Blog: The First Night Of The Tour - Bristol

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On Monday lunchtime I headed out ON THE ROAD for a tour which had originally been planned as a week long JAUNT around the NATION... but which, due to some double bookings, some short notices, and some, well, lack of interest, had boiled down to just two dates. Still, they were on subsequent days and I was staying away from home both nights, so it still COUNTED!

The first night was at Mr Wolf's in Bristol, and I arrived at 7pm to find Mr G Osborn, my TOUR BUDDY, already there with some pals including his PIANIST, John. We sat down and IMMEDIATELY fell into LARKS and LARFS and I knew that this tour was going to be FUN - before setting off I had a slight worry that it might be a bit low key and pointless, but now i was actually ON TOUR I remembered that this sort of thing ALWAYS has a point - and that point, my friends, is ROCK!

There was usually an Acoustic Night on Mondays at the venue, and the organiser wanted us to, basically, play ALL NIGHT LONG from 8.30pm to 11pm, so I suggested that we do TWO sets each. This seemed more sensible than both of us trying to do HUGE sets - not only would it give US and the AUDIENCE a rest from our voices, it also meant that if people came and went there be more chance for them to see BOTH of us.

A whole bunch of people came - many of whom, it must be admitted, were there to see John The Pianist's Brother-In-Law, a lovely chap who'd just got back to Blighty after two years in THAILAND - we had some FREE NOODLES, and soon it was time to commence. Here's what I did:

The Peterborough All-Saints Wide Game Team (group B)

A Little Bit

Strangely Attractive

Programming Is A Poetry For Our Time

It Only Works Because You're here

IT Guy Addendum

The Perfect Love Song

The Stores Of Not To Be

Chips And Cheese, Pint Of Wine

Billy Jones Is Dead

I must say i REALLY REALLY enjoyed this set, it had a whole PILE of the "quieter" songs which people seemed to LISTEN to and enjoy. It was a bit unusual for me as it was on a proper stage so I couldn't actually SEE anybody, but it all seemed to go OK.

Gav came on next and, as ever, was BRILLIANT. He's got a new album out called Come On Folks, Settle Down which features some of my FAVOURITE of his songs (like "Albert Went Out To See Rock Bands" and "Over Thirty") and loads of other LOVELY stuff, like "Such A Cheeky Rascal" and "You Were Invincible", all of which got AIRED. It can't understand why he's not better known - everyone! Go and listen to his records! They're ACE!

We had a brief break after Gav's first set, then I went on and did my SECOND batch, THUS:

My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once

Payday Is The Best Day

Theme From Dinosaur Planet

Don't, Darren, Don't

Hey Hey 16K

The Gay Train

Being Happy Doesn't Make You Stupid

The Lesson Of The Smiths

Boom Shake The Room

In theory this was my set of BANKERS, in that it's the LOUD ones and/or THE HITS, but I must admit I didn't really enjoy it as much. Doing the quieter stuff in the first half was much more fun, although i did THOROUGHLY enjoy saying to the soundman - who'd been playing VERY LOUD DUB REGGAE at every gap in proceedings "I bet you really liked that one, it's your sort of music isn't it?" after the middle bit of Theme From Dinosaur Planet. He did NOD, so he must have agreed!

There then followed another half and hour of MARVELLOUSNESS from Mr Osborn before it was time to pack up. The DUB REGGAE went straight back on... which pretty much cleared the room, tho there was time to say some goodbyes, not least to the PROMOTER, a lovely and VERY enthusiastic chap who bought all the CDs we had on us.

Gavin and I went outside, intent on finding a PUB for a quiet drink and a chat, but quickly realised that a) he was driving b) we'd be spending all day tomorrow chatting c) neither of us knew where a good pub might be, so went home instead. It was a Sensible Decision after a really rather beautiful evening - and it set a pattern that would be followed in the second, climactic, half of the tour next day!

posted 19/4/2012 by MJ Hibbett

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