Friday Fun and local gig round up - Friday 7th November 2025

I'll start with a special advanced warning! I'll be on Rock Radio UK on Tuesday between 5-7pm on teh Griff Griffiths show. This will be a very special show, as it is Remembrance day. I'll be chatting about some of my Dad's wartime experiences, reading extracts from his diary and also playing some appropriate music for the day. Joining Griff & I will be Ian's Dad John and his Girfriend Michele (with one "L") Dad Chas. Both served in the forces in the 1950's and are now in their 90s! It will be a great show, no doubt

Listen online at www.rockradiouk.com/ between 5-7pm.

And on to the Friday joke, once more from our Twitter mate Robert Wilkinson. A great Dad joke (his Dad joke books are great stocking fillers for Xmas!

In a freak accident today, a photographer was killed when a giant slab of cheddar hit him.

To be fair, the people he was photographing did try to warn him.

— Robert Wilkinson (@robertwlk) November 4, 2025

And on to the local gig round up (join the Barnet Music Facebook page for regular updates)

Friday 7th

Butchers Arms 9pm – midnight Vinyl Countdown (rock and pop covers)

Kings Head 9pm – 11.15pm Mark Warner in Full Swing (Swing)

EB RB Legion 8pm – late Karaoke with Caz

Barrington 8.30pm – midnight Karaoke with Johno

Saturday 8th

EB RB Legion 8.30pm – late

Short Notice

Butchers Arms 9pm – midnight Alan Linfoot Band (rock covers & original)

Toolans 9pm – late Damien De Bonte

Ye Olde Monken Holt 9.30pm – 11.30pm Nially (Acoustic)

East Barnet CIU Club 8pm til lateTickets £15 Ultimate Madness

Maddens 9.30pm – midnight Odyssey Blues & soul band (Soul, blues, jazz)

Sunday 9th

Kings Head 3pm – 5pm Mark Warner (Swing solo artist)

Ye Olde Monken Holt 7pm - 9pm Lana Shelley + Paul White (Covers)

Butchers 8.30 – 11.30pm Butchers Arms Jam Electric/Blues/Rock (Full backline available) 

Toolans 8.30 Barry Owen 

The Cellar Bar @ The Bohemia £10 Simon Spillett Quartet 7pm – 10pm

Monday 10th

Ye Olde Mitre Inn, High Street 8pm – 11pm (stables room) Barnet Acoustics Session

Tuesday 11th

Builders Arms 8-11pm Jamboree Jam

Wednesday 12th

Toolans 5pm-8pm The Brad

Ye Olde Monken Holt 8.30 – 11pm Open Mic Night

Thursday 13th

Ye Olde Monken Holt 8.30 – 10.30pm Irish Session

Have a great weekend

Breathtaking dishonesty and hypocrisy from Barnet Labour over Church Farmhouse Museum

 My attention was drawn to an article in the Evening Standard, stating that Barnet's Labour council are auction off the building that used to house Church Farmhouse Musuem. I immediately sent this email to several senior Barnet Labour councillors.

From: roger tichborne  

To: cllr.b.rawlings@barnet.gov.uk; cllr.a.clarke@barnet.gov.uk; cllr.a.schneiderman@barnet.gov.uk 

Sent: Tuesday, October 28th 2025, 14:35 

Subject: Church Farmhouse Museum
 

Dear Senior Labour Councillors,

In 2014 Andrew Dismore said the following when the Barnet Tories closed Church Farmhouse Museum 

“This is the inevitable consequence of the Conservative Council’s closure of the museum, and after over 3 years, their inability to find someone to take it on. Their so-called negotiations with Middlesex University are going nowhere, as it is clear they are not really interested in taking over this historic listed building because  its uses are so limited. An empty unused building like this is an open invitation  for thieves. The Council has been and is spending thousands on security at the former Museum, for little  good it does;  and Boris Johnson’s cuts in the police service haven’t helped either.The Council should be ashamed of themselves. they will have to replace the missing flags at no doubt considerable expense to the council taxpayers of Barnet, but it is difficult to see  how new stones will be able to replicate the appearance of the stolen old ones. Conservative Barnet could not care less about our Borough’s history and historic buildings”. 

https://barneteye.blogspot.com/2014/05/church-farmhouse-museum-national.html

I note that the Labour Adminstration is planning to sell it by auction. Do we now conclude that Labour are as bad as the Tories. I find it heartbreaking that the Labour Party is seemingly just as bad as the party I worked so hard to get kicked out. Before I launch a campaign on my blog to shame your adminstration, I am writing privately asking you to reconsider. I would appreciate a response. This is an important community asset. Dismore was right in 2014. 

I have cc'd Gerrard Roots, former curator. A staunch Labour supporter, who is deeply upset with the turn of events. I have also copied local author and historian Mark Amies. Both are taking a keen interest in this matter.

Regards

Roger Tichborne

It may, or may not surprise you to learn that none of the listed councillors could be bothered responding. Out of fairness, I have given them a week to reply. I had private messages of support from both of the other people mentioned. I have arranged to meet with former curator, Gerrard Roots to discuss further. A video showing the appalling state of the building and detailing the history is being compiled. On the day the Barnet Tories closed the building, I made this video with Gerard.

