Inn on the Green & Fox 'n' Hounds

Not two gigs on the same night, actually a fortnight apart, but thanks to my ISP I've been offline for over a week - thanks a bunch, guys...

The Inn on the Green is a massive great real ale pub on the Gloucester Rd in Bristol, which has just started dipping it's toe into the murky waters of live music. Nice people & a mouth-watering array of beers, albeit a bit brightly-lit for my tastes - I prefer my pubs dark, seedy & a bit sticky underfoot - and the set-up for music is initially unpromising; no carpets, curtains or soft furnishings coupled with a stone floor and high ceilings ring alarm bells straight away... we needn't have worried though, as there's plenty of bodies, and the sound sorts itself out once we get going.
It's our first time out with our shiny new member Mick too, and he immediately distinguishes himself by not only remembering all the songs (some of them better than me), but by bringing his very own troupe of dancing girls with him - mark my words, this lad will go far...
All in all an excellent gig, I hope we come back - and not just because it's round the corner from my house..!

The Fox & Hounds in Coaley is as usual a much quieter affair, though not for the hapless punters who had to try and eat their dinner while we soundchecked - sorry people, but it had to be done! One of those places where we're lucky if we play to double figures, but it doesn't matter 'cos they're actually listening & they like it. Probably our last time here, as the Guv'nor & his missus are hanging up their hats & retiring - cheers for the free beers, mate!

Where have all the bikers gone?

OK, so we're not as pretty as the Coors (a band once described as "three models who escaped from Laboratoire Garnier and stole a fiddle on the way out"), and our own-brand perfume is unlikely to be as successful as Christina Aguilera's, but surely we're not so scary as to frighten off an entire pub full of bikers? If it wasn't news of our imminent arrival then something had put the wind up Scallys' clientele last Saturday, as we started off playing just to the barstaff & bouncers...
Eventually however a fair few people who weren't actually on the payroll turned up (among them some familiar faces, which is always good to see) and we ended up having a blast - well, I did anyway, and so did Ruth, though she did start to feel a bit queasy on the way home - probably too much excitement.

In other news, we've found our new mandolin player in the form of Mick Stanger, (ex Tribe of Cro), who also plays mandola and lead guitar, which should take our sound in some intriguing new directions. He's keen to get started, so we'll be tactically deploying him in the theatre of operations as soon as possible...

The Plough music festival

A great idea this, organised by Elodie from the Plough at Manston - three nights of music in a huge marquee on the tarmac carpark at the side of the pub, with a cheap bar & camping in the field next door - a perfect setup.
We played the Thursday night, which was always going to be the trickiest in terms of getting people through the door, and sure enough despite the luvverly balmy September evening yer actual punters were a bit thin on the ground. I suspect the long, soggy weeks of the 'summer' have worn away everybody's resolve to party. Terrific marquee though, and the PA & sound guy did a great job (as did the barstaff - we did our level best to keep them fully occupied...)
I really hope the numbers were up for the following two nights, as we'd love to come back & do it again sometime. And I'm pleased to say that despite the Plough's rural location (try as I might I couldn't see any other buildings for miles), we got a noise complaint from someone who couldn't hear their telly...

Bye bye Nige...

Another nice little gig at the Prom in Bristol last week, well attended despite the rain lashing down outside. I think everyone's got so used to the idea that it's going to rain all summer that we've resigned ourselves to it now. The Prom have installed a fancy new lighting rig, plus video screens that beam images of the stage to all those far-flung corners of the venue that people hide in to try & avoid the band... it wasn't working yet though, so they could cower in relative safety.
As it turns out, this was mandolin player Nige Lloyd's last gig with the band - he's just turned 50 and has decided to call it a day. Apparently, 'white collar' mandolin players are allowed to retire early because of the wear & tear on the fingers, whereas those of us in the 'blue collar' rhythmn section are compelled to carry on until at least 65. There is, of course, no upper limit for fiddle players.

So, a vacancy has opened up; aspiring candidates should possess all of the following:
1. A mandolin, or a 5 string banjo (tools not provided)
2. Ability to play said mandolin or 5 string banjo (otherwise you'll look pretty silly standing on stage)
3. A driving license & some wheels! (so you can like, get there & stuff)

Non essential, but advantageous:
4. Freakish strength, for loading/unloading gear from van.
5. Ability to survive for long periods with no sustenance other than petrol station Scotch eggs.

If you know someone who fits the bill, get in touch here or via the band website, and we'll come round with some chloroform & a sack!

