Over extended...

Playlist
Alice Peacock - Who I Am
OK Go –Oh No
Mogwai – Mr Beast
Muse – Hullabaloo
Bryan Ferry – Goddess of Love (CD Single)

Another scorcher today…

Up at 6 and started the day by noting down the lyrics of eight songs of the thirty two I’ve chosen to play over the four Fringe gigs – these are songs I’ve never played live before…

A couple of hours later, once Anne was up and after some breakfast, I drove to patisserie Florentin for some of their lovely croissants – only to find they had not one single croissant of any type left – either there had been a run on them or their baker had had a breakdown of some sort…

To the supposedly posh new Waitrose nearby (just looked the same as the Safeway and Morrison’s it’s been in its past life) and bought a couple of croissants and two French rustic rolls for lunch…

We breakfasted in the back garden, in the shade – the sun comes round in the afternoon….

As Anne took to the garden to do some stuff there, I went back to “work”, working out the chord structures for the eight “new” songs, then typed up the lyrics and chords and added these to my bulging folder of songs what I have writ….

Lunchtime and we had the rolls with a selection of salad and cheese – again we ate al fresco, this time I had to sit in the shade of the garage to avoid the direct, hot and baking sunshine which I really do not appreciate…

Then back inside again and I set up the computer and ran through the first two of the four eight song sets – and of course the crisis of confidence set in about singing songs I’d never sung before – even though there will probably be no-one there when I actually come to do the gigs…

Each set contains one song from each of the eight albums listed yesterday and , over the piece the – plan is to sing each of the thirty two songs from the 2CD set compiled on yesterday morning…

After over an hour singing and playing, I was a bit bored by it all….

Anyway, I’d called James Jamieson and he was set to come round around 3pm for a quick practise before tonight’s gig at the Listening Room…

He did indeed arrive and promptly advised he’d completely changed one of the songs – so the majority of the time was spent learning that one…

Then we ran through most of his 10 song set and arranged to meet up at the venue later on…

To Anne’s mum’s for tea – the usual everyone around the table shouting their stories ensued and as usual, I took little part as it’s pointless because (1) you cannot make yourself heard and (2) no-one’s interested anyway…

I did have a good game of Paper, Scissors, Stone with nephew Ollie though, in which he started to invent things which his hand represented e.g. a volcano, a recycling machine, air etc etc and I then of course had to invent something which might beat that…

Ollie won in the end, as children often do – mainly by wearing me down….

And so to the gig…

I arrived early and chatted with Dave O’Hara, Out of the Bedroom’s soundman extraordinaire…

Someone else arrived and said they were looking forward to Nobody Jones’ set tonight – I advised I was under the impression James Jamieson was playing. Once organiser Chris Brown arrived we cleared matters up and he texted Mr Jones to advise him JJ was to play – apparently Chris had been trying to e-mail Jamie and had been getting no response – the gig was postponed from last week which would have clashed with the World Cup Final…

Unaware of all this, Jamie arrived with a bag containing two garish Hawaiian shirts which we were going to wear – I was up for it, but Jamie decided against and so he’s taking them back to Asda..

The evening kicked off late and there were around eight or so people set to play a couple of songs each, including me. I was first name out of the hat following Chris’ opening two songs and I played “Skylines Full of Cranes” and “Twenty Twenty Vision” to which Jamie added some adept harmonies…

By the time Jamie was to play, our combined pulling power had produced just one member of the audience, Jamie’s oldest and bestest friend, Joe…

The set went down well with Jamie on top form, Chris driving things along on his djembe (jamming really, as he had no idea what the songs were until he was playing them) and me playing the bass as best I could….

I think I did a decent job given the amount of rehearsal time we’d had. The only dodgy point was where Jamie sang a song in a completely different key from that which we’d rehearsed – consequently, every note I played in the first verse was wrong but I managed to work it out in the end…

An enjoyable night all the more so for having none of the pressure which usually goers with performing, since it was Jamie’s set – I was more nervous about the two songs I played earlier on…

I told Jamie about the upcoming Beanscene gigs and my plan to play four different sets….

He immediately became my executive producer for the gigs by advising I just ought to play my ten or so best songs – which is exactly what my usual executive producer, Anne, would say.

Executive producers exist to tell you how stupid your ideas are…

Home just after eleven on a hot muggy night…

Instead of going to bed, I sat up compiling my “squad” of songs for the gigs. I’ve chosen twelve songs to rehearse, of which I will play a selection of nine each night…

Highlight of the Day : James Jamieson at the Listening Room