Blog: The ROCKING Year Begins

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Last night found me back at The King & Queen for the first Totally Acoustic of the year. It is a LOVELY pub and it was GOOD to be back!

Mr S Hewitt was already there so we had a quick discussion about plans for 'Still Valid' before people started arriving - we have IDEAS for how it's going to work, which is good because it's only a few weeks before we have to go and DO it!

Over the next hour there was a gentle flow of ACTS arriving, but not a huge amount of AUDIENCE. This wasn't hugely surprising - it was COLD and DARK and, I thought, people were probably staying IN after going out all Christmas and/or New Year. HOWEVER there was a sudden SURGE of people just before kick-off time, including various chums, regulars and Mr P Buckley Hill (looking very well, especially considering how poorly he's been!) which meant that we were MORE than quorate when we began. Hoorah!

I started off with not one but TWO brand new songs - Come The Inevitable Apocalypse and Wallies, both of which seemed to go OK. I'd printed out the words and taken my lyrics stand with me but still made a bit of a mess of them, which isn't hugely surprising given that a) I'd only finished off Wallies five minutes beforehand and b) with the best will in the world I do tend to cock up songs even when I've been playing them for decades!

The first Proper Act was Mr T Eveleigh, who had brought a HARMONIUM with him, which was GRATE, especially when he combined it with getting most of the other guitarists in the room to play along with him. It sounded dead good, as in fact did his entire SET! Next up was Mr K Evans, who had been recommended (wisely, it turns out) by Mr C T-T. He was advertised as singing folk songs about maths and, unusually for such descriptions, that is exactly what he did. I especially liked it when he did a Dylan-esque FOLK SONG about HMV (nearly) closing while standing in front of a picture of Dylan himself in that very pub.

Finally, after more booze and chat and that, we had The Understudies, doing a batch of lovely songs which, apparently, they are mostly retiring in favour of some new stuff. It's a shame as they are SMASHING songs, but then I expect the new stuff will be too. The Understudies are one of those bands who, every time I see them, I think "This lot are ACE, I must get them on more often!" ALSO they seem to be acting as a LIFEBOAT for People Who Have Been In Other Indie Bands and are thus slowly morphing into a SUPERGROUP!

And that was about that - goodbyes were said and soon it was time to head back out into the aforementioned COLDNESS and DARK, which was VERY cold and dark. It was a BRILL way to kick off the new year of ROCK - if all gigs in 2017 are as delightful as this one was I shall be very happy!

posted 6/1/2017 by MJ Hibbett

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