not quite the same as it ever was

It's a long long way to Berrick on Tweed, five hours from Manchester no less to the legendary Barrels Alehousestill it turned out it to be one of the best gigs of the tour, a great little crowd plus AA star accommodation and hospitality ++. I even managed a few over the two [pints of Boddingtons] and slipped effortlessly into semi drunken post gig conversing with anyone who'd listen [though about exactly what I cant quite remember]. Next day, after an obligatory mooch in the charity shops I'm home by mid afternoon, walking the dog and cooking the tea. A week later I play The Ring o Bells pub in Widnes. This gig I've done several times over the past couple of years and all goes pleasingly well, the pedals behave and the hecklers are harmless, also playing are Liverpools MOUTHBREATHER who are louder than bombs, young gifted and kind of dangerous. I chat with them after the gig about life in their teenage bedrooms purely for my own research purposes. Then I steal their guitar lead by mistake. Since then all has been strangely subdued, Andy and Mike are still in the US, Tim as ever is submerged in cabaret world and Craig is casting his film The Elephant House. The NHS doesn't exactly welcome me home like a lost sheep. I play STAMPS in CROSBY [again] on Tuesday 30th March, do come along do, until then, VPx

motorola

Nottingham Rescue Rooms on a Monday night, there's a crowd but somehow we've been booked into a 500 capacity venue which we're just not going to justify. After some promoterly deliberations the show goes on, as indeed it must. We are not Franz Ferdinand, whose record, incidently, is really pretty cool, but that's another story. After some shameless post show CD negotiations with some oh so very poor students it's back at my parents house for luxuriation. Next day I visit my brothers grave and it all comes back, as indeed it should, the stupid waste of life and death that was his. I spend half an hour watching the comings and goings of the villagers from the a bench on the cemetery hillside holding conversation with my brother, the kind of which I never really had with him when he was alive. There's a stone mason with an electric drill rigging up some kind of gravestone attachment disturbing the quiet and then I'm out of there. Later I have a good cry with my Mom. It's great to meet up with The World Turned Edgar at Coel Castle who are old mates and tonight's Birmingham support. They deliver a sparkling set of moody psychedelic power pop despite this being only their second gig. I also catch up with visiting friends and cousins who I've not seen in some cases for years and we get into that everything is worth it in the end feeling, which is nice. My cousin Martin remembers ROOT MULL...and not a lot of people do! Then it's motorwaytime gentlemen please, VPx

AVFC rule OK

Here's the feature from the Claret and Blue Magazine which is a bit like the matchday programme but bigger and brighter. Many thanks to Rob Bishop at the club and Andy woods [VP's radio plugger] for this. Yesterday I did an interview at the ground for the Villa Radio with Jack Woodward and got to loiter behind the scenes in the hallowed corridors of Villa Park feeling every bit the childhood dreamer drooling over pictures of glories past [football fans will get it...Apologies to the rest of you], a truly great day out.. best not mention the result. The interview goes out before the Charlton Game next week [27th March]. If you're a Villa fan checking out Vinny Peculiar I hope you've had chance to hear Replica Shirt. If you like it [ there's an MP3 download from this site] please feel free to lobby for it's match day playlist status...there's only one Gordon Cowans... [whoops wrong era], VPx avfcsmalljpg.JPG

here come the warm jets...sort of.

Heres our glam-wasted promo shot from the photo shop...Mike and Andy are in the US on their DJ marathon tour until 5th April meanwhile we're hatching plans back home for the new record and tour dates. First up is a show in Belfast [ where I'm artist in residence at The Cathedral Arts Festival], on 5th May, venue details to follow.

