A Small Consolation

The June/July Tour may have come to a sudden and somewhat premature end, Shed 3b has been Hoovered and refilled with kit, but the fact remains that we have been doing a lot of gigs, and there are rewards for our work. Here we see John and Tod having a Barclays Bank moment ("What does two plus three equal?" "Six thousand, I think." "Splendid! Million pound bonuses all round!"). Not quite sure why Tod was biting his note.

There was a slight panic when it seemed that one of the Tour's 'packages' had gone missing, which sent John scurrying off in Big Gok to search his drawers - successfully, as it happened. By this time Delilah the Scraggy Baggy Farm Cat decided it was time to help Tod out with his Bond Baddie impersonation.

There followed a bit of debate about a gig at the Tichborne Arms Beer festival. If asked, should we accept? Yes, it may clash with harvest, but having to make alternative arrangements for the combine harvester implies that the sun will be shining, which can only be a good thing!

The End of the June/July Tour

Suddenly, sadly, and somewhat prematurely, the Midsummer Tour has come to an end.

We knew some time ago that the July 14th gig was a phantom one. (Let's just hope we don't get a phone call at 8.30pm that night, with someone asking where the hell we are!)

And then Livestock on the 7th July was cancelled due to poor ticket sales.

Now the legendary Kilmeston Rave has been abandoned, also due to poor ticket sales. Apparently it clashed with a significant stag night for most of the young men in the village, and with the Cheriton Singers doing their Slipknot/Napalm Death tribute evening.

The sadness is that the nice people who organise Livestock moved their date to accomodate us, having heard that we were already booked to play Kilmeston. So somewhat unfortunate that we end up with two cancelled gigs.The nice people who organised Kilmeston have, however, promised that next year they'll do a bit more advertising.

So that's it, for now. Next gig looks like being the Chertiton Beer festival in August, unless we can slot in to the Tichborne one the week before. All in all, slightly disappointing. Still, better to stop while keen to do more, I suppose. Ho hum.

The June Tour: the Ropley Wedding

Next stop on the June Tour was in Ropley, where Jane the Physio's daughter was getting married. (Jane single-handedly keeps the Hampshire farming community standing nice and erect by keeping our backs in good condition.) The deluge of the previous few days eased at last, allowing us to set up in reasonable conditions.

In fact, the whole day seemed remarkably relaxed. No-one shouted at Twiglet when she thought she'd go and have a snuffle in the kitchens. This outbreak of laissez-faire was too much for her and she had to go and have a lie-down in the trailer.

And here's a very dignified Tod getting the mixer desk all hunky-dory.

We made a nice gentle start at about nine o'clock, and the first dancer arrived with the first upbeat number, and the floor stayed busy for the whole evening. We had one or two lapses in concentration, and were nothing like as technically correct as we had been at Alresford Rugby Club, but the sound was excellent and everyone seemed to like us - apart from the lovely lass who was disconsolate at the news that, no, we don't do Copa Cobana. No, really, we don't.

Other highlights included the usual gaggle of girls gazing adoringly at Dan, and the nice blonde in the strapless dress who seemed convinced that we should see her underclothes. Very kind of her, but we were trying to concentrate. There was a very jolly and slightly over-lubricated discussion with one very important lady about the merits of wearing Spanx to church, but it would be unfair to name her here.

Next week, it's on to the legendary Kilmeston rave.

June Tour continues: Alresford Rugby Club

So, the big question was this: how would the mighty Alresford Rugby Football Club celebrate their 21st anniversary? They had booked the fabulous Old Alresford Place (the building where the very first meeting of the Mothers' Union took place, and once home to the Sisters of Bethany (great band name?)), and surely such genteel surroundings would put a stop to activities involving ten pence pieces and the uncircumcised. And how would they react to the band? We were in a compact sunroom on the end of the building, some distance away from the main marquee on the lawn.

Well, after starting slightly later than we'd planned, we did a few numbers all on our own (perfect for fine tuning levels). There were a couple of early dancers - I'm sure I spotted one of Hampshire's most prominent  Consultant Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons giving it large early on. But then the floor filled and I did worry for the ancient architecture as a good selection of Alresford's chunkiest got going. I thought we played really well, after (because of?) last week. A nice moment came at the end when a request for 'All the leaves are brown' was made - apparently it's an anthem to a late member of the club. Quite by coincidence, it's a song we've been practicing inShed 3b. A huge singalong ensued - a great end to a wonderful evening. And no-one lost any coins in any part of their anatomy.

Small comforts in a troubled world.

