Saturday's Wedding

In the background of this picture is Old Winchester Hill, on top of which is a fort a couple of thousand years old. I wonder if our forebears and ancestors, as they toiled with hand and primitive tool to dig the magnificent ramparts and ditches, had any idea what would happen in mid-July 2013. What would they make of the arrival of the Thomas Lord Old Gits, ready to dig their own groove?

It was hot. It was sweaty. But the sun shone magnificently (and after the weather twelve months' ago, no-one is allowed to EVER complain about sunshine) and there was a slightly refreshing easterly coming down the valley.

Having set up in the morning, we regathered as the sun was beginning to dip.

(That's not the main marquee, by the way). We waited until the happy couple had made the most of the spectacular sunset for their photographs, and then watched as they had their first dance. And then we kicked off.

I think we all agree that it was one of our best gigs. The floor never emptied. The dancing was hard and fast, and, as last week, the dance floor wasn't big enough - and it was a big dance floor.

It was one of those evenings where good feedback makes us play better, and as we played better, the feedback got better. True, we had a couple of technical stumbles, but we effortlessly carried on through them. We even got to do our encore in full!

One test of a gig is the hour afterwards. Those who had to relieve babysitters were sent on their way, and the rest of us cleared up, all on a bit of a high. And even when we'd cleared up, we didn't seem top want to go home. Instead, there was some severe rifling of the buffet, and a mass outbreak of cheese and peanut scoffing took place. (New band name suggestion: The Cheesegrazers). Ian would have joined in with this undignified face-stuffing but was busy with a new fan.

Huge smiles all round. Sort of sums up the evening, really.

Saturday's Gig

Five years and a day after the first gig by the modern-day TLOGS, we set off to Beauworth for our latest booking. There had been a few concerns. Would the scorching temperatures make the evening unbearable? No - there was a respectable breeze blowing through the tent. Would the fabulous view distract the band? Not a chance - we're too profesional for that.

And then there were worries expressed by our lovely host: would we be too loud? Would the oldies find it unbearable? Would any of them dance? In the end, all her worries were unfounded. There was lots of dancing - of the Dad, Granddad and Grandchild variety - sometimes all three at once.

It was a very jolly evening, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. I overheard two lovely snippets as we packed up. "I say, weren't the band good?" said one voice in a Terry-Thomas style. And the second - "The dance floor didn't seem big enough!" - was a top compliment.

I then had a phone call from our host, thanking us profusely. She, too, had been thrilled at the dancing, especially by the oldies. Her only disappointment was that no-one had ended up in the pond!

Fantastic.

A surprise visit

Nice to see Tessa making a whistle-stop visit to the British Seedhouses HQ. I must say she's looking well. It looks as if BSH have done quite a bit of building work recently - I'm amazed they got planning permission for all those towerblocks. Witham St Hughs has certainly changed a bit over the last few years. And they really ought to get the Environment Agency to sort out the drainage. That's looks like it'll take ages to soak away.

The Next Gig on the Batoffo Tour

I went on a recce to the site of our next gig, and this is the view from where the tent will be. I'm sure it will win a prize in the 'Most Picturesque View From a Gig' category. Although we'll be inside the tent at the time, so we won't actually see it.

And I'm not saying that we're keeping up the tradition of not venturing very far, but if the resolution of my camera had been better, you would have been able to see TWO venues we've played in the distance!

NB for VTFs (Volume Ten Fans): this gig is going to be in a smallish tent, so biblical volume levels will not be needed.

Monday's rehearsal

Another fantastic gathering on Monday night. All this lovely weather (ironic that the Azores High has arrived within a couple of days of the useless muppets at the Met Office forecasting ten wet summers) meant that nobody was out spraying, and apart from John and Mindy, we had a full turnout.

Not sure that we actually did anything from our official setlist, but we manged to waste two and a bit hours having a lovely time playing anything else that sprang to mind. I think we touched on Sad Cafe, Herb Albert, Santana....blimey, the list was endless.

News that the bassist is now a Grandfather and that the huge pianist has been recommended a new hip confirms that we truly are Old Gits.

I'd just like to say that Grandfatherhood has mellowed and moderated Dave's language...I'd like to say it, but.........

Heard on National Radio (part 2)

Who would have though that, only weeks after John's appearance on BBC Radio 4's 'Farming Today', another member of the TLOGS would appear on the very same Saturday Morning programme?

