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?
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?
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