The carnival is over once more and ended in the time-honoured fashion of bottle throwers and police in riot gear, but if this was supposed to be nostalgia for the old days, it wasn’t, mainly because the kids throwing bottles were too young to have been at the original debacle way back when. The police then only had hastily aquired neighbourhood dustbin lids so this was probably just a practice session for them. However, it did mean that the Inn On the Green closed earlier than intended, not that I wasn’t ready to go home by then. Actually I didn’t go home… Continue reading
Category Archives: Diary
The Beat goes on.
The outdoor gig at the co-op in North Kensington with Gordon Smith managed to avoid rain though not wine… or beer or cider come to that. Various states of hippydom graced the evening, but thankfully no outdoor free love or nudity caught my attention. Actually it was a cross-section of modern co-op living, with age, or youth, no barrier to belonging. I suppose I shouldn’t emphasise the word modern in that last sentence. This paragraph seems to be meandering, rather than progressing…maybe the hippydom is catching. I always considered myself pre-hippy or beat, to be honest. Such self-delusion leads us into strange paths, but I did get home eventually, at five thirty in the morning. Continue reading
Sitting in…
Last week’s gig at the Inn On The Green went well with a couple of guests sitting in. There were also a couple of guests who had intended to sit in but in the end had to leave before they had the chance. It wasn’t down to something I said…or didn’t say! Continue reading
Drowning not Waving
What a great way to end the month of July…my car needed a new tax disc and also needed an MOT certificate. It got neither. It failed the MOT test in a big way. The cost of repairs would have been over £800 but as the car is no longer worth that much I decided to have it put down. This was much easier than I expected…no big emotional drama like it was when I had my dog put down, just a sense of inevitability, really. At least I didn’t have to pay for a new tax disc. Continue reading
Out and about
It’s been a bit quiet on the gig front this month, or to put it another way, we’ve only had one gig. Unfortunately I’ve had to compensate by getting out more. Some people seem to have got the idea that what I mean by getting out is getting drunk. It doesn’t necessarily follow. In fact I never ever set out to get drunk, though it sometimes does happen as a consequence of my getting out more often.
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The games afoot!
Seems like I’ve had nothing to write about the last month or so. Actually I had decided to be polite for a while, but I realise now that that was a temporary aberration. It must have been a mineral deficiency, or would it be a mental deficiency? You decide for yourselves. So, back to the empty page!
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To Dither Or Not To Dither
The gig at the King’s Head Theatre pub on Monday the 2nd of June was fortunately free of over-enthusiastic dancers. This did not induce me to dance myself. I’m sure everyone there would have been relieved had they even thought that I might have contemplated it. Actually someone did ask me if I danced at all. I think he has been conditioned to believe that live music has to have musicians who dance. He’s been watching too much television.
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A week on the Wild Side
Last Monday’s gig at the King’s Head was interesting. It started off normally enough but soon changed. Someone decided the band needed a dancer. So far so good. Unfortunately “far” wasn’t the operative word as the dancer seemed to think that sliding under my feet was going to impress me. It didn’t. Nor did dancing in my face. The clown was soon joined by another equally energetic and completely unnecessary companion. Normally I like to see people dancing…
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Open Mike
Last Sunday’s gig at the Inn On The Green went well, with the return of Chris Youlden to the fold. Of course the usual hecklers opened up proceedings, but though they want to be part of the show, they still aren’t getting paid. After the gig, one or two of them seemed to think that I was in a bad mood because I hadn’t bother to respond in my usual charming way. Well occasionally you have to make people think for themselves.
Nights out
Last Wednesday I went to the Muddy Waters memorial gig at the Oval in East Croydon. It was very well attended. Various musos got up and did mostly Muddy Waters songs. Naturally I did something else, Robert Johnson, Little Walter and so on. Well somebody has to be a pain, so it might as well be me. Of course, I did get off to a bad start (it must have been the free beer).
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Swanning around
I phoned Chris today to discuss meeting with him and Mel and Bernie, the guys on the “Greek Street” Cd. That will be in Soho at the beginning of May. It will be good to see Chris up and about again. He’s also planning to resume gigging with us at the next Inn On The Green gig on the 11th of May as long as he continues to make progress. The band are looking forward to that.
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Last Night…
Last night I went to the Eel Pie Club in Twickenham where Bob Hall was joined by Top Topham for another evening of nostalgia. I define nostalgia as anyone who has been around as long as me and is still playing blues. Other people who say that nostalgia’s not what it used to be, are thereby proved wrong. Of course, they may have another definition, but I like to get personal about some things and however you define it, I’ve been around long enough to have picked up some nostalgia.