Off To Sunny Folkestone and A Rare Find In Glastonbury

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you're all full of chocolate already.

The first gig of the tour at the Engine Rooms in Southampton was a corker this past Friday. Nice big crowd and a lovely venue with good sound, especially considering it looks like an aircraft hanger when you get inside.

Next up is Leas Cliff Hall in Folkestone. A huge venue (1500 capacity!) overlooking the sea and having hosted bands such as the Rolling Stones, Motörhead and Judas Priest it should be a good one.

I'll post some pictures and videos from the gigs as soon as I have them. I've had a lot of request for a rig run through video so if I get a chance at soundcheck later I'll do one.

Finally I had a bit of a rare find in Glastonbury last week. We were having a mooch around the shops while on a mini holiday when amongst the shops selling mystical paraphernalia I spotted an old antique store. Never one to pass on a rummage we had a look inside.

The first thing I was drawn to was a crate of old records. Amongst the dodgy compilations I spied a copy of The Beatles "Rubber Soul" which looked original and was in pretty good condition. At only £10 it seemed stupid not to buy it.

It was only when I got home that I found out that I had bought the rare "loud cut" of the album. When “Rubber Soul” was initially mixed it was slightly different to how we hear it today. These early mixes only ever appeared in mono and are distinguished by the matrix numbers XEX 579-1 / XEX 580-1 in the deadwax (see pic). It’s argued that these early presses were unbalanced with a muddy bass and with an edgy, aggressive vocal sound. Since these copies seemed to lack body the decision was made to halt production whilst the mother platess were re-cut.

Currently there are copies of it going on eBay for £150 so I think I grabbed a bit of a bargain!