I was back in London Town on Sunday afternoon for a VERY auspicious occasion: the launch party for Mr Gavin Osborn's Share Your Toys album. I was VERY excited as it was a reunion with not only Gav but also our other touring partner Ms G Petrie, all hosted by Isy Suttie From Off The Telly, and it had SOLD OUT!
Unfortunately the dawning realisation that I was about to play to OVER A HUNDRED PEOPLE all in one go made me SICK with FEAR, so I spent much of the early part of the evening PANICKING and walking around nervously when I would much rather have been chatting to the aforesaid chums and indeed the ORGANISERS of the evening, Vinnie and Markie of My Little Owl. However, one upside of the pacing around was that I spotted someone upstairs who i thought was Her Who Wrote Those Two Episodes Of Banana (Charlie Covell, i later googled). I only watched the first half of her first episode (the one about the transgender woman getting internet stalked) because it was TOO UPSETTING but I LOVED the second one about the woman with a TONNE of neuroses who, for instance, has to have three goes to get out of the house NB just like I tend to. I worried about it for ages then decided TO HECK WITH IT and went over to say hello and that I loved her show. It turned out that a) she was coming in to the gig b) I'd previously forced a copy of 'Dinosaur Planet' onto the friend she'd come with and c) Grace had ALREADY gone up to her and said "Ooh it's you, can I have a picture please"?
By this time Mr S Hewitt had arrived with his supply of HUGZ, which was handy, and as we moved towards showtime I started to feel a bit better, helped by the aforesaid HUGZ, some BEER, Wise Words from THE LABEL, and also a bit of jumping up and down. Also, the fact that Issy, hosting the evening, was HILARIOUS cheered me RIGHT up and I LEAPT onto the stage full of beans and did THIS:
I had a LOVELY time! It was a Comedy Audience so they were very willing to LARF (which made for quite a lot of CHAT from me) and also ready to CLAP, which was brilliant to play for. I also managed to get ALL of the songs right, which was pretty bloody amazing. Four songs in I thought "Wow! I haven't made any mistakes at ALL yet! OH NO. That means I now INEVITABLY WILL" - I mentioned this to Steve after and he said "Yes, that's roughly when I thought that too." In fact the only FLUFF was during It Only Works Because You're here when the traditional tour-buddies "LA LA LA" sounded out and I got confused with DELIGHT, as I always seem to, but I think that counts as CHARMING rather than an actual error.
Issy then introduced Grace, who was BRILL. As is my wont I stood at the back and felt IMMENSE PRIDE. As ever I know it's nothing to do with me how GRATE she is, but STILL. I've seen her many times now and always MARVEL at her immense stage presence, but this time I also had a SMALL CRY when she did a new song about her niece. CRUMBS. It was dead good!
After a break we were back for the second half, which was Gav + BAND. Beforehand he'd been saying how relieved he was to have finally recorded all the songs, as he's been doing some of them live for ages, which was GRATE for me because it meant I could sing along with pretty much THE LOT. My favourite one at the moment is "In Another Lifetime" which he did last and was BRILLO!
Alas I could not stick around for encores as I wanted to dash home, to where The Germs In My Contagion was lying in bed still POORLY. I went round and HUGGED as many people as I could find before FLEEING out of the door - in the process leaving behind a batch of MERCH which, happily, Steve was kind enough to pick up for me.
Next morning my twitter and facebook feeds were full of people talking about what a lovely evening it had been. It's always a sure sign of a beautiful event, when people talk about it as a way of keeping it all going just a little bit longer. It's testament to the My Little Owl team for organising such a brilliant gig and of course to the sheer MAGNIFICENCE of Mr Osborn for making such a GRATE album. Go and have a listen, you won't regret it!
