Harry Stevenson & the loose canons at the Running Horse, Alfreton Rd Nottingham.
[ Gig - Sunday 24th February 2002]

The evening began with a mad drive through totty-land [Mapperley & Forest Road], laughing hysterically to the sound of Mick Jagger's lazy vocals on a live recording from the early 80s'. We arrived on Alfreton Road where emergency services were extracting two vehicles from brightly lit Forest Mill shop-fronts. The Mill which also houses Value Rent-A-Car and a handful of long-established Nottingham businesses is due for demolition in a few months time.

The band playing at the Running Horse was fronted by local veteran guitar hero Harry Stevenson. His impromtu rendition of the Beatles 'Taxman' at the Imperial Cooler Bar over twenty years ago is still clear in my mind today. He appears to have lost none of the fire in his belly either! - Hammering away on his semi-accoustic guitar and still slicing the mix with vitriolic lyrics.

The rest of the band was made up of three ex-members of Nottingham's premier pub rock band Gaffa; Wayne Evans on Bass, Clive Smith on guitar and Mick Barratt on drums. So, the overall sound was equally familiar. It became obvious throughout the lengthy set that many of the songs were completely improvised.

Later, Clive explained how they are so in tune with each other that the band is able do this very successfully. It was great to talk to our heroes from twenty odd years ago and they relayed quite a few anecdotes that could one day form the basis of a very funny account of their life on the road.

Towards the end of the set Harry was appealing for alternative names for the band as the loose canons had already been used by 'some other bastard' [sic]. This had Riff and I racking our brains for daft names we had scribbled in our notebooks in the past. A couple of days later Riff came up with the brilliant 'Stevenson's Racket'.

We must have walked down Alfreton Road at night a hundred times in our youth and in reality little has changed since then. A few trading names perhaps, but the shops still sell the same stuff like the restaurants still serve the same food. But who knows what will happen to this inner city district when the proposed thirty-million pound apartment block replaces Forest Mills in a year or so's time?

The rain was falling as we collected our car from the gated area next to the old brick chimney and I couldn't resist a few natural light shots for posterity.