At the time, Barnet Labour promised that they "would be different and would respect the heritage of Barnet". These words were completely hollow. I believe the auction is being held later in November. Our Labour Council still has time to reconsider (although I doubt they care at all).

Former Labour Assembly member Andrew Dismore's criticism of the Barnet Tories does sound rather hypocritical and dishonest now, doesn't it? There is still time for Barnet Labour to change their mind, but the fact they can't even be bothered to respond to emails is not encouraging, is it?

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Terrorist attacks - Is it really possible to stop it in an open democracy?

 I really can't remember how many times in my life, I've watched the news and seen stories of terrorist outrages. Whist, at the time of writing, it is not clear what inspired the train knifeman to go on the rampage, regardless of what his motivation, the effect is pretty much the same. People are worried.

In a country such as the UK, where we are not a police state, the difficult question is whether there is actually any answer to the issue of random terror attacks. It is a matter of public record that it is almost unknown for attacks to be perpetrated by people who are not on the Police radar in some form. When we catch terrorists, we don't summarily execute them, or string them up with piano wire, as happened in Germany under Adolf Hitler. They normally go through a legal process and generally get sentences, that often with remission, most of us think are far too short.

Whenever there is an outrage, there are calls for all manner of measures, such as the re-introduction of Capital punishment, and all manner of impossible to implement security measures. On several occasions in London, I missed being blown up by minutes. I was on the number 30 behind the one blown up on Russel Street. I walked across the concourse of Victoria station about two minutes before the IRA detonated a bomb there (which nearly killed a friend of mine), I was supposed to be having a beer with a mate in Borough Market on the night that was attacked, but he had the flu.

It is odd that it the people I know who are most spooked by these attacks, were not the ones who work in the areas attacked. I saw someone suggesting that all stations should have 'knife arches' at all stations. There are over 2,500 train stations in the UK. To have knife arches at all of these would cost hundreds of millions of pounds, as they would need to be manned. If you only have them at busy stations, terrorists will simply find less busy ones. Even if you did, they'd then target schools, churches or God knows what else. I am not sure Capital punishment is a deterrent to a Jihadi terrorist, who wants to lose their life or a person who has severe mental illness and is not thinking straight. It may make a few of us happy to see someone hanging for such crimes, but it's use as a deterrent is, to my mind, limited.

Ultimately the best way an open democracy can deal with terrorism is to just get on and do what we always do. The chances of getting attacked by a mad knifeman are tiny. There are 24,000 trains a day running in the UK. if you are going to die travelling in the UK, you are far more likely to die on the roads. The bottom line is that we can't prevent attacks, but we can make it clear to the perpetrators that they are pointless, as they will change nothing. 

The Sunday Reflection #66 - Never think that nobody cares

About once every two or three months, I have days where my mood is very dark. I don't want to be around people, I don't want to watch TV, listen to the radio, music or do anything at all. Sometimes the mood will last an hour or two, sometimes a day, sometimes a week. I've never been able to figure out what triggers this. It is not when I am stressed, under a deadline or unhappy with life. Often it used to strike when I was on holiday with the family. I'd just lie in bed and do nothing, whilst they went about their business. My wife would berate me for being lazy, but I'd just lie there and feel miserable. Often I'd just sleep. If I was forced to engage, I'd be poor company. It was especially difficult when I used to work in an office and be professional towards other people. I always managed to hold it together, but I would make myself as unavailable as I possibly could until the mood passed.

One of the reasons I am such a prolific blogger is because I find it helps lift these moods, as well as stopping me drift into negative thinking cycles. However, I have come to realise that all of the worst life decisions I've made have been made in such moods. It is like there is a little part of me, that is locked deep away in my psyche, that every so often gets out and screws things up. 

Yesterday I posted a blog about some of the incidents at gigs I've played at. I posted this to Facebook with a link. I had the following comment.

That's a great blog post, Roger!! Sounds like you've had some pretty wild times. Gigging was so different back then - there seemed to be more venues - pubs and clubs, etc - at least in the nineties. Why did you stop gigging after 1990? 

I posted the following reply

Frustration with the music industry. We did a really good demo with Tony Robotham on vocals. I played it to a number of people in the music industry with a view to getting a few gigs and a deal. It was the height of pay to play and the venues wanted us to pay them to play. The people I knew at labels all said that it was not the sort of stuff people were listening to. I have a cassette of it and listened to it recently and it confirmed my view that they were idiots., but I just got so frustrated. If you are making music you know is good and the gatekeepers are not interested, it is the most frustrating thing in the world and I simply had enough of it

That wasn't the whole story though. At the time I made the decision, I was going through a particularly long and dark patch. Engaging with other people in the band was simply too difficult and I was expending too much energy. It was a bad decision and rather stupid in hindsight. The worst thing is that I actually developed a huge aversion to the idea of playing music at all. This lasted for more or less all of the 1990's. I managed a band, so I ended up dealing with all of the aspects of the industry I disliked and had none of the fun of playing.

