December

Day 414

Posted on by Sibylline

Thursday, November 19

I think I´ll just breeze through this week. You don’t need or want to know about all the family stuff, fun though a lot of it is, what with two nephews thrown into the mix – one getting ready to turn five, the other quickly approaching two. Of more interest is that over the next few days I have a little contact with Mike Concannon from SBL and we start seeing if we can get our schedules to match while I´m down here. We can. I´m heading down to his area of Brixham on Tuesday. So that´s that sorted.

 

Day 419

Tuesday, November 24

I had no idea Devon was such a big place. But just looking at a map, to my naked eye, I can now see it’s second only to Yorkshire in size. So Mike Concannon lives in the same county as my family. Well, he’s still a long way away. Luckily, my brother in law, Stephen, is a teacher in Brixham Community College, just a short walk away from Mike’s place. So I jump in the car with him early in the morning, 7:30 to be precise, and we take the fortyfive minutes or so trip to Brixham which is spectacularly scenic, following the coast road nearly all the way. The best sight is when we reach the coast road itself. We stop at traffic lights and are looking over a cliff right out to the sea which is shining brightly in the early morning sun creating a perfectly defined horizon. Steve says it’s things like this that take the edge of the 45 minute daily drive. ‘How can you not like driving to work when you get to see that every morning,’ he asks in a question that requires no answer.

We follow the road all the way to Brixham and, when we get to Steve’s school, I call Mike and he’s just arrived himself so great timing.

I exit the school and here comes Mike down the road, smiling that trademark smile. He recognises me as easy as I recognise him. Greetings made, it’s into his car for the short hop to his place. When we get there, I meet his wife Patsy and me and Mike sit in his conservatory and get to chatting about all kinds of things while Patsy makes cups of tea and bacon sandwiches. With brown sauce of course. We chat easily and happily for probably a few hours, the most memorable of exchanges being when Mike tells me how he became a professional bassist at just 16 when he answered an ad in the NME. ‘There weren’t many bass players around then,’ he says somewhat modestly. This first gig was a tour with Billy Fury and sometime after that, he also found himself playing with Chuck Berry. Quite an impressive started CV. After what’s probably a couple of hours, he says, do you want to see some basses? Absolutely. So up we go to his loft space which is very well known to any SBL user. But before we do, he takes me into another room which is home to what he calls The Beast. This is his latest aquisition, a double bass which he’s currently learning to play. We have a quick mess about on that and then it’s into the loft space where he has seven basses lined up in a rack next to the wall. Time now gets lost as we take turns trying them all out. Each one plays differently and, in me at least, informs a different kind of approach, especially a fretless he has which I get completley into messing about with resolved half notes and the like. The kind of notes and sounds you would never get on a fretted bass. After a while we get to talking about SBL and the effect it’s had on both of us and how we’ve met so many people. As Mike himself says later, we practically leave no stone unturned.

Before I know it, Patsy is calling us again, this time for lunch. How has that happened already. We go down and it’s a wonderful fish pie with a plum cake for afters. That’s me well and truly sorted out. During lunch, conversation is kept strictly away from basses so that Patsy isn’t at all left out with us, so to speak, talking shop. Then we go back upstairs for another little while and I get to hear Mike’s latest piece accompanying a song from Diane Krall but not before he has to battle some computer gremlins which have slowed the recording down meaning his bass keeps sounding horrendously out of tune which it most definitely isn’t. Time again creeps away from us as we’re lost in bass chat and bass swapping until I notice we’ve slipped into mid afternoon. I still have some Christmas shopping to do as I won’t be back before then and my bus back to London is tomorrow. So it’s time for me to offer Mike and Patsy my biggest gratitudes and make my way to the bus stop to get back to my sister’s place. I’d been expecting this to be a morning visit but I’ve managed to stay pretty much the whole day. Mike offers a final cup of tea but I really do have to get off. So into his car again and he gives me a lift to the bus station. When we arrive, I realise we didn’t get a picture together so I fire off a quick selfie which I’m terrible at and which I manage to get the most unflattering shot of myself, up close and very personal to the camera. Oh well. At least the meeting was in someway recorded, diary entry notwithstanding.

Massively enthusiastic goodbyes and with that I’m on the bus and back off to Teignmouth. For those who may know the area, yes it means a change for a train but there’s nothing dramatic in that. But the one drawback is that I arrive back in the town in the dark. Not wanting to be too clever and trying to walk back to my sister’s from the train station, I decide to walk into the town and find areas I know and walk to and from landmarks I’m familiar with. I manage this quite well until I come to the end of the town and am feeling quite pleased with myself thinking I’m home dry. But from here, I try every direction possible but, in unfamiliar light, no road seems to look right. I don’t want to dive into the streets because if I do that I might end up well and truly lost and with no recognisable places to use as reference. So I reluctantly go back to the edge of town and make a phone call for a rescue mission.

 

Day 426

Tuesday, December 1

Me and Dan manage to get together for a two hour rehearsal, the highlight of which for me is a bass led version of Wonderwall that I came up with. When we finish, he decides he’s going to go and play the open mic session at The Abbey. I briefly toy with the idea of playing with him there but we’ve not rehearsed any of his songs and, by the time we finish going through what we have for our New Year set, there isn’t time to do anything. So I just go along and watch. He has to get away to be somewhere else so specifically asks for an early slot. He’s really just playing to keep the live practice up so going on second isn’t an issue tonight. He plays three quiet but strong songs in this large venue that isn’t geared towards open mics. It’s not an event where everybody listens in respectful silence. Some people are having dinner, some are having after work drinks, some are just passing through. For them, the fact that someone is on stage is only incidental. But Dan has a few moments where he has the attention of a good portion of the ‘audience’ and I notice a few people are fully engaged. Not a bad showing for throwing yourself on second for a bit of practice.

 

Day 427

Wednesday, December 2

At the beginning of the year, I said that my resolution was to go professional. Of course, that’s what this is all about. If I was to join a professional band now, I’d probably take a few weeks to get up to speed. It hits me today that, especially with the late night conversation of a few days ago, that’s potentially what I have now. I can’t say the goal is achieved but I’m starting to think that, after a few false starts, I may just have found that project. What I do know is that from here until new year, there’s going to be little happening except work and whatever practice we can get in for the debut show.

