Bar Azul, Monda 6th Feb 2015

We are back after a pretty long break from live playing to have some fun and make some serious music at Bar Luna, in the centre of Monda. Here is a great little bar that we played at around 18 months ago that has a reputation for attracting an enthusiastic crowd of live music lovers.

It was with some trepidation that the band ventured forth back into the live gigging fray with the very real threat of a nasty visit by the boys in blue looking for evil tax evading musicians! But we heard that Monda is relatively free of the problem that has recently been destroying the live music scene in coastal towns along the Costa del Sol from Malaga to Marbella.

That's a political piece of crap that I'm not getting into right now, or probably ever because my focus is on playing and enjoying the high level of quality music the band is very capable of producing. And we did not disappoint!

First Set

With a pretty early 8:30 start, we launched into our version of "Mony Mony" (originally by the Shondells) which is a bit of a screamer for me (I love 'em!) and it got the cobwebs well and truly blasted out of the collective old cavities. We followed straight on with Brad's composition, "I Won't Let You Down," that was featured on Rob Sass' radio show myself and Pete were invited to talk on a couple of weeks ago.

The crowd were instantly ignited and were buzzing! Next up was the old blues standard "All Your Love I Miss Loving" (originally by John Mayall), which always goes down well and did again on the night. We then dropped in a new cover for us, the Beatles' "back in the USSR," which we played perfectly and was very well received.

Back to the originals with the second of Brad's creations, "Stealthy Karma" with some really nice laid back harmony vocals and Brad's great Latino style guitar solo that rips the song into high gear.

Keeping the crowd's interest is our main job and so we interlace our originals with just enough covers to keep everyone happy. The next song was Led Zep's "What Is and What Should Never Be," and it was clear the crowd loved that style of rock because they went crazy!

Another of Brad's songs followed with his latest blues style creation, "Long, Long Time" that is a little bit different from most of the blues stuff you may have heard. Score another winner because the crowd loved it. To follow that is Brad's "Hard Times" ably sung by Pete. This is a song we've had in the set for a few years now and it always gets a great reaction as it did that night too.

Dropping down into a very dark and brooding song, my own "They" followed with its powerful, slow and rhythmic bass/drums combo, understated rhythm guitar riff by Pete and Brad's scything slide guitar breaks. It builds into a crescendo of darkness that always leaves the audience stunned.

We took it up tempo for a punk cover of the Buzzcocks' "Ever Fallen In Love" and that was followed by Brad's "Out of the City," an unusual combination of fast choppy guitar/bass riffs and smooth, laid back verses that sets us up for the last song of the first set:

Led Zep's "Rock and Roll." Yes the vocal is very high and yes, I can reach the notes! It rocked!

Second Set

We had a break of about half an hour then came back on with our usual opener of the Stone's "Honkey Tonk Women" which guarantees the full attention of the crowd of which some started dancing, which is always a nice thing to have happen. It really lifts the atmosphere and the feedback to us gets us playing with even more enthusiasm than ever!

That was followed by "Looking Back", an old rock n roll standard sung by Pete that keeps the energy levels high. After that we launched into the Clash's "London Calling" and everyone loved it with some pretty loud voices singing along with us!

Next up was Brad's olde time themed "Lemon Moon" which has a nice, 40s Noel Coward feel with slick four part harmonies and a nice build up from its very slow and laid back start. We followed that with my own punk inspired "Lost and Found" with a Strangler's style bassline, a very strong rhythm and some clever bass work (if I do say so myself).

We then kept the bass-heavy style of play with my own "One Eyed Cat" which is a tongue-in-cheek boy meets girl, boy loses girl to a big guy with one eye and getting the head's up from a one-eyed cat sitting on the doorstep wearing a pork pie hat! Yep, a little crazy but a real fun song!

That was followed by Brad's "Lover Doll" ('nough said the title tells us what it's about) which is a rocky, energetic number that always goes down well. We continued in that rocky vein with a version of Eddie Cochrane's "Summertime Blues" sort of in the same style as "The Who" covered it. Another screamer for me but my voice was holding up pretty well considering we hadn't played live for so long.

After that came Brad's moody, broody song "Down on the Farm" with its long, quiet verses and energetic instrumental links up to its long build-up to an explosive finale.

We then added two new covers into our set, Thin Lizzy's "Dancing in the Moonlight" followed by Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" which went down really well.

Next came my own powerful "Find a Way" which is up on YouTube although the audio was pretty distorted. It's a divisive song with strong instrumental intro and links for very quietly backed operatic verses and powerful lead break with a strong vocal finish. Another screamer for me!

That was followed by Brad's punk themed "No Credit" with a really strong bass riff driving powerful rhythmic verses and links. This is a very loud and very exciting song to play and it always goes great with most crowds we play to.

Grande Finale

Into the home stretch with our final song, the old Howling Wolf standard "Killing Floor" and both I and Brad are getting left had cramps from over-playing - too much adrenalin! I'm angling for a single encore after this one because my voice is starting to break up and we're all a bit knackered by now.

The Stone's "Brown Sugar" is a finale we often go out with and it had the whole place dancing and having a great time. Too much of a great time, because they wouldn't let us off" with chants of "otra, otra, otra, otra..." so we did a second encore of the Beatles' "Saw Her Standing There"

Memorable moment: During that song a lady from the crowd decided to try and muscle me off my mic because she wanted to sing, but I fought bravely back! OK, what really happened was she sort of ambled over and wanted to sing along with me but I couldn't see what I was doing on the bass and had to ask her to back off!

All in all a great gig, lots of excitement and enthusiastic response from the audience. The management of the bar want us back again soon (most important) and we all enjoyed playing and doing our thing the way we do it best: LIVE!