Life Begins

Wednesday was a catching up at work day. In the evening I failed to meet Simon on the train from Clapham Junction. I managed to catch the same train but couldn’t find the right carriage so we met instead at Hampton Court and got the bus over to The Europa to meet Jenny (and my guitar) and play a couple of three song sets for the lovely Roland Lucas and Dale Harris (Impatience, Perfect and Friends, later Manual, Select and Hidden).

On Thursday I was late for my regular appointment looking after small children in the morning, but managed to get there just in time for everyone to sing Happy Birthday to me (the third, and not the last time, this week). After that I wandered up to Euston to collect my phone from the very generous Lisa who’d come to London for a meeting and brought it with her from Kenilworth!

Some work in the afternoon and then in the evening I went to Camden to record Friends for Balcony TV with the lovely Greg, or was it Layla? The results should be online in a few weeks. Finally a spot of babysitting back in Croydon and some more presents. It’s almost all books so far: Excellent.

Yesterday I was forty. It didn’t feel particularly different from being 39 and 363 days to be honest (but thanks for asking, everyone!) Luckily, I had a fantastic day, probably the best birthday ever. In fact, if people who make slightly ropey cooking lager in green cans had organised my birthday, it would probably have looked something like this…

I had (another) lie-in. I’m beginning to wonder whether this blog should be re-named “Life Begins at 10.30am”. Then I jumped on the train and tube to North Greenwich to meet Tom, his Aunt and his friend and we went to see the ATP Tour Tennis Finals at the O2 Arena. Very impressive it was too. I even remembered to eat an early lunch on the way there so that I didn’t have to spend anything on the over-priced food and drink once we were inside. We saw a doubles and a singles match and both went the distance, so we definitely got our money’s worth. It’s always astonishing to watch live professional sport, particularly when you’ve had a go at it. It’s a totally different game, and much quicker and more skilful than it looks on the telly.

As we left my eye was drawn away from the large crowds heading for the tube and towards the signs saying “boats back to central London”. I persuaded Tom and his mate (who’s name escapes me, sorry) to get on the Thames Clipper back to London Bridge (£3.55 if you’ve already got a Travelcard - bargain!) It was dark by this time and we zoomed along and stopped at a lit up Greenwich, Canary Wharf and many more lit up bits of London. Beautiful. We stood at the back, just over the yellow line and next to the sign saying “don’t stand over the yellow line” and it felt wonderful having the wind and spray on our faces, particularly having been inside for a few hours. As Tom said, “why would you get on a boat and then sit inside?”

After I got home I just about had time to sit down and answer the many Facebook messages saying Happy Birthday (thankyou everyone - isn’t Facebook great for that?) and then I grabbed my guitar and headed off to The Green Dragon for the slightly unnerving experience of playing at my own show: Freedom of Expression. It’s diffcult to say how the actual gig went, but it was great to see so many people there and to have Simon there onstage for all sorts of reasons, reassurance not being the least of those. The marvellous MJ Hibbett compered to leave me free to concentrate on worrying about my own performance (average, I’m afraid - Simon was great though) and he’s blogged about the evening in general so I’ll point you to his description: here it is!

Jenny had made a cake, but I was too discombobulated to actually eat any. There might be some left later tonight, I’m not sure. I had a final birthday beer with Dr Strange, Jenny and regular Freedom of Expressionist Graham and then we headed home. A great day. Thank you to everyone who contributed at any point during it.

Hmmm… my idea was to try and keep this blog relentlessly positive throughout my 41st year, I’ll use the excuse that I’m still in my 40th to explain away the last posting. Thursday was much better. It’s always going to be better becasue it starts with Playgroup. I can’t think of many things that I’d rather be doing than singing songs to, playing with toys with and reading books to very small children. If you find something then please do tell me.

Next up was a trip to North London (passports please!) to do some work for a client there. I was worried that it might take longer than I had and that it might be more complicated than I anticipated (so an average visit, to be honest) but it all went smoothly and I finished with enough time to get on my way to the evening’s gig. I even remembered to leave every train and tube with my guitar. I regularly have to jump back on to rescue it.

