Although we've both backed each other live before, tonight was the first time Jamie and I had played a joint set...
[edit 2014 - I've added a couple of pics taken at our rehearsals at Jamie's on 10 July]
What an enjoyable night we had at the Roxy....
CBQ & JJ at the Roxy - pics by Stu Cobley [edit 2014 2 further pics added]
Jamie came to pick me up around seven and we drove to The Roxy. Ali from Impossible Songs was there already but John from IS and Norman Lamont were still to arrive.
Jamie and I had an impromptu run through a couple of the songs we weren’t too sure of and then unsuccessfully attempted to re-write David Bowie’s “Jean Genie”.
Once Norman and John arrived we started setting up the stage and then we all had a sound-check and, after a bit of tweaking, it was sounding pretty good.
Norman was to kick off the night, or rather push the night off gently, with a set of soundscapes at nine. At around 8.45 he asked me if I’d like to try out his set up. Of course I jumped at the chance and, after a couple of minutes of pointers as to how the various pedals etc worked, I was off.
I need to find £500 from somewhere to get a similar set up – I’d do an album a day I’m sure. I used a string sample to build up a sound collage and then left everything running as I propped Norman’s guitar up on a chair and took a walk around the hall listening to my handiwork.
At nine Norman faded my creation out and set off on his own soundscape. Painstakingly built up from small bell/glockenspiel sounds, with guitar washes and other keyboard like samples, soon his gently hypnotic piece filled the hall and washed over the audience.
Meanwhile Jamie had disappeared. He’d told me he was away to get a quick bite to eat but he’d been gone for ages.
Impossible Songs took to the stage for their first set of the evening and, like their gig here last Friday, the sound of the hall suited them perfectly. This was another accomplished performance from them and I am becoming a fan.
Last week I compared them to Young Marble Giants – this week, along with that comparison, John’s guitar work reminded me of the great early work of the Durutti Column.
Midway through the set, my Creek cohort, Stuart Cobley arrived with his very expensive SLR digital camera with which he intended to document the night. And he did so admirably.
With a few minutes to go before we were due on for our first set, Jamie finally reappeared in the hall. He explained he’d witnessed an incident on a nearby street. Three men had pulled up in a black car, shaken hands with a guy who was sitting on a bench drinking with his friend and then proceeded to grab the guy and force him in to the car. Then they drove off.
Jamie got the number of the car and called the police. He’d spent the last 40 minutes being driven around in a police car trying to locate the men. It turned out they were GIs from a nearby barracks who were taking an AWOL colleague back to base...panic over and Jamie was allowed to go on his way.
Our first set got off to a good start with three fast songs, “The Gardener”, “Why Billy Why” and “The Crocodile Song”. All went without incident – apart, perhaps, for the “woof-woof” incident in “The Gardener” which threw us a bit due to us laughing.
Then it was the first of Jamie’s two new songs, currently called “J J’s Joy”, which he started to write at the Out of the Bedroom Songwriters’ Workshop last Saturday. Again, no problems.
Next up was the second debut performance – my song “Snowfall”, or rather mine and my nephew, Andy Wilson’s, as I put new lyrics to one of his tunes, slowing it down a little and also adding a new melody. A couple of fluffed chord changes messed it up for me but the audience didn’t seem to notice.
Jamie’s “The King’s Country” was next and I managed to get through this one with no problems, even adding some unrehearsed backing vocals and I was particularly please with “The Beauty of a Foreign Land” which went without a hitch too. Our last song was Jamie’s second new song “The Eco Song” which gelled brilliantly for us and ended the first set on a high.
Norman was to have done a couple of songs next, before coming back later to finish off the night, but he very generously gave up his slot to let an old friend of his perform a two songs. If Norman reads this, he can perhaps e-mail me the guy’s name as I didn’t catch it, but his songs were well constructed and tuneful, adding nicely to the night’s entertainment.
Impossible Songs then returned for their second set and continued to impress. I now have all four of their albums and so couldn’t buy any more tonight but if I could have I would have. Favourites spring to mind now – “Happy Like”, “WIP”, the psychotic “All the Vows”, “Dancing”, “Tokyo Skyline”, “She’s A Waitress”. John’s guitar work makes me wish I was better...as does Norman’s.
He closed the proceedings with a polished set of songs, his last, the raucous “Nicole” being a highlight for me – but his best performance (apart from his earlier soundscape) had to be his touching rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Famous Blue Raincoat”. Of course it was always going to be the case that some people in the audience reckoned he’d ripped off Leo Sayer’s “When I Need You”!!
In between Impossible Songs and Norman Lamont, Jamie and I took to the stage for our second set, opening with “Skylines Full of Cranes” which is on his album “Precious” and the OOTB compilation “Open House” with the original appearing on CBQ’s “Anotherhappyday”.
It was a good one to start with as we both know it so well. Jamie sang the verses and I sang the choruses. Then came what was, for me, my most enjoyable performance of the night, “The End of Everything”.
Jamie followed with “Fairytales” and then it was the down-tempo “I Rearranged the House”. We juxtaposed that against the up-tempo “Trash Can Secrets” during which we managed to get slightly out of synch but were right back on the button for the surprise ending.
“Very Small” is one of my best songs and it was up next – but I’d been distracted by my guitar getting slightly out of tune and continually fluffed the opening of the song, having to restart so many times, it sounded like I was doing an ad for “a big shiny car”. The audience took it all in good part though and, once we got going, the song recaptured its power.
We finished with “Half a Lifetime Away”. Again we swapped verses and choruses with me taking the former and Jamie the latter. Then it was all over.
It always surprises me how quickly performances go. That was our first full one since last September. All in all it went very well.
Jim Park was in the audience and, later we exchanged a few jokes about his snail on the ceiling story which recently appeared in his very funny blog (
http://www.toecurler.com/).
It was good to see Ian Sclater as well - we've not recorded for a few weeks now due to various circumstances and he's about to move house, so things are on hold for the present.
Of course it's always great to see young Mr Cobley as well and, as you can see, his photos are excellent.
So there we are - all over till the next time...
Jamie and I will be doing a set each at Out of the Bedroom’s shows during the fringe which you can find out about here
http://www.edfringe.com/shows/detail.php?action=shows&id=OUTOG
Our dates are still to be announced but it’s been agreed that I’ll compere the night on which Jamie appears and vice versa...looking forward to that.
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