Another busy week has flown by. I did 4 nights last week and there's another 4 coming up this week too.

On Tuesday I went over to the Abbey Inn for their singaround/open night. This was largely in preperation for my gig there on Friday night. I played a new song, Martyn Joseph's 'Between the Raindrops', as well as 2 recent additions to my covers list: Days and Here Comes The Sun. I forgot my bag at this one, and went the wrong way to get there. And I thought I'd woken up a bit too!

Thursday took me back to The Primrose for a fairly decent opening slot. I did 6 songs and managed to get a bit of banter going. As usual it was a sparse crowd containing memebers of the other acts and their friends. I did both of the piano songs from the new album. Gods And Angels and Cold Steel Lover. I really wanted to do both of these as I now have a greater insight into their meaning, all thanks to Sarah's wonderful lyrics. I even got an encore and went through 'Won't Back Down'.

Friday was the aforementioned Abbey solo gig. Not a great turnout, but all thanks to my small but ever-growing following for making it a much better night than it could have been. I played more covers than I would have really liked to, but in the end settled into a nice raport with the audience and had a fairly decent gig.

Saturday night was back to the band. And as with all bands, 4 people means 4 times the potential for something to go wrong! I switched my phone on at dinner time, nice and casually, only to be met by a barrage of messages from our regular drummer Steve who had gone down ill. He'd phoned the night before, which of course was when my battery died! The wonders of technology.
So I had to frantically rush round looking for a drummer, and this is where having stnad-ins has really paid off, as we've had 3 drummers cover the gigs so far. So it's a big thank you to Matt who was available and came and played a blinder.

The pub was an old haunt from my cover band days. Of course it's changed hands since then, as they all have! We played in the bar to a small but very enthusiastic crowd. As the night went on the more enthusiastic they became. This being to the point that we had to play an extra 20 mins 'encore' set, paid of course!

It was an encouraging enjoyable night to round off a fairly tough week for the band. And we nearly had an extra traveller on the way back as a local moggy had found it's way into the van. With the doors closed and the engine running, we heard it just in time before it would have had a free ride back to Brighouse! So there you go, even my band had some pussy in the back of the van.

The other thing that amused me last week, although perhaps it shouldn't have, was the Florence Nightingale Pub in Leeds which met a sticky end thanks to a gas explosion. Luckily it was derelict at the time, but I have it on record that I once played a gig there back in 2003. Now I do hope that isn't starting a trend....Paul Jeffery will play your pub and then it will explode. Could be just the new gimmick I need. Come to think of it, there's a few more I wouldn't have minded blowing up over the years.

Another song mixed on the Paradise Street project last week. That's 3 down 10 to go! The good news is I now have enough material for a myspace page. The bad news is I don't have enough time to make one! Perhaps the blogs will have to get shorter.