2024 Roundup - My year making music with The False Dots - A classic!

We are reaching that time of year, where we look back on what has happened in the last twelve months.

Before I start, there's something I want to get off my chest. In 1990, the band stopped. I had decided that at the age of 28, I was 'past it' and I was done with music. This was a frustration born of the fact that no one wanted to book a band playing funky, punky ska music. No labels were at all interested in our recordings. I never thought I'd pick up a guitar again. I was done. In around 2000, Fil Ross and Tony Caveye persuaded me to have a jam. I recruited our old bassplayer Paul Hircombe and then decided to record some of the bands old numbers for posterity and our own enjoyment. We then did a gig at The Red Lion in 2002, a benefit for the family of our mate Ernie Ferebee, and I realised how much I loved being in a band.

Fast forward to today. I'm now 62. The band is doing more gigs than ever. We've released videos and an album this year. I have come to realised that I made a massive mistake in 1990. I needed a break from the band then, but it doesn't matter what age you are, if you have a passion for music, you should be making it. If you enjoy it and other  people enjoy it, stick at it. In the last three years, I've been taking on the vocal duties. I stopped singing with the band in 1982 as I convinced myself I was no good. I am not a great singer, but what I've learned is I can write songs that suits my delivery. Never let anyone convince you that you are 'not up to it'. Be different and unique and you'll get there. The False Dots will never be up there with The Beatles or The Rolling Stones in terms of sales or recognition, but we plough our own furrow and we have a blast and if you can do that in life, what more do you want really? Anyway enough of that!

 I thought I'd start with a little look back at the my year with my band. It has been a brilliant year for us. At the start of the year, I told the boys that my target was to do at least twelve gigs, That was our record number in 1983 ( I actually miscounted, we did 13 that year!). Anyway we smashed it and did fifteen, 

The number is the sequence number ( being our first gig in 1980)

104 -3rd February, The Dublin Castle, Camden Town (The False Dots 45th Birthday Party) 

105 - 23rd March, The Beehive, Bow ** Without Tom 

106 - 13th April, The Bull Theatre, Barnet (supporting The Silencerz)

107 - 26th April, The Dublin Castle, Camden Town (supporting Skaface) 

108 - 17th May, Mill Hill Music Complex Studios 

109 - 30th May, The Horn of Plenty, St Albans 

110 - 16th June, The Dublin Castle, Camden Town. 

111 - 22nd June, The Dublin Castle (Charly Records 50th Birthday Party) Without Tom 

112 - 29th June East Barnet Festival (main band The Alan Warner Band) with Tom 

113 - 6th July, Jesterfest, Fortune Green 

114 - 4th September, Mill Hill Music Complex Studios ** Without Tom 

115 - 12th October, Mill Hill Complex Studios 

116 -17th November, The Dublin Castle (Afternoon gig)- Official Album Launch with The Nice Men and Whelligan 

117 - 6th December - London Talent Week - Fabwick (recording live music video)

118 - 13th December - Our big Xmas Gig at The Dublin Castle - Supporting Radical Dance Faction

Quite a decent list there. In April we released our single and video, We all love a party. We filmed it at the studios and had an authentic 1970's party with mushroom vol-au-vonts and cheese and pineapple hedgehogs!  Director Max Sarychkin did a wonderful job on the production. It was a blast and was bvery successful, getting nearly 5,000 views this year. It's a new number and it has become a favourite. Everyone joins in the chorus. 

The band then set about finalising our album, A finger in the Sun, writing new songs and generally having a lot of fun. Many thanks to Tony Gleed and The Dublin Castle for all the love they've shown us. Giving us six gigs this year has been a real blast. He's been really great, not only giving us great headline shows, but he's put us on with some spiffing main bands, which we've really enjoyed supporting, including Radical Dance Faction, who were amazing and Blackpool skankers Skaface.

We finally decided on releasing the album in November. at the Dublin Castle (where else). It was a brilliant day. The abum has done really well for a band of our level with nearly 2,500 streams so far on Spotify and going up all the time!

The band are really proud of the album. The songs date from our entire history. Not all She Seems was written in 1980, Action Shock 1982, We all love a party in 2023, Long Shot didn't die in 2019 and all of the rest between 2021 and 2022. 

We have already started on our new album, provisionally entitled "Groovetown", which will have a few echo's of Northern Soul thrown into the mix. We decided that the 'Finger' album would contain songs written before Tom Hammond, our trumpeter, joined the band. Groovetown will feature songs written with Tom.

As we also love to do, we finished the year with an Xmas show on Friday. We then released our new single, Don't be scared of a finger up the bum. It is a song I wrote to raise prostate cancer awareness. Too many men die of the disease. I deliberately decided to make it as provocative, but also as fun as I could. I realised that the title would mean no airplay, but my hopes were that it would go viral and be picked up in different ways. If I reach one man who gets an early diagnosis through the video, it will be worth it. It might save a life or two. The song is another favourite at gigs. 

The only real problem with a year like 2024 for the False Dots is how to follow it in 2025, we have our first gig booked. Our annual birthday show at The Dublin Castle on Feb 16th at 2pm. It's a matinee show, so you can all go home and be fresh as a daisy for Monday morning!

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