Pontardawe Festival

I cut it a bit fine getting here for our 3.15pm slot on the New Music stage, but not as fine as Nick, who got stuck in a jam on the M4 and eventually turned up at er... 3.15pm. I've never been so pleased to see him, as anyone who's ever had to play without a drummer will appreciate! We launched into our set in record time & knocked the socks off 'em, though I say so myself. Just as we came off, all the house lights suddenly went down, and the stage lighting came on. "Sorry," said the sheepish Stagemanager "I forgot..." We'd been wondering about the rather harsh lighting - shame really, as we look a lot better in the dark.
We must have done Ponty at least half a dozen times over the years, and for the life of me I can't remember one when it didn't chuck it down with rain. This year was no exception - by the time I got there on Saturday all vehicle movement was already banned onsite, leaving several well-refreshed gentlemen no option but to get around site by sliding through the mud on their ample bellies (see above). All good clean fun, until one particularly enthusiastic slide ended up at the feet of a couple of coppers wandering the site, who took a rather dim view as they inspected their not-so-shiny-anymore boots and mud-spattered blue serge trousers... cue comedy chase through mud, cheered on by large crowd of onlookers from the beer tent.
Spent most of the rest of Saturday camped out indoors at the New Music stage, which was dry, warm, and had a cheaper bar than the beer tent. Despite these obvious advantages, everyone else at the Festival seemed to prefer sloshing about outside in the mud & rain - more fool them, as they missed the excellent Jocanovic, and indeed the headliners Pressgang, who played a fantastic set to a smaller crowd than we had - I suspect that most people simply didn't know where it was...
Woke up Sunday morning, upside down in my sleeping bag, to the sound of rain drumming on the car roof - ah, the glamour of Rock 'n' Roll...

Rode Festival

Aaaand another festival! ...I love playing festivals, it's a big part of what made me want to be in a band in the first place, way back in the mists of time when I was about 15 and had just come home from Reading Rock in 1981... some of the best experiences of my life have happened at festivals (N.B. Never shorten the word to 'festy'. That way lies madness.). Also some of the worst of course, but let's gloss over that.

Rode festival is a village-based event that raises money for local charities (we're talking the local Scout group, PTA, things like that), and we were chuffed to be asked to open it. OK, a later slot would have been better, but what the hell - we had a good onstage sound & a huge field to play in front of, and we did.

For such a small, locally run event, this was fantastically well organised - proper routes to the stage, loads of time to soundcheck, free food & drink for chrissakes! If only every gig was like this - and did I mention the tractor rides & pig racing?

Another nice surprise was the fact that we weren't the only band on the bill doing original material: sure, the headline act was a Who tribute band (I wonder if the bloke playing guitar has to endure countless heckles along the lines of: "So Pete, where's the book, then..?"), but there were a fair few doing their own stuff, among whom an outfit called Pinstripe particularly caught my ear. I'd have liked to have stayed & listened to more, but the unceasing and unreasonable demands of my entourage (aged 4 and 8) ruled that out...

Fair play to the bods in charge for striking a balance with the lineup though - I've been getting a bit pissed off recently with the tendency of event organisers to load the bill with covers & tribute bands, which can make the whole concept of a 'Festival' seem farcical (in my eyes, at least). I've got nothing against covers bands per se - there's some terrific musicians out on the circuit keeping people interested in seeing live music - but in my humble opinion, if you go to a festival you ought to be able to see some bands doing their own songs. Otherwise, you might as well stay at home and plug in yer iPod...

Alright, rant over - here's a pic of the gig - cheers, wife of mine..!

Gillingham Festival & Woolley St Festival

No festivals for ages, then two come along at once! This was a bit of a logistical nightmare, but fun in a hectic kind of way. First up was Gillingham Festival in Dorset, a very slickly run operation where everyone fell over themselves to be helpful - we were issued with passes & plied with tea as soon as we arrived, which made a nice change from the usual "You're the band, then? Don't need you for another hour, sod off." If we'd asked for a big bowl of smarties with all the blue ones taken out, I'm sure they would have done their best to accomodate us...
Lovely big stage, nice sound, crowd a bit thin on the ground, but then that's what you get with an early afternoon gig. Apparently this one was recorded off the desk, which'll be interesting to hear - if it's halfway decent, I'll post it online.
Right, all pile in the van & off to Bradford on Avon for the 10th Woolley St Festival; a cheerfully shambolic charity fundraising affair in the street outside the George. We have to park quite a way away, and lug the gear up to the stage through the crowd (sadly without the sacktrucks, which got left behind), so we're knackered before we start. Luckily, there's about 4 hours to hang around and recharge our batteries before we play. I say luckily, but after a couple of hours of covers band hell, I wasn't so sure. At one point, an atrocious cover of Teenage Kicks was 'dedicated to John Peel', whom I'm sure would have gnawed his own leg off and beaten the singer to death with the soggy end if he'd heard it.
The headline act were a Pink Floyd tribute band who seemed to take themselves even more seriously than their heroes. They'd got a CD out apparently, which was being relentlessly plugged between everyone else's sets.
Bit of a head-scratcher, this: why would anyone in their right mind want to buy a CD of some half-assed tribute band doing Pink Floyd covers? If you like Pink Floyd then you've probably got their original albums already, surely? I mean, is it me..?
Anyway, to add injury to this insult they then decided to set up all their gear onstage before we went on. This left us and the bands after us with a titchy space to set up in, which didn't improve morale. Neither did our set being cut to half an hour, but what the hell, mustn't grumble - it sounded pretty good onstage and the crowd seemed to like it - which is the point of it, after all.
If this festival season has so far taught us anything, it seems to be that tribute acts & covers bands are now considered to be 'what everybody wants to hear', so it seems we have no option: we'll form a Billy in the Lowground tribute band! All we need now is a name... how about Barely in the Lowground..?