Christmas

It's Christmas day, and while most of the Old Gits are struggling through ice and snow on lethal roads and faltering trains, one of us is about 12,000 miles away enjoying a slightly different view. And he's sent us a pic to make us feel thoroughly jealous....and I think he's succeeded.

Drummer news

I know that dozens of people are tuning in to this blog (28 from the USA at 8 o'clock this morning, would you believe!)to hear the latest in the TLOGS' search for another stickman. Well, Charlie II has said that he would like to come along and join us, which is good news.

No gigs on the horizon, so we can have a few rehearsals at leisure and get musically aquainted in a leisurely fashion - weather permitting, of course.

Today's rehearsal

Today's rehearsal didn't happen.
You can guess why.

Open Mic Night

Another one of Dave The Dog's Legendary Open Mic Nights last night.

Take some Shorthorns, sprinkle in some Different Place, stir in a few Old Gits, add some rock/folk from an as-yet unnamed quartet, top up with a couple of random solo performances, insert the whole mix into a full pub and furnish with a few drinks, and what have you got? A top evening out.

Monday's rehearsal

Last night's get-together was rather sweet, really. it was a sort of "Parent'n'kids" Nite. There was a father and son team on guitar (in matching wellies), and father and daughter team on vocals, another father and son team on keyboards and bass, and a new father and son team coming up to Shed 3b just to have a drum-along.

Yes, it's a big TLOGS 'hello' to Paul and Charlie (a different one), who have agreed to come along for one or more rehearsals to see if one or more of them wants to be drummer No 6 - or is it 7?

There's no imminent gig, so it was a very leisurely gallop through the set-list, and a chance to see if we're what they want, and if they're what we're after. Watch this space.

A quick mention to Anthony for turning up without his bass, but then, finally, after much persuasion (and after he'd gone and got it), launching into the bassline from Hysteria. Show off.

The End of the Global Warming Tour

Now that the Global Warming 2010 Tour really certainly definitely has ended (unless something else pops up), it's only right that we salute Dr David Viner, once of the Climate Research Unit at the world-famous University of East Anglia, (and therefore High Priest of the Global Warming religion, and predicter (in 1990) that we will never see snow again) with a photograph:

Last Night's Gig

Off to Droxford Village hall for a very lively 30th Birthday party. As befits the last date of the Global Warming Tour, it was blisteringly cold, with the occasional snow flurry.

It was a bit of a reunion, too. A young man with a very smart grown-up haircut turned up; we were too polite to ask him to leave the drums alone, and it was only when he started playing that we realised it was Matt. Very nice to see him again - and hear him. The key 'fill' in 'Look Back In Anger' has morphed from 'Boom-ba-dum, da bum, da bum, da bum' to an almost indecipherable but exquisite feast of high hat jazz syncopation.

It's fair to say we were a tiny bit rusty, and I dare say some of the more youthful audience would have been unfamiliar with our playlist, but, as ever, we had a very jolly evening. And Shed 3b had a damn good Hoovering while the kit was all out.




Tessa doing some last minute homework....

Monday's rehearsal

Well, the Very Short Autumn Tour starts and finishes on Saturday in Droxford, so we are going hard at it in Shed 3b. Still with no official drummer for rehearsal, but Tai stepped in, made lots of noise AND kept the beat. Certainly no-one could accuse her of being under-dressed.

pues, verdaderamente, les dio muy fuerte a los tambores

Thomas Lord Open Mic Nites

We highly recommend the latest thing down at the Thomas Lord in West Meon - Open Mic Nights.

Here you can hear all sorts of bands and performers. Last Saturday saw some of Different Place (oka No Through Road) and a couple of The Shorthorns (oka The Prime) bashing out some semi-accoustic numbers in front of a throbbing throng.

Saturday also saw the inaugural performance of the Dave The Bass Trio (aka DTBT) (oka the Dave The Bass Quartet (aka DTBQ), but John was kindly ferrying schoolgirls around Hampshire "OMG x 1,000 LOL"). Dave, Charlie and Tess ran through an eclectic and just-about-polished-enough set of four songs.

Inevitably, the house band (that's us) finished off the evening with a few old favourites.

Bit of a catchup needed.

