David Sinclair Trio

The Blog Marches On

2011-12-31T09:37:00.001Z

This blog has migrated to www.davidsinclairtrio.com, the official website of the David Sinclair Trio.

Local Affairs

2011-02-10T18:28:00.000Z

I'm always delighted when the local press are seen to be paying attention to what's happening in the world of arts and culture. But I was nevertheless a little startled to see my own head blocking out the W on the front page masthead of the h&f news - the journal of record in the great London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham. This particular story of my charmed life gives due credit to my achievements as a musician and music critic, but seems to take a special interest in my role as author of the definitive biography of the Spice Girls. Anyway, it's always great to get such lavish exposure, particularly as we have a gig to fill at the King's Arms in Acton, W3 on Friday February 18. Not only that, but both the DS3 albums - Hey and Threewheeling - are now available to purchase on iTunes, Spotify, Play, Napster, Amazon and Tesco Digital. I'll put some links up here for them when I get a moment, and maybe some of you will find it in your hearts to indulge in a bit of legal downloading.

And who knows, we might even shift a few copies of my Spice Girls book!

Meanwhile, those of you unfortunate enough not to live in Hammersmith & Fulham can check out the story here.

Robert Sandall 1952 - 2010

2010-07-24T07:14:00.001+01:00

My good friend Robert Sandall died this week. I knew him since 1977 when we put together our first group Blunt Instrument. We played together in the Blunts and then in London Zoo until 1980 after which Robert went up to Edinburgh to form a band called Epsilon.

Everybody knows that Robert was an incredible journalist. But in those days he was a hugely talented songwriter and visionary bandleader. I learned so much from being around him in those groups. His lyrics still ring in my head to this day. And if truth be told, he had a bigger influence on my singing and my songwriting and my musical worldview than anyone else, period.

George and I played with Robert in a short-lived instrumental band called the Riding Hoods. And Drew played drums with him in Epsilon. So he touched the DS3 in more ways than you might imagine.

Knowing that Robert was ill, we had organised a Blunt Instrument reunion in London for tomorrow. Bill Benfield has come over from Tokyo, Ed Shaw is coming up from Sandwich. Our roadie Az is flying in from Austria. We tried to get hold of Nick Aldridge (guitarist in London Zoo) but couldn't track him down. (Get in touch, Nicky).

So - typical of Robert to go and jump the gun. But we will be raising a glass to him tomorrow in his absence. An awesome guy.

I have written a personal appreciation of Robert in tomorrow's [July 25] Sunday Times (News Review section).

MySpace Session/Music Think Tank

2010-02-12T12:10:00.000Z

The group is featured in a MySpace package at http://vids.myspace.com/myspacetoday
See the DS3 playing live in the offices of MySpace HQ in London. Includes a new song Perfect In Every Way. Don't forget to rate it while you're over there. It's unmissable!

We are in the running for a prize at the Music Think Tank:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=76206298752
Please check it out and leave a message on the wall over there to register your vote for us. They need to know you care! Thanks peeps.

Inspiration Strikes

2009-09-06T09:22:00.005+01:00

I took a week in August and went to songwriting summer school. I learnt a ton of stuff about how to craft a lyric and melody and, although it may sound strange to say it, I finally got permission to write songs. I met Boo Hewerdine, Andy White, Iain Archer (ex-Snow Patrol) and the mighty Richard Parfitt (who used to be the frontman of 60 Foot Dolls) and I got a serious insight into how the job of songwriting is really done. You can read the full story in today's Sunday Times.

What I discovered was that songwriting is about application and technique not sitting around waiting for inspiration to strike. But the funny thing is this discovery in itself proved to be pretty inspirational, and spending a week in that kind of company sent the motivation meter off the scale.

After our tour of northern England, with Justin Hildreth sitting in on drums - for which many thanks, amigo - the Trio has regrouped with the mighty Jack Sinclair on drums. Jack is an amazing player and always a pleasure to have around. Our recent gigs with him in Hertford (see pic above), Whitstable, Liverpool and here in London have been some of the best we've ever played. Not only that, he has sent the average age of the Trio plummeting. I'm proud to have him installed in the ranks and the band now sounds better than ever.

So we're rolling onwards. Next is our annual gig at Wilton's Music Hall with the Rollin' Stoned on October 30, where we'll have some new songs to play. Amazing venue, and a great night for sure. Come along and check it out.

New Year Rocks

2009-01-04T00:01:00.001Z

New Year's Eve is a special anniversary for the DS3. We recorded our first song – Dusted & Rusted - on Hogmanay, four years ago. Since then:
20 songs, written & recorded
2 albums – Hey & Threewheeling - released on Critical Discs
2 promotional videos, Feedback & London Dust, directed by Jon Slade
45 gigs, including 6 rocking shows at the 100 Club

The group is currently working on:
New songs, ready to record
New video, Was I Strong Enough?, storyboarded and about to start shooting.
Next gig, at the Half Moon, Herne Hill on Jan 17

Plus check out David's special Guitar Break report in The Sunday Times, Culture section TODAY, January 4.

Happy New Year from David, George & Drew.

Knock On Wood

2008-11-04T11:19:00.000Z

There was suddenly an added buzz about our gig at the 100 Club with the blues maestro Stephen Dale Petit when his people sent out a press release the day before announcing that SDP would be "joined by friends Ronnie Wood, Mick Taylor and Tim O'Toole to perform album tracks". But in the end neither the mighty Ron nor the man he replaced in the Rolling Stones showed up (not sure who Tim O'Toole is). I had a chat with SDP after our set and he said that Ron had been proving "elusive".

It certainly didn't spoil a great night. I love playing at the 100 Club. This was our third gig there this year (sixth in all) and there is something about the place - the history, the sound of the room, the width of the stage (like performing on a landing strip) - that gets to me every time. I feel as if my performance there is somehow invested with the authority of the venue, if that makes any sense. Chord changes flow like honey. Stage moves are gracefully executed and I'm back at the mic in plenty of time to sing the next line. Eye contact with the audience is easy - and fun! There is an aura from the place that seeps into your singing and playing.

The gig was reviewed at raysgigs.com (scroll down to 2008-11-01: Thurs evening was a great double bill of blues rock feat Stephen Dale Petit + David Sinclair Trio at The 100 Club, London...)

We are starting work on a new video for Are You Strong Enough? It has been storyboarded by the director Jon Slade, and the band is going to be located discreetly in the background while a tempestuous story of young love and loss unfolds in the foreground. So we are looking for actors to cast in the main roles. I'm hoping we have already found the male lead, but we are still looking for a female lead and two other female supporting characters. It's expenses only at this point, but major kudos and a good laugh await the successful applicants. Get in touch if you think you might fit the bill or know of anyone, preferably in their twenties, with acting skills.

Our previous video, also directed by Jon Slade, is still here (click on "watch in high quality" tab in bottom right corner of screen).

"Now everyone is a star on YouTube..."

Don't Look Back (Unless You're Stepping Back)

2008-09-22T15:06:00.000+01:00

Long ago, I used to work as a researcher on Terry Wogan's BBC TV chat show. He's an absolute pro, hard as nails, nothing like the fluffy character you see on screen. His show used to go out as a pre-record on Saturday night. Then they decided to ramp it up into a live, weekday teatime show, a change which ushered in the era of "wall-to-wall Wogan" on British TV. The day he did the first one - absolutely live in front of an audience of millions - I remember wondering what was the worst that could happen. Well, Terry being the obliging fellow that he is, showed us. He walked on to the stage, slipped and promptly fell flat on his arse!

I was reminded of that moment on Friday at our gig at the Half Moon, when halfway through Was I Strong Enough? (of all songs) I took a step backwards and tripped over Wilko Johnson's amp (which, in my defence, had not been there during the sound check). Next thing I know I'm lying flat on my back with my head underneath Drew's floor tom. Miraculously, we kept the song going. By the time I got back to the mic we'd missed half a chorus, but hey! And what a tremendous cheer at the end.

Now George always tells me not to give away too much about the mechanics of playing when you're on stage. Don't let on that we've never played such-and-such a song before, he says. Don't apologise, whatever happens. Just crack on and don't look back. No one knows where the hell George is looking behind those shades of course, but he's absolutely right. And I don't propose to dwell on my Wogan moment. But to have worked through such a calamity felt like a coming of age.

And the band is coming good in so many ways lately. Feedback, our new video, has prompted some amazing, er, feedback. You can see it on YouTube - but make sure you click on the "watch in high quality" option on the bottom right of the screen. It really makes a difference. We have played a string of cool gigs in the last few weeks, including Wilton's Music Hall - a stunning venue, close to Spitalfields, which is the oldest surviving music hall in Britain - and before that a relaxed warm-up show across the road at Cape, next to St Katherine's Dock, with our friends Bruise. And we are working up to another run in October starting with The Half Moon at Herne Hill on the 18th and Gramaphone, back in Spitalfields, on the 22nd.

See you there. Upright, I hope.

Feedback: An Epic Unveiled

2008-07-10T13:47:00.004+01:00

We've done a video for Feedback. It's fast, funny and brand new. And you can see it here. Making it was a lot of laughs and involved a surprising amount of travelling: from the white cliffs of Seaford to a panoramic hangar at Sky TV via a derelict Quickfix garage somewhere off the A23. We also had a session hanging out in some of our favourite haunts in Soho. The video was shot, conceived and edited by Jon Slade, the Quentin Tarantino of the budget TV/video promo. Check out his site at www.sladey.com, and many thanks to him. Thanks also to Peter Wear and Wellington who played a small but crucial role as The Man and Dog. Make sure you watch through to the end to catch this Oscar-worthy cameo. And Jackie the kid is in there somewhere too. Whoo-hoo!

What else? Well, NovaTunes has suspended operations - temporarily, they say. So if you didn't get your download of Threewheeling already, then hard luck. The good news is that having tackled the download market via downtown LA, we are now working towards a CD release of Threewheeling in the UK. Full news when I've got it. But the wheels are most definitely in motion.

The Johnny Dowd gig went down a storm. I broke a string in the first number, but hey. Great to meet Mr Dowd. What a cool guy. We had a moment at the merchandise table at the end of the night when he gave me a copy of his album and I gave him a copy of Hey. I hope we meet again.

