A quick review of the 3 nights I was out playing last week: On Tuesday I went along to support the Open Mic night at The Arkle in Morley. My band are playing there in October. The night is thin on supporters but it carries very well. I also got to meet a fabulous blues harmonica player-the whole idea of networking with musicians is so important. Sometimes it's hard to explain to people the value in doing a night like this, unpaid of course, but there's always something, some little connection being made.

I played 'The Prisoner' which went down very well. Then I did my Ben Folds Five cover 'The Battle of Who Could Care Less'. I'm still learning this one but it was good practice for Thursday night's piano gig (see below). I then invited my harmonica friend (he got a great sound through an authentic amp) to join me on 'I'm Coming Out'. This is a strong song of mine off the first album that I've hardly touched live. The title is a bit off putting, even if the song has nothing to do with homosexuality! It also has a bluesey feel which by pure coincidence lent itself to the harmonica perfectly.

I finished with another cover, a song I've been listening to of late, 'How Long' by Ace. It's a number that's never gone down well live in my old sets, but now I'm attacking it more, using more rhythm, it sounds much better. I then guested with Andy, Nigel and co on a few blues standards before returning home.

I mentioned that on Thursday I would be playing a genuine real living piano at the Chemic Tavern. This would be the headline slot for the cloth cat open mic night. I turned up a little late, before going on to play my set. I'd kept 'Coming Out' in, plus the Ben Folds cover, in addition to my usual set-plus Seven Shades made an appearance, and there were encours of 'Somebody to Love' and 'Rocket Man'. I was happy enough with the piano and the sensation of doing something a bit different to normal. But I wasn't happy with the fact that people weren't really listening.

The moment anyone mentions 'headline slot' on open mic nights I begin to get worried! Usually this means going on after 11pm after the audience has long since lost the will to listen after the umpteen open mic slots have passed. It doesn't matter if half of them are rubbish or not, just the sheer fact that after over 2 hours of music people are hardly in a good frame of mind to concentrate on yet another half-hour set of mainly original songs. Not to bother though, I think it wasn't too badly received, the same thing used to happen at Doctor Wu's. Personally I think it's pointless having the booked slot-better just to keep it as a free-for-all then it's not too taxing for everyone.

On Friday night my band made it's debut at Hudsons in Bradford. We had a fantastic night in front of a thinnish but appreciative crowd. The band line-up was different to usual in that we had Paul and Norm back with us, and the whole night was very enjoyable. Not to say that it isn't normally. I was well pleased with the fact we threw in 4 new covers we'd never played together before.

The weekend was all about stock car racing again-this time the European Championships at Northampton. A lovely weekend with some decent weather, the Dutch adding a pleasently tipsy edge to the atmosphere. If it wasn't for being in a really good band, I could do this every weekend. And to add to the fun there was a programme fair on the Sunday, so there I was buying old programmes ten at a time! It's not often you see me spending money. It's also not often you hear about a musician spending his leisure time doing that sort of thing. Mind you, Peter Waterman's got his trains, so I guess I've a way to go for my anorak yet :)