Blog: Gig In The Park

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On Friday night I did something that I haven't done for over NINE YEARS - I went to and from a gig ON FOOT!

The show was at Moka East at The ViewTube in The Olympical Park. I'd been asked to play at the last minute by Mr G Gargan and Mr S Hendry to fill in when another act on the bill had dropped out the night before. They knew I was free because the gig that I'd been SUPPOSED to be playing on Friday, at Scaledown (co-organised by Shaun) at The King & Queen, had been CANCELLED a few days earlier!

I thus found myself stomping across the park, going at quite a pace because I knew gig kick-off was at 6:30pm, but I'd had to come home from work and pick my guitar off on the way. I arrived just after the official start time to find the first band, Splintered Man, on stage soundchecking. I got a beer and then they started, which certainly answered my question about who was going on first! I sat out in the CONSERVATORY area of the cafe (i.e. a bit added onto the side of the shipping container which forms the main building) and could hear BIRDSONG outside, which joined in BEAUTIFULLY with the music they were playing, it was ace!

Then it was my turn to go on, and I did THIS:

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

That Guy

In The North Stand

We Did It Anyway

20 Things To Do Before You're 30

It Only Works Because You're here

The Lesson Of The Smiths

I'd been worried beforehand about a) being out of practice and b) having a horrible COLD, but it actually all went pretty well. My voice was certainly no WORSE than usual and I didn't forget any words (well, apart from the first line of (You Make Me Feel) Soft Rock, which I thus abandoned) so all was well, although I did get the feeling that this was Not Really My Crowd. A clear indicator of this came early on when I told an AMAZING JOKE what I had thought of. While introducing me Shaun had told the audience that I was a last minute booking, so I said that I was actually on stand-by for ALL entertainment venues in this area. Here is the GRATE JOKE what I then laid on them:

"I'm was actually asked to be on the bench for West Ham tomorrow, but I said no. I don't like doing comedy gigs."

I'll give you a moment to recover yourselves from that - that is surely INDISPUTABLY a BIG LARF right? However it got pretty much NOWT - some people smiled politely, but that was about it. I guess it was just one of those occasions when people had come out expecting folk/country music rather than EXTREME HILARITY and so had adjusted their mental receptors accordingly. Similarly songs which usually get the odd LARF or at least STRONG AGREEMENT just sorted wafted by in an entirely pleasant way, just not QUITE in the "ALL ATTENTION ON ME" way that I have sort of got used to doing mostly my own shows for the past year!

The main act of the evening was Tom Brosseau who was MUCH more - ENTIRELY in fact - the sort of thing people were there for. Country songs in a VERY laid back American accent, self-effacing and all round rather lovely. He did a GORGEOUS version of "Goodnight Irene" at the end with us all singing along which got pretty darn SPINE TINGLY!

So yes, it was a lovely night, very different from the gigs I've been doing lately but all the better for it, with great other acts and, perhaps best of all, only a twenty minute walk to get home. WINZ!

posted 24/10/2016 by MJ Hibbett

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