Filming with Fred's House

Got back about an hour ago from the Fred's House film shoot; Fred's House are a brilliant (and I mean that genuinely) band from Cambridge who write lovely songs, and today it was the filming of the promo video for their new track, 'Someone Else's Road'. When I signed up originally I thought it was to be an extra, but a couple days back it turns out I had one of the 'bigger' roles. Like it or not, I'm somehow, accidentally becoming an actor, there just seems to be a need for awkward people in my age group at the moment. It's a great track - it's basically a story, I don't want to spoil it too much because the video will be out soon and there's some nice moments in there, but my likable loser character, Naughty Billy, gets his girlfriend pregnant, her mum goes mental, there's a nice ending to it all. I enjoyed being 'in character' today, and even though I only had about four hours sleep inside me after last night's gig I felt inspired by the quality of people I was working with. Let's be honest, I turned up looking and feeling like shit, but as soon as things started moving it was brilliant fun - even if a lot of my scenes involved being hit reasonably forcefully by a handbag. Things kicked off at about 9.30am, and finished at 6pm, it was a strange way to spend a Sunday, especially as my character seemed to be one of the main points of focus, but I enjoyed every second of it (despite the marks and minor cuts on my arm from the handbag hits), people are just so nice. All of Fred's House are just so nice, and decent musicians too. I found it brilliant to watch Kate Madison and Emily Blickem team up (with Martin Galvin and Jerry Leeper on hand) as they're outstanding film makers and they just work so hard to get every shot perfect. I loved working with Katie Barton (who played Kathryn, the girl my character gets pregnant) and Angela Rowland (who played Kathryn's mum). It's a great tune, they'll do well with this one. I'm genuinely exhausted now, just going to write my newspaper column, nail the final draft of the Edinburgh script then I'll chill out with a beer and mediocre TV I think, but that was a really nice way to spend a day.

Gig report: Relay For Life show @ Ickworth Park

Bands: Dowsing For Sound, Flaming June, Trevor Jones Band
Venue: Ickworth Park, Suffolk
Date: 30th July
Audience: Packed at times, gradually going throughout the day
Sets: Dowsing For Sound - Alive, Mercy Street, The Book Of Love, You Are My World, Storm Coming, Terrible Love, White Sky, Let It Be, One Day Like This; Flaming June - Rejoice, Under My Skin, You Do Moody So Well, Nerves Of Steel, I Know What It's Like, The Insane Ex-Girlfriend Parade, Rumplestiltskin, Stop The Ride, Wednesday's & Weekends; Trevor Jones Band - All I Am, Badman, Shine A Light, Alive, Roll On The Rain, I Don't Wanna Talk About It, Old Fashioned Woman, She Was Me, Can't Take This Anymore, Falling, Solid Ground.
Notes: It's 2.27am. I've just got in. I should have got home sooner as I got off stage just after midnight and Ickworth isn't that far away, but for some reason I had great trouble finding the A14 tonight and drove around for what felt like a lifetime whilst swearing a lot to myself. I'm up in five hours time to be in the Fred's House promotional video - that's something like seven hours of filming, I'm playing a chip shop bloke. I can only hope it's a chip shop bloke who has massive bags under his eyes, because that's what I'll have in the morning. I should be sleeping but at one desperate point in my journey home in which I felt I would never get out of Suffolk I pulled into a layby and opened my fifth can of Red Bull equivalent of the day, assuming I would never get home at a reasonable hour. Half an hour later I'm home, but there's no chance of me sleeping for hours. I'm rambling a lot about the insignificant things here I know, I should probably chat about the gig...it was a good day, at times absolutely jaw-dropping; the ceremony was amazing, the commitment of people to do the walk around the park was incredible - even as I left they were still doing laps, in honour of those who have died of cancer. This is a charity which means a lot to me on a personal level, I'm really happy to have been there today. Outside gigs are always strange though - the sound can never be right somehow, despite the hard work of those trying to make it happen. Ickworth Park is probably the most beautiful location I've ever played in, but part of me wanted to be a spectator today and enjoy the site rather than have to worry about my equipment all day. The last time we played as Dowsing For Sound it was in an indoor venue where the sound was much more controlled and we had in affect a 7 hour soundcheck. Today we were outside to a backdrop of perfect sunshine with about 20 minutes to get ourselves ready, it was a different kind of gig altogether, which was probably a good thing because nothing could really replicate the magic of that January show. That's not to say we didn't rock though - we certainly did, it was a little nervy, my own personal performance was a little stilted at times, nothing the general public would notice but nowhere near as technically sharp as I can be, the choir were in fine voice when they really got going ('Book Of Love' for example was fantastic), although there was a real sense that they couldn't be heard as loudly as they could be on occasions which was a shame. We went down very well though - the audience, all very chilled, took to us, it'll go down as a success but I just can't wait to do it all again as I personally didn't really feel 'on it' at times. Dowsing For Sound is special - the people involved are special, really looking forward to the next adventure with them all, I consider them all to be more than just people I drum for now, I consider them to be friends. I then quickly found myself on stage with Flaming June - it felt nice to be playing songs that I was really confident with , especially considering we had a warm-up show the night before. Nice big stage too, we could really go for it, we did, I think that's the best we've played in ages, FJ are just a band that really hits the mark on such a regular basis, such a nice confident performance. A few hours and a can or two of naughty energy drink later and I was back on stage just after 11pm with Trevor Jones Band - by now a lot of the audience had gone, it was dark, it was late, sometimes I hate being the headline band - but despite our reservations walking on (there was a general vibe in the band of 'well, we're here now, we might as well just get on with it') the grounds seemed to be buzzing again - although there wasn't much of a crowd left, those who were there leaped about, cheered enthusiastically, really made their presence felt. A couple songs in and we actually started to enjoy ourselves again and put on a decent show I think, some of it really, really worked big time - 'Can't Take This Anymore' has grown into a beast of a track, our now song - 'Solid Ground' - was a little too loose but it was the last song of a very long day so I guess that can be forgiven. Massive thanks to Marcus, Will, Vicky, Louise, Gav, Andrea and Lorraine for staying out that late to watch us, it was completely appreciated. It all became a totally enjoyable experience, I really enjoyed today, I was in the company of some exceptional people (friends, bandmates, family), it was a wonderfully organised event, when I wake up a bit tomorrow at some point I'll appreciate just how great a way that was to spend a summers day for such a worthy cause. And, as I finish typing this, I can feel the caffeine gradually starting to wear off, and I think I may actually still get a good four and a half hours sleep in tonight, huzzah.

