A fairly exhaustive week of gigs has just passed. Starting with the first band gig of the month at The Junction Inn, Queensbury. I was very pleased with how this one went, in terms of sound and music. It's not an easy place to play and isn't as busy as it once was, but I thought we got a fair reception and it was good practice for my band of wandering musicians.

The Friday night band gig at the Travellers, Meltham was a case of 'a gig of 2 halves'. Again, not as busy overall as I'd hoped for, this pleasent pub nevertheless pulled through in the end. In the first set, concerns over noise levels blighted things a little, and this wasn't helped by the audience being able to talk comfortably over us, and not clap. I got a little more forceful with them in the 2nd set, (as well as the PA mysteriously getting louder!) and this at last generated a response and turned it into a reasonable night. I could write a thick book on bands and noise but I think it's fair to say 'you can't please everybody' just about covers it all. And with audiences that's not easy.

More exciting was Dave's journey to the gig, encountering some of the many back roads of outer Huddersfield. Email the professor for a full description.

Saturday night was an Atlanta Soul gig in Manchester centre. I'm always worried about parking at these gigs and this again proved the case as I had to resort to an NCP. Luckily it was on a cheap weekend rate of £5 which was a big relief. The wedding we played was at the Victoria & Albert hotel on Water Street. A lively crowd, and after we'd finished one lad did a very fine version of the Shamen over the PA...E's are good, I think they all agreed on that one.

Sunday afternoon at Fernandes Brewery Tap in Wakefield is enough to discourage even the toughest working musician. It's a lovely pub, but no one really wants to listen. I managed to get a reasonably early night on Saturday so was at least a bit more awake. Having dragged myself away from the Singapore night race imagine my disgust when I arrived to find they weren't even aware I was going.

Nevertheless the show went ahead without any problems and actually gained perhaps the best response in a while there. That means a few people listened and clapped. Not a bad afternoon really. One of these days there'll be a really good gig there, it's such a nice place.

Last week there was some commotion on myspace due to the latest attempt by the programmers to re-invent the wheel: a new flash music player for the band pages. Needless to say it didn't work straight away and I wasn't the only person annoyed by this. As I constantly try to attract new fans it does help if people can actually listen to the songs. Why they can't just leave things alone I'll never know. Anyway, thankfully my page seems to be just about working now, but the Paradise Street one is still not right, the counter has been re-set. They should just leave the damn thing alone, but I guess this is the downside of free sites, that and the pop-up adverts.

This week it's very busy again with solo shows on Wednesday (The Wardrobe) and Sunday night (The New Inn, Barwick-in-Elmet), and then a band show in between at the Arkle on Friday night. I'll also be there to promote that one on the Tuesday night open mic.

Come and support us, but don't complain about the noise! (and clap, it won't hurt your hands).

One gig took place last week, which was another solo show on Tuesday at Milo. It was quiet (again) and whilst taking place in a nice venue, there was barely enough people to raise a valid response. I played 'Wish You Were Here' as a Rick Wright tribute, no-one really noticed, and then I went home!

Don't worry. The band will be back with 2 gigs this week, and together with another solo set at Fernandes on Sunday aft, it's going to be a really busy week. We've lost 2 drummers in the last 3 months with the band, so I'm anxious to put all this behind us and get on with the job. Thankfully, it's not cost us any gigs but it's still been a hassle to sort everything out.

The news that Rick Wright passed away was naturally very sad, but also a shock as I'd no idea it was imminent. I remember commenting when Billy Preston died that there aren't many iconic keyboard players who are household names. Well Rick was certainly one of them so it's very upsetting news. God bless and rest in peace.

I've just come back from the World Championships weekend for the stock cars. I extracted amazing fuel economy out of my car travelling around East Anglia, also seeing some of the best weather all summer. It was really very nice. 2 Premier Inns, a slightly burnt neck and 2 sore buttocks later (Grandstand seat at Ipswich? it was a concrete step!) I'm back for a busy week-totally knackered but looking forward to getting back out with the band.

Until next week, enjoy yourselves and I'll let you know how the gigs went.

Would you know my name, if I saw you in Brighouse?

Again it's been a fairly quiet week gigwise, so you're spared again this time. Just the one this week which was last night at Marshalls Bar, Hebden Bridge. It's the LiveSpace night formally run at Bridges Bar in Sowerby Bridge, this being before the latter decided it's scrotes karaoke to 5 people was more important.

Marshall's Bar is a dive in every respect. However, the owners are music-friendly, so the trade-off is the loss of a good facility (upstairs @ Bridges) for a more welcoming ownership.

