Blog: Totally Acoustic End Of Series

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Thursday afternoon found me rocking up once more at The King & Queen for the FINAL Totally Acoustic of the current season. Even before I got into the pub I found the first of the evening's acts, Mr O Tromans, and we went inside for a right old CHAT about things various, notably Doing This Kind Of Thing At Our Kind Of Age. I don't see Owen nearly often enough, so it was a DELIGHT to have the chance for a bit of a natter, and he even helped set the tables out!

Downstairs we found Mr J Kell, Mr K Top Of The Pops and then a whole STREAM of other people. When Mr J Brodie arrived our roster of ACTS was fulfilled so I rounded everybody up and headed upstairs, closely followed by a TONNE of other people.

For LO! The room was PACKED! We were once again missing Mr S Hewitt but his absence was a) noted by someone ASKING where he was when I said "Any questions?" and b) filled by about a MILLION people, all squashed up together. We've had pretty good audiences for this run of shows, but this final one was by FAR the busiest!

I kicked off with a couple of songs - 20 Things To Do Before You're 30 and I Come From The Fens (after attempting and FAILING to play The Perfect Love Song) - before bringing Owen on for a MARVELLOUS set full of INTERESTING subject matter. His songs all (in murky retrospect) seemed to be about the life stories of minor 19th Century European Royals. I'm pretty sure that's NOT what they were all about, I think my BRANE has gone "This was a bunch of topics not generally covered in indie or indeed any other kind of music, let's FILE them under that so it doesn't make me feel quite so LIMITED in my own subject matter." Anyway, it was ACE!

We then had our usual five minute break which turned into nearly half an hour as there was a MAD SCRUM at the bar. It was already unusually busy downstairs, so when the ENTIRE ROOM from upstairs descended even the legendarily CAPABLE staff of The King & Queen took a while to catch up. I have never seen the like!

James Brodie was next and he did of set of what SEEMED to be to be at least partly improvised songs. I mean, they MUST have been partly made up because one of them was about getting the train there that afternoon and another had ME in it, but the whole set felt quite RAW and FREEWHEELING, also quite LOUD and FUNNY. It was unlike anything else we've had at Totally Acoustic before, and I hope the PODCAST manages to cover it adequately!

Finally, after a more USUAL length break, which had the ever wonderful explosion of ROCK that is Keith Top Of The Pops & His Minor UK Indie Celebrity All-Star Backing Band. As ever i got the name wrong while introducing them, which lead to the whole GROUP saying it in unison and sounding like the start of the BEST Saturday Morning Kids TV Show EVER! They then played a set featuring only ONE guitar but a whole HEAP of other acoustical instruments, which meant that a) the Day In The Life bit in "Two Of The Beatles Are Dead" was INCREDIBLE and b) it really did get awfully close to JAZZ (except good) at several points.

It was, in fact, ACE and a PERFECT way to draw this series to a close, as you can hear for yourself on the podcast which is up RIGHT NOW. The NEXT series will be beginning in December, but between now and then there'll be TWO (2) extra special podcasts featuring unused tracks from ALL the acts featured in the past year. It's going to be a right royal TREAT, I guarantee it!

posted 5/9/2016 by MJ Hibbett

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