 

Day 431

Sunday, December 6

There’s a blind guy, Mike, who often closes the jam at the Blues Kitchen and he’s normally accompanied by just the house band. I’ve had brief words with him a few times but nothing that suggests we engaged. Tonight I manage to play quite a bit having got there unusually early for me. In that, there’s one particular set which is one of those that can be difficult to hold together with people playing too fast or not listening to each other or just trying to shine all the time. It’s the last set I would imagine anyone complimenting me on. But as I’m leaving, I’m not entirely sure how or why it happens but someone goes out of their way to introduce me to Mike, and it’s not as though I haven’t met him before. The difference here is that he has something to say to me. He asks if I was the bass player in that particular set and I tell him I was. He says, ‘You were the backbone of that band. In fact, there were times when it seemed you were playing on your own.’ Especially considering the source and its nature, I’ll take that as quite a serious compliment.

 

Day 432

Monday, December 7

I find myself in that bar manager’s apartment again tonight, this time just me and him. Before we have a single drink, he asks if I remember our conversation from last week when he was talking about us playing in different bars in the company. I tell him that yes, of course I do.’Brilliant,’ he says. ‘I was just checking. I wanted you to know it wasn’t just drunk talk.’

 

Day 433

Tuesday, December 8

The handle on the door of our microwave is broken. In fact, it’s completely come off. Not as big a deal as it sounds because we’re able to open it by taking a good firm grip of the bottom of the door. Hardly ideal but it works for now and I’m sure we’ll get it fixed. Well tonight I work this particular trick and, as I do and, as required, yank the door suddenly open, the tip of the middle finger of my left hand catches a screw or something on the bottom of the oven. A tiny bloody hold appears right in the centre of the pad. For anyone else it’s a totally insignificant injury. For me, it’s a little more than that. I immediately go upstairs and try to play some bass to see if I can get round it. No. Absolutely not. I can’t even touch the string with it. And unlike hurting my little finger a few weeks ago, this isn’t something I can play around easily. I’m not sure how I’m going to manage it. I could just not play for a few days and let it heal itself but that’s not an option. I have two rehearsals tomorrow. Balls.

 

 

Day 434

Posted on by Sibylline

Wednesday, December 9

I really get angry when I try to play in preparation for the rehearsal with Dan. It’s just impossible. I think I’ll forget about playing any kind of lines and just practice root notes to at least continue to learn the songs but even that isn’t working. Remembering what happened last time I cut a finger and wore a plaster on it, that was very uncomfortable and I only did it in the end to stop blood getting everywhere while I was doing a gig. Jenn suggests the superglue option but the skin’s been taken off. There’s nothing to glue so I don’t like that. It’s even in my mind to cancel both rehearsals because I think I’m facing an afternoon of wasting everyone’s time, getting madly frustrated and also making the thing worse and not being able to play for even longer. It’s against all this that, as I’m leaving, I meet Rodo, our Argentinian housemate. I show him what’s happened and, without hesitation, he gives me a couple of plasters. I’ve already said here that I don’t see that as a solution but I don’t want to appear ungrateful so I say thankyou and take them. I put one on there and then. Might as well at least get used to the feeling of it.

I get to Dan’s, show him what I’m going to try and play with today and we get right down to it. I’m instantly absolutely amazed to discover that I’m able to play as freely and as easily as if nothing had happened. Once this has happened, we settle into the rehearsal and concentrate on songs we hadn’t done before rather than going over ones we already have. Bottom line, in two and a half hours we add ten songs to our repertoire. Once we’ve done that, we realise that we’re both off on Friday. So a Friday rehearsal it is. The idea for that one is to consolidate where we are by running through all the songs we didn’t do today and then refreshing the new ones. Time to go and rehearse with Omater.

This rehearsal is pretty much straight forward and is to be the last of the year with her. But she says she wants us to make sure we stay on the case and really be sure of our parts because, when we come back, we’re going to start doing some live recordings for record companies and management people that she’s started to have some tentative contact with. This is another two and a half hour rehearsal which adds up to five hours for today.

Day 436

Friday, December 11

Onto our consolidation rehearsal which ends up being anything but. Me and Dan run through a few Beatles songs and I decide today I’m going to start running some backing vocals. This takes quite a bit of work and in our first session, we manage only three songs, all Beatles numbers, with a greater or lesser degree of success on the vocals. I really am not a strong vocalist. The other difficulty, as I explain to Dan, is that even when I can do vocals, they don’t work in isolation so don’t expect me to be doing counterlines. I can do harmonies and I can double but, as Dan insightfully says, I’m a blender.

However, what we do discover when I demonstrate a song to him, is that I do have a voice for a certain kind of song. I kind of already knew that. The song in question is The Cure’s Lovecats and he loves the way I do it and he is able to deliver counterlines. So that’s that. I’m going to be singing Lovecats. That, along with playing the hugely distinctive bassline, he says with some degree of overstatement, is like watching Paul McCartney sing and play at the same time.

Apart from this, far from consolidating our set as we’d planned, we come to realise that a few songs we wanted to do aren’t going to work, or at least aren’t working now and we’d rather plough on with adding repertoire than spending a massive amount of time on one or two songs. So they get put on the backburner. Then we realise that while other songs will be worthy additions to the repertoire, they simply won’t do for the full on balls out show we want to do for New Year’s Eve. So they go as well. This means that as well as not consolidating, we’ve actually gone backwards as we have fewer songs than we started with. That’s not a great prospect with only two weeks to go to the debut show. But Dan has an idea for this. He’s decided he wants to do a lot of old rock ‘n’ roll numbers. Apart from his having to learn the lyrics, these are songs that will come together very quickly so hopefully we can make up for lost time. We also have an idea for percussion. The plan is to take what we have and, just like in the Jam Jar Jam, let the audience do that job for us.

Day 437

Saturday, December 12

After missing yesterday, I discover there was a bit of drama with a lairy customer who simply wouldn’t be told to shut up or leave. I hear about this having a drink after hours with Goshe, our stunning looking Polish waitress who I have a great relationship with, and Dave, formerly known as Boss B. As a result, we begin swapping swap war stories. Just as I’m launching into another one, Goshe excitedly wants to interrupt me but I’m having none of it. She persists and persists and I relent. ‘When all this was happening last night,’ she says, ‘Me and Dave said that we wished you were here because we knew you would have had something to say.’ Dave all but collapses in agreeing laughter. As interruptions go, it’s one of the best I’ve ever had.

Day 438

Sunday, December 13

I do eight hours in a very busy restaurant, catch my breath and then head off to the Blues Kitchen where I play a three song set with an excellent harmonica player I’ve never seen before.

