On November 23rd I turned forty, and unbeknownst to me my wife organised a surprise party. She enlisted all the other Shorties, all seven of them, and they worked up a 14 song set (7 originals and 7 covers). Saul had arranged to meet me for a drink, and then when we arrived at the pub he had suggested we go to, I was greeted by a large crowd of friends and family shouting 'Surprise!', and by the news that the Shorties would be playing at the party. There was even a costume for me to wear.

The party was great, and doing the gig was amazing fun. Sadly it wasn't video-d but as you'll see from the photos a great time was had by all. I can't remember a previous occasion when all 8 shorties have appeared on the same stage, and I just wanted the night to go on forever. A huge thank-you to my wife Collette, and to the 7 remaining Shorties for organising the party and rehearsing so hard. It was an amazing night that I'll never forget

The setlist was:

Noriega

All Muddled Up

Drown Laugh Float

Leopard's Head

Lottery

40 Years

Holy Man's Hands

Circle Sky

Bad Moon Rising

Brimful Of Asha

Sugar Sugar

It's The End Of the World As We Know It

Is This The Way To Amarillo?

I'm A Believer

Great News. We have decided to make Longevity, The documentary covering the first ten years of The Shorty Blackwells, available to all via the magic of You Tube.

Showing in seven manageable parts, if you haven't seen it the documentary is a no holds barred, behind the scenes look at the first ten years of The Shorty Blackwells, featuring interviews with all the main players, and some amazing archive footage

Additionally I've added a couple of small segments of Liam and I, dressed as Davy and Mike from The Monkees, on ITV show 'The Time The Place', and the final segements of my Blockbusters appearance, so plenty to enjoy.

I can't seem to embed the first part of the doc currently, so here's the URL:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42FTp4QH1DY

Well it's certainly been a while since I posted here. Lots has happened in the meantime:

We've played alongside Loyd Grossman's band at a charity benefit in January, which was great fun.

Saul took to the stage for the first time in five years at our most recent gig in July and although the gig was not our best, it was wonderful having him back and performing with us, and great to dig out 2 of his songs which don't get a live airing very often. I thought they both sounded great.

Chris got married to the lovely Michelle (for some bizarre reason he didn't have us playing at the wedding) and enjoyed a wonderful honeymoon

I intend to post pics from these recent activities soon (except Chris's honeymoon!)

I also went through one of my periodic phases of wondering about the future of the band, hence why it all went quiet on the blog front. As usual Dan came up with some great ideas for moving things forward which have reinvigorated me.

Pics to follow in a few days

Our CD launch gig on Friday 3rd October, at our usual haunt, 'The Comedy Pub', was not without its troubles (when are they ever) but overall it was a positive experience on several levels.

We knew from the outset we would be without Dave, but our keyboard player Mike had to pull out at fairly short notice and so we wondered how we would sound. Despite limited rehearsal time we had managed to get the songs sounding great, but could we re-produce it on the night?

When we arrived at the venue we were shocked to discover that the 2 other bands on the bill had both pulled out, something I've never experienced before in 15 years of gigging. This meant there was a solo artist, who had only brought a handful of people, and us (who'd brought 25). So the room was quite empty looking and quieter than normal. It also meant we had the longest souncheck we've ever had, which was great as we were able to iron out a few of the inevitable rough patches you'll get when trying as many new songs as we were going to

We opened strongly, powering through 'Disintegration Machine' and 'Kirsten' which both got a great response, and then followed up with 'Wedding Day Blues'. At this point we were doing great. 3 songs, all new or newish to the audience, all well received.  However the middle part of the show took a bit of a downturn. Ironically it was 'Richard Brautigan', a song which we've played a number of times and which we should be able to do with our eyes shut, that started the rot. We stumbled and bumbled our way through it.  A strong performance of 'Nazi Dog' got a luke warm reception, and when Dan broke a string during 'Only Hicks' things could have gone downhill.

We rallied, however, and gave great renditions of 'Sofa Gofer' (making only its second live appearance)  and 'Consume'.  Making its last ever appearance, for obvious reasons, 'George W Bush' brought the crowd back to life, and the reception of the night was saved for the brand new 'Holy Man's Hands'.  Within the group, everyone had recognised, from the first rehearsal, that Dan's new song was something special. It speaks volumes for our view of it that we made it our set closer, despite no-one in the audience having heard it before. But the audience agreed with us, and agve it a fantastic response. Even after the set people were approaching us raving about 'HMH' so it will be a set closer for some time to come.

Given the small crowd and the broken string and the reduced line-up, I think the gig went as well as could be hoped. If we'd wanted more crowd reaction in the middle we perhaps could have put 2 old faves in, rather than 2 we weren't yet bored of. But if you start trying to pander to and second guess the audience, that way disaster lies!

We sold 6 copies of 'the Centrafugel Bugle' and overall it would have to be considered a very good night

Firstly,

Apologies it has taken me so long to post here. However I'm back with our latest news.

On Friday october 3rd we play a gig at The Comedy Pub, 7 Oxendon Street, Piccadilly Circus, SW1. We're on stage at 8.40pm (doors open at 8pm).

