No rehearsal on Monday

We won't be gathering on Monday - we all appear to have something else to do. Charlie, for instance, will be still woozy after enduring this little job. Not that anyone would notice the difference. The surgeon has promised that he will be playing his huge organ without any pain ever again. We'll see.

The 2012 Tour finally starts

And so the 'God Bless You, Ma'am' Tour 2012 finally got going in the bucolic paradise that is Tichborne. There were some, who shall not be named, who were a trifle concerned about this first gig of the year - recent rehearsals had been somewhat underattended, underproductive and underwhelming. In fact, the one before this gig had been officially defined by a well-respected international panel of experts as 'Crap'.



Anyway, the bar had been cleared, the little present left by the resident labracocker/doberoodle/daschboxer had been removed, and we squeezed ourselves into the long narrow dining area. I'm not saying it was that long, but we were at one stage calculating the time delay between Ian thumping his drums and the vocalists hearing him.

Those doubting the TLOG's ability to raise their game for the big night (and how nice it was to see the blackboard advertising 'Live Music Night', and not 'Nite') should hang their heads in shame; we were spot on. True, there were one or two stumbles ("Switch the microphone on, Mindy"), one or two missed starts, and an encore that could have been better rehearsed, but the assembled throng seemed to enjoy it, and one more booking was provisionally made before we'd even packed up.

Nice to see a strong turn out from the West Meon contingent, and from Alresford Rugby Club checking if we were in fact what they wanted for their 21st Anniversary Ball. Special mention to Rufus from Blackhouse Farm wearing out his trousers at the knees on the harsh carpet. (Don't ask.)

We now have a bit of a gap before the main body of gigs gets going. Time for a bit of fine tuning, and then we can take 'em on.

Wooly hats and maps at the ready, chaps.

Instead of having a Monday night rehearsal (half the band had gone off to rehearse with someone else, anyway), the senior members (by age, not talent) went off to the Tichborne Arms to confirm the end of March gig and, ahem, check out the venue. We were lucky to still have the booking; our generous host had checked the diary, seen an entry (not made by him) for 'Thomas Lord Old Gits' for Friday 30th March, and assumed that we were an OAP Rambling Group. Thinking, therefore, that he had no band for that night, he then booked The Gheckos (spelling?). It was only later that he found out that we are, in fact/allegedly, a musical troup, and not a rucksack-wielding group of orange juice drinkers, and the poor old Gheckos had to be dropped...

Anyway, it'll be a tight fit, but should be fun.

A new departure for the TLOGS

Monday also saw the inaugural outing for the TLOGS Barbershop Quartet. Here we see them just getting going. Not sure why Tod is bending over, or where John's left hand is while Tod is bending over. I think they were just breaking into 'Wait Till The Clouds Roll By, Sally'. which as we all know is a particular Barbershop favourite. Quo it ain't.

Monday's rehearsal

Well, we had another partial get-together on Monday. No Mindy, no Ian, but it was fairly productive anyway. Did we really spend an hour and a half on 'Bad case of loving you', or was it just my imagination. In other words, did I imagine it - not "Did we do 'Just my imagination'?" Oh, you know what I mean. And no, that's not another song title. Well, it is, but I'm not referring to it here. Well, I just have, but I didn't mean to.

The 'God Bless You, Ma'am' Tour Updates

A handful of summer gigs has blossomed into an astonishing batch of eleven - see the tour page for details.

Off we go again

After a long break following the highly successful New Year gig, the Old Gits finally started some rehearsing again. Dan and Mindy were missing, but the rest of us had a bit of an informal 'Why don't we try this one?' session.

Among the unfortunate victims of this process were classic tracks by The Eagles, Focus, Ace, Burt Bacharach (spelling?), The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Commodores and The Weather Girls. Probably a few more a well, but I can't remember.

There was also debate about whether John's DNA was in fact replicating itself in the beer bottles left above the door Shed 3b. (The ones that the lovely Mrs F refused to clear out when she was giving the Shed a clean "because they'd only be replaced...")