Gig report: Flaming June @ Club Uniquity, Somerlayton

Band: Flaming June
Venue: Club Uniquity, Somerlayton
Date: 29/07/11
Audience: Packed, enthusiastic
Set: Rejoice, You Do Moody So Well, Nerves Of Steel, I Know What It's Like, The Insane Ex-Girlfriend Parade, Rumplestiltskin, Wednesdays & Weekends.
Notes: I'm knackered, that was a long night. Didn't realise Somerlayton was that far away, but thanks to my brilliant navigator (Mr. Steve Megson) we arrived in reasonable time. Club Uniquity is a great venue - it's a barn at the back of a popular pub, it's decor suggests individuality, warmth, and the flashing lights with smoke machine on stage suggests excitement. Whatever, it's far from the average run on the mill venue, which instantly made me happy to have made the journey, there's too many clone venues around at the moment, so even if I had to drive through three counties to get there I was very happy to play tonight. We were the fourth band on out of five, it was all slightly rushed, it was all very hot, the venue was packed with a genuinely enthusiastic audience who wanted to listen to live music. Despite a couple issues with the sound at first (the danger of doing line-checks instead of soundchecks) by the third track we seemed more comfortable. Aware of the time constraints we had to be more fiery than ever, I use the word fiery a lot when describing Flaming June, but FJ are a very consistent band - tonight we bashed out the songs, they went down very well with the really nice crowd. 'I Know What It's Like' was genuinely piogniant tonight, even the people chatting at the back of the room went quiet for that; in a situation where we were having to play quickly and keep their attention I felt it's inclusion in the set was a brave one but it worked a treat, I know it's a regular track in the setlist but tonight it took the whole performance to a different level and after that we we seemed really comfortable. A good night, a long drive, and I've still got tomorrow's (well, today's now I guess) big gig constantly at the back of my mind, and if it was a rubbish gig in front of 4 people I would have been annoyed but it wasn't, it was top-drawer at times, I'd like to go back there at some point.

Theatre, gigs, and the magic of Dowsing For Sound

I know I've got too much on. This is made evident thanks to various things; the flat is more than a bit messy (although I did clean the bathroom the other day, standards, see?), my car is rattling again thanks to the empty Red Bull cans behind the front passenger seat, my snare is still not tuned to my liking but I don't have a spare two hours to do it justice, I've not been out with my non-bandmate friends for a while (although the last time I did I fell down a ditch whilst drunk so maybe this is a good idea anyway), but perhaps even more important/worrying is that I'm starting to get behind with things. Like the final, final draft of the Edinburgh Fringe script. Obviously we've done Oscar Pike already here in Cambridge a few months back and technically speaking it was a hit (people laughed, we sold out all four shows), but there's a few things that need to be worked upon urgently we feel (we being myself and Michelle, our outstanding director) to raise the quality even more ahead of the forthcoming Edinburgh run. I really should have nailed the final, final draft by now but time is trickling away, I'm hoping to have it done tomorrow lunchtime - they're just tweaks after all, but important tweaks, and I can't leave the poor actors hanging like this. Other Edinburgh things need to be sorted too, just about there with the accommodation which was cutting it fine but it looks like we're okay now at least, need to sort the flyers, need to find out more details about our actual venue. And at some point I really need to get back into daily line revision sessions (probably with Jessica from work in the staff room as she's very good at these things), I looked at the script the other day, it all came back to me which is a relief, but I need to be in good shape for audiences that aren't littered with friends.