It's only our second gig of the year, and the main reason for that is we've been hard at work finishing off our latest album 'the Centifugal Bugle' . The album will be officially launched at the gig. It contains 16 great tracks, all the songs that have been going over so well at our gigs over the last couple of years are featured, including '40 Years', 'Drown laugh and Float' 'Green Lanes' and 'The British Trust For Conservation Gay and Lesbian Clean Up At Mile End'

The CD will be available at a special reduced price at the gig, so don't miss out.  See you there!!

Early in October we hooked up to record the last two basic tracks of our next album, 'Centrafugel Bugle'.  They were 'The British Trust for Conservation Gay and Lesbian Clean Up at Mile End' and 'Centrafugel Bugle' the song which gives the album its name. In keeping with the style we have adopted for this album, almost everything was recorded together, to help ensure we capture the heart and energy of the songs.

In early November the bulk of the overdubs were completed in a special session at Moat Studios.

All that remains to be completed are some vocal overdubs from Aiden (to be recorded on December 6th) and a lead vocal for 'Love Abides' which will be provided by a special guest

Altogether we have 16 tracks recorded for the album (a 17th, a cover of The Beach Boys' 'It's About Time' was recorded, but didn't make the grade) the most tunes on a Shorties album since 1999s 'Music For Mooks'. Our new way of recording the songs, not only makes them sound better, but is far quicker. There was a 3 year gap between 'Therapy' and 'Buff' and again between 'Buff and Scoon'. Despite having more songs than any of those albums, we aim to have 'Bugle' released less than 2 years after 'Scoon', meaning our long-suffering fans can get their fix of Shorties grooves more frequently, which has got to be a good thing!

The pics come from the Oct 07 recording session detailed above.

Two pieces of exciting news to kick off with. In the podcast section of the site, you can hear a brand new radio show presented by Dan, Saul and I. We play a selection of our fave tracks and chatting about them. Plenty of Shorties humour throughout, and we hope that you'll dig the bands we're playing and that it sparks off new musical channels for everyone. Or something like that. Give it a listen!!

The other big news is that The Shorties will play at The Comedy Pub,   7 Oxendon Street Piccadilly London SW1Y 4EE  on November 30th 2007 at 8.40pm. We hope to see you all there

**********

Our most recent gig, at the Hope and Anchor, was our first attempt to do an acoustic gig for more than 3 years, and got a great reception from the crowd. Within the band, opinion was divided. Personally I felt we were much less tight than at recent gigs, and I felt that we can do a lot better.  We had more drop outs and rough starts/ends than usual. I had felt in rehearsals that we weren't quite there, and that another couple of rehearsals, would have got us tight. Equally, however, it was great fun to do, and the crowd really enjoyed it, and you can't  argue with that.

Ex-Shorty Ravi turned up to cheer us on, and it was great to see him. He was kind and concilliatory, which given the fact that his parting from the band was turmultous, reflected really well on him. Hatchets were quite rightly buried, and we hope to see him again in the near future.I am hopeful that at the next gig we keep all the positives from this gig, but build on them and combine the best of the electric gigs, with the best of the acoustic, to really put on a show that not only the crowd, but all the band, get something from.

For the record, the setlist was:

Yuki

The British Trust For Conservation Volunteers Gay and Lesbian Weekend

Only Hicks and Pro-Tool Dicks

Love Abides

Where's My Remote Control?

Nevraska

Sofa Bunny Love Fest

Miss Friel

Forty Years

Our next gig should be in November. In the meantime we intend to record some more tracks for our next album. Late September/early October is being mooted as the next recording dates.

Early in June, Saul, Dan and I got together  at Dan's house to record a couple of new radio shows, which we hope to upload as new podcasts sometime in 2017 (!!), or hopefully a little sooner. It's the editing that takes the time on these things, and as we all do music for the love of it, and have to earn a living 9-5, free time is not what it might be, but Dan is working on them as and when he can, so we'll have them uploaded for you soon, I hope.

Before doing the shows, we recorded some new songs. The originals we cut were  'Love Abides', which is my most recent tune, and is heavily influenced by the sound of the 'Original Harmony Creekdippers' who I have really been digging lately; 'Only Hicks and Pro-Tool Dicks' is Dan's most recent offering, and we also cut a new song of Saul's, which is currently untitled.  We then jammed up a couple of covers, The Beach Boys 'It's About Time', which we have wanted to play for years and years and years. It was very rough and ready and probably won't make it to an album, but was great fun to do, and a Warren Zevon classic.

As Saul is based on Norwich and doesn't get to work with us as much these days, I then  took the opportunity to do a filmed interview with him about the events of the last 6 years. It was my very first baby step towards a follow-up documentary, which will also probably be released in 2017!

Then, we sat down and cut 2 brand new radio shows, with each of us playing some of our current fave tunes, and then discussing them with the others.  Saul brought some Incredible String band, I brought some Jim Noir, and I've already forgotten what dan brought but it was groovy.

As always these were great fun to do. All too soon Saul and I had to say goodbye and head back to our trains to return us to our waiting wives, but we got a great deal done, and had a fantastic day

On July 23rd we start rehearsals for our unplugged gig of August 1st, so there's plenty to keep us busy.