Happy Easter to one and all. I can't believe it's already the middle of this week, and will soon be the weekend again. Oh well, can't be bad.

LAST WEEK

My band was out on Wednesday night (31st March) at Harrys Bar in Wakefield, playing quite literally to a packed house....

When we arrived we were faced with the unique situation of not being able to physically get the gear in the pub, let alone set it up, as it was packed full of folk. As you may know, Harrys is a rather small room, so with no standing or sitting room left we had no choice but to wait and hope it thinned out a bit. The management were left with the potential headache of having to chuck customers out to fit the band in, which is supposed to be there to bring customers in! (if you follow me). I don't know, never happens at Wembley, or Oakworth...

Don't worry, they hadn't all come to see us by the way. It was the opening night of the Art Trail which had made the pub fit to burst by 8pm. Eventually we got the gear in and set up, and thankfully most people stayed to watch, so we played to a pretty full room. We also played the full set, starting at 10 and going on until nearly 12.

I had my new keyboard but a lack of practice time meant I hadn't sorted all the new sounds out for the songs, leading to one or two interesting moments and one or two very cheesy 80s ones! I didn't have the luxury of a monitor either due to the lack of space.

The Easter weekend then began, and there was much sport to attend. Starting with the Bulls going to Headingly and taking a draw, not great as we should have won, but better than losing none the less. Draws are rare in RL, unlike football, they're not a feeling I'm very used to, you don't know whether to be happy or sad!

There then followed 3 stock car meetings, and luckily the one where it rained (Coventry) I was feeling almost guiltily dry under the main stand roof. Doesn't make for very good racing though when the shale turns to mush. And to rub it in, within half an hour of leaving, the rain had stopped and roads were dry. I think there was a cloud over Coventry that night.


THIS WEEK

I am playing a solo gig at the New Inn, Barwick-in-Elmet on Sunday night, about 9pm. This is one of my favourite venues as people listen and it's a very intimate gig. Another small room, but to date no problems physically getting inside it!


A-Z OF MUSIC

Half Man, Half Biscuit:

Not strictly beginning with B and certainly not A, but I had it in my car anyway. I love this band for their sense of humour, a song that can make you laugh is to me as good as one that makes you feel any other sort of emotion. The humour is very Northern, very dry. You need to know a bit about football to get some of the gags, but aside from that it's just glorious from beginning to end. My favourites being 'Bob Wilson: Anchorman' and 'Joy Division Oven Gloves'. I heartily recommend them.

Robert Plant/Alison Krauss: Raising Sand.

The Grammy Award winning album, I like the concept but not all the content. I've been meaning to listen to this since it came out, but only just got round to it. From what I'd heard in snippets via adverts etc... I'd already come to the conclusion that this low-fi, 2 part harmony sound is very much suited to Robert Plant's voice as it is now. The blending of the 2 voices is superb.
3 songs in and I was really loving the album. After that it faded a little for me, apart from 'Please Read The Letters' which is strong if little over-long. Nice vibe and great arrangements throughout, but there weren't really any new ideas as the album progressed. Still, could have been far worse.

Big Country: Singles

As a long-time Runrig fan I was hoping for more from this band. All I knew before was that Peter Wishart was their keyboard player before joining Runrig, and that they supported Queen at Knebworth in 86. I think Peter made the right move to switch. I like the big anthemic, driving sound, which is similar to Runrig, but unfortunately it seemed to lack the strong melodies and clear direction they employ so well. I waited for a stronger song to hit me, but it never really happened.