I finished more than one perfectly good relationship as a result of dark moods and the desire to be on my own. In all cases, I regretted these decisions almost immediately, but was too proud or stubborn to try and do anything about it. One of the aspects of such moods is I convince myself no one likes me, no one would miss me if I wasn't here and everyone would be happier if I wasn't around. It is actually ridiculous, I have a wife, children, brother, sisters and great friends. But there is a big red switch in my brain that says "Do not press", that some demon part of my personality presses occasionally and the darkness descends. When I am in one of these moods, I can't explain my feelings, as I don't want to engage, and when it passes, I know it was ridiculous. When I had to work in an office with people, I'd have to pretend to be OK, which just made the whole thing worse. I'd get home and go straight to bed and just sleep. Occasionally, I'd have tickets for gigs, sometimes of bands I loved. Even this would be a horrific chore, although oddly, if the band were great, I would appreciate that they were great. It was just like I wasn't actually there.

So why am I writing this? Well I am a robust person and I have developed strategies for dealing with this. There are certain things that I know will help the darkness pass more quickly. I am a rational person and an engineer by trade, so I am always looking for a fix, even when my mind is not working properly. I have learned that the way to get through it is to not fight the mood, just to let it subside. As I said, sleeping and relaxing in peace is a good way. It will often pass as quickly as it descended. But I was talking to someone in the week, who was telling me they were really struggling. I realised that they were in a similar state of mind and they were doing everything they could to fight it. That was why they were in the studio, doing solo drum practice. The problem is when you are in that state of mind, you notice your mistakes and it just makes you worse. We got chatting and they explained that things really weren't working out at all. I said "I go through periods like that, I find that the best thing I can do is just try and chill". He explained "If I don't stay busy I just get really self destructive thoughts and it is worse". I do recognise this frame of mind. I asked "How long have you been feeling like this?" They said "A few weeks now, it is getting worse". At that moment, their phone rang and they wandered off. 

It troubled me. I was thinking about all of this and I realised that one aspect of my anxieties has massively dissipated. Since I had my brush with cancer, I realised people actually like me and care about me. When I have that dark voice in my head, when it tells me no one cares, I know it is nonsense. There are almost no benefits to having cancer, but that really is a big one. My dark periods dissipate far more quickly, because I have learned to appreciate life and the people I love. I have no idea if the person I was chatting to reads my blog, but if they do, although I don't really know them, I want them to know that I empathise and I hope they know people do care. 

Tonight, my band plays the Dublin Castle from 8pm. Come down if you can. I love playing but even more, I love seeing my friends who come along. Never think no one cares about you. It can seem like it but it is simply not true. I try and make sure that I support my friends when they are struggling. They certainly supported me. 

The Saturday List #364 - My top ten weird and wacky memories of False Dots gigs

 Over the years, The False Dots have done rather a lot of gigs, we get asked back quite a lot and many memories merge into one, but there are all manner of weird and wacky things that stand out. Most bands rehearse a set, go and play it and then go home or off to a party. It is more or less the same every time for the band. But for The False Dots, we are addicted to chaos. We've always tried to put the cat amongst the pigeons and we are pretty interactive with our audience, so things can get a little bit 'interesting'. In amongst the blur of memories, some stand out. In anticipation of our gig at The Dublin Castle tomorrow night, I have picked my top ten memories of gigs (You can see the full list of all our gigs here). 

1. 31st January 1980 - Harwood Hall, Mill Hill. Our first gig. We put it on ourselves. All of my mates from Orange Hill School, where I was a pupil turned up, including my mates The Polecats. Half of Moat Mount also turned up, as our bassplayer Paul Hircombe was still at school there. It was packed and we wanted to impress our mates. We'd been rehearsing for nearly two years. 

And then our lead singer didn't turn up. We had a quick chat and decided that we'd divvy up the songs and Craig the other guitarist and I would sing half each. As our singer had left and rejoined, it was not quite as difficult as it might have been, but we'd not rehearsed the set like this so it was very daunting.

We were all panicking, but we decided that we'd go ahead anyway. There were two other bands on with us. As we were getting ready to perform, in a state of near panic, to my horror, a reporter from the local paper turned up with a photographer. The journalist was Kevin Black, who went on to be a semi legendary music journalist. He was joined by Pete the photographer. I'd asked them down, but never dreamed they'd come. Here they were, in amongst the chaos. They gave us a great write up and Kevin was always a big supporter. We didn't mention about our singer. It actually all went rather well, but I will never forget the horror of when they turned up. 

2. 3rd April 1981 - The Midland Arms, Hendon. This was our first 'big gig'. We were supporting a band called Way of The West, who had a new single out. It was Radio 1 single of the week. We'd done a couple since the gig mentioned above and were a much better unit. The gig was being promoted by Rob Armstrong of Tape Copying Services, a top banana. We brought a big crowd. A bunch of local skinheads turned up and seemed intent on causing trouble and heckling. I've never been a shrinking violet and so I met this head on. When we started playing, they all started doing silly dances, but rather than getting upset, I started egging them on. When we played the Heartbreakers song "I wanna be loved", I got a couple of them up on stage to do the "Ooh Ooh Ooh" bit. By the end of the show, they were our top fans. There was a cassette recording and they actually sang pretty good. Stupid dancing became a bit of a thing from then on. These days people do a conga at the end!

