When I saw the number of this list, I thought to myself 365? The number of days in a year, except for leap years. Maybe I should make a list detailing something great that has happened every year of my life. Can I do it? Well it is a challenge.
1962 - The year I was born. Perhaps you hate my guts and think this shouldn't have made the list, but for me it is something I celebrate every single year!
1963 - Well I can't really remember 1963. I had a look at the number one singles of that year and thought "are there any that make me happy to this day" and realised that one stands out, I still sing a version of it at the top of my voice, changing the words Glad all over to "Guardiola" when I am on the terraces at Manchester City! So thank you to the Dave Clark five.
1964 - Again, I can't remember the year. Well actually, I have a very vague memory of going to Manchester with my mum to see her Aunty Mary and Aunty Gladys on a train. When I first went to watch City at Maine Road in the 1970's, I remember looking at the roof of Piccadilly Station and thinking, I remember this place. I asked my mum and she dated it. But as that is all I can remember, it isn't something to celebrate. However 1964 saw the launch of Radio Caroline and Pirate radio in the UK. I suspect this was the moment when trhe seed was planted of my love of music.
1965 - Again, I can remember nothing from 1965 that is tangible. However, it is the year the Post Office Tower was built and it is perhaps the one building in London that I always see and feel happy. To me, at the time, it seemed to be the future. When I was at St Vincents School, on a clear day you could see it. I really don't know if there is a more iconic building that signifies the good things of UK 1960's architecture. It was also the year Joe Mercer became Manchester City manager. Joe was the most successful City manager until Pep Guardiola took over. He won the league, FA Cup, League cup and European Cup Winners Cup. I met Joe, he was a gent an a legend and went on to manage England as a caretaker manager.
1966 - I have a big memory. I was still three at the time, but England won the World Cup. I don't remember the football, but I do remember having a house full of people watching it. Not everyone had a TV and my brothers and their mates all came around and there was a wonderful party. I also remember my brothers had their 21st Birthday party. We had an outside bog and my Mum put a sign up saying "Gents toilet outside" as she didn't want men peeing on the seat of the upstairs posh loo. The outside bog was a grim place full of spiders. My brothers mate saw the sign and all went to the bottom of the garden and had a wee on the bluebell bed. My mum was horrified. This was part of the inspiration for the False Dots song "We all love a party"
1967 - This might shock a few of my friends. I am not noted for my love of Pink Floyd, but it was the year See Emily Play was released. This was the first song that really captivated me and to this day it is one of my favourites. I recounted the story of why this song is so special to me in a blog back in 2009. I suppose this was another of those moments that set my life on its tragectory, even though I didn't realise it at the time.
1968 - This is a no brainer for me. It was the year I started supporting Manchester City. My brother Frank was a Manchester United fan. It was around Easter and he asked me what football team I supported. I was four years old. I said I didn't know. He said "You should support Manchester United, they are playing their rivals City today and if they win, they will win the league". So I became a United fan, as I rather like my brother and it seemed like a good idea. The next day, I said "Did we win?". He said "No, City won" rather glumly. I realised I'd made a dreaful mistake and said "well, City must be better, so I am a Manchester City fan!". My Mum was rather pleased. She'd been a City fan when she lived in Oldham. Her brother Jim would take her to Maine Road on the bus and although she had no interest in football, it was great fun. I have no regrets!
1969 - I have few memories of 1969, but one massive good thing happened. The Victoria line opened in London. I can remember being at St Vincents and watching a TV programme about it. It was apparently the most modern underground line in the world when it opened. I always like using it. I worked in Victoria for a year and used it every day and I can never remember it breaking down. It should be celebrated.
1970 - This was the year we got a colour telly! My Dad got one because the Mexico World cup was being shown live. He was excited. Dad hated football but loved technology and a party. He invited all and Sundry around to watch the games in colour. It was amazing at the time. It was also great seeing Scooby Doo and The flintstones in colour. Even better though, it was also the year when Gerry Andersons UFO was first screened. It is still me favourite TV show ever
1971 - I have a vague recollection of seeing this on "Tomorrows World" which was my Dad's favourite TV show. I didn't know that forty years later it would save my life! It was the year the CAT scanner was first used in the UK. As my mum was recovering from cancer it seemed hugely important. Sadly the claim that "in the future, we will use this to spot cancers early and people will stop dying of the disease" was a bit wide of the mark.
