Yo ho ahoy!

I’ll keep this one really short, ‘cause it’s currently a nice sunny Sunday afternoon and I don’t want to be sat indoors thumping a laptop when I could be idling outside in the garden with a cool beverage watching the weeds grow….

Saturday night’s jaunt to the Lord Raglan was hot sweaty fun – for all of us except for Steve, who somehow arranged to have the hefty air conditioner unit right next to him on the tiny corner stage – thus he remained cool as a proverbial cucumber, whilst surveying the rest of us sweaty peasants from his lofty perch… READ MORE

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”. READ MORE

Well, hello there!

It’s been a while since we put one of these out, what with one thing and another, but after a peaceful few weeks, we’re back out gigging merrily away. And the good news is that it seems we haven’t entirely forgotten how to do it…

Friday at the Blue Lagoon started out unusually quiet, but just as we started the second set, it suddenly became rammed with jolly folk, and by the end of the night, you couldn’t move for dancing lunatics.

Saturday at the Poacher in Portishead was even more fun. Quite a few familiar faces, and several folks who hadn’t seen us before but had come down on the strength of our reputation from previous visits. READ MORE

Hey gang

This’ll be the last one of these for a couple of weeks – we’re laying back a bit for a while, to give our Abby a chance to do some job-related exam things. Apparently, going out with a naughty rock and roll band every weekend doesn’t provide the academic studying benefits I so fondly used to imagine it did.

On reflection, maybe that’s the reason why my years of academic study resulted in what’s known as a “gentleman’s degree”. Or, possibly, I’m just a bit thick. Who’d have thought? READ MORE

Aloha!

So, whilst I remember, here’s a quick rundown of events at our gig at O’Neill’s, down in That Brizzle a couple of weeks ago.

Setting off from home, I was feeling a tad ropey and running slightly late. Nonetheless, I arrived safely, hurriedly unloaded, and then spent a full 20 minutes trying to find somewhere to park. Eventually, I found a spot and hoofed it back through the drizzle to the venue. After a frenziedly rapid setting up and plugging in of the gear, we were back on schedule.

It was then that I spotted eldest son lurking nearby. “I didn’t come to say hello earlier, in case I got roped in to help”, he explains, “But I’ll buy you a pint if you like”. READ MORE

Hi folks

Well, that was another cold, damp weekend, enlivened by a healthy dose of rawk’n’roll.

Saturday night, and I rolled up to the Lord Raglan feeling rather shabby, having acquired some kind of low-level lurgy during the week (either that, or somebody maliciously filled my lungs with custard during the night. But who would do such a thing? It certainly wouldn’t have been my devoted wife. Why, just the other week, she had obviously sensed I was feeling cold in the night, and I awoke to find her holding a pillow firmly over my face in an effort to keep me warm). READ MORE

Yowsa!

Well, we hope you all had a fun weekend as we did.

Saturday night, as moths to a flame, we were drawn to the beacon of revelry that is the Old Mill in sunny Portishead, the undisputed jewel of the South West, with gallivanting intent.

And gallivant we most certainly did. For some reason (known only to sound techs) the sound that evening was notable for its sparkling clarity and definition – either that, or I’d just turned my guitar up a bit too much.

Joyfully lacking in sparkling clarity and definition were the crowd, whose performance during the first half was dominated by some increasingly unstable teenage ladies, who managed to not quite fall over but I could have sworn they were going to an absolute record number of times. READ MORE

Aloha!

It’s been a while since we sent one of these out – if I was of advancing years, it might explain the increasing frequency of my memory lapses – as it is, let’s all just assume that I actually have been sending these out on a regular basis, you must have simply overlooked them.

Please try to do better in future.

Anyhoo – I can only recall our most recent gig, down at O’Neill’s down in town last Friday, which appears to have been very satisfactory for all concerned – apart from me possibly having accidentally driven through a bus gate on the way home. I can’t be sure, it was dark and widdling down with rain, and I was following a bus, which may have obscured my view of any signs. READ MORE

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