Bit of a lack of blogging recently, so here's a round-up of events.

The Old Gits and Mick the Sticks have gone our separate ways - many thanks, Mick, for coming along and having a go.

This has left us without a drummer again, but thanks to careful management of the TLOGS finances, enough is left in our Cayman Island Offshore Account No 2 to pay for Matt to catch the train down from the Land of The Racing Pigeon Flat Whippet Ey Up for our gig on Saturday.

Let's hope we don't get the 'wrong type of snow' on the line.

Monday's rehears - hold on a minute

I don't think we had one on Monday. Or was it on Thursday? Perhaps we did, but we've forgotten about it. Or got lost on the way. No, I'm sure we didn't do anything. We would have texted each other if there had been something on. But then again, we keep forgetting each other's mobile numbers. And we don't understand texting. And where have we put our phones? And we don't recognise the names when they flash up on our screens. And we can't read the screens without our glasses. I'm sorry; have we met?

We truly are becoming Old Gits.

Let's try again next week.

Last Night's Rehearsal

Just for a change, we thought we'd get together on a Thursday, and see if a midweek thrash would send inspiration firing through our veins, propelling our playing to greater [Get on with it - Ed]

Sorry. A good turnout - only Dan missing; he was being a kindly soul and driving his mates round Winchester on a pub crawl. The rest of us had a productive couple of hours.

The 27th Nov gig seems to be a non-runner now - a slight misunderstanding over the fee, apparently.

Last Monday's Rehearsal

Almost a week late but there we go.

Another busy night last Monday - a full house plus one: a lost member of The Prime was seen on the comfy sofa enjoying (I think) the Old Gits continuing to work their way through the set list.

Highlight of the evening: Mick the Stick's look of bewilderment until it dawned on him that 'Caroline' refers to the number by The Mighty Quo, and not the one by the equally old Neil Diamond.

Nice to have Jesse back from lubricante el burro

Gig - 8th October 2011

Planning ahead, as all farmers like to do...(pause for gales of laughter to die down)...I see that the gig for 8/10/2011 (aka The Pianist's Significant Birthday Gig) will be blessed with a unique celestial event.

Quote from the excellent Spaceweather website ( http://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=08&month=10&year=2010 )

"Every year around Oct. 8th, Earth passes through a minefield of dusty debris from Comet Giacobini-Zinner, source of the annual Draconid meteor shower. This year, forecasters expect Earth to narrowly miss several of the debris streams, resulting in no appreciable display for 2010. Next year, however, could be different. On Oct. 8, 2011, Earth will have a near head-on collision with a tendril of dust, setting off a strong outburst of as many as 750 meteors per hour. People in Europe, Africa and the Middle East will have a front-row seat for what could be the strongest shower since the Leonid storms a decade ago. Mark your calendar..."

Shooting stars and twelve bar blues. Who could ask for more?

Another drummer - No 5?

Last night we said a big Old Git hello to Mick (inevitably "Mick the Sticks"), who joined us in the shed for a rehearsal. Eventually - once he'd found his way in the dark and asked at a couple of nearby houses. Lucky he didn't get the traditional "We don't talk to strangers in these parts" routine that Hinton Ampner is famous for; instead he was directed straight to Shed 3b.

Mick seemed ideal. First, he has one syllable in his name. Second, he knows what he's doing. Third, he helps to reinforce the more senior element of the Old Gits against the numerous youth members spending all day like txtg on t8 ph3ns innit.

We ran through half the set, trying to point out our idiosyncratic approach to several numbers (viz House of the Rising Sun), so the poor fellow might not be back next week.

Monday's rehearsal

Well, we had a bit of a gathering on Monday. We were a bit short on numbers: the much-anticipated new drummer couldn't make it, nor could Dave. One yoof is still playing entierre la salchicha , so the remaining five of us did a run-through of the set list, just to clear the cobwebs.

It turned into 'open drum nite', where we all (except the one who was feeling a bit male-PMT) thought we'd have a go spanking those skins. It's not as easy as it looks, is it? Tessa did best, it was decided, although she collapsed with exhaustion halfway through her turn. Johnny 'hot fingers' Flindt managed one half-hearted track on the high-hat, before heading off to bed. (Since then he has collapsed with the first uber-cold of the season, so we'll let him off.)
A couple of oldies tried; the problem arises when, after a few bars of tapping along successfully with the beat, a wave of confidence strikes, and you try to introduce another part of the kit. Result: disaster.

