Life Begins

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

I’ve hopefully caught up on sleep now. I didn’t wake up until gone midday yesterday and the first thing I achieved was to blow the fuse for the whole of my parents house and deprive them of electricity for the afternoon by trying to have a shower. Initially we thought it was a power cut (they have them around here apparently: I started to get nostalgic for the seventies) so Jenny and I went to the shops and when we came back all the houses around my parents’ had their lights on and Mum and Dad had candles out.

They’d called the power company with no expectation of help so we contacted a local electrician but before he could arrive two vans and a jeep turned up from the power company. I’m not sure why so many people were required to effectively change a fuse but it was certainly exciting. They came to the door with mining helmets on and it was reminiscent of that bit in ET where the government turns up mod-handed to aprehend the wrinked little blighter.

In the evening Mum, Dad, Jenny and I went to the Pindrop Club to see the marvellous Polly Paulusma. It’s been a long time since I last has a chance to see Polly but that was made up for by the fantastic setting and the marvellous atmosphere that the Pindrop guys create. In addition to that the gig was in an old Sawmill at Tyntesfield, a National Trust place. A wonderful end to the week.

Friday started off looking dodgy but by half time it was going reasonably and finished well. I was proper tired in the morning but got myself up to London to alter an email system for a client (thrilling, I know).

Back at the office I managed to do some urgent things, plan for the less-urgent things, collect my mobile charger and some CDs that might come in handy for the Radio session tomorrow evening and still had time to replace my leaky shoes and meet Jenny in Epsom at the agreed time.

We drove through the wind and the rain up the M3, 4 and 5 to Clevedon for an early brithday meal with my Mum and Dad, older and younger brothers and my older brothers’ eldest son at the Little Harp next to the Severn. Not the world’s most exciting blog entry but a great end to the day.

Yesterday was a fairly standard Thursday really. In the morning I diagnosed the vicar’s computer, played the guitar to small chilren, played with small children, cleared up the toys after small children and had some lunch in Today’s Café near my office.

In the afternoon I bought a spare part for the vicar’s computer, followed up some work in the office while Jenny used the spare computer to get some things done (including catching up on Neighbours and finding one of my favourite bits of television: Cindy Lauper on Graham Norton last year) and tried to book someone for next Tuesday’s Freedom of Expression after a second person cancelled.

In the evening it was back to the vicarage to fix the computer, have a quick chat with the vicar’s wife and off for a curry at the magnificent Royal Asia in Addiscombe. It’s starting to look like my life revolves around the vicar. Maybe he should take up IT support and I could take up saving souls (or whatever it is he does on a Sunday).

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.