A report of Southam gig - February 2008 by Martyn Pegg - aka "Wooden Shirt"
(Mart also sent a photo of himself so I'll know who he is in future - thanks, Ray )

The gig was up to usual (extremely high) standard even though the turn out was very disappointing. There were probably 100 punters of which the majority appeared to be locals. Me and the other half made friends with a couple from Southam who commented that the Pirates were the best band that they had seen at the venue (I think they meant it!). On to the night's entertainment, the support band a trio from Brum (Peoples Republic Of Mercia) I thought were great. They played what I thought could be classed as late 1970's R'n'B/New Wave/Punk, guitar/bass/drums, pub rock.... think Feelgoods, Clash, Buzzcocks etc. I liked them so much that I purchased two c.d.'s off them. The only thing I did find with them was that on the c.d.'s they were a four piece and I wonder if a member had recently left (this may have accounted for moments in their set when the endings sounded a bit odd or they appeared to have made a small mistake - even so, still a great band, well worth checking out.... 8 out of 10!).

On to the main course, now before I write anything else I must state that I had a few ‘shandys’ on the night and this in conjunction with me being totally into the music I can only remember certain things. However what I do remember is, a great venue, great P.A. system, and some great songs from the lads! Highlights for me were, Milkcow Blues with the new (traditional, if you know what I mean) riff, Don’t Munchen it, the best live version of Ugly Millionaire I heard and the encore of Baby Please Don’t go which had my missus raving about it for days after (bl**dy unbelievable playing by Mick). What struck me about the band was the quality of the playing and the professionalism of the guys, they looked like they were playing in front of a thousand instead of a hundred! It was also nice to see Lloyd (Mick’s son) get up and play bass on one song, not sure about John as a front man though! A great moment from the night was John asking the crowd to come closer because he couldn’t see us (we were about ten foot away from the stage at the time). We obliged by moving forward to be greeted by Mr Spence saying: ‘on second thoughts move back’, now I know that we weren’t the best looking bunch in the world, but…

After the gig I saw Mick in the hotel reception area. I shook his hand and thanked him for a great night, his reply to me was ‘ Thanks for coming, we really appreciate it….’
- you know it feels really good when your heroes turn out to be nice people! 

Thanks Mick, John and Mike for a special night,
Mart (Wooden Shirt)