Hey gang

Well, we hope you had at least as much fun as we did this weekend. We started off with a slot at Ship fest, in The Ship Inn in Keynsham, which turned out to have outside bars, several food stalls, and even a proper stage, PA, and engineer – the latter three of which could only, unfortunately, be accessed by some precipitous steps made of scaffolding. Ben was delighted. So was the sound engineer when, having offered to help us down with the kit, saw how much was rammed in the back of my little van…

We somehow negotiated all the kit down the precipice, set up, and set about playing a two-hour straight-through set. Although, just to give Em and Stuart a bit of breathing space in the middle, we hauled up my youngest Jimi to play drums for a few songs with Ben singing – and a mighty fine job they did of it too, and didn’t even storm offstage when I explained to the crowd, “Look – now we’re a boy band!”

So, an afternoon of jolly fun, a quick pack down, and then we watched the next band on – the curiously-monikered You Me And The Dance Floor – who ingratiated themselves with us by helping haul our kit back up the mountain to the van, and sealed their good reputation by starting off by playing Born To Be Wild – it was only later, when they played “Brown Eyed Girl”, and followed it up with “Don’t You Want Me Baby” that we suddenly noticed it was getting awfully late, and we really should be heading off home now…

Anyroadup, an excellent way to spend an evening, and we didn’t even get rained on.

Sunday’s trip to the Messenger in Swindon was, I have to say, a rather more subdued affair – although we did see some rather odd audience participation, in the form of a gentleman who – I suspect in a state of advanced inebriation – chose to show his appreciation of the music by performing press-ups in front of the monitors with his trousers at half-mast.

This may be some kind of Swindon mating ritual…

I did, however, take the opportunity to take the following picture, showing the rawk’n’roll essentials needed to get through a night of guitar playing.

Note in particular the following items: –

1. Cryptic set list
2. Glass of water
3. Stupid sunglasses for Blues Brothers number
4. Box of finger lights for titting about with
5. Devil horns to wear during flashy guitar solo
6. Em’s half-time banana
7. (not shown) Beer
8-26 (also not shown) Cheerleaders and vat of lime jelly

Right then, coming up next weekend – just the one, but we do rather like it…

Saturday 2nd June – The Lamb, Marlborough
It’s a bit cramped in here, but as long as nobody actually tries swinging a cat, we’ll be fine. An appreciative crowd, and the chippy round the corner is rather good.

Thassit for this week, I’ll leave you with a thought from a kind donor who I think, on balance, is best to remain anonymous…

Have you ever tried blindfold archery?

You don’t know what you’re missing…

Square on
A