Andy's Whiskey and Go Go!

Ginger Jackdaw4 and PlanA Acoustic Gig.
Venue: The Rugeley Rose, 17th .June 2005.

The venue was pretty easy to find as we arrived from Coventry at around 6.15pm. Took about an hour to get there driving. Left us with some time to go and get some food before going into the Rose. Kebab, chicken and chips were the order of the day.
Rugeley struck us as a very small quiet town and quite an unusual place for a band of Ginger’s status to come to play. The Rose is situated behind the local police station and noise curfews are strictly kept to, as we were to find out later.
We hung around outside the Rose for the doors to pen at 7.30. We got the chance to hear PlanA sound checking while we waited. Anyhow we collected our tickets upon entering and then had a couple of drinks before going through to the band room, to see the 1st band, PlanA play. All the times seem to have changed as they were a little late on. But Plan A was definitely worth the wait and the entrance fee alone. Now here was a band I expected to fall a little flat on their faces with their brand of Punk / Rock. Normally the music from them is just in ya face! But yes the brilliance of the songs really came out in the acoustic performance. Gary Mills on drum / guitar and Nick Peckham on bass did a fine job of backing vocals for Jef Streatfield on lead vocal /guitar. Of the new songs , which was only one, 2nd song in, ‘Station’ had some great vocal work on it and some great stabby stop and start bits in it. Some real thought gone into how to put there songs across in this acoustic style. ‘She said’ had a real bouncy feel to it with some accompaniment on a drum by Gary Mills. ‘Hey Ho’ had a great audience participations with them all joining in for the ‘Hey Ho, Hey Hey Ho’, brilliant!
Jackdaw4 or should that be 2, followed with brilliant and underrated Willie Dowling! Wasn’t sure what to expect from J4 after the excellent and brilliant produced album. How could the songs from the album transfer to an acoustic setting. Again very surprised! Opening with the set with’ Stupid’. Some great catchy poppy rock! Willie the ever entertaining showman between songs. Willies partner in crime on 2nd guitar seemed a little out of place when 1st setting eyes on him. Looked as though he should have been playing in a club band. He proofed to be an excellent choice to be playing with Willie and as it turned out, he was Willie’s friend, from his long lost school days! Whether this guy is part of the J4 line-up on the album, I don’t know. The album was obviously given some plugs throughout with the line @we need some petrol money to get home so go buy it’ Now ya can only assume they got it, as they had gone home before Ginger had finished. Revelation of the night for Willie was telling us about his friendship with Midge Ure and seeing him on This is Your life, and writing the same title song about the said programme. Upon playing the song Willie moved from the guitar and onto the keyboards. Of the songs from Willie’s past that we got were Honeycrack’s ‘Sitting at Home’ and the nearly/should have been classic ‘The ballad Vera Daydream’ from Willie’s days in The Grip. Yet again when I’ve seen Willie recently he played another song from his past that sends a chill down my spine. What an amazing song Vera daydream is! Now if I hadn’t shouted out for Vera Daydream, we’d have got another Grip song the excellent although a verging on political, ‘England Your Dead!’, so maybe it gives me an excuse to see them again on this tour if only to hear ‘England…’ The set was finished off with what I can only imagine is one of Willie’s favourite songs, which was also covered by Honeycrack, the Beatles song, ‘Hey Bulldog’.

Ginger hit the stage just before 10pm, and was a little late. Whether this was the cause of unhappiness on his face or the fact that they had been forced to play as a duo, again I don’t know. Apparently he's off for the entire tour, spending some time doing some
personal stuff. Anyway, they opened with a new song, Man Who Cheated Death . Plenty of hilarity with Clamp Abuse stories of getting clamped visiting London and Wank Abuse, when Ginger heard a guy next to us shout ‘wank’ in a quiet moment. The songs took on a different direction from there with everyone shouting ‘wank at every oputunity. The guy who shouted it didn’t think it too humourous and after some banter with Ginger, he was offered £10 to leave! The set was cut short due to the 11.00pm curfew, although Jef, joined them for the encore, of Sick Of Drugs which took us up to 11.10pm. Good to see Ginger and Jef on good terms.
As we left the building there was a small group of Police officers headed towards the Rose to check the music had stopped I can only assume. We hit the road at 11.15 and arrived back in Coventry by 12.15. Jackdaw4 playing all the way home. Then it was chillout time with a couple of beers after what was an excellent night out!