When the night is over and people are filing out, the bouncers are clearing the place but come nowhere near me. In this atmosphere, I find a calm space at the back hanging out with the house band. Out of nowhere, a girl comes up to me and starts talking. I think I should know who she is but, seeming to sense this, she says, ‘You don’t know me. I just used to work here and I’ve seen you play hundreds of times.’ Minor exageration but that’s fine. Then she adds, ‘Whenever you play you stand out.’ I have no real idea of what this means but am massively flattered and a bit shocked at how she’s just said that from nothing. Before I can respond she’s gone. I don’t see her again.

Not long after this, I think it’s time to leave. On the way out I see Mikey again, the guy I spoke to at the end of last week’s show. He often closes the jam, or at least is always one of the last one. And he pretty much only plays with the house musicians; apart from Kes, I’ve only ever seen him play with one other bassist. Now, he says, ‘Are you here next week?’ Yes. ‘I’d like you to play with me.’ Wow. That’s a bit of a step forward. I tell him I know none of his songs but I’ve heard them so will have a look at learning them. ‘You’ll be fine,’ he says. ‘I’ll talk you through everything.’ I tell him I would absolutely love to play with him, he shakes my hand and I make my exit. Again, wow.

Day 439

Monday, December 14

After last night’s late one, I’m in at the beginning today and will be there till close. I’m exhausted and moving slowly but it’s a slow day. Monday has shown mercy. In the evening, one of the regulars says to me, ‘I have no doubt that in a few years you’ll be running a bar of your own.’ I say I very much doubt it because I have other plans. He asks and I tell him. The fact that I’m a bass player has passed this particular regular by even though we get on very well. He then tells me that, as a sideline, he’s a semi professional musician in a swing band and is looking to get another one up and running. He asks if I play electric or double bass. Electric. Oh well. He’s got his heart set on a double bass player. If he changes his mind, I say, he knows where I am. At this, he asks if I know any horn players. I can think of a sax player who would be great if he was up for it and tell him so. Yep, he says. Make the call and put us in touch. I’m thinking of a guy called Pete from the Blues Kitchen. So while there might not be a place for me in this band right now, I might be able to get a place for someone else should Pete want it.

Monday then shows further mercy when Dan, who’s the boss for this shift, says that if we don’t get any busier, I can finish at half past ten and that’s exactly what happens. But I tell him I won’t be going home. Jenn’s in, as is Saffy, Dan’s wife and a whole host of other cool regulars. When half past ten comes round, we pretty much have the place to ourselves and we make the most of it in a really fun end to a Monday. During this, a few people tell me they’re interested in tickets for our show. I tell them I’ll see what I can do.

Day 440

Tuesday, December 15

The last few days have looked like this. Thursday, 10am till close. Friday off. Saturday, 10 till close. Sunday, 12 till 8 and then the Blues Kitchen, Monday, well, that was yesterday so you know what that was.

I have plans today but nothing starts until I wake up just approaching midday. Then I think a yoga session is in order. I do that for a while, not managing much of any exertion before I feel I have to go to sleep again. I wake up, go get something to eat and think I’ll read for a while. I sleep again. I feel like I’ve been sick for a week and am in recovery mode. Finally, at around half past seven, I feel I can start to get things done. Priority is practicing for The Insiders which includes a list of songs Dan has sent me this morning. I manage an hour and a half on that including consolidating some other songs I’ve not played for a while.

Then there’s some personal admin to do including texting Kes to get Pete’s number. Then I get a call from Martin, the organiser of the New Year’s show. In this, I discover quite a few things. We’ll have a full PA to use. We will begin at midnight and play for an hour and a half to two hours. He has a young female singer who wants to sing with us and he’ll arrange for her to contact me to talk about this and the songs she’d like to do. He tells me the venue will be free all day on the 24th for us to go in and check it out. If not that day, it will be quiet after Christmas so maybe we can organise something then. He asks if we can start our set by ringing in the new year with Aul Lang Syne. That, along with the girl, will add another few songs to our set. And he says that this is going to be the only Camden Town New Year’s Eve event recommended by Time Out Magazine. Not a bad bit of base touching.

Day 444

Saturday, December 19

I’ve been waiting a while to write this entry because I really wanted to confirm everything and let things pan out. Now it’s confirmed, I’m going to bring it all together here.

Now, it’s  no secret that we’re approaching Christmas. I think you pretty much knew that much. This year, as usually happens, New Year’s going to come around not long after. This is all traditionally a bit of a busy time for bars, one of which I work in. But I’ve been thinking recently and, as much as I may owe a bit of loyalty to the bar, it’s part of a big, no, huge, company that probably isn’t going to show me, or anyone else, much loyalty if something really comes to something else. You already know that me and Dan have got our first paying gig as The Insiders on New Year’s Eve which, as I mentioned in my last entry, will begin as close to the stroke of New Year’s Eve as possible. I’m guessing just after the bells which is when we’ll kick it all off with Aul Lang Syne as requested. This means that, in the very first minutes of the new year, me and Dan will begin our journey as a professional duo. I’ve started thinking about this. We both want to start to build some momentum after this period, hitting bars and restaurants as soon as possible to make the whole thing viable. We’ve spoken about going part time at the bar in January to pursue this. Over the past week or so I’ve come to the conclusion that I’d really like to hit the ground running in January. What got me thinking is that dead period in between Christmas and New Year’s Day. We seem to forget about it every year until it happens. For me, it’s the strangest, most non eventy, anti climactic week of the year; there’s all the build up to Christmas and New Year and all fine and well. But we hit Christmas Day, have a nice Boxing Day, or whatever it is you call it in your part of the world, but what then? We all go back to work and life continues as normal until we get ready to do something like it again but without the presents and Santa and stuff.

I took a look at all this and decided I’d quite like to take that dead week and turn it into a full live week hooking us up with venues to hit in the new year. Either getting actual gigs arranged or, at the very least, sorting out a few meetings or even just some hellos and a little of, ‘OK, I’ll call you back when it’s all settled and you emerge, dazed, from your bunker.’ If I was going to do this, I thought why not go the extra little mile and take Christmas itself off. First, just to take it off, but second, to have a little recuperation and preparation time for that week and beyond. It also means that I go from comparing schedules before confirming rehearsals to simply being available to rehearse whenever Dan’s off.

Before I got too far with where all this was leading, I spoke to Dan to see where he stood on really going for it and making the duo our actual job. He said that, not only was he massively up for it on so many levels, but he felt ready to move on himself. That done, I spoke to Callum, the manager of the bar about it. He said that, as long as I got enough notice in, it would be with his best wishes.

What does ‘Do that,’ mean exactly? Well, it means that I handed my notice in and yesterday was my last day at the Oxford. Which means that today is my first day committing myself to being a full time professional bass player.

