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…
..and some other general silliness with a blue wig and some cat glasses…
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.
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.
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.
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…?
Now THAT, my friends, was a fun-packed weekend.
Friday night at the King William IV in Bath; it’s a fairly small place, but they make up for it in enthusiasm; before we’ve even finished setting up, we’ve received an offer from a lady who wants to be our groupie. I wonder if we can persuade her that the groupies are the ones who carry all the heavy kit out to the van after the gig.
It turns out to be a lively old night; and finally, somebody takes us up on the special offer currently printed on the back of the flyers we hand out…
Hello my lovelies!
Sorry this one is coming out a bit late this week – I’ve been fair mad busy. In fact, I still am, so I’ll keep this one pretty short, if that’s all right with you. We’ll make it up next week, we promise!
So – Saturday night, and it’s off to Queen Amy’s Railway Tavern in Fishponds, for a very jolly evening of roistering. After a week’s holiday away in the sunshine, our Rosa was slightly more tanned, and (if possible) even more excitable than usual. Bless!
To keep things amusing, we brought along my offspring to play a few numbers in the break between sets – and a mighty fine job they made of it, too. Rather better than I did, I suspect. Particular kudos to young Joe, who’s bass unexpectedly died, so he had to play the set with Ben’s borrowed spare (which currently sports a rather striking leopard skin fur finish) – in fact, it looked rather good on him. Somewhere there’s some photos, just to prove I’m not making this up.
Good morning campers!
My, that was an interesting Saturday night. We rolled up at the Locomotive in Swindon, to find a mob in fancy dress, largely – but by no means entirely – Scottish themed, the reason for this never quite becoming clear over the course of the evening. What was clear was that they weren’t a shy, retiring bunch. I have to say that I have never in my life seen so many giant inflatable willies in one place. In retrospect, something I’m probably quite glad about.
Poor Ben didn’t have the best of nights; he’s brought along his new shiny wireless system – but alas, because it has an oddball stereo jack on it, his complex high-tech active bass refuses to work with it – basically the act of plugging the wireless in switches the bass off.
Top o’ the mornin’ to ye, begorrah, and similar nonsense.
As I’m a bit pushed for time today, I’ll keep this short – just the edited highlights.
Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin…
Best moment from Saturday night’s traditionally lively gig at the Queen Vic in Stroud; Rosa’s rather bizarre request to the audience between songs, somewhere in the second set…
“Right everybody, what I want you to do now is to look at the person on your left… and lick their face!!”.
This was immediately followed by another announcement,
Hey gang
Another fun night out in Keynsham; up at the Trout, where there was the usual messy beer-spilling mayhem from the locals. My favourite moment of the evening occurred when Rosa decides she needs the whole pub to join with a dance move – and asks for suggestions from the audience. When none are forthcoming, as usual she picks on someone.
“You there, the lady at the back – what’s your name?”
“Er…it’s Theresa…”
“Right, Theresa, show everybody your favourite dance move”.