Then on to the 100 Club for one of our best shows yet. Playing with Wilko Johnson. Ray behind the sound desk. Great crowd in. It all felt so good. We are back at Cox's Yard in Stratford-upon-Avon tomorrow, which is one of my favourite venues, with Wilko again. And I'll be bigging it all up on BBC Coventry & Warwickshire radio, talking to Lorna Bailey at about 6.10 tomorrow evening (Friday July 11), before the gig. That's on 94.8, 104 & 103.7FM if you are in the area, or you can listen to it live online here (click on "listen live").

The buzz is truly awesome/I'm here to bang the drum!!

Drunk In Charge

2008-05-04T16:32:00.000+01:00

Sitting on a train to Glasgow where I'm going to see Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. And I'm listening to Johnny Dowd's new album, A Drunkard's Masterpiece. I don't know about the drunkard bit, but as far as the mercurial Dowd is concerned, "masterpiece" works for me. Dowd is an extraordinary character. His life story sounds like a Chuck Berry song. He was born 60 years ago in Fort Worth, Texas; brought up in Memphis, Tennessee and elsewhere; served time in the US Army; and eventually settled in Ithaca, New York, where he set up a furniture removal business and lives to this day. He didn't get around to releasing his first album until he had almost turned 50, but has been making up for lost time ever since. My favourite on this new one is called Unintended Consequences. It's got a really funky organ and guitar riff going on, and then Dowd launches into this kind of beat-poet rap. "Unintended consequences crawl forth like demons from the netherworld..." he drawls ominously, as the bass stabs and the organ surges. "I'm not Fred Astaire nor am I Ginger Rogers," he states firmly, in case we were wondering. Be that as it may, the man knows how to swing.

Did I mention that we're playing with Dowd at Dingwalls on Thursday May 8? Yessiree! A very special night for us - and everyone, I hope.

Talking of which, we had a great time at The Robin Hood in Guildford last week with Pete Sargeant's Band Of Sceptics and Torin Brown. The gig is tiny, but perfectly formed and there was a great atmosphere. Towards the end of the evening Pete in particular was clearly overtaken by the mood of the moment. Leaping up without any prior consultation, he commandeered one of the mikes and added 12 blueswailing bars of harmonica to Eight Rounds Later. He'd picked the right key, which was a relief, and we all thought it sounded trés cool. Pictorial evidence (above) courtesy of Marilyn Kingwill.

And so to the Cavendish Arms in Stockwell on Friday. The stage was straight out of Twin Peaks: red drapes, wooden boards - everything except the dancing dwarf. And the dressing room even included a row of holders along the wall on which to hang up our guitars! Shirley, who runs the place, used to play in a band herself, and when she got her own venue, she resolved to design exactly the sort of gig she would have wished to encounter when she was a musician herself. And that is just what she has done. It was a varied bill, including an unusual ukelele player called Ben and an alt.blues-rock band with a frontman who had checked into a zone somewhere between Mick Jagger and Jaz Coleman - and that was in the sound check! We closed out the night with a set which we turned on its head; started with Going to do Something and worked backwards. Felt good.

We might do something similar for our gig with Johnny Dowd. And if Johnny wants to jump up and contribute an ad lib harmonica break or maybe a tap dancing routine to our set - well, he is very welcome.

Our Busy Night in Time Out

2008-04-16T15:49:00.001+01:00

Time Out have responded to my concerns about the mistake in their listing of our gig at the Boom Boom Club last month (see previous blog).... by printing the whole thing again!! Not only that, but our "bluesy rock combo" is listed in this week's "Rock, pop & dance" section as playing at the Boom Boom (in Sutton) on the same night (Thursday April 17) that we are also listed in the "Folk, blues & world" category as playing at the 100 Club in Oxford St, W1. Guys, I appreciate the encouragement, but that's a hell of a night's gigging - and quite a few genres covered - even by our standards!

Anyhow we are definitely playing at the 100 Club tomorrow, Thursday April 17, on stage 8pm. I look forward to seeing everyone there.

And, of course, we look forward to returning to the Boom Boom as soon as we can do it.

Probably best to stay tuned in to this space for further information.

2008-04-01T09:58:00.003+01:00

Boom Boom Club, March 21

All pics by Marilyn Kingwill

Messing With The Kid

2008-03-30T20:22:00.003+01:00

There was drama at our latest gig at the Boom Boom Club with the Rollin Stoned. Drew phoned in sick at lunchtime on the day - which was kinda short notice to get a replacement drummer. Luckily, my son Jack was around, and up for doing the gig. So George and I hauled him out to a rehearsal room in Kingston and spent the afternoon figuring out a set. Jackie knows the songs pretty well and he has an amazing musical brain. He is studying music tech A level and is planning to carry on with it at university. But even so, talk about throwing a kid in at the deep end...

The Rollin Stoned have been doing amazing business in recent weeks. Maybe it's something to do with all the publicity surrounding the release of the Stones/Scorsese movie Shine A Light. Maybe it's just cause they continue to pull off such an amazingly authentic and affectionate tribute to the greatest rock'n'roll band in the world. Whatever the explanation, Pete Feenstra, the Boom Boom promoter, told me he could've sold 500 tickets for this show, and was turning people away. So the place was rammed even when we were playing. Jackie took it all in his stride and played a blinder. And even when Feenstra leapt on stage near the end and told us to play two more songs it didn't phase him in the slightest. We wound things up with an unscheduled version of Sharks followed by an epic London Dust. Knockout!

I was embarrassed earlier in the week to see that Time Out had mistakenly listed us as the headlining act at this show. Oops! I appreciate the vote of confidence, but I mean, c'mon guys... As already noted, the Rollin Stoned do some serious business on this circuit. We are getting there, but the day when we can headline the Boom Boom is still a little way off - let alone the day we could invite the Rollin Stoned to support us. But as everyone knows, you shouldn't always believe what you read in the press!

Drew has since reported back for duty, and we've been working up some new songs, including a belter called Living Like a Yo-Yo, which pretty much sums up the story so far. And we have now got a new video of London Dust up on YouTube and also on the MySpace page (click on View My: Videos). It was shot and edited by Jon Slade, who has done a sensational job. Check it out.

Next up we are back at the 100 Club on April 17 and then we are playing the Robin Hood in Guildford on April 25 with writer and bluesman-about-town Pete Sargeant's Band of Sceptics and singer-songwriter Torin Brown. And we have just confirmed a date with the sensational gothic Americana troubador Johnny Dowd at Dingwall's on May 8. What a night that's gonna be. Get your diaries out, now!

2008-02-11T10:24:00.000Z

The Windmill, February 9, 2008

[Marilyn Kingwill]

Something In The Air

2008-02-10T19:56:00.000Z

A special night for the DS3 at the Windmill in Brixton, our first foray into the legendary SW2 postcode. We got a really warm reception from a great crowd at the kind of old school pub venue that you used to find everywhere in London but which has now become something of an endangered species. Low, triangular stage in a corner, wooden floor, well-worn fixtures & fittings, generous, unspoilt vibe.

We were sharing the stage with Thunderclap Newman - the band famous for their song Something in the Air, a massive No.1 hit in 1969. Of the original guys who made the record only the keyboard player Andy "Thunderclap" Newman is still alive, which is tragic for those involved, but handy at least for the continuing maintenance of the brand name. Speedy Keen who wrote, sang and played drums on the song died in 2002, while Jimmy McCulloch, just 15 when he recorded the guitar parts, died in 1979 at the age of 26. (Actually, Pete Townshend, who played bass and produced the record, is still alive, but he was never a formal member of the group.)

Newman was already something of an eccentric in 1969. Now in his mid-sixties, he looks and acts as if he has recently escaped from the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. He has gathered an endearingly quirky bunch of talented, multi-national musicians around him, who were some of the friendliest people we have encountered on the circuit. They were great company and special thanks to Antonio for letting Drew use his kit.

I've got to say, that for me, part of the fun of this whole adventure is hooking up with characters like these and becoming a part of the loose fraternity of musicians that operate with continuing commitment and dignity, far from the commercial mainstream. Mind you, I'd like to become part of the fraternity that operates a little closer to the beating heart of the business, and to that end we are, of course, spreading the word about the Trio's new album, Threewheeling, available here solely through NovaTunes, the new, websmart record label based in California.

Four of the new tracks are now up on the MySpace page. And a new video of London Dust shot in the studio is on the way. George has seen it and says it is awesome. Surely, a breakthrough appearance on Later with Jools Holland cannot be far behind! We're available, guys!

Album, Video, Gigs, Painting, Boom Booming...

2008-02-03T22:41:00.000Z

The second album is now released. It is called Threewheeling and features ten new songs written by me, played by George, Drew and myself, and produced and mixed by Gareth Parton. You can find it here at NovaTunes, a hot new record label based in Venice, California. And it's great! I'll be putting some of the tracks up on the MySpace page in the next few days, so check it out.

Oh and we have made a video of our last gig at The 100 Club. It was shot by Jon Slade with help from Phil Chappell and Jack, and edited by Jon and George. You can find three numbers from it at YouTube. We had a screening of the whole performance at a preview theatre at Sky TV on New Year's Eve. Friends, family and the Sky massive showed up. We got in some booze. Sat back and saw ourselves playing on a cinema-sized screen. What a way to mark the third anniversary of the band!

The artwork for the album is an oil painting of the Trio by the acclaimed artist Julie Bennett. Julie is one of the Saatchi Gallery's "rising stars". We sat for her (well, stood actually) in our rehearsal studios in Acton and this superb triptych duly emerged.

The new year kicked off with gigs at the New Bull & Butcher in Whetstone and a return to the always welcoming Boom Boom Club in Sutton, both in the company of the admirable Ruthless Blues.

We are officially launching Threewheeling with a couple of shows at The Windmill in Brixton this Saturday (Feb 9) and The Grey Horse in Kingston the following Wednesday (Feb 13). Come along and catch up with the new songs, and all the other news, there.