I used to worry. I used to worry that I should get out more. Then I saw this.

Pictures from the Privett Wedding

A couple of pictures have flooded in from Saturday's wedding - this one shows the stunning venue and the fantastic weather, as well as the photographer's head. What it doesn't show is the force seven gale that was blowing at the time. Curiuosly, little microclimates existed around all the cropsprayers that were out that afternoon - the first dry afternoon for three weeks. According to their record books, the wind was a force two to three southwesterly.

This one is worthing showing because it shows the huge effort our host put into the stage for us. God knows how long he spent finding assorted bits of wood and pallet to make sure we were level on a distinctly sloping bit of ground. Rumour has it that one of our vocalists got off with at least one the shrubs during the evening. He said something about being very keen on a neatly trimmed bush.

Ed and Beth's Wedding

Well, that was a bit of an odd one. Let the Todmeister explain why. He says:
"1 - The stage was fantastic
2 - The weather was brilliant
3 - The venue was amazing
4 - The hog roast was gorgeous
5 - The set-up was suspiciously trouble-free
6 - The totty was first class
7 - The music was sh*te."

He's right. Everything looked stunning, but we played like a bunch of muppets. No-one can quite say why. A couple of us claimed to be feeling a nasty cold coming on ("Go suck a Fisherman's Friend tee hee") Some of us were distracted by No 6 (see above) especially by the bride herself.  A bit of a rot set in after a few songs and then kept going until the end. We just seemed a bit lacklustre.

But hold on: the really REALLY odd thing was that our hosts seemed to love it! Even as we packed up and headed off into the misty night, the compliments kept coming. Everyone seemed happy with our work - and that's what counts.

Next week: Alresford Rugby Club. And if things go like most of the Alresford Rugby Club functions I've been to - be prepared to get naked (and learn the words to Father Abraham and Sunshine Mountain).

High Praise Indeed.

An email about the Bramdean gig arrived today from the very lovely Amanda F: " 'really good', and 'are they the real Beatles?' - just some of the appreciative remarks from my children that I thought I'd pass on.." Bless her little ones.

Jubilee Gig No. 2

So it was another short hop down the road to Bramdean to do our second gig of the Jubilee wekend. We were in a huge tent that looks very likely to have been used at the coronation (of Queen Victoria) but was at least watertight. I should know - I popped down during the heavy shower that blew over late afternoon to check. We had a very jolly afternoon setting up, helped by two collies. Here we see Dan's mutt in a nice reenactment of the 'HMV' logo, wondering where 'his master's voice' is coming from! It was all a bit too much for Twiglet, who found a quiet spot to have a snooze. As for the gig itself; well, it was a sell-out. All the great and good of Bramdean were there. It took sometime (and a cool damp evening) for them to move into the tent and get dancing, but once they did, they did. We all thought we played rather well, and had a lovely time. The first public performance of 'Bad Case Case of Loving You' went very well, although 'Hey Joe' sort of crashed to an undignified ending. But no-one else noticed. I think. Next week it's a far longer trip - to Privett!

Jubilee Gig No 1

So it was back to base for our first gig of the long Jubilee weekend. A curious evening: there seemed to be a few technical cable-related issues that took the wind out of our sails early in the evening. Luckily, our only audience at that stage consisted of Capt Kidneystones and La Gamine, who kindly cheered every song anyway. As the evening went on, things got going a bit more, the crowd swelled and danced, and a very good time seemed to be had by all. A couple of the Louche Ladies took it upon themselves to land in Capt Kidneystones' lap - obviously believing it to be some sort of primitive cure for the condition. Not sure if it worked, but it was fun to watch. A very special mention must go to PC Paul of the Hampshire Safer Neighbourhood Policing Squad Group Force plc who was about to end his late shift in Bramdean at about 1.10am when he saw a dodgy blue Land Rover cruise past towing what appeared to be an equally dodgy Ivor Williams trailer loaded with unsecured stuff. He very kindly followed it along the A272, up Hinton Hill, through the farmyard and round to Shed 9L, where he equally kindly used his Plod skills to help unhitch and park the trailer. He and I chatted for some time - I suggested he join me for my traditional post-gig Crunchy Nut Cornflake frenzy but he declined - while John bade us a casual farewell and headed off into the night.

Bloomin' Terriers

Since the demise of our oldest fan, we've been looking after Meg, his terrier, for a few hours a day. And for the last couple of weeks Shed 3b has been left wide open all day to let some fresh air in. The wide open space of carpet proved too much of a temptation for Meg. I'm sure I heard a ghostly laugh echoing round the farmyard.