Aloha!
Seeing as it’s too damned hot to do much of anything today, here’s the briefest of brief rundowns of last week’s gigging activity, and a quick glance at the upcoming festivities this Friday…
Thursday night, and up to the Royal Oak in Sodding Chipbury for a sweaty evening’s entertainment. Things were going fine until about half an hour in when Alan’s guitar suddenly loses the warm, articulate tone for which it is (rightly) renowned and admired, and instead starts producing a very quiet distorted sound, more akin to a mouse having an aneurysm.
Oh, bugger, that sounds like a potentially expensive amp problem. At the very least, a blown valve, and since many of those are made in Russia these days, is increasingly hard to replace…
We call a halt to the first set, and Alan frantically tries to figure out what is wrong, and how to make it all better again. After five minutes of fumbling (which I’ve just realized neatly describes some of my more epic solos), miraculously it all comes good again. My suspicion is that I must have inadvertently knocked a lead partly out of one of my pedals.
Ben’s suspicion is that I have staged the entire episode to dodge paying for the next round.
One of us is almost certainly correct….
After that, all goes smoothly, and we have a pleasant night, finished off without any other mishaps (other than the regular musical incompetence issues, which I have decided are part of our charm).
Saturday evening, Ben and I set off early to enjoy a very pleasant drive through the early evening countryside (translation: I missed the intended M4 junction), and eventually find our way to the Liberal Club, in the sleepy Wiltshire village of Colerne. Unlike most social clubs, it’s actually more like a nice country pub, but featuring a large room with a stage at one end. We set up, we soundcheck, we sit and have a natter with the locals, and then play through a trouble-free couple of sets, by the end of which there are a respectable number of folks dancing about, playing air guitar, etc.
Afterwards, a very nice lady, I would estimate in her sixties, confesses that she really enjoyed our version of “All Along the Watchtower”.
“When I was about fifteen”, she reminisces, “My then boyfriend bought me an album, and one side was all Bob Dylan, and the other was Jimi Hendrix. I used to listen to that over and over again, all the time. And then, when you played that tonight….”
“…We ruined them both for you…” interrupts Ben.
She doesn’t disagree.
Nonetheless, we’ll be having another crack at it this week…
Friday 15th – Cat & Wheel, Gloucester Rd
Down by the Arches, sadly we had to cancel our previous booking here last time as Ben was poorly, but hopefully, we’ll be firing on all thirty-seven cylinders for this one. Always lively, hopefully quite a few ol’ pals will be in attendance, and it’s only walking distance for Abs, so – and I quote – “For once I can get shitfaced”. Do try and join us if you can, it’ll be a hoot.
And, that’s it for this week. I’m going to go and cool off now in my private pool, while scantily-clad Scandinavian lovelies fan me with palm leaves, mop my fevered brow with cool flannels, and bring an array of iced cocktails for my consideration. All will be relaxing and peaceful, apart from the sound of the tanker lorry delivering the lime jelly…
Square on
A