Have Oasis let us all down with their greedy ticket pricing?

 Blimey, that was a lucky escape for my credibility. On Sunday, I nearly wrote a blog extolling the positive power of music and how Oasis reforming would give us all a lift. I got sidelined and decided to write a completely different blog. I am so pleased that the Good Lord intervened and distracted me. I'd look like a right Barclay Hunt this morning.

Yesterday, I was bombarded with emails asking what I thought of Oasis, were the Gallagher brothers gready B*****ds, is surge pricing appropriate to concert tickets. Firstly let me say I didn't even try and get tickets. I'd go if I got them for free, but I don't really like mega gigs and big venues. I loved Oasis first two albums, but it seemed like ever diminishing returns after that and it sounded like they were trying to bake the same cake, with the same ingredients a year after their sell by date.

I initially felt that the Oasis reunion would be good for the UK music scene, possibly reigniting interest in guitar based music. Now it seems they've just put into stark focus the fact that many top level music stars are not only out of touch with their audience, but greedy and lacking in any sort of admirable set of principles. The use of surge pricing for tickets, meaning that you wait two hours and then find out that the ticket is £200 than the £150 pricetag. You have a short period to decide whether you want to pay. It is tantamount to extortion. I feel robbed paying a 'booking fee', let alone a ridiculous surcharge. To me, it is totally against the ethos of rock and roll. I initially justified the reunion, as why shouldn't they. Now I feel they've let us down.

As a musician in a band playing 4th/5th tier venues (recognised pubs and clubs on the circuit) it appalls me. When the False Dots play at the Dublin Castle, for instance, you pay a tenner to see us. There are usually 3/4 other bands on, most of which are brilliant. You can have a beer with us before and after the gig, buy a t shirt for £10-£15 and boogie till three in the morning when we are done. We do it because it's fun. At gigs this year, we've sung Happy Birthday with the audience to a couple of fans, given ourt "No 1 Fan" a present and had an absolute blast. 

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When we played at the East Barnet Festival, there was a crowd of people with special needs having a proper old boogie, right at the front of the stage. It was a joyful sight and for me reminded me why I do it. For us, another joy is writing and performing new material. In our set, 18 of the 23 songs we may play are less than 3 years old and the audience love them. We added a trumpet to our sound last year, there were no howls that the sound had changed. 

So why do the Gallaghers do it? Well first of all, I must note that like most musicians playing our level, it is not our main source of income. Most of us have other jobs. Only tier 1 /2 bands are genuinely minted. Once you start playing stadiums, it is almost impossible to enjoy a gig with the audience. You are ferried around from gig to hotel to gig. A few lucky fans may be brought back to see you. Often these days, they pay for the privelege. Maybe a few stars of a similar level get a prawn sarnie and a beer at an aftershow party. Your crew set up your gear and break it down, whilst you chill out. If you are the headliners, you may or youy may not have a chat with the support bands, depending on your mood, but it is almost unheard of for a headliner to watch the show. Generally you are constrained to play the hits, often songs you wrote decades ago. God help Oasis if they decided to play a reggae track with trumpet in at Wembley. So where is the fun. It is great seeing an adoring audience, but the difficult truth for Liam and Noel is that they only want to hear six or seven tracks. So long as they can join in with the chorus of Wonderwall in the encore, they will go home happy. They both had cracks at doing stuff that's a bit different and the hardcore fans may appreciate a bit of this, but the lot who paid £350 a ticket to take selfies for their mates won't. How many times can you play the same set to an anonymous crowd at a stadium and genuinely enjoy it? They can't freshen the set up because that's not what they are paying a weeks wages for. 

Maybe they feel they have an itch to scratch, maybe they will release a blinding new album and play it, to universal acclaim. Or maybe the real fun will be knowing that, divorces permitting, they will never have to do it again to make ends meet. I don't begrudge them a penny. If they do it properly, hundreds of thousands of people will go home happy. As for me? I'd rather be down at the Dublin Castle for a tenner watching 999 or a Ska band. Here's a little reminder of what it's like to see The False Dots live. It won't cost you £350. We launch our album there from 2pm on Sunday 17th November, with two other amazing bands

There's Eurovision and then there's Rock and Roll!

