Dear all,
A cracking jubilee weekend was had filled by nothing to do with the jubilee as far as I was concerned, just good old gigging! First up was a gig at the Unity Theatre in Liverpool which was excellent, perhaps not quite as phenomenal as the February gig at the Philarmonic but still pretty damn good. I was also reminded several times just why I bloody love Liverpool so much. The people are so damn funny and friendly it is just wonderful and the best example was before the gig. Will and I were walking down the street and discussing the taxi ride we were getting later from the venue to the hotel and I said ‘last time I got it I can’t remember how much it was’. Quick as a flash the scouse bloke walking the other way says ‘yeah you still owe me for that fare by the way’. Only in Liverpool.
Next up was a return to Newcastle for the Green Festival which was really good fun and great to see so many old chums over the weekend. Then it was home to Stafford for a Monday afternoon gig at the Swan for their jubilee festival. This was a mammoth three hour set and I had a bloody great time and it was nice to play some stuff that to be honest I hadn’t played in years! Thanks to those who turned out.
Then followed an amazingly relatively gig free week apart from a Live Music Now one yesterday with the Pound in a hospice in Birmingham which was an absolute joy and I really enjoyed talking to the people afterwards. 91 year old Irene in particular had some amazing stories to tell and I felt quite privileged and kind of wished my historian Dad had been there with pen and paper! Next up is a Sunday gig at Wimborne folk festival again with the Pound. The rest of this week has been spent doing paperwork which has been so much fun I can’t begin to tell you. Really I can’t begin to tell you…
Right then, I’ve heard a lot of criticism of the BBC over their ‘inane’ coverage of this boat cobblers for the jubilee. Now as many of you may know, I’m not a big royal fan. I don’t really see why the main news headline last weekend was ‘the woman who’s been in the same job for 60 years is still there’ while a mere secondary priority was halfway down the page – ‘the eurozone is on the brink of collapse’. Am I the only one who thinks the latter is just a tad more important? Anyway I digress. My main point is how exactly is the BBC supposed to make four hours of a lot of boats floating around while the queen waves (god her wrist must be sore) remotely entertaining. Unless you like boats, how are you going to enjoy this exactly? More to the point if you do like boats (which by the way there’s nothing wrong with I hasten to add), is it not more likely that you’re in one of the blessed things anyway? Also, the brief moments I saw on the news waiting for actual news showed that the queen herself couldn’t give a flying f**k about boats and why the hell did we make a 91 year old man and an 86 year old woman stand up for four hours?! No wonder the poor old sod went to hospital.