Here's the band line up for the LA area shows coming up...

Max Eider - guitar, voice
Steve Valentine - bass guitar
Kevin Haskins - the drums
Pat Fish - guitar, voice

Cheers now,
Pat x

My good friend the Rev. Dand Lee Strickland alerted me to this blog. To be honest, my expectations were low. So imagine my astonishment to find the entire history of the world of the JBC laid out in almost endless detail. As the Rev. said, this chap's put the hours in, if nothing else.

So if you ever wondered what I was doing during the Suez Crisis, the Profumo Scandal or the Falklands War, this is the place to take a look:

http://saltyka.blogspot.com/200..9/05/jazz-butcher.html

Thanks to everybody who turned out for Shakespeare and the Bible at Budvar. And thanks to Owen, Chris, Oliver, Christina and Adrian for playing. Not to mention Curtis and those cheeky High Quality Girls. Lovely stuff!

Now then...

I'm doing this acoustic show in a town I've never played before. It's on a summer Sunday in the lovely Northamptonshire town of Brackley, which boasts a bookshop precisely 6,421 times larger than my own. God knows how you get there. God knows, frankly, how I'm going to get there, but - if we do - I can imagine that it will be lovely in many ways.

I'm supposed to play at about eight o'clock in the evening, but there is much to be enjoyed both before and after. Let me hand over to Darren Mitchell and his Occasional Orchestra, who are the organisers of this shindig:

"It's 2 years since Darren Mitchell decided to arm himself with an acoustic guitar, dust off his songbook and stand before the world once again.

That gig was at The Greyhound in Brackley and to mark the occasion we thought we'd go back to the scene of the crime and invite a few friends along to help celebrate.

So on Sunday August 23rd at The Greyhound from 4 o'clock onwards you can groove to the sounds of Acoustic Journey, our old pal Broon, Nick Lines (although he's a bit poorly at the moment and might have to duck out), the very wonderful A Band of Hope, the equally wonderful Carlecko, the totally splendid Hana Bushnell, somewhat incredibly Pat Fish (aka The Jazz Butcher); of course we'd have to have Lew Bear (straight from work) and then it'll be our turn."

Join me Up Country, why don't you?

Somebody asked me to put up some tunes from "Waiting for the Love Bus", so I did. Download them for free. Fill your boots.

My good old pal Owen Jones from the Jazz Butcher Conspiracy lives in Hamburg, where he has a band called Shakespeare and the Bible. They have recently completed a new album, called "Plus or Minus Zero", a fabulous, colourful punk rock rollercoaster ride of a record. You can hear bits of it at www.myspace.com/shakespeareandthebible

Shakespeare and the Bible are going out on tour around Europe this summer, and as part of that they will be visiting Northampton's legendary Labour Club to play live for free on Sunday 16th August. They will be ably supported by the great Curtis E. Johnson and by the Masters of Budvar djs.

STOP PRESS & SHIT: Scarcely credibly, we shall also be featuring another Hamburg band tonight, with a short opening set from Sankt Pauli noiseniks High Quality Girls.

I know it's a Sunday night, but, believe me, this band is worth catching: you are invited.

I see these fatuous "smokefree" adverts as I cruise the MySpazz.

I have only one thing to say to these brownshirts. In the words of dear, departed John Mortimer: "There is no pleasure on Earth worth foregoing for the sake of three more miserable years in the Sunset Retirement Home in Weston-Super-Mare".

Now -nice cup of tea, dear?

Asbo Derek's BANK HOLIDAY BENDER Sunday 24th May The Prince Albert, Brighton six til eleven for £5:00

Acts appearing are: GlassEye...Pat Fish .. Asbo Derek .. Brian Blaney .. Cracktown .. Phil Jeays ..

I shall be 'pon the stage with my Gretsch and my beats at about 9:00pm. GlassEye are expected to be on at 10.15pm.

Message from the organisers: "This has to be one of the best events in Brighton this year, not least because Pat Fish will be joining us. Also performing will be Hull’s answer to Same Difference, Cracktown; three wise men who crawled out the swamp, GlassEye; Britain’s Got Brel finalist Phil Jeays; teller of wee tales, Brian Blaney; and, of course, new-look garage cabaret combo Asbo Derek.

It will get full and, yes, it really will start at six. Come early and stay til it all comes to a crashing halt around 11. After all, it's the night before a Bank Holiday and, hey, those bankers deserve a rest. Please enter this into your palm pilots – it’s gonna be special."

Blimey! Hope to see you there, folks.
Rockers onto Mods afterwards on the beach.

My good friend Brian Kelly of Minneapolis has posted a number of clips of the Jazz Butcher Conspiracy 'pon the YouTube. I'm surprised and impressed at the sound quality of them, to be honest. There's stuff from Philadelphia 1989 and 1992, Boston 1990 and Germany and Belgium in 2002. You can check it out at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/BrianDmage
I don't seem to have any gigs 'pon the horizon right now, so do please feel free to shout me up and get me out of the house. Cheers.

So there is a very groovy record shop in south London's leafy East Dulwich. It's called The Dream Machine and it is at the hub of a smart little scene of cool music lovers. The shop has played host to a number of evening gigs, featuring artists from The Asteroid 4 to Joe Woolley.

Now Joe is starting a series of nights at The Dream Machine featuring artists from Creation Records. Unsurprisingly, he's calling it "ReCreation".

The first of these nights is on Monday 2nd March. It will feature a set from Stephen Lawrie, leader of The Telescopes, an acoustic set from me and an acoustic set from Joe himself. (Of course, Joe was never a Creation artist. He would have been far too young, for a start, and everyone who has heard Joe play knows that he belongs on Island Records circa 1974 anyway.)

So there it is: three artists for three quid in one of the nicest places you could hope to find. Bring a bottle and bring your pals, please do.

The Dream Machine, 89 Lordship Lane, East Dulwich, London SE22 8EP.
Nearest rail station: East Dulwich.

So this Friday I'm playing at a Sonic Cathedral night at The Dome in north London. The nearest tube station is Tufnell Park (Northern Line). I'm on first at 8:30 in the evening, so get there early if you like blokes in suits singing endless psychedelic dirges, for I shall be playing a set with my patented home-made Fat Bloke Karaoke backing tracks and a big, fat old Gretsch semi-acoustic swamped in reverb and echo. (Not delay; echo.)
Headlining the bill are Spectrum, lead, lest you really need reminding, by my dear old pal Sonic Boom from Spacemen 3. They're on a UK tour, so they should be well settled into their groove for this night.
Also on the bill are Gentle Friendly, a London band who make mad, clattering psychedelic post-rock with shouting, and Banjo Or Freakout, which appears to be an Italian chap blessed with more than his fair share of sonic genius; really lovely stuff.
So, obviously, I'd really like it if you were to come to this, because it should be a top night of psychedelic action.
Friday 27th February at The Dome, 178 Junction Road, London N19 5QQ.