Luminaire

We set off in three vehicles for the gig at the Luminaire in a bit of a mix up over driving and skiving, needless to say I found myself behind the wheel of a small automobile, like in ‘Once in a Lifetime’ but without the beautiful house and the beautiful wife. We were in London by 4.30, incurred the usual parking problems, leaving the venue every now and again to move the car or the van around the block, pay the small fortune. The venue made up for any practical annoyances by being one of the nicest you could wish for, friendly staff, good sound crew and a fantastic Thi restaurant to die for. I met Luke Haines at the sound check; I only hope I didn’t embarrass myself too much. I have a feeling I might have got a bit carried away with the ‘I’m a big fan’ thing, banging on about my favourite Auteurs moments [and there have been so many] as he listened patiently. He seemed a very nice man and was more than happy to sign a few CD inlays I’d bought along [I bought three…I could have bought more as I have all his records but I was paranoid he’d think I really was a proper stalker psycho type]. Once I’d done the pleased to meet you I think you’re great routine we got to talking about guitars…[American Guitars, there I go again]… and things normalised nicely. The Vinny set was short but quite sweet, no major technical hitches. Craig’s hair looked great despite his anxieties; it was Karen’s first proper gig with us and she played wonderfully. I don’t think I’ve ever played with anyone whose timing is so intuitive. We stayed to watch Luke and marvelled at John Moore’s Saw playing which was truly sublime , especially on ‘The Rubettes’ which I think was the second encore. I saw most of Luke’s set, ‘Freddy Mills is Dead’ and ‘Leeds United’ seemed particularly immediate. I just pre ordered the new album on Amazon. I caught up with locals and good friends of mine Helene and Tim in the side stage snug section. Tim has new glasses, he’s moved from Jarvis to David Byrne style as lighter frames are the future. I am inspired to do likewise. New gigs and radio sessions are being confirmed and added to the tour dates shortly, do check them out if you can. VP x

Radio Land

There’s always some kind of sound issue when you do radio. Last night we were live on Brain Surgery, Mark Rileys new BBC6 Show from Oxford Road. The worse it sounds in the studio the better across the airwaves is my humble adage so we wont get bogged down on that front. I had a few complementary emails this morning from listeners which was nice. Mark was his usual speedy self and we played three songs from the new album ‘Man about the House’, ‘Revolt into Style’ and ‘Living in the Past’ [which I managed to mess up the words for…doh]. The banter between songs led to Mark questioning Ben about his wearing of sarong on stage with ‘World of Twist’…it must be stressed that Ben was never actually in ‘World of Twist’, he worked with them sound and gear wise. This photographic evidence has given me renewed impetus to get him to dress up for future Vinny gigs in a fluffy cat suit; watch this space. I’ve always enjoyed and admired bands that dress up, take those New York Dollies, still at the slap and lippy after god knows how long. Although I’ve never really been that taken with their post Stooges brand of glamma punk you have to admire them...well there are only two of them left but you know what I mean. I used to feel the same way about Zal Clemonson from the Alex Harvey Band. Bowie is of course light years ahead of anyone else in the field still we knew that already. We play the LUMINAIRE on Wednesday, do come along if you can, VPx