1972 - This was the year T-Rex became my favourite band. Jeepster and Children of the Revolution, which still sound amazing today. Bolan was someone that was looked down on by musical snobs, but to me will always be an icon.
1973 - This was an amazing year for film. Have a look at the top ten grossing films (from Wikipedia)
I have seen all of these and they are classics of their genre. The only two I saw at the time was The Sting and Live and Let Die. The Exorcist is the scariest horror film ever, American Graffitti invented that genre, Last Tango in Paris was the film that introduced us to all manner of naughtiness. For me, it is the best year in Hollywood history.
1974 - The Rumble in the Jungle. Ali vs Foreman. Possibly the greatest boxing event of all time. My Dad loved boxing and loved Ali. We watched it and after five rounds of Foreman pummelling Ali, I said "He's killing him". My Dad replied "No, he's wearing him out, Ali is too smart for him, he'll knock him out in the 8th", which is exactly what happened. My Dad admired Ali as a man of high principle.
1975 - General Franco died. My Dad hated fascists, having fought them in WW2 as a bomber pilot. He'd refused to go to Spain whilst he was alive. This meant that we could have a family holiday in Spain, Dad immediately booked a holiday and took me out of school in December to go to The Canary Islands, something he'd always wanted to do but refused to whilst Franco was alive.
1976 - The Summer of 1976. I was 13/14 at the time. The best summer ever. Even better, Southampton beat Manchester United in the FA cup final. For me, it was the last summer when I was truly a kid without worries.
1977 - Punk Rock! On the 6th June, I saw The Ramones, Talking Heads and The Saints, and my life changed forever. I knew what I wanted to do with my life.
1978 - This was the year I left Finchley Catholic High School and went to Orange Hill Senior High school. It was like being let out of prison. I was out with mates from Orange Hill on Thursday. Unlike FCHS, there were girls and they liked punk rock! I cannot say how wonderful that was.
1979 - The year I started Mill Hill Music Complex (It wasn't called that then) and also The False Dots. It was the year my life flipped into actually being someone making music than just dreaming of it.
1980 - The False Dots first gig! This was the event that cemented my love of performing.
1981 - The year I left school. I started working as a painter/decorator and playing as a musician. But the highlight was meeting a beautiful Swedish girl and moving to Stockholm. This opened my eyes to the fact that UK was just a small island off Europe and we really are not as important as we think.
1982 - The False Dots first European tour! I set this up whilst living in Stockholm. Sadly, it resulted in me getting banned from going to Sweden for ten years, as I broke immigration rules.
1983 - This was the year I got a 'proper job' working in IT, mostly to repay the debts I'd run up putting on the Sweden tour. In hindsight it was one of the best things to happen to me. It gave me the sound basing to develop my other business interests.
1984 - This was the year when The False Dots were at their 1980's pinnacle, with Venessa Sagoe on vocals. Our gig in February was probably the best gig ever until the recent line up. Sadly by the end of the year it had all gone up in smoke. Que Sera Sera. Here's Veness at her best
1985 - The year I actually learned to write songs properly and play guitar properly. I did a songwriting course and although it doesn't sound exciting, it was so important. Even more important, it was the year I met my missus. Things got better ever since.
1986 - This was the year we decided to make Mill Hill Music Complex into a proper business. We started renovating what was studio 2 and I got a bank loan to buy PA gear.
1987 - I struggled to think of anything this year. My Dad passed away in January, that cast a massive shadow. But then I remembered that in October, I bought the family house off my Mum. She couldn't stand living here anymore. It was one of the best decisions I ever made.
1988 - Wimbledon beat Liverpool in the FA Cup final. Manchester City were going through a bad patch, English clubs were banned from Europe, football seemed plagued with awful things, Heysel, The Bradford fire. But them Wimbledon, who'd risen from non league, beat Liverpool. It gave every fan of every small club reason to dream. When Wigan beat Man City a few years ago, I was not upset a I felt it was good for football.