3. 18th July 1981 - Harwood Hall, Mill Hill. This was the worst gig we ever did. Everything went wrong. Our other guitarist Craig had left and been replaced by a looney called Captain Ubungus, who didn't bother to learn the songs. It was very ropey. A bunch of herberts from Burnt Oak turned up. Half way through our song Fog, one walked up to me and spat in my face. I reacted badly. I unstrapped my guitar and hit him over the head with it, knocking him out. It had the desired effect. They were a cowardly bunch and retaliated by letting off a fire extinguisher in the toilet, earning us a ban. After the gig, about five of them tried to ambush me as I waited for my Dad to come and collect the gear. As the trouble was about to start, my Dad turned up with a wheel brace. Seeing a giant Aussie nutter screaming at them made them lose their bottle and they ran away. 

4. 18th January 1982, Pub Bastun, Aland, Finland. This gig was in the middle of our tour. Aland is an Island in the middle of the Baltic and was a duty free party haven. We were the first UK band to play there. The pub was a local music hangout. We had to play three sets. It was absolutely wild, probably the best gig we did in our first three years. We had a light show. To have enough songs, we played a few covers, including Space Cowboy by The Steve Miller Band. At the end, Mark used to do a Drum solo. We all jumped up on tables for this. The lights were cut and the light guy put a strobe on. The punters followed suit and every table had punters having a boogie as the strobe blinked. It was bonkers. As I surveyed the scene, I wondered if life would ever be as good again. After the gig, all of the punters said they'd never seen anything like it. 

5. 27th August 1982, Bell Motor Cycle Club Rally, Elstree. The band had been in a bit of a hiatus. Our bassist Paul had decided to move to France. We had a booking for Bell MCC's rally. I rang Tony, who booked us, to cancel. He told us that the other bands had pulled out and asked if we could do something. So I spoke to Craig, and we agreed that I'd move onto bass and we'd learn some covers. We had to do two sets. I was a tad apprehensive, to say the least. We were not a heavy rock band and we were playing to 300 or so bikers. One of the songs was Sweet Jane by The Velvet Underground. When we started playing it, a massive Hells Angel at the back started to stare at me. He slowly walked from the back of the tent towards me. I though he was going to murder me. When he drew level, he pulled the large joint he was smoking out of his mouth and stuck it in mine! I didn't miss a note. The last song we did was Space Cowboy. All of the bikers started doing a mad dance, which we called The Mork Dance. A few of our friends came down and that became part of the set for a while, we even had two dancers to cheerlead! After we played, I had a chat with the biker. Turns out it was his favourite song. His wife had died of cancer and her name was Jane. He was a lovely bloke. Don't be deceived by appearances.

6. 28th January 1983, The Copper, Tower Bridge Road. Our roadie Derm had asked if he could perform a number with us. Derm was a big, good looking charismatic guy. He had decided, for reasons I can't recall, that he wanted to do a "Country and western rap song" called "The Dukes of Hazard Rap. We worked out a basic country chord progression and beat. Our then singer, Eleanor Caine was horrified when we told her that we were doing it as the encore. As we relied on Derms goodwill to drive us around, I explained it was non negotiable. The gig was pretty unremarkable until the point where Derm got up. Eleanor stood at the side, staring daggers at me. Derm came up, did his rap and then started getting everyone to do a line dance. It was completely bonkers. The pub guvernor told us he'd double our money if we did country and western music and line dancing for the next gig. We should have, but it was a one off.

7. 19th May 1990, St Josephs College, Mill Hill. This was the last gig we did in the 20th century. We had an amazing singer called Tony Robotham. I actually think the set was the best we had in that period. Tony could make anything sound great. The problem was the sort of music we were playing was out of fashion, so it was almost impossible to get gigs. However we were asked to play at St Josephs College. Even better, there was a real life Princess there. She was the Princess of Tonga and was a large black lady. To our amazement, when we started grooving, she jumped up and started dancing and didn't stop until we'd finished. The other band on with us were a rock band. She didn't get up at all when they played. She asked if we could do some more songs, as she was having a great time. As the other band had got us the gig, it was a bit delicate!

8. 27th July 2011, Mill Hill Music Festival, Mill Hill Sports Club. The False Dots always hosted an indie night as part of the festival. We had the amazing Connie Abbe on vocals. A bunch of my muso mates were present. When we finished, there was a demand for another song. We didn't have one, so we just started jamming on a blues riff. Paul Amsterdam jumped up with his sax and started blowing. I wanted a beer and I'd spied Bob Stout, a brilliant guitarist in the audience. I had a wireless rig, so I jumped off the stage and gave him my guitar. Connie was rapping and doing scat singing over it. The band was brilliant. I got my beer, then jumped up, grabbed a tambourine and we jammed for another ten minutes. I have this memory of listening to them jamming from the bar, and thinking "what a great band".

