Blog: A Thought

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Almost since i first LANDED on the DOCKS at St Pancras and strode into the fair port of THAT LONDON... er... sorry, ever since I've lived here in That London I've fancied the idea of putting on my own gigs, if nothing else so that I could GIVE a gig to some of the lovely people I've HAD them from in the past. This was a fairly easy thing to do in Leicester, as I knew several people who RAN pubs and/or who'd let you put an evening on for nothing if you fancied it, but down here things are very different and seem to be MUCH more serious. Every now and then I've looked around at venues and THORT about it, but it's always seemed such HASSLE, with having to guarantee audiences, or hire PAs, or put up CA$H to get the place, or persuade somebody that you'd have a decent audience... OY!

But now i have a New Idea that I'd quite like some feedback on: at present it is called EITHER a) Enunciation b) Speak Up or c) CLUB BELLOW. It's based on the SEVERAL gigs I've done over the past year or so WITHOUT a PA system, almost all of which have been LOVELY, and have felt like a much more REAL and DIRECT interaction with the audience. It strikes me that if i ran a gig night that didn't HAVE a PA at all, and that only put on people playing SOLO performances, then I could have it pretty much anywhere, and cut out MOST of the hassle involved. All I'd need to do would be to find a nice ROOM somewhere, and we'd be set!

I know that specifying ONLY solo people who could SPEAK UP a bit would curtail the sort of acts i could have on, but that might NOT be a Bad Thing. The more I've thought about it, the more EXTRA RULES I've come up with - for instance, I'd run it from 8pm PROMPT (no need for soundchecks!) to 10pm, leaving plenty of time for having a drink afterwards AND for getting home. I think I'd also specify Something Special, maybe having a THEME for the evening so that each ACT had to EITHER write a new song BASED on that theme, or perform a COVER of a song similarly related.

Now, is that ACTUALLY a Good Idea, or am I missing something? I always worry that something that appears to ME to be STRIKINGLY BRILLIANT may not always BE so, so please do give me a COMMENT on it won't you? Also, if anybody knows anywhere in the middle of That London that is a nice friendly pub that, IMPORTANTLY, sells decent BEER (by which i mean BEER, not lager), I would really like to know about it. Actually, I'd like to know that last bit whether or not I do the gigs or not!

posted 4/10/2005 by MJ Hibbett

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