Tag Archives: swindon

30-08-2017 – Rampant Pickle

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

21-08-2017 – Trouserless Combat Vomiting

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

14-08-2017 – The Holy Guitarist

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

13-06-2017 – Whiteboard Affection

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

05-06-2017 – New Amp Optimism With Added Singer

Hola homeys…

Apologies that I didn’t get around to sending one of these out last week, I’ve been feeling a bit poorly. Gifts of flowers, cards, sympathy, and particularly cash, will all be welcome.

I’ve not, however, been as poorly as my equipment, which seems to be taking great delight in letting me down at gigs*, whilst nonchalantly behaving itself at practices and during prolonged fault-finding engineering investigations. Nonetheless, having gone through absolutely every item in the signal chain between my guitar strings and the victim’s ear holes, and replaced a whole bunch of components – connectors, leads, jack sockets, etc, I think that actually I may be on top of things again. READ MORE

18-04-2017 – Easter Chickens

Well, hello there my little spring chickens!

It’s been a rather fine weekend, all in all – I do wonder why a four-day-weekend isn’t the norm, it’s a far superior working arrangement to the usual two-all-too-brief-days nonsense.

Obviously, on this occasion, we got the benefit thanks to this fine nation’s noble religious heritage, when we all look back and commemorate that day over two thousand years ago, when Our Lord Jesus hopped around the countryside with a basket of treats, distributing chocolate eggs to all the good little children. READ MORE

10-04-2017 – The Lofty Podium, Giraffe Style

Aloha!

Well, we seem to be getting back into the swing of things. Saturday at the Groves Company Inn, deep in the heart of the throbbing metropolis that is Swindon, turned out rather well in the end.

Not having been there before, but having realised it was deep in the heart of the one-way system, we were relieved to actually find it on the first attempt, and quite pleased to see there was plenty of room for us to set up in – and on our own little podium as well. We were even more pleased when our pals Swindon Al and Helen rolled in, and immediately insisted on buying us a drink. Other friends of ours, please take note – THIS is what you need to do to get a blog namecheck! 🙂 READ MORE

01-02-2017 – Gig Retraction Kitten Blues

It’s us again…

Just a quick Stop Press Announcement – it seems we won’t be playing in Paulton on Friday after all. It was a last-minute booking that came up, as the pub needed a band… and it was only after moving another pile of paperwork that they found the posters they’d been sent by the band they had in fact previously booked and completely forgotten about…

Well, it made me feel tolerably competent for a bit, anyway.

So, to cheer you up – here’s a nice picture of a kitten, instead. READ MORE

30-01-2017 – Goodbye, Hello

Hey gang!

Well, that was a sad occasion – Rosa played her last ever gig with us on Friday, over in Bath at the friendly little New Crown Inn. We’re truly sorry to see her go, she’s been an absolute little bundle of fun, a superb musician and brilliant performer, and I think it’s fair to say that we all came to absolutely adore her. In fact, several members of my family petitioned me to allow us to adopt her. Her canny response to immediately enquire about the terms and conditions relating to pocket money… READ MORE

09-01-2017 – Smokin’ Dwarves

Hey gang

Right, well that’s our 2017 World Tour off to a good start, then.

Saturday night at the Rolleston Arms in Swindon – not a huge crowd, but since the rest of town was apparently completely dead, we didn’t do too badly.

And everyone there seemed to have a good time, so that was all right, then. We even had a night of special effects, courtesy of a very nice chap who was sat peacefully drinking and vaping away, producing clouds of sweet-smelling vapour – which prompted the easily-confused Stuart to ask me if I’d brought a new smoke machine. I hadn’t, but I think we’re going to have to get one now. READ MORE