Listen here , but be quick; it's only up for a few days.

How many bands of any type and calibre can claim to have had 28% of their members on Farming Today?

Seen in the Press, part 45

At last, we're front cover material! Well, up in the top left corner, anyway. And I'm not sure about the 'tweedy' bit, but we're on the front cover in one form or another. Inside the July issue of The Field is an article on middle-aged rock bands, and the TLOGS feature heavily. Some very good pictures, too. So rush down to your local newsagent as soon as you can to get your copy. You'll find it on the top shelf, between Razzle and Humungous Jubblies. Apparently.

And, no, that's not Boris Johnstone on the cover, it's Lord Percy. No, not the Blackadder one; the real one. Yes, there is a real Lord Percy.
.

Oh dear.

This CD has been produced.

Apparently, it is a recording of a recent gig. Apparently, it is somewhat less than flattering.

I thought it would pass the time while out spraying, so I popped it into the hugely expensive hi-fi in the John Deere. The CD player thought about it, whirred, chuntered, and then spat it back out, with the words 'NO MUSIC' on the display panel.

Bit harsh, I thought.

Solved

The answer to Saturday's puzzle is 'Chesterfield'.

New pictures of the Warwick wedding (last year).

While at Coombe Bissett, we were given a selection of pictures from the wedding we played up in Warwick - very good they are too.

Ian setting up - a very useful pic to print off and keep to help non-drummers given the job of assembling the kit!

I'm sure we had more people dancing than this picture would suggest - or have we strayed into a photo shoot for the Boden catalogue?

Lovely arty pic, taken from the stage, of the happy couple.

Now, John. About that shirt......

Grooooovy headlining..............bad acid, man........

And finally:

Dancing the night away......thanks to the Thomas Lord Old Gits!

The Coombe Bissett wedding

Once again, the TLOGS bravely ventured out of the SO24 postcode, out of the parish - why, even out of the County, and set off for South Wiltshire. Thank goodness we had had someone who can pack a trailer safely for the long drive.

It was a fairly early start (for some of us), and most of the world and his wife seemed to be heading the same way, so Salisbury proved to be a good spot to catch up on a bit of sleep, do some office work, and knock off those last few hundred pages of Lord of the Rings. One day someone will suggest a by-pass. Hold on a  minute....

Once we got there, we found a lovely warm marquee, which turned out to be not for us, and a faily cool and aged barn, complete with stage. There had a been a wonderful Spinal Tap moment - Tod's requested stage dimensions had got lost in Hampshire/Wiltshire translation, and a slightly more compact version of what we had hoped for had been assembled for us.

But we are the TLOGS. We have played Bramdean Village Hall, on a stage 20 foot by about four - so we are the masters of squeezing into small spaces. Ooo er missus.

By late lunchtime, we were set up, and headed back for a snooze. It's an age thing.

We reassembled at about seven thirty, planning an eight thirty start, but, as is usual, that's not how it turned out. Things got delayed. The guests were having a lovely relaxed evening, so our start time drifted...and drifted.... luckily we had Dave's tales of Different Place's - sorry, Mark Vennis' Different Place's trip to Cannes to keep us entertained. An outbreak of namedropping that would humble even Capt Kidneystones.

After one final burst of confusion ("What do you mean you're waiting for us to start? We're waiting for you to tell us when to start...."), we kicked off after the happy couple had had their first dance.

How did it go? Well, the barn stayed pretty empty for the first half, so we were effectively playing background music for the marquee, but by the second half, we had a respectable crowd dancing on the fairly unforgiving concrete floor.

And how did we play? Once again, we were tight. Jack was superb: despite only having run through the whole setlist perhaps three times, he nailed the vast majority of the songs perfectly, and what wasn't perfect was still fantastic. Some of the off-beat sophisticated/syncopated fills had us amateurs in a panic at losing the beat, followed by broad smiles all round as everything matched up again at the end of the bar. Why, we even forgave him being a veggie (which he sheepishly announced as the burgers were being handed out at half time). And it takes a lot for farmers to accept veggies. Well done, Jack.

Other highlights included a panic inspection of the fusebox in the corner, only to find that the caterers  had set up the barbeque just the other side of the wall, and the sizzling sounds and burning smell were not down to us after all. Another scary moment was when Roland the electric piano decided to have a senior moment and refused to stop playing all the recently depressed keys. Luckily, it was just after Fix You, so the ensuing din wasn't noticed - niether was the complete lack of keyboards as it was turned off and allowed to fire up again. I feel a hot credit card trip to Nevada Music coming on.

