Chichester launch for The Dirty Strangers' new album

The south-coast launch for Hunter’s Moon will be at Chichester’s Chichester Inn on Saturday, November 18 at 8pm, a birthday gig for Alan who turns 69 two days later. Tickets are £10 on the door or from Time Machine Records or from www.wegottickets.com/event/598125

“I actually started the album during Covid,” Alan said. “I had time on my hands and we needed a new album. We started recording it during Covid remotely and then what happened was the drummer came over to my studio and we put the drums down and rough guitar and vocals and then we sent it to the bass player.”

Sadly the band lost their keyboard player Scottie who passed away two years ago: “We got another guitarist John Rollason and sort of replaced keyboards with another guitar. There were four tracks that Scottie played on while he was still with us and we didn't supplement the keyboards on those at all. It was Scottie's last thing and we just wanted it to be Scottie on keyboards on there… and then when Covid lifted we just carried on. And I love it. I think it's a great album. In this day and age there are not a lot of raw rock 'n' roll albums around. I think what makes it so good is that it is full of good songs and full of enthusiasm and full of the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll. And that spirit of rock ‘n’ roll is about dancing and about having a good time. That's what rock ‘n’ roll is.”

On the album the songs are all about “all the usual things like crime and love and disappointment. It all stems back to the blues. We're singing about the same stuff that the blues are about, about everyday life, about its difficulties but also about its joys. We've been going as a band for 45 years. There was a time when you started off when you're new and fresh and then if you kept going people would just think ‘Oh, they are still around’ but then in the longer term people really start to appreciate that you are in it for the duration and they respect you for that and for the fact that you're writing rock 'n' roll songs. We have done six original albums in that time and we have a couple of live albums out. I'm not a prolific writer!”

Alan has known Keith Richards for more than 40 years. Keith has played with the band and recorded with the band and written with Alan in the past: “And it is great having him but you want to be able to do things that you can reproduce when you play live which you can't if you've had guests in the recording. We wanted this to be an album that you can just take out and play.

“I've not spoken to Keith but I've sent him a copy. I dropped him one off and when everything settles down with The Stones I'm sure he will get back to me, but everyone wants a piece of him at the moment. But we've exchanged albums and when we talk about it we will compare budgets next time!”