I was the headliner, going on last. This is something I hate doing because it generally means most people have either left or long since lost the will to live by that point. I find nights saturate so easily and every promoter is guilty of putting on too many acts. Even though they do just 4 songs each, after around 7 acts have done this, you've already heard nearly 30 songs, this is more than you'd pay to see a top act do.

So 3 hours after the night started, I go on. It was a thin crowd by this point but what I did was fairly well-received. I played 'Message in a Bottle' and 'One of us' in addition to my regular set, which this time included the song about a scrotes bar: 'Old Wishing Well'. This song was very apt.

I had a good chat with the promoter afterwards about the pros and cons of these nights. They're looking to putting on 2 nights instead of one and thinning out the number of acts. I think that will work much better. Their advertising is first class, and I got my name in the papers, and their posters are first class too. I hope they don't fall foul of another venue, and that the night continues to prosper.

Other than that, I won't bore you with my trip to Birmingham nor the Atlanta Soul gig on Friday night where Craig Charles was there, it's really not that bigger deal! Suffice to say please keep viewing the myspace page and downloading the songs :)

This Tuesday I'm doing Milo in Leeds which is a new one for me. I'm actually only working half the week due to the all-important World Stock Car finals at Ipswich, incorporating three events in three days. Needless to say I will be absolutely knackered this time next week, but thoroughly thrilled by the experience. Then it's back to the PJ Band with 2 shows the week after...you have been warned!

No gigs in the past week, so while I try and remember on which side of a keyboard the low notes are I hope you've been enjoying all the lovely dry weather in the last few days!

I've had chance to do quite a bit of recording though. Evenings seem to be the best time to do creative work, and that's obviously easier if you don't have to jump in a car and go to a gig that night. The Paradise Street album is getting nearer to completion by the day now. I'm really excited about it. Don't forget to visit it's myspace page to listen to a few of the finished songs.

That's about all for now. Tonight I shall hopefully catch some of the US open tennis, where I'm hoping British sport will have more luck than the shafting Lewis Hamilton got yesterday. Do Ferrari actually control F1?? I hope this explains why I follow stock car racing: here the cars can legally belt one another which makes things far simpler.

Don't forget Sunday night (the 14th) at Marshall's Bar, Hebden Bridge. I'm doing the main slot on the LiveSpace night so please feel free to come along.

Can you believe it's September already?? Well, yes I suppose. I'm not too unhappy to see the back of August-the dullest month since records began. I feel vindicated against all those who said 'we've had bad summers before'....again, yes I grant you that-but I feel that the last 2 summers have been the shittest in my lifetime for weather. In our area, where it's grim up north, we've had around half the normal average hours of sunshine in August. It's enough to make you want to emigrate to somewhere brighter, like Norway, the Falklands or Antartica.

Gigwise it was quite a bright end to the month (a super pun there I'm sure you'll agree). 3 nights out in total, starting on Wednesday with The Grove open mind night. This was my first visit since April, and although I went quite well with 'Seven Shades' and 'Lola' the piano is now so bad it's beyond playable. The tuning is by the by, but the pedal doesn't work and there is a natural sustain which lingers on and on. I was also upstaged by a cute hispanic girl playing something which sounded even worse than the Grove piano, a sort of oboe-sounding wind instrument which put me in mind of those hooters you get at major rugby league finals. Needless to say she went down a storm. There lies another lesson in showbusiness. One I ought to recite more often: no-one owes you their adulation or indeed their attention, and as a performer you are in competiton with just about anybody that can vaguely play anything.

Enough said, the Chemic Tavern on Thursday was better this time. I played 'Shadow', 'Angels' amd 'Life', the latter after a long absence. It was well received and I think the night was fairly succesful.

On Friday it was the latest band instalment at the Cricketers Horbury. Whilst never going to be as good as the previous Friday (see last blog) it wasn't a bad night, the 2nd set in particular doing it's job once the transient audience had settled down into a group more prepared to listen. I think the pub is part of a 'run' through Horbury on a Friday night, which must be an exciting experience. 'If He Knew You' was debuted pretty succesfuly. It's just a shame that we haven't another gig until September 23rd. I've a couple more observations about the night which I'll save for a week or two...just in case the people concerned are reading this, I doubt it, but it can keep for now.

This week will be the first in a long while where there'll be no gigs at all, so next week's blog may be on another of my interests, or perhaps it will focus on recording and writing songs, something I occasionally find time to do!