Being born in the 1960's, I grew up with certian major TV events throughout the year. In Sporting terms, we had the Grand National, The Cup final and the Boat Race. All were massive events in our household. At the time, the Cup final was the only match live on telly, so I loved it. I also loved the Grand National, winning ten bob (which my Dad placed) on Red Alligator in 1968. I can't recall why we loved the Boat Race, but we did. Then there were the 'events'. The ones that spring to mind was Miss World and The Eurovision Song contest. Miss World, in hindsight was a rather strange event. Young ladies on a stage in swimming costumes. They'd have a chat with the compare and express their ambitions, have families, save the world, become doctors, sleep with the Rolling Stones (I made the last one up). 

And then there was the Eurovision song contest. The whole family would watch togethe rand get terribly excited as the votes rolled in. My mum fancied herself as a great spotter of winners and was usually right. I usually favoured the song that came last, apart from the UK's entry. The first one I remember was when Sandy Shaw won with Puppet on a String in 1967. My sister Catherine was a bit of a fan. We were still in the Black and White era. Two years later, Lulu won, with Boom Bang a Bang. It was an awful song, but hey, it was Lulu and we won, so we loved it anyway. The follwing year, 1970, a new decade and much celebrations at ST Vincents School when Dana won for Ireland. All of my mates from Nationalist backgrounds decided this was a clear demonstration of Irish cultural superiority. In 1974, we had, for the first time, a truly global act launched by Eurovision. ABBA won with Waterloo. I thought ABBA were pretty good. It is a stonking song and the band was fronted by two rather attractive young ladies. 

What caused much hilarity with my sisters was that the two blokes looked like the guy on the front cover of "The Joy of Sex" (possibly the first sex manual widely published). I had nicked it and had a look through. I was at Finchley Catholic High School and realised my education had been somewhat lacking. For some reason, there was a myth that the Swedes were highly promiscuous and into all manner of naughtiness. Something I realised was not entirely true when I moved to Sweden to see my girlfriend in 1981. 

The thing about Waterloo was that it was the first non Anglo world song on Eurovision that was vaguely listenable. It had never really occurred to me that Johnny Foreigner, as we liked to think of them at the time, could make decent music. Abba dominated the charts for most of the 1970's. The next and final time I watched Eurovision, was for the Brotherhood of Man's win with Save All Your Kisses for Me. It was the worst of the UK's entries that I can recall. In 1977, I discovered Punk Rock and the concept of watching Eurovision seemed completely alien to me.  I've not really paid much attention to the whole thing since. 

I've never fully understood why the UK didn't put proper bands in. We did try Cliff Richards, with Congratulations in 1968, but he came second. Maybe that scared the likes of The Beatles, Rolling Stones and The Who off. The only time we really tried was with Katrina and The Waves, in 1997, who had previously had a hit in 1995 with Walking on Sunshine. Needless to say, she won. Following Brexit, I started to wonder whether we'd still lose if we resurrected John Lennon and George Harrison and reformed the Beatles to put an entry in. I suspect that if we'd got Paul McCartney to do a song, it would be more Mull of Kintyre/The Frog Chorus than a banger like Jet or Live and Let Die.

Over recent years, The False Dots have considered putting our hat in the ring, for the fun of it. I've come to enjoy doing songs that are a tad more left field than we'd consider in our heyday. I was joking with Fil Ross, our bassplayer, who is Portuguese, that we could do a verse in Portuguese, at least that way we'd get a few votes! Having heard our entries on the radio over the last few years, I think we'd do a decent job. We'd get in a guest singer or two for the gig! There was a time, when even muttering such thoughts would have seen me unceremoniously slung out of the Rock and Roll fraternity, but now we are old and losing our marbles, such things may be joked about. It was suggested that we submit our latest single "We all love a party" as the entry. I am not sure that the Germans and Italians would get the references to the North London party culture of the 1970's though!

The Saturday list #295 - my top ten 1950's songs

 As we approach the 300th Saturday list, I thought I'd prepare a little treat for my readers. I'll be releasing a series of Spotify playlists with a selection of songs from my favourite era's and genres. 

We start at the beginning, with the 50's and rock and roll. I hope you enjoy this playlist

Here are a few notes about each song.