Threewheeling

2007-11-18T22:53:00.000Z

We got another run of shows under our belts starting with a return to The Music Palace in Crouch End alongside the greatest rock'n'roll tribute band in the world - aka the Rollin' Stoned. A brilliant night which began with Mehmet (the Palace's manager) worrying that he'd sold "too many" tickets for the show and that the bar would be "too crowded". This is not a complaint I've heard very often since starting this group. And this was a fairly big room. But sure enough, it quickly got so busy that there was no way we could get any of our gear out until after the Stoned had finished their set. From there, we travelled east to The Standard in Walthamstow to play with Ruthless Blues. No complaints about over-crowding at this one, but what a venue. Fantastic stage, great lighting, perfect sound - even a separate dressing room for the support band. We played as good as we've ever done, and got to hear the mighty Ruthless boys strut their blues-rock stuff once again. Then back to the 100 Club - our third time of calling - for a set that, once again, had that special 100 Club something. There is so much history in that room. And it's such a strange and special stage to work on - as long and thin as an aircraft landing strip. I remember seeing the reggae star Desmond Dekker play there not so long ago. A whippet thin guy, in his sixties I guess, he spent the whole gig running from one side of the stage to the other. I remember thinking how fit and lithe he looked. Unfortunately, a couple of months later, he died! So I wasn't taking too many chances - but you certainly have to keep on the move to cover the territory at that place. Great job on the sound by Raye behind the desk. Thanks, man.

The second album is now finished - ten new tracks recorded and mixed by Gareth Parton at Fortress Studio and mastered by Tony Dixon at Masterpiece. The album is called Threewheeling and to begin with it is going to be released as a download, exclusively on a new label based in Venice, California called NovaTunes. Release date is tbc, but it will be available before Christmas. This LA connection is really exciting stuff. We've been talking about it for quite a while, but now it is finally taking shape.

Meanwhile, I have persuaded Julie Bennett to do an oil painting of the group for the cover of the album. She was identified as one of the art world's rising stars by Charles Saatchi, the man who introduced the world to artists such as Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and Rachel Whiteread. Julie is doing a triptych of paintings - one each of me, Drew and George - which will sit next to each other in three panels on the cover of Threewheeling. Fine art and fine rock'n'roll. It's coming your way!

The Blues

2007-09-25T15:51:00.000+01:00

The trio has started the autumn campaign in style. We've been back in Fortress Studio continuing work on the second album. And when we haven't been doing that we've been out and about playing a string of really neat shows. We went back to the Boom Boom Club in Sutton with the evercool Rollin' Stoned. Then to The Miller, a welcoming upstairs room near London Bridge. Lovely PA equipment in there, good crowd, a great sound, and the final resting place of George's long jacket. He's got a new one now - on trial. The shades are still in place, natch! Then we hooked up with Ruthless Blues for a splendid show at The Music Palace, a new venue in Crouch End. Michel (Brian Jones) from the Stoned was in the house to case the joint for their forthcoming show at the same venue. And it was Marilyn's birthday, so trebles all round! Then, last night we sat in at an open mic night at the Cardinal Wolsey in Hampton Court.

That was an eye-opener. We haven't done anything like it since our first public appearance in January 2006, when we gatecrashed a soft-rock/acoustic troubadour-type get-together at a tourists' bar in Covent Garden. This time we found ourselves among the worshippers at a suburban temple dedicated to the blues, the whole blues and nothing but the blues. Thank God for Eight Rounds Later, our ever-dependable homage to Chuck Berry, and the only genuine 12-bar in our set. We hammered that one out straight away and got an amazing cheer - then followed it up with a swift one-two combination of London Dust (inc. big solo!) and Going To Do Something. Home and dry.

But this blues thing....! The Cardinal Wolsey is part of a thriving circuit in which an audience inclusive of all age groups gathers to hear live music - which is great. But it is live music of a highly specific type, comprised mostly of three basic chords and innumerable, anything-but-basic guitar solos. There is an approved repertoire of songs which must be cover versions, and generally-speaking the older and more familiar these are, the better. So we heard Going Down and Going Down Slow and Little Wing and Long Train Running and Honky Tonk Women and Superstition and many more. We had a chat with Tony the organiser afterwards. He's an experienced drummer himself and he knows the ropes. He explained that in order even to get started on this circuit you have to play long sets, stuffed with standards and covers. Otherwise, forget it. We were the only people from start to finish, at the session, who ventured an original song. Our mini-set went down great and we are welcome to go and do it again. Just don't expect anyone to book us until we can muster a passable imitation of Hendrix, Clapton or Stevie Ray Vaughan or preferably all three. Fair enough. It's a buyer's market and that's what they're buying.

So how exactly is a boy fronting the snappiest guitar trio in West London supposed to get on? I'll tell ya.

The second album - which I'm calling Trio for the time being - is now taking firm shape. We have just about finished all the recording, and have got some time booked with Gareth to start the mixing next month. It is a big step forward from Hey, with songs which speak to a much wider musical and emotional range - from a scorched-earth rocker called Feedback to our first ballad(s).

Oh and did I mention we are about to sign a deal with an American record company? I'm just going over the contracts now. How exciting is that? It's Very Exciting Indeed!!! I'll spill all the details once it's done and dusted. But I can tell you right now that they have not asked us to record Stormy Monday Blues or Hoochie Coochie Man.

Fabulous Gig

2007-08-11T05:01:00.000+01:00

Our last gig before the summer break was at Club Fabulous @ Leonards, a funky little bar around the back of Exmouth Market in EC1. I was intrigued to see that the night before we got there, the club had put on the veteran London blues-rocker Gary Lammin together with the even more veteran-ary music journalist Charles Shaar Murray. In a previous life, I once auditioned for Lammin's group. I always liked his songs, particularly the ones which follow that kind-of-Rolling Stones/Faces, good-time, bar-band, rock'n'roll route. And I remember Murray when he was hacking around town under the nom de rock of Blast Furnace and the Heatwaves. Small world. Small old world, actually, when you think about it...

As I arrived for the sound check at Club Fabulous, the guy in charge was ID-ing a bunch of kids who were hanging around in the bar area. Turned out they were one of the other bands, Rosco McQueen. "I haven't got any ID," I told the jobsworth as he glanced in my direction. They all had the good grace to laugh. We all rather liked Rosco McQueen, who played a lively set of quirky alt.indie-rock of no fixed style or time signature, after us. It was certainly different. So too was the ambience created in the bar by the band that preceded us, Kensifella whose Unique Selling Point was their unusually in-your-face use of a smoke machine. Cranked up to maximum output, the contraption belched out industrial quantities of smoke throughout the band's performance, filling the entire venue from floor to ceiling with thick clouds of choking white fumes. Their drummer disappeared during the first number, never to be seen again, while the staff ran about opening windows and fire exits in a vain attempt to get rid of the fog.

The stage was one of the smallest we've played on, but the monitor sound was good and we played our usual set of instant classics to a select crowd many of whom were either friends of our photographer-by-appointment Marilyn, or had made friends with her by the end of the night. George and Drew were on fire, while I was dripping so much sweat by the end that it seemed momentarily to short out my FX pedal during the closing stretch of Your World Mystifies Me.

We've now scattered for the summer. George has gone to Los Angeles - where there is some exciting stuff for the band in the pipeline - while Drew and I have both been in Scotland. Drew has since gone back home to Southend, while I am just about to set off on a trek in the opposite direction, to Wick in the far North which is where my family originally comes from, although I have never been there myself before.

We have more time booked to carry on working on the second album, in Fortress studios with Gareth coming up on August 20 & 21, and a welcome return to the Boom Boom Club with our friends the Rollin' Stoned beckons on Saturday September 1.

See you there. Or here. Or somewhere soon.

Filthy Gig

2007-07-03T19:45:00.001+01:00

We had a great night at the legendary Filthy's at The Red Lion in Twickenham last week where we played with Juke and Linear North. Filthy's is an old school pub gig of a sort that you don't find too often in London these days. Angular-shaped stage, pool tables, bar in the middle, easy-going vibe, free to get in. It reminded me of the old Station Tavern in Latimer Road or the King's Head at the bottom of Fulham Palace Road - as it used to be, but sadly is no more. While the London monsoon continued outside, we marched through a short set to a warm reception. I enjoyed Juke's set as well - they are a rocking, keyboard-driven trio with soaring lead vocals from bass player Alex Dew. Good to catch up afterwards with some of our MySpace friends who showed up (Hi, K!k!) together with Earnesto, Jason, Luke and all the gang from Sky TV.

Two nights later we were reunited with the John Otway band at The Greenwood in Northolt. This is part of the Pete Feenstra gig empire (see also the Boom Boom Club in Sutton, the Half Moon in Herne Hill and elsewhere) and like others of his that we've played, it is run with energy, commitment and careful attention to detail. It is a beautifully-preserved art deco hall with a high, old-fashioned stage, and it was pretty full for what was actually Otway's first gig there. We got another good reception from an audience that had come to listen to some music (this isn't always the case, I've noticed). Otway had a sore back, but he soon turned this misfortune into a neat running gag, and despite some unevenness in the sound quality turned in a typically entertaining performance. Thanks to Pam & Alan for, once again, putting our album on the Otway merchandise stand. I trust we didn't take too many sales away from the great man!

Next up is the fabulously named Club Fabulous at Leonards, EC1 on Friday July 13. Lucky for some! This is one of these gigs with a rather forbidding mission statement/contract warning you (the act) that no one will be there unless they have come specifically to see you play. So we need to orchestrate a massive turnout from all our loyal fans! I'll be in touch...

Heroic Success

2007-06-17T22:27:00.000+01:00

To Stratford upon Avon last night to open for the indestructible John Otway at Cox's Yard. Brilliant venue; sitting right next to the River Avon which had swollen due to the heavy rain in the Midlands over the weekend, so much so that the water was lapping up to the feet of the tables on the patio outside. And what a brilliant gig. A lovely space to play in, well organised, great sound. People come from miles around for the gigs in this place, and no wonder.

Let's talk about Otway for a minute. This guy put out his first album (with his still occasional sidekick, Wild Willy Barrett) thirty years ago. Around the same time he had a modest hit with Really Free, a faintly ludicrous, punk-rock pastiche that has weathered the intervening years considerably better than a lot of songs that were offered in deadly earnest by the thrusting young groups of that era. Since then, Otway has made a living by portraying himself as a heroic loser - the Eddie "the Eagle" Edwards of rock'n'roll, if you will. His autobiography, Cor Baby That's Really Me!, was subtitled Rock and Roll's Greatest Failure. And Otway peppers his show with anecdotes about his chequered past, usually at his own expense. At one point he solemnly recalls the fate of one of his records which reached No.186 in the chart. And there's lots of clowning around, including a sequence of madcap stunts involving a small stepladder that is pure slapstick.

But here's the thing. Otway is no more of a loser than anyone trying to make his way on this or any other entertainment circuit. Quite the reverse. The substantial crowd of people who had paid to come and see him, loved his show. His band are all top notch musicians, and Otway is a skilled performer with some memorable songs at his disposal. What's more, he makes money and runs a totally cool operation.