We were done by 00:30, and the traditional packing up hour was swift'n'easy. Some of the other halves were more useful (i.e., vertical) than others. The bride and groom asked the huge pianist for his autograph - he wasn't sure if they were taking the piss, but he was so smitten by the bride he would have done anything.

A fabulous drive back over the chalk downlands in the full moon brought us back to Shed 3C, where the trailer was tucked away for the night, and following the traditional Crunchy Nut Cornflake frenzy, bed was reached by 02:30.

Another top TLOGS gig.

Another milestone for the blog.

20,000 visits to our humble little blog!

873 of those have come from China. Nope, I can't work out why, either.

Me? A Tory?

Regular readers might be aware that the TLOGS' huge pianist is not a great fan of David Cameron and his 'Conservative' party. Words like 'scum', 'Europhile' and 'git-faced traitor' have been known to emerge at Cameron's name. Further outrageous and no doubt totally false slurs can be found  here .

Anyway, following this fairly public nailing of colours to the mast, you can image the surpise when this letter arrived.

I think that the fact it was sent by Google, the world's most powerful gatherer of information, makes it particularly ironic.

Legendary doomed expeditions

1. In 1845, Capatin Sir John Franklin set off on a voyage of artic exploration. After becoming ice-bound in the Canadian arctic, he and the entire compliment of 128 men were lost, despite resorting to cannibalism.

2. In 1925, Percy Fawcett, artillery officer and South American explorer, set off into the Brazilian jungle in search of a legendary lost city. The last communcations were from him and his team at the end of May. They all vanished.

3. In May 2013, a charm offensive in the form of two TLOGS and Capt Kidneystones set forth to enquire at a local pub if we were required to play at their beer festival - as we have done so enjoyably for the last couple of years. We were given an enigmatic "Oooh, we like to ring the changes..." We had another pint or two while waiting for the courtesy of a definite 'yes' or 'no', and then realising that we were not to be afforded such a thing, decided to leave. Ho hum.

Update

It has been a quiet few weeks for the TLOGS - hence the lack of posts. Plenty of diligent rehearsing for the wedding, getting Jack fully confident with the setlist. There was a legendary Dave the Dog night in West Meon - complete with dozens of people and a barbeque. Fantastic. Apart from that, it has been the calm before the storm....

Last pic from the Mindy Mash

Many, many people have been asking "When, oh when will we see the picture of the huge pianist with pink fairy wings coming out of his head?" Well, who am I to stand in the way of such a wave of popular demand?

Picture credit: Nosestud Pictures Inc (aka www.aliwarnerphotography.com )

Seen (and heard) on national media....

A half hour Radio 4 show featuring our very own vocalmeister can be heard here. Listen out for the key moment when the presenter of the BBC's premier flagship farming programme has to ask what crop she's standing in. Worth the license fee on its own.

At last - pictures from the Mindy Mash!!

It has taken several weeks of negotiations between TLOGS lawyers and lawyers representing Talk Like a Teenager Pictures Ltd (aka www.aliwarnerphotography.com ) , but it has been worth the effort, for we now have permission to use her pictures of the Mindy Mash.

Here's Dave, looking as cooooool as ever.

John, harmonising as hard as ever.

Ian looking somewhat nonchalant, methinks.

Here's a rarity - a pic of Dan by Ali that doesn't exclusively feature his front upper trouser region.

Here's another one. Maybe not that much of a rarity, then.

Mindy and Tod concentrating frightfully hard.

And in a cellar bar somewhere in Paris (which for some reason has a fairy castle in it.....)

Lovely pics.

The Tichborne Arms, April 2013

Sometimes a gig goes so well, and is so much fun, and is generally reckoned to be so excellent that words cannot accurately sum up the evening. So here's a picture of Tod outside the pub with a pink umbrella.

Come to think of it, that doesn't do the evening justice either. Let's just say that, for some reason, we clicked like never before, and played our socks off. We were as disciplined and tight as we've ever been - a sentiment shared by many of the punters, old and new, who showed up for an evening of outrageous booze-fueled Dad-dancing (and Mum-dancing).

One very frequent compliment was that noise levels out in front were such that conversation was just still possible, and the music - as a direct result - was far more enjoyable. I think the same applies this side of the speakers, too.