As well as pursuing the thing with Dan the very best we can, maybe I’ll have time to explore other possibilities. I’m just not going to know until I get there. It’s the big question isn’t it? What came first, the chicken or the egg? It could be either. But if you truly want to know, there comes a time when you really have to put your money on one of them.

Now, it’s too early to call myself a pro player as I’m yet to start making money doing it and am even further from being able to claim it as my sole/dominant income. But the jump has been made. No part time stuff, fitting things in and around each other. This would be me calling myself a bass player and then saying, ‘Oh but I can’t do that date cos I have to go to work.’ Of course, in a few weeks, I may put my tail between my legs and go and get some kind of part time or even full time job. Regarding The Oxford, I’ve learnt that things can move pretty quickly there once someone leaves so I’m not holding my breath on being able to go back.

So this is it.

 

Day 445

Posted on by Sibylline

Sunday, December 20

Blues Kitchen tonight and I get there earlier than I have for a long time and get called up to play the very first set, then kept up to play the second as well which is with Sonny B Walker. Afterwards, he reminds me of a gig he has for the 29th of January and others he’s hoping to do. He’s hoping to make some money himself and asks if I’m up for it all. Is it going to happen? I don’t entirely know but I tell him that as long as he’s getting the gigs, I’ll do them.

Mikey’s there as well and, rather than go and remind him about last week, or force myself onto the list to say he wanted me to play with him, I decide to just sit back and see if he remembers. No. I don’t get called up to play the last set with him. Like I thought, maybe he forgot. I could mention it next time I’m there and see about doing that set he was talking about.

 

Day 448

Wednesday, December 23

I probably won’t write about it too much but this one is worth noting. Well, first it’s worth mentioning that a few days ago, on the 19th actually, Mark’s Diaries finally went public thanks to promptings from Sibylline who kindly offered to administer any kind of site I chose to blog them on. Well, we spoke about it a little on Facebook and concluded that WordPress would be the place and so here they are.

The idea – Siby’s – is to post instalments on Mondays and Fridays. They will be slightly different in length to what was actually posted so multiple days could go up in one go if they were short entries. Where possible, they will also include cliffhangers where I might have continued writing on the day.

Yesterday I did my first little bit of telling people it was actually up so today was really the first full day of it being available, or of anyone knowing it was available. By midnight it had hit 110 views.

While all that was going on, I got busy first of all with a bit of shedding – the very first thing I did this morning – and then another physio appointment on that annoying thickened tendon on my right elbow. Tom, the physio, said it was clear I’d done everything I was supposed to have done and that it was pretty much there and he couldn’t do much more with it. Some thickening and slight soreness is still present so we decide to do a little more acupuncture with it. I ask him if he’s ever done acupuncture on himself and he says that yes, he has but it’s generally better to let someone else do it because if you know it’s coming, there’s a tendency to tense up the muscle involuntarily and so negate the effects.

He then tells me that after years of not playing guitar, he’s started a band with some friends and it’s all down to conversations he’s had with me. I take that as quite a big one. Brilliant. All I can do is wish him all the best with it but I am massively flattered he’s felt inspired enough to get back in the shed and then go out and do something about it.

When I leave, I’m met outside, as arranged, by Jenn and Rodo, our Argentinian housemate. We’re off to Highgate to have an explore of this little London village and see the views of the city from it, which Jenn says are stunning. And yes. We get to Highgate and it really confirms the view I’ve shared here before that London is actually a series of villages. We walk around the place in wonder, totally imagining that we’re somewhere in the middle of England instead of in zone two of the capital of the place. There’s the village square, a few village pubs. But go a little further and you rise the crest of a hill to see London spread out before you although trees and buildings do get in the way a bit. Keep going round a corner and up higher and there’s a bridge from which you can suddenly see the whole thing. Left to right from Canary Wharf across the city mile and the Gherkin onto the Shard and, just to the right of that, St Paul’s Cathedral.

By now it’s half past twelve and I really have to get going. I have a rehearsal at Dan’s at one.

Once there, we get straight into it playing old rock ‘n’ roll songs we’ve not done before. The main challenge is getting the keys right and in the next rehearsal or two, we decide we’re going to work some of them into some kind of medley. For now it’s just a case of being able to play them with some excitement and fluency. We don’t have a great deal of time today but we still manage to add five songs to the set and come up with seven more to prepare. We also arrange to rehearse tomorrow just before we go to the venue to check out what they have there and to have something of a mini dress rehearsal. The plan is to work on songs we don’t know that well at Dan’s and then play the songs we do at the venue. Afterall, we can’t have them knowing we’re still only just putting this thing together.

The evening ends with me in The Oxford having been invited there for a drink by Callum. It’s my first time in as just a punter who doesn’t work there. Jenn comes too and we hang out on the Friends style sofas in the window looking out onto the high street. It’s a quiet night in the bar. One of those weird just before Christmas ones when you never know how it’s going to go. We have a laugh about different little things I’ve done and silly ways I injured myself. Callum’s favourite being a few weeks ago when I cut my finger on a piece of bread. Yes, that happened and he was there. Hey, it had just come out of the oven and was incredibly crusty. I picked it up and a piece of crust broke off and pierced the tip of the ring finger on my left hand. Bloody hurt at the time but I only properly realised I’d hurt it when I came off stage at the Blues Kitchen that night and my finger hurt a lot more than it should have done. Then I remembered. As Callum said, as he walked away in disbelief: ‘And now you’ve cut yourself on bread. Of course you have.’ After these little bits of retelling he says, ‘So are you and Dan planning to continue with the Jam Jar Jam? We’d like you to.’ Absolutely. And now we have a decent repertoire.

 

Day 449

Thursday, December 24

I don’t think it’s that well known that Camden town sits on a canal. This is what runs through Camden Lock around which is a market and a whole host of bars and restaurants. In case you didn’t know – I don’t know how English this expression is if at all – a lock in this context is, for want of a better expression, a water gateway for boats. Just before the lock, the canal bends and there’s a lovely bridge over this bend leading into the famous market and, just on the bend you have a couple of waterfront bars and a hotel. This hotel wall to ceiling windows all around its bottom corner looking right onto this scene. This is one of the function rooms of the hotel and it is here that we will play our first show on New Year’s Eve night. Do I really need to keep capitalising that? I’m not sure. We get our first sight of this spectacular setting when we arrive to check out the PA and generally get a feel for the place and discover what we will and won’t need to bring on the night. The stage is pretty much at the canal’s edge with the walkway bridge directly in the foreground.