We eagerly await next Monday - the new drummer perhaps?

The Somewhat Unexpected Gig

So, harvest is done and dusted - what there was of it, and just as we're all getting frustrated by the lack of Band action, there's a Blues Brothers moment - John on the doorstep: "We're putting the band back together - for this Saturday night"

It would appear that an old booking had been somehow neglected, and needed to be honoured. Well, with two guitarists/vocalists going "There's lovely, you" in north Wales, and the drummer going "Racing pigeon trouble at t'mill flat cap ey up" somewhere not inconsiderably north of Alresford, it might, for lesser bands, have been a crisis.

But not for the Thomas Lord Old Gits. Dave popped down to 'drummers'r'us' and produced Glenn. Vocal duties were shared out among two slightly sneezy snotty Faireys, Charlie had to play his Linda MacCartney-style solo what seemed like dozens of times, and Dan played superbly to cover for his missing siblings.

Glenn was the star, spotting the stops and starts, endings and diddly bits impeccably. Actually, we were all stars - we filled the floor at the fantastic Worthies Club, and left them baying for more.

Who'd have thought it, eh?

Band in mothballs

The Thomas Lord Old Gits are still taking a sabbatical while harvest continues to fail to start properly.

Happy Track Days...

People are often asking "What's it like to be presented with a mile-long straight and an Aston Martin to drive on it?" Impossible to describe, but this is what it looked like:

Golden 'Arvest

Or not, as the case may be.

Potential bookings

I have reluctantly turned down two enquiries since our triumph at the Kilmeston Mega-Ditch Arena.

The first was for a Christening in the middle of August - too much farming going on, I thought.

The second was for a local church afternoon barbeque. Sounds lovely, but they were looking for a jazz band. Mind you, it would be fun to sit down and do three hours of free jazz. Hmmmmm. Nice.

Like this (copy'n'paste):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml_BetwQ84I&feature=related

Dig that cat on the violin.

Like, groooovy

Bad acid trip at Rose Bowl....Jesse asking Charlie why he has only one finger on his left hand and about seven on his right...explains the quality of his solos, though.

Saturday's Gig

So, finally, after almost exactly two glorious years of touring, during which the Thomas Lord Old Gits have travelled, ooh, it must be tens of miles, and visited venues as far away as Chichester, King's Worthy and, er, Bramdean, we rounded off our hectic schedule of dates almost as close to Shed 3b as we have ever played: Kilmeston.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't a bit concerned when I first saw our performance area. A less-than-robust and somewhat undercapacious gazebo was placed with its back to the busy Cheriton-Corhampton highway. It would have been just our luck to have coincided with the Annual Slow Ride of the Hampshire Harley Davidson Owners Club. In front of the stage was an ominous ditch, and the floor was littered with wobbly table tops. Early reports had also suggested less-than-voluminous ticket sales....

Still, being the professionals that we are, we got on with setting up - having first got rid of the table tops. Well, most of us got on with setting up - two-thirds of the guitar section leant on the trailer and discussed girls with big boobs.

But by eight o'clock, the seating area outside the village hall was packed, the hog roast was dripping, the sun came out, the wind dropped, and we set off with setlist no. 23a/vii/12[as amended 17/7/10].



Hurrah for the good folk of Kilmeston! They turned out in huge numbers, they sang, they danced, they clapped - most stayed until the very end and demanded more! Special mention to Davina Warr's blonde companion who went arse-over-tit into the ditch, surfacing triumphantly - cigarette and drink intact. Special mention to Tod, who was fully psyched up and on the point of launching into another banging tune, when an elegantly mustachioed gentleman appeared stage left, tapped him on the shoulder, and asked if he wanted to buy raffle tickets.

Another frequent stage invader kept arriving mid-song to hand out morsels of advise in a somewhat slurred style. Being the good-natured folk that we are, we nodded kindly at him. It was only when he started toying with a very expensive guitar during the interval that words were exchanged. It was pointed out that death by anal insertion of headstock is not a nice way to go - even with the combined medical skills of Messrs. Young and Cresswell close by. He got the hint.

