The Burnout

Friday evening train to Leicester where Bruce and I spend most of the evening jamming. And Bruce trying to get my timing right on the bass. Saturday we walk around Leicester with the Christmas shoppers then back home for a hearty lunch. Jon arrives and then Ramsay and Jo and everyone is present and correct. Bruce leaves early to help with setting up the gig. No need of my offer of being a roadie and apparently they don't have groupies these days either. Jon is on standby as guitar technician though. We walk round the park to the ex con social club (as in what was the Tory meeting place, not a place for recently incarcerated folk to hang out, there again...) where we meet Butty and Hamish and Anu and friends who are complaining of a lack of multicultural diversity in here.  They're right. Half the place are locals in for a quite Saturday night drink the peace of which is about to be rudely shattered.

Support are a pretty cool looking four piece delivering a healthy dose of heavy rock and roll. Two women on drum and bass and two blokes on guitars and one singing. A good enough start to the proceedings by Produkty although I'm not certain that they need two guitarists and could be better as a three piece. Especially for a stage this small. Whereas when Bruce and The Burnout come on they just about fit on or near the stage and they are a tight three piece. Both spatially and musically. Rocking sharp drumming. Excellent pounding bass. Chunky guitar slewing into sharp riffs and no nonsense uplifting guitar breaks. Bruce has a great deadpan singing voice like a truly nonchalant rock and roller. I'm surprised as Bruce usually shouts even when asking if you want a cuppa or as in tonight, for one night only, asking if you want a drink. It's a great set of original rock and roll that is best described as a punk rock pub rock fusion. And if that compares you to Dr Feelgood I'd take that an run with it Brucie. The rest of our gang are dancing in front of the very small stage and obviously annoying those sat on the comfy chairs and whose view we're blocking so we're told to move. As it is a social club rather than a venue and I don't want to annoy the locals, in case they are ex cons, we have to move in front of a convenient pillar just in front of the stage that no one is sitting behind. So there's seven of us dancing in front of the pillar in a line snaking towards the stage and we're all squashed together. We nearly reach Bruce so have to be careful not to knock him or to tread on his range of effects pedals which would have them sounding less like Feelgood and more like Hawkwind. It's like being in a cramped gig but with lots of space to the side. Quite fun really and must've looked ridiculous. After a couple of bad jokes about Liberals and bar stools for which you'd have to be a certain age to understand and indeed to find funny they finish and having no back stage area to hang out in whilst listening to the frantic shouts of "encore" from the crowd we all clap as previously instructed by Bruce and they finish with a flourish. After that excitement it's back to Bruce's to dance to YouTube.

Next day we go to a nearby pub bar with Butty and Hamish (that's not a bread and pork related option on the menu but Bruce's sister and son) for breakfast which turns into a full on Sunday roast. Setting me up well for fond farewells before wandering down to the station for the train back to the big smoke.

Produkty - cool haircuts but surely the all in black look is well past it's prime?

The Burnout - OK, so maybe black is still cool in Leicester...