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Blog: GIG ONE THOUSAND!
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As ever I'd been multi-tasking my pre-gig PANIC, simultaneously worrying about what I'd do if a) NOBODY b) TOO MANY people turned up. In most cases it is the former of the two eventualities that seem most likely, but this time around we got quite close to the latter, as a LOT of people came. There were Totally Acoustic regulars, old pals, some DOGS, and even some people who either had NEVER seen me before or who had last done so many years ago, and thus a LOVELY atmosphere prevailed. Everyone just about managed to squeeze themselves into various NOOKS of the upstairs room, and such was the ATTENDANCE PERFECTION that by 7.30pm the room was full and so - possibly for the first time EVER - we started ON TIME!
The evening was split up into two halves, and the first part featured a couple of SEGMENTS. The first of THESE was me doing the following, mostly on my own:
The Peterborough All-Saints Wide Game Team (group B)
The Perfect Love Song
Bad Back
A Minus Work
I Think I Did OK
When I'd workwd out the above list my plan was to try and cover the aspects of my glittering CAREER that weren't getting looked at later on, which meant including a VOON song, some new stuff, and A Minus Work, as song I have not performed live for nearly THIRTY FIVE YEARS. Rather wonderfully I was joined for this performance by Mr P Myland, who had ALSO not performed the song for thirty five years. As you can see below, we managed to pull it off with APLOMB!
After that I invited my TOP SCORING gig collaborator, Mr Steve Hewitt, onto the stage, and we performed a MEDLEY of "Songs From The Shows" i.e. the shows what he and I did. You can see the whole thing HERE:
It was all VERY exciting, especially because Steve had brought along a lot of the old props, including Actual Moon Horse! I did think, part way through, that a lot of what we were doing would make NO SENSE WHATSOEVER to people who'd never seen any of the shows, but happily people who HAD seen some of them seemed to take delight in revisiting the old songs and those who HADN'T were kind enough to go along with it. The most amazing thing for me was that it wasn't that difficult to make the medley work - the songs just flowed into each other, almost as if they all used the same four or five chords!
After that we had a break before I brought on The Validators for the final set, which was an HOUR of HITS. Unfortunately the VIDEO ran out of juice about halfway through, but enough was recorded for me to be able to show you the thrilling SEGUE FESTIVAL we did part of the way through:
As you may be able to tell, I was having to operate at FULL BELLOW, but I think it came together all right. Here's what we did in total:
Being Happy Doesn't Make You Stupid
Things'll Be Different When I'm In Charge
The Symbol Of Our Nation
(You Make Me Feel) Soft Rock
Hey Hey 16K
It Only Works Because You're here
Billy Jones Is Dead
My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once
People Are All Right (if they are given half a chance)
The Lesson Of The Smiths
Easily Impressed
It was a LOT of songs, and my voice was noticeably HUSKY next day, but it wasn't half fun! At the end Steve came back on for a rousing rendition of We Did It Anyway, which felt very much like the correct way to finish off a thousandth gig.
After that the evening moved into the traditional Chatting And Drinking phase, which was also pretty brilliant as SO MANY people had come out to see us. I am very very grateful to everyone who came along, as I am to everyone who has EVER come along to my gigs - thanks everybody, and ROLL ON the next thousand!
posted 6/2/2023 by MJ Hibbett
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