1. We start with Bill Haley and The Comets. Considered by many as the start of the rock and roll era. It seems amazing to think that this song inspired Teddy boys to smash up cinemas in England!

2. We don't really hear enough of Gene Vincent. Everything about this number is perfect rock and roll. I got into Gene Vincent when Ian Dury released Sweet Gene Vincent. If it's good enough for Ian Dury, it's certainly good enough for me. 

3. I always have a problem selecting an Elvis tune and usually choose Hound Dog from his 50's era. It is a song actually written to be sung by a woman about a good for nothing man. It says everything about Presley that he could completely own it. One of my new years resolutions was to listen to more Elvis.

4. As with many rock and roll songs, I was introduced to it by punk! Knox, from the Vibrators used to cover this when he was trying to launch a solo career. I thought it was such a good song that I bought the album it was originally on by Buddy Holly. I bought Knox a pint next time I saw him for opening my eyes.

5. I always took this as an invocation for radio stations to play Rock and Roll rather than classical music, which was just fine by me. We are lucky these days, there are enough stations to play all genre's. I was very tempted to pick Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Berry, as it set me on the road as a guitarist, but I think this is a better song!

6. Johnny Cash is such an important artist. It took me a while to really get him. Many years ago Boz Boorer of the Polecats informed me my Rock and Roll education was incomplete without a Johnny Cash record.  I bought Folsom Jail blues, but didn't really get it on first listen. It sat there for a few years until a friend saw it and asked me to play it. It was a revelation. I think this track is almost perfect in its simplicity.

7. Wanda Jackson is almost completely forgotten. She shouldn't be. I love this track. Picked up a copy in a bargain bin and probably played it 30 times in a row when I got it home. Just a little bonkers.

8. Link Wray is credited by many as inventing the sound we identify as a 50's echo guitar sound. This song was banned for inspiring violence, a rumble being slang for a gang fight. How times change. You will know this, even if you don't know it!

9. Tutti Frutti by Little Richard is a glorious piece of rock and roll silliness. Little Richard is one of the greats that I bitterly regret not seeing. I sort of felt he wasn't 'cool enough' when I was a teenager. What a fool I was. This is a great song to play at the end of the night when DJ'ing a 50's night. 

10. I had to pick a British track. People always think that The Shadows and Apache was the sound of British rock and roll in the 1950's, but it was actually released in June 1960. The British star was skiffle king Lonnie Donegan. Sadly, he's best remembered for 'My old man's a dustman' which is a comedy track. There was so much more to him. Gamblin man is probably my favourite of his hits, although if you ask me tomorrow I might say Rock Island line. I must say that the idea of listening to this, drinking whisky and playing three card brag with my Dad and my Brother is a dream that sadly I will never be able to do again in this life.

Have a great weekend. 

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Many apologies

Yes I know, all work and no play makes Rog T a dull boy. So here, just to brighten up your day are a couple of clips which I rather like, for no other reason than I rather like them. This is my favourite Monty Python clip, not least because I worked for a Hungarian Painter and decorator for a year

Another favourate is the Monty Python "Oscar Wilde" sketch

Next up, in the 1970's, my fave TV show was Gerry Andersons UFO. Here's one reason why (this and my love of Science fiction)

Now if that hasn't done it for you, hows about some rip roarin' rock and roll music - If you don't like MC5, you probably don't like Rock and Roll music


Now if you don't like Comedy, you don't like Sci Fi and you don't like Rock and Roll, I was trying to think what could possibly cheer you up. The only things which came to mind were food or football. This clip combines the best of both. It comes from a famous fixture between my beloved Manchester City and Norwich.


Enjoy and have a great week !!!!! I promise I'll try harder to keep a smile on my face next week

Recognition indeed !!!!!

Just a quick note to say that Dave Hill at the Guardian has added the blog to his role call of top London Bloggers. If any of the readers of this blog, old or new, want to come down and say hello, I'm doing a gig with my band, The False Dots, at the Market Bar, Lock 17, Camden Town (above Jongleuers) tonight. It's free entry and we're on at 10pm (there's a host of other bands on as well). You can listen to a few of the songs to learn the words etc at our myspace - http://www.myspace.com/falsedots - If you want to say "Hi", I'm the tall guitarist who's not Portuguese !

Thanks Dave - Dave's other top bloggers are here