Tag Archives: birthday party

17-10-2016 – The Stage

Peace be upon you, my children.

…Actually, I’m pretty sure that you can’t all be my children; I know I have a few, but I really don’t think it was that many – and besides, if that were the case, then I have to say that some of you are looking pretty ropey considering you’d need to be at least twenty years younger than me.

You know who you are.

Well, this week we can report on our Bristol City Stadium Gig – yes, folks, we have now entered the hallowed arena (as it were) of being a Stadium Rock Band. Tick that one off the bucket list. READ MORE

10-10-2016 – Angel Wings and Stadiums

Hey gang

Another weekend, another silly night of rawk’n’roll…

After a pretty dire Friday night gig, replete with dodgy stage sound, equipment death, and my guitar spontaneously detuning itself, resulting in me trying to play one song without touching three of the strings, we were hoping for better things on Saturday up at the dear ol’ Queen Vic in Stroud…

And better things indeed there were. We brought along my beloved Dem and daughter Lily, and were delighted to find some old pals waiting for us when we arrived, who kindly helped us haul the kit in, while Dem and Lil headed straight for the bar and started emptying it. READ MORE

03-10-2016 – Yeah, Well, Ok Then

Good morning campers!

And a very warm welcome to Sunnyview Rest Camp for the mentally infirm and physically unattractive. We hope to make your stay here as enjoyable as possible, but following an unfortunate incident last night outside the Leisure Lido Amusement Palace, please may we remind all our guests to make sure that you are wearing clothes before leaving your chalet; particularly if you don’t have your keys with you. Also, don’t forget that the Sunnyview Knobbly Knees competition will be held at the Kiddies Splashtime Fun Pool this afternoon at four o’clock sharp; or slightly later if we haven’t quite fished out of all the unfortunate floating items by then.
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> Right, sorry ’bout that folks, I have no idea where that one came from; possibly my brain spontaneously retuned itself and was picking up another channel entirely. READ MORE

26-09-2016 – Pole, Wig, Van!

Well, hello there again.

It was nice to be back at the Rolly in Swindon again, and I was very pleased to see that the locals are still every bit as daft as they ever were. Not, however, quite as daft as us…

Poor Stuart has been far too busy lately, and is beginning to show signs of strain; this is not helped by a string of vehicular difficulties; the last two practices have been held up by his ropey works van breaking down (the second time, rather inconveniently in the middle of the M32), and on Friday evening as Ben and I are hurtling down the M4 Swindonwards, we get a call from him saying he’s stuck in traffic and running late. Thus, we roll up at the pub and unload everything, park up, and leisurely set up all the amps, lights, PA, etc before he arrives. Once he finally does, we empty all his kit onto the stage, and he goes off to park. It’s fifteen minutes before he returns. Did he get lost? READ MORE

19-09-2016 – Blofeld

Ahoy there shipmates!

Aharr!!!!!!

Since this be International Talk Like A Pirate Day, we decided to dress up appropriately for Friday’s gig at the Tern in Yate. And what did we learn?

We learned that if Rosa wears an eye patch, she looks like a pirate.
And if Alan wears an eye patch, he looks like a pirate.
And if Ben wears an eye patch, he looks like a pirate.
And if Stuart wears an eye patch, he looks like a Bond villain. [Editor’s note: Blofeld didn’t actually wear an eye patch, that was Emilo Largo] READ MORE

12-09-2016 – Goat And Frisky

Ahoy there shipmates!

Another busy weekend – Friday at the Royal Oak in Marlborough was not-exactly-jam-packed – in fact, for a considerable part of the evening we were playing specifically for the benefit of Ed and Josh (who Rosa promptly re-named Gerald, “ as it’s easier to remember” ) – oh, and Zak the barman as well.

So, we set about amusing ourselves by breaking out the dressing-up box, for some ZZ Top…

Dressing up

..and some other general silliness with a blue wig and some cat glasses… READ MORE

05-09-2016 – The Lamb Files

Well, we’re back, did you miss us?

After a week’s jolly holidays away in (occasionally) sunny North Wales – during which, due to an unfortunate incident involving lack of foresight and a sinking kayak*, my beloved Dem and I achieved the notable distinction of being the highest people in the land whilst not wearing any pants – it was back to the lovely Swan in Thornbury, to see if we can remember how any of the songs go.

The answer was a resounding “some of them”.

Still, it was an absolute pleasure to get back together and make a raucous racket again, and a delight to see our chums John, Anne & Adam, who’d rolled all the way down from Gloucester to see us. Bless. We were so touched, we got a little carried away and threw in a rather epic AC/DC encore, complete with rubber duck solos. I’d forgotten that we sometimes do that. READ MORE

22-08-2016 – It’s A Bit Like The Archers – BUT ON ACID

Greetings, my little peccadillos!

Now, that was enough rawk’n’roll fun to last anybody a fortnight… which is just as well, since we’re not playing for a couple of weeks, since I’m running away to Exotic Foreign Parts.

Still, we’ll have plenty of fun to look back on – particularly last Wednesday’s outing to Priddy, hidden way down deep in the Mendips.

So – a midweek gig, in the middle of nowhere – we weren’t expecting a particularly exciting night, to be honest. READ MORE

15-08-2016 – Beer, Cakes & Sweeties

Borag Thungg, Earthlets!

…and a mighty fine weekend of fun that was! Saturday saw us hoofing over to beautiful sunny Tintern, to play a wedding bash right outside the picturesque Abbey (it’ll be lovely when it’s finished).

Now, sometimes wedding gigs aren’t too much fun from our point of view; they are often rather subdued affairs where our main job is really to play quietly in the corner and not upset anybody.

Not so this one – it was a delightfully bonkers affair, with the field set up like a fete / funfair, with sack races, welly throwing competitions, a free sweeties stall, a free cake stall, and… Rosa, come back here! Too late, she has skipped merrily off, and soon comes back laden with several large bags of sweeties. Having set up, we sit happily in the sunshine sipping beer, eating barbecue, and watch the proceedings. READ MORE

08-08-2016 – Not Posh

Yo homeys! (as we young people say).

Well, well, well, a whole weekend off with no gigging. We hope you managed to amuse yourselves without us. Still, no rest for the although-perhaps-not-actually-wicked-certainly-of-a-rather-less-than-unblemished-reputation – this weekend we’re back out and about again…

Saturday afternoon will see us playing at a wedding over in sunny Tintern; this was a gig booked through an agency, so for a while we were initially concerned that we might have to dress up nicely and pretend to be proper respectable musicians. However we recently received an email from the happy couple, asking us not to turn up dressed up “too posh”; as seemingly they wanted a proper rock band experience. So, that’s good then – I wonder where we can find one… In the meantime, where’s that flame-throwing codpiece…? READ MORE