First off, it’s a very good job we have the opportunity to do this because it takes us forever to get a decent sound. Not because of any bad equipment or anything but because there are two of us and the sound desk is behind the stage. So it’s a case of go out front and listen, decide what might have to be done, go to the mixing desk behind the stage, make some blind adjustments while no music is happening and then go out and listen again. Then there’s getting the levels right and finding how to work the reverb on this thing. It takes a while but we do get it done.

I’m sure you can imagine that all this takes quite a bit of concentration and a serious attitude to one’s work. There’s a lot of starting songs, listening for what’s going on, then calling them to a halt to see what can be fixed. While we’re doing this, Martin, the organiser has come into the venue. We expected to him to be there and are happy that he is. But after a few minutes, he says, ‘Guys, just a little thought. It might look better if you could smile a bit more.’ Now, he is a bit of a worrier and I’m used to his different ways so, as patiently as I can, I say, ‘Martin, this is not a gig. It’s a soundcheck. We’re not playing to anybody and we’re trying to get this thing sorted out.’ ‘But you could at least smile a bit. Don’t you want to appeal to people?’ ‘Martin, we’re not playing a gig right now.’ What I forgot to say is that, for me at least, I have fun at a gig because I did the serious stuff before it. But I think we both decide this isn’t a point worth continuing because he lets us get on with it and I say nothing else either.

Then he starts asking us about the girl coming and running through some songs with us. Great. No problem. Get her here and we’ll see what we can do. But some preparation time would have been nice. What if she wants to do Bohemian Rhapsody? You don’t knock that out on the fly. Extreme I know but you get the point. Martin spends some time trying to get hold of her and, when he does, he gets a message back saying, ‘I thought we were going to meet on the day.’ Well, that’s the first me and Dan have heard of that so that was never a thing. ‘She’s 14,’ says Martin by way of apology. Fair enough but I tell him that if the first run through we’re going to get with her for anything is on the day then sorry, it isn’t happening. Dan nods in agreement as I say all of this. Martin shrugs his shoulders and says, OK, fair enough. So it’s clear this isn’t going to happen today but to ease things over, we tell him that if she wants to come along to any rehearsals, we’ll see what we can do. Cool. He’ll tell her to get in touch. If she does she does is our attitude and I tell Martin this. She’s the one who wants to do it. We’re really not bothered either way.

He gets on with whatever he’s doing and we run through some of our more uppy and more familiar numbers, getting more confident as we warm up and also as we seem to have found a decent sound in here although Dan is a little thrown by hearing his own voice come back so powerfully through the speakers. Singer/songwriter territory this most definitely is not. This also makes him think that maybe one or two keys of the songs should be changed as well. Another thing this exercise seems to demonstrate, at least to Dan, is that it’s just possible we still don’t have enough songs. On top of that, we start to doubt one or two of our choices and start to think that they might have to go too. Which will mean adding even more songs by next week. Oh dear.

We go for a drink at a nearby bar on the canal and start brainstorming other possible songs to do. We manage to make a decent provisional list. Then we start looking at when we can get together to continue to do this. Dan says he’s off Monday and Wednesday and we could go to The Oxford and work out all day both days. Sure. That can be done.

When I get home, SBLer Ian W has sent me a message and has suggested I get in touch with a cousin of his who’s a professional bass player. It’s just for a hello really. Maybe some advice, tips or contacts in the future, or maybe just for inspiration. The way I see it is this. I’ve made the leap and now I’m being asked if I can do full day rehearsals and, on Christmas Eve, I’m told about a pro I should at least go and say hi to. Were either of these things going to happen last week? That was a rhetorical question. No need to send answers on a postcard.

 

Day 452

Sunday, December 27

I am now on Twitter. People have been telling me I should be on it for ages doing what I’m doing and I’ve done the whole, ‘I know I know,’ thing. Well now I’ve broken that particular cherry. It looks like it might be fun.

This is also a day of preparation. Dan’s sorted us out the function room at The Oxford for rehearsal as there’s nothing going on in there tomorrow. We aim to get in at 12 and stay there all day. We do indeed have a lot of work to do so, after a Christmas Day of relaxation and a Boxing Day of indulgence, I get right down to it today. Half hour sessions with breaks for maximum memory retention. I would have liked to have managed more than three and a half hours through the day but I’ll take it. I do consider going on for that extra half hour to make four but I really do feel I’ve gone as far as I can with it today.

 

Day 453

Monday, December 28

Yesterday’s practice did the job. I don’t feel short at anytime during today’s marathon rehearsal. We make the most of it, arriving at 12 as planned, setting up and continuing all the way until 7pm with only the most minimal of breaks the entire time. For the first time, we also played standing up the entire time as this is how we intend to present ourselves on stage. This added a whole different dynamic to the rehearsal. We only call the thing to a close when both of us have pretty much hit the wall of retention. Not only that, neither of us can sing another note.

Oh yes. That’s right. I’m singing. That’s not a development I saw coming at all. I was hoping to be able to add some harmonies and a few bits and pieces on choruses, but here I am accompanying Dan on whole songs. After the soundcheck on the 24th, Dan’s decided we need to change the keys of some of them. These changes suddenly opened a whole load of the songs right up for me and I was finally able to sing a few of them. Not only that but mine and Dan’s voices fit right in together. Well, we think so anyway. This might actually sound half decent. It also means that, all of a sudden, I’ve got a lot of lyrics to learn as well as getting down with the key changes, not to mention getting myself to be able to play some of the lines while singing as well. But if it works, it puts us on the way to attaining a whole new level of what we can do as a duo. Before we leave, we do a full appraisal of what we’ve done and so where we are and then have a look at what is left to do for when we get together next.

When we’re packing up, he says it’s a really good sign that we can get together and put this kind of shift in. I think it’s fair to say that we’ve both worked with people in the past we had high hopes for only to discover they had little or even non existent work ethics. Very frustrating.

I’m not going to make a habit of counting hours and, indeed I haven’t in the entire diaries but today is worth noting. I did half an hour preparation before heading out – consolidating some bits and pieces I did yesterday. I’m giving us six and a half hours rehearsal because, as I said, we did take only the most minimal of breaks in the seven or so hours we were there. When I got home, as soon as I could, I got into learning some lyrics and spent the better part of an hour on that. Bloody hell. Me working as a singer. I’ve never consciously got down and learnt lyrics to covers before. That all counts as work in the shed. So for today, I’m taking eight hours.

