Tag Archives: new years eve

23-07-2018 – The Minimalist Edition

Greetings, my children of the night…

Well, with no gigs to report on, this will be a nice short one – we’re going back to basics, I’m simply going to tell you where we’re playing this weekend, so’s you’ll know which venues to avoid…

Friday 27th – The Trout, Keynsham
A fine, energetic, boisterous – and, I have to say, a somewhat messy crowd in here means it will be a significantly entertaining evening. We’ve been working on a few new tunes lately, so you might well get to hear us play some of them for the first time. READ MORE

16-07-2018 – Mr Smokey

Yo homeys

Well, that was definitely an interesting weekend…

Apologies to anybody who rocked up to Dursley Carnival on Friday expecting to see us; as you may have noticed, we weren’t there, unfortunately we had to bail out due to a temporary lack of bassist, with Ben being stuck in work and unable to escape. Sorry folks!

Still, we had a very entertaining night on Saturday, at the Albion Social Club up in Cheltenham. Once arrived, we were delighted to find a couple of friendly helpful staff who helped us load in all the kit, and then brought us some drinks. We like this very much. READ MORE

09-07-2018 – The Intransigent Employer

Hola, mes amigos!

After a whole two weeks of peace and quiet with no giggery, I’m rather looking forward to this weekend. Not that we’ve been idle, oh no…

…Oh all right, yes, we have, actually.

We did all have a rather fine night out on Friday, though, featuring band members old and new, and there was much quaffing and hilarity. I am somewhat hazy on some of the details, though. But it was definitely a marvellous night – I’d pretty much forgotten what it’s like to go to a pub without having to (a) drive, (b) hump loads of heavy kit about, and (c) jump around like a twat for two hours. READ MORE

26-06-2018 – The Gear Inspector

Ahoy there shipmates!

A beautiful sunny weekend, kicking off at the Glue Baboon down the Gloucester Road; as predicted, it got very lively, and it was nice to see some of Em’s lovely mates again. One of my favourite moments was before we started playing though; having set up, and wandered offstage for a refreshing drinky and a natter, a middle aged gentleman strolled up to the stage and began peering intently at our kit.

Regular musos will instantly recognise this behaviour as indicative of a Gear Inspector – one of breed who carefully appraises the quality of the band’s equipment, to see if he (and it’s always a “he”) should take them seriously or not. Marshall amplification, for example, once considered the height of desirability, is now considered merely acceptable by the cognoscenti; ideally you should have a more exclusive brand such as Cornford, or Matchless, or better still a hand-made boutique MJW amp. READ MORE

18-06-2018 – Party In The Ponds

‘Allo, compadres…

Well, with no gigs to report on, this one will be mercifully short – although next weekend does promise to be something of a doozy…

Friday 22nd – Blue Lagoon, Gloucester Rd
This is turning into one of my favourite regular venues, always nice and lively, sometimes they even gets a bit carried away – by security – but we ‘likes a larf, doesn’t we…

Saturday 23rd – Fishponds Party In The Park, 2pm
This should be huge fun, hopefully a nice sunny day in Fishponds Park with ice cream vans in attendance; I’d recommend it even if we weren’t playing – but we are, so I recommend it even more! READ MORE

11-06-2018 – Dog Danger In The Dean

Greetings and salutations, my children of the night…

Well, that was an interesting weekend…

Saturday night, and we are booked to play a wedding at a rather nice place over in the Forest Of Dean. Very pictureskew it was, too. When Em and I arrived, deliberately early “just in case”, we found a huge marquee as promised, nicely done out, and with a somewhat aged ceilidh band just starting up. I’m allowed to say they were somewhat aged, because I am a self-confessed old bugger meself; nonetheless, some of these looked like they were approaching Death. From the other direction… READ MORE

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

21-05-2018 – Mr Mellow

Hola amigos!

Writing this as I am on a balmy Sunday evening, still slightly pissed from this afternoon’s gentle party in the sunshine, I must say what an enormously satisfactory weekend that was!

We started with a rare school night gig on Thursday night at the Oak in Sodding Chipbury – and I was delighted to run into a couple long-lost pals there. Once we started playing, the usual small-but-friendly crowd slowly grew into a larger-but-friendlier crowd, and so by the end of the night everybody seemed to be having an immense hoot. Lovely! READ MORE

14-05-2018 – A Couple Of Gigs – Ultra Fluffy Kitten Special

Hello, dear readers

Well, whaddaya know? A whole weekend with no gigs, and yet I somehow didn’t manage to find time to sit down and write to you all.

It really is very remiss of me, and I can only apologise – while recognising that many of you may in fact be rather grateful.

Anyway – not having gotten around to penning any witticisms for your amusement and probable consternation, I shall just deliver the following brief announcement: –

Thursday 17th – Royal Oak, Chipping Sodbury
A nice little outing for a Thursday, we played here a few months ago and despite Emma being in a somewhat ragged state of health, it all went down rather well. This time it should be even more fun. Not having gigged for a week definitely adds to the excitement; I particularly enjoy that little frisson you get when you can’t quite remember how the next bit goes, and have to hope that you guess correctly when the chorus comes around… READ MORE