Why-Oh-Why July?

[El Gordo]

Nope.

Hasn't happened yet. The pub intervened.

I was suckered into a very rare visit to that grotty boozer next door where they were hosting an outfit describing themselves as a "Jam tribute band". Had to be worth investigating, and it was.

I've got a soft spot for the Jam, even if I can't get on with the solo Weller. I remember seeing them performing on a stage by the side of the road on some Anti-Nazi League march I went on in 1980. I didn't get on with most of the rawer punk performers (though I came back to the Clash years later, and began to understand what they were all about), but some of the bands that came in with the punk movement, like the Jam and the Undertones, struck a chord with me. Some songs just capture the zeitgeist. "That's Entertainment" in 1981 was a wonderfully vivid evocation of the sour Thatcherite world we were drifting through. I was a student at the time. It seemed to sum up the bleakness of those awful post-Saturday night comedowns. It's a song that would hover round the fringes of my all-time top ten.

Anyway, so I went to the pub and had a few beers and listened to the band, who were pretty good. I wondered if any of them were alive in 1981.

I dusted down my Stratocaster a week or two back, and blasted out a few powerchords. I enjoyed it enough to buy some recording software and started to have some fun with da blues. Then I thought bugger it, and bought a bass guitar. It followed Sweder's mention of wanting a Rickenbacker bass. It got me thinking. I'd never even touched a bass but if I'm going to put a few tunes together, I need one. Not, alas, a Rickenbacker, whose price tag reflects its legendary status, but a humble Yamaha RBX374.

Apart from the final numeral, I don't know why it's called RBX374. (The 5 string version is RBX375.) I did think about buying the 5 string until I discovered that the extra string was likely to prove more confusing that I'd thought. The 4 strings of the usual bass are the same as the bottom 4 of a standard 6 string guitar (albeit an octave lower). I'd assumed that a 5 string bass would be the bottom 5 strings of a 6 string guitar. But no. The extra string is a low B, coming below the low E. It's easy enough to transfer your knowledge from the bottom four strings of a normal guitar, to a bass. But adding a new and unfamiliar string, would have fried my booze-shrivelled brain.

So. So this black beauty arrived last weekend, and I've been having a good old pluck this week. It's been quite easy to pick up because I used to play finger-style guitar, so the right hand plucking techniques feel pretty natural. I've been trying to recall the stuff I used to play years ago -- with mixed success. I wish I'd had all this recording gear back then.

I think it's one of the reasons my running has gone off the boil a little. I've got sorta diverted. I've been up in the back bedroom, chugging away on my four guitars, headphones clamped to the side of my head, like a serious teenager. It's been fun, but I have to reinvent myself as a runner yet again.

Tomorrow is Sunday. I have to get up early to meet up with my parents as they motor along the M4 at about 6:45 on their way to Ireland. If I'm up that early, I may as well make use of the time to go for a run. That's the plan.

Let's rock, then let's roll.