 

Day 455

Wednesday, December 30

Having put in an hour and a half preparation, I arrive at The Oxford at 12 to discover Dan’s already there and has been for at least an hour working on his own parts. Everything’s all set up and ready to go. I’ve spoken to Sarah as well and we can expect her at about two O’Clock but we’ll just get on with our own thing and see if she turns up.

Yes she does. And she has her singing teacher, Andre, with her. OK. That’s an interesting extra element. He’s cool though, not obtrusive at all and is open to our own suggestions as we’re working through the songs and trying to find different ways for her to approach certain parts. She’s chosen two Ariana Grande songs, Love Me Harder and One Last Time. We have a particular issue with Love Me Harder with a call and response part between the male and female vocals. I suggest a cheeky lyrical rewrite which makes it seem as though the female protagonist is just thinking out loud and asking answering her own questions. They like that. Then Andre suggests her using two different singing voices for the parts to give them the dynamic they need.  With those two elements put together, it all works and we’re ready to move on. As I said the other day, she’s just 14 and, as expected, does need a little guidance. But she takes it all in and ends up sounding fantastic on both songs. However, it takes two and a half hours to get through all that. We’re hoping she now realises what a struggle it could have been if we’d just decided to meet up and wing it on the day. Still, it has been good to meet her and Andre and the job is now done. Now me and Dan have to continue to make sure our job is done.

Continue we do until nearly eight O’Clock when we’ve finally gone through everything and thrown out a few songs that just weren’t coming together quick enough. Maybe we could nail them in the future but with a show tomorrow and a lot to get through, spending an hour or so on one song wasn’t an option. What we have done is changed a lot of keys which we’ll have to watch out for but which has also made the songs in question come alive. Not only does Dan sound better singing them but, again, they’ve been moved right into my range and I’m able to add that dual vocal again. And the vocals seem to work. We come to the conclusion that this is because, where his voice is too smooth for certain songs, mine could be a little too harsh. It could possibly be that his smoothness is rounding out my harshness while my harshness is adding the edge that his voice is missing. I don’t know but somehow it works.

By the time we hit the end of our last song, that’s it. We’re spent. Totally. You can actually see string imprints on his fingers and there are certain parts of my fingers I’m scared to use now incase I properly damage them for tomorrow night.

We go downstairs and people are surprised to see us still there. They know we’ve been at it since sometime before 12. We get a drink and sit down, silent in relief and something approaching exhaustion. Despite all this, I still feel we’re a rehearsal short. What we still haven’t done is play the whole set through. We’ve played all the songs at one point or another but we haven’t done what we’re going to do tomorrow. It takes me a few minutes but finally I voice this concern to Dan. He looks down, sighs and looks up again. ‘We could do it now,’ Yes, I say. I think we should. Dave, the manager on today, can’t believe it when he sees us walking past the bar and making our way back upstairs again. ‘You’re not still going are you?’ Yep. We definitely are.

We quickly decide how we’re going to do this. We’re not going to play the entirety of every song unless it’s needed. Some will be verse and chorus and that’s it. Maybe then go and play the ending. Basically, we just have to make sure we have every change and also remind ourselves of some of the key changes. Before we start, one of the chefs comes in and says hi. Then Dave drops by on his way to the office. We offer to play them something and they settle back. We go for a few songs we’re quite comfortable with and which both have dual vocals all the way through – Creeque Alley by The Mamas And Papas and That’s Alright Mama, the first song Elvis Presley ever recorded. The guys are massively impressed and leave the room for us to get on with it.

And we do. There are discussions, a few parts get run through a couple of times but then finally, finally, we’re done. This last session took just over an hour and a half and it’s now comfortably past ten. Considering we still have to go and make a setlist and pack all the gear up, by the time we’re completely finished, it’s going to be nearly 11 which is the time the bar will close today. What that means is that we will have been working on this for the entire working day of the bar.

But we’re ready. We think.

Day 456

Posted on by Sibylline

Thursday, December 31

We’re able to go and soundcheck at about 5:30. I arrive at 5:25 and Sarah’s already there. She asks if she can help, but not really. I just have to get everything set up. I tell her I probably should have suggested she arrives a little later as singers always end up just hanging around but she says it’s better she arrived when she did. OK. Cool.

Just as I have everything set up on the desk, Dan arrives. He’s done well. He wasn’t supposed to finish work until 5:30 but he managed to get out early so he could come here. We get all the soundchecking stuff done, claiming channels for ourselves and leaving the first two as they were for the comedy microphones. Then we take a picture so that we can just match everything up later on to check it’s all still there and to know what we have to move to where if anything’s changed. Martin comes by and we show him what we’ve done. It’s clear. We won’t touch his channels and no-one will touch ours.

That’s fine but then he throws his first fly in our ointment telling us that there’s a cut off point of 1am on music so we can’t continue past that. Considering he wants us to go on at midnight and start with Auld Lang Syne, and considering getting Sarah up and off, this shortens our set to considerably less than an hour. We think of all the work we’ve done to get ourselves to two hours but quickly come to the conclusion that it wasn’t all for tonight and that we’re going to be ready as soon as shows come our way in January. It’s a pragmatic reaction and one Dan has more than me. The next pragmatic reaction is to make sure we’re still going to get paid the full amount even though we’ re only playing half the time. First off, that’s not the point and second, it’s not us who didn’t do the research – ie, actually call the hotel and find out until what time they could have live music. We agree that if the price goes the same way as the time, we’re not doing the gig.

I go and talk to Martin and put the question to him. ‘A promise is a promise,’ he says. ‘I’ve told you a price and that’s it.’ Fair enough. We’re still on.

Soundcheck done, it’s a few hours before anything else is going to happen so we all go our separate ways to meet here again a little after 11. But before that, me and Dan put our heads together and think about how to change the set to work it out for an hour. All kinds of crossings out and reordering get done and we feel like we’ve managed to do the job. Now, my plan is to get back here for about half past eleven. As we’re leaving the hotel, I have a thought that we could talk to Martin about starting the show at 11:30 but then I think about the whole Auld Lang Syne bit. It’d be a bit tricky now to time the set to make sure we finish a song just before midnight. I am disappointed about a lot of the songs we’re throwing out but Dan reminds me that they’re there for other shows.

