The Star Wars Gig

For part two of the May Bank Holiday feast of music, we hit The Fox at Bramdean, setting up in the garden next to the bouncy castle. It was a delight to have Dan joining us again for the day, giving Todd's voice a break, and letting us do a few more songs that weren't Dan-free. Pictures below reflect the day perfectly - a young audience stunned into silence by our playing, Dave giving it what for, and a member of the Fox's staff who couldn't resist the urge to dance on the tables.....

 
 

At last....the Mudansha Tour starts!!

After months of preparation and rehearsal, the Mudansha Tour started. During these months, we've spent many hours in Shed 3b, honing our mediocre musical skills to the point where we felt fit to hit the road again. We tried breaking in a new guitarist to replace Dan, but after a couple of rehearsals and being given too much home work, Will decided he wouldn't join us after all. A shame.
Undaunted, we persevered, and after a false start at the Greatham Inn (get well soon, landlady), the Tour kicked off at the Bull Inn in Bentley. Some of the locals took the news rather badly, it seems....

 

It was the perfect way to get going again - a warm welcome, a sparse but enthusiastic crowd, and we played very well.

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

The Name of the 2015 Tour

One of the year's most important jobs has been done: a name has been found for the 2015 Tour.
It will be:


 無段者



^{(For those whose Japanese is a little rusty, this is 'mudansha', a Judo term, used for those who are beginners; in other words: "those without dan")}

Tod's holiday snap

This is apparently Tod on holiday. I'm not convinced.....I mean, we know he tans easily, but is that really him? Looks like Labi Siffre to me.

Update, 26 Feb: It's not Labi Siffre, it's Harry Belafonte. All together now: "Mary's boy child....."

Not dead yet

So I was sitting having my hair cut the other day, chatting with the lovely lady cutting away at my golden locks, and the topic of the Thomas Lord Old Gits came up. I directed her to this blog, and it dawned on me that it was in severe need of updating.


After all, we're down to just five of us now. When Dan left us, we lost 16% of our band and 25% of our talent. But we're still going. Just.


Gigs for 2105 are being mooted. One or two are certainties.


We're not dead yet.

[Update: gigs for 2015 are also being organised. My head hurts.]

The End of the Jacques Cousteau Tour. Perhaps.

And so our 2014 Tour - the Jacques Cousteau Tour - came to a rather premature halt in familiar territory: in the lovely sweeping chalkland overlooked by Old Winchester Hill.

There are three ways to be sure that you're playing at a proper farming gig. First, and most obviously, the venue is full of farmers - including special guest David Handley of FFA. Second, the venue smells of sheep, being a big new concrete barn that, until moments before we arrived, must have had several hundred of 'em inside. And third, what sounds like the worlds most unoriginal click-track - a single pulse every five seconds - is, in fact, an electric fence energiser just outside the barn interfering with the PA. I bet my cousin Rupert Flindt (top sound engineer at the BBC) never has that problem when he's setting up Elbow at the Albert Hall.

 

Here we see Todd manfully trying to balance our rich, nuanced output against some raw whitewashed walls. Helen bravely took over later, and then Simon arrived to twiddle the knobs as we got going. I did ask Helen (rather late in the evening) if it had gone well. "Shmm fibble wuttle snibs tee hee puppies burp" she explained. 

 

See what I mean about the walls? Note the two groupies staring wistfully out of the barn, thinking of all the shopping they'd rather be doing.

The view out of the barn.

Anyway, the punters poured in - helped, no doubt, by the signs cluttering half of central southern Hampshire. It was pointed out that a 'D' was perhaps missing from the end of the first word. And despite all the moaning about the walls and the concrete, we has a great evening, and we hope everyone else did. I thought we were technically on top form - nice to have Quentin back from his conference. I asked how it had gone, and he told me: "I can make a window to discuss your compatible incremental resources." Which was nice of him.   There was a lot of dancing, lots of cheering, and - bizarrely - a vast crate of Magnum ice creams for everyone to enjoy. Mix that with a few pints of beer, a burger, a sausage or two, leap around for a bit to some classic tunes from the sixties right up to the present day.........Maybe it wasn't sheep that the barn smelt of.

Perhaps Helen should have the last work of the Tour: "Fshmuggly!"

Can that really be it for 2014?



Back hard at it.

Nice Volvo.....

The blog has been very quiet recently. It's not right, you know. Mind you, there a very good reason for it. We'd been booked for the inaugural 'T in the Dark' festival in the windswept beauty of West Stratton. And a small problem had arisen. Quentin the drummer was unavailable. He would be away at a conference discussing  'organisations believing in integrated transitional projections, while needing to get on-message about thier third-generation contingencies.'


A drummer was needed. Up steps Tai to fill the breach. However, volunteering to learn three hours' worth of hits from the Sixties right up to the present day is not to be taken lightly. Especially for one so young as Tai. And there were moments during the weeks of rehearsals when it seemed that the task may be proving just a bit too much.


However, we should have had no concerns at all. All the phenomenal effort that she put in paid off handsomely, as, after only a few bars of the first song, it became obvious that she was going to be fine - more than fine, bloomin' marvellous. In fact, as soon as this became apparent, we all played our socks off. We over-ran the 11pm finish time handsomely, and no-one cared. A great evening.

One day, when the Rock Gods decree that we need a new name, we need look no further than what was written on the stage on Saturday: Fish Salad Bar 2.

Setting up in the afternoon........

The Thomas Lord Old Gits in full cry.....I think. They can be recognised by their shirts. I think Dave and Tai are there somewhere!