So now we reach a pause in our performances. Harvest looms, even for Charlie, and key band members will be vanishing in the Autumn to assorted colleges and universities.

Who knows when we eight, we jolly eight, will once again whip out our huge organs, strap on our Gordon Smiths, polish up our Peaveys and smack those skins again?

We eight; we jolly eight.

Last Night's Gig

Down to the bleak flatlands of Chichester for a gig that shall henceforth for ever be known as 'The Night of the Random Setlist.' Some say that Tod had cut up the old setlist, put all those well banging tunes into a hat and was drawing them out at random. Other say that that's rubbish, and he had simply made photocopies of a very old setlist by mistake. Of course, we sensible ones hadn't lost our copies of the last setlist, but paid for our diligence with bewilderment. It was only by good fortune that we avoided launching into two songs simultaneously. 'Born to be Caroline' would have been an interesting one. As would 'Don't look back in 69'.

Anyway, the gig went well, the barn was fantastic, the stage and the accoustics (Good work, Simon) were great, and, as befits the occasion that could well have been the last gathering of all eight of us, we all played very well.


Nom nom nom nom nom....

Monday's Rehearsal

Another informal gathering on Monday. Tessa slightly under the weather, John looking like he'd spent too long staring at a combine cutterbar (he had), and Dan somewhere in Scotland, I think, and Matt...not sure where he was.

Yet more controversy about River Deep, mainly about counting in "1,2,3,4", when as any fule kno, the first two bars of the intro are in fact in 3/4 time, although the first note of the intro is the last quaver of the first bar, the rest of that first bar being rests. Couldn't be simpler.

Charlie very upset that his brand new £120,000 combine harvester, parked outside Shed 3b, was comprehensively upstaged by the arrival in the shed of a manky old sofa.

Another highlight of the evening was the keyboard player's first go on the drums, an event described by The Guardian's music critic as "Like an elephant with epilepsy".

Important info for the weekend

Info for your SatNav.

Postcode for Southend Farm, Donnington, Chichester, is PO20 7PS.

Croatian for Drummers, Part 21.

More essential phrases:

"Hej cure hocete li vidjeti moje stapove?" [Hey, girls, do you want to see my drumsticks?]
"Ma ne, to nije moja bas pedala - to moje srce kuca za tebe." [No, that's not my bass pedal; it's my heart beating for you.]


"Alo ribe ovdje ajkula!" - "Hello fishies, shark has arrived!" is, according to my source*, a traditional Croatian version of Terry-Thomas' "I say, ding dong, woof woof!"



*I would like to point out that my source, Seni, is Jonathan's Godmother, and quite likely (make that 'very likely') to be sending me utterly unsuitable phrases, for a laugh. So apologies if they are, in fact, rather rude.

Last night's noctilucent clouds

Fantastic outbreak of noctilucent clounds last night - this view is looking north at about 11.15.

Last night's rehearsal

A nice informal gathering in Shed 3b last night. John and Jesse were absent - the latter suffering violent 'holiday tummy with added projectile vomiting' while away on holiday in Greece. Our sympathies go to him and his fellow passengers on the plane.

Shock news that Sheds 4a and 4b will not, after all, be converted into a microbrewery disappointed everyone, although, had plans been successful, I dread to think what would happen during rehearsals in 3b.

Other highlights of the evening included a brief guest appearance by Johnny 'Hot Fingers' Flindt on rhythm guitar; now that he has mastered the chords A, D and E, he is fully qualified to join in for over half our set.

Sadly, no-one seemed interested in the details of Charlie's day driving Aston Martins round Millbrook Proving Ground.

International Space Station

Pic of the ISS heading towards the Eastern horizon, 30 second exposure at 1600ISO. Must buy myself a decent tripod and a remote release.

Another lovely pic

Late night, bee-friendly cropspraying does occasionally have its compensations.

Axe-tastic!

TLOGS - trend setters

Nice to see Muse shoe-horning 'House of the Rising Sun' into their biblical set at Glastonbury the other day. Very unimaginitive doing it in 6/8 time, though.