In the evening I met Simon at The White Hart in Whitechapel and interrupting discussions about George Orwell we did a successful sound check, apologised to Dave Jackson of Bedsprings Acoustic for not bringing more people to his gigs (again) and played Impatience, Perfect, Friends, Manual, Select and Hidden. It was a better performance than Birmingham last week, and pretty good for only our second gig together.

CDs sold: none. New people on the mailing list: none. Oh well. Next stop: The Fox in Lewisham on Sunday.

I thought I was gradually getting over my general forgetfullness: I haven’t left my guitar on a train for a good few months, but yesterday I left my phone in Kenilworth (a great name for an album, possibly replacing “I left my toothbrush in San Francisco”, which my friend Tom did a few years ago). I’ve got out of the habit of checking what the one thing I’ve forgotten is before I travel - there’s always something. Maybe the one thing I’ve been forgetting is remembering to check what the one thing I’ve forgotten is.

I managed to assume a fairly sanguine attitude on the trip back despite not really feeling that way, not realising that losing your phone isn’t much to worry about these days. The phone company have replaced my SIM for free and I’ve put the new one into my previous phone, so there’s no rush to get the new phone back (apart from the fact that I really like it!) I had a senior moment as I thought “maybe I could call Lisa and ask her to come back to the station and we could go back to her house and get the phone, we’ve got plenty of time before the train comes” before realising that I had no way to contact her, because I’d left my phone at her house.

Back in Croydon we had a great edition of Freedom of Expression at The Green Dragon with Liz Crawford and Cellar Door doing extended sets after a couple of withdrawls. Then Jenny and I went home and watched the new Doctor Who episode. Brilliant. How do they manage it. Thoughtful and exciting, although not quite as scary as the trailers and publicity had led us to believe.

I was on the train today: Croydon to Coventry in 2 hours. It’s easy to slag off Virgin Trains, and I’m sure there are good reasons to do so, but Southern and Virgin were spot on today and I arrived in plenty of time to go to my friend Lisa’s strangely warren-like office and read a book until she generously gave me a lift home via school and tap dancing club.

Emma McGann

I did a bit of work (I know: Sad) at Colin and Lisa’s house in Kenilworth until it was time to go to Songbird at The Phoenix. I played there once before and it was fabulous. Colin and I bussed it into Coventry via a fairly roundabout route and we weren’t disappointed. Emma McGann runs a fantastic night and she started off the evening playing songs with another guitarist who also sang backing vocals.

Una Zuki

Next up were Una Zuki, three women from Wolverhampton, Walsall and Dudley (if I’ve remembered correctly) followed by Sarah Bennett playing solo guitar, something that always astonishes me. I then got up and played Friends, Manual, Perfect, Select and Never to an appreciative and communicative audience. I was as relaxed as I’ve been in a long time, despite the unintentionally amusing moment when a relatively big-boned young lady entered the room as I delivered the line “because they say that we all need feeding”.

Open Mic at The Phoenix

After I’d finished there was some quality open mic and Emma finished the evening off with a few songs on her own before Colin and I dived into a taxi outside the pub and I’m writing this in bed in the attic.

CD’s sold: 2 (half price to students); mailing list: one new person; flyers handed out: loads

Another relaxing and exciting day on Sunday. Another lie-in helped, as always, and then a lovely dinner with Jenny and my parents. Rhubarb Crumble always wins. Jenny and I then started back towards Weybridge for the evening’s radio session at Brooklands FM.

A361

We started off along the M4 but soon got bored with that and headed off to look for white horses, of which there were many marked on the map north of Salisbury Plain. We drove past two, but we only saw one and it was grey, which was somewhat disappointing. We saw this lovely sunset instead and i managed to get a couple of half-decent snaps of it.