Jenn’s going tonight and will be there between nine and ten. I’m still at home after she’s left as I still want to work some of those changed keys we’ve done. Dan’s job in this time is to reorder the setlist and reorder the lyric file he’s made for himself for reference. In time, that won’t be used at all but for now, it’s just a little bit of insurance. Neither of us are too happy about having notes on stage but with forty plus songs to have learnt in a month, that’s a lot of lyrics to internalise. I get my few bits done and, rather than hang around for the sake of it, decide to head on down to the venue, hang out with Jenn and catch some of the comedians. I get there and Martin is immediately on me. ‘I had a thought. We’re going to finish a little early here. Why don’t you start at 11:30? That way you can get a bit of a longer set.’ Cool. Suits me. ‘You still want Auld Lang Syne at midnight?’ ‘Absolutely,’ he says. OK. It will be a little tricky but we’ll do it. With that, Martin goes up between comedians and announces to the audience that the band will now go on half an hour early.

Dan arrives and I tell him what’s just happened. Oh no. He’s ordered all his lyrics in individual plastic folders in a ring binder. The idea is that he can just flip from one song to another and everything can go smoothly. Now we’re doing an extra half hour, we’ve got to redo the set again and he’s got to redo the file. Oh, and it’s now eleven O’Clock. We get that job done and head back into the venue at twentyfive past. This is when Martin tells us he’d forgotten all about another comedian who is yet to arrive, his headline act, Patrick Monahan. So we’ll be going on at midnight afterall. Oh no again. Me and Dan look at each other. Now we’re back to the hour set but that’s been totally butchered to make the hour and a half set but we’ve got to somehow switch back to it now. Everything is going to have to be reordered as we realise we’re going to have to just go for the big hitters. But how many of them do we really have? An hour’s worth? We don’t really know. We had the show all paced out for two hours. A pretty well constructed first half with a good, confident intro and then paced to give us a bit of a half-time peak at which point we’d bring on Sarah to do her two songs plus one more of ours she knew that we’d put in reserve incase she got her own private encore. Then we were back with a good chilled mini set to follow the more mellow songs she’d done. Then a build up and then a bang into a few big rock ‘n’ roll medleys to end the night. After all that preparation, it looks like we’re going to have to go up and wing it. There’s no ebb and flow. This is new year’s eve. Apart from Sarah, we don’t feel we can even do any mid tempo songs. We have to give the up-and-dancers from start to finish.

Patrick Monahan is not a big TV name but he is quite a big hitter on the comedy circuit. Big and busy enough that this will be his seventh show tonight. He’s late and, on stage, the penultimate comedian is trying to fill time so that there’s no gap between acts. He asks Martin twice if Patrick’s arrived yet and both times the answer’s negative. In the end, Martin goes to the stage and says, over the microphone, ‘Is the band here? Do you want to set up before Patrick arrives?’ I’m upstairs in a seated area overlooking the venue. ‘Yes,’ I shout over everyone in there while looking down at Martin. ‘That would be a good idea.’

So me and Dan gather ourselves and start to walk to the stage to see what we can get set up before Patrick arrives. It’s now just past 11:40. We have no equipment on stage, we have to hook everything up and make sure our sound is still OK, and the headline comedian, who was somehow forgotten about and hasn’t arrive yet, still has to play his set.

As we get halfway to the stage, we hear a loud one sided telephone conversation from somewhere in the lobby. ‘I’m here. Where are you? Where? Oh, I see the door. OK. Where now? Yes. I think I see it. Yes I’m here.’ And in walks Patrick, still talking loudly on his phone as he enters the venue and Martin proclaims that he’s arrived. Now we don’t know what to do and just kind of stand there in the middle of the room holding all our stuff. We can’t go on stage and set up now.

Martin trots up to me. ‘Can you set up in five minutes?’ he asks. ‘We’d prefer a bit more time but we’ll do what we can.’ ‘OK. I’ll make sure Patrick finishes at ten to.’ This quick conversation is conducted as Patrick is actually making his way to the stage to start his act. Now we’re going to have very minimal time in which to get ourselves ready before midnight when we’re due to start. When we have to start really. I unpack my bass and mic leads so I’m ready to go. This includes getting my tuner out and tuning the bass right here in the middle of the room. I notice Dan is doing similar things now from the back of the room.

Patrick’s ‘act’ ends up being little more than an extended introduction before he wishes everyone a happy new year and announces that now the music is about to begin. With that, we’re up onto the stage dealing with the mixing desk, checking our channels and getting leads into all the right places. We also have to get our own microphone stands ready and get all the stuff we’re not using packed away. It’s less than five minutes to midnight. Martin’s on the stage really not helping. ‘Do you think you could be ready in two minutes?’ And then, ‘It’s now two minutes to midnight. Are you almost ready?’ We would be if you weren’t asking us about it every two minutes. It’s about now I realise that, while everything else is as we’d left it, the gain dials at the tops of all our channels have been turned to zero. Bloody hell. Where were they before? I have no idea. I want to get Dan’s phone to check but he’s still sorting himself out. I just turn them up to where I think they should be, making them more or less equal using the faders as my reference. I give my bass a quick bash and it seems to be the same level as it was. I ask Dan to do the same with his guitar. OK. That’s going to have to do. But we’d tweaked the guitar/bass levels to what we thought was absolute perfection before. Now we’re having to make do. As with every other clock in the world, the one in front of us stops for no-one and there’s ten seconds to go now so we have what we have. Ignoring the organised chaos behind him, Martin starts the countdown to new year on the microphone. I’m ready but Dan, who has a bit more to do, is still organising things. Midnight and the new year is announced. Party poppers go off. People are all hugging and wishing each other happy new year and all that. Then Martin comes up and announces we’re going to play Auld Lang Syne for everyone to sing to. It’s only as this is happening that Dan finishes his last adjustment on the desk and pulls himself up onto the stage to face the crowd, guitar ready to go.

We’d been asked to learn Auld Lang Syne and we had. To play it. Doesn’t everyone all over the place play it without music and just sing the lyrics themselves? Well now, as we’re starting the show, Martin’s on me asking if I know the words. No. I say without a hint of guilt. Inside I’m thinking what I just wrote there. No-one ever brings the words. They just happen. Musicians or not. He looks like he’s about to have a minor panic. But then, he always looks like that so it’s hard to tell if he is or not. People start to sing a little as we give them the accompaniment. But then Patrick decides to extend his show, taking a microphone and taking charge as we play on. He’s quite masterful actually, asking if anyone has a phone and can google the words. ‘No. No. I’ve got them here,’ he says. And with that, he prompts everyone as he reads the words from his phone.

