Sunday, 31 December 2017

My Musical Picks for 2017

2017 has been a rather fine year for me as a musician, a festival and gig organiser and a punter. I'll be seeing it out in style with Boz and Lyn Boorer at The Alliance in Mill Lane, West Hampstead later. Sister Suzie and Shout Sister Shout will be appearing. It's free and it will be a hoot. We saw tthe new year in with Lee Thompson and The Silencerz at The Dublin Castle A truly great way to kick off the proceedings. (I couldn't find a clip from the gig, but this will do!).



Start as you mean to go on! Another fantastic night was The Vibrators 1978 line up reunion at The Hope and Anchor. Billed as an acoustic set, it was anything but. For me it was a magical night!

Image result for gary tibbs adam and the ants
Gary Tibbs!
Garry Tibbs on Bass has changed a bit since his days in Adam and The Ants in the late 1970's! Having said that, he can still play the bass pretty well, Tibbs also featured in Roxy Music. John Ellis on guitar has played with luminaries such as Peter Gabriel, as well as other punk outfits such as the Stranglers. He is an Orange Hill School old boy, but not of my vintage. He was my Stats A Level teacher Dave Harman, who came back to teach, best mate. I was surprised when Dave approached me one day back in 1978, having spotted my V badge. Dave said "So you like the Vibrators?". I was expecting admonishment, and to my surprise he announced "Pat and John went to the school, they are good mates of mine". I realised I'd made the right move, switching from FCHS.


Another real highlight was The Specials and Toots and The Maytells at Hatfield




Also in May, we had The North Finchley Festival. A fantastic celebration of music!

I could have chosen any number of clips, but the Apricot Hounds were a band that stood out. I was doing the sound for this, which was fun


We also had some great music in Mill Hill for the MHMF and at The Jesterfest in West Hampstead. In the autumn, I saw someone I've wanted to see for decades, the incomparable Ben Sidran at Ronnie Scotts. Ben describes himself as the first existensialist Jewish Jazz Rapper, but he is so much more.


On the Jazz front, Scott Hamilton was pretty damn good at the London Jazz festival in the autumn.

On the more punky front, 999 were excellent at The Dublin castle



We rounded the year off with a pretty fine bash at The Chandos Arms for the Barnet Eye Awards Ceremony, with my band the False Dots playing an acousitc and an electric set! Here's a few of the numbers from the Acousitc set


All in all a pretty good year!

Here's a few other tweeted highligfhts from shows of pretty cool gigs






Have a great new year!



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