The Past 2 weeks...

Owing to the sudden closure of the Puzzle Hall at Sowerby Bridge there was no band gig in 'week 3' as planned. This meant the 'one gig a week' aim was interfered with at an early stage, proving once more that when running a band- nothing ever goes to plan! We've since lost another long-standing pub at O'Donoghues in Wakefield. Both gigs off for the same reason-the pubs are closed!

Both as I said were long-standing recognised music venues. Not periferal pubs who'd given it a try. On hearing the news, one of my band questioned the logic behind pubs taking bookings then closing. O'ds had been booked since October, the pub closed in November and I found out in January! The simple fact is: don't apply logic to these situations! Pubs close suddenly nowadays, most run not by their owners but by whichever monkey can be found to do a job no one else wants. They don't care if a band might turn up with members from Lancashire only to find the doors locked.

A bit of a re-shuffle was needed that week, so I went to the Grove on Wed 16th Jan. This is my favourite open mic (the kiss of death saying that), simply because people listen and I don't even have to take my keyboard! The out-of-tune piano has 'character' although it's getting a bit beyond the joke now in that it has a natural sustain all of its own. I played 'Seven Shades' followed by a radical departure into Marc Cohn's 'Dance Back From The Grave'. The latter is off the new 'Join The Parade' album I've been banging on about for months. It has a mainly spoken-word verse, something I've never done before. I needed the words in front of me (there's a lot of them) but got through it fairly well. It was a shame the response wasn't great, the night was fairly quiet all in all. I have to say I thought Giles' set was brilliant.

That pretty much concludes the week as far as gigs were concerned. The next outing being Wed 23rd January at The Primrose. I played 6 songs: 'These Eyes', 'Even', 'It Will Pass', 'Gods&Angels', 'If He Knew You' and 'Your Shadow'. The sound as usual makes it almost worthwhile alone turning up. The audience was mainly the other acts so it wasn't a great response. As usual their capacity to listen and not talk wasn't great, but it went fairly well.

On Friday 25th the band played at the Snooty Fox at Oakworth (not to be confused with the one in Wakefield, as it's in Oakworth). This was a mainstay venue for me in the old days, and it hasn't changed a bit! It wasn't a very busy night and we didn't get much in the way of response. But I have to say I was really chuffed with the people that made the effort to come and watch, it was blowing a gale that night. Norm was making his full debut (it's starting to sound like a sports report) at fullback on the drums. We played pretty well and I'm looking forward to retaining the same line-up for the next gig at The Bridge Tavern on Feb 10th. Hopefully there, in a smaller venue, we can get a better response.

The following night was a receeing night. As you will know by now, I try and have a look at venues before booking them, in order to try and limit the damage caused by dodgy venues-and there's quite a few of them around here! I visisted 4 pubs in all and it proved a very useful outing. 2 of them were old haunts circa 2000-02, but which have since gone downhill, quite a shame really.

I'm awaiting with interest the Tom Petty Superbowl half-time show this coming Sunday. I plan to stay up and watch it anyway. This will be followed by a tour of the US/Canada with Steve Winwood as support. What a mouth-watering line-up! Big shame there's no UK dates. I've even offered to stand in for Winwood to save on shipping the Hammond Organ. It's a long shot, but I'm always being told off for not approaching famous people who could hold the keys. Do you think it will work?

The Freaky Pest Keyboard player strikes again

Into 'week 2', which I'm bound to lose count of before too long. On Tuesday 8th I had a rehearsal with the bass player who would be standing in for us on Friday. After which we did what all musicians do after a rehearsal, and went to the pub. The pub in question is a band pub of which my band is playing at next month. I met up with one or two other old acquaintances (I've not been doing many pubs like this since 2005), and we were quickly bemoaning the state of live music in pubs.
It's a strange beast, full of complications and contradictions. The smoking ban may shut pubs-but it may mean some have to put bands on, so we might be alright. Or perhaps they'll all run out of money and we won't have any gigs, it's probably better not to worry about it. Anyway, so far we seem to be doing ok. The trick is to keep a big enough network and database and continually look for new places to play. That way when one shuts un-expectedly (as with the Puzzle at Sowerby Bridge-taking my Jan 17th gig with it), there's still others to approach.
I love doing the bookings, it's a great feeling when you secure one, and it's fascinating how the landscape changes and new places appear, some dissappear and some change hands.
At the moment I'm looking for gigs for the band in March and April. We only want one a week so it's not too bad, but the pressure is always on to try and keep the work coming in.