9. 15th September 2023, The Dublin Castle, Camden. This was the first gig we played with Tom Hammond on trumpet. Initially Tom only played on about half the songs. He came to a few rehearsals and fitted in. However one thing I've learned is that there is a big difference between sounding OK at rehearsals and being good live. At the time, we always used to start with our reggae/dub number Wacky Races. We started playing and from the second Tom blew his first note, I knew that the band was a million times better. We've not looked back, But that moment, and seeing the reaction of the audience was priceless.

10. 22nd June 2024, The Dublin Castle, Camden.  We were supporting punk legends, The Bollock Brothers (feat Jock McDonald RIP). Tom couldn't make it, but we were doing a punky set. I think it was the moment we realised just how important Tom had become to our sound. It wasn't as good. But as a band, we always give it 100%. On the last number, Fil Ross, our bassist threw his bass guitar up in the air. To everyone's horror, he missed the catch and the neck of the bass snapped. It is an expensive Ibanez five string bass, so it was a shocking moment. Luckily, Fil is also a good guitar tech and he managed to glue it back on. But it was a horrific moment. 

If you want to see the band, please come tomorrow to the Dublin Castle.

Friday Fun 31th October 2025 + local gig round up

It's Friday. What a week its been. We are down a Prince. Donald Trump has stopped another war. Hadley FC  won a great game of football at Hertford. I had a wonderful rehearsal with my band mates in The False Dots. We had a council by election is Hendon. Each to their own, it is probably the first time I've ever been pleased that the Tories won. I know the candidate, who is a decent enough bloke. Anyway, enough of that, here is the Friday joke

The other day I ran into a friend I hadn’t seen in years.

It got really awkward when we had to exchange insurance details.

— Robert Wilkinson (@robertwlk) October 28, 2025

And on to the local music round up. As all regular readers will know, my band, The False Dots have a gig this Sunday. It will be rather special, read yesterdays blog if you want to know why. We are playing at 8pm at the Dublin Castle in Camden, with the two best bands to come out of Merseyside this century!

Get your advanced tickets here - The Double Nines, The False Dots, Whelligan

And on to the rest of the local gigs in Barnet. Full details at the Barnet Music Facebook page

Friday 31st

Butchers Arms 9pm - midnight Xspired (60s, 70s, 80s and 90s covers)

Barrington 8.30pm – midnight Karaoke with Johno

Ye Olde Monken Holt 9pm – midnight DJ Sadie

East Barnet CIU Club 8pm til late Halloween Disco

 Saturday 1st

EB RB Legion 9pm – late AWOL

Ye Olde Mitre Inn, High Street 8pm – 11pm Marys Exit

Butchers Arms 9pm – 11.30pm The Beatin Hearts (Covers)

Builders Arms 8-11pm Tim Leffman

Toolans 8.30 Beyond Retro (Rock & Roll) 

Lord Kitchener 8.30pm – late Karaoke with Johnno

The Arkley Club .8.30pm – 11pm £5 cash

Peace & Love Ska and Reggae Band (Reggae Dancehall / Ska)

The Catcher In The Rye 8.30pm – 11pm Blue North (Covers)

Queens Arms 8pm – midnight Rangoon (soulful rock and blues)

Maddens 8pm – 11.30pm Cruisin Mooses (Blues/rock/soul 4 piece) 

The Cavalier 8pm – late DJ Reecie (funk soul disco)

Sunday 2nd

Ye Olde Monken Holt 7pm - 9pm Ben Rocca and Eliz Baya (Covers various)

Butchers 8.30 – 11.30pm Butchers Arms Jam Electric/Blues/Rock (Full backline available)

Monday 3rd

Ye Olde Mitre Inn, High Street 8pm – 11pm (stables room) Barnet Acoustics Session

Tuesday 4th

The Lord Nelson 7.30- Open Mic Night

Wednesday 5th

Ye Olde Monken Holt 8.30 – 11pm

Open Mic Night

Thursday 6th

Ye Olde Monken Holt 8.30 – 10.30pm Irish Session

Maddens 8.30pm – 11pm Ronnie Gordon Legacy (ska, reggae, blue, soul, latin)

Rock and Roll Stories #49 - Who wants to be a millionaire?

So here we are, three days before the next chapter in the five decade story of False Dots gigs. This Sunday, the band plays the latest in our series of gigs at The Dublin Castle. We have a little bit of history with the venue, I think it is fair to say that it is our favourite venue. They seem to like us too! We are playing with two cracking bands, Whelligan and The Double Nines. Come down if you can, it will be an amazing night. 

As we were rehearsing, on Monday, my mind drifted back to our first gig, back in December 1980. We passionately believed it was only a matter of time before we got signed and all became millionaires. Well, that was what I thought. Our then singer didn't, he never turned up! That put a bit of a spanner in the works. From the first moment of our first rehearsal back in February 1979, I knew that whatever I did or didn't do in my life, being in a band would be a big part of it. In the early days, it never occurred to me that we might not get signed and might not make it big. We always attracted an audience and they always seemed to enjoy themselves. We nearly always got asked back to venues by promoters. It seemed that we were always just one step away from 'the big break'. 

