It's a couple of days late this week...it's been too busy the past few days. I'm happy to say my mad week of gigging is over, at least until Friday, oh and then Sunday too.

It started at The Primrose last Thursday the 23rd playing the regular solo opening slot. Not too bad this one, maybe not quite as good as some of the previous ones but it was ok. I was tired out before I'd even started doing this week's gigs so the set here was a bit 'forced', a case of trying too hard. I felt some of the tunes were a bit frantic. I'd give it a 6 though, and I thought Sam and Anna sounded really good from where I was listening in the other bar room.

Onto Friday and the band was out at The Travellers Rest in Meltham. The area looks great when you turn up in daylight. The night was pretty good too. It's a hard room to work as the band is placed at one day down some steps. Nobody sits down there as they're very close to the band, they all tend to hide further up the room. Thus we spent a lot of the gig playing as if from a castle over a moat to where the audience were! The first set left me feeling we weren't making the right impression. This changed in 'White Room' which was so fierce it made everyone pay attention. From then on things improved culminating in several people coming down for a dance in the moat. I'd taken to wandering out into the moat to sing infront of the speakers, and then had to retreat as I was nearly trampled underfoot by the dancers! They all appeared at once as if from nowhere, as if it was stage-managed. "....and when the clock strikes 11pm Couples A,B,C &D please take to the floor..." For the ending alone, it's a 7 out of 10.

I was working with Atlanta Soul on Saturday night in beautiful Lincolnshire, and then it was onto my hotel room for a bath, some tea and some snooker (it's a sport similar to pool Kelley!). This makes it sound very rock n roll (apart from the snooker) but in actual fact I paid for the room myself in order to move onto Kings Lynn for the all-important Stock Cars on Sunday!

With hardly time to eject the Kings Lynn shale from my hair, nose and ears it was onto more band gigs. Monday was a return to Harrys Bar, as a 3-piece this time (which meant we almost had enough room!). It was a fair night, hard work in places for me, but we got a reasonable response. I'd say this was a 5. Last night we did the Junction at Queensbury where a new low ebb was reached as the band was paid in bags of coins due to not enough cash being taken on the night! Whose fault is this you may wonder. It's always been quiet when we play there, and this time it was actually busier than some previous times. I don't think we were very popular with the management after this one but we had brought nearly half the crowd. When something goes wrong like this the band is made to feel accountable, as if we've forced ourselves upon the venue and demanded we get paid to play. I'm sure some customers think this is the case! Of course, we were asked to play-not the other way round, so really responsibility should be shared at least. I'm just glad we got paid in full. One to forget, scores 3.

The band is out again this Friday at the Kings Arms in Heaton Bradford and then I'm doing solo for the Barge&Barrel beer festival in Elland on Sunday evening. Come down if you can, I may buy you a beer, I've got plenty of change....

Welcome back to my blog......I'm sure you are by now suffering from serious withdrawl symptoms due to the lack of a blog last week....and also am sure you are literally cross-legged with curiosity to know what I've been up to in the past 2 weeks. I also dream of winning the lottery and marrying Christine Bleakley.

So where to begin, so much to tell. I think we're back into the week leading up to Easter. I just did one gig that week at the Bay Horse in Lindley, Huddersfield. This was solo and, in common with the band gigs in the past there, was absolutely no different to the previous occasions! By which I mean it was deadly quiet with no real interest in what was going on. I played a fairly satisfactory set but one has to wonder how the pub has managed to run live music nights for so long. I guess it's not my call to reason why as long as they continue to book me. To be fair, the owners are lovely and they at least thought I was good :) So it can have a 5 out of 10.

That was Easter Saturday. The previous night I celebrated that well-known miracle. Yes, a Bradford Bulls victory over Leeds. The team is still rubbish but at least I can paritally avoid the total ridicule of losing to our dear neighbours (bastards). The rest of the weekend was motorsport orientated and then it was off to the East coast for a couple of days' break. Ah yes, Whitby looks beautiful so I'm told. A pity as the whole coastline was covered in mist for 3 days and I couldn't see a thing....the sea sounded pretty good though.

Refreshed from 3 days of poor air quality we returned to work on Friday night (the 17th) with the band playing at the Bridge Tavern in Bradford. This was poor quality of a different kind. Yes, another dead night playing to a handful of souls, some very nice, some not so. Each song greeted by a spontaneous round of indifference. In the second set, which is usually the worst on these sort of nights, I found the band actually sounded marvellous and I closed my eyes and dreamt of that far-away day when we get to play to a packed crowd. We sounded fucking amazing and with nothing to lose it at least salvaged something from the night. I'd give it 6 from 10, normally it would have been a 4.

I often read marketing tips for musicians. They all tend to mention stuff in the context of a certain type of gig. Things like 'your merchandise stall' and 'your fans' and 'fans' email addresses'. I wonder how to work this into some of the shows I do!! The scenario is very different. Perhaps there's a lesson to be learnt about what type of gigs we play, but then given the state of things at the moment, it's not that easy to alter.

Anyway, at least the weather has been nice today! It makes a difference. This week gets quite busy later on with a solo gig at The Primrose in Leeds and the band are out in Meltham on Friday.

A much-need quieter week last week, I think it was a blessing really, even though there's the need to keep working. So, just one gig to report on since last we spoke, that of the Abbey Inn at Bramley on Saturday (the 4th). Not a bad night, a bit quiet on the audience front but another opportunity to play more original material. There's been a few of these lately. Given that is the aim of the band I think that's a vague sign of progress! I'll score it a 5.

This did leave more time for recording of course. The work on that never stops. I could write a huge book on all the songs I've written and/or recorded, there's still a huge backlogue of songs from yester year. I'm slowly working on them, trying to do them all the best possible justice (otherwise there's no point writing them), song by song, album by album!! The next installment of this madness should be with us in a few months' time: it will be my 3rd solo album.

Have a good Easter week-next week (and don't be too upset) there'll be no blog but I'll be back with plenty to catch up on soon enough, oh yes.