The evening ended in the now traditional way back at base, with a groupie climbing in to the lamb pen for a cuddle, sitting on a bale noisily demanding a milk bottle to feed them. and then making a bit of a spectacle of herself trying to clmb back out in the darkness. Sadly, the camera failed to record this historic image. So we'll just have to make do with Tod and his pink umbrella.

A couple more rehearsals

We've had a couple of sparsely-attended get-togethers in Shed 3b -  no bad thing: instead of gossiping,  we've been able to concentrate of getting Jack familiar with the songs for the Ian-free wedding.

Meanwhile, we're all getting psyched up for tonight's Big Gig in a Very Small Place (aka The Tichborne Arms).

Thursday's rehearsal

A quiet get-together on Thursday - John, Tod, and Charlie joned up with Jack for an intense session getting him up to speed for the Ian-free gig. It was too much for Pudding, who did a widdle and then went to sleep in the sofa.

TLOGS on film.

Whatever next - see here

The Gigmap

The wonders of modern technology mean that it is now possible to click on the 'TLOG Gigmap' page (over on the right) and see where we've played over the years. There are one or two venues that I can't quite place, so any help welcome.

The Mindy Mash - the money

Over six grand raised.
Fantastic.

After Gig Party Debauchery Shock!!!!

Shocking photo of gorgeous TLOG groupie in three-in-a-bed [of straw] under-age action...

 ....

The Mindy Mash

It was a long drive south, through pouring rain and flooded roads, to the subtropical paradise that is Fareham. There, in the hall of a rather quaint little school, the Mindy Mash took place. A champagne reception, three-course dinner, auction of promises/donations, and then dancing to two of mid-Hampshire finest bands, the Chalk Flowers and the TLOGs.
















Here's the stage just before we started setting up - you can see the fairy castle and toadstool that we did our best to cover up. The castle had to stay. You can also see Mindy looking astonishingly calm and collected, bearing in mind she'd had about eight minutes sleep in the previous 48 hours.

Tod, John and Charlie started at about mid-day to get the PA/instruments set up. Here we see John doing everyone's favourite pre-gig routine: "one, two....one, two..."

By early afternoon, the Chalk Flowers had arrived, and had a bit of a sound check. Very nice they sounded, too. Here we see them in action; John claimed that it was absolutely essential that he spend so much time on his knees alongside the vocalists - something to do with accoustic research, apparently.

A very jolly evening was had by all. The dinner went well, the auction raised thousands, and both the Chalk Flowers and the TLOGS seemed to be happy with their respective performances - one or two sound issues weren't enough to dampen the evening. We kept smiling, which was good, because the photographer from The Field was busy snapping away for a feature on sad middle-agers in rock bands.for a future issue.

Special thanks and praise to Mindy, the brains behind it, and to Tod for the huge amount of hard work and knob-twiddling over a loooooong day...........

Next stop on the Batoffo Tour.

Be there, and support a damn good cause.

Monday's rehearsal

Hot on the heels of Sunday's highly successful Pavillijam in West Meon was another rehearsal in Shed 3b, with Jack getting up to speed as Wedding Drummer. There was some important business to attend to first, however, as Big Gok had died, and needed to be manhandled to the door of Shed 3c for the recovery lorry to take her away. ('Big Gok' is John's huge long throbbing supercharged Jaguar, by the way.) Any suggestions of bad backs or hernias were dismissed as the TLOGS heaved and strained to get Big Gok into position. What we'd have done without John in the driver's seat telling us what to do, I don't know.

Curiously, Jack arrived just after all the hard work had been done. Coincidence? Who knows. The rehearsal itself went very well, as we worked solidly through the set list.

Other exciting news concerns the new neighbours, who have moved into Steve the builder's old place - the house nearest Shed 3b. A short chat the other day established that they are diplomats (claiming not to have heard any of our rehearsals) and - more importantly - all keen musicians, playing keyboards and guitars.. I made it clear that they would be very welcome to come over and join in any time. But they might want to make sure any car hauling duties are over, first.

And Off We Go - it's The Batoffo Tour Proper.

Well, the Tour got going properly on Easter Sunday. Here we see most of the band in the process of setting up in the Thomas Lord- if it looks as if we're all standing around looking lost, that's because it's what we do while setting up.

