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

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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.

Got to kick off this latest blog entry by telling you we'll be doing a special unplugged/acoustic concert on

August 1st at the Hope and Anchor pub, nr Kings Cross, at 8.40pm.

We haven't done an acoustic for 3 and a half years, but they are great fun. Really relaxed, to me they feel more like the vibe at a party where someone gets out a guitar and a jam starts up. Audience involvement is welcomed, we need you all to sing along etc, and judging by how great you were at the last gig, it should be a great show. Pop it in your diaries now.

The provisional setlist includes recent songs such as 'Where's My Remote Control?', Shorties classics such as Che Guavara and Me' and a brand new song 'Love Abides'

On Thursday May 24th, we got together and recorded 2 more tracks for our next CD. The songs were 'The Richard Brautigan Memorial BBQ' which made it's debut at the last gig, and 'Drown, Hope and Float', which we've been performing for a good couple of years, and have really had time to woodshed into great shape. As Liam and Dave couldn't make the session, they will overdub their parts later on.

Once again, recording live as a group, helped us capture the energy and pace we have when playing live. I really think this album will be the closest distillation of The Shorties live experience that it is possible to get. Looking back, I can't believe it took us 16 years to wake up to the fact that our strength is our vibe and energy and ramshackledness, and that trying to disguise that and make a CD which sounded more professional, only succeeded in losing much of what made us great, and didn't even make us sound any better tchnically, either.

It was only when we realised we didn't have time for the old style of recording that we stumbled into this style, but it's been a revelation.

Next weekend, June 9th, Saul, Dan and myself will meet up to record a couple more songs, and record a new radio Show. On our radio shows we each bring a bunch of songs we like, that the others don't know, play them and we chat about them. I'll report more on this, in the next blog entry.

Despite clashing with several competing key dates in the social calendar,  we snatched victory from the jaws of defeat at our March 30th gig at our regular haunt of The Comedy Pub, in Leicester Square.

According to the pub we had 32 people who had paid to see us, and there were about 30 more in the crowd to see the other bands. Not quite the 80-90 we have been playing to lately, but a good crowd nonetheless and what they may have lacked in numbers, they more than made up for in volume and enthusiasm.

We had had to overcome an initial 'crisis', as Marc, the promotor, had forgotten to let the door person know about the BPP vouchers we use, and a large group of our fans were initially refused entry. Thankfully Marc himself arrived in the nick of time, gave the okay to the doorwoman, and I was able to rescue our fans from the upstairs bar where they had taken refuge.

We opened with Chuck's Party (from our Mountain Therapy album).  The set had to be chosen quite carefully as Dave, our trumpet player, was not able to make the gig and while Chuck starts slowly, it builds to a rocking climax that gave the Shorties-virgins in the crowd an indication of what our bag was all about.

A word here for the sound engineer. Usually we arrive at the venue at the alloted soundcheck time, to find we have to wait around for a couple of hours until the sound engineer arrives. Not this time, the enginneer was on time, organised and the pay-off to this was he was able to give every band a great sound. Only on our November 05 gig have we come close to sounding this good from a sound balance point of view.

We followed with 'Sofa Bunny Love Fest'  a 'Buff My Lizard' era song, which was never formally recorded. It's been getting a great reception on it's revival, and we may yet finally 'lay it down' for the next album.

Next up was the brand new 'Don't Mock The Moog'. Having had one stab at recording it earlier this year, the song really came to life in the rehearsals for this gig. It got a great reception, and I would hope to re-record it in it's improved format.

Perennial gig favourite 'Chiswick High Road' was next. This 'BML' cut always gets a good response, and really benefited from the clear sound mix the engineer was facilitating. 

Between songs we could hear the chants of 'Shorties! Shorties!' which really encouraged and inspired us. Next up was another brand new tune 'The Richard Brautigan Memorial Barbeque'. Despite me forgetting the words to one of the verses, and having to spout nonsense words to get through, this came over really well.

'George W Bush' was next,..well he's out of office next year, so we have to milk it while we can. Then we were into the home straight...

Next up was the song that is certainly a contender for our most popular live song ever, 'He Plays The Lottery'. Given a rousing reception, the song is almost musician proof. Despite it's simple chord structure, for the second successive outing we performed it quite sloppily, certainly the shabbiest performance of the night, but the crowd drowned out our mistakes and saw us home.

'Forty Years' had been a huge hit on it's debut at our last gig, and proved that was no fluke when, once again, we got the audience to join in on 'I'm too old to work and too poor to quit' and sing along with us.

We closed the set with a brand new tune, 'Green Lanes'. Theoretically this should be a very risky move, but we were all convinced that the barnstoring chorus of Liam's latest, would be the perfect way to wind things up, and thankfully we were proved right. There is a nice, mercifully short, freak-out at the end, which enabled me to dive into the crowd and dance like a madman, without killing myself!

 Digressing slightly, for years we have struggled with the problem of how to categorise ourselves, but lately I am coming more and more to the conclusion that we are a 21st century folk band. Folk not in the po-faced, ultra-serious, beard and jumper mold, but rather in the 'come all ye' sense, with the emphasis on simple catchy tunes, and lyrics that are usually quirky or humourous and often making some political (in the broadest sense) point. Songs like 'Forty Years' capture that entirely. We are thinking, therefore, of doing some more acoustic gigs, as we used to in the Ravi era, as that audience may be one where we can more naturally draw new fans

The gig, then, was a triumph. As in the best gigs, the audience were integrated into the show, and were the vital extra instrument, the equivalent of the twelfth man in football, roaring their approval and inspiring us to greater creative heights. If you were one of those who made their way down, eschewing all the other attractions on offer that night, we thank-you wholeheartedly!

 We all had a whale of a time and hope to be able to do it all again very soon.