I just heard from Mel Wright that Ron Skinner, the original Shakey Vick Big City Blues Band bass player and vocalist has died. He was awaiting treatment for cancer but was too weak to receive any therapy. Ron was always a keen bluesman rather than a rock bluesman and it’s ironic that the recently released “Live at 100 Club” album includes him on it, with an amalgam of a couple of his old bands which we called The Blueshawks for that occasion.. Continue reading
Here’s one we made earlier
Met Mel Wright for a drink at the Blue Boar just behind the 100 Club the other day and took delivery of the live recording Cd’s “!00 Club Boogie.” I guess I’ll have to put it on the recordings page and perhaps in the pictures section too. As it was recorded about twenty years ago I used an older picture of me on the cover. I’ve used it before on the “Night After Night” album and it reminds me of when my hair had more colour and less grey. We will officially launch it on April 9th.
Continue reading
Thought for the day
We won’t be doing the gig at the Inn on the Green this month as things are up in the air at the moment as I mentioned earlier. It’s one of those things that happen to musicians at any time so I should be resigned to it by now, but I have to say the whole music scene is depressing right now, as far as I’m concerned. Nobody supports live music in small venues the way they used to. Continue reading
Going down slow
Mel Wright and I, with the sterling assistance of Tony Ellis, have finalised the artwork for the forthcoming cd: Shakey Vick & The Blueshawks “100 Club Boogie”, the live recording we did at the 100 Club, twenty years ago. I’ve said this quite a few times before, but it should be out soon. Continue reading
And finally…
Yesterday I met up again with drummer Mel Wright, (who also penned the “Les Enfants Terrible” piece on this site), to discuss the finalisation of the artwork for the forthcoming album. The one recorded live at 100 Club twenty years ago and which I’ve been rabbiting on about for some time now, and is unsurprisingly titled 100 Club Boogie. We had a pretty good meeting although it only took two pints each. It was at the Blue Post pub, just around the corner from the club. Continue reading
Last Fair Deal Gone Down
A while back I came across a forum on the subject of “The Real Deal” with regard to the blues. It was the usual disagreement on whether white people could call themselves “the real deal” if they played blues. Naturally there were the usual collection of bigots, the misinformed, or people plainly not using their basic intelligence on the subject. This applied to both sides of the argument. I almost questioned myself on whether I regarded myself as the real deal, but decided that it didn’t really matter that much. Continue reading