Tag Archives: bath

27-02-2018 – Better Than Dead (will it Never End?)

Greetings my friends, from the Netherworld Of The Undead…

Yes, I’m afraid yours truly is still feeling somewhat poorly, with the dread Kitten Lung disease having tightened its grip, and our poor Ben doesn’t seem to be much better either… things were not boding particularly well for our appearance at the Cider Press on Saturday night.

Happily our beloved Em is back to full strength, and gamely copes with everything on our behalf; thus it is that, when Ben’s bass mysteriously dies during the first song, she heroically distracts the audience and, by finding somebody in the house with a birthday, keeps everyone entertained for long enough for Ben to bully his kit back to life. READ MORE

19-02-2018 – The Vortex

Greetings, my little ones; may a bounteous cornucopia of boundless joy be upon you.

And phlegm. I still have plenty of phlegm left, if anybody wants some.

And this, despite barking up copious quantities of the stuff at Friday’s gig in Marlborough. Happily though, our beloved Emma is MUCH better the previously, and got through two sets without distress. I, on the other hand, nearly died a couple of times, albeit mostly this was due to choking on laughter at my band mates shenanigans and / or musical mishaps. READ MORE

12-02-2018 – Kitten Lung & Other Stories

Hola Amigos

Welcome to this week’s Tour Diary, a summary of a relentless three consecutive days out on the road, treading the boards to bring entertainment to the drinking masses of the South West. Oh, it’s a hard life.

No, really, actually it is. Your favourite axe-spanker has been rather poorly this week; suffering firstly from a nasty van condition, which had me pedestrianized for half the week, until being heroically fixed by my favourite local garage (Green Lane in Olveston, should you need any car repairs – shameless plug for a fine automotive repair establishment) – and then from an unpleasant chest infection, which manifests itself at least in part by my one of my lungs making a worrying purring sound if I’m lying down. READ MORE

05-02-2018 – Arrrrr!

Ahoy there, me hearties!

Well, sadly were all on shore leave this weekend, so we can’t tell you all about our exciting adventures, because we haven’t had any.

But, if you – like the 3.14% of sailors who are pi-rates – are up for a bit of saucy buccaneering fun on the high seas, here’s where you can find the crew of the good ship Angel Up Front next weekend…

Friday 9th – The Trout, Keynsham
Swashbuckling good fun, this one – the decks usually awash with grog by the end of the night. READ MORE

15-01-2018 – Ooooh, Something About Weddings

‘Sup, dawg – as we young people actually probably don’t say any more…

Well, we had a rather interesting evening at the Royal Oak in Sodding Chipbury – after her recent spate of the dreaded lurgy, our lovely Emma arrived declaring herself to be “much better”.

You’ll note that’s “much better”, rather than actually “well”. So our poor girl had a couple of vocal squeaks and coughing fits during the set, but gamely carried on and only mentioned her poor illness to the crowd a mere thirty or forty times during the evening. READ MORE

08-01-2018 – The Selfish Virus, With Cake!

Gooood morning, chums!

Well, I have to say that there was rather less rawk’n’roll in that weekend than we’d hoped.

It all started so well, with Em having declared herself fit for Friday’s gig at the Swan in Thornbury after her bout of horrible flu lurgy; we rolled up, we set up, and – come the allotted hour – we started playing.

Two songs in, and suddenly poor Em’s voice cracks as she approaches some high notes without due care and attention. She manages to finish the song, but only by conveying the choruses by the medium of interpretive dance. READ MORE

03-01-2018 – Virus At 2018 O’clock

…And a Happy Noo Year to all our readers!

We hope all had nearly as much fun as we did over the festering season (but not quite as much, obviously, that simply wouldn’t be right).

I’d report back on the gigs we played, but it’s all a bit of a blur really… I do recall that Christmas Eve in the Sandringham in Downend was huge fun, very nice place and a definitely silly crowd – we ended up stretching the second set out to the best part of 2 hours…

Just after Xmas, poor Emma succumbed to a Horrible Throat Lurgy that left her unable to even speak (she even had to send me text messages in mime), which put a couple of gigs in jeopardy. Since we didn’t fancy gigs in Jeopardy (or anywhere else abroad) we were very lucky to have talented daughter Lily step into the breach and cover for us. An absolute lifesaver, and very fortunate that she was both available and in need of the money! READ MORE

18-12-2017 – Xmas Choir Killer Review

Well, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our readers!

I’ll keep this missive fairly short, as I am currently at work in between resolving work-type disasters, whilst trapped at a desk within earshot of the works annual Christmas Choir Carol Concert – I can’t get away, and I didn’t bring a flamethrower, so you’ll have to excuse the somewhat cursory nature of this one.

Last weekend provided a very entertaining surprise birthday party gig, held at a large film studio – enormous big studio, loads of guests, and more lighting effects than you could shake a very big stick at. We came, we set up, and at the allotted hour the Birthday boy was led in blindfolded, and on cue we launched into playing a heavy metallised version of Happy Birthday just as his blindfold we removed… a rather cool way to start a gig, I think. We managed to make enough noise to fill the large space adequately, thanks to the magic of Stuart Hitting Things Very Hard Indeed, and the rest of us cranking the amps rather more than they’re used to. Lovely! READ MORE

04-12-2017 – The Battery, The Buffet And Other Stories

Ahoy there shipmates!

A mighty fine weekend’s rollicking on the Good Ship Angel Up Front, a three-gig voyage, and a fine haul of rawk’n’roll plunder.

Friday at the Blue Lagoon showed a good turnout of old chums, which was rather lovely – a wonderful surprise for me to see long-lost almost-daughter Sophie there; meanwhile, not-so-long-lost-actual-daughter Lily was drinking elsewhere in Bristol, and missed the reunion; only after being driven past the venue on her way home, and thinking, “That looks like my dad’s van”, did she check to see where we were gigging. I may have to demote her. READ MORE

27-11-2017 – Super Horse

Hello chums!

My, that was an extremely bizarre weekend, even by our standards….

Friday night, and I rolled up slightly early to our gig the Air Balloon in Filton; went up to the bar, announced I was with the band and asked where they’d like us to play.

Barman points in a direction, “They’re over there, setting up”.

I look across. There is indeed a band setting up, but it’s not mine. Oh dear, looks like there’s been a double-booking. I go over and introduce myself. The guy putting up a PA looks, unsurprisingly, puzzled. “But the band that was booked here got cancelled, that’s why we were asked to play”. READ MORE