XTC's Dave Gregory's back, and the man is on fire!!!!

Last night I fulfilled a liftime dream. My band and I performed with Mr Dave Gregory at the Vic in Swindon. For any of you that don't know Dave, shame on you;) Dave is best known as the guitarist with XTC, the band whos music changed my life...literally. Since I was 20 years old the man has been my hero, he was the guitarist I wanted to be. Once you heard his parts and solo's that he contributed to Andy Partridge's songs you could no longer imagine any other possible worthwhile 6 string contributions. The man is a genius. I was playing an XTC song at the Manly Boatshed 7 years ago when a beautiful young woman says to me, I'm from Swindon, where XTC are from. That woman is now my wife and through circumstance we end up living where else but Swindon. Fate intervenes and a few years ago I meet my hero, and as he may well be the only person I've ever met who's passion for the instrument is greater than mine we become mates. On top of his passion is a level of talent that is bewildering. So I invite Dave down to the amp shoot-out we did at the website a few months ago and he sits in with the band. It all just kind of fell into place. I put it to Dave that we do a project...and he says yes!

So after a few weeks of rehearsal, last night we played

Dream Brother - Jeff Buckley
Reelin in the Years - Steeley Dan
Frankenstein - Edgar Winter
Red - King Crimson
Scissor Man - XTC
Towers of London - XTC

It's the start of a new project called 'The Tin Spirits'

For those of you that were there last night, well I don't need to tell you how great the man was, indeed a humbling experience.
I'll be getting some YouTube footage up on the website soon. Thanks to everyone that came down, stay tuned for more!

I saw the jolly fat man in Holland - Popa Chubby!

Tuesday night I popped over to Holland with a mate to go and see the jolly fat man himself Popa Chubby.
As always he sounded fantastic. NYC blues rock with all the subtlety of a jack hammer. The guy really knows how to get a great guitar sound.
I also popped in to see Erik van de Haar from Haar guitars. Wow, what a great shop and an amazing guy. He builds custom guitars from scratch that play beautifaully and sound wonderful. He also has the most amazing amp room I've ever seen. Two-Rock, Matchless, BadCat, Suhr, Top Hat, Bruno, 65Amps, the list goes on and on.

Much joy!