The band had all manner of offers, mostly from dodgy middlemen, who told us they'd make us millions. We wasted so much time listening to these chancers and missed so many real opportunities as they lead us down blind alleys. I can recall the moment when the penny dropped and I realised that it was all pie in the sky. Back in 1984, we had a brilliant band and we acquired a manager. We were promised a deal with EMI records. Then he stopped answering calls. Eventually I collared him and he told me that it wasn't happening. It was clear to me that if we couldn't succeed with that line up, we were never going to 'make it'. In truth, it was a liberation. I took six months out, did a song writing course, practised like mad on the guitar and then put a new line up of the band together. It was the first time since our first gig, that we were making music that we wanted to make, rather than working toward some goal, to impress some mythical A&R man, who would make us rich. I felt that with the musicians we had in the band, it had been imperative to have that dream. I realised that it wasn't what I wanted. What I wanted to do was to make music I liked and have the belief that other people might like it as well.

After my hiatus, when we unleashed the new sound on the public, it was clear to me that we were a very niche band. Some people loved it, some people hated it. No one said "Oh, its OK". Just as I felt we were getting somewhere, it all went wrong. Oddly, this was because we actually had a whiff of success. Our then new singer couldn't commit to the band in the way that we would need. It was so disheartening. We had an independent label that got what we were doing, and we had to walk away. C'est La vie! Although the label were small and low profile, they did offer us a roadmap to making a living. They explained that they loved 'Marmite bands'. If a band gets strong reactions, those who like it buy the records and buy the ethos. When a band is 'sort of ok' and everyone taps their toes but aren't moved, then no one buys the records. They wanted us to do some European gigs and a few recordings. When I mentioned this to the singer, he told me that it wasn't really feasible for him at that time. I think that was the moment the fire went out on the pipedream.

By then, I was 25. Things had moved on. Musical tastes and what was cool in music had moved on. The 1977 crop of punk and the 1979 Ska bands were no longer in fashion. The bands I liked, who had been playing big venues, had either split up or were playing to 50 people. It is really hard motivating yourself to play music, when no one will book you and no one comes along. 

But, the story didn't stop there. Like a phoenix the band rose from the ashes of crushed dreams. We were no longer chasing the dream or the bucks. We just started having a bit of a craic! The band morphed, morphed and then morphed again. Then in 2022, Tom Hammond joined us on trumpet and it all just fell into place. Sadly it was 40 years too late to make us millionaires, but bang on time in a lot of other ways. Tom turned up at a time when we were writing songs that his trumpet fits perfectly into. Not only that, but his personality also fits in well with Graham, Fil and myself. I am well past the phase in my life where I have pipe dreams of earning millions. But I am also shocked about how good we've become as a live act and also how good our recordings are. In the current world of streaming and youtube, we have attracted a large audience (by the standards of vinyl), but whereas selling 5,000 vinyl singles would give you a decent wad of cash, having 5,000 views on Youtube earns you about 50p. But I really do feel like I've won the lottery. To be able to play music you love to a small but loyal fan base is a real pleasure. And to be honest, if I'd earned a million when I was 19, I'd probably be dead by now!

And on to right now. We had a rehearsal on Monday night to run through the songs we will be performing at The Dublin Castle. It should be a great gig. We have THREE great guests jumping up with us. We have Derek Treadwell as a second Trumpet for the first two numbers. The band has been evolving our sound over the last couple of years and if you've not seen us for a while, I think you'll be very pleasantly surprise. Since Tom Hammond joined on trumpet, I think the whole sound is far more exciting and dynamic than it's been for a very long time and Derek adding to the sound really takes things to another level.

We also have Charlie Honderick jumping up to take vocals on Pusherman (I'm the man). Charlies is an amazing singer, who fronted two brilliant bands, Hamptons and Coach Hop. He sang the number back in 2007 with us. We recorded the song for a limited edition compilation CD we sold for charity at a fundraiser. The song has evolved a bit since then, we played it at a recent gig with Charlie and it went down a storm.

And finally, we have a true legend. Mr Ian "Griff" Griffiths jumping up on vocals as well. Griff is a legend. He's recently had a no 1 single and fronts a brilliant drivetime show on Rock and Roll Radio. It is an honour and a privilege to have him join use. We think you might enjoy it!

Rog T Food Blog - Who ate all the pies?

Lets start with a little deviation, lets face it, we all love a little bit of deviation on the sly, don't we? Anyway, I was thinking about what to write for my Thursday blog, in the Rock and Roll Stories. I was toying with the subject of great heckle responses. One of the joys of being in a band is that sometimes herberts think it is clever to shout abuse, not realising that us old hands are used to it and have a riposte ready. A few years ago, I was on the receiving end of a bit of it. I'd let myself get a tad out of shape and was carrying a few extra pounds. I used to do a bit in the show when I'd ask the audience if they had any questions, when one of my band mates was tuning up or adjusting a drum. A bright spark yelled "Yeah, who ate all the pies?" Sadly he hadn't really thought this through. His partner, standing next to him was a lady who clearly enjoyed tucking into a nice dinner. I shot back "Your missus, by the look of it". Everyone turned around, looked at them and burst out laughing. I felt awful. I realised that I'd done a horrible thing. She hadn't been heckling me and I'd embarrassed her. I could've easily aimed a riposte at him. 

