The new years eve gig at the Union, which was a last minute dep for Eddie Gee’s band, started as a trio, but became a quartet on the night and when George sat in on sax for a few numbers, a quintet. It went down really well and made a fitting end to the old year because, despite the loss of so many influential musicians worldwide, the music goes on.

The Union is now closed for a while for refurbishing but is a contender for Camra pub of the year competition. Let’s hope it wins. The problem now is where to go until it opens.. It’s obviously not the only pub I use but it is handy because it’s close to home. The obvious replacement would appear to be the Squirrel but as they no longer have ales, having sealed off the old bitter taps, and have given up on music, there is little incentive. I guess the alternatives are The Metropolitan or Angie’s as they are both close by. I still use the Castle and Finch’s on the Bello of course, but they are further afield. I was in Finch’s just the other day and surprise ,surprise, it’s that time of year again. The barman warned me that the price had gone up/ I informed him that I was used to that and when I first started drinking there in 1963, the prices were much lower, though not that cheap at the time, either.

One of the gigs I did at the Squirrel was for the then manager Laura George and her father Ian had been visiting and really liked the band. As a result, Laura decided to give him a surprise Party for his sixtieth birthday and booked the band. This was at the Six Bells in St Albans, an old haunt of mine back in the late fifties. The band were myself, Alan Vincent, Steve Taylor and Mel Wright and it was really enjoyable and Laura did her dad proud with a great turnout of Ian’s friends and family. Now, back to the present, I have no gigs and life is much as usual. To rub salt into the wound, Mel Wright reminded me that we first started playing together fifty years ago. Is someone trying to tell me something?