Red Shoes.

Friday and I ended up somewhere just west of east – The Jubilee pub, Sunbury, opposite Kempton Park racecourse.

That night it was the kind of place where all the locals look up when you walk in, well they did when I came in through the door. Tumbleweed drifted.

I invested in a draught Amstel Bier but somehow it didn’t taste the same as drinking Amstel Gold in a brown café like the Café Alto just off Leidseplein. I have a feeling it was brewed in an industrial estate in the north of England.

And who on earth is ever going to want to drink this?

 

Nice sign, though.

Now I’ve got all that off my chest, I saw Capital City; that’s Alan on bass, John on drums and Iain on lead guitar and they take you on a tour of London’s R ‘n B sounds starting at Richmond with the stones and ending up at Canvey island with Dr Feelgood. There’s a theme developing in my week – can you spot it yet? Actually they were an old fashioned covers band, with some work to do.

 

Check out the red shoes! Iain’s guitar playing was good.

I got a spirited selection of old favourites – Louie Louie, Walking the dog, Route 66, ‘The Walk’ by The Inmates, some ‘High Numbers’ tracks (early ‘Who’), a lot of Johnny Kydd and the Pirates and a burst of three Dr Feelgood tunes – Down at the Doctors, Back in the Night and Roxette.

The Pirates rocked but didn’t have much to say. The Feelgoods were the best and now Wilco, Lee and the band are getting the respect they deserved.

Back in the mists of time I saw the Feelgoods and the Pirates so it was an evening just for me in a week that’s turning out to be my very own Bluesfest.

Wilco is having a good spell at the moment, appearing at a Blues Festival up north this weekend, and yesterday I saw a Wilco Johnson band Tour T-shirt at the ‘Blues Business’ show.

The Cancer Cru salute you, dude.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)