I decided that, if they were still there at the end, I'd buy them a beer and apologise. Sure enough, at the end, they were at the bar. I made my way, issued an apology and offered a beer for the pair of them. She burst out laughing, said "Never mind love, I love a good pie actually". It turned out that she was a good laugh and a good sport. She added "The reason he's such a skinny little runt is I nick all his pies". We then spent half an hour discussing the relative merits of our favourite pies. I must emphasise that she was cross, not with me, but with him, for being a knobhead with an ill thought out heckle. I vowed to never make the same mistake again, even though it ended up with us having a bit of a laugh. Anyway back to matters in hand!

I was thinking about this last week. We were in Portugal and had a lovely meal at a very decent restaurant in Ericeira called Cem Lugares Bisto. After the meal, we got chatting to the rather lovely chef and she was asking about some ideas for Northern European foods for the menu. I, of course, suggested that she consider a pie. I explained what I felt were the constituents of a proper pie. These are pastry top and bottom, good gravy and good quality meat. My favourite is a proper steak and kidney pie. To the horror of my family, we chatted for about fifteen minutes. Theycould not believe that I was telling a chef what to cook. I explained that she'd asked. Whether or not she took my ideas on board is up to her, but I've always found that if you listen to people with a genuine love of a subject, you learn something.

As regular readers will know (London Symphonies - "And on the eighth day God created pie and mash") , I am on a bit of a mission to seek out all of London's remaining pie and mash emporiums and sample their wares. I do love traditional pie and mash, even though the pies are  only my secondfavourite, as explained above. I have several bugbears with pies, usually in posh emporiums. I hate it when you order a pie and get some soup in a bowl with pastry on top. That is not a pie! It has to have a bottom, which has to be soggy! I hate small portions of pie. It is a hearty, wholesome food and meant to be served in large portions. Although I love spicy food and curries, I prefer pies to be relatively plain. Although a lot of folk love chicken balti pies at football, give me a steak and kidney any day.

I gave up eating meat for sixteen years, from 1984 until 2000. There were only really three things I missed. Bacon rolls, sausages at barbecues and steak and kidney pies. Sadly, it is getting ever harder to get a proper steak and kidney pie. It seems that the X generation do not do offal. I am sure when they all reach 50, that offal will make a massive comeback, especially in pies. During this period, I ate a lot of cheese and onion pies. I learned that, like all food, if you use bland cheese, it doesn't work. We went to one decent vegan restaurant that did a mushroom pie that was perfect. It was perhaps the best pie I've ever had, but I think the chef had a Michelin star and it was a tenner! The best thing was that it wasn't fancy. 

Then there are pudding pies. I do not have a sweet tooth, but I do love apple pies. That for me is the steak and kidney pie of the pudding world. Ideally, not to sweet, made with cooking apples. Served with custard, it is heaven. I get really cross with fancy restaurants that don't serve apple pie and custard. If I ever become Prime Minister, it will be compulsory. I don't mind if they buy a cheap one from Iceland and keep it in the fridge and serve with tinned custard. It is a million times better than a Tiramasu or such monstrosity. 

I genuinely believe that people who don't like pies are sad individuals, who don't really understand how to enjoy themselves. To me, anyone over the age of 35, who is overly thin, without a medical reason, is someone who has never really understood that you only get one shot at life and eating food is a pleasure. I don't want to live to be 100, if it is a life without pies.

What is going on? I feel like I'm living someone else's life?

 There are only really two places I ever think deeply about life. The reason? Everywhere else I have constant distractions. One is at mass on a Sunday morning and the other is in the jacuzzi at the Virgin health club in Mill Hill East, on the rare occasion when there is no one else in there. Today, I had a good ten minutes without interruption, I had a good chance to reflect on things, after a strenuous workout. My mind tends to wander in the strangest tangents at such times. As I was enjoying the peace and quiet, half in a slumber,  a really disturbing notion came into my head. I had the realisation that I no longer feel like I am me anymore. I feel a bit like I am somebody else, inhabiting my mind. This was quite a disturbing thought. It jarred me from my peaceful reflection. I felt a need to mentally touch base with reality. I started doing a stocktake of my memories. Early ones as a child, recent ones. I realised that I was still me. But I still felt odd and out of place. It was rather puzzling. 

My mind went into overload, why did I feel so detached. I realised that it wasn't me. It was everything else. I am not quite sure when it first started, but I have noticed that in recent weeks, months and years, people who I thought I knew really well suddenly start expressing the strangest views. When a stranger comes up and starts saying things, I have no context to judge them against. When you've got friends you grew up with and they start expressing views that seem to be the polar opposite of what you thought they believed, it is very difficult. If it was just one or two people and they were dropping acid, I would not really have a problem. When they haven't and it is dozens of people I've known for years, it is hard. Now I have always believed that people are entitled to think and believe what they like. But when you have a firm idea of what you believe people's characters are like, built up over decades, and lubricated with a lot of alcohol on the way, it is different. Were they always like this and did I just not notice?

