The blog version:
Ahoy there shipmates!
Well, we certainly had a suitably silly weekend; kicking off at the dear ol’ Railway in Fishponds for an evening with young Lily; we’d thoughtfully brought along a few new backing tracks to try out; the final verdict was that some are okay, some will be okay once the idiot guitar player has remembered the format (ahem) and some, to be honest, didn’t sound too great, and probably won’t see the light of day again. And it wasn’t even my fault. But, since there was at least one Slade song in the former category, that’s all right then!
Saturday night down town, and we all arrived bright and fresh (and not in any way knackered out before we even started) at Molloy’s, and proceeded to haul all our monstrously heavy kit up all the stairs to get to the stage. Who filled those amps with Kryptonite when I wasn’t looking? By the time we were in and set up, the place had filled up considerably, and the very bouncy crowd included several old chums, including young Susie’s birthday gang, and our lovely pal Heather who’d driven all the way down from Stroud just to see l’il old us. Awwww.
Not forgetting our good mate Wendy. If she’s reading this – Hi Wendy!!
We got off to a fantastic start, with Lou having no idea what the lyrics were to the first song, leading us to improvise our way to a graceful a capella ending which none of us had really expected. In a show of solidarity, I waited a few songs before enormously cocking up a guitar solo (you know, it was one of those ones where everybody knows every note, so you have to play it exactly like the original to get away with it – and I didn’t…) – that was just me being supportive.
Despite these “modern jazz” moments, the place was full of happy bouncy people all night long. In the break, Lou and her City Dolls band mate Kirsty played a few before we took to the stage again, and the DJ announced us, Stuart started the drum riff intro to the first song, and… Hang on, where’s Lou got to?
Stuart rolls round and round the drum riff, just as he’s beginning to look tired, Lou appears, cheerily bounds up on to the stage, and off we go. The second set is even livelier than the first, and I suspect significantly louder – I was pleased to see the sound meter on the wall (which we sneakily circumvent to avoid it tripping the power every thirty seconds) jammed permanently into the red – even when it was just me playing . Anyroadup, the whole place was up and boogieing until finally at about half- twelve we decided we’d run out of steam and packed it in. As a bonus, by the time we’d packed away the various bits of kit, they’d shut the bar and were industriously shovelling the punters out the door, so we managed to load out with a minimum of people falling over everything. Although a few still did try.
Right then, coming up this weekend – no band action, but I’ll be out and at it again with young Lily…
Fri 19th – Lily B at the Clothiers Arms, Stroud
Now that we’ve got ourselves sorted out a bit, this should be a corker of an evening. We likes it here at the Clothears, they’re such a friendly bunch. And, best of all, today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day! We have the sodding great big flag, we have piratical silly hats, we probably have rubber cutlasses (and if “rubber cutlass” isn’t a damned fine euphemism, I’d like to know what is), and we most certainly like doing the stupid voice. And Heather – since we’re up your neck of the woods, if you’re reading this, and you’re thinking of coming along, you are hereby required to bring a bunch of people dressed in suitably buccaneering fashion. Aharrr!
Right me hearties, that’s your lot for this week
Square (rigged) on
Cap’n A