Tag Archives: birthday

Gig Log

11-03-2014 – Broken string & turkey hat

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Aloha, homeys!

Well, what a marvellously bizarre weekend that was. Friday started off innocently enough, there weren’t many punters in the Tap & Barrel in Swindon, as we arrived and set up.

“Oh well”, we thought, “Perhaps it’ll liven up in a while”.

It did, when two of the punters suddenly started fighting right in front of us – for no discernible reason, as far as I could see; although they were both sufficiently inebriated that reason was one of the last things that was going to have any bearing on matters… READ MORE

Gig Log

04-03-2014 – Exploding Tambourine Extraveganza

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Hey folks

This’ll be a short one, I’m afraid, as it’s late already and I keep having to inconvenience myself for work at the moment… Bah!

Still, a weekend full of the usual rawk’n’roll weirdness, madness, and deaf and destruction; including this week the tragic loss of our auxiliary percussion equipment; consisting of a tambourine which Lou plays in one of the songs (I can’t for the life of me remember which one); and which, on Saturday was lent out to a particularly enthusiastic audience member at the Golden Fleece in Bath; “Bring it back, mind”, Lou warns him. READ MORE

Gig Log

27-02-2014 – Late

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Aye oop

Well, a jolly fine night for Lily up the Clothears Arms in Stroud; I was impressed to see Lil’ has learned something from her dear ol’ Dad; in this case how to pick on your band mates while they can’t retaliate. Thus it was that, just as I launch into a big emotional epic Gary Moore guitar solo, Lil deftly attaches a large comedy bow tie around my neck while my hands are full, and I’m unable to fend her off or remove it until the end of the song.

Dat’s my girl!

Of course, it will be a few days before she’ll be allowed to sleep in the house again. READ MORE

Gig Log

18-02-2014 – Merrily drunken noisy young ladies

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Good morning,

Well, it seems the floods are slowly beginning to recede, and so in one way at least, things are beginning to get back to what passes for normal down here in the South West…

Friday night at the Royal Oak in Swindon Old Town, and Lil and I roll up promptly at 8:30 to find the place deserted apart from the manager and one barman. “It’s a bit quiet tonight”, the latter observes, “But there should be a few more in later”.

Sure enough, by 9:30…one bloke has rolled in. We decide to “give it a few minutes”, and suddenly in burst a posse of merrily drunken noisy young ladies, who make the place seem suddenly full up. As soon as we start playing, they are whooping and hollering, dancing away, and one lass is even keeping watch at the door and dragging in passers-by off the street, “Oi, you! Come in, you gotta hear this…” READ MORE

Gig Log

10-02-2014 – Gay evil edition

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Aye oop

Well, a strange week in the World of Rawk…

With no band appointments, I went out on Friday with diva daughter for a duo gig in wet, windy, rainy Chiseldon – to the rather fine Patriots arms, where they have lots of space for musos to set up in, a handy door you can back the van right up to, plenty of power sockets in just the right places, and a very lovely crowd, who joined in, sang along, applauded nicely, and altogether enjoyed themselves so much they even bought CDs. Result!

But, by the time Saturday night came around, and the band’s gig at the Wheatsheaf in Stratton, I was completely knackered as a result of spending the entire day running around moving furniture and stripping wallpaper and the like, ready for next week’s New Kitchen Excitement. Well, Dem’s quite excited. I contented myself with scrawling in red ink on the bare wall, for the benefit of future occupants of the house, “BEWARE THE EVIL! LEAVE THIS PLACE NOW”. READ MORE

Gig Log

03-02-2014 – Spangley Guitar

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Yo sushi!

Well, a weekend of no gigs, which meant that I got to relax, kick back, and indulge in some of my favourite weekend leisure pursuits… which now include, it would seem, mooching around B & Q for hours trying to understand exactly which sort of kitchen cupboard is Right For Me (apparently, the question is far too complex, on a deep and fundamentally existential level, to be resolved by simply pointing at the first one you see and saying “That one!”); and also spending nearly an entire day trying to get hold of an emergency dentist for a suddenly snaggle-toothed twelve year old (how exactly DO you smash your face on the bottom of a swimming pool, which you were already floating in, anyway?), only to find that NHS have now hidden all the contact numbers, and you have to phone a call centre to be given (having got through several well-meaning but ultimately useless staff) a new number to call that doesn’t work, followed by… Oh, never mind, he can just eat soup for now. READ MORE

Gig Log

27-01-2014 – Brief, ain’t got no time edition

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Hey chums!

No gigs coming up this weekend, and yours truly has run out of spare time to write this stuff, so we’ll just briefly say …

Friday at the Langley Arms – a bit on the quiet side, we had to wait a while for some of the more senior punters left before we were allowed to play (just in case) but a jolly enough night in the end, and nice to see some old pals again.

Saturday at Linda’s birthday party down at Fiddlers in Bedminster – Awesome fun night, total respect due to Lou for not missing a note when Ben and I appeared for the second set dressed as bananas (just in case you saw any pics and thought we’d joined the Klu Klux Klan…). READ MORE

Gig Log

20-01-2014 – E’s gettin on edition

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Yo homeys!

Well, I like to think that was a well-deserved weekend off for the band; personally, I had a rather lovely time, ‘cause it meant I could kick back and enjoy my 25th birthday (not for the first time).

In fact, I was lost for words when I got into work to find, in addition to the usual array of “embarrassing” photos from my past displayed all over the office, the balloons, and the inflatable zimmer frame (you see, I’m lucky enough to work with the nicest bunch of bastards you could ever wish to meet), perched on top of a bespoke birthday cake, this absolutely fantastic rendition of myself, lovingly crafted from finest icing sugar…
Alan 50
Kinda sweet, ain’t he? READ MORE