Tag Archives: swindon

Gig Log

31-05-2018 – Of Mating Rituals

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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

Gig Log

21-05-2018 – Mr Mellow

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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

Gig Log

26-03-2018 – Rabbits In Your Pants

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Hey gang

You’re receiving this missive a bit early this week, as I’m not here, so I’m sending it in advance of actually writing it, thanks to a basic misunderstanding of how time works.

Friday at the Queen’s Tap in Swindon was rather good fun, thanks largely to our pal and guest drummer Sarina and her bevy of bandmates. At half time we slumped down and stared at the big telly screen, which was showing a newsreader of some kind. We noticed that although she appeared to be calm and professional, her eyebrows were quite animated. Luckily, knowledgeable Alan has the explanation. READ MORE

Gig Log

21-03-2018 – Prancing n’ Stuff

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Aloha!

Well, it seems that our fears that the Giant Goram pub in Lawrence Weston had gone all upmarket on us were mercifully unfounded…

In fact, it was just as pleasant and friendly as last time we were there, with two additional bonuses of there being a lot more customers present (that’ll be Friday night instead of Sunday afternoon, I reckon), and the fact that they had cleared out a bit more space for us before we arrived. The latter was particularly welcome, meaning we were able to set up without stumbling over each other – although we did a bit, just for appearances’ sake – and we had enough room to prance about comfortably without too much danger of knocking anything expensive over. READ MORE

Gig Log

03-01-2018 – Virus At 2018 O’clock

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…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

Gig Log

18-12-2017 – Xmas Choir Killer Review

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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

Gig Log

30-08-2017 – Rampant Pickle

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Yo homeys!

Well, we hope you enjoyed the long weekend as much as we did – but we bet you didn’t!

We kicked off with a pleasant evening in the Assembly Inn in Bath; the Gods Of Parking smiled on us and we were able park right outside the door, in the last two parking spaces left in Bath. Setting up in the small space was easier than last time we were here, partly as I cunningly left a couple of speaker cabinets at home, but mostly because we knew already which bits of the floor were in fact treacherously unstable and hence not safe for putting anything heavy on. We played, they shouted for more, but we’d hit the neighbour noise curfew so we legged it off home for some beer. The night was also memorable for being the first time Emma realised what Ben and I are actually singing to the chorus of “I Love Rock and Roll”. Lucky she keeps an inhaler handy, really. READ MORE

Gig Log

21-08-2017 – Trouserless Combat Vomiting

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Ahoy there shipmates!

So nice to be out playing again, I think we can put last weekend firmly into the “damned good fun” box for safe keeping.

Following a pleasing night at the Rolly in Swindon – where sadly we missed our regular local maniac Mad Freddy, but instead were treated to Mad Dancing Andy Warhol, and a definitely enthusiastic crowd – it was on the following night to the Swan in Thornbury for a jolly family knees-up.

Since Dem and Lil were away, it seemed best to bring my two youngest lads along and play a few songs with them, with a combination of Ben & Emma on vocals, plus young Joe making his public vocal debut on one of his favourite Green Day numbers. Whilst playing bass. So, that’s one of my offspring simultaneously doing two things that I can’t do. Evolution in action. READ MORE

Gig Log

14-08-2017 – The Holy Guitarist

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Hola, mes amigos!

Right, so after a weekend over which I’m pretty sure I didn’t even touch a guitar – being too busy as I was constructing a temple in the back garden, the reasons for which I am sure Dem will be able to explain to me in due course – we have little to report this week (I’m assuming here that a detailed itinerary of my dealings with timber merchants and a catalogue of minor injuries sustained during the building process will be of only minor interest).

However, we do have a nice, normal two-gig weekend coming up to look forward to… READ MORE

Gig Log

13-06-2017 – Whiteboard Affection

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Well hello there, my little inflatables…

And I’m glad to report that we’re now finally up to full strength, and what passes for normality around these parts can be resumed.

As Friday, and Emma’s debut gig with us, loomed large, it was almost inevitable that she’d contract a nasty coldy flu-y chest-infectiony thing, spending most the week poorly off from work, and turning up at rehearsal on Thursday (yes, we do actually rehearse this stuff sometimes, thank you very much) distinctly croaky, and delivering the vocals for some of the more demanding numbers via the medium of interpretive dance… READ MORE