Tripitaka (Again) at the Continental (Again)

July 21, 2013

Tripitaka (Again) at the Continental (Again)

So what better thing to do on the hottest night of the year than to ram yourself into a "cosy" room with another 150 very hot people and get down to the sounds of Tripitaka? I was sweating like a mad bastard, but as was everyone so it wasn't too bad.

Aaron signaled me when all the band were on stage apart from Shaun, "Go and find Shaun Mick and tell him we're ready". I immediately stepped back in time, Shaun was often (and still is) un-punctual. This, coupled with a "funny" amount of scattyness (I'm not referring to that terrible poo activity they call "Scat"!) meant he could be anywhere really. As far as I was concerned he may have been playing chess with a tramp on the park some where. I reminisced about the time we were waiting for him outside the Corn Exchange. At the last minute we saw his 2 tone brown Capri (which didn't have a rook rack!) turn the corner and we all breathed sighs of relief knowing he was going to be on time. Then we spotted his bass guitar precariously balanced on his roof (no rook rack!!!!), and he didn't know it was there. An evil part of me did want him to go sick like the Professionals, speeding up to 60Mph and pulling a hand brake turn forcing his bass to shoot off the car and wind an old woman, but then there would be no gig.

Anyway, he spotted me before I did him and he instinctively knew what I was doing.

Tripitaka then kicked off. I asked myself, "what's the difference between Tripitaka now and Tripitaka then?", and to be honest with you it's Brass. In the olden days I think many of our tunes were "Bass-centric" where as now they've added an "R" to the mix making it "Brass-centric". The rhythm section are there, they are the bedrock, solid and firm, like strong concrete piles (I'm not convinced you'd need concrete piles on bedrock so don't misinterpret me and think I'm dissing the RS!) perfectly spaced ready for an interesting beautiful structure to be built on top, and this is what the Brass is. The Brass is a beautiful & serious place to be now.

Since the last Continental gig changes have occurred in the line-up. Ray on Keys had done a job swap with Ian. It has always been important that any of the Keyboards players in Tripitaka could be instantly employed by a 1970's porn production company to act as a solo musician (and possible stunt cock!) and this had been the case since Stuart Mcallister. It was soon clear that nothing had changed.

But, the big "Elephant in the room" was there was a new lead singer in town, Jade Bianca Williams. I had grown up (in Tripitaka terms) with Sandy and hadn't yet heard Jade, I was slightly nervous. And I have to admit I didn't instantly warm to her, in fact it took 22 seconds, and then she sounded so natural it was lovely. Her confidence grew so quickly and her voice is both beautiful and powerful. She's a sweet front woman and I now find it hard to imagine anyone else in her place. For me, one of the riskiest tunes you can try as a vocalist is "Someone else's guy" by Jocelyn Brown, and Boom, what should the 4th song be? This girl is the shit!

Unfortunately, as Kerry and I were both out we had to dart back early due to an irritable Mr Chuchy (for anyone who doesn't know, that's my nickname for my son, not my penis!).