His band let us use all their backline equipment (saving all that tiresome changing over of gear after our set). His merchandising people offered to put Hey on display alongside all the Otway albums on their stall, and handled the money on our behalf. We had the full run of the dressing room area and equal access to the beer and sandwiches thoughtfully provided by the venue. Best of all we got to play to an Otway audience.

And here's another thing. Otway's fans are not self-regarding scenesters or hip indie kids or members of any other particular rock tribe. They are friendly people who've come out to have a good time on a Saturday night. And they were packed in right up to the front for our set. They made us feel great, and we had a ball. Best moment for me was when I heard the "ah-ah-ah" outro of Sharks coming right back at me from the front row. An audience singalong, no less. And then the same thing happened again with George's "yo-ho-ho" vocal line in Eight Rounds Later. Absolute magic.

So much of this business involves talking up your achievements, glossing over the disappointments, never giving an inch. Otway stares all that stuff down every time he walks on a stage. Talk about setting your demons to work on your behalf. Yes he makes you laugh. But there is something noble about him too.

And I tell you this. Right now I'd be happy to get a record to No.186 in the chart. In fact, I think I'm going to make that my new aiming point for the year ahead! That and to get the band back into Cox's Yard. That would be really free.

Tres Hombres

2007-06-03T22:04:00.000+01:00

We had a lot of fun opening for our MySpace friends Pezband from Chicago and The Sky Pirates from London at the Borderline last Sunday. It could have been a festival site outside, what with the hot dog stands and the bank holiday crowds sloshing along the flooded pavements in Charing Cross Road. Inside we at least managed to keep things dry, and a bit more intimate.
Indeed this was one of the most intimate gig experiences I can remember. Our third time at the Borderline, and it was like a rock'n'roll version of Noah's Ark, with the bands - all trios - going in three by three while the rest of the world melted away in the rain. We debuted a new song, London Dust, written during the "summer" which we had here in April. "The sun's in the sky and the city's run dry". Good to keep it real. And we also gave another new song, Just Struck Gold, its first public airing, to immediate and monumental acclaim.
Those are two of the numbers which we started recording during an epic two-day session at Fortress Studio in N1, just before the Borderline gig, and it was great to play them again in the ultimate one-take situation of a gig. As always, it all went by so fast, but George and I hung around for the Sky Pirates and Pezband, both of whom kicked out the jams with righteously rocking conviction. I've seen the Pirates twice before, so it was great to hang out with these guys and to meet the Pezes - a bit like our time last year, when we toured with the Favours and the Wrens from New Jersey.
Next gig is the Pressure Point in Brighton, where we are playing on Sunday June 10. Ahead of that, we are booked in for a return visit to the Pete Jones show on Brighton's Radio Reverb on Wednesday (June 6). Tune in at 7pm on on 97.2FM in the Brighton area or you can hear it online on their website. It's gonna be a South Coast happening.

In the Right Direction

2007-05-18T23:10:00.000+01:00

I did a really great session on the Pete Jones show on Radio Reverb last week. Radio Reverb is a new station operating on 97.2FM in the Brighton area or, like most stations these days, broadcasting worldwide via their website - do check it out. Pete has a radio style that reminded me of the young Bob Harris. Very clued-up, laid back vibe. I went to Brighton direct from Glasgow, and since I hadn't been home for three days, I didn't have a guitar with me, as requested. No matter. Pete had borrowed a lovely Ibanez acoustic from a friend of his, and so I was able to play a new song - Sharks - live on air. A world premier, no less. Pete played Going to do Something and Dusted & Rusted from Hey and we had a good long chat about how I got the band together and about the writing and recording of the album. Then he played some of my favourite tracks by other acts: the Stones (of course) Muse, and Little Barrie. Best of all - having said on air how much we'd like to play in Brighton - the very next day we were offered a gig at the Pressure Point in Brighton on June 10.
Marilyn Kingwill, who has taken so many brilliant photographs of the group since we started, is now booking our gigs. She has made an impressive start with a string of shows in London and elsewhere, beginning with a return to the Borderline on Sunday May 27, in the company of our friends the Sky Pirates and Pezband. For full details check the MySpace site. And thanks Marilyn. Your photo pass will be on the door.
Meanwhile, we are going into Fortress Studio near Old Street, N1 with Gareth Parton for two days this week to start work on some tracks for the next album. We have already got ten top new songs, all written and rehearsed. It's going to be so exciting starting on another album with George and Drew. We've played together so much since the sessions for the first album, that this will be a completely different trip. I think we are going to surprise a few people.
As Drew is fond of saying, it's all moving in the right direction.

The Greatest Thing in the World

2007-02-17T22:50:00.001Z

I just saw Nick Cave on The Culture Show (BBC2) and he was saying how live performance can either be the greatest thing about being in a band - or the worst. He knows what he's talking about. We had such an amazing night at the 100 Club last week, supporting Wilko Johnson. Loads of people showed up, some of them expected, others not - all very welcome. Everything felt right. The sound was good (thanks Ray) and there was just a really nice vibe in the place. It seemed like we were walking on air.

Picked up our heels and headed south to the Boom Boom Club in Sutton the next night, to rip it up with Nine Below Zero. We had to work quite a bit harder at that one, but a great night just the same. The gig also produced the strangest sighting of the year, when David Hargreaves, who used to manage my group Blunt Instrument, appeared like a ghost from the dim and distant past.

The distribution of the album has been picked up by Proper from February 12, and you can now order and buy it from all good record shops in the UK. Please do! It is called Hey, the label is Critical Discs and the catalogue number is CDISCS 001. Sue Williams at Frontier has been doing promotion and Lisa Agasee has done a brilliant job of getting the record out to the press. There have been some good reviews and a couple of revealing interviews. Here's a taste:

"There's a post-punk/Stones feel to it, but then I can also hear some Kinks/Paul Weller in the lyrical style, and some early-Beatles George Harrison picking, some Peter Buck-ish riffing... But it all hangs together in a unique way. I think that’s when you know you’re on to something worth listening to." getreadytorock.com
Interview here
Review here

"A music critic who plays guitar and harp and fronts a band…looking like a taller version of Johnny Dowd, Sinclair plays a sharp Telecaster but his words are even sharper – ten self-penned tracks here, with intriguing titles like Bouquet of Weeds and Fajita Hell.... More please." Blues Matters

"Down With Whatever.....mixing witty lyrics with slightly raw pop melodies, whilst Pennies On A Plate, with its semi-spoken vocal, recalls the Stranglers’ sneer; all very English without being twee.... it hits the spot more than satisfactorily." Backlash
Interview here

"You hope he's kept the day job." Q magazine

TV Smith Misinformation Alert

2006-09-20T18:12:00.000+01:00

Great news. TV Smith is going to play a set at our gig tomorrow at Ginglik. We were originally booked to support another band who, rather inconveniently, have split up. So Tim has kindly agreed to step in at short notice. What a dude!

Tim has done it all. A brilliant singer and songwriter, he was the leader of the Adverts and then TV Smith's Explorers, the band for whom, in a previous existence, I played drums. We were signed to Kaleidoscope, a subsidiary of CBS, and released one album - The Last Words of the Great Explorer. Tim has released many albums since then while reinventing himself on the road as a one-man acoustic punk-troubadour. His current album, Misinformation Overload, is a return to his angry rock roots and comes highly recommended.

So this makes tomorrow's show not merely a great line-up but also a historic reunion. It will certainly be a pleasure for me to share the same stage as Tim again - if not at exactly the same time.

See you there.

Working for Wogan

2006-09-20T18:08:00.000+01:00

As I mentioned in my last blog, I used to work as a researcher for Terry Wogan's BBC1 TV show on Saturday nights. In those days Wogan was like Parkinson is now - the biggest hitter in the talk show game. Every week, three "top names" would be wheeled in to meet "the Irishman" as we used to call him (though not to his face). My job was to interview these stars a week or so before they came on the show, with a view to finding out "areas of interest" (and, just as importantly, identify the no-go areas) for Wogan to explore. I would write up a report of my interview, including all relevant background information and then, with the help of the Chief Production Manager (or some such title) - a hilarious guy called Chris Greenwood - I would write the questions Wogan would ask, and try and map out a structure for the interview. The questions were then written on huge idiot boards for Wogan to read off as he went along. Sometimes he followed them to the letter. On other occasions he simply ignored the whole process and went off on a complete tangent, never referring to the planned questions at all.

It was a bizarre ritual, but valuable experience for my later career as a journalist when I had to conduct a lot of interviews of my own. Working for Wogan I got to meet Charles Dance, Rory Bremner, Robbie Coltrane, Roald Dahl, Gore Vidal, Sir Robin Day and loads of others. The nicest of them all was Joanna Lumley. But the biggest eye-opener really was being around Wogan himself. That cuddly, self-deprecating, slightly bemused, soft-as-a-teddy-bear persona that he deploys to such great effect is not what he's like at all. He's actually very quick-witted and as tough as they come, but fairminded and a decent bloke too.

Anyway, the reason I'm writing about this is I got to do an interview this week on Spacecast, in which the discusion turned to my time with Wogan, among various other episodes in my chequered past. We also talked in fascinating detail about my new album Hey, which is almost upon you!

Spacecast is the brilliant weekly radio show hosted by Alex Leam on MySpace. One click on www.myspace.com/alexleamneedsaradiojob takes you there. Click on Monday 11 for Part 1 of the interview, then Thu 14 for Part 2.

So check it out when you've got a minute. It's a broadcasting first!

