Greetings my friends, from the Netherworld Of The Undead…
Yes, I’m afraid yours truly is still feeling somewhat poorly, with the dread Kitten Lung disease having tightened its grip, and our poor Ben doesn’t seem to be much better either… things were not boding particularly well for our appearance at the Cider Press on Saturday night.
Happily our beloved Em is back to full strength, and gamely copes with everything on our behalf; thus it is that, when Ben’s bass mysteriously dies during the first song, she heroically distracts the audience and, by finding somebody in the house with a birthday, keeps everyone entertained for long enough for Ben to bully his kit back to life.
Similarly, in the second set, she manages – in concert with some very deft work from the security team – to keep control of a herd of “young” “ladies”*, and prevent them from treading on too much expensive equipment as they desperately try to be part of the focus of attention.
In fact, we survived the entire night without significant mishap, and when somebody called out for an Abba encore, we even managed to cook up a passable impromptu version of it. With some unnecessary widdly guitar bits and a bass solo in, natch. We may be ill, but your favourite spank-plankers can still pull off some needless fretwankery if the opportunity arises…
Coming up this weekend – assuming that neither Ben or myself opt to take the easy way out and die in the meantime – a “normal” weekend, two gigs, both handily in Bristol…
Friday 2nd March – Railway Tavern, Fishponds
We’ve played here many a time, but this will be the first occasion not under the watchful eye of (now- ex-landlady) Queen Amy; she tells us that the new proprietors are “lovely”, which is nice. We’ll just have to hope they also have an unusually high tolerance for idiotic musos. Just in case any should turn up…
Saturday 3rd March – Huntsman, Westerleigh Road
It’s mostly a food pub, this one, but they do seem rather fond of their live music as well. We quite like it too, as it’s a very short distance from the back of the van to where we set up; and there’s enough room for a bit of a prance around, all in full view of the cake display. Prancing in front of cakes – what could be more delightful on a Saturday night?
Right, that’s it for this week – I’m off to actually seek medical attention**, as I’ve been told if I keep coughing like that I won’t be allowed in the house any more. Which would be rather a shame, I think, as it’s where we keep the food…
Square on
A
*This will probably get edited out, but it looked to me very much like the Jerry Springer Audience Chapter of —— ——–’ Night Out…
**I’ve actually done this now. “Take one these, three times a day. That should fix it, nothing to worry about. Oh, and if you’re not better in two weeks, come back and see me immediately, you’ve got cancer”.
I just have to hope Dem doesn’t find out – if I were to get better after she’s got her hopes up and spent ages filling out all those insurance forms, she’ll be so angry….