Dear all,
I write to you from sunny, possibly too sunny, Kent where I stayed last night with some family which was absolutely lovely. It followed a busy week playing Live Music Now gigs in Oxford and Hitchin and rehearsing with Urban Folk Quartet again on Wednesday ahead of a packed festival season in August. Really excited to be playing with them again, it’s going to be a blast. Also got the chance on Wednesday night to catch up with Gordie MacKeeman and the Rhythm Boys, a truly mesmerising band from the east coast of Canada who have become good friends of mine and I stayed on to watch a typically memorable gig.
Meanwhile last week, I played the Middle of Nowhere festival, a lovely gig in Newbury, a cracking little festival in Kinver, did some Live Music Now stuff and had a birthday. Oh and there was the small matter of playing at Wembley Arena. Now I went into this quite a bit in my last outing so won’t bother here but the Wembley experience was absolutely fantastic. Quite a venue to play in of course and the crowning moment was one of the kids from the school catching sight of himself on the big screen and smiling like I’ve hardly seen anyone smile before before breaking into a dance which drew a huge round of applause from the audience. Thanks to the kids who made the whole project so worthwhile and fun and thanks also to the other Live Music Now musicians and school staff for making it so much better.
As for the other gigs I did well they were all rather good. I almost died of heat overload at all three of them but they were all great with lovely audiences. The Middle of Nowhere is a longtime favourite, my first festival ever in fact way back when I was 17. TEN YEARS AGO that is now. This one was great anyway and involved a great crowd, quite a few of whom I knew. The Broombusters played a blinding set later on as well.
Right then, I’ve been persauded possibly against my better judgement to blog about dithering. My housemates who are the finest group of people one could ever hope to live with are familiar with my ranting about people dithering. Therefore a blog was requested on the subject. People dithering makes life so frustrating doesn’t it? Perhaps the best example is at shops, particularly supermarkets. The remarkable inability of people to get the hell out of the way when making decisions on what they’re going to get never ceases to amaze me. Or having conversations in the middle of the aisle with trolleys side by side? I’m very much an in-and-out…no that sounds wrong. I’m very much a get on with it type shopper. I head in and get the stuff and get out. But even if you are a ditherer for heaven’s sake dither somewhere else and have your money ready at tills. Another example is driving. People have the most remarkable ability to stop for no reason and dither. I’m not a speedster by any means but one does just like to get a bit of a move on occasionally and it’s rather hard when some dozy tool inexplicably dithers. Basically in conclusion, one likes to get on with things. And the trouble is that people dither.