
It was mid July, we where once again halfway through a year with another amazing festival season. We had been playing around 35 festivals every year since I joined the band, had won several awards, the band seemed to be going from strength to strength and it had all been a fantastic journey to be a part of. But this year all my energy and headspace was filled up with the release of my own album. It had been building up over the previous years while I was working on my album -this feeling that I needed to be brave and step out with my own thing. You can continue to be a member of peoples bands your whole life, and it’s great to be a band member….but if you have something you strongly feel for and you want to go for it, you need to be brave, step up, and step out.
My highlights with Dub Pistols include: Beatherder Festival (I have played it five or six times, so can’t really decide which ones was the best), Glastonbury (especially the time we played Shangri-La Saturday at 2AM), headlining Splore Festival in New Zealand and Electric Castle in Rumania (again can’t pick which year was the best), Exit Festival in Serbia, Mumbai and Bangalore, Snowbombing in Switzerland, and of course some of those great, great nights at the smaller festivals and clubs all over the UK and Europe where magic just happens… -Oh yeah, the best gig might in fact have been that night we played at at a workingman’s club on the Isle Of White (The Legioneers perhaps….), on two (differently branded) floor monitors with one send and to small Mackie speakers as PA, performing to a double full 150 people capacity that went absolutely mad on the dancefloor! We could barely move on the tiny stage, we couldn’t hear our own instruments, but the vibe was amazing and it was so hot that the condensation of sweat from the crowd was dropping down on us like rain. The funniest thing was that after the gig Ben Elton (!) comes up to me, shakes my hand and says “I love you work mate” !!?….Like a spoof writer, straight out of a movie.
Of course I can remember many other great Dub Pistols gigs……but honestly, a lot of it all blends in to one after a while. You just move on to the next one.

Lots and lots of love to my amazing amigos and pistoleros in the Dub Pistols: Barry Ashworth, Dave Budgen, Jack Cowens, Seanie T, Tim Hutton, Bill Borez, Johnny Rockstar, Steven “Saxby” Cracknell, Marcel “Sir Real” Atteen, Rodney P, Dan Bowskills, Dave Medland, Tom Bone etc etc.
My next gig with my own songs will be in Copenhagen on April 26th at Zeppelin Bar on Vesterbro. Tickets can be bought at the door (50kr) or online at Billetto (+booking fee).