Tag Archives: marlborough

04-06-2018 – Klingon Birthday

Hola amigos!

I’ll keep this one short again -’cause the sun is shining in the garden, and there’s a beer waiting for me.

I’ll just briefly tell the tale of Saturday’s escapade to the Lamb in Marlborough – being just a couple of days shy of Ben’s 30th birthday, we figured this would be the best time to give him his pressies.

Now, I think it’s fair to say that our Ben is just a teeny tiny tad geeky, so he was immensely pleased when Emma presented him with a special set of many-sided dice, fantasy role-playing games for the use of. He did later admit that he already owns around a dozen sets of said dice, but that nonetheless these ones were absolutely necessary, as they’re especially shiny. READ MORE

31-05-2018 – Of Mating Rituals

Hey gang

Well, we hope you had at least as much fun as we did this weekend. We started off with a slot at Ship fest, in The Ship Inn in Keynsham, which turned out to have outside bars, several food stalls, and even a proper stage, PA, and engineer – the latter three of which could only, unfortunately, be accessed by some precipitous steps made of scaffolding. Ben was delighted. So was the sound engineer when, having offered to help us down with the kit, saw how much was rammed in the back of my little van… READ MORE

27-02-2018 – Better Than Dead (will it Never End?)

Greetings my friends, from the Netherworld Of The Undead…

Yes, I’m afraid yours truly is still feeling somewhat poorly, with the dread Kitten Lung disease having tightened its grip, and our poor Ben doesn’t seem to be much better either… things were not boding particularly well for our appearance at the Cider Press on Saturday night.

Happily our beloved Em is back to full strength, and gamely copes with everything on our behalf; thus it is that, when Ben’s bass mysteriously dies during the first song, she heroically distracts the audience and, by finding somebody in the house with a birthday, keeps everyone entertained for long enough for Ben to bully his kit back to life. READ MORE

19-02-2018 – The Vortex

Greetings, my little ones; may a bounteous cornucopia of boundless joy be upon you.

And phlegm. I still have plenty of phlegm left, if anybody wants some.

And this, despite barking up copious quantities of the stuff at Friday’s gig in Marlborough. Happily though, our beloved Emma is MUCH better the previously, and got through two sets without distress. I, on the other hand, nearly died a couple of times, albeit mostly this was due to choking on laughter at my band mates shenanigans and / or musical mishaps. READ MORE

12-02-2018 – Kitten Lung & Other Stories

Hola Amigos

Welcome to this week’s Tour Diary, a summary of a relentless three consecutive days out on the road, treading the boards to bring entertainment to the drinking masses of the South West. Oh, it’s a hard life.

No, really, actually it is. Your favourite axe-spanker has been rather poorly this week; suffering firstly from a nasty van condition, which had me pedestrianized for half the week, until being heroically fixed by my favourite local garage (Green Lane in Olveston, should you need any car repairs – shameless plug for a fine automotive repair establishment) – and then from an unpleasant chest infection, which manifests itself at least in part by my one of my lungs making a worrying purring sound if I’m lying down. READ MORE

08-01-2018 – The Selfish Virus, With Cake!

Gooood morning, chums!

Well, I have to say that there was rather less rawk’n’roll in that weekend than we’d hoped.

It all started so well, with Em having declared herself fit for Friday’s gig at the Swan in Thornbury after her bout of horrible flu lurgy; we rolled up, we set up, and – come the allotted hour – we started playing.

Two songs in, and suddenly poor Em’s voice cracks as she approaches some high notes without due care and attention. She manages to finish the song, but only by conveying the choruses by the medium of interpretive dance. READ MORE

03-01-2018 – Virus At 2018 O’clock

…And a Happy Noo Year to all our readers!

We hope all had nearly as much fun as we did over the festering season (but not quite as much, obviously, that simply wouldn’t be right).

I’d report back on the gigs we played, but it’s all a bit of a blur really… I do recall that Christmas Eve in the Sandringham in Downend was huge fun, very nice place and a definitely silly crowd – we ended up stretching the second set out to the best part of 2 hours…

Just after Xmas, poor Emma succumbed to a Horrible Throat Lurgy that left her unable to even speak (she even had to send me text messages in mime), which put a couple of gigs in jeopardy. Since we didn’t fancy gigs in Jeopardy (or anywhere else abroad) we were very lucky to have talented daughter Lily step into the breach and cover for us. An absolute lifesaver, and very fortunate that she was both available and in need of the money! READ MORE

18-12-2017 – Xmas Choir Killer Review

Well, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our readers!

I’ll keep this missive fairly short, as I am currently at work in between resolving work-type disasters, whilst trapped at a desk within earshot of the works annual Christmas Choir Carol Concert – I can’t get away, and I didn’t bring a flamethrower, so you’ll have to excuse the somewhat cursory nature of this one.

Last weekend provided a very entertaining surprise birthday party gig, held at a large film studio – enormous big studio, loads of guests, and more lighting effects than you could shake a very big stick at. We came, we set up, and at the allotted hour the Birthday boy was led in blindfolded, and on cue we launched into playing a heavy metallised version of Happy Birthday just as his blindfold we removed… a rather cool way to start a gig, I think. We managed to make enough noise to fill the large space adequately, thanks to the magic of Stuart Hitting Things Very Hard Indeed, and the rest of us cranking the amps rather more than they’re used to. Lovely! READ MORE

03-04-2017 – More Jelly

Hey gang!

Well, after several weekends off, it was so-o-o nice to be back out gigging again; and, rather to our surprise, we can still remember how to do it!

The Lamb in Marlborough is a friendly little place anyway, and the bar staff were particularly delightful on this occasion; treating us to a rather fine synchronised dance routine from the very first number. By the end of the night, the crowd were making more noise than we were*, which is always a good sign.

Poor Lily wasn’t feeling too chipper, but she put a brave face on things and did a magnificent job; she was clearly feeling a little better by the end of the night, as once we finished packing up, she immediately set off in search of food. Dat’s my girl! READ MORE

27-03-2017 – Lime Jelly Fantasy

Welcome back, my children of the night…

Just as you thought it was safe to peer into your Inbox again, here we are, back with more tales from the Dark Side…

…Well, actually, we thought we’d cheer you up today, with happy tales of the outside world, and that magical land where fabulous creatures still hold dominion over the drab mundane everyday; where fauns and satyrs still frolic in the leafy vales, and warm limpid pools of lime jelly are positively teeming with carousing young scantily-clad cheerleaders [Editor’s note: Hang on, before you go off on one your sordid little flights of fancy, let’s at least have a little narrative consistency – if they’re so scantily clad, how do you know they’re cheerleaders, eh?], with warm sun beating languidly down on their cheerleader’s uniforms piled neatly on the bank [Hmph!] and the moist jelly glistening on their firm lithe limbs [Right, stop it, that’s enough – you’re banned! I hereby revoke your artistic licence; and since you already had ten points on it (writing without due care and attention, splitting an infinitive without indicating, and failing to stop when required to do so by a member of Her Majesty’s Grammar Constabulary) – that’s an automatic six-month ban plus a two hundred quid fine]. READ MORE