Roadmungerers

From Cambridge to London and the hamlet of Archway to stay with Helene still no amount of local knowledge can prevent us from getting totally lost on the way to the Spitz and we're 2 hours late for the soundcheck. The Australian sound guy lets us off, just, then its quality pasta all round. Ian eats for two and I am becoming obsessed with the giant seagulls of his dreams. Helene go on first to deliver another quality show. I take some photos from the gallery and meet up with Simon, Amos and Katie from tompaulin [the group not the guy] here to see the gig. It's been some considerable time since I co-produced their debut album [The Town and the City] and we don't get to see each other as much as we'd like [they're in London...I'm in Mancunium] so there's plenty to catch up on. They have a new compilation odds and ends album out on Track and Field very soon called Everything was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt and a new record in progress with Simon at the controls. They promise to send a copy of the work in progress which I've now received and very fine it is too. After the gig, which goes wellish, give or take the odd pedal cutting out problem, oh yeah and that feedback didn't help...Still alls well at the CD stall where I meet scouse mates I never knew I had in the first place, and give away stuff I never meant to. Then its back to Helenes for the Graham and Helene show where I'm sleeping with Charlie the fat cat. Sunday morning and we're off to Leicester after huge veggie bargain breakfast not 20 yards from the flat. Late afternoon we're all soundchecked and ready to go at The Musician, a beautifully formed little venue that becomes a favourite of mine no soon as I walk in. Here I spend ages talking to locals about Family, surely Leicesters finest band ever, and the sheer wondrous joy that is My Friend the Sun, which I mean to cover in my set but forget all about it no soon as I have started the gig. As attendances go this gig is no record breaker..we'll leave it at that and with those who were there. Aftershow I drive to Bromsgrove where I'm staying with my parents, there's an ominous flash from the speed cameras as I leave; subsequently confirmed [just yesterday] to the tune of 3 points on my driving license and a ?60 fine. 38 mph in a 30 zone. Arrgggh. VPx

Behind the times

Winchester Railway 4th March Two bands cancel and the crowd is only just there or there abouts still the surprise appearance of old friends Adrian and Joanne suitably lifts my maudlin mood into instant elation and relief. The show goes well and the CASIO behaves itself. I do the usual obscene negotiations on CD's then I'm back at A&J's house reminiscing on the stuff of human services and the psychiatry of life. I leave for Cambridge suitably refreshed and revitalised after a wake-up call from the children Ellie and Dan who get the postcard signing pop star in the house treatment...the least I could do [OK so it's not a Limo, it's a Peugeot, sorry about that...]. VPx Cambridge, Portland Hotel,5th March I get to Cambridge mid afternoon and spend an hour or so gawping at all the history, the medievility, the other worldliness is quite over powering and not unpleasant. I stay with Ben the ballroom dancing PHD student in his house of a hundred gadgets. He's developing a water pump made out of beer cans for the third world market, and moving to Paris. I meet up with the Helene band at the venue where the talk is of giant seagulls , tap tap tapping on the windows of the soul. And there's the one with a deep biblical voice after a lot of herbal cigarettes who uses a retro delay pedal akin to a Watkins Copy Cat. In short it's good to see them all again. Sam Inglis opens the show with some caustic acoustic tune smithery that is both entertaining and thought provoking. I especially love his song about god the support band. The Helene band next up go down a storm, don't think I've seen them play with such confidence, such class, everyone is thrilled and the venue is buzzing. My set is heckler friendly and somehow all the better for it. And then it's all over, VPx

Blu Bar Wed 3rd Mar

Always further than you think Rhyl is one of those places that feel like they should be just down the road when in fact it's bloody miles away; and I'm late for the sound check. The Blu Bar is already filling up with a young metal-goth crowd most of whom are here to see GINTIS [sounding like a punk rock pink Floyd with a great line in moog oscillation]. A couple have bought a copy of Ironing the Soul with them for signing which is nice. They also buy Growing Up with after the show so Mike and Rachel...this man salutes you with appreciation and gratitude. As the night moves on I'm surprised just how busy the [youth!] club gets. GINTIS play for 40minutes to great acclaim and wild old school hippy dancing, the kind Dave Berrick made his own in Bromsgrove in the late 1970's. It's 11.30 when I finally get on stage after the bizarre removal of my effects pedals by an over zealous stage hand [somebody's mum tidying up apparently]. The pedals are returned, apologies exchanged and off we go. As it happens it turns out to be a great little gig, people are up for it, listen, laugh and there's a crowd when its all over at the CD stall. So taken by surprise am I that I end up giving away far more stuff than I should. I take a wrong turn out of Rhyl and find myself crawling up the coast road at 1pm in a kind of trance looking for the elusive A55 and numb to the digital numbers,numb 2,3,4,5,6, lost in a faraway slumber, where the oil drums are beaten with sticks...John Cooper Clarke egh, don't you just love him, VPx