1989 - This was the year we started the project to build our recording studio at Mill Hill Music Complex. It was a real hard slog, but it has made so much good music, that it should be celebrated.
1990 - This was the year I think I wrote the three best songs of the first period of The False Dots, If you really mean it, Come back home and It's alright (I wrote the music, Tony Robotham wrote the lyrics). Tony was an inspiring guy to work with. The songs don't suit my vocal style, but I am dead proud of them and will record them with a guest vocalist at some point. It was also the year I got my wonderful short haired British Blue cat Norman, who was my best mate for 14 years.
1991 - This was the year I decied to become a Freelance IT consultant. I was working for BACS and they offered me a big sum of money to take redundancy. All my Xmas came at once! My plan had been to take the cash from BACS, do a world tour then look for a job, but I was offered a lucrative six month contract at my leaving do. That was that!
1992 - This was the year that a band called The Sway came to my attention. They were rehearsing at the studio and I thought they were brilliant. I ended up managing them, getting them national tours, radio plays and making two great singles. I lost a shedload of money, but it was massive fun.
1993 - The channel tunnel. I have always beleived that the UK should be close to Europe. I bought shares in Eurotunnel, as I believe in putting your money where your mouth is. It opened that year. I went on one of the first trains through the tunnel for free! What happened was disgusting. Small shareholders got shafted and large banks made a killing. I am proud to have been a small part of making it happen, but it is a lesson in how fat cats will always rob you if they can. The British and French governments should have protected small shareholders. It was not like a normal business, it is a huge national asset and many invested because of this.
1994 - It was the year that Ernie Ferebee joined our studio team and we really started building it into what it is today. Ernie became studio manager when I bought my previous partners out (using the cash I got from my BACS redundancy). Ernie and I worked tirelessly for six years together. The studio, in his tenure went from 2 studios to 10 and also added a shop. It was also hugely profitable.
1995 - Two amazing things happened. I got married and my eldest daughter Maddie was born.
1996 - Like many new parents, not much really happened, but watching my daughter start the year as a non vocal baby and end it with her toddling about and chatting away is about as good as it gets!
1997 - It was the year my second beautiful daughter Lizziewas born. It was alsothe year we started our shop. This was a massive step for Mill Hill Music Complex. Ernie was a brilliant shopkeeper. It was also the year Fil Ross started working for us. He is now our chief recording engineer and my bandmate in The False Dots.
1998 - Having stopped playing 11 a side football when Maddie was born, I started playing 5-a-side at Powerleague on a Thursday night. This was a massive part of my life for 25 years.
1999 - This was the last year that my Mum and Ernie were both well and healthy. We enjoyed a cruise with my Mum and Ernie and I were seeing the financial rewards of five years hard work arriving. It is a wonderful feeling when everything is good. We sometimes overlook this fact,
2000 - My son Matt was born. I was incredibly busy with both IT work and the studios, trying to complete the fitting out of studios 8,9 and 10, so that was a clear highlight.
2001 - This was the year The False Dots reformed with Paul Hircombe (our long standing bass player), Fil Ross and Tony Caveye, with the plan to record a few old tunes. I had no idea that it would still be going now. Itw as also the year I got involved with the HCPT charity which became a major part of my life.
2002 - The False Dots did our first gig since 1990! That was a massive buzz. A benefit at the Red Lion in Colindale for Ernie's family (He passed the previous year), I realised I had the buzz again.
2003 - The year I stopped working in IT to concentrate on the studio. My IT career had done its job, I no longer needed it. Now I could concentrate on the studio!
2004 - I went back into IT! A legal problem meant the whole studio project was at risk. I had to get plan B on the go. The chip and pin project was kicking off and I got a great contract goinga round the country certifying retailers systems. It was great as I was able to use it to be paid to see a lot of Man City games, as many of these retailers were based in the North West and I could combine trips with watching matches. City were a bit rubbish, but it was fun.
