Wednesday 3rd November 1999

Stoke - Riddles Music Bar

I had real trouble finding a driver for this gig, my bruv was supposed to be doing it but he had fallen behind with a heating installation (Gas Man) job and rang me up and said that it was impossible for him to make it without being murdered by his wife ;-) As always, I turned to my saviour; no, not god, the Internet of course. After sending out a few desperate emails I got a call from Jerome, the drummer for Gabba (see George IV tour diary), he said that he would be happy to do it.

Oh, before I continue, I should mention that this day is a landmark for Abdoujaparov as it sees the debut of new drummer (and ex-These Animal Men man) Stevie.

So about 2 hours later,Jerome, Stevie and myself caught a cab to the van hire place, picked up the van, drove to New Cross, loaded up the gear and were on our merry way to Stoke.

We found Riddles very easily after an uneventful (yes again) journey. On entering the venue we were met by soundman John, who helped us set up and soundcheck. We were also introduced to landlady and promoter, Anne, who made us feel very welcome and made sure that we had enough beers for this evening's 'work'.

After we had finished our soundcheck we watched support band Marlo get their stuff together and do their check. They sounded pretty good and were soon bounding back offstage to get ready for their set which was due to start in 10 minutes time.

By the time that Marlo got on for their set, I was hoping that the place would have started to fill up. Unfortunately, the lack of punters was quite obvious, which was a real shame as Marlo's melodic and catchy pop deserves to be heard by a hell of a lot more people.

We were also hoping that the night's football match had delayed the people who were coming to the gig in droves. Once again, we were proved to be sadly wrong and by the time we got on-stage we played to about 30 odd people ;-)

Having said that, I think that we played a damn fine set and we too deserve a bigger audience PLEASE! Stevie played flawlessly on his debut Abdou gig and the rest of us did pretty well too.

It's sad to hear too that Riddles will soon be closing it's doors due to pressure from the brewery and that Anne is moving on to Wolverhampton to try her luck there.

Question: Is the UK live circuit dead?

Answer: No, but it's fairly sick.

Question: What can we do about it?

Answer: Get off your backsides and go and see live bands.

People are so complacent nowadays, they complain about the lack of good bands but never actually take the risk of actually going to gigs to find out for themselves.

Question: What are Abdoujaparov going to do about it?

Answer: That's a good question, I've already sent out 4,000 newsletters and put an advert in the NME (which was fuckin' expensive). I try very hard to get press but am usually met by a stone wall of indifference. The bottom line is, if the NME doesn't give a band publicity, then you might as well not exist to anyone outside the hard-core Abdou / Carter / Stereoworld devotees.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Sorry, that was another rant wasn't it ? ;-) The thoughts of Chairman Fruity available in paperback from your local newagents. (This is a joke, please don't harass the people at John Menzies)

Love Fruity xxx