No need to worry. I had my lightsaber(bass ale) constantly close by.

Hello all,

I went to see Amy Speace and Sid Selvidge in Portland ME last night. I'll use any excuse to blag a free meal off my brother at his restaurant, especially when it is right across the street from the venue. Amy and Sid joined us for a few drinks after the show.

My brother is a huge Replacements and Big Star fan, and he soon discovered that Sid Selvidge had been friends and worked with both Alex Chilton and Big Star/Replacements producer Jim Dickinson since the 1960s. So needless to say they had a long and interesting conversation.

Next up is Bad Company in Boston on the 27th.

Justin
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Just got back from the High Voltage Festival,where I was extremely annoyed to see them pull the plug on Ian after 2 songs; OBTS and Who Do You Love? His 35 minute set was substantially reduced apparently because they had overrun.Ian was really hacked off and went after the instigator with his guitar;common sense kicking in at the last minute seemingly.We then had to put up with 45 minutes of silence while they set up ELP's equipment and when they started playing I waited a while and then asked my son,"Are you enjoying this?""No,this isn't music" was the response so we made our way home and won't be attending any of their festivals again

Probably the best part of their gig...



...wise move - nice to see the next generation has taste Ray [IMHO].

Had some friends from Canada (guess who?) down for the week and we caught two shows.

We saw Squeeze and The English Beat @ The Mountain Winery in Saratoga, then a few days later we caught Patricia Vonne @ Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco. Dave Wakeling of The English Beat gave one of our guests a Happy Birthday shout out from the stage, and we were also able to snag a personalized autographed Squeeze poster for the Birthday Girl.

In San Francisco, Patricia Vonne dedicated a song to me (!) and posed for pics with us afterward. Eat your heart out RickA!

time to post some photos Andy - seems you guys had a good time

Bastard!!

RTM - there are photos but I have no idea how to post them. Maybe the Canadians do.

Rick - yes, I am a bastard.

I did let Patricia know " Rick from Boston" introduced her to us.

Since she lives in Austin, I asked her if she knew Alejandro Escovedo, and of course she does. She told me she wrote the song Guitars & Castanets for AE.

Bryan Adams and Donald Sutherland?

chuck prophet acoustic gig earlier this week. As posted elsewhere, the chuckster made note of the fact that when he and alejandro holed up in Austin a couple of years back while working on Al's "Real Animal", they listened to a lot of MTH

Gig review here: http://musicalbox.bloginky.com/2010/08/02/in-performance-chuck-prophet/

Mighty Mighty Bosstones Sun. Aug. 22'nd. Wow, never do disappoint! Dicky Barrett in top form, just a pro at what he does, band so tight well, never mind... How can you not love a band with an interpretive dancer, I envy that he doesn't stop for 2 hrs., doesn't have a heart attack in that suit, and really should come up with a exercise dvd for us to follow. I'd give 'em a 13 outta 10 stars. Ditto for my hangover to follow.

Sat. the 28'th, local yokel punk rock "picnic". 2'nd yr. and this show really rocked, less hardcore, more punk this yr. I wish I would have made the whole 8 hrs. but had other commitments so caught the last half, not one bad act. It is so nice to see that we can all behave with alcohol in a very sedate community park amongst the more reserved family functions. Minus alot of f bombs in the music. All for a good cause too, collected for the community food bank. I was so impressed this year that I offered to volunteer for next years planning. Extra points for seeing empty beer cans tossed at the musicians onstage, now that is true punk

Good weekend for rocking in Stockport.

The Truth (a NorthWest covers band) played the Baker's on saturday. Two sets of classics covering Lizzy, Free, Purple, AC/DC, Zep, Whitesnake, Hendrix, etc. The band got it spot on and the sound was awesome.

Sunday saw Sinnerboy visit the Fingerpost. Had a chat with Barry, who was outside having a smoke when i rolled up. He asked about my Ronno shirt (from June) and I said what a great weekend that had been. First time he's played the Finger and I said it's a bit small. He said "That's OK, you can see the whites of their eyes!". As ever, a great show, and not be be missed by any Rory fans. They're playing Glasgow and Leeds next month, and my advice is to catch them if you can make it. You won't be disappointed.

Mick

New Model Army...Brooklyn NY
well, the NMA 30th anniversary shows were a smashing success. Two nights of 2 1/2 hour concerts with NO songs duplicated. almost everyone there went to both nights. amazing. Ian should think about doing something like this. 20-30 minute acoustic set and then a quick break followed by another 1 1/2 hours of electric stuff. The band played 4 songs from each album they have released. everyone there heard songs never played before live.
I met some really nice people from all over the US, Canada, and Europe. Sound familiar? They are playing a few of these anniversary gigs in the UK this fall so if you want to see a great band tear it up for a night or 2, check them out.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=6665137&id=686739223&ref=notif&notif_t=like&fbid

The Hookways in San Francisco with Patricia Vonne - Texas on Tour