London Baby!!!!!!!

As I approach our forthcoming gig in Camden this weekend ... I cannot help but get a bit sentimental. It is 3 years to this month since my first London gig. Oh, and how things change. I'm in love with London. Really fascinated by it. However I don't want to live there ... I do though, Enjoy a ride out every other month to the capital. I remember the first time I went there as an adult. It was for my gig at The Lark in the Park in Islington. I was doing my solo electro project then. Things had started to progress as an artist for me. In June 2006 I remember giving up on music ... Any hope of progress had started to wane. I had just finished a new demo called 'Girls are meaner than boys' it was a re-write of one of my old songs called '42nd Street'. I uploaded the demo on Myspace and thought nothing more. Early August 2006 I get a message from Pockets at Strummerville. Rob, Your music is great ... We want to help you ... I'll be in touch ... Send me your number!!. I had read about Pockets ... I knew he was Joe Strummer's close friend. I knew about Strummerville. They found me ... I never sent a demo out. In fact up until recently with The Yalla Yallas I had never ever posted a demo out for review or consideration to anyone. Anyway I was obviously delighted with the message ... I remember sat in my apartment thinking 'Shitting hell this could be good'.

Rightio, Now with a sense of purpose I thought I better get gigging. I booked three Leeds gigs and a London gig for September/October. The Islington gig was a great weekend ... Myself, Clare, Pollock and Dempsey all went down. Pockets couldn't make the London gig but some other people turned up on his behalf. At the time I wasn't getting many plaudits in Leeds ... In fact probably a lot of criticism. So doing this gig was the chance to get some honest feedback. I went and I played pretty well ... Probably at the time it was one of my best gigs. The band who went on after me announced that I was the most 'Rock n Roll' act they had ever seen and dedicated their gig to me ... Ha ha nice touch!!! At the time I was buzzing with dreams and ideas ... I had recently lost all confidence and now I was thinking about doing an album, playing festivals, and getting real fans. I was in love with a beautiful girl. I had my own place. It couldn't have been more perfect. Cheers Pockets (Even though at this stage he hadn't done anything - Just say he was going to help me - Ha ha).

I came back from London and entered 'Girls are meaner than boys' into the Leeds Bright Young things competition. Strummerville had put a link to me from their sites ... and I had an enormous sense of victory after the Islington gig. I then find out I was selected as one of the winners of Bright Young Things. All of a sudden I was doing interviews, recording in a studio, photo shoots. I spent 2007 playing gigs, doing festivals, interviews, getting my own radio show, BBC News 24 did a feature on me. I started getting people writing to me from all over the world ... I was hanging out with some of my heroes. In November 2007 I had played my last solo electro gig and had nearly completed the demos for my solo album. I didn't know it at the time but I was to just leave it all behind - Still to this day I have no plans to go back to it. My head was a mess ... Me and Clare were not best of friends and hadn't been for a while. I went to Amsterdam with Pollock and decided now was time to form a band. I was fed up and tired. By the time I got the line up together ... Matthew Dempsey on Bass, Will Grinder on Guitar, and Kevin Bellwood on Drums it was December 2007. I was turning up to the rehearsals crying my heart out because of my break up with Clare. I swear this is why our songs developed an angry energetic feel... I just had to get it all out of my system. The Yalla Yallas played their first gig on the 5th Anniversary of Joe Strummers death.

Time goes by and I think as to what we've achieved since then. Playing fantastic gigs nearly every weekend ... Meeting so many beautiful people. Recording at Mick Jones' Rock n Roll Library. Playing at Glastonbury. Bradford Mela. Recording and releasing a fantastic debut album that were all so proud of... and having our music played all around the world. It doesn't get much better than that. So this Sunday at Belushis in Camden I for one will be celebrating ... and I hope things will keep progressing for us so we can keep playing gigs, and enjoying everyones company ... Rock n Roll!!