2005 - I am not going to be mean and say that is the year the Glazers bought Man Utd and ruined them. That would be unkind. What was a highlight was going to Lourdes with my Mum and my sister Catherine. Mum had a stroke in 2001 and had aged 30 years in five seconds. This was probably the best she ever was after. We had real fun. It was great spending time with my sister Catherine, who is lovely and I don't see enough of
2006 - The False Dots play at the Mill Hill Sports club, with my mate Steve Nash's daughter Kate as support. six weeks later she had a number one single!
2007 - My Daughter Maddie became National Age Group BAGCAT swimming champion. I'll always be so proud of her. She was a brilliant swimmer and this year she was absolutely on fire.
2008 - I fulfilled a lifelong dream of seeing The Steve Miller Band in California. This was also the year that I started blogging as The Barnet Eye. I guess that is worth celebrating.
2009 - This was the year that I was asked by The Lib Dems to stand as a candidate in Mill Hill. Although we lost, I am proud that a major political party considered asking me to represent them in a seat that was thought winnable.
2010 - Connie Abbe joined the False Dots. I love Connie, she is a brilliant singer. It was one of the best periods of my musical career. I'd love to collaborate with Connie again. Playing the Purple Turtle in Camden was a massive highlight.
2011 - Manchester City won the FA cup and I was there with my son. In truth, the semi final was better as we beat Man U! I enjoyed it with my son. We Started work on our new studio block which was a massive thing. I was so proud that the work had started after five years planning, no thanks to the banks, it must be said.
2012 - The film I'd produced, A Tale of Two Barnets was shown at The Phoenix cinema, The House of Commons and The Edinburgh festival. The opening of our new studio block was even prouder. I also quit my IT career as we had a business that was in a postion to support me. It was also a proud moment when The False Dots played the end of occupation party at Friern Barnet library, when we saved it from closure by the Council.
2013 - Having saved Friern Barnet Library, we set about saving The Bohemia pub and The False Dots staged an "occupation gig" with Occupy. Charles Shah Murray of the NME also played. It was a great night of musical anarchy!
2014 - Having quit IT, I went back to it again. We had a few rather unexpected large expenses and to be honest, I was a bit bored. A mate at Lloyds Bank offered me a job. It was actually good fun. I got a trip out to India out of it which was amazing. I always made jobs work for me.
2015 - We launched the Save London Music campaign on BBC Radio London with the help of Robert Elms, then got Del Richardson of Osibisa to play at the launch party with us at The Fiddlers Elbow.
2016 - Pep Guardialo joins Manchester City. The best manager in the world at my club that a decade before had been a joke. Nuff said.
2017 - The North Finchley Festival. I put this together with the then Cafe Buzz owner Helen Michael and some other locals. It was a great weekend. The False Dots did a gig at The Bohemia which was brilliant as part of it. Oh yes and I finally quit IT for good.
2018 - The studio finally returned to profit after the building project. I felt vindicated (what could possiby go wrong).
2019 - The highlight of this for me was an event we put on to attract investors for a new studio block, to complement the one we put up in 2012. The outlook was rosy, we got serious investors and started looking for builders. It was a real buzz.
2020 - Covid. I was trying to think what good things happened that year? Then I realised that the sun was shining, my kids were at home and we had barbeques every night. If you can't enjoy that then you are missing something.
2021 - One of the grimmest years of my life. Graham our drummer lost his son to suicide. The singer in our band Allen decided he couldn't risk rehearsing with covid about. So we started rehearsing as a three piece and I wrote new set of up beat Ska songs to try and put a smile back on Graham's face and to take his mind off what he was going through. He told me that when he rehearsed it was the only time he wasn't thinking about Daniel. The set evolved and we recorded a few songs.
2022 - We unleashed the new set on the world. They liked it. We were given a residency at The Dublin Castle. The videos got thousands of hits. The band were back! It was amazing. We also went to Portugal to record an album!
2023 - Tom Hammond joined the band on Trumpet. The band had morphed into exactly what I always wanted it to be, without even trying. Up beat Ska punk which puts a smile on everyones face. The gigs were great.
2024 - The band released our album "A finger in the Sun", we did a record number of shows and the studio broke even for the first time after covid.
2025 - This year was our 30th Wedding anniversary. I can't imagine a life without Clare and the kids.
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
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”.
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?
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.
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.
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.
