CJ Wildheart - Sept 22 Post festival season and with the nights starting to draw in, the last part of the gigging season is notoriously busy as everyone tries to get a couple more gigs in before the end of the year. This year was no exception and included the much delayed original line-up gigs by my all time favourite band.

First up and with less than 24 hours’ notice, we decided to leg it up to Fat Lil’s in Witney (near Oxford) to watch The City Kids, supported by old favourites Rich Ragany & Kit Swing and The Suicide Notes. It wasn’t the easiest venue to take photos in, although trying to make use of the light coming off a pinball machine was fun. Rags and Kit have honed their acoustic set to a fine T over the past 12 months, whilst The City Kids and The Suicide Notes sweat rock n roll excess in every song.

As a footnote, if you are ever driving through Oxfordshire, just be wary, the locals seem to have let loose a particularly vicious type of hedgehog or at least that’s what the numerous warning signs suggest.

The Suicide Notes - Sept 22 Inevitably as you get older, some of your favourite bands will split up and in a number of cases, some will tour as two or more operating units. I’d already seen Jay Ashton’s version of Gene Loves Jezebel earlier in the year, and now it was time to see The Quireboys without founding singer Spike. The gig had already been postponed a number of times and the two London dates condensed into one when we finally got to Kentish Town Forum. With Guy Griffin taking over vocal duties and accompanied by an orchestra, the band moved from the familiar territory of booze drenched bar room band to a British take on Aerosmith. It was okay but not fully appreciated by the more diehard Quireboys fans in our group. Spike would return with his version of the band later in the year, but more of that later.

I’d be back at the Forum within the week to see the legendary Toy Dolls (supported by the equally legendary UK Subs) for one of the most fun gigs of the year. With more energy than most bands half their age can muster, Olga and the boys celebrated their belated 40^th anniversary in fine style. Frank Turner returned to Reading’s Hexagon and this time brought along the intriguing husband and wife duo Truckstop Honeymoon, and Pet Needs (another band on my need to keep an eye on list).

UK Subs - Sept 22 The next gig was in imminent threat of cancellation following a water leak at London’s XOYO. Thankfully the show was only delayed by a couple of hours and an excellent night was spent in the company of Grand Theft Audio, Scott Sorry and CJ Wildheart. However, the late start did mean that we missed the semi Wildhearts reunion for the encore.

It was back to Reading’s Facebar for the last two gigs of the month. Dick Lucas and The Subhumans have been on my bucket list for a long time – they did not disappoint with their politically charged punk set. The band were supported by Uncle Peanut who I’ve seen a few times this year and his vaudeville punk vignettes are well worth checking out. Gaz Brookfield ploughs a similar field to Frank Turner and his set was most welcome at the Facebar as was Boss Caine’s return to the venue.

I’ve been slowly ticking off the bands that formed part of the early proto goth movement and so the opportunity to see Ausgang at The Water Rats in Kings Cross was not going to be missed. The fact that the excellent The Go Go Cult and Healthy Junkies were supporting made this an essential gig.

Ausgang - Oct 22 There have been two versions of Sham 69 touring for a while now, and this time it was Tim V’s version that came to the Facebar to provide those familiar terrace anthems. The ever reliable Who Killed Nancy Johnson? were joined on support duties by Deathtraps from Newport who were highly enjoyable.

A Warner E Hodges gig is always going to be good, but a double header with Texan Ryan Hamilton was going to take it to the next level. With Warner’s backing band playing both sets, a rammed Water Rats was treated to a night of alt country rock at its finest. Over at the Facebar, The Pink Diamond Revue and the exciting prospect that are Anchor Lane, opened for The VirginMarys. The VirginMarys were one of the first bands that I photographed live and I’ve followed their career ever since. Now a two piece, the band were playing their first headline show in Reading and they are still producing material as good as their first couple of releases.

Ryan Hamilton - Oct 22

Staying at the Facebar, it was time for Crazy Cowboy 8. I’d missed the previous seven for various reasons but the line-up was to hard to resist. Over two days, Reading was treated to some quality sets from the likes of Sonic Gypsy, Dukes of Bordello, The Royal Beggars, Daxx & Roxane, The Suicide Notes with headliner Spike (Quireboys) playing two sets to conclude the weekend.

