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....