Richard & Judy

2006-07-21T22:36:00.000+01:00

So I got the call to go on Richard & Judy. Was I available to talk about the joys of being a rock'n'roll musician and music writer with a page on MySpace? Er, let me think about that... Yes! I think I could be persuaded. What a trip this turned out to be! I've done a lot of guest appearances on radio and TV - mostly Sky News and various bits and bobs for BBC and LBC radio. Usually they send a car, which is nice. But once you are there you get whisked in and out like a pop tart in a toaster - which is basically what you are. Not so with R&J. Arrive at the studio in South London about 90 minutes before the show starts. Ushered into my own dressing room. It's even got my name on the door! Next door along is marked Richard Madeley and next to that Judy Finnegan. Inside there is a TV, coupla easy chairs, basket of fruit, and a lovely carrier bag with a gift and a handwritten card. "David, With love and thanks from everyone at Cactus, but especially me, Amanda x" - and underneath: "Amanda Ross, Joint Managing Director." Cactus is the production company who make the R&J programme for Channel 4. Lots of sleek young women with big plastic laminates round their necks patrol the corridors. I am whisked into make-up where I meet Aleks Krotoski, a broadcaster and journalist who is writing a PhD on Social Networking at Surrey University. She is businesslike, well organised. Then in the Green Room I find Alex Tew, the kid who dreamt up the idea of the Million Dollar Homepage to finance his business management course at Nottingham University - except now he's made more than a million dollars he's dropped out of uni. Well what would you do? Also there is his friend Stephen, who is either talking furiously on his mobile phone or banging stuff into his laptop practically the whole time we are there.
The researcher, Leo, has a clipboard, which he refers to with an efficient air, as he talks us through the subject and explains what we can expect. "It's all very relaxed," he says. "Just chat away at will, interrupt each other, do whatever you want." I used to do his exact job, a long time ago, on Terry Wogan's show, so I know a bit of what he's thinking. We are small fry in this world, but he has also had to deal with Sam Neill, who is on before us - and someone has had to cope with Jennifer Aniston, whose (filmed) interview with R&J is screened after us. Stars of that magnitude are thrilling to meet, but a pain in the arse to be around if it is your job to mother and mollycoddle them through a show like this. I tell Leo about the time I was bawled out in a BBC corridor by Raquel Welch because she objected to Wogan's line of questioning, and his reluctance to show a clip from the rotten Keep Fit video she was plugging at the time. Leo tells me that Raquel Welch swore several times - on air - when she went on R&J, and they had to apologise to viewers for her remarks. Plus ca change....
So, as luck would have it, the finished copies of my new CD, *Hey*, have just come back from the manufacturers. The album is not released yet, but obviously I have got to get in a mention at the very least. With the words of my gorgeous PR, Lisa Agasee, ringing in my ears - "Go in there and plug it!" - I am carrying a copy of the CD with me as I head towards the sofa in the studio. But before I get there, I am accosted by a floor manager who says "You can't take anything on to the set - I'll look after that for you" and whips it out of my hand. It seems that R&J are hyper-sensitive to the plugging power of their show, and take extraordinary steps to prevent people taking advantage of it. Alex Tew (who is on at the same time as me and Aleks PhD) arrived with a logo on his T-shirt, and promptly found a person from the wardrobe department sticking little bits of black tape over it to blank it out. Anyway, we get on and Richard & Judy start talking up the MySpace thing like it has just arrived on their doorstep from Mars. It's all wonderful but far too complicated for them to understand, isn't it? Show a few daft clips - girl eating jaffa cake, etc - that have been doing the rounds for years. Anyway, it all passes by in a blur. Richard, rather nicely, asks me what my band is called. It's called David Sinclair, I said, which was the closest I got to a plug!
After we're finished there is a little get-together in the green room with Richard & Judy. Richard is so thin. He really is. The girls with laminates cluster round while a delegation of management suits congratulate him on the Jennifer Aniston interview. "I felt we could have done better," Richard says. I am handed a large glass of wine and talk to Judy for a bit. She's friendly but guarded, as you would be. Sharp mind. What a wild afternoon.
So here's the thing. Everyone is talking about the power of MySpace and the Internet and how these days you can network your way to the stars. But when you get right down to it, the effect of the mainstream media is still incomparably more powerful. Even as I was saying my name to Richard, people all over Britain were typing it into their computers. Later, when I get to check my site, I find I had about 60 adds in ten minutes, while I was on TV. Also loads of messages, saying hi, saw you on R&J, my you're cute, etc. (well, not *so* many of the latter, but let me reassure anyone out there - flattery will get you everywhere!). MySpace, Bebo, Garageband and all the rest are brilliant platforms. But you do need something else to trigger the effect.

Going Underground

2006-05-19T21:54:00.000+01:00

Trying to find Ginglik is like looking for the doorway to The 10th Kingdom. You can be staring straight at it and still not see it. A bunch of fairy lights slung over a metal archway and a strangely camouflaged sign with a big "G" and a very small "inglik" stand at the top of a flight of steps that lead down to a subterranean chamber beneath Shepherds Bush Green itself. The traffic and people swirl around in perpetual motion without ever touching or even noticing this little island in their midst.

Inside, you are in a different world. A lovely room with soft furnishings and a kind of bedouin tent vibe beckons to your left. There is a stage at the far end, PA, lights, etc. To your right a spacious bar area. It's a real friendly, club atmosphere, the kind of joint where people become regulars and invest something of themselves in the place. And we had the honour of playing there last night with our MySpace friends, the Favours. The sound and lighting were, by all accounts, first rate, the band was on fire, and we really had a brilliant time. Great to see so many friendly faces.

But here was the killer: Matthew Ryan, Brian Bequette and Steve Latanation from our Myspace friends Strays Don't Sleep showed up - all the way from Nashville! They had just arrived to start a UK tour with Josh Rouse. Owing to a missed connection they had spent the previous night sleeping in Washington DC airport. Tonight they are playing in Sheffield. And they still managed to find their way to an invisible basement bar on Shepherds Bush Green to check out the scene. What great guys. They are playing Shepherds Bush Empire next Thursday (May 25). Now that's a gig not to be missed.

Ginglik, May 18: The Favours/Mon Fio/David Sinclair/Paul Jeffrey
Set list: Jammed/Time is the Simplest Thing/Pennies on a Plate/Dusted & Rusted/Swimming With the Sharks/Bouquet of Weeds/Going to do Something/Life's Too Serious/Feedback

Encore

2006-05-04T04:36:00.000+01:00

The album is slowly coming together. Jethro, who is designing the cover, sent me through the first draft of the artwork this morning, and it looks so cool. It is called Hey, and it is going to be released on the, ahem, Critical Discs imprint, catalogue number CD 001.

Meanwhile, the group has been working up new songs and playing more gigs. We have actually played The 12 Bar Club twice since I last checked in here. Our first show there, on March 9, was a blast, and our triumphant return on April 20 even more so. Much as we enjoyed playing there, I got the feeling that we kind of strong-armed the place into submission, whereas the other acts who played before and after us, generally took a more subtle approach to seducing the audience. Thing about the 12 Bar is - it's small. And, no disrespect, but it's a weird place to play. There was a neat review of a gig by our MySpace friend, the American singer Jeff Klein at The 12 Bar Club, which ran in The Independent on March 24. "There can be few stranger live-music venues in explored space," the critic Andrew Mueller wrote. He went on to explain that the venue is "a tiny room, the size of which some genius has attempted to double by inserting a mezzanine halfway between the ceiling and the floor." The net result of this peculiar arrangement is that when you are performing on the stage your eyes are roughly level with the feet of the people upstairs. And you can only see the audience downstairs from the waist down. Most acts, it seems, prefer to sit while they're playing there. But that's not for me. And while Drew may be sitting down, he is not a drummer who allows himself to be held in check. So we charged through our set and gave the walls a good rattling. My friend Garry Bell, a West London musician originally from Canada, was ensconced on the mezzanine level. "Similar boxed seating to the Cream gig at the Albert Hall last year," he commented afterwards, "Only much closer!"

Our other gig over this period was our return on Good Friday to The Borderline. And once again it was a fantastic experience. That place really is the Rolls Royce of London club gigs. Instead of being one of four bands, as we were on our previous visit, this time there was just us and a bare-chested hard rock ensemble by the name of Great White Hope. Our set was a dream to play - great sound, great lights, great audience, the works. We debuted two new songs - Swimming With the Sharks and Feedback. I love this place.

The 12 Bar Club, Mar 9: Uncle Bob Strano/Kevin Stanke/KeithThomson/David Sinclair/Alexander
Set list: Jammed/Time is the Simplest Thing/Pennies on a Plate/Dusted & Rusted/Going to do Something/Life's Too Serious/The Song Marches on

The Borderline, Apr 14: Great White Hope/David Sinclair
Set list: Jammed/Time is the Simplest Thing/Pennies on a Plate/Dusted & Rusted/Swimming With the Sharks/Bouquet of Weeds/Not Another Wasted Day/Going to do Something/Life's Too Serious/Feedback/The Song Marches on

The 12 Bar Club, Apr 20: Norton Money/David Sinclair/Joe Doyle
Set list: Jammed/Time is the Simplest Thing/Pennies on a Plate/Dusted & Rusted/Swimming With the Sharks/Bouquet of Weeds/Not Another Wasted Day/Going to do Something/Life's Too Serious/Feedback/The Song Marches on