Common Sense had prevailed, and we started at a more practical 8.30, rather than the advertised 10pm. The evening seemed to go very well - highlights included the man from The Field making at least ten new BFFs. There were one or two volume issues to be discussed, but only once Charlie and Ian's hearing has returned. So that could be September.

Best moment of the evening came at home time, as one of our keenest fans had to be dragged away from a posse of decadent ladies who made the Triple L's look terribly restrained. It sort of reminded me of this classic.

Source for Confusion

The press release for Easter at the Thomas Lord is here.
Should someone ring 'em and check who's due to play?

Easter Sunday Confusion

There's a rumour going round that the Thomas Lord pub have, according to their publicity blurb, a band playing on Sunday called the 'West Meon Old Gits'. This could mean that:
A. They've got our name wrong by mistake.
B. They've got our name wrong deliberately, in a sort of 'we don't really want to be associated with you lot;' kind of way
C. There's a Thomas Lord Old Gits tribute band playing, doing covers of our covers.
We'll find out which is the correct answer on Sunday.

Comet

Comet Pan-Starrs (the first one in what promises to be a vintage year for comets) setting in the west.

Cancelled Rehearsal

Last night's crucial and not-to-be-missed  rehearsal (the last before the start of the Batoffo Tour) was cancelled after Tod (manflu) and Charlie (bad back) joined the extensive list of injuries and illnesses.

Truly, we are the Old Gits.

The End of the Blog?

I worry for the future of this blog (not to mention a million others). After 250 posts and nearly 20,000 visits, it could be in trouble with the new press regulator for making comments about the lying, cheating scumbag Chris Huhne and the utterly loathesome moron Cameron. Oh well.

(Nearly) Seen In The Press

Spotted this in the Super Soaraway Times the other day. Inexplicably, the TLOGs fail to make in into the 'Why is it so great?' paragraph - one hopes that we would also not make it into any 'Avoid because...' list.

Last Night's Rehearsal - the BATOFFO Tour Approaches

AS the long summer of musical mayhem approaches, it would be nice to report that the Old Gits had a well-organised three hour rehearsal where we honed our skills just that little bit more, oozing professional skill and dedication.

Unfortunately, it wasn't quite like that. It was more like an episode of Casualty. Dave was stuill suffering after his hernia operation. Ian has injured his shoulder (and his car is about to break down). John was suffering fron chronic manflu, picked up in the British Seedhouses canteen (that'll teach him not to send a postcard to the legendary Shed 3b postcard wall). Mindy was suffering from Quophobia ("Don;t like 'Caroline'!") but I'm sure she'll get better soon. And Tod was just grumpy. Luckily, Charlie and Dan (who was disgracefully late ahem ahem) kept up the baton of cheerfulness and youthfullness.

But, as ever, we all had a good laugh - we're saving our best for Easter Sunday.

More news from abroad

Another pic from our singer, proving that the British Seedhouses canteen has now got very smart larch tiles on the outside.

News from abroad

This picture arrived today from one of our vocalists, and he claims it's him on the snow-laden sunshine-drenched slopes of Oberunterschlossbundenfarquarsturmfuhrerstatt. I'm not convinced; I reckon it's the staff canteen at British Seedhouses headquarters.

A new intro?

The reserve bassist (obviously studying hard for his A levels) has pointed out that if we ever tire of our "Please welcome the Thomas Lord Old Gits" intro, we could use this instead.

Seen in the Press, No. 647

A major write-up for our neighbours/rivals from just along the road. Mind you - Radio Solent? The shame, oh, the shame of it.....

How not to confirm a gig

So, that nice Mr X (we'll call him) rang a couple of weeks ago to ask if we were available for the 13th July. I checked with the band, and lo, we seemed to be all available, so I thought I had better ring him back. But hold on a minute, I thought, I ought to be a bit careful. We know it's a birthday party, but what if it's a SURPRISE birthday party, and I ring up and speak to the birthday girl herself, and ruin the surprise?

Right, I thought, this is what I'll do. I'll ring during the day and leave an innocuous message, with no mention of the band, and ask Mr X to ring me back, and she'll never know. Ha! Brilliant plan!

Just before ten last night, our phone rang, and it was Mr X. All going to plan. We spoke for a minute...rather oddly...and when I started on the touchy subject of money, things got very frosty. It then dawned on me that he didn't have a clue who I was. As far as he knew, he was ringing a complete stranger (his wife had picked up my message and misheard it; "Can you ring some bloke called 'Jonathan'? " she'd said). And this complete stranger was now demanding money.....