Friday's gig with the PJ band was at the Cricketers at Horbury. And here we had a busier night than I've ever seen in there. It was basically the first gig the band has done where we've been in at the deep end with a 'covers' audience. We also had a dep bass player as mentioned above, as Keith had his op on Tuesday.
We went off well with the first 5 covers doing well. It died a bit with the originals and then rallied towards the end. It was well appreciated and we were re-booked for the rest of the year. I was well pleased with that! The originals (5 in all) did better later on and I certainly won't be leaving them out of the set altogether at any of these gigs. They were reasonably well-received later on.
Yorkshire audiences are tough to please though. It's a brave (or foolish) man (me) who tries to sell CDs afterwards. Some of the looks and reactions are priceless....if looks could kill! The basic disc I sell at band nights costs £2, less than most pints of beer these days. This, added to the fact that it's always free entry, makes me wonder if the phrase 'value for money' is being stretched a bit too far.
I noticed on Sunday night (more of which in a minute) a few people entered, saw the hefty door price of £3, and left again. What can you reasonably expect for £3 these days?? And musicians getting paid to entertain? They should do it for nowt and be grateful for t'not to be chucked out.
I'm getting into dangerous territory here, but please-a little less tightness would go a long way, it's hardly a rip-off on any level, and we are actually working on stage and not just prancing around for the fun of it. Sometimes I wonder if this is the only county where people expect value for money on something that's free in the first place.

Sunday was New Roscoe Acoustic Springboard night, and then after the diving we all play a few songs.
4 acts in all, me solo this time, 2nd act on. I have to confess to getting a little bit hot under the collar at one point. The set was being filmed (only on a small scale, not for MTV) and I'd made a few mistakes which I was kicking myself for. I got a bit annoyed that some of the people near the front weren't listening but really it was no big deal. I'd played 'Chains Around My Heart' this time and 'Gods And Angels', 'Life' and 'Old Wishing Well' were in there too.
All in all a better night than the September one, and busier too-it wasn't a bad do.

I had to laugh afterwards at the pearls of wisdom from my fellow performers. One said 'it never looks right to me with the keyboard', to which the reply was 'why's that then?'. I can't remember the precise reason but why say something so innane in the first place? Shall we ban them altogether so that the evil guitarists can take over the Earth? Shall we have keyboard burning sessions in the Town Hall square and our hands chopped off like they do in Saudi Arabia?

Over the years I've encountered much prejudice from guitarists towards keyboarders. Bass players occasionally join in when the left hand part gets too loud, but generally its the fretwankers who rear up. I've always liked to think they find it a bit threatening. I have more range on the instrument and a better chance of being able to read music. Sometimes there's the 'we don't want them this is heavy rock' mentality. Again, pathetic. I can well imagine Jon Lord auditioning for Deep Purple and Richie Blackmore saying 'we should really be looking for a 2nd guitarist', then again he probably did.

This leads me onto my pillock of the week award. No, not the forementioned anti-keyboard front, but another who seems, well, anti-many things.

I refer to a promoter of acoustic nights in Leeds, who won't even accept me as a myspace 'friend' let alone book me. Perhaps its the keyboard working against me again (it's not acoustic) perhaps it's some other reason. I don't really care. What bothers me slightly is the arrogance of the myspace blurb regarding booking acts:

Please Do Not apply. I..will ask for you!!!! THE FREAKY PESTS THAT KEEP APPLYING ONLY GET 'BLOCKED'!

Yes, it's terrible as a promoter when people want to help you out and play at one of your nights, promote your interests and probably make you some money.

Freaky pests indeed.

Thank God it's Friday.

Next week I'll be being a freaky pest at The Primrose on Wednesday (23rd January) and with my band at the Snooty Fox at Oakworth. These musicians who want to play gigs, disgusting vermin the lot of them.

Tune in to see who wins next week's award. I doubt there'll be a shortage of candidates.

Happy New Year everybody, I'll try and make sure I update this blog more often this year, see how long that one lasts!!
I tend to get very into the idea of a new year, as if last year now counts for nothing and somehow everything will be different after the clock strikes midnight. Bullshit. I've already realised how stupid that is, ok it's great for me personally to renew my efforts and focus etc.... but I've already received bad news from others this 'year' on a few occasions, luckily not for me personally but there are several friends I know for whom the year has not started well.