Spike - Oct 22 The Ginger Wildheart and the Sinners tour finally rolled into London at Bush Hall with the excellent Boss Caine and Marc Valentine in tow. It was good to see Boss Caine in front of a large appreciative crowd, whereas Marc’s debut album is fast becoming one of my albums of the year. Compared to the last Wildhearts tour, Ginger seemed to be really enjoying himself playing with the Sinners and sharing vocal duties made for a more varied show.

The next gig had been announced early in the pandemic and had now been pushed back for over two years. However, the wait was worth it when the original line-up of The Damned appeared on stage together for the first time in nearly 30 years. This long time Damned fan was over the moon as I’d seen numerous variations of the band over the last 36 years, but never the original line-up. Playing material from the first two albums, it was a magnificent sight to witness, especially considering some of the bad blood spilt over time. Credit to Smalltown Tigers, TV Smith and Skids who opened the show with some quality sets of their own.

The Damned - Oct 22 I don’t normally watch tribute bands but I got asked to come along to the Facebar to see Remones, Sex Pistols Expose and Totally Blondie do their stuff. Sex Pistols Expose were brilliant really channelling the look, characteristics and sound of the original Pistols – a true pleasure to photograph.

Sex Pistols Expose - Oct 22 November started quietly with a return trip to Tufnell Park’s Aces n Eights to see Ray Waters, Boss Caine and Tim Loud perform three very different acoustic sets. Third Lung have performing and recording for much of the last 10 years, but November finally saw the release of their brilliant full debut album. To celebrate, the band played Reading’s Sub89 with support from fellow locals Doops, Elucidate and Jesse Smith and played an accomplished set to a very congratulatory crowd.

A last minute decision to watch The Priscillas at the 100 Club proved to be a winning move as they played an excellent set and had the crowd nicely warmed up for headliners Clem Snide and The Split Squad.

The Priscillas - Dec 22 In my final gig of the year at Islington’s Hope & Anchor, Boss Caine and The Carol Hodge Band warmed up for Sarah Borges & Eric Ambel. I’d never seen Carol perform with a full band and tonight was fantastic. It was going to be hard to top that but somehow Sarah and Eric managed that with a selection of songs from across their careers.

Sarah Borges & Eric Ambel - Nov 22 Sometimes, a venue has a great run of gigs and the Facebar found itself in that position for my next four gigs. The excellent Voodoo Radio opened for the Captain Kirk baiting Spizzenergi, closely followed by The Freudian Session and The Deckchairs supporting Italian ska punks Los Fastidios. The latter were incredible – it’s just a shame that there weren’t more people there to see them. Uncle Peanut and Jopy did the honours for another rising star, Gemma Rogers and her wry observations on modern life.

Los Fastidios - Nov 22

December tends to be a bit quieter but nobody told Long Tall Texans who brought their rockabilly/psychobilly sounds to the Facebar and led to some serious wrecking in the audience. Prior to that The Go Go Cult and The DeRellas pulled out two cracking sets as warmup. In contrast, the next afternoon at the Betsey Trotwood in Farringdon to see my old mate Joe Solo perform his rousing protest songs was a more sedate but nonetheless enjoyable affair. Sadly, I missed Joe’s duet with The Long Ryders’ Sid Griffin.   

In December, more people are interested in Christmas parties then gigs, so the Vive Le Rock X-mess party at Water Rats was the best of both words. Sets from Rich Ragany & Kit Swing, Marc Valentine, Paul-Ronney Angel and Desperate Measures with additional guests were the perfect alternative to the staff party.

Desperate Measures - Dec 22 As mentioned earlier, we’d seen one version of the Quireboys, so in mid December it was Spike’s turn to unleash his new version as the Islington O2. Complete with on stage bar, this line-up brought back memories of the older more decadent days with Spike being on top form. With the year coming to a close, I decided to squeeze one final gig and headed across to Water Rats to see Healthy Junkies again supporting Sylder Smith and the Oblivion Kids. It was a highly enjoyable way to end the gig going year.

What a year 2022 turned out to be. In contrast to the previous two years, I had clocked up 79 gigs, over 200 different bands, taken tens of thousands of pictures and discovered quite a few bands I will be following for some time. Hopefully 2023 will prove to be equally fruitful.

Slyder Smith & the Oblivion Kids - Dec 22