It was a great weekend for gigs, starting off with Mercenary Rock Gods
wowing them in Wallington. Rob's voice was much the worse for wear
since he was suffering badly from a cold, but he bravely soldered on
(as always) with a few medicinal brandies (as always) and even a bit
of vocal support from a member of the audience during U2's Vertigo!
Pars, as always, flawlessly carried the evening and impressed a few
more new fans.

Saturday night brought an early start at the troubled Red Lion in
Twickenham. ...troubled as per the following sad little missive which
had arrived in my inbox the day before: "Due to being served with 28
days notice of being shut down by the environmental health dept unless
we dramatically improve sound levels, we have to stipulate that all
bands have soundchecked by 8pm, are on by 9pm and off by 11pm at latest."

For this reason, Cry Wolf made an early start at reduced volume, but
treated us to their usual polished performance, including the latest
entry to their set list, Give Me All Your Lovin'. More new songs are
promised VERY shortly, and I'm looking forward to hearing some old
favourites again as well! It was awful having to finish on the dot of
11pm, but that's the way it seems to be going everywhere. Let's hope
that the pub avoids being closed down as a venue... I couldn't stand
it. Certainly they went on to oppomistically book Cry Wolf right out
until December, so we'll keep our fingers crossed on that one.

Sunday was pretty low key, or at least it started out that way, with
just a bit of a mooch with friends in the afternoon at the very same
venue as the night before. Yes, it was the traditional Sunday jam at
The Red Lion, and delivered into my hands was an advance copy of the
live Strapps CD due to hit the shops next week, with a splendid job as
always having been done by Angel Air. Delivered into my ear was
something even more delicious, a rumoured appearance by a rather
well-known bass player that very evening at another local venue!

It was therefore off home for a quick munch and then straight on up to
The Globe on Brentford, for an early start, where the Lee Ryder Band
was performing, featuring Roger Brewer on drums and Simon Bishop on
guitar. The guys were certainly firing on all cylinders, and with so
many guests we had at times up to 7 people on that (tiny) stage at
once, two members even sitting in the audience as they played.
Delivering their own extended versions of blues-rock classics, the
highlight for me was probably the most glorious version of Little Wing
I've ever heard - with no less than three guitarists.

And then a very familiar figure was called up onto the stage to take
up the bass - Roger Glover from Deep Purple. I was grinning all over
my face, and everybody who HADN'T been pre-warned was utterly stunned
- and delighted. Somehow the band shifted up another notch again, it
was marvelous.

Afterwards it was great to have a chat with the band, and Roger, and
revel in the fact that only in England could you rub shoulders in a
small pub in Brentford with a perfectly down-to-earth, unassuming guy
who just happens to be part of one of the hugest bands in the world.

For Simon, it's the second of the Deep Purple bass players he's played
with, as he's alongside Nick Simper in the Good Ol' Boys, and he was
awfully chuffed when I pointed it out to him. What a sweetheart!

What a weekend...! And I have another one coming up very shortly, with
the annual Blackfoot Sue reunion coming up!

No rest for the wicked - and I wouldn't have it any other way. :-)

Carol