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Blog: Supporting JimBob
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It used to be that I'd roll into an Ibis before a gig and watch a bit "The Weakest Link" OR "The Paul Grady Show", but in recent times Life On The Road has improved approx a MILLIONFOLD with the arrival of this marvellous show. I got checked in the the B&B, put the kettle on, found some biscuits, took my new copy of PUZZLER out, and prepared for the good times. "Oh!" you may say, "Surely this is not rock and/or roll in the classic sense?" OH YE OF LITTLE FAITH! When the kettle boiled it did so with SUCH FEROCITY that it BLEW ALL THE FUSES!
BEAT THAT, Motley Crue! I had to ring the reception and EVERYTHING!
The rest of the evening wasn't QUITE as INTENSELY INTENSE as that, but it was bloody lovely nontheless. I arrived to find Mr J From-Carter and Mr C T-T talking to promoter Mr S MacAllister. The soundman hadn't arrived yet so Steve went off to do Promoter stuff while Jimbob, Chris and me ordered our TEA and had some a) beer b) chat. AS EVER at this stage I thought "Why oh why must we spoil this lovely evening with a gig?" but people had PAID to get in so eventually i went on stage and did THIS:
The Peterborough All-Saints Wide Game Team (group B)
My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once
Theme From Dinosaur Planet
Strangely Attractive
Don't, Darren, Don't
It Only Works Because You're here
Hey Hey 16K
The Lesson Of The Smiths
I must admit I'd been a bit worried about how this would go down. The gig was a SELLOUT and almost entirely made up of JimBob fans, and past experience of playing to audiences of dedicated fans of OTHER bands has taught me that sometimes it can be a bit tough. It sometimes happens that the audience ONLY goes to see this one specific band, EVER, and views any other act on the bill as THE OPPOSITION, but I was relieved to find that in this case it was QUITE the opposite. The room was FULL and people were very happy to give me a full CHANCE. It was BLOODY BRILLIANT - I could feel some SUSPICION at the start (as is only natural) but rather than TALK or LEAVE people STAYED and watched and CRIKEY got right into it. There was JOINING IN with Theme From Dinosaur Planet at an early stage, and the "Aaahs" at the end of Strangely Attractive made me change the set a bit and RISK doing another quiet one in It Only Works Because You're here, which went down DEAD well.
Oh but it was ACE! I THOROUGHLY enjoyed myself - as anyone watching probably guessed, from the amount of YAKKING I was doing. It was one of those gigs when you can quite happily do a GAG between songs and know that people will a) listen b) get it c) FORGIVE you if it doesn't work. MAN, i do like playing to full rooms of happy people, it's FAB!
I missed the start of The Indelicates due to CHAT, but came back into the room for the second song to find, to my surprise, that they were doing sort of CHAMBER POP CHANSON ACTION, rather than the kind of JAMC feedback that I remembered from seeing them at Indietracks years ago. In this modern age of communications one sometimes comes up against the REALISATION that there's bands you've spoken to online, BEFRIENDED, felt part of the same MOVEMENT as, but have only ever actually SEEN a few times. I hope I manage to see them more in REAL-LIFE from now on, as they were GRATE.
And then it was time for JimBob himself. Now, I will admit that I was never the biggest fan of Carter Back In The Day, and have always felt a bit bad about it as he's always lovely when I've met him in later life. Tonight, however, he was FANTASTIC. He started off by leaping STRAIGHT into a reading from his new book, "Driving Jarvis Ham" which was EXCELLENT. I thoroughly enjoyed his first book, "Storage Stories" (actually a LOT) and this sounds the same sort of WITTY, charming, interesting type of thing - the whole room was hanging on every word throughout the readings, you could feel people leaning forward to find out what was happening.
And when he switched to guitar for a batch of SONGS it worked even better - the flurry of words and wordplay all made sense to me, and it was BEAUTIFUL the way that half the words were sung along with, quietly and respectfully, by most of the audience. He switched back and forth between words and songs a couple of times, and then ended with a CHAOTIC raffle - all attendees had been given a raffle ticket on entry, and those with winning numbers got to choose a song from a big blackboard of choices. It was a CUNNING way to close proceedings, and after a few choices and an encore of "The Only Living Boy In New Cross" (which started with JUST the audience singing the first verse!) all that was left was for people to stream out, GRINNING.
As you might have gathered from my general enthusiasm, it was a LOVELY evening, and I wobbled back to the B&B full of the joys of ROCK. Gigs, they really are good fun aren't they?
posted 8/6/2012 by MJ Hibbett
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Comments:
"Oh!" you may say, "Surely this is not rock and/or roll in the classic sense?" OH YE OF LITTLE FAITH! When the kettle boiled it did so with SUCH FEROCITY that it BLEW ALL THE FUSES! " Made me larf so much I spat water all over my work pooter! It may be winter outside but you've made it feel like spring!
posted 12/6/2012 by PhoeniX PhiL
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