On the Road

2006-03-08T06:16:00.000Z

It's true what they say. If you want to knock a group into shape, and find out what your music is all about, you have to go out there and play live. It's more than simply learning how to hit the notes in the right order - although that's a significant, and sometimes underrated, part of it. It's also about stepping up to the plate, usually in less than perfect circumstances, and finding out what it takes to strut your stuff. It's about locating the spiritual dynamic that powers the group of individuals you have thrown in your lot with. And it's about figuring out how to get your room key in the door after ten drinks on an empty stomach.
We certainly did all that and more on our trip out of town as support on the Wrens' UK tour. Arriving for our show on Tuesday at Rock City in Nottingham, George, Drew and I were ready for anything as we imagined ourselves commandeering the grand stage at this well-known, 1,900-capacity hall. What we hadn't taken on board was that Rock City also has a club-sized venue within the same building - capacity 300. Guess where we were playing.... So, not quite the Bon Jovi moment we'd imagined. But, hey, we were ready to rock. Unfortunately, the Wrens were nowhere to be seen. Having flown in to London from New Jersey that morning, they were driving up with the other support group, the Favours, and had got stuck in traffic somewhere around Birmingham. They all showed up in time to do the briefest of brief soundchecks. But the first sound I got to hear from my guitar was the opening chord of our performance.
Not an ideal start but we banged through the short version of our set and got a warm response. The Favours, who come originally from Hull but are now based in London, then took over and did a bunch of their melodic-indie-garageband-harmony-pop-rock songs. Their bass player, Martin, looked like one of the guys in Abba, while their singer and guitarist, Sara, reminded me of Holly Beth Vincent of 1980s New York, new wavers Holly and the Italians (Holly, strangely, used to live in the flat above me in Shepherds Bush). George was totally smitten (by their music). Cool people, for sure.
Cometh the hour, cometh the Wrens. I already knew they were an awesome band, but seeing musicianship of that order on a stage that you've not long vacated yourself is a humbling experience. They have spent a long time on the road and they have put it all together: heartbreakingly beautiful songs, manic, high energy theatrics, pinpoint musical accuracy, and a love of what they do that borders on the obsessional. I'm joining their fan club. If they haven't got one, I'm going to start it.
After the gig, the Wrens and the Favours were travelling on to Birmingham, where the next night's gig was scheduled. We were staying put in Nottingham, so we packed up the gear and piled back to the hotel bar. Our friend John was helping with the equipment, and Marilyn was there taking photographs, along with her friends Ian and Celine. Eight rounds later, George, Drew, John and I were back at Rock City where they now had a late night disco thing going on. I remember the DJ playing Paint It, Black, then it all gets a bit hazy.
Arriving at the Bar Academy in Birmingham the next day, we had an unusually leisurely soundcheck, and then decided to head off for a drink before the show. But what was this? We could hardly fight our way out of the place for the queue of fans waiting for the doors to open. Fame at last! Except the queue turned out to be for the Academy (proper) next door, at which Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley was appearing. Who? Dude, the Bar Academy was absolutely the cool place to be that night. Sadly, we weren't there very long ourselves. Played our set, bundled everything out the fire escape door and took off back to London. They were still out there queuing to get shaken down by the security goons for the Marley gig when we left.
One night off, and then we were playing at the 100 Club along with another of our MySpace friends, the Storys.These were very laid back, talented guys, whose West Coast harmonies and hairstyles suggested that although they came from Swansea they were really a parallel-universe incarnation of the Eagles. Legendary venue, of course - which has played host to bands from the Sex Pistols to the Rolling Stones - but that long, thin strip of stage takes a bit of getting used to. There was the usual rushed soundcheck, abruptly curtailed by the doors opening and the first punters coming in. I don't think I heard a note that George played all night. But Drew was certainly cranking it out on the kit, and he was hearing George, so the message kind of got passed along the line. Great to see a select yet dedicated bunch of people showing up for our set.
Next up, The 12 Bar Club on Thursday. Come along and say hello.

Rock City, Nottingham, Feb 28: The Wrens/The Favours/David Sinclair
Set list: Jammed/Time is the Simplest Thing/Dusted & Rusted/Pennies on a Plate/Going to do Something/Life's Too Serious/The Song Marches on

Bar Academy, Birmingham, Mar 1: The Wrens/The Favours/David Sinclair
Set list: Jammed/Time is the Simplest Thing/Pennies on a Plate/Dusted & Rusted/Going to do Something/Life's Too Serious/The Song Marches on

The 100 Club, Mar 3: The Storys/Stations Of The West/David Sinclair
Set list: Jammed/Time is the Simplest Thing/Pennies on a Plate/Dusted & Rusted/Not Another Wasted Day/Bouquet of Weeds/Going to do Something/Life's Too Serious/The Song Marches on

Borderline "review"

2006-03-07T23:51:00.000Z

After catching our historic gig at The Borderline, Caroline Sullivan, the revered rock critic of The Guardian, has found time to pen the following testimonial:

David Sinclair - man and band - are blues and rock and something that's not quite of either. Inspired by the same sources that initially got the Rolling Stones up and running, they shake it up, yank it about and make it swagger.

What a sweetheart!

Borderline

2006-02-25T21:01:00.000Z

We had a top time at The Borderline last night.

This is a legendary venue - I saw R.E.M. perform on this very stage (under the alias of Bingo Hand Job) - and having now played there myself I can see why it is so highly regarded. Everything about the place is quietly efficient. All the staff are switched on, and the equipment too. The in-house mixing desk guy (Mike) is brilliant - four bands soundchecked with a minimum of fuss and ready for the doors to open at 7pm. Everything ticks over with a calm sense of purpose.

We were the first group on - at 7.45 prompt - and although it was kind of sparse out front to begin with, it felt like a serious gig, partly because the sound on stage was brilliant, and partly because the lights were so bright you couldn't see who was (or wasn't) out there. Actually it filled up pretty fast and even if it hadn't, George, Drew and I were grooving so much on just being up there that I don't think we'd have noticed.

We played a short set, but not, it turned out, short enough. It went by in a flash, and when we came off, I figured we must have hit our half-hour target about bang on. But I was dismayed to discover we had overrun by ten minutes, severely cutting into the changeover time for the next band, our MySpace friends Jebo. This was totally unplanned, and all the more unfortunate, since Jebo had been kind enough to let us use their backline (to save yet another changeover of equipment), and had been unfailingly helpful and friendly when we were setting up. I wasn't wearing a watch, which I should have been, and lost track. My apologies, then, to Jebo, who had to get themselves organised double quick to make their start time of 8.30.

Afterwards, we did a photo session in the backstage area with Marilyn for some CD artwork which is gradually coming together. Look out for some new shots on the website before too long.

And next week we have got three gigs. It's starting to feel like a real band.

Next stop Nottingham!

The Borderline, Feb 24: The Happiness/Jack Viper/Jebo/David Sinclair
Set list: Jammed/Time is the Simplest Thing/Dusted & Rusted/Pennies on a Plate/Not Another Wasted Day/Bouquet of Weeds/Going to do Something/Life's Too Serious/The Song Marches on

Live review

2006-02-21T19:33:00.000Z

Thoby Young has reviewed my group's show at The Rifleman. Here's what he had to say:

"He’s doing his first gig tonight – can you take the children?"
Not a particularly rock and roll invitation from the missus to the opening night of David Sinclair's min-tour with his new band to promote his first album. But he is a friend and neighbour and he has driven my daughter to the bus stop every school day for years. So this is how it was going to be.
David has been loyal to his first love – rock ‘n’ roll – for longer than he would probably care to remember. As an author, he fascinated with his account of the trials and tribulations of the Spice Girls. As a rock critic, he has kept the feet-up pop-picking Times-reading classes abreast of all the latest developments in rock for more than a decade.
David Sinclair’s love of rock goes further than this. His agreeable terraced house in fashionable Hammersmith’s has a backroom den of rhythm and blues iniquity, with a vast drum kit, de-tuned piano and as many guitars and amplifiers as are needed to refine a rare talent: that of the rock and roll polymath.
The Rifleman at Hounslow is few people’s idea of a great place for a night out – certainly there weren’t many drinkers in the front bar. But those who were there were clearly deaf to the events unfolding in the outsized shoebox at the back of the pub, lovingly described, by the landlord whose directions we sought for access to the gig, as "Outside".
It might just as well have been. It is one of the great truths of Rock and Roll that the more dispiriting and unappealing the venue (dirty, dark, damp), the more the real thing, if you are lucky enough to find it, will elevate the spirits and souls of those present. This was always going to be a challenging gig, but David’s discernible vocals, easy charm and magnetism ("This is everything I hoped for"), cadenced by the coruscating treble mix of his trusty Telecaster, kept us absorbed and distracted from the freezing temperature. Drew Farmer’s totally steady drums propelled the show. There was little to distract the band from its proper task of getting down and dirty for our pleasure.
All the band’s new material from Hey, their first album, was covered along with a brace of unrecorded numbers. The outstanding moments are found in the signature dish, Dusted and Rusted, which has the feel of a song that could have been written and recorded any time in the last thirty years and will never date.
The witty lyrics Fajita Hell ("Went out looking for a Taco Belle/Ended up with Fajita Hell"), the intelligent up-tempo topicality of Down With Whatever, the simple swinging drum breaks of the George Harrisonesque Bouquet of Weeds and the cool major chord riff of Life’s Too Serious (a Stones lick in another life?) all prove the versatility and originality of the DS band within the often confined limits of three piece rock.
Pennies on a Plate, another swinging number with a light six/eight feel, bluesily recounts the downs and further downs of marrying the imperative of earning a crust, dealing with the demands of family life and fending off the constant demands made on us all as we go about our business in the city that is London.
With the DS Band, their deft lightness of touch belies the harshness of our gritty shared urban reality. Their gig sends us out into the grubby winter world refreshed and alert to the need to do what we want with our lives - as David Sinclair and his band are doing.
That’s a kind of liberation. As the man himself says - Hey! Check out the band when they pass through your town.

Rocking at The Rifleman

2006-02-20T03:08:00.000Z

So we kicked off the first bunch of live shows on Friday, with a performance at The Rifleman. Hell of a place. A spectacularly rundown backroom in a corner pub in Hounslow, the gig offers the visiting band a stage and PA - of sorts. The house microphones and stands have all been ripped off, so bring your own. Ditto the foldback monitors. Stage lights don't work. No heating. Fire exit locked. But a very nice welcome from the management, who then left us to get on with it.

Our sound engineer, Torin Brown, who leads a double life as a folk troubadour, played a great opening set. His kind-of-Bob-Dylan-meets-Mike-Scott songs got a warm welcome - about the only thing that was warm in that place. Nice voice and some superb harmonica playing. I especially liked Waterline, an eloquent study in quiet desperation.

We kicked off with a new song, Not Another Wasted Day, and then hammered through everything we know - basically the whole of the album plus one other unrecorded song, Eight Rounds Later. Some rough edges, but we had a brilliant time, and the modest crowd who had braved the bitter cold to be there, gave us a fantastic reception. Thanks especially to all the people who came down from the George Andrew Fan Club (Sky TV division). Kay Burley rules!

You can track the rest of the upcoming dates over at the MySpace site. But if that is a click too far, here they are again:

February 24 THE BORDERLINE, WC2 (+ The Happiness)
February 28 ROCK CITY, Nottingham (+ The Wrens)
March 1 ACADEMY, Birmingham (+ The Wrens)
March 3 100 CLUB, W1 (+ The Storys)
March 9 12-BAR CLUB, WC2 (+ Keith Thomson)

See you there!

The Rifleman, Feb 17: David Sinclair/Torin Brown
Set list: Not Another Wasted Day/Time is the Simplest Thing/Jammed/Pennies on a Plate/Fajita Hell/Bouquet of Weeds/Going to do Something/Eight Rounds Later/Down With Whatever/Life's Too Serious/Dusted & Rusted/The Song Marches on

SongLink

2006-01-24T05:59:00.000Z

My song, Bouquet of Weeds, has been placed on the Spring 2006 SongLink International sampler CD, out this week. SongLink is a long-established organisation which links songwriters with artists and publishers from all over the world who are looking for new songs to publish and record. Six times a year, SongLink publishes a news and contacts magazine accompanied by a CD featuring about 24 tracks on it, which is circulated to a global subscriber base including record companies, publishers, management companies, A&R departments and the like.

