I've just finished watching Tim Henman win a match that seemed like it would go on forever, and after the last couple of weeks I know how he must feel. There've been 9 gigs in total since the last blog, 3 of which were cabaret admitedly, but viewed as a whole there were 8 shows in 9 days, six on consecutive nights.

The Primrose on June 13th was an improvement on the last 2 solo shows down there. Mainly due to there being an audience present. I was pleased with how my set went, and it was a much more enjoyable night.
On Sunday afternoon I had the band back together at The Railway and here we had the best gig of the June 'tour' and the best band gig so far. A really relaxed and friendly atmosphere complete with a great performance. It was one of those gigs that makes you glad to be a musician and I felt fully justified in going to the trouble of putting a band together in the first place.

I had to keep it all together last week, not having done 6 nights on the trot like that. In the end the 2 most tiring were the Morris and the Minors shows on Friday and Saturday, and with my own stuff it was a case of 2 points a-piece.

The bad ones came first. Tuesday solo at Zephyr Bar is always a gig that has the potential to be dodgy, it simply depends who's in the pub. This time, with the students gone, it was wall to wall townies, not one of which looked compus mentis to me! I can't honestly say there was one person in there who looked sober or clean. This was early Tuesday evening for Christ's sake. It looked like a scene from a 4am bar. Everyone just looked wasted, like what little brain was there to start with had been washed away in a heavy drinking binge.
Needless to say nobody was really listening. And I had the added bonus of an encroacher asking for Oasis songs. As I duly obliged he came over and asked me when I was going to do it. He musn't have heard of Don't Look Back In Anger, their biggest hit. Still, that's about your average Oasis fan's mentality I suppose. He was more keen on his pissed up mate who was dancing on the tables and trying to chat up some giggling girlies than anything else.
It didn't get out of hand though and at least I was spared a long night.

Wednesday with the band at Sandinista! was dissapointing more than anything else. We were due on at 11.20 which put paid to us getting much of a following. We managed to get on for about 11, by which stage a lot of the crowd had gone. On top of that the sound was difficult, although this was partly our fault, and really the night never achieved what it was supposed to for me.

On Thursday, the first day of summer, it was time for the Plough at Warmfield and here things went to plan. Ali, the landlord, is that rare breed: a live music enthusiast who happens to run a pub. Let's be honest, it wasn't very busy, but he managed to extract more added value than you would get in 100 pub gigs. Just think what he could do with a central venue and a bigger crowd! Along with his barstaff he managed to secure me 10 cd sales, a whipround for petrol money (not beer as I was driving) and an attentive polite audience. Thanks to Jon for recomending me to the venue, and I hope to be back there with the band in September.

Sunday night thankfully left me demob happy because it was the perfect way to wind down. A quiet solo set at Sandinista, not busy, but perfectly relaxed and comfortable for me.

I'm having a few days gigfree now so will update you on the next shows soon.

The second album is being worked on as we speak and I'm getting strangely addicted to myspace, as usual after everyone else has washed their hands of it. I'm only just coming round to Nirvana.