Smokey Joe's

I was in town and passed Smokey Joe's and thought of the Coasters' (also known as The Robins) "Smokey Joe's Cafe" and when I was looking for the song on youtube found there was a musical of the same name celebrating the songs of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller which I have shared below. Not all the songs are to my taste but it does illustrate their impressive song repertoire. It is just song after song with dance routines and is very slick and impressive.

I really just wanted to include The Coaster's take on "Smokey Joe's Cafe" which was also covered by Buddy Holly for some reason, but that's what happen's with good songs, and Holly also did the definitive version of Chuck Berry's "Brown Eyed Handsome Man". Oh and Paolo Nutini does a fairly decent take on it.

See how mind works, it starts with a single idea then I start of picking up other tangents, though getting from The Coasters to Chuck Berry via Buddy Holly is not necessarily that far of a detour and it is definitely a pleasant one.

The video below is playing and I am mightily impressed with the song "Keep On Rollin'" which I have never heard before., then it segue's into "Searchin'" absolute genius.

So I was only going to mention Smokey Joes , but watch the musical, it is mightily impressive.

Tickets , Touts and Gigs

It's that time of year when there seems to be a hell of a lot of decent gigs on , and promoters seem to find even better ways of ripping you off. The O2 Academy use some legalized touts called ticketweb who charge a £1.50 processing pluss a 10% service charge if you buy one line or by card. Get round it by paying cash at the venue. Previously they had a print your own option , where for £2.25 (plus ticket price , plus service charge) you could use your own materials to print your ticket!

The other venue I've used is the Sage at Gateshead who charge about a pound to send the tickets out to you . Admittedly their tickets are normally about double the acts at The Academy , but they don't rip you off.





Having said that , Paolo Nutini at the Academy was £22 a ticket , and with charges that came to about £26 quid a ticket , provided by my very good friends Jan and Lynn for services supposedly rendered. Gig was great though massively overcrowded and I definitely owe them one!! Here's the offilcial "Pencil Full Of Lead" video:




And the Live Session one that I prefer: