Hi there, good to see you – c’mon in, pull up a helicopter and make yourself comfortable…

This week, whilst I was (obviously) supposed to be doing something else, I stumbled across a random word generator – and, as you’ll see from the above, it’s not really as much fun as I expected. Still, let’s give it a go and see how long until I get bored with it.

Dinosaur.

Marimba.

Meringue.

Nope. Bored already.

So – we have a rather satisfactory weekend’s gigging to report; for Friday nights at the Swan in Almondsbury (the nearest thing I have to a local, despite not actually being very local), we were the first band they’ve had in there for many a year, and thus something of an experiment; in the words of Dave the landlord, – “If nothing else, I’m hoping we can at least piss off the woman next door”.

There was a small degree of trepidation on our side, partly because we’d not played for nearly a month, partly because Abby still hadn’t quite shaken off a throat infection, but mostly because there were a lot of muso pals of mine in attendance – who, up until now, I have somehow managed to convince that I’m not completely inept…

Turns out we needn’t have worried; by carefully avoiding a few of the more throat-ripping tunes, Abby got through the whole night in fine voice; and despite being a tad rusty, we came out with reputations intact and an offer of future gigs. That’ll do, dinosaur!

The following night, we rolled into the Dolphin in Oldland Common, just as some sporting event was finishing; and watched what was effectively an audience shift change, as most of the footie lads stumbled out, while the music-y crowd shambled in.

It turned into a very lively night, although at one point when I heard the shout of “Oasis!” Play some Oasis!”, we realised that the footie mob had accidentally left one of their number behind. In a possibly unrelated incident, the local constabulary turned up shortly afterwards and quietly removed someone…

Our poor Abs was still suffering a bit, so when a chap in the crowd asked if he could sing a few tunes, having established his credentials (i.e., he’d sung in bands before and knew some of the numbers) she was happy to oblige. It’s always a good move to indulge the locals, especially when they exhorted us to play some extended guitar solos during a Hendrix number.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Do you want epic and slightly random high-volume fretboard tomfoolery? Well, it just so happens that’s exactly what I’m usually expressly forbidden from doing. Fasten your safety belts…

Finally, we wrestled the second set to an end, packed up and said our farewells to the lovely staff before disappearing into the night.

We have another couple of weeks off now, and various people are going on holiday (not me, I spent all my money already), but we’ll be back before the end of the month.

Until then –

Chainsaw.

Daffodil.

Experiment.

Square on
A

PS – I now suddenly want to form a psychedelic prog band called The Chainsaw Daffodil Experiment. Who’s in?