This goes on for ages as verse follows verse, all eating into our truncated one hour set. But right now, that’s absolutely fine by us. When it all comes to something of a natural end, we’re up. We’ve played the song in A and that’s where our opening number begins. Nine To Five. I begin it with triplets on the bass and then Dan comes in. First verse and then a pumping bassline for the huge singalong chorus. And there they are. The people are singing along and starting to bounce. Especially up high to our left where there’s a whole row of tables looking down on the whole venue. It seems to me as though everyone up there is on their feet. We’re in.

When we finish the first song, Martin’s at the front of the stage again. ‘Do you guys mind getting Sarah up sooner rather than later?’ No problem Martin. Three or four songs and we’ll call her up. OK?

That’s what we do and she comes up and does a great job, hitting everything we’ve rehearsed and then her part’s over and we continue with the show. Someone shouts out ‘Elvis!’ And me and Dan look at each other. Why not. We actually have an Elvis medly and we might as well do it now. I think it also shows versatility while giving the impression of having a bigger repertoire than we do, that we can change on a dime to give people what they want. That goes well but now we’ve well and truly messed up our set. We don’t even have all our songs written down now after having turned it all upside down to prepare a one and a half hour set, a one hour one, back to an hour and a half and now what we have. So, after the Elvis numbers, me and Dan are just suggesting songs at random to each other as we finish each one. I don’t know what he’s thinking but I’m thinking I hope we don’t run out of big dancy numbers before the hour’s up. Can we keep this going? I think we can but there’s absolutlely no structure to what order we’re playing things in now. It feels as though we’re just lurching from one song to another. But we keep the happy faces on, people keep dancing and it looks like we’re doing a good impression of getting away with it.

Now, we’re doing OK. We’re just picking out all our big numbers and more people are starting to hit the floor and dance. If not, they’re bobbing up and down or at least singing along at their tables. There’s a minor moment of told you so for me in the early part of the set. When we did the first soundcheck on December 24, we started with Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy and as soon as we finished it, Martin was on us. Are you going to play songs that are a bit more rock ‘n’ roll on the night? Go away Martin. Yeah sure we are. So, to keep him quiet, for the rest of that soundcheck, rock ‘n’ roll numbers was all we played. Now, at the show, we pull out Crazy and, as we do, a roar goes up around the whole venue and when the vocals kick in, loads of people are singing along with them. In this moment I want to catch Martin’s eye and give him a little wink but he’s out of sight somewhere. Shame.

We keep rocking it and it’s actually a relief when Dan discretly checks his watch and stage whispers across to me, ‘Ten minutes to one.’ I can think right now of more songs we can play to keep the atmosphere going and for the first time all night, I think I relax a little. When we announce our last song – I have absolutely no recollection of what it was – there are audible groans. A good sign. Then someone shouts out, ‘Seven Nation Army.’ I thought they would. I oblige and kick off the famous bassline. We had learnt this but not great and Dan wasn’t sure about playing it so we’d left it off. But now I’m able to talk on the mic and tell everyone we don’t do this song but we’ll give it a go. Again, I think it gives the impression of a bigger repertoire than we have. Dan manages to do something with the lyrics and we do just one verse and chorus of that song. Then immediately, we begin our final number proper. When that’s finished, there are shouts everywhere for more. I think at this point I should say that I was never convinced we were the right kind of act for this kind of show and I still think that’s the case. For a start, it’s New Year’s Eve. Second, it’s a really big room with the band being the total focal point for everyone. Now, we’re not a band. We’re a duo. With one guitar and one bass. It’s the kind of thing you put on a small stage in a pub or maybe even in the corner as live background music. On a small stage, you’d have people getting into it and, further back, people probably talking while happily being aware of music going on. But a big venue like this, at an event like this? You need a band. A real band. With a drumkit and lights and stuff. But for what we’re getting paid, great though it is for the two of us, you’re not even close to being able to afford a real band and not a good real band at that. So yeah, I think we’ve been a slightly inappropriate booking. But it looks like we’ve made something of a job of it. Well, there they are now demanding more more more and we’re well over the cutoff time. We’ve also played all our big numbers. Or think we have. In the next hour or so, we’re going to start remembering plenty of other songs we could have played. For now, Dan looks at me and says, half shrugging, ‘Twist And Shout?’ OK. Why not. It’s with this, ‘we might as well play this song next,’ spirit that we’ve made it through the whole set. We might as well carry that on now. So, for better or worse, Twist And Shout it is. When we finish, people are shouting out for more again. I get on the mic, as I have been doing all night, and say, ‘Sorry, that really is all we can play. The hotel will come and kick us off if we do anymore. Thankyou very much, happy new year and goodnight.’ With all that, as we walk off the stage, somehow we’ve managed to leave them shouting for more. But no. It really is over.

But not really because we still have to get paid. All I’ve been hearing all the past week is how it hasn’t been selling as well as hoped and even tonight I’ve been hearing how money’s going to be lost on the show. Sorry. Not our problem. Anyway, if you’re getting this many people into a venue and still aren’t making a profit then you’re giving yourself a very small margin from which to work with.

Me and Dan had spoken about our concerns of not getting paid after the original soundcheck and had come up with a contingency plan. But, to be fair, there are no issues at all. Martin is on top of it and turns up with the money in full not long after we finish. However, he can’t help himself but to tell us that one of the main acts, who asked him not to say a word, took a fraction of his fee tonight to help out. That’s nice. Thanks Martin. Happy New Year. Bye.

And we’re off. But not before Jenn stops us to take a new year picture in the lobby – a spectacular selfie using a large mirror with all new year wishes colourfully written on it.

Now what to do next? Dan says he has to go to The Oxford anyway so cool. That’s our destination. We decide to walk it. As we approach it, it doesn’t seem quite right but all appears closed. All the benches are up and there’s little activity. Bloody hell we missed it all. But inside, the guys are all still at it themselves and, when they see us, a collective cheer and a general, ‘Come inside,’ goes up. And we’re in, with the managers and the guys who have been working tonight. Callum, Dave, Goshe, Mark and Vasella. They’ve got their own music on and the drinks are going. This is their new year after party and we’re brought right into it. After not too long, Dan says he’s heading off as he’s in early in the morning. Before he goes, he says he’s free Tuesday. So that’s that. Next rehearsal arranged. Jenn leaves with him and the rest of us carry on but with a change of venue.

I wonder how cool someone has to be to have all the management and staff of a bar like this go to their house party on New Year’s Eve. Well, we have that person. Ben and his crowd. They’re Sunday regulars and are always unobtrusive while creating a positive vibe that pervades the whole place. It’s to his place we’re going now and it’s less than five minutes walk away. Once there, we’re welcomed like long lost party brothers and sisters. By the time I leave, the birds are singing and it’s close to 6am.