TLOGS - where we go.....

Caption competition.

What on earth has Dave just said/done to provoke such mirth/astonishment?

Last Night's Gig

It was off to the mighty Rose Bowl to help Romsey Young Farmers celebrate their 75th Anniversary. Incredible venue, incredible sunset, miserable staff. We resisted the temptation to upset them further by heading out onto the square for a quick game while we waited for our much-delayed start.


The International Space Station made an appearance just as we finished packing away into Shed 3b, at 02:10, so I was happy.

Picture below shows the Old Gits rigorously sticking to the dress code, which for that evening appears to be Hawaiian Lumberjack Gangsters.

Another booking?

So I'm having my hair cut today, and instead of asking "Something for the weekend, Sir?", my excellent barber asks "I've been hearing all about your band; might you be available for a Wedding Anniversary party on 20th November?" I told him I'd put the word out.

(This potential booking brought to us by Jonathan 'Motor Mouth' Flindt Promotions Ltd.)

Tomorrow's Gig

I'm rather hoping that the group fag break takes place from 22:59 until 23:05 on Saturday. That's when the International Space Station will be passing over the Botley area, with a magnitude of minus 3.6.

I must get out more.

[That's 'fag' as in cigarettes, by the way]

Last night's gig.

Don't be fooled by the shorts and the sunshine....

I wonder if Dr David Viner is a music fan. "Who he?" you ask. Well, he was a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, which as any fule kno is the highest cathedral of the religion of Man-Made Global Warming. He was quoted in the Independent on Sunday on 20th March 2000:

According to Dr. Viner, within a few years, winter snowfall will become "a very rare and exciting event". He said that "Children just aren't going to know what snow is."

Almost as accurate as my Eurovision predictions.

Anyway, I wish Dr Viner had been at Midsummer Madness last night. The blistering cold North wind played havoc with guitar strings, snapping some and sending others out of tune. Nearby RAF Odiham reached 6.5C during the night - before windchill. I was lucky; I had a lamp nearby to warm my hands between songs.

Special mention to Matt, Jesse and Dave, who had played at the Alresford Music Festival earlier in the day, then joined Mark for a 45-minute No Through Road set before the Old Gits came on. A long day.

Still, we had a good time, and plenty of the good folk of West Meon turned up to show their immaculate line-dancing skills and cheer us on.

Extra special mention goes to a Mr and Mrs P, of Borden, who also came down to cheer us on, but went to last week's venue. It would be unfair to mention any names, but here's a picture of Matt.

Hobbits to Isengard

The demand for this techno remix of 'They're taking the hobbits to Isengard' has been overwhelming, so copy this into your browser:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE-1RPDqJAY

Saturday's Gig

Ah, the archetypal English Summer evening: the East Meon Sixes drawing to a noisy close, the beer tent beginning to do lively business, the tent with the big TV all primed for the big game..... and in the music tent, two bands are simultaneously trying to set up for the evening show. You never saw such an outbreak of politeness as Old Gits and Unusual Suspects tip-toed round each other, sharing amps and borrowing cables. The Old Gits drew the line at cordless microphones and in-ear monitors, though. New-fangled nonsense.

We finally got going fairly late, just in time for the association football to start (I'm told England valiantly managed a draw with the mighty USA). Our audience was....sparse, you could say. Sparse but enthusiastic. We had a lovely time, though. A huge thanks to the Gorgeous Groupies who made just enough noise for us to do our encore. We'd have looked a bit silly saying "What's that? You want more?" to a wall of silence.

We won't know ourselves if we ever end up playing to a heaving mass of several hundred people!

Here's a lovely picture of a balloon.

Monday's rehearsal

Another quiet rehearsal. No really, it was. Matt was away, John was in Yorkshire, Dan arrived late, left shortly after that, and then arrived again. Don't ask why.

Heavy rain on the shed roof (good title for an album?) was greeted with cheers by the assorted agriculture-based band members.

We tweaked a few numbers in preparation for the June mini-tour.

