Blog: February's Totally Acoustic

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When I strolled into The King & Queen last Thursday night I was met by Mr S Hewitt bearing ALARMING news. "Change!" he exclaimed. "There has been CHANGE upstairs!"

And indeed there HAD - the bar that had always sat in the corner near the door was GONE and a NEW one had been set up in the window corner where we do the gig! PANIC! Also, after a few seconds, NOT PANIC as we realised this was fine and - VITALLY - meant that we could introduce the prestige format game "What Pub Landlord Would You Be?" into the live environment!

Back downstairs the pub was busy and WARM as usual, also LOVELY. CJ the Bar Manager was worrying about whether our July show would clash with the semi-finals of the Euros, and we had a delightful few minutes discussing options - it was something to think about, but mostly I was touched that he'd worried about it so far in advance!

Our acts arrived and so did the audience, full of all SORTS of pals, chums and first-time visitors, and we kicked off promptly at 7:30pm with a rousing rendition of the theme tune. I then remembered that I was supposed to be doing a couple of songs to get things going, but had NO IDEA what. Luckily Mr FA Machine was there so I got him to pick a couple of songs from the new album, and so it was that I played (You Make Me Feel) Soft Rock and That Guy.

Our first proper act was Daniel and Norbert Dentrassangle, but before I got him to play I asked him to stand behind the bar for a round of "What Pub Landlord Would You Be?" The way this works is that someone stands behind the bar and everyone else guesses, well, what sort of pub landlord they would be. It's a deep, psychologically revealing exercise but I'm not entirely convinced it works in this environment - it felt a bit like a mass JUDGING exercise. Dan emerged from it seemingly unscathed though and did an excellent set, climaxing with Onion Ring (He Couldn't Wait For Warrington).

After Dan, Beattie aka Captain Lovelace took to the stage - everyone playing, I realised, was doing so under a false ROCK STAR name - and, after a slightly confusing game of WPLWYB, did a gorgeous bunch of songs. I always say that Totally Acoustic WORKS because instruments are DESIGNED to be the right volume to accompany the Human Voice, and she certainly proved this point with a GORGEOUS sound.

And then it was time for our own, our very own, Frankie Machine, kicking off (post WPLWYB) with "Black Eyes" and then doing a set perfectly mixing HITS, new album tracks, and BRAND NEW songs. He said that his favourite Totally Acoustic was the one he came to a couple of months ago, as he got to relax and enjoy it without getting up and singing. It's a point I can FULLY understand, but I'd rather he WAS singing, as he is dead good!

Afterwards we retreated downstairs for a big chat around the big table in the window, relaxing with celebratory WHISKIES of all different kinds. Mr M Collins, late of Amphetamine Trash and Leicester in general, commented that the night worked so well because it was DIFFERENT people doing DIFFERENT sorts of songs but all with the same sort of idea of how to go about it, i.e. (editorial comment) BEAUTIFULLY. I do believe he was right!

posted 8/2/2016 by MJ Hibbett

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