We’re looking at introducing the Don Henley classic “boys of summer” and Nick was interested to discover that one of his old band mates, Harriet, had later recorded the same song. She was 17 when we played together and sadly the demos we did for phonogram in London got no interest.
Our drummer John (with us from day one) has bowed to the pressures of being in several bands and has reluctantly tendered his resignation to focus on his mod band DB5. His last gig with us was at Chesters last week. We will miss his crazy-ass styling!
So, a vacancy, which was filled quite rapidly by Nick Robinson (drums – NRD), the son of errr Nick Robinson (guitar – NRG). Confused? You will be! Our previous bassist Aidan left us to concentrate full-time on his originals band Eight Deadly Words. NRD became their drummer and of course, will continue as their drummer – our work-load being relatively light.
So, who better to fill the breach? Being considerably younger than the rest of us, he’s having to woodshed to learn a lot of unfamiliar material, but should be (more or less) ready for our gig in a weeks time and Muttley will go from strength to strength, not least because this means the band are vegetarians to a man!
The addition of Chris has allowed us to branch out in terms of numbers we can tackle. The keyboards bring an extra dimension and it’s fun to watch Chris play whilst hopping around barefoot on his bass pedals!
So, at Chesters on Feb 3rd we’re launching new numbers soon, including “Light my fire” and “Riders on the storm” by the Doors, “Boys of Summer” by Don Henley and “Hold your head up” by Argent. All classics from our past…
We hope to see some of you at the next gig in Chesterfield (see left)!
I was wandering through town the other day when I noticed a lot of activity at the Nelson Rock Bar on Furnival Gate. I nipped in and spent a happy half hour with Helen and her team. They are mostly “Wapentake veterans” and it was like a trip to my youth when I used to haunt the downstairs Nelson bar, with the screenprints of Hendrix, Alice Cooper Jimmy and Page.
The pub is really going places, top flight sound system, experienced (and tasteful) DJs and more to come. It should be a “must visit” for anyone who likes classic rock and we’ve got an initial gig there (downstairs) on Thursday Dec 1st. We hope you can all show up – a classic rock venue in Sheffield needs all the support we can give!
A welcome return to The Sportsman on Barnsley Road for the Mutts, only a four piece this time, minus keys, but Chris will have had to play keys in the pool room, (you have to be economical with the space you have!!) but still pleased the crowd with a bit of a back to front set starting with Highway Star and Ride on a Pony in E or was it F??
That issue was soon sorted with a simplified bass line – one one string. Aidan adopted his usual spot – outside the ladies toilets.. the motive? who knows, but chivalrously raised his bass neck to allow the ladies past when nature called. On the subject Aidan remembered it was a wise idea to go BEFORE a set and not break of on the middle to go.
Johns kit.. well almost.
A great first set ended with some very positive commments on the clarity of Daves vocals, Nicks guitar cut through nicely with a borrowed PA amp and 2×12 400 watter, John has either lost weight or his drum kit had grown since last time.. We can assure you it was the latter and Aidan used his Musicman Stingray 5 for a change, all resulting in a different but ever enjoyable Muttley sound.
The second set saw the band join the audience in gawping out of the front window at an incident happening outside the pub, whilst still playing Radar Love, or should it have been ‘Fire Brigade’ by The Move?
A nice friendly crowd as always in The Sportsman, also nice to see Gordon “three bands” Henderson and Anne for part of the set. We are booked in again in late November and also February next year.
Chris - photo Tim Stenton
Well, as good as! Local legend Chris McMahon has shown the very good sense to accept our invitation to join the band. Not only does he bring his keyboard wizardry and long hair to the mix, he’s also a whizz on bass (and guitar, oud, bazouki etc) so will be depping on bass when Aidan’s “other” band Eight Deadly Words have a gig that clashes with our wearying schedule.
Chris is, of course, a founder member of the prog legends Haze, as well as World Turtle, heavy wood specialists Treebeard and a ceilidh band. You can read about his musical exploits here.
In a previous life, Chris and Nick played together with the Tangerine Maestro Freddie Satsuma in the 90s combo SATSUMA! They have also played together on verious albums and are currently one half of improg band Meson.
So, good times ahead and we can begin to expand into more keyboard heavy band numbers, Genesis, Yes, Purple etc. The sad part is that Nick no longer gets 2 solos per song, he’s also agreed to let Chris have a 40:60 split on notes per solo following protracted negotiation.