The Inaugural Thomas Lord Old Gits Dinner

It was a very serious and historic occasion. The complete band and a smattering of other halves gathered in our 'home' pub for the first ever TLOG Dinner. Actually, it wasn't at all serious. It was very silly and very good fun. Some of us are still bearing the bruises from being comprehensively beaten up for the trifling crime of drawing a smiley face in the mashed potato.

Talking of food, the TLord did us proud, and well done the Pink Fairey on her magnificent birthday cake for John. I've never heard 'Happy Birthday' sung with so many varied harmonies - some of them even in key.

.

Pics from the party 1

Last time I saw this lot, I'm sure they were offering cheap Tarmac from a white van.

Curly Fingers

How the lovely Mrs Pratt would be proud of me. All those long lessons she'd be imploring me to use curly fingers. "Oh, Flindt, you'll never reach that top G spot without curling your fingers!" she'd cry.

Saturday's Gig

Another jolly evening on Saturday. The rain mostly stayed away and it wasn't too cold; you'd think you could book an outdoor party for the end of May without freezing to death, but, hey, that's Global Warming for you. Only three weeks 'till the days get shorter.

Luckily, no-one noticed that we weren't doing Country & Western numbers to match the party's theme, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

Looking forward to the TLOGID on Saturday.

A study in concentration

It all looks jolly serious.

Monday's rehearsal

Monday saw the launch of the all-new 'Shed 3b Official Weight Loss System.' It's very simple. Seven people of assorted ages and sizes pile into a superbly insulated shed with ambient temperatures in the high 20's, and spend three hours thrashing their instruments with varying degrees of exertion. See, feel and, ahem, smell the pounds dropping off.

There did appear to be one or two side effects. Drummers, it appears, find they occasionally slip an extra beat or two into their complicated diddly bits. Keyboard players change what should be a nice concise finish into something approaching Rachmaninoff's No. 2. Female vocalists seem to develop a mysterious smudgy thing on their right ankles....

Last night's television

I was highly offended by last night's 'I'm in a Rock'n'Roll Band', which suggested that keyboard players reckon they're the most technically proficient musician in any band just because they got to Grade 3 Piano. I would like to point out that I was about to take Grade 5 when the lovely Mrs Pratt suggested that further progress was unlikely. I assumed she was talking about my piano playing.

Another recurring theme of this series of programmes was the outrageously bad behaviour of the average rock band. Well, this afternoon I had the honour of watching mid-Hampshire's most hotly-tipped up-and-coming purveyors of rock/alternative/Italian pop while they relaxed. It involved going "Wheeee!" on a trampoline and then making squeaky noises blowing blades of grass between their thumbs. Keith Moon spins in his grave.

Yesterday's rehearsal

It was a cracker last night. We were all in, except poor old Tessa, who was gravely ill. How she managed to stagger into the shed and perform so well is a complete mystery. She finally passed out after only six renditions of River Deep, and had to be carried home and told to go suck a Fisherman's Friend.

Tod was also in the wars, wielding a spectacular wasp sting on his left palm. There were disrespectful comments about the familiarity of having a small prick in his hand, but luckily he ignored them.

We also learn about Dave's special predictive text on his phone. If he presses 'F'....you can guess the rest.

Another significant event: Charlie was asked very politely to turn his volume down. Historians are working even now to establish if this is a first in Shed 3b.

The return of Global Warming meant that Shed 3b got a bit warm; a mobile air conditioner might be in order.

Musically, there was a heated debate as to exactly how many bars Ms Turner stays on the 'A' in the middle of 'River Deep' - was it four or eight? There then followed an even more heated debate about what a 'bar' was. Finally, it was decided that the West end of the shed would count down eight. As it happens, Ms Turner does six: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULw1RHHPv5g

Apart from all that, things nicely warming up for the start of our Summer tour.

Monday's rehearsal

Blimey, I nearly forgot. We had another rehearsal on Monday. Charlie was late, Tess wasn't there, but it went well.

The gig at the end of May has been moved from a barn to our host's house - or, more accurately, large garden and yard. Two advantages: more people can come, and there's no longer an 'all out by 00.30' rule.
Disadvangages: lack of a proper stage, and less weatherproof. the former is being investigated, for the latter we'll hope for the best.

Last Night's Rehearsal

A very happy Star Wars Day to all.

