Howdy pardners!
My, that was an interesting Saturday night.
Regular readers may recall that we had been due to play the Regent in sunny Weston-Super Mare; however, we had a message on Friday from the promoter that the pub had changed hands and the gig might be off.
Saturday morning we had confirmation that it was definitely on, so I duly loaded up the van.
Around 4pm, we got another message saying that the Regent gig was off, but asked if we could instead play at a nearby rugby club, to fill in for a country band that had pulled out last minute from the club’s “Western themed evening”.
We made it clear that we play what we play, and it’s not really very country-ish at all; but we were assured that, in view of the short notice, they wouldn’t complain.
Anybody else here remember the Blues Brothers movie…?
The other snag was that they wanted us there, and set up ready to pay backing music by 6pm. Somehow we managed to get ourselves there in time, and sure enough the hall and everyone in it was decked out Western paraphernalia, cowboy hats etc, and there were some bales of hay artfully arranged in front of the stage, and an inflatable horse in the middle of the dance floor.
We never did find out what the horse was for.
Anyway, they all seemed friendly enough, although we found ourselves playing to a very quiet room for the the first set – prinicipally due to the food being doled out on the balcony.
Time for the second set, we drew them in with the nearest thing to country tune we could muster – Sweet Home Alabama – and a lady, who clearly had been to line dancing classes (it takes all sorts, I guess), promptly set about corralling the rest of the audience into joining in a routine with her. She looked so happy telling people what to do that we decided to experiment with seeing how bizarre we could make things. And, we’re to tell you that it seems yes, you can line dance to AC/DC.
We finished the set off, played a quick encore, and packed up and headed for home; but not before being booked to play their next bash coming up at Christmas.
Not the evening we’d been expecting, but we all agreed things had turned out for the best.
Coming up this weekend – another Saturday outing
Saturday June 5th – The Lord Raglan, Nag’s Head Hill
It’s very cramped and cosy in here, but it’s always good fun – and there’s always the fallout from Michelle’s Dildo Bingo to watch out for….
Square on
A