The addition to our ranks means a 3:2 majority of vegetarians in the band, so future gig riders will be heavy on the lentils!
With Sheffield so short of regular live rock gigs, it is a mystery why the Shiregreen Arms isn’t better attended. Every week they have both jam nights and rock gigs, yet people just don’t show up. OK, it’s a little out in the sticks, but it’s on a main bus route. There’s a brilliant live room with lights & a (gasp) proper stage, the tenants are really friendly and supportive, plus they love to rock! If you’re a live music goer, I urge you to give it a go and see for yourself – they deserve our support.
Our gig last night went well, despite Dave being a couple of days back from America and jet-lagged (although it’s hard to tell). We mixed the set up and played a few dustier numbers. Someone in the audience requested ACDC between *every* song, so in the end I gave him our complete song list to choose from and he picked “Wishing Well”.
For several years now I’ve been using a Boss v-wah, thinking it was the dogs bollox, but of late, I’ve begun to hanker for my old cry baby again. The v-wah does *everything* – 5 different wahs, several distortions, “vowel” sounds, uni-vibe, 3 foot-switchable presets and an optical mechanism than means no “crackle” ever creeps in.
However, I now feel it’s over-engineered. I never (intentionally) use the presets, have the distortion gaffered so it’s always “off” and I just want it to be nice and simple – on or off. So, I dusted down my old cry baby, only to find it needs a new pot and was in a generally unreliable state for live.
So, I bought a cry baby GCB-95 for £18 (plus a fiver postage) on ebay and I’m chuffed with it. There may be just the one sound, but it’s *the* sound I have in my head. No frills, no options, just plain waaaaah.
However, being the geek that I am, I disliked the buffered input stage and the associated “tone-sucking”, so I swapped the foot-switch and made it true bypass, following an excellent video on youtube. The same chap had also showed how to extend this to add an led for on/off status, so I did that as well. 20 minutes and a slightly burned finger later, both mods are in place and amazingly, the pedal still works! Check it out at a Muttley gig near you!
On Saturday 25th of June Muttley played once again at the Victoria. This was a great venue with a decent sized stage area, which helped Aidan NOT stand on his pedal board and inadvertantly mute his bass!! DOH! A small but attentive crowd made the gig flow well. The first set seemed to go fairly quickly and a discussion between ourselves outside the venue at half time found that we should perhaps play Whitesnake’s Ain’t No Love to ensure the set went well past the magical 45 minute mark.
The second set kicked off with a punchy and attention grabbing Highway Star by Deep Purple and with an encore of Squeeze Box (The Who) and Do Anything You Wanna Do (Eddie And The Hotrods) ended the gig on a high with the crowd demaning more!! Unfortunately it was Horlicks and bed time for the oldies of the band but for Aidan it was hometime, Vodka time and watch Glastonbury with Anne.. (Talk about burning the candle at both ends!)
We are booked back at the Vic 3rd December 2011.
We played a storming gig at the Broadfield t’other night. The pub used to be one of Sheffield’s premier live venues and clearly is set on restoring their heritage. The stage has gone and bands now play at the opposite side of the room, but the atmosphere is intact. Plenty of people are now calling by every Friday for a dose of classic rock.
We did a 45 min first slot, then decided to kick off the second set at 10.30 and play through to midnight, when the noise (sorry, music) has to cease. Apologies to long-term supporter Mark Mettam (who supplied the photo above) – we drew the winning raffle ticket for 10 pints of beer and missed his number by 1. Good to see Steve Phoenix, Dai and Paul again. Also nice to meet Spike, who mixed some demos for Nick’s band in the 80s!
nick at the broadfield pub circa 76
On “radar love”, we were joined by Julie Kahlo – someone told me she knew the song and wanted to sing. Sadly, the message should have been “wanted to dance” – she had no idea what the song was. However, she moved a darn site more than most of us and joined in vocally where she could – thanks!
Nick last played the venue in the mid 70s (see his page, right) with his band “Uncalled 4″, as well as his Sunday night sessions with the “Jazz Brotherhood”. He distinctly recalls having seen Def Leppard here (friends in those days) because he had to pop to his nearby bedsit to bring down some spare leads to allow them to play!
Eight Deadly Words were in the audience, keen to see Aidan playing with a bunch of “dad rockers” 