Another week another Blog
Yes I have managed to find some time, a rare commodity these days.
Ok as always – here are this week’s gig Dates.
Saturday 24th August
The Station
Ellesmere Port
10:30pm.
Sunday 25th August
The Swinging Arm
Birkenhead
** NOTE – 4:00pm – 6:00pm
Last Friday we played “Whittles Rock Pub” in Oldham, perhaps we were looking forward to it too much after last time we were there? All I will say is that it was disappointing. It left a bad taste in our mouths really so we needed a good gig on Saturday to remind us why we do this. Fortunately the Bath in Morecambe washed away our blues.
It just proves how important the audience are, they make the difference between gigs where you wonder why you bothered to one where you really don’t want to stop playing as the adrenaline is in full flow. Proves the old adage, you can’t win ‘em all.
Whilst I am on the subject I had it spelt out to me in black and white today whilst trying to get a booking. “You’re a great band guys and you put on a great show, everyone present here last time loved it but there just weren’t enough present”. Nothing I don’t already know of course, it’s all about bums on seats (or money over the bar) and if we can’t get the audiences we won’t get the gigs. Unfortunately we are not 18 anymore with a huge posse of curious school friends so realistically people are not going to follow us around. All we can hope for is building up decent sized followings in all the places we do play but it does seem to be getting harder. Anyway, we will carry on as we love it, who knows one of our songs may be picked up and everything will change – ever the optimist.
This Saturday we play a regular gig at the station in Ellesmere Port who to be fair have been pretty good to us over the years. Not far from home either.
Sunday we do play a Home gig at the Swinging Arm in Birkenhead, an afternoon session (4pm). It would be great to see the place packed although if it’s sunny as predicted I can’t see people wanting to be inside, bank holiday Sunday as well, could be a blessing or a curse, never easy to know which way it’s going to go. Not that we have any control over these things of course. We’ll turn up and do our thing.
Well the Football season has started again (did it ever finish?). I appreciate that a lot of people enjoy the game but it does seem to be on far more than necessary. For us it simply means that more gigs will have to be worked around matches and more annoyingly that many pubs will leave TVs on whilst we are playing.
I mentioned last week about the back light on my car going off, well since then I have had a headlamp and a side light fail. Cars eh? Actually the rear bulb was fine, I just took it out and put it back in again and it has worked fine ever since? As for the front ones, you need the hands the size of a child with the strength of a gladiator to fit them. Not the most accessible lamps to replace.
I was hoping to do some jobs around the house over the weekend as well but they just never happened. I must pull my finger out and catch up this week, probably won’t take that long once I get started.
Anything else? Not really. Still need to lose a bit of weight, not a vast amount but one has to be careful if it starts creeping back up or before you know it all the good work is wiped out. I have a pretty reasonable regime that I normally stick to although sometimes you have to give yourself a treat. How people stick to those diet drink things I don’t know although I suspect once they lose the weight they go straight back to “normal” eating which is probably not the way to do it. Still, horses for courses and whatever works for you.
The way I see it everyone requires a certain amount of calories per day that will keep their weight level. If you want to lose weight you can either take in less calories or you can try to burn off any excess over your daily requirement via exercise. Personally I go for the take less in option. Not a big fan of gyms and the like. Having said that, playing in the band does provide a fair amount of exercise but I know that it takes an awful lot of effort to burn off relatively few calories. So it’s easier not to have ‘em in the first place.
No rants this week, not had time to work any up.
Music
A good friend of the band, Graham, recently pointed me in the direction of some bands I have never heard before so I have finally got around to listening to them.
Pretty Maids – not a great name but quite listenable, reminded me of Gary Bardens “Silver” project.
Pure Love – ok but probably won’t be spinning that one again too soon, singer voice sounds a bit like Morrissey at times and that is not good to my ears.
Volbeat – Not bad, varies between Hard rock and pop.
Shinedown – I have actually heard of these but never actually listened to them before, pretty good stuff.
Having said that I ended up listening to an old favourite, Bernie Tormé. One of his lesser known albums, Demolition Ball. I think it’s a great album but I know (because he told me) that Bernie wasn’t too happy with the production or the vocals. Some great tunes on it though and Bernie performs all his usual guitar gymnastics.
So hopefully see you all somewhere at a gig soon, we need your support to keep this thing going,
Keep rockin’
Craig – The Clan