwards, but I don't think he recognised me by now, so that's about that! Because of this night, I missed Deano playing at the Eat@ cafe; and I subsequently missed his Le Pattie Cafe booking the following Tuesday by being in Brighton, where the closest I came to any relevant musical experiences was seeing Rachel Fisher's drag-king band Hotfrollicks get a full-page feature in that day's Argus newspaper (I'd imagine the photos are on or near her Myspace). I found out later in the week that the Pattie Cafe pulled Dean's gig quite late, and he'd ended up entertaining would-be punters (ie. our friends) with some songs in their Music Xchange shop instead - sounded fun, if awkward. I finally caught up properly with some live music again on the Sunday afternoon, at the end of my week's holiday, back in Hastings, when at the last minute I decided to go along to The Hastings Arms to catch a bit of a fundraiser for Giles' forthcoming sponsored run across the Sahara Desert. When I arrived, Dean was on his first song, and I got a pint off Katherine and sat a table next to the one seating Rufus, Danielle and, um, someone who's name I couldn't remember to be honest. Now, I had promised I'd try and take more notice of what songs Dean and Rufus are playing at the moment (and I only actually had one pint - I couldn't afford more), but aside from a handful of familiar covers ('We're Going To Be Friends', 'Get Up Jake', Blister In The Sun' in Dean's case; 'Higher And Higher' in Rufus', though he may have done others) almost the whole of Dean's current set, and around half of Rufus', is made up of unreleased songs that I don't know the titles to. What with not having a copy of the unreleased 2nd Rumiko album for reference (I taped Michael's copy and lent it to Gill at work, and I think she assumed I'd given her the tape - it's difficult to ask for things back in those situations), and the 3rd one still undergoing recording (see below) I'm lacking in titles to apply to the tunes. Rufus did play several from his, also, I think, unreleased, album, but my copy of that is at home, and I'm currently in the library typing this. Journalism, eh? Anyhow, when Rufus played, I joined Dean & Danielle at their table, and people like Billy and Reuben (and their friends who I'd not met) arrived and said Hi. Both Dean and Rufus went down brilliantly with the Hastings Arms' Sunday drinkers, though once Rufus had knocked it on the head they said they were off to rehearse down the Basement, if I wanted to join them. First, though, I popped back home and re-opened a bottle of white wine that Carolyn & I had started the night before, and I drank a bit of that and watched one of several Doctor Who videos I'd picked-up that week in Old & Gold in Bexhill. After that, I wandered along to the Basement with the remainder of the wine, and sat in the control room (is that what they term it?) while the full Rumiko line-up played through some new songs for the new album, and Rufus used his remote-control to point into the room occasionally to record live takes (I think this is how the 3rd album is being put together, more from live takes than built-up multitrack recordings). as well as losing my tape copy of their 2nd album, I recently lost my CD-R of their Myspace tracks from last Spring (that I'd received from them at ATP) during the process of Rufus' mastering of the (hey, unreleased!) new Dizzy Tiger compilation album. In my slightly drunked state I thought I'd spotted my lost CD-R under a desk in the corner of the room, and after scrutinising the scratchy disc, and umming and ahing for a while, I convinced myself that it had to be the lost disc, so I took it home (or, in another sense, stole it) afterwards, whereupon I put it in my cd-player, and, lo & behold, the display lit-up with it containing 3 tracks, the first of which was indeed 'Some Days', in the Myspace version. I was relieved that I'd picked up the right disc, but then it reached tracks 2 and 3, and rather than containing 'Carve My Way' and 'Mountain Song', it held a few seconds of glitch, followed by 'Keep It Going On', so I had to return to the shop at the earliest opportunity (this morning, in fact) and shamefacedly 'fess-up to Rufus that I'd secretly grabbed the wrong disc (which, to be vaguely fair, he'd lost in the first place). In conclusion, I'd suggest searching my pockets whenever I leave a recording studio, or maybe just not letting me in if I've been drinking... What an undignified end to the week. Apologies all, I'm usually much more honest.

Last Tuesday evening I was getting ready to go to Le Pattie Cafe (well, not so much getting ready, more navigating through a dvd of 'The Invasion' that Lee had given me in Brighton at the weekend; looking for Easter Eggs, and finding none), when Reuben rang, and popped round, to pick up a complete set of Mumm-Ra 7"s that I'd picked up for him while I was in Brighton (yellow and orange vinyl 'What Would Steve Do?' singles from Virgin - where I'd also bought my own copies earlier, brown vinyl 'Out Of The Question' from Borderline, and possibly Brighton's last pink vinyl copy of the same from Rounder). We listened to a little bit of the cd single I had, and Reu agreed that their song 'Without You' could well be Rumiko Jr-inspired - he had already heard it on a solo CD-R Noo had given him once (incidentally, if anyone wants to lend me their old Mumm-Ra et al CD-R demos, I'd quite like to tape them, ta). So, we then went outside and picked up Jimmy in George Street, and went along to Le Pattie Cafe. I had a quick chat about pictures for Create/South with Alice, who was sitting in journalism-corner with Rufus and some of their friends, then sat to watch Dean and Jim do their first set, alongside Reuben, Wookie, Leowin, Jimmy and his girlfriend. Michael and Caroline arrived, as did Kim and Jamie. I gave Kim my 2nd (of 2) demo CD-R of the almost-ready Dizzy Tiger compilation, and passed the actual Rufus-mastered CD-R on to Alice to assist with her article. After Dean and Jim had run through some of their songs, they handed over to young Nathan, and I'm afraid to say that his subtle, low-voiced songs got rather drowned-out by our table doing that whole "Do you remember [Insert old children's TV programme here]?" conversation (kicked into life 'cos Danielle had got Dean to pass on to me a couple of Cartoon Network compilation DVDs - Johnny Bravo, Powerpuff Girls etc - which turned out to have been the background to Reuben's childhood, so I gave them to him instead). Rufus took a break from being interviewed (or whatever they were doing) to play some of his songs next, whilst we continued not really to pay attention, by chatting admiringly about Spider Webb from The Horrors' hair (as pictured in their NME album review that Reuben had brought along for Jimmy and his partner). As usual, Dean and Jim finished off the evening with another smart set of Rumiko Jr songs and covers, and the rest of us carried on downing Stella. I guess I got home safely afterwards, but I don't exactly recall. Hopefully next time I write about Le Pattie Cafe, I'll have remembered more about what music was actually played, and less about the peripheral details of cartoons, coloured vinyl and haircuts, but I can't promise.