You may have noticed that I'm a week behind with this, so will see if I can catch up a bit now.
Tuesday May 20th took me to the Arkle in Morley. This is the latest home for Scouse Andy's open mic night. First time I met him was at the Fox and Newt in Leeds last year. Since then it's been to the Old Vic, and since their change of entertainment policy (not having any) we're now at the Arkle.

It's an old-style estate pub, the sort that normally I'd avoid like the plague but this one seemed to be a good venue. The pub is big and fairly quiet but the open mic brought enough people in to make it an encouraging evening. I played four songs: Shadow, Whiskey, Here Comes the Sun and Freefallin'.

Thursday was another new venue: Quid Pro Quo in Leeds, on Greek Street in an area of yuppie bars in the city centre. This is back to the 'younger end' bars that I'm seeing less and less sense in doing. This one was ok, although it seems to be un-decided about whether it's definetly an open mic or not. There was a bacardi promotion going on, which meant at least a promo girl in a tight t-shirt. I was lucky in that I got to play first-did 5 songs, then had a beer and went home.
I played the same orignals as at Morley, and also These Eyes Of Mine, One Of Us and Rocket Man (requested by someone who saw me at Doctor Wu's).

I wouldn't mind going back there, it's got potential. The management seemed pretty impressed so we shall have to see.

Sunday evening was the Abbey Beer Festival, which actually ran all weekend. On the Saturday night the marquee blew down (thankfully after the show was over!) so I played outside and under heavy skies hoped it wouldn't rain. My luck held out!
It was an enjoyable set, with Old Wishing Well added along with Somebody to Love. I tried to give it an outdoor feel....I even did Summer Of 69 as the encour. There's some photos of what I gather was a succesful festival here.

So to Whitsun week, and my 'week off'. Ok, I actually managed about 2 days of actual rest in the Lakes whilst trying to cram in all the other things I had to do. On Wednesday (29th May) there was the Bruce Springsteen concert in Manchester. Everyone knows I like stadium rock, and even though we were sat far away, it was still a good atmosphere and I'm glad I went. He managed to get the crowd working on what was a rainy night down the front uncovered end. It still makes me ambitous to see these shows, and hope that one day I might be able to do the same thing. It's a far cry from the gigs I do, but it's about the best dream I've got!

On the Sunday afternoon, now back home again, the band was out at the Craven in Skipton. We had a good run playing for a thin crowd of locals. Turns out the landlord is from Bolton, so he got on well with Dave, Norm and myself especially. It was a bit surreal I must say. 3 days after Springsteen, belting out 'Hell Freezes Over' to a handful of people....still, it's a learning curve.