The start of every song is a worrying time for me. This is down to one thing... my memory. No matter how much practice or gigging I've done, my memory has an uncanny knack of forgetting either the title, lyrics, chords* or all three of these things just as I've finished my marketing shpeel and am about to launch into a tune. People are frequently treated to 'Whose line is it anyway' versions of my ditties (accompanied by 'Give us a Clue' actions) and sometimes even an impromptu middle eight or verse as my brain takes a vacation and becomes preoccupied with thoughts of Cheryl Cole, whatever happened to Pob, and just why is Quincy still employed if they keep chucking him off the case every week?
This happened on Saturday.
Now to be fair, the build up to the gig at the Cluny wasn't ideal. I've been away trying to convince Japanese people to buy my songs and put them on their adverts, which severely cut down my practice time and on the night itself we were running miles behind schedule, and as an acoustic act, I don't even get to play third or fourth fiddle to big scarey men like Micky from the Soviets, Simon from the Vegas Fame Index and Hattie Murdoch. This is a big problem for me as I'm a creature of ritual when it comes to gigging. I like to have my 3 pints before I go on stage, I like to wear my comfortable cardigan, I like to sit and think about nothing for a few minutes (although as we've already established, Cheryl Cole often creeps in there) and I like to sound check. It doesn't have to be a half an hour, in depth lecture for the sound engineer on just how much treble to put on for 3 seconds on the second solo of my fifth song (believe me some people on the circuit are like that) just a quick twiddle on the guitar and a tootle on the vocals and that does me. It settles my down onto the stage and I get a feel for the room... it's basically a confidence thing.
This didn't happen on Saturday.
Now that's no-one's fault, none of the bands were particularly fussy, they were quick and efficient with it all, and the sound engineer, as always, was excellent. We just ran out of time. In all honesty, this is a limited excuse as Hattie didn't get to sound check much either and she played an absolute blinder of a set, so I'm on shakey ground here. Anyway, half way through one of my newer songs called Underdog, there is a middle eight which basically follows the verse but without any singing.
This didn't happen on Saturday.
Just as the second verse finished and the middle eight started, there she was in all her glory. Beautiful, sweet, little Cheryl... no chords anywhere in sight. In all fairness I managed to claw my way back to the outro chorus, but to anyone who was at the Cluny on Saturday for the Reckless General Records gig, I apologise, it was wrong and I am rightly ashamed.
In my defence the rest of the gig went off without much of a hitch. The crowd was great, I'd probably say around the 150 - 200 mark. We ran my set into Hattie's so she came out and did a spatula job on the backing vocals for "That's the way it goes" and I then wandered off stage and she launched into her set which seemed to work really well, and as I said she was brilliant. She's KT Tunstall meets Lisa Hannigan, a beautiful voice with some of the best female singer songwriter tunes I've heard... ever! The Pilots were great, kind of Police meets the Kooks and the Vegas Fame Index, for want of a better expression, full on rocked! As always, the Soviets provided the explosive finale they always do. They've actually added a couple of new tunes to their set and they're really beginning to realise the potential they've always had... well worth a look if you're into Kings of Leon, Kasabian, The Killers and a little bit of mainstream dance.
Brilliant gig... This happened on Saturday.
*I've combated this by starting nearly every song on a C shape on various frets.