Hey folks

Sorry, we didn’t send one of these out last week – quite frankly, I forgot. A brief recap should suffice, however.

A couple of Fridays ago we played a pre-Halloween gig at Keynsham Courtyard – a new venue for us, and once we’d figured out how to squish ourselves onto the very cosy-sized stage, we had a very jolly evening –  lots of folks in fancy dress, which is always good to see, along with much dancing and jollity.

Stood right in front of me for most of the night was a middle-aged couple and what I assumed to be their daughter. The husband, probably with a couple of beers on board already, was having a wonderful time, singing along to all the tunes and air guitaring away. His wife looked… rather less amused. In mid-song, I happened to catch the eye of the daughter, standing between them, and mouthed the words, READ MORE

Aye up funsters!

Well, as expected, Saturday’s jaunt out to Clevedon FC was a lively affair, with quite a few familiar faces we saw a few weeks back when we played at Clevedon Cricket Club.

Seems if you live in Clevedon, and play sports, you have to play all the sports.

Or, possibly, there’s simply not very much to do in Clevedon.

Answers on a postcard, please.

In any case, they seem a very friendly bunch. Whilst we were setting up, they held their raffle, and I couldn’t help but notice most of the prices consisted of strong liquor. READ MORE

Yo ho ahoy!

Here’s the tale of an offbeat and interesting gig outing the Old Bank in Keynsham last Saturday.

We’d been contacted by the booking agent during the week to pass on a message from the venue that it was to be a “Harry Potter themed” evening.

“What you are supposed to so with this information, I don’t know”, he added, “But they were very keen to let you know”.

O-kay.

We didn’t know what to do with this information either, but as it turned out, we saw not a single sign of any Potter-isms, so perhaps the punters didn’t know what to make of it either. READ MORE

Hello playmates!

We’re back to the joys of gigging again, just as I was beginning to forget how weird things can get sometimes…

Friday’s outing to the Crab Apple in Clevedon was enlivened by the presence of a few old chums, and we were delighted to see our lovely pal and occasional special guest vocalist Paige there.

But – what’s this? She’s got her arm strapped up in a serious-looking sling contraption? What’s happened?

“Broken collarbone”.

And how did she manage this?

“Motorcycle accident, last week. I was riding merrily along and a deer jumped out of the bushes right in front of me. Didn’t even have time to brake or try to swerve around it. So now I’ve got this.” READ MORE

Ahoy ahoy!

Well, after an unusually prolonged summer break – we’re back!

What with one thing and another, it’s been six weeks since the last AUF gig – well, almost. There was one friend-of-a-friend birthday party we were asked to play a couple of weekends ago, but with Abby away, Steve in France, and Stuart in Canada, it looked like we were going to have to disappoint them.

However, thanks to the services of my excellent drummer friend Rob, AUF alumnus bassist from 10 years ago Martin, and my marvellously obliging daughter Lily, with a single evening of rehearsal, we actually managed to put together a rather convincing AUF tribute act. READ MORE

Aye up, funsters!

I’m delighted to report that Friday night’s escapade to the Packhorse was an absolute blast! We were expecting a busy night, what with it being main man Liam’s birthday bash – what we weren’t expecting was to find the entire street filled up with wall to wall motorsickles, meaning we had to double park in the bus lane and unload onto the street.

We also weren’t expecting there to be a support act playing when we arrived – but there was! Turned out to be a very affable chap, on his own with a set of backing tracks, who very helpfully shipped his kit out the way for us to set up as soon as he’d finished, before even going off to get paid. And, although the pub was busy, the thoughtful punters kept a space clear for us to set up, so we had a nice easy ride. READ MORE

Hello tiddlypeeps!

I’ll keep this one fairly short – it’s currently a nice Sunday afternoon, and having just finished my chores for the day, I’m keen to slope off and sit in the garden for an hour or so* of doing absolutely nothing.

Also, of course, I don’t want to distract anyone from watching World Sports Day, which I believe is currently underway in Paris.

We can report on a pleasant evening spent in the Oak on Thursday, followed by a very entertaining Saturday night at the Good Intent in Broomhill. I’ll be honest, based on the previous time we played here, we weren’t expecting much; and it seemed our expectations were right, as we finished setting up and there were less than a dozen folks in the bar. READ MORE

Hello funsters!

We hope you’re all enjoying the glorious unpredictable variability of the British summer…

Well, we’re here to report an extremely enjoyable Saturday night down at the Poacher in Portishead.

Lovely friendly staff, a very enthusiastic bunch of punters who were very clearly up for enjoying themselves, and we were delighted to see some lovely friends that we haven’t caught up with for a while – plus our occasional special guest star vocalist Paige, who came and belted her way through a couple of tunes with us and had the whole place bouncing up and down. READ MORE

Aye up!

Well, that was an eventful weekend.

Some of the more experienced of you may recall a government information video from – oooh, probably the early eighties – warning the public that “most accidents occur in the home”.

Under the Freedom Of Information Act, I can now tell you that this is not the case – the truth is, in fact, that “Most Accidents Happen At The Gig”.

I shall elucidate.

Friday night saw us roll up bright and early at the Cat & Wheel in advance of 7 pm, ready for the early start which has been the custom there for the past year or two. READ MORE

Aloha!

Well, we hope you all had as fine a weekend as we did; we kicked off with a fairly quiet pub gig on Friday, but on Saturday night we had an absolute blast – we’d been asked, at quite short notice, to play a house party, which turned out to be at a very nice big posh house; we were set up in a marquee in the garden, playing with a backdrop of a lovely sunset view over the Severn Estuary, with a lovely bunch of folks watching us arrayed on the two-tiered terraces. 

I even managed to persuade my beloved Dem to come along, the first time she’s come out with us in ages, and the first time she met our Abby. READ MORE