Gig report: Matt Corrall's 30th Birthday @ The Cornerhouse, Cambridge

Bands: Tom Tilbury (with myself on congas/drums, and Matt Corrall on harmonica for on2 track), Stephen Matthew (guest drums on 1 track), Matt Corrall Band
Venue: The Cornerhouse, Cambridge
Date: 22/05/10
Audience: Packed, lively, appreciative
Sets: Lots and lots of songs
Notes: My good friend Matt turned 30, and to celebrate I put together a gig for him - he's a harmonica maestro, so arranging a gig around his talents seemed like the most suitable way to celebrate his big day. The Cornerhouse very kindly gave us the venue (and soundman) for free, and we packed the place out, was a much enjoyable, if drunken evening. The extremely humerous Stephen Matthew (who this time last week was on stage as an actor alongside myself in 'Cat Food' at the Brighton Fringe) opened the show and none of us had ever seen anything quite like it - his eccentricity was a joy to watch, from his one-handed drum solo with a puppet called 'Royston' to his joyous cover of Father Ted's 'My Lovely Horse', he both excited and confused the locals. I was asked to guest with him on one track - which I can't remember the name of, but it did involve the audience all participating in a dance called 'The Washing Machine'. Brilliantly, most people did. I then played a full set with Tom Tilbury - starting out on congas as we 'rehearsed' at Wednesday's gig, and it was nice to also get behind a full drum kit for one of the tracks too to add a bit of variation. After that it all got a bit messy, in a good way, with what is probably the last ever Matt Corrall Band gig (the man himself moves to Bristol in a couple weeks time), so the harmonica-led blues with a scattering of guest guitarists (a French chap called Gilliam, Mark Allum, Tom Tilbury, Kerry Lambert) and bassists (Marcus Hood, Stephen Matthew), with me on drums for pretty much the whole thing apart from a superb turn from Kerry who is actually an excellent drummer and he played 2 tracks when I needed a bit of a break. It was a long evening, the set was completely unplanned and the blues stuff ran from 10.30pm for over 2 hours. I was very drunk, and critical of my own performance as always, but in retrospect nobody noticed because everybody was as beveraged-up as I was. We're all growing up a bit, and probably should grow out of this binge drinking malarkey at some point, but a cracking night was had by all.