Date – 18/12/2013

Ho ho ho!

Look, that’s your lot really, we don’t get any more festive that, so make the most of it.

Meanwhile, a hilarious week at rehearsal – I arrived to find Ben and Stuart taking it in turns to suspiciously sniff the inside of his car… it transpired there was a quite distressing odour about the place, which turned out to be due to the fact that a renegade cat had somehow managed to piss all over Stuart’s man-bag (this I promise you is not a euphemism), an episode which subsequently more or less rendered the practice room uninhabitable until the offending item was hurled outside into the rain to calm down for a bit. Meanwhile Ben and I amused ourselves for the rest of the night with a stream of feline urination jokes. There are more than you’d think. READ MORE

Date – 18/12/2012

Hi folks

Firstly apologies for anybody that noticed – we didn’t send one of these out last week, as I was a bit poorly. I would tell you all about the gigs from the last couple of weeks, but to be honest, I can’t remember too much about them. There are a few snippets from Saturday night’s trip to the Red Lion in Witney, though, while it’s still fairly fresh in my mind…

The place is under new management, which was good news for us in that they now have a sound engineer who actually stays the whole night, instead of disappearing off halfway through to “catch the last bus home”. READ MORE

Date – 12/12/2011

Yo homeys!

And as the festering commercial blight that masquerades as a season of goodwill looms ever larger over the horizon of the more traditionally appropriate winter solstice festival, it’s time to draw a veil over the rawk’n’roll proceedings for another year.

The past weekend’s gigging had, I must say, only a few moments of note – a significant proportion of ‘clients’ staying home thanks, I suspect, to a combination of recession-bound finances, and (on the Sunday) truly diabolical weather, and (on the Saturday) the truly diabolical Simon Cowell. READ MORE

Date – 21/12/2010

Ahh, Mr Bond, I’ve been expecting you…

My, but it’s hot this weekend. I think I’ll just have to risk the sunburn and start showing up to work in my bikini.

Still, despite the less-than-ideal weather conditions, the mighty Angel Up Front rawk machineTM rolls relentlessly on. We need the money.

Friday night, and another duo gig up at the Spa Inn. Thanks to a last-minute dropping-out of the running order by my diva daughter, Suzi and I had to go and entertain the masses all on our lonesome – and, for once, I think we managed it without any horrendous memory lapses. This was our last gig up here for a while, as the lovely management Sue & Clive are off to run another pub in the New Year. So, all the best to them, we might even trek up and do a few gigs at their new place, if they’ll let us. READ MORE

Date – 21/12/2009

Aww, look at the pretty snow!

And for the gentleman who was in the large Audi in front of me this morning; yes, that is usually the pedal you need to push to make it go faster, but – actually – when there’s three inches of snow under your tyres – then if you don’t press it quite as hard as usual, you’ll find it’ll work a bit better for you. Although we did all enjoy the whizzy noise your wheels were making to accompany your amusing lack of forward progress…

Anyhoo, with the C-word nearly upon us, and shops reverberating with the merry jingle of cash tills, mixed with the festive strains of RATM, I can report a definitely slightly odd weekend in Rawk… READ MORE

Date – 22/12/2008

Hey gang!

And, having got this far through December without having to mention the C-word, let’s keep up the good work.

Saturday’s outing – the last of the year – to the Old Fox was a mighty fine evening. Suzi showed up with a couple of silly Santa hats, which set off her “hooker Barbie” outfit rather nicely. For me, it was an unalloyed delight to be able to play a gig without me knackers giving me any grief. Even Martin arrived in a good mood, having successfully moved house – although given his navigational expertise, there is some doubt as to whether he will ever find his way back there again. And it was great to see lots of old mates there as well, so the scene was set for a mighty fine evening. READ MORE

Date – 17/12/2007

Hello folks!

And welcome to this Christmas Special Angel UpDate, resplendent with tinsel, jingling with sleigh bells, and positively bilious with overeating and just a touch of alcohol poisoning.

Incidentally, if you’d like to know what happened to the dyslexic devil worshiper, you can zip right down to the bottom of the page; or you can read on and wait ’til you get there.

True to the festive spirit, our Suzi has taken to turning up at gigs apparently dressed as one of Santa’s lickle elves, complete with silly little woolly hat, although the whingeing about cold weather is a little out of character. READ MORE

Date – 18/12/2006

Hey gang!

Well, that’s just about it for another year in the heady world of scumbag rawk and roll. And, it’s been quite a jolly last-but-one week. Gotta say hi to our pals from Dead Dodgy, who came along to a busy Royal Oak on Thursday to watch us do our stuff.

Our stuff that night included an interesting new addition to the set – the “argument solo”, whereby we stop dead half way through a number, argue heatedly amongst ourselves about who screwed up, eventually all agree that it was Alan, then pick up where we left off and finish the song. I think we might extend this concept, and have a “philosophical debate middle eight” in one of the slower tracks, or perhaps a minor scuffle in one of the indie numbers; possibly as a result of Martin overreacting to (well-justified) criticisms of his calamitous footwear selection decisions. READ MORE