Blog: A Very Special TA

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We gathered for a Very Special Episode of Totally Acoustic last Thursday, as one of the three musical guest acts was ME! I haven't done a full set at TA for AGES so was a bit worried that we'd be losing a third of our potential audience and also VERY worried because of what I was planning to do. I thought it would be a good idea to do all 10 tracks from Still Valid in order. Well, I thought it would be a good idea three weeks beforehand, now it was about to happen I was distinctly less convinced!

The first of my worries soon disappeared as a lovely bunch of people rolled up and we kicked off with the JAZZ STYLINGS of Paul & Cathy Tornbohm. When I did the Desert Isolation Discs podcast the other day Mr A Lawson asked me whether I have any particular thoughts or plans when I put the line-ups together for Totally Acoustic, and I answered "No", for LO! what I like most about the arrangement of acts is that they're generally done entirely randomly, so you end up getting acts SLUNG together who would never normally play in the same room. It was similar this evening as Paul and Cathy's world of JAZZ and SOPHISTICATION met our world of NOT JAZZ or SOPHISTICATION. I think the meeting went well!

Then it was my turn and I THINK it went OK. The nice thing about doing THIS album in order (not that I've ever done any others this way) is that they're ALL pretty good songs, I reckon, that seem to work In The Live Environment. The WEIRD thing is that the order you have songs on an album is NOT necessarily the order you'd do them live, especially starting with 20 Things To Do Before You're 30! ALSO weird was being host AND an act - luckily Mr S Hewitt was on hand at the end to do the bit where I usually come on and BACK announce the act!

You can hear what I mean for yourself by listening to the podcast, which I've just put online. If you do you will also hear the SUBLIME sounds of Robberie who played last and were ACE. I really like Robberie - not only are their songs GRATE (and VERY catchy - we have BOTH been singing them around the house all weekend), but the GIGS feel as if some old friends have strode on stage and started performing. I always get the impression that if there was an EMERGENCY during the show they would take care of it, no fuss!

They have an album out right now, which you can buy direct from them. I heartily recommend you do, it is GRATE!

posted 7/6/2016 by MJ Hibbett

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