Tag Archives: Louisa Baker

03-02-2014 – Spangley Guitar

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

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

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

20-01-2014 – E’s gettin on edition

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

13-01-2014 – One does not simply walk into Mordor

What ho!

Another busy weekend; Friday night was in Coalpit Heath, where it seems they like a bit of a drink… in addition from the nice young lady who kindly showed me all her tattoos (Care Bear tattoos, anyone? Full marks for novelty value), we had a fairly major stage invasion by a lively bunch of youngsters who took over Ben’s mike to merrily join in for the last couple of numbers. It was fortunate he’d had the foresight to turn it off when he saw ‘em coming…

Lou has been trying out her new “audience participation” skills this week, which largely seems to consist of getting people to buy her drinks during the set. READ MORE

06-01-2014 – Pizza express special

Yo homeys!

My, that was a cracking good start to the year – the Queen Vic up in Stroud doesn’t usually let us down, and this time it certainly didn’t. Admittedly the first half was a little bit quieter than usual, but as we started the second set, suddenly the place was full of enthusiastic eejits dancing merrily around, singing along, falling over a bit, and generally being hugely entertaining.

The audience were pretty lively, too.

Afterwards, Lou decided to celebrate, by buying us all a drink, and then led us across the road to grab some grub (liking her leadership style, there); after a long wait for food in the nice warm takeaway shop, we finally remembered to actually order some, and when it turned up, we set off into the freezing night for home. READ MORE

02-01-2014 – New year oven glove special

Well, a Merry New Year to all our readers…

After a rather fine festive break, we rolled into action for Queen Amy’s New Year’s Bash at the lovely Railway in Fishponds – and a hugely fun time we had of it. Despite a few technical glitches (involving breaking guitar straps, mysterious pedal malfunctions and me inadvertently kicking my footswitch over), we had a rather fine time indeed – helped by the attendance of quite a clutch of our favourite people, and not least by the judicious arrangements I’d made which meant I didn’t have to drive home. By the time we’d finished the first set, I’d run them out of Newcastle Brown, so had to switch to real beer, in real glasses (which is nicer, but if you knock it over you can’t save it – this week’s Handy Hint For The Gigging Muso) – and luckily they didn’t run out of that at all. Despite my best efforts. ?. READ MORE

Blog Posts – 2013

Date – 18/12/2013

Ho ho ho!

Look, that’s your lot really, we don’t get any more festive that, so make the most of it.

Meanwhile, a hilarious week at rehearsal – I arrived to find Ben and Stuart taking it in turns to suspiciously sniff the inside of his car… it transpired there was a quite distressing odour about the place, which turned out to be due to the fact that a renegade cat had somehow managed to piss all over Stuart’s man-bag (this I promise you is not a euphemism), an episode which subsequently more or less rendered the practice room uninhabitable until the offending item was hurled outside into the rain to calm down for a bit. Meanwhile Ben and I amused ourselves for the rest of the night with a stream of feline urination jokes. There are more than you’d think. READ MORE

Blog Posts – 2012

Date – 18/12/2012

Hi folks

Firstly apologies for anybody that noticed – we didn’t send one of these out last week, as I was a bit poorly. I would tell you all about the gigs from the last couple of weeks, but to be honest, I can’t remember too much about them. There are a few snippets from Saturday night’s trip to the Red Lion in Witney, though, while it’s still fairly fresh in my mind…

The place is under new management, which was good news for us in that they now have a sound engineer who actually stays the whole night, instead of disappearing off halfway through to “catch the last bus home”. READ MORE

Blog Posts – 2011

Date – 12/12/2011

Yo homeys!

And as the festering commercial blight that masquerades as a season of goodwill looms ever larger over the horizon of the more traditionally appropriate winter solstice festival, it’s time to draw a veil over the rawk’n’roll proceedings for another year.

The past weekend’s gigging had, I must say, only a few moments of note – a significant proportion of ‘clients’ staying home thanks, I suspect, to a combination of recession-bound finances, and (on the Sunday) truly diabolical weather, and (on the Saturday) the truly diabolical Simon Cowell. READ MORE

Blog Posts – 2010

Date – 21/12/2010

Ahh, Mr Bond, I’ve been expecting you…

My, but it’s hot this weekend. I think I’ll just have to risk the sunburn and start showing up to work in my bikini.

Still, despite the less-than-ideal weather conditions, the mighty Angel Up Front rawk machineTM rolls relentlessly on. We need the money.

Friday night, and another duo gig up at the Spa Inn. Thanks to a last-minute dropping-out of the running order by my diva daughter, Suzi and I had to go and entertain the masses all on our lonesome – and, for once, I think we managed it without any horrendous memory lapses. This was our last gig up here for a while, as the lovely management Sue & Clive are off to run another pub in the New Year. So, all the best to them, we might even trek up and do a few gigs at their new place, if they’ll let us. READ MORE