On the music front, the major change is the upping of the band gigs to one a week. The solo shows continue about normal and I've left Morris & The Minors.

I'll start with the latter as my last gig with them was on New Years' Eve. I don't often mention their shows because strictly speaking they're not relevant to my own material. Here though is where the old year ends and the new one begins...with a wedding (!) near Wetherby. Who has a wedding on New Years' Eve?? A rich bugger I guess. There was a room for the night for all guests, fireworks on the terrace at midnight, and of course a band.
One thing I will miss about the band is the class of venue. This was no exception, a beautiful stately mansion-cum-hotel in it's own grounds (about a mile's drive to get from the gates to the front door). There have been others similar over the past 2 years, and whilst I love some of the smaller venues I'm sure there will come a point where I'll miss this side of things. I don't like getting my feet wet.

The gig itself was routine enough, and then it was the last load up and off we went. Into 2008 and God only knows what. One thing for definite is that it will be busy to start off with. For on top of trying to make a 'fresh start' and do as much work on New Years' Day as I did in the whole of 2007, there's a lot of gigs coming up.

The first one was on Thursday 3rd at Verve Bar in Leeds. This is arguably the place best suited to acoustic gigs in Leeds at the moment. It's small but with an atmosphere, and it has a good PA. On a night like this I could have been forgiven for expecting a quiet do. Not so. The little room was packed, 50 people being a lot in there. I was on first, playing through a set of 'Your Shadow', 'You Never Understood', 'Even', 'Can't Believe the News', 'Laura Jones' and 'These Eyes'. Fairly succesful all in all. 'Can't Believe The News' was on it's 10th anniversary since being written and both halves of the writing partnership were there.
I decided to have a go at 'Laura' to stretch myself and this almost came off. The best received numbers were still the first and last but I was pleased with how it went.

One other act caught the eye, although I honestly can't remember his name. He had some innovative ideas including a drum machine and some effects pedals, some short witty riffs and lyrics, and most importantly a following. The only downside was that they all followed him straight up the stairs after his set and left the last artist to suffer the quietest crowd of the night.
Luckily it didn't seem to phase him, it's happened to me a few times and it leaves a bit of a bad taste in the mouth. I have to admit I've left venues before the end of the night a few times, but not when it's a good, well-organised night like this.

On Friday night I went to see Paul Carrack doing his regular show at the Ritz in Brighouse. For those not familiar, the Ritz is an old cinema converted into a ballroom and is straight out of the 1960s. It keeps getting threatened with closure which would be a tragedy because with a bit more effort it could house name artists every week-just like Holmfirth picturedrome have managed! As usual, Paul was brilliant and the whole band seem to rock this year. His Hammond playing is the highlight for me, for there are few equals, especially now that Billy Preston is no longer with us. His voice is classy as always, and although I don't care for the 60s cover songs, the ballroom was bouncing once again.

Saturday night was the first band gig of the year at the Owl in Rodley. This is the 3rd member of the West Leeds Triangle including the Old Vic and the Abbey. The landlord here has quickly established the venue for live music and a nice atmosphere. If only there were more places like this, we certainly need them! The band had a good night, playing all the originals we know plus 'I Don't Need' which I did solo.
It was the first test of the year, and I only hope we can stay on top of things this year, because it's really fun to do and it went down very well.

As always there's an idiot present, this time the cheeky bastard who suggested I got a wig. Pillock of Week 1 I think.

The following day, I had yet another show in the afternoon, this being at the Travellers, Hipperholme. This is a truly lovely pub in beautiful surroundings, great beer and no scrotes in sight. Perfect except for one thing, they haven't come to listen to a musician. Thus I played, and a few people listened.
I only played covers this time, and although it was by no means a disaster, I have to question the strategy to putting an act on. By all means do it, but please do it once a week not once a month and make sure people know and aren't left thinking the poor bloke has intruded for the afternoon. Potentially the idea works but it needs more effort on the promotion so that the musician isn't just left to fend for themselves against a frowning audience.
To be fair, I think more enjoyed it than I first thought, but it was hard to tell when people weren't paying much attention.

That just about wraps up Week 1. This week it's the band at the Cricketers, Horbury on Friday and solo at New Roscoe Sunday. As usual check out the myspace page for upto date news!!