The Bell, Walcot St

Ah, back to the Bell on Walcot St, pretty much the only place for old hippies to hang out in Bath since the Hat & Feather became a tapas bar, or whatever it calls itself now...
Sunday lunchtime, always a weird time for a gig, particularly one of a loud, raucous and Rocky nature, but as we are commanded, so do we manifest.
On this occasion, We Are Not Alone... as we finish loading the various Black, Arcane & extremely Heavy items of our Craft into the venue, another van turns up, and disgorges a cargo of disgruntled Blues musicians, who have also been booked to play here... someone, somewhere has clearly fucked up in a major fashion, but as this is not our problem, and our name is on all the posters we carry on regardless. Luckily for all concerned, some rapid telephone diplomacy secures the other band a gig in Bradford on Avon, but I wouldn't like to be that promoter in the morning.
The gig goes pretty well from my standpoint, bar a few imprecations to turn it down, which as has been said before is pretty much an impossibility with a band featuring Drums, Bass, two generous helpings of Electric Guitar, 3 vocals & lashings of Fiddle... I mean, ferchrissakes, if you wanted Uncle Derek on his electric organ playing 'Songs from the Shows', why didn't you book him?
We liked it, the punters obviously liked it, judging by the numbers of 'em telling us so afterwards (and calling for 2 encores, haven't had that for a while), but I can't help thinking we'd do better with an evening slot in here... we need more bodies! Not in a Burke & Hare kinda way, you understand, more in a sound-absorbing way...

The Rolleston, Swindon

Has it really been that long since our last gig? Leafing back through the vellum-bound parchment of my journal I see it has, partly due to my inconsiderate 10 year-old son, whose appendix chose to make a bid for freedom a couple of weeks back, causing us to cancel a gig in Devizes. All sorted now thankfully, so I was looking forward to last night's do in Swindon, especially as it's a proper music pub & not the sort of place with a sound limiter...
Knew this would be a good 'un from the moment we arrived - I always like to see a goodly contingent of hairy people outside a pub, makes me feel at home right away, and I wasn't disappointed by the hirsute turnout at the Rolleston. As we loaded the gear in, a very drunk metalhead accosted me:
"You're the bassplayer, aren't you?"
"Err...yes?"
"Knew it."
Great venue, nice sound (possibly the shortest soundcheck we've ever done - sounded fine right away, so why twiddle?), really nice friendly clientele too, ranging from local musos who were especially interested in Mick's new doubleneck mandolin/mandola, to a couple of older gents who came in on spec because they thought we "looked a bit Cornish" on our posters (not quite sure what they meant by this... possibly we look as though we've put away a lot of pasties?).
All in all a good gig, despite a mass exodus halfway through the second set to get into the nightclub next door; was it something we said?! Be happy to do this one again sometime...