I thought I had better start again, and then it all made sense. I think the poor fellow was getting worried. Mind you, not as worried as he was when he asked what we played. "Why, the best hits plucked effortlessly from the sixties, right up to the present day!" I cried. "Hmmm," he said. "Not sure about 'the present day'".

Possible New Gig

Who's up for a gig on 13th July, nice'n'locally?

The Batoffo Tour 2013

There are now enough dates pouring in for the Batoffo Tour 2013 to warrant its own page - see link on the right.

Let's Go Gospel

So Chris Huhne has pleaded guilty, and should - if there is ANY justice in the world - get a custodial sentence. Truly a Happy Day

[Chris Huhne was of course, multi-millionaire Minister For Chicken Licken Climate Change Scary ManBearPig Monster Will Get You, and is an all-round A1 scumbag.]

At last - the cards are in!

After countless post-gig embarrassments, we can at last answer the question "You were fab - have you got a card?" with "Yes!"

They will also make useful bookmarks, choppers of Colombian marching powder, and things to stick in rattly window frames.

(I'm not sure why, but 500 have turned up, so let's hope we don't go through with the renaming of the band - well, not for at least forty years.)

Exciting Rehearsal Update.

We've had a couple more rehearsals. The first involved Charlie, Ian, Tod and Dave, and was a fairly productive couple of hours brushing up some of the new tracks.

The last rehearsal was unusual in that Charlie, Ian, Dave, Tod, John, Dan and Jack all knew that there wasn't one.

Someone forgot to tell Mindy, though, who bravely struggled out to Shed 3b, only to find it in darkness. One phone call to Tod Bonnington, who had just reached base camp without oxygen in some faraway mountain range, established that she was in for a lonely evening. Apparently she made the most of the opportunity and headed down the pub instead.

Seen on National Television

Just for a change, it's not one the Old Gits themselves, but one of our most loyal fans - in fact, it's one of the Lovely Louche Ladies of West Meon!
Look out at 27 mins 56 seconds of this documentary. There's an awful lot of adverts and stuff, but the documentary itself is interesting, and the Lady herself does, indeed, look lovely.
It might be available for only a limited time, so hurry up.

Seen in the Press - again

Two more examples of the Thomas Lord Old Gits clogging up the national press - one from The Times (above), and the other from Farmers Weekly .

Monday's rehearsal

We had an interesting gathering on Monday. Dave and John and Ian were missing, but we said a big 'Hello' to Jack, who might or might not be our stand-in drummer for the summer. He ticks all the right boxes, inasmuch as he seems to know which bit of the drum kit to hit at which time, and has only one syllable in his name. Anyway, he stayed for the evening, and we await with interest if he'd like to come back!

The other highlight of the evening was the arrival of Hinton Ampner's vagrant/almost unemployed city boy aka Capt Kidneystones, who grabbed the offered microphone and proceeded to do the 'Shoop Shoop' song backing vocals - to everything. Close your eyes and it could almost have been Cher herself. Almost.

Meanwhile, here's the drummer at the wrong gig video.

Stand-in drummer suggestion

It appears that Ian might not be available for a few gigs this year - luckily, this lot have offered their drummer.

The 2013 Tour Kicks Off!

Well, we still haven't decided what to call the 2013 Tour, but it got going on the 5th January at the lovely Privett Village Hall. As is normal these days, we had to fight our space with several acres of playgroup equipment (remember Bramdean a few years ago?), and we spilled off the small stage onto the main floor.

Here we see Tod looking aprehensively at the gathering throng.





He need not have been apprehensive - at least, not about the throng. There was a slight technical issue with Dan's amp - basically, it appeared to be buggered, which meant he had to drive off home and fetch another one. But not before a mass of Hampshire's finest minds had all had a go at mending it:

But while Dan was away, we thought we'd better get on - before a riot broke out, possible the first in Privett in several centuries. The lights went down, the songs started, and the floor seemed to fill, and it stayed that way for three hours. We thought we played very well, despite the lay-off and lack of rehearsal. Several band members still had half a foot in the Land of Phlegm, and would like to apologise for not being able to differentiate between black notes and white notes.

Still, it was a good start to the year. The gigs are beginning to come in now (two on April, one in May?) - all we need are some firm dates and a witty and amusing name for it.