Bouquet of Weeds, a love song with an unusual sting in the tail, was the second track I recorded for my album, and was the immediate choice of SongLink's award-winning editor David Stark, for inclusion on the disc. David is currently at MIDEM, the music business jolly-up which takes place around this time every year in Cannes, where the new edition of SongLink will doubtless be circulating among the more hip and alert members of the international music business fraternity. You can read about and hear the MP3 clip of Bouquet of Weeds, via the SongLink website here (scroll down to Track 12 then click on MP3 clip).

Gigs, Photos, Action!

2006-01-16T04:35:00.000Z

With the album finished, it's time to play some gigs. And where better to start than with a couple of dates in Nottingham and Birmingham, supporting our fabulous MySpace friends the Wrens from New Jersey? So George, Drew and I will be packing our overnight bags for an out of town sortie next month (details on the MySpace page).

I caught the Wrens' show when they last played in London, at the Barfly, at the end of October. What an awesome band. They've been around for 15 years or more, and have survived various brushes with fame. Their live show is a kind of post-Gang Of Four, art-rock explosion. It is like watching wild animals trying to get out of a cage. I'm certainly glad we won't have to follow them on stage, that's for sure.

George, Drew and I have been busy rehearsing the songs, and are gradually piecing together a setlist. But to really get us in the mood, we took ourselves down to The Roadhouse in Covent Garden, last Monday and booked a slot on their legendary open mic night. This is a great gig for any musician who finds him/herself in town with a free evening and a song to sing. The night is organised every Monday (except over Christmas!!) by two guys called Matt and McGoo, who will also supply acoustic guitar accompaniment and harmony vocals if you give them advance warning of what song you are going to sing. The format is strictly limited to two songs by each performer, for which you get a bite to eat and one free drink - not a bad deal when you factor in the bar prices!

The tone of the evening was very acoustic and singer-songwriterly with a bit of a cabaret vibe. Some people sang their own songs, but mostly it was covers. I heard Radiohead and R.E.M. ballads, that Crowded House song about bringing the weather, and a window-rattling version of River Deep, Mountain High, all done on acoustic guitar. Obviously, we had something a bit different to offer: a bass player and drummer for one thing. Mindful of the swift turnaround and the two-song limit, Drew had brought only his snare drum and hi-hat. Even this buskerly arrangement was greeted with grave suspicion by Matt'n'McGoo, but after seeing the determined expression on the big man's face, the M'n'Ms were gracious enough to let us give it a shot.

What followed was a valuable reminder of Lesson One when playing live: expect the unexpected. With George's bass and my guitar plugged straight into the PA (there was no back line amplification), we were entirely dependent on the monitor mix for our onstage sound. Drew has got to be one of the most forceful drummers I have ever known, and as we piled into Dusted & Rusted, all any of us on stage could hear was the snare drum and a bit of vocals. Drew reined in a bit but, if anything, the balance on stage got worse as we carried on with Going to do Something. It was like a performance-art "happening" where two guys with their guitars switched off do a bit of singing while a third mysteriously hammers a single drum beat which may or may not have any bearing on what the imaginary guitars are playing. I'm not joking. It was surreal. It was a shambles. But here's the thing. The crowd of maybe 150 or so, really got it. There was a bunch of kids at the front - probably Armenians, according to Drew's special intelligence - who were dancing away, and we got a great cheer at the end. God alone knows whether we hit any of the right notes at the right time. But it was such a good laugh, and the response from the audience to two completely unfamiliar songs was really up!

Our friend and ace photographer, Marilyn Kingwill was on hand to make a visual record of this historic occasion and you can see her pics any minute now on the website. Many thanks to her.

So, our first gig. Now we've really got the bit between the teeth.

The Roadhouse, Jan 9: Open mic night - David Sinclair
Set list: Dusted & Rusted/Going to do Something

Review

2005-12-13T17:19:00.000Z

Matthew Ryan has reviewed my record. Here's what he had to say:

Ok. So I meet this fella in a plastic bubble barroom in Nashville. Tall, important looking. Maybe a little too important looking. Nice coat though. I find out his name his David. Handshakes and polite smiles. Saturday afternoon, a blind date of sorts. Its damp outside. Looking like a chilly early evening. Good excuse to have a drink. Maybe two. There's a group and there are several accents at the table - English, Southern American, Canadian. Eventually a CD is sliding around the table. Lotsa hmmmms and ohs and reallys? Simple cover. Orange with bold letters: DAVID SINCLAIR. Interesting, I thought this fella was music journalist, not a rock 'n roller. I've never written a review before. I'm sure there's a protractor I'm missing. However, I measure music by an involuntary response. It's automatic. Therefore I feel qualified to keep writing.

Dusted & Rusted EP
David Sinclair

If you're sharp enough to understand that The Pretenders are top ten Rock N' Roll royalty, then David Sinclair's Dusted & Rusted is for you. Telecasters bustle, thread, twang a bit and crunch while the rhythm section leans and pops. Spit shoots from the speakers cause Mr. Sinclair's throat sounds like a race horse that just broke from his stall. The lyric is straight and unadorned. Apparently the myth of Jimmy Hendrix is an inspiration for Going To Do Something. But this song feels working-class to me. Any kid that ever looked beyond the gray and cruelly familiar rooftops of their hometown should identify with that desire to explode into that great promise that youth makes. Meanwhile, a bluesy Bouquet Of Weeds hops along with a Kim Deal type backing vocal that adds an element of bored sinister. A cold killer. Resentful and very English sounding, Bouquet Of Weeds reads like a dejected singer/songwriter that's holding a grudge despite his desire to confide the humor in disappointment. The title track, Dusted & Rusted, had me thinking "Holy Ray Davies Meets The Jazz Butcher!" Now, its never fair to assume one's intentions. But I believe its safe to say that Mr. Sinclair has a few bullets with some names on them. God have mercy if he finds a gun. Dusted & Rusted is a bit self-obsessed. But that's all right, isn't that what pain does -- turn you inward? It's bound to get ugly. So ... an enjoyable listen. Visceral and hooky, these songs are for barrooms and fast cars speeding over bridges from cities when traffic is thin and mistakes are tattooed to your eyelids. I only wish Mr. Sinclair would work a little harder for a rhyme from time to time. But its a simple language that's leaning on delivery with a caustic rock n' roll band that's as simple as a punch in the face and does the same.

Move Over, Rover

2005-12-07T22:28:00.000Z

Talk about finishing with a flourish. George, Drew and I convened in the Stone Room on November 27 and with the usual guidance from Gareth, we captured a sparkling performance of Going to do Something. The number was inspired by Charles R Cross's recently published biography of Jimi Hendrix, Roomful of Mirrors, but it is a song for anyone who is wandering this world in search of something better. You can hear it, download it, check the lyric and rate it if you want, from my homepage at myspace.
So there it is. I have made my album. Ten tracks written and recorded in eleven months. Naturally, I would like to thank everyone involved: George, Drew, Jack, Elizabeth and - from start to finish - Gareth and his amazing technicolour pro-tools kit. What a trip it's been. Now I've just got to get it out there with a barcode, and let the rest of the world know about it. Stand by!

Rolling & Tumbling

2005-11-24T20:37:00.000Z

Action stations again. We are returning to the Stone Room this Sunday to record the final track of the album. George and I have been working on several fronts since our last session, putting together new songs and laying plans. Unfortunately, Drew's tour of Europe ended in disaster when, just days before he was due to return to London, he rode his bike into a pothole on an unmade road on the Isle of Lewis. The bike landed on top of him, causing serious damage to his right knee - the last place a drummer needs to be carrying an injury. The big man was stretchered home and underwent a succession of operations, skin grafts, you name it. But he's back on his stool again, and it's time to get the job finished.

My Space

2005-09-22T00:20:00.000+01:00

It's official - I'm making an album! It is going to be called Hey, and it will rock your world.

But hang on. Let me bring you up to date.The two new tracks promised last time - Jammed and Time is the Simplest Thing - are now available to download from my new home on the net at www.myspace.com/davidsinclair. You can either go there direct or follow the link from my website, as before.

At the same location you will also find my greatest hit, Dusted & Rusted, together with another brand new song, Fajita Hell, an unusual and bloodcurdling tale of mass murder in a Mexican restaurant. This song, which was again recorded at the Stone Room with Gareth Parton at the controls, features George Andrew on bass and my son, Jack Sinclair, on drums.

It has been a busy summer. We hadn't even got Jammed and Time is the Simplest Thing mixed at the end of July, when Drew announced he was setting down his drumsticks and heading off on his motorbike for a grand tour of Europe. In the following weeks I got a succession of texts from the big man. One minute he was in Cinque Terra, telling me about Byron and Keats and the other great poets who hung out there; next thing he was high up in the Dolomites outside Corsair. That one came in while I was working at the Cambridge Folk Festival. We compared notes. Drew reckoned he was enjoying a 10/10 experience "for earth beauty". With the best will in the world, I couldn't find it in my heart to rate the Cambridge Folk Festival on quite the same level of ecological magnificence.

The texts kept coming - from Lithuania, Estonia, the Outer Hebrides. Which was great. But the songs were starting to pile up. So George and I started working on a couple of new ones with Jack. Jack is a brilliant drummer. He is 14 and plays in at least two regular groups - Ophelia and the Midnight Sessions. He has a ferocious double-bass drum technique and a really good ear for picking up an arrangement. He has helped me knock all of my songs into shape and has proved a constant source of inspiration - not least with his uncanny knack of talking in song titles (Dusted & Rusted and Fajita Hell were both lifted straight from conversations with Jack).

After a couple of rehearsals we had three new songs ready to record. So with Jack installed behind the kit and Gareth in charge of the desk, George and I duly returned to the Stone Room on August 3, and banged down the basic tracks to all three.

By this time, Gareth was deep in Mercury Music Prize madness. From the moment The Go! Team's album Thunder, Lightning, Strike (which he co-produced) had been shortlisted, the man was more booked up than a library. I did get to see him at the Mercury Awards dinner, where he was in a bouyant mood, despite the Go! Team's rowdy masterpiece having been passed over in favour of that strange, sad affair by Antony and the Johnsons. "Everyone's a winner," Gareth reassured me, through gritted teeth.

