To get to H J's place needed a 5 hour drive through the badlands, with only 4 gb's of Blues Music for company.
Fortunately the weather was fine and the drive uneventful (unlike the return journey, when the weather was awful and I nearly got into a fight with a guy who bashed my car. But that's another story).
Arrived at the home of H J and just had enough time to take off my coat before being whisked into his guitar room. I'm not sure why he calls it that, yes there are guitars in there, but there are guitars all over his house!!
We got down to some jamming but before you knew it, it was time to eat and then head out into the mean streets of Manchester.
So with H J at the wheel of the Blues-Mobile off we we went. Mrs H J came along to try to keep H J in check, without success. as we'll discover later.
Mrs Blues was not in attendance as she is not a fan of the Blues. She used to enjoy listening to it before I started playing guitar. I've always thought that was a strange coincidence. She did however send down a jar of her famous home made Jam which she thought was funny as H J and I were having a jam session.
Anyway it was on the mean streets of the big city that we had our run in with the local sheriff and his deputy. They seemed to think it was a bad idea for H J to do a u-turn and attempt to drive the wrong way along a one way street.
It seemed perfectly logical to H J, after all that was the quickest and easiest way to reach the space he had decided to park in. Fortunately the Police Officers let him off with a look that said "pillock" and didn't invite us to accompany them to the station.
They probably would have arrested us if they had been around a few minutes later When in his haste to park the car and get to the gig H J inadvertently ran over an unsuspecting pedestrian. But as H J said "they (pedestrians) shouldn't be allowed on the road. Therefore it was the pedestrians fault". I'm not sure the pedestrian saw it like that as he was looking up from between the wheels of the Blues-Mobile.
As soon as H J made sure the pedestrian hadn't dented the car on his way to the ground we set off for the venue.
Band on the Wall is small and intimate, the audience are very close to the stage and with the right performers there is an easy rapport with the audience.
The night kicked off with Ben Prestage, a one man band who played some blinding guitar. Ben also played a two necked Diddley Bo. One neck had 1 Bass "String" the other neck had 3 guitar "strings". Two pick ups were connected seperately to a bass amp and guitar amp. That man rocked!
Then it was the turn of the main attraction: Ian Siegal.
He decided on the spur of the moment to do a western influenced set. He blamed it on the shirt he was wearing.
He really got into his music.
Then just when we thought it was all over, Ian invited Ben to join him on stage for an impromptu jam. It was excellent. At one point they were both playing slide guitar at the same time. And it sounded great!
When it was all over and time to head for home, Mrs H J who was now in charge of the Blues-Mobile, took us for an unscheduled tour of the delights of Manchester. She assured us we weren't really lost and even ignored the sat nav.
The next morning it was back to H J's for a hearty breakfast followed by a bracing walk in the rain and gale force winds with him and his 3 dogs. It certainly blew the cobwebs away.
Finally we (me and the dogs) were allowed to go home and pick up the guitars again (me and H J, not the dogs). An excellent day was spent annoying the neighbours with our renditions, including but not limited to Brown Sugar, Layla and Are you going my way. However I am not certain that if asked the neighbours, who although they could certainly hear us loud and clear, would have been able to tell that we were not just playing the same "noise" over and over. But hey, we were having fun.
H J at the controls:
Now about this Stratocaster issue we have.
I admit, without reservation, that H J's new Strat is a beautiful guitar. The quality of the workmanship is excellent, the neck was a joy to hold and I enjoyed playing the guitar. It made a MIM Strat that H J has feel like a toy by comparison. And by using the correct effects pedals it could even sound as good as a Les Paul or 335 style guitar. I was naturally very impressed.
In December it is H J's turn to come up to Scotland and continue the jam. We are also going to see Nine Below Zero (infamous British Blues Band) perform locally, well 40 miles away, but that is local in Scotland!