[I must say it's a joy to be back blogging again; I think we've finally persuaded a Mr BotNet to get out of my computer, and stop out sending exciting details of special pills for flaccid gentlemen (good name for a band?) to everyone on my address book - including glamorous bank manager. What's really worrying is how many have tried to place orders through me, hoping for a discount.]

Another good rehearsal last night, although we were without Dave - Anthony once again standing in - and Tess absent too. Anthony gaining confidence and volume, even when subjected to a hail of empty beer bottles from above the window frame.

Highlights: Matt spontaneously launching into 'Sound of the Swinging Cymbal' by Brass Incorporated. Jesse provoking a nasty outbreak of 'Eye of the Tiger' - hold on, that doesn't count as a highlight. And Matt's knowledge of geraniums astounded us all. And who can forget several members of mid-Hampshire's meanest, growliest and fiercest band all going 'Aaaah' at Diana's lambs?

Discussion of future gigs: the August one is off, but Cheriton Tennis Club have asked us back, to do Saturday 25 September. Any thoughts?

May the Fourth be with you.

Monday's rehearsal

A full house last night, with a brace of Faireys having made it back from the States.

Very VERY loud rehearsal - I've just had a message from Professor Phil Diamond, Director of Jodrell Bank; signals have just been picked up from Proxima Centauri - something along the lines of "01101010010110101000111010101001001..." which is binary code for 'Turn that noise down'. They may have been asking for a Chas'n'Dave number, but I doubt it. (Don't forget that when it comes to binary, there are only 10 types of people: those who understand it, and those who don't.)

Highlights of the evening were:
1. Tessa's pink hair.
2. Dave's turn behind the microphone, leaving Charlie and Matt as the only ones not to have done vocals. Dave's rendition of 'How I love bunny rabbits in the Spring' will live long in the memory.

Several new songs were tried - some several times. Should be ready for our next gig.

Last night's gig

Fantastic gig last night - lovely venue, stunning evening, welcoming crowd, bride and groom looking blissfully happy. And, despite the late start (which upped Dave's F-factor somewhat) and the lack of Faireys, I think we played our socks off.

Other highlights included Tod's desperate appeal for help from a young person when confronted with the control panel of one of those new-fangled I-pod thingies.

Probably best not to mention the intimate item that Tod thought was a rather large party popper of absorbent foam and cardboard construction. It certainly failed to go off when he pulled the string.

Another gig

News via Todtxt: another gig possible, August 14th, somewhere Hayward's Heath way. Not ideal for the drivers of combine harvesters, but no doubt, thanks to Global Warming, we'll have finished harvest by then. Or not started. Or both.

Rehearsal, 12th April

Very noisy rehearsal - we had a call from a Mr. Ahmed in Basra asking to turn it down a bit.

A new gig near Chichester was confirmed for 16th July - there might be an issue with some band members who didn't realise that that date was a possibility, never mind that the 17th was a certainty. No names, no pack drill, but here's a picture of Matt.

A suggestion was made that we could do with an uber-disco number. 'We are family' by Sister Sledge, or Chic's 'Le Freak' or 'Good Times'?

Gangster Party in the Thomas Lord pub.

Another smoooooth bass line being pumped out by Dave.





'Small Hands' Charlie on his huge organ. Seems to checking the dodgy connection in the back of the PA while simutaneously thrashing out an augmented F sharp minor eightth/Gdim.

Gangster Party in the Thomas Lord pub.

Dan, Tod and Jesse all suitably attired, and John, who made the perfectly understandable mistake of mis-reading the invite as 'Hawaian Beach Party'.

A great honour to be performing under the benevolent gaze of Thomas Lord himself.

Rehearsal, 5th April

Slightly noisier rehearsal - Dan, Jesse, Tod, Matt and Charlie present, along with Anthony standing in for Dave on bass. Didn't swear as much though.

10th July gig ruled out.

Kilmeston, 17th July

This gig now ON. Free beer involved.

Gig 17th July

Discussion ongoing with a Kilmeston resident about this gig. Can't agree a fee - yet.

Monday's rehearsal

A quiet session in Shed 3b on Monday. Present were Tod, Dan, Charlie and Dave. Much discussion of who sings what when we're without John and Tess.