So, what have I been up to lately then ?

Friday night at The Oaks : I took Rosie with me ( for protection ) to see Bookham And Riskit, alias Ed and John, who were playing live in only their second gig together. Very entertaining, especially the Everly Brothers spoof, Cathy’s Gown. Yes Ed’s been writing lyrics again !

Saturday night round at Richard’s : Chinese and ‘Headbanz’ with drinkie poohs and merriment too – Thanks Rich !

Sunday : Rosie not too well unfortunately – either Moose distemper or a bad reaction to anesthetic from Saturday afternoon’s dental surgery. Went over to see Mum – see I didn’t forget it was Mothers’ Day, and then had a bash at practicing new features soon to appear on this website when re-vamped – It won’t be long, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ! ! !

BFN,  Rob.

Today is Day 1 of switch on of my new computer, representing another stage in the upgrade of my website !  As you might imagine I’m at the head-scratching stage at the moment as I try to find my way round some new features.

The website is about to undergo the new changes as threatened previously. The photos have already come off, soon to be followed by the videos, waving bye-bye to You Tube at the same time. Well, all they seem to do of late is put a block on the video clips – a bit like those Cybermen on Doctor Who : “Delete”, “Delete” !

But … over the coming few weeks the site will develop into an action packed mecca for the discerning music punter. You’ ll be witnessing, before your very eyes, more photos and video clips than you ever imagined could possibly be generated from a camera – certainly not before the day film got dumped in favour of digital. There will be loads of stuff ; old, new and in between, from Jam Nights, Riff Raff gigs, me playing solo, Guess, and loads more from my murky musical past …You lucky people ! !

But be patient. It will be a slow process at first until I can get to grips with all the new stuff on this wonderful new piece of computer wizardry. In the meantime keep logging on to see the added stuff as it appears before your very eyes.

And of course, see you at Jam Night at The Middlesex Arms … Every Thursday !

BFN,   Rob.

As they say in cinematic terms : Coming soon … to a computer near you …

… Yes, Rob’s new look web site is on the horizon. Yes folks, the next stage of the up-grade will be here soon – just waiting to get my hands on the crucial new piece of hardware, which shouldn’t be too long now.

The site may be down for a while during the up-grading work, but you can rest assured that the down time will only be as short a time as necessary.  The Revolution starts here – Don’t you know it’s gonna be … alright ! ?

BFN,    Rob.

Hello all you Jam Night fans out there !  It’s your lucky day because now it’s even easier to access the ‘Jam Night’ page on this website. To get to it direct just type in

jam.rkmusic.co.uk and hit the ‘enter’ key.

There’s no need to bother with the www. bit,  and once you’re in, you can still browse round the rest of the site to enjoy all the other goodies contained therein ! !

More changes are in the pipeline so keep logging on !

BFN,    Rob.

“Where are all the photos ?” you may be asking yourself. Well, they’ve been removed as part of the forthcoming up-grade to this site. ( Sort of clearing the way for the scaffolding to go up ! Or in musical terms, getting all of the tatty old backline off the stage to make way for some spanking new Marshalls ! ) But don’t worry, the familiar collection of pics will be back eventually, along with some new ones. The videos may well be disappearing at some stage too. But not to worry, the plan is that they too will return with the addition of some more previously unseen footage.

So, bunches of new stuff is planned for the coming weeks – keep logging on ! And if at first you don’t succeed, keep trying. It shouldn’t be down for too long.

BFN, Rob.

Just found a new hobby … shoveling snow ! It’s exhilarating, except for the aching back and creaking knees afterwards.  The overnight downfall left me snowed in today – one of the disadvantages of living at the end of a cul-de-sac I suppose. I’ve only seen one of my neighbours venture out today and his wheels were spinning and the vehicle was sliding sideways. He got out eventually, though the surrounding roads were pretty un-navigable too !  Still, nice to see some Christmassy scenes when looking out of the window. We’ve got a snowman in the drive now as well.

Anyway, the aforementioned new hobby will be short lived and hopefully everything will be back to normal very soon and the old hobbies, music and football, will continue soon.

All things being equal, Jam Night will be on as usual this coming Thursday -we won’t have snow then … will we ? ? ?  Unfortunately, I missed last week due to a bug.

I was going to go to QPR tomorrow night to see their game against Swansea, but it’s already been called off, and tonight’s 5-a-side footie will be 0-a-side instead !

Last Saturday, I did a solo gig at The Black Horse in Greenford, a private function to celebrate Craig’s 30th Birthday.  I hope Craig and his friends had a good time.  I think they did anyway.

Lastly, an up-date regarding the proposed up-grade of this website : Nothing much happening at the moment !  Still waiting for the right package to become available and then it will be ‘full steam ahead’.

