2007 - June

[El Gordo]

Bowls is the way forward . . . as is the strat.
The two are not mutually exclusive. I've tried bowls - my late father-in-law took me for a hurl on Exmouth's top greens a few years back - and reckon it's a lot tougher than it looks, at least to master. If Alice Cooper can embrace golf then Andy can give bowls a go.

I've always lusted after a Rickenbacker bass guitar. I can't play a note - that didn't stop me forming The Gremolos (with Nick Bartam Garrett and his sister Greta - 'Ash Fat and Nick Bones') in late 1977, the ultimate garage band. Our entire set consisted of a 24-minute version of Road Runner by Jonathan Richmond and the Modern Lovers. It was my Dire Straits moment; we were dire and we went straight into obscurity. C'est la vie. I will get that bass, and I will learn to play more than the Beeb's Forumla One bit from Chain. One day.

Thanks for the reassurance re bowls. M's dad is a keen club player. I might give it a go.

Re the Rickenbacker, go for it. Russ, they guy you met the other week, had a lifelong hankering for some flavour of Gibson SG (can't recall the exact detail). He finally treated himself as a 50th birthday present last year and is apparently making up for lost time on it.

Is this the start of the RC band? I may be looking for a bass player. And a drummer. And a vocalist. Antonio looks like a drummer. I'd better sign him up before he's talent-spotted by someone else. And I bet Nigel could give Bono a run for his money in the vocals department. Or perhaps SP? After his glowing tribute to the Drifters, he appears to be hankering after the chance to display his own vocal abilities.

Given our collective.... talents, this could be the start of a new genre. Crusty punk.