A361 - 2

In Weybridge I was the guest of David Durant on his Surrey Unsgned show. I can’t pretend that I wasn’t nervous and this increased rapidly when David said “right, what are we going to do then, it’s your show”. I was hoping he’d be asking the questions. I was wrong to be worried, of course, because David is a great professional and put me at my ease immediately. I played Manual, Select and Hidden live and talked about myself too much as well as playing (recorded) Bruce Cockburn - Look How far, U2 - Who’s Going To Ride Your Wild Horses, Kate Bush - This Woman’s Work, Peter Gabriel - San Jacinto, Polly Paulusma - Godgrudge and Where I’m Coming From, Andy Thornton - Safely Home, Iain Archer - Pressure Drop and Bruce Springsteen - Valentine’s Day. I’ve got the whole thing on MP3 and if there’s anything interesting or listenable on it I’ll get it online soon.

David Durant in the Studio at Brooklands FM

Last night Simon and I got into Jenny’s car, well.. van, and sped off up to Birmingham. Actually, that’s not really how it happened. Jenny and I started about quarter of an hour later than we hoped and then, with the help of some appalling navigation skills on my part, took about three hours to get from Croydon to Shepherds Bush. Simon, meanwhile, had found a pub to sit in. I don’t think he was particularly disappointed about that.

We stopped for a quick bite and stretch of our legs (they’re long enough now) at M40 Oxford services and then arrived for The Secret Music Club at Nicole’s in Birmingham with about half an hour to spare. Two pizzas and one cheeseburger later (Jenny had the cheeseburger, if you’re counting) Simon and I got our act together and played Friends, Perfect, Manual, Impatience, Never, Select and Hidden for the first time onstage as a duo.

It all seemed to go OK. There were some logistical issues to iron out for next time (short leads, Simon’s notes weren’t bold enough to read on the floor so he had to play with his back to the audience and look at them on a table) and Simon had problems hearing his bass, but I could hear everything and it all sounded great even without monitors. Jenny’s the best judge of things because she’s been at so many gigs recently and she was happy. Mike (the promoter) was positive, apologised for the size of the audience (not a problem) and hopefully we’ll be back there again soon.

Keeping score - CDs sold: 1; Email addresses added: 1

Simon then gave me a ‘beginning of tour’ present: ‘Keep the Aspidistra Flying’ by George Orwell, which was extremely touching. I was so overwhelmed that I hardly thanked him. We had a quick drink and then I drove back (M6, M1) to give Jenny a rest. We got back home at about 3.15am.

The vicar called at 8.30am this morning to say that his computer wasn’t working. Bastard.

Next up: A radio session on Brooklands FM on Sunday evening; gigs in Coventry on Monday night and Whitechapel next Thursday. Meanwhile: I’m having a family birthday meal on Friday night and then on Saturday I get to see the extraordinary Polly Paulusma playing round the corner from my parent’s house. It’s been too long since the last Polly gig. I can wait, but I wish I didn’t have to.

Last night I sang backing vocals on a couple of songs for Jeremy Ayre at Freedom of Expression, the acoustic night that I host on Tuesdays at The Green Dragon in Croydon. I’ve been meaning to sing with Jeremy for ages and he’s been kind enough to indicate that this would be an amenable experience, but it took about two years for us to organise it.

We had a quick practise during the sound check and I made sure that I had heard the words correctly (’clouds’, not ‘clowns’ are gathering around Jeremy, apparently) and then I managed to forget about it enough to avoid being nervous while introducing the open mic performers and the other featured act (Natascha Leonie).

Once I got up there to sing I felt a bit lost. All I could think was ‘what do I do with my hands?’ I can’t remember the last time I sang on a stage without holding a guitar. I ended up doing a version of The Indie Kid and it all seemed to go off OK. No-one ran out screaming, anyway.

I’m working from home waiting for the Life Begins flyers to be delivered at the moment, then we’re off to Birmingham for the first gig with Simon Jones on bass tonight. Am I nervous? Of course I am. Am I going to enjoy it? You betcha.

Laters.

Life Begins is a year-long tour starting in November 2009 and containing many gigs particularly on or around 24th November. It’s a significant date for me, as you’ve probably guessed.

I’ve got a new bass player, Simon Jones, and soon a drummer and hopefully a backing vocalist for the South of the country (I already have one, Maria Levesley, for gigs in the North).

I hope you can make it along to one of the gigs that I’ll be doing during the next 12 months. I should be somewhere near you (if you’re in the UK, and hopefully Europe) sometime soon.