Hi folks

Well, that was another cold, damp weekend, enlivened by a healthy dose of rawk’n’roll.

Saturday night, and I rolled up to the Lord Raglan feeling rather shabby, having acquired some kind of low-level lurgy during the week (either that, or somebody maliciously filled my lungs with custard during the night. But who would do such a thing? It certainly wouldn’t have been my devoted wife. Why, just the other week, she had obviously sensed I was feeling cold in the night, and I awoke to find her holding a pillow firmly over my face in an effort to keep me warm). READ MORE

Yowsa!

Well, we hope you all had a fun weekend as we did.

Saturday night, as moths to a flame, we were drawn to the beacon of revelry that is the Old Mill in sunny Portishead, the undisputed jewel of the South West, with gallivanting intent.

And gallivant we most certainly did. For some reason (known only to sound techs) the sound that evening was notable for its sparkling clarity and definition – either that, or I’d just turned my guitar up a bit too much.

Joyfully lacking in sparkling clarity and definition were the crowd, whose performance during the first half was dominated by some increasingly unstable teenage ladies, who managed to not quite fall over but I could have sworn they were going to an absolute record number of times. READ MORE

Aloha!

It’s been a while since we sent one of these out – if I was of advancing years, it might explain the increasing frequency of my memory lapses – as it is, let’s all just assume that I actually have been sending these out on a regular basis, you must have simply overlooked them.

Please try to do better in future.

Anyhoo – I can only recall our most recent gig, down at O’Neill’s down in town last Friday, which appears to have been very satisfactory for all concerned – apart from me possibly having accidentally driven through a bus gate on the way home. I can’t be sure, it was dark and widdling down with rain, and I was following a bus, which may have obscured my view of any signs. READ MORE

Hey folks

Sorry, we didn’t send one of these out last week – quite frankly, I forgot. A brief recap should suffice, however.

A couple of Fridays ago we played a pre-Halloween gig at Keynsham Courtyard – a new venue for us, and once we’d figured out how to squish ourselves onto the very cosy-sized stage, we had a very jolly evening –  lots of folks in fancy dress, which is always good to see, along with much dancing and jollity.

Stood right in front of me for most of the night was a middle-aged couple and what I assumed to be their daughter. The husband, probably with a couple of beers on board already, was having a wonderful time, singing along to all the tunes and air guitaring away. His wife looked… rather less amused. In mid-song, I happened to catch the eye of the daughter, standing between them, and mouthed the words, READ MORE

Aye up funsters!

Well, as expected, Saturday’s jaunt out to Clevedon FC was a lively affair, with quite a few familiar faces we saw a few weeks back when we played at Clevedon Cricket Club.

Seems if you live in Clevedon, and play sports, you have to play all the sports.

Or, possibly, there’s simply not very much to do in Clevedon.

Answers on a postcard, please.

In any case, they seem a very friendly bunch. Whilst we were setting up, they held their raffle, and I couldn’t help but notice most of the prices consisted of strong liquor. READ MORE

Yo ho ahoy!

Here’s the tale of an offbeat and interesting gig outing the Old Bank in Keynsham last Saturday.

We’d been contacted by the booking agent during the week to pass on a message from the venue that it was to be a “Harry Potter themed” evening.

“What you are supposed to so with this information, I don’t know”, he added, “But they were very keen to let you know”.

O-kay.

We didn’t know what to do with this information either, but as it turned out, we saw not a single sign of any Potter-isms, so perhaps the punters didn’t know what to make of it either. READ MORE

Hello playmates!

We’re back to the joys of gigging again, just as I was beginning to forget how weird things can get sometimes…

Friday’s outing to the Crab Apple in Clevedon was enlivened by the presence of a few old chums, and we were delighted to see our lovely pal and occasional special guest vocalist Paige there.

But – what’s this? She’s got her arm strapped up in a serious-looking sling contraption? What’s happened?

“Broken collarbone”.

And how did she manage this?

“Motorcycle accident, last week. I was riding merrily along and a deer jumped out of the bushes right in front of me. Didn’t even have time to brake or try to swerve around it. So now I’ve got this.” READ MORE

Ahoy ahoy!

Well, after an unusually prolonged summer break – we’re back!

What with one thing and another, it’s been six weeks since the last AUF gig – well, almost. There was one friend-of-a-friend birthday party we were asked to play a couple of weekends ago, but with Abby away, Steve in France, and Stuart in Canada, it looked like we were going to have to disappoint them.

However, thanks to the services of my excellent drummer friend Rob, AUF alumnus bassist from 10 years ago Martin, and my marvellously obliging daughter Lily, with a single evening of rehearsal, we actually managed to put together a rather convincing AUF tribute act. READ MORE

Aye up, funsters!

I’m delighted to report that Friday night’s escapade to the Packhorse was an absolute blast! We were expecting a busy night, what with it being main man Liam’s birthday bash – what we weren’t expecting was to find the entire street filled up with wall to wall motorsickles, meaning we had to double park in the bus lane and unload onto the street.

We also weren’t expecting there to be a support act playing when we arrived – but there was! Turned out to be a very affable chap, on his own with a set of backing tracks, who very helpfully shipped his kit out the way for us to set up as soon as he’d finished, before even going off to get paid. And, although the pub was busy, the thoughtful punters kept a space clear for us to set up, so we had a nice easy ride. READ MORE

Hello tiddlypeeps!

I’ll keep this one fairly short – it’s currently a nice Sunday afternoon, and having just finished my chores for the day, I’m keen to slope off and sit in the garden for an hour or so* of doing absolutely nothing.

Also, of course, I don’t want to distract anyone from watching World Sports Day, which I believe is currently underway in Paris.

We can report on a pleasant evening spent in the Oak on Thursday, followed by a very entertaining Saturday night at the Good Intent in Broomhill. I’ll be honest, based on the previous time we played here, we weren’t expecting much; and it seemed our expectations were right, as we finished setting up and there were less than a dozen folks in the bar. READ MORE