We slotted in two further sessions at the Stone Room on August 17 and September 8, by which time we had finished another two tracks. And I am going back next Monday (26) with Gareth to finish off two more. At which point I will have nine completed songs. I have got one more still to do, and then I figure my first album will be ready to release. And released it is going to be! Stay tuned for details of when, where and who.

In the meantime, check out the new songs here.

Phase Two

2005-07-21T02:43:00.000+01:00

Well - it's been a longer delay than I intended, but the group has not been idle. Elizabeth has gone off to learn the pedal steel guitar and has completed her masters degree in music. She tells me she thinks she is now "the only bird in London who plays pedal steel, saxophone and bass". In her absence I have recruited George Andrew, a bass legend, originally from Aberdeen, but now resident in Esher. After several inspiring rehearsal sessions at Survival Studios in Acton, George, Drew and I checked into the Stone Room on June 21. With Gareth once again at the desk, we recorded two brand new tracks - Jammed and Time is the Simplest Thing. George and I returned on July 8 and finished off some harmony vocals before Gareth did the mixing magic. I am now getting the artwork and other things together and the new songs will be appearing on the website in the next week or so.
Meanwhile, congratulations to Gareth for his inclusion on the highly prestigious Mercury Music Prize shortlist, announced yesterday, as co-producer of Thunder, Lightning, Strike - the debut album by The Go! Team. It's an amazing record. Respect!

Three by three

2005-04-22T19:33:00.000+01:00

After delays for work and holidays, we have finished recording our third song. It is called Pennies on a Plate, and was recorded by Drew, Elizabeth and me, with Gareth at the controls, on March 23. Gareth mixed it on April 13. The song is an example of a rare musical strand known as the Shepherds Bush spiritual, a sorrowful lament which lays bare the tortured soul and punishing lifestyle of the modern pop critic. It will be appearing any day now on the website and you can download it to add to your collection.
Incidentally, it's great to hear back from so many of you with such positive feedback. We are working on more tracks, and a picture of where we are going seems to be emerging - slowly. I'll be back once the mists have cleared.

The Brand New Heavies

2005-03-22T01:05:00.000Z

So I met up with the Brand New Heavies in Copenhagen last Thursday. What an amazing night! I watched their show at the 1,500-capacity Vega club from the mixing desk enclosure in the company of the group's PR, Sam Oxley, and their sound engineer Mark Ralph. They played brilliantly, and their new singer, Nicole Russo is a star! But what happened next really floored me.

When the gig was over, Sam, Mark and I wandered backstage to hook up with the band. As I walked into the dressing room an acoustic guitar was thrust into my hands, and before I knew it I was in the middle of a jam session - with the Brand New Heavies!!! How cool is that? Answer: Just as cool as it ever gets, believe me.

As well as guitarist Simon Bartholomew, bass player Andrew Love Levy and Mark all playing guitar, bass and/or various percussion items we had a succession of glamorous singers on board, including not only Nicole, but also the Heavies' talented backing singer Heidi Vogel and the lovely Simone Larsen, singer with the celebrated Norwegian group D'Sound, who were supporting the Heavies at the gig. Well, we swung through a selection of 12-bar blues with varying degrees of success (on my part), followed by impromptu versions of the Doobie Brothers' Long Train Runnin' and La Bamba, which morphed, as it often tends to do, into a spectacularly raucous version of Twist and Shout. And then, just when it all seemed about to peter out, Mark started pestering me to play one of my songs. Next thing you know we were ploughing through Dusted & Rusted, hastily adapted for acoustic guitar and bass. God knows what it sounded like, but it felt fantastic.

I guess, having heard that I was a musician as well as a journalist, the group had decided to pay me the ultimate compliment and invite me to play with them. Well, flattery will get you everywhere in this game, and believe me, I was beyond flattered. Flattened more like!

But I was genuinely impressed too, not just by their generosity of spirit, but also by their unforced enthusiasm for playing. Even after all those years on the road, and straight after a gig, when most musicians would either be out partying or holed up in their hotel bar, they were all still totally up for it. I can also tell you that to play with musicians like that, under any circumstances, is a privilege. They have such total command of their instruments that, for me, it was a bit like hitting a tennis ball with Pete Sampras.

Naturally, after it was all over, I was dishing out copies of the Dusted & Rusted CD left, right and centre. Mark, who also co-produced the Brand New Heavies' super new album, Allabouthefunk, gave me his number and suggested we meet up some time in his recording studio in London. Simone volunteered to play the CD on a show she hosts on a Norwegian radio station. And Simon said that if I wanted him to play guitar on one of my future recordings he would be happy to do it. Wow. Respect! At last!! And maybe even Big In Norway to add to the CV.

Talking of future recordings, Drew, Elizabeth and I are returning to the Stone Room with Gareth on Wednesday (23rd). We have two new songs ready to record this time, so if everything goes according to plan there will be more to add to our online repertoire in the near future.

After which, I am going to San Diego to see U2 play the first show of their World Tour. I wonder if there will be any aftershow jamming on that trip... Come to think of it, I've got a couple of riffs that The Edge just might want to get to grips with. Hey-hey-hey!

The importance of being David Sinclair

2005-03-04T19:31:00.000Z

I am often asked "Are you David Sinclair?" And sometimes I have to reply "No." Or at least I have to confess that I am not the David Sinclair in question. If you are new to this blog, or unfamiliar with my website, or still otherwise confused, you can find my biographical details here.

So, David Sinclair. It's a splendid name and not one that I would change in a hurry. But it is also a surprisingly popular name. In fact, there are enough of them around to form a small masonic lodge. Who are these other David Sinclairs? There are several of them lurking in various corners of my world, but none who moves in quite such close proximity to me as the David Sinclair who is renowned for his photographs of jazz musicians. His name seems to be permanently on the door at Ronnie Scott's, which makes it a bit awkward on the odd occasions when I phone up asking to get myself on the guest list there. Our paths have crossed several times, and it seems likely that we are distantly related, since both our families come from the north of Scotland and we are quite close in age.

I once reviewed a concert by Andy Summers for The Times and David took the photograph which accompanied my piece. The by-line and the picture credit were thus both [separately] in the name of David Sinclair, which I thought was really rather cool, since most people who spotted this would surely have arrived at the conclusion that this Sinclair fellow must be even more talented than previously suspected. David gave me a lovely print of Andy Summers as a souvenir of that occasion, which I keep in my office. I still see David from time to time, most recently across a seriously crowded room at the launch of the new Vortex club in North London last month, when Acoustic Ladyland, featuring the sensational young jazz drummer Seb Rochford, played an utterly blinding set.

There is a completely different author and journalist called David Sinclair who is best known for his book The Pound, a "biography" of the UK currency, described by one reviewer as "a timely narrative of sterling's 1,000 years of history." This David Sinclair is, or was until recently, executive editor of the Financial Mail on Sunday. He also, rather incredibly, used to contribute to The Times. Not only that, but he occasionally turned his hand to writing about pop. This was before I started writing for the paper, and I was unaware of him until we were introduced at a media jolly-up somewhere in town. He suggested that I might like to insert an initial in my by-line. I haven't had the pleasure of speaking to him again. However, I did once receive a substantial payment for an article I obviously hadn't written. I eventually figured out that it should have gone to him. I wonder if he got it in the end.

However, the namesake I am most often confused with, or asked about, is David Sinclair the musician who used to play keyboards in the group Caravan. Convened in Canterbury in 1968, Caravan specialised in a whimsical brand of progressive rock played in awkward time signatures. A largely ego-free bunch of English eccentrics, including David's cousin Richard Sinclair on bass and vocals, they were fondly regarded by a particularly knowing sort of 1970s rock fan. But they were never as forceful as their more celebrated contemporaries Soft Machine, and despite a couple of brushes with the lower reaches of the charts with their albums Cunning Stunts (1975) and Blind Dog at St. Dunstan's (1976), they remained the archetypal underground/cult band.

Again, I am roughly the same age as this David Sinclair, but that is where the similarities end. I don't play keyboards, I have no connections with Canterbury. So far as I'm aware he has never written for The Times. We have never met or spoken. But perhaps the most crucial divergence in our histories is that he has become known - whether by choice or otherwise - as Dave Sinclair. So it is strange that he is the one I am most often confused with.

There are plenty of other David Sinclairs who can claim varying degrees of celebrity, including the flamenco guitarist living in Ontario, and the former pirate radio DJ, who was also working in Canada the last anyone heard of him. But as identity crises go, the situation could be worse. Imagine what it must be like to have been born with the name Fred West or Michael Jackson. None of my lot are mass murderers - so far as I know - or world famous superstars.... yet!

New track

2005-03-01T00:53:00.000Z

Well, we did it again, and I am delighted to report that my new song, Bouquet of Weeds, went up on the website today. Elizabeth, Drew and I recorded it, as before, with Gareth Parton at The Stone Room on February 18, and you can now download it from www.davidsinclair.uk.com absolutely free of charge - for the time being. A bittersweet love song which shines the spotlight on the overlooked genre of West London country-rock, Bouquet of Weeds came together with remarkable speed soon after Dusted & Rusted. And there is more on the way.... Stay tuned!

David Sinclair - New Journal

2005-02-10T21:12:00.000Z

If I've learnt anything during a lifetime of working in and around the music business, it is that talk is cheap. But the launch of the historic website www.davidsinclair.uk.com demands a few words of explanation.

It exists because two months ago, completely out of the blue, I wrote a song called Dusted & Rusted. But what to do with it? In the serendipitous way that things occasionally happen, I found myself booked in to a studio on New Year's Eve with one guitar, two of the finest musicians and friends I could have hoped to recruit, and a man in charge of the sound board who was more magician than engineer.

With Elizabeth Kinder on bass and backing vocals, Drew Farmer on drums and Gareth Parton at the controls, we nailed the song well before the evening festivities began. I've done a lot of recording, but never anything quite like this. The turnaround was so swift and neat, the alchemy perfect. The feedback from hardbitten industry professionals has been gratifyingly positive.

The idea of simply leaving it at that was unthinkable. Hence the David Sinclair website, your one-stop destination for downloading Dusted & Rusted, and the place where you will be the first to find out what happens next.

Actually, I'm wondering about that myself.

But we're working on it. Check out the track at www.davidsinclair.uk.com .Tell your friends. I'll keep you posted.