Another extremely busy week, but at least the blog is on time this Monday! There's been 2 more Paul Jeffery Band gigs since last time. On Thursday we completed a run of 3 new venues in 6 days at The Fenton in Leeds. This is a proper old-fashioned Leeds boozer, a former Tetley house, and long-running music venue. It has an upstairs room where bands play but we were downstairs in the bar, playing to a cross-section of students and older folk. It was pretty busy all the way through.
There's something about playing a pub for the first time. There's always a bit of nervous anticipation about what it will be like. With me the novelty of a new venue wears off quickly, especially now the band has found it's feet. This was one such night when the adrenalin of a new venue, combined with a lively crowd, and the knowlegde that we were playing where we were wanted, all contrived to make this a great gig. It scores an 8, which as you know is quite rare for me to do.
I thought it had all the elements in place, from early sing-alongs to 'Lola', to later rocking to 'Can't Stand Losing You' and 'Gimme Some Lovin'. The originals went down pretty well too. I'd be more than happy to go back here. It's the sort of pub I used to hear about bands playing without ever getting the chance to do them. Now I feel we're doing these places, and that they still exist in 2009. Although very tired at times, I felt last week we were a proper working band, doing Friday, Monday and Thursday. It was fun!
That still leaves The Railway at Berry Brow yesterday (the 29th) which was, as usual, pretty good. We always get a good sound in there, and a good reception. For the first time, all 8 originals were played, and they actually seemed to go down better than the covers. This is the main reason for building on these venues. I'd score it a 6, as I was struggling a bit towards the end. But at least we went down well. We were even offered one of our first gifts from the audience, a goose egg, freshly laid! Some bands get ladies underwear, we get goose eggs.
In between this hectic rock n roll lifestyle of seedy Leeds pubs and goose eggs, I managed to fit in going to see a concert myself. Yes, Jackson Browne was in town (Sheffield City Hall) on Friday night and was well worth seeing. He's one of these singer-songwriters I always knew I'd like even before I'd heard any songs. There's a quality and consistancy to him and his band and whilst it's never overly spectacular, it's always listenable. That's another seminal artist to chalk off the list, Bob Dylan's touring soon.....
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