It is not just people who are acting strangely. When you watch TV, listen to the radio, go to the cinema, we have a portal into a world that is slightly unreal. Before I went to jacuzzi, I did a 20K cycle. The bikes at Virgin allow you to watch TV. Usually I watch Tipping Point. It is the only quiz show I really enjoy, as I like those slot machines you find on piers, and it gives me a warm buzz. Sadly today, ITV had deal or no deal, which is as dull as dishwater. I flicked through the channels. BBC News, Sky News, GB News. I managed about two minutes of each. BBC News? Worthy and as dull as dishwater. Experts giving opinions that were so bland as to be meaningless. Both the right and left criticise the BBC as being biased towards the other. In truth, to me they simply employ bland people who try and sit on the fence and not get too many splinters up their bum. Sky News? The experts all seem as if they have simply spent five minutes googling the subject before they came on and were trying to have a range of mildly controversial to at least gain a modicum of reaction. They all seem to me as if they've never actually walked down the Old Kent Road, let alone go to any of the places they are talking about. GB News? I rarely watch it and now I know why. It seems to employ a bunch of raving looneys to spout the controversial views to get the blood flowing of the normal working man. 

The hot topic was the mistaken release from prison of an illegal immigrant who had committed sex offences. Now I know a little of how prisons run. A friend of mine was Duncan McLoughlan, who was the governor of the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland during the troubles. Over a decade ago, he told me that prisons were at breaking point, experienced staff were leaving and not being replaced, the fabric of the buildings was falling apart and the systems being used were not up to scratch. I asked what would happen. His answer was chilling. As I recall he said "If prison officers are not well paid, well looked after and supported by management, they are susceptible to criminal gangs. If prisoners do not have a basic quality of life, they get unruly and hard to manage and if you do not have experienced officers, who you can trust, using fit for purpose systems, mistakes are made, people are incorrectly released, housed in the wrong wings, etc. When all of these things happen, the prison service is untenable".

The service was being underfunded then and it is far worse now. When you have ignorant pundits calling for the Home Secretary to resign (who has been in place for all of five minutes), because "it is on their watch", you are spectacularly missing the point. Training officers, sorting out dilapidated buildings, putting in systems that are fit for a digital world with drones takes time, costs money and us, the taxpayer has to pay for it. If the Home Secretary gets sacked every time a prisoner is incorrectly released, then you'd have a new one every week and they'd never learn. But not a single pundit said this. As I say, I am not an expert, but I have had access to someone who was, so I have a clear idea of the problems. It seems to me that the BBC don't want to say it because they don't want to express an opinion, Sky News don't want to say it because their guests were too thick to google "root causes of UK prison crisis". Here is an extract of what Google's AI search said

• Underfunding and understaffing: Deep funding cuts in the early 2010s have not been fully reversed, and the prison system has struggled with staff reductions, making it difficult to manage the population effectively.
• Lack of adequate capacity: The number of prison places has not kept pace with the rising demand. A promised building program has also faced delays, leaving the system stretched thin.
• Ineffective alternatives to prison: There has been a failure to sufficiently invest in alternatives to prison and preventive services, meaning more people end up in custody when they may not need to be.
• Systemic issues within the criminal justice system: The combination of court backlogs and a more risk-averse probation service, partly due to high-profile failures, has created pressure at multiple points in the system. 

As you can imagine, none of that was what the bonkers looneys on GB News were interested in. 

Now if it was just one story on the news which was like this, I'd scarcely notice, but it seems to be every story. The news should be the reporting of facts, by reporters on the ground. It has become a procession of talking heads, who seem to me to be completely ignorant, in a studio. It's true of all of the news channels. Each has its own sort of pundits, but none are much good. I have, very occasionally, been asked to be a pundit on the news. Mostly around libraries and music industry issues. What they want is a pithy quote of less than ten seconds. It is impossible to say anything of value in such a short time. 

As I lay and soaked, I realised that what was making me feel so disconnected was the fact that I was born and raised in a different world. One where facts, rather than opinions was the main content of TV news. Reporters went to the scene of newsworthy items and dug up stories. I suspect most news teams now simply trawl Twitter for good clips, that fit their agenda. Elon Musk claims Twitter has democratised information. The problem is that if every news story has a million tweets, where 99% of the people do not know the facts and are simply banging keyboards in their bedrooms, how can anything be deemed worth reading? It isn't Musks fault that finding the truth on Twitter is like spotting your relative in the crowd at Old  Trafford, when you watch Match of The Day. 

I realised that it wasn't so much I feel I am inhabiting someone else's body, and I've stolen their memories. I realised that I am now in a world that is completely alien. There is little on TV that interests me, except football. Actually finding anything interesting on social media becomes harder every day. I am lucky, I am into music and I play in band. Watching live music gives me some respite from a world which is completely dysfunctional. I almost feel like when they switched on the Hadron collider, they warped us into a parallel world, where things superficially look the same, but are in truth completely different and alien. It's just that they didn't, it happened on this world and none of us noticed. If you want a dose of reality, why not come to the Dublin Castle on Saturday and experience something real and raw for a change. The False Dots may not cure the world, but we may take your mind off the fact it's become a lunatic asylum for an hour or two!