Dear all,
Apologies for the delay in bloggage, my laptop helpfully decided to cease performing that most basic of functions last Sunday, that of booting up and no amount of encouragement, gentle or otherwise compelled the machine to alter its stance. I then managed to persuade my old laptop which I thought had ceased to turn on at all long ago to turn on again albeit whilst making rather worrying whirring noises and with the monitor still half detached from when I dropped it down the stairs some time ago, and the internet worked which I thought was good…except facebook chat didn’t which when it is your only means of instant communication with a girlfriend on a trip in Asia is not overly helpful, neither is the fact that this blog for some reason didn’t work on it either.
So anyway…here I am. It’s been eventful to say the least since my last entry. First up was the dreaded Paddy’s day which while not great was not horrendous I guess. An exhausting seven gigs in two days, most of which with Irish singer Alan Kelly, and the pick of them was undoubtedly at Centurion in Newcastle where an absolutely collossal crowd gave us a marvellous reception.
After a day of rest came three days of rehearsing with Will to come up with new material for Walsh and Pound which was highly successful and we’re hoping to get a few of them into our busy April schedule. Even producer Mark liked it when we played them to him on Wednesday and you certainly know about it when he doesn’t so that’s good.
I then returned to Stafford for a couple of days before playing the Plough in Woodseaves on Saturday which was slightly odd to be honest but still good and great to catch up with some old friends who I was very glad turned up. The next day saw a return to Newcastle for the final time as a resident before the big move. I’m at my parents tonight in Penrith but tomorrow I move back to my hometown of Stafford and I can’t wait. I shall blog in detail about Newcastle here in the very near future, it deserves it so I’ll save the tribute to it til then.
Coming up then: a Walsh-and-Pound-tastic April which sees us play all over the country so check the giglist for details. Lots of other exciting gigs coming up to in various forms plus album mixing, mastering and general fooling about with plus Walsh and Pound recording as well. It’s all go!
Another remarkable and rather less pleasant story I have to tell occured yesterday on my last full day in Newcastle. My friend Matt and I walked across the high level bridge and a girl came up to us and said ‘which bridge is best to jump off?’. Naturally we said ‘you don’t want to be doing that’ but she went over to the edge so I rang the police while Matt stayed near her in case she decided to do it. She did, and Matt had to forcibly pull her back until the police arrived. It was a horrible moment and we were deeply shaken for hours afterwards. Northumbria Police were exceptionally quick and fair play to them. And as for the scumbag who walked past and answered her original question with ‘any of them, they all end up in the water’, well that was the most disturbing bit of the whole incident in many ways.
Anyway, on a less serious note a couple of things amused me a bit recently. I was helping old chum Simma load some gear into the basement at a pub in Newcastle and encountered a sign with a slogan of ‘control of substances hazardous to health’. Clearly this is important but don’t get me wrong so to make it more powerful they came up with the incredibly catchy acronym – COSHH! I mean it doesn’t quite have the same ring as for instance ‘SWANS’ which is for the Spa Water and Natural Spring Committee does it?! Perhaps more oddly, the library in Whitnash in Leamington Spa is signed as ‘Whitnash and Library’. Sorry apparently there is such a thing as a whitnash it isn’t just the name of the place?! Hmm…