Blues Matters, Still
September 2005

Hi

And welcome back to my News & Views page, a bottomless pit of wit and wisdom, or just a bottomless pit - depending on your point of view...

Well, for those of you who don't read The Mustangs newsletter, the rather exciting news this month is that we have been offered a record deal. When telling people this they usually get very excited and start talking about Number One hits, Top of The Pops, limousines, champagne, the jet set lifestyle and loadsamoney. The reality, of course, is far more mundane and infinitely less glamourous. The deal we have been offered is a 3 album over 5 year deal with a small but well respected independent UK blues label. There's no £100,000 advance, no trillion dollar marketing budget, no 100-strong press team and certainly no make-up and stylist artists to pamper us wherever we go.

What there is, however, is a Managing Director there with an undeniable love of blues music and an unshakable belief that UK blues is going through a renaissance, and deserves to be heard by as many people as possible. In this context, The Mustangs aim to put ourselves at the very head of this resurgence and a deal with a label like Blues Matters is exactly the right step to achieve that aim. So, replace an appearance on Top of the Pops with a Friday night gig at the Spotted Cow, the limousines with a 10-year old Austin Rover, the champagne with a pint of warm lager shandy and loadsamoney with barely enough loose change to cover the drive home... and you have the far more real, but no less enjoyable world of The Mustangs... international recording artistes and UK blues band spearheading the blues revolution!

Well, it's September which means it's all go according to the schedule ... work is well and truly underway on the new album... I think we have surpassed ourselves in the songwriting department and we can't wait to get down to recording the tracks. All this amid contract negotiations and a full gig list... I'm also doing bits of the solo CD where I can, but I'm well aware that the world isn't holding its breath for that one, and I know at least 4 people who can't wait to get hold of the new Mustangs CD, so priorities must!

Next week is a big one for The Band with Blues at the Fort, a biker show and the excellent RMA Tavern to play at - so come down and see us - you can get more details from the gig guide here. I'll be doing various solo shows here and there so if you want to see me stripped bare, so to speak, playing with myself - no, BY myself - then come down, enjoy the show and say "hi".

But please don't do what the Croation bloke in leather did at my last solo show... he approached me at half time and asked me to play Light My Fire for him. I knew the song so was happy to oblige... I played it fairly well I thought, and hoped he enjoyed it... only for him to come up after every subsequent song and ask me to play Light My Fire for him... in the end he even had me doubting that I'd ever actually played it...

Well, waddaryagonnado??

See you next month

Adam