Sneak preview...

The Cover art for the Eightball Voodoo single, A cover of "Blaydon Races."

THE SOHO COBRAS Live in Oxford 19/03/10

We played in Oxford on Friday. I hadn't really been back there since PISTOL KIXX broke up, so it was really cool to get  there and say hello to some familiar faces. Again, a big thank you to John for booking us and having the faith to give us a gig before he'd even heard a note.

We had quite a wait between sound check and playing so we did sink quite a few drinks... maybe to many, but things were a lot more relaxed now that we have gotten rid of the first gig nerves.

I did get to meet some interesting locals while standing around boozing including the owner of possibly the nerdiest and most glorious tattoo I have ever seen. Check out these winged storm trooper helmets! Who would have thought to combine tits and Star Wars in a single tattoo...? This chick, that's who! :-)

The gig itself was great fun. The sound wasn't so good, but now that we've lost our live cherry we were all giving it a bit more in the jumping around and gin-spitting departments.

I did have some technical problems which threw me a bit. My guitar kept sounding like the volume was backed off no matter what I did, and then my crappy Behringer tuner froze on me... (time to finally buy the Boss one I've been promising myself.) I spent most of the night convinced that my fantastic Marshall TSL601 was on it's last legs, but once I got home and had a chance to look into it, it turns out my pick-up selector switch was full of dust and crap and wasn't connecting properly. It all seems fine now, but worst case scenario, I have to replace a £10 switch rather than an £850 combo, so it's all good.
It did mean however that the guitar sound wasn't great on the night and kept cutting out on me, but I put on  a brave face and did the best I could.

We also unveiled our comedy cover. WARRIORS OF GHENGIS KHAN by BAD NEWS.

Anyhow, here's some video:






The sound isn't as good as the video from THE GAFF, but I think that's half down to my guitar sounding a bit shit and the sound in the room just not being as good.
Still, having said that it was a great night.

I can't wait until the the gig at The Underworld in Camden on the 29th of March.

"Eugine's Trick Bag" Cover on youtube...

I've had the day off today so I've been playing with my new video camera...

I've finally posted some video on youtube, the first of lots more to come. For now all I've got is a quick cover of the solo "Eugine's Trick Bag," the finale solo from the 1986 film "Crossroads" which stared Steve Vai as the devil's axe man,  Jack butler. Anyhow at the end the Karate kid plays this to defeat Mr Butler in a guitar duel and save his soul.

All good wholesome fun, except I've been trying to play it for 4 years!

I learned it note for note about 4 years ago but I've only really been working at getting it up to speed for the last year or so, but I'm finally getting there. Not "there" enough to play it live, or standing up, but "there" enough to video myself playing it in the comfort of my own home and make strangers watch it on the internet.

So here it is me having a go at "Eugine's Trick Bag."