So, until next time …

… BFN,    Rob.

Greetings pop pickers !

Hope you’re over the Christmas / New Year break and now back in the old routine. I know I am.

I was going to QPR this afternoon, but other issues have intervened, not least of which, the weather. A bit snowed in at the moment, so I’m staying in today ! The score at QPR is 0 – 0 at the time of writing, so really riveting !

Jam night started up again on Thursday after the festive break and it was good to see some new faces joining in the fun along with some more familiar friends. Nice to see everyone after the break especially as the temperature was a bit on the baltic side. Don’t forget, jam night is on every Thursday from now on, so see you all there.

As mentioned before, plans are afoot for an up-grade of this web-site. Still not sure when but don’t worry if you log onto a blank screen one day. It won’t be down for long and in any case I’ll be giving as much advanced warning as possible.

So, hope to see you at Jam Night or a gig soon ( see ‘Gigs’ page ).

BFN,     Rob.

Last night at the Oaks in West Hyde, I was priviliged to accompany Ed on guitar for the duration of his second set.

The gig was originally intended as a Fast Buck gig but Richard ( Dick Dastardly ) is currently out of action with a rib injury – Ooops ! – I’m starting to sound like one of those sports writers now !  Richard is therefore unable to perform keyboard duties at present, so when Ed asked me if I’d like to do a guest spot with him as a sort of Christmastime special, my enthusiasm levels, if measured in VU meter terms, lurched into the red !

Armed with my black Fender Stratocaster, matching Ed’s black Fender Stratocaster, ( perhaps we should have called ourselves The Black Strats … OK, maybe not … ) we kicked off the second set launching into one of my more familiar favourites, Bad Company’s ‘Can’t Get Enough’.  I soon found myself in less familiar territory with some of the subsequent numbers, having to concentrate hard in trying to follow what Ed was playing. I hope I didn’t put him off too many times with my errant chord changes – I don’t think I did too badly though overall.

Thanks to all the crowd for their support, particularly Tony and Richard ( affectionately known as The Buck-ettes ) who, from where I was standing, were more audible than I was !  Thanks to Les for bailing me out with his mic stand ( it must be catching ). Thanks to Mooooose for driving and helping me carry that weight ( a long time ) and for allowing me and Ed to shout “Moooooose” down our mics.

And of course thanks to Ed for his invitation to join him on stage. Hope to get the chance to play with him again sometime.

BFN,  Rob.

Those of you who attended the Jam Nights at The Rayners before it closed down may remember Bojan, a Hungarian bass player who was a regular at around that time. Well, Bojan made a permanent move back to his native Hungary on November 8th, so I’d like to wish him all the best for the future, as I ‘m sure will everyone who had the pleasure to meet him and play music with him. Good Luck Bojan.

Yes, what a night it was last night – mid November back in ’08 – Hmmm, doesn’t quite work really does it ? ! Thanks to everyone who came to see my perfomance at The Black Horse in Greenford last night. I hope you all enjoyed the set, even if I didn’t play any Franki Valli – don’t have any of his numbers in my repertoire – sorry ! !

Anyway, eventually me and Rosie arrived home at 1.30ish leaving everything in the car till tomorrow – “leave it till tomorrow to unpack my case” – so to speak. So, this morning, woke up, looked at the clock : “12.10” – WHAT ? ! ? ! – it’s not this morning, it’s this afternoon ! !  Got up PDQ and unloaded the car, leaving it all in a bit of a heap in the front room due to now being behind with my list of things to do, not least of which, going to visit Mumsie, who’s in hospital at the moment – sadly, not too well but recovering !

In between times, a new Riff Raff gig has been confirmed, despite reservations on the cash versus time and effort equation insofar as it relates to New Year’s Eve entertainment and all that !  Well, this is rip-off Britain I suppose !  The gig’s at The George in Kingsbury on New Year’s Eve. Details are on the ‘Gigs’ page.

I decided this week, on further developments to the up-grading of this website. Early next year I’ll be arranging an upgrading to the website and changing my now unusable Cubase system. Joel is currently very kindly investigating possibilities. Upgrading the cubase system will mean I’ll be able to do some more backing tracks ( maybe some Queen, perhaps some Tom Petty or even … Franki Valli ?? ) The website will be easier for me to manage. At the moment, Joel does most of it as and when time allows, especially when it comes to adding new photos and video clips. After the up-grade I’ll be able to manage more of the site myself. This should result in quicker and more frequent service for the benefit of all users. I’m starting to sound a bit like ‘Transport For London’ now or ‘Network South East’ ( used to be ‘London Transport’ and ‘British Rail’ in my day – you knew where you were then – mind you they were still crap ! ), so I think it’s now time to sign off.

Until next time,   BFN,   Rob.