But these are good times, I came straight off the Aidy tour into rehearsals with various bands, and I'm excited by everything. I really need to lose a band or two at some point, but it's near impossible because all of my 'working' bands are really in good shape at the moment, I LIKE EVERYTHING, I'm going to do everything, it can be done. Eureka Stockade were brilliant at the Secret Garden Party I thought - the new songs are our best yet, the live album will be fantastic. Aidy seems rejuvenated thanks to the many successes of the tour and we've got more out of town gigs now booked up as well as a festival next week. Flaming June are consistently good, and the new forthcoming EP (which we recorded a while back) is sounding awesome. Trevor Jones Band continue to be one of those bands that actually play music that I really, really enjoy drumming to - big grooves, big spaces, room for Latin funky bits, top quality musicians, it excites me. And now there's even a gig coming up with Under The Streetlamp, a band I consider to be my 'baby', the band I decided to form all those years ago - it never worked out, but I can't wait for our little August gig, they're good tunes, I love drumming to them. I can't drop any of these projects, I just need time somehow to go a little slower for me, please? Ah, thanks. Before the Secret Garden Party stuff I managed to spare a few hours to record percussion for the quirky and charming Emily Blickem for her forthcoming EP, looking forward to that, and today we've just agreed vague times and dates for the recording of Laura Tapp's full album following the success of her EP earlier this year - she writes brilliant songs, I can't wait for this (and the gigs to go with it). As a musician alone I'm probably stretching myself a little, but surely adrenaline is enough to keep me ticking over?

As a writer things feel just the same - as well as finalising the Oscar Pike script, I really need to crack on with my projects for the Lodestar Festival - re-writing my new play, 'How About You?', and also finishing the musical, 'Relationships, Eh?'. Those make up numbers 3 and 4 on my to-do list (there's 18 things on that list at the moment, number 16 is 'sort my life out'). I've recently finished the lyrics for a spoken word album called 'High Casualty Route' and I genuinely feel it's the best thing I've ever written - now just need the right people to do it with, and to do it properly so it's not another rushed Richards production that 'had potential'. Yet whilst I'm supposed to be doing all these things (numbers 1-4 on the list), for some reason I've been working on my collection of short stories ('Money & Women') and working on a few skeleton (ie rough) scripts with actress Grace Williams in mind as she was so good in 'Probably The Greatest Goal...' the other day and we've been chatting on email about working on a YouTube series together. Sometimes it just feels like you can't control the creative side of your brain, and I never seem to be working on the project I'm supposed to. Which is a bit crap, really, because if I carry on like this things could get messy.

But then tonight, slightly tired, awkwardly early, I arrived at the Dowsing For Sound rehearsals for our dress rehearsal ahead of Saturday's big gig at Ickworth Park. Everything Dowsing For Sound do is big because things only really happen once every six months, and there's loads of people in that choir, and it's all very special. Last week the band and choir met again for the first time since the gig in January (which was one of the best evenings of my life, let alone one of the best gigs). The band has had just a couple rehearsals since reforming ahead of the next show, the choir have been rehearsing weekly, so as a result, somewhat predictably, it was a little nervy and I came away feeling a little uncomfortable. Tonight is started the same way - on a personal level I felt self-conscious that my drums are so loud and really struggled to hit my natural groove with a self-imposed restriction on my volume, and some of the new songs were a bit shaky. The choir sounded beautiful - as they always do, but it took an hour or so for us all to click with each other. But then it did - on the final, 45 minute, run through of the evening. Fuck yeah. That magical moment when it all falls in to place. Like the gig in January, I nearly forgot to play during 'The Book Of Love' because those voices are heartbreakingly good and I just want to watch and admire all involved, not drum all over it. The whole run-through felt electric, yet ironically it's the most organic we've ever been, I forgot about the stresses of my many other projects and got lost in the music. Yep, Paul Richards is full of cliches, but Dowsing For Sound is something special, and when it works like it did tonight, there is nothing like it, I wouldn't swap this for anything. One more rehearsal with just the band on Thursday to nail a few endings, and then it's the gig on Saturday, at a beautiful National Trust park - I never expect much, but I expect this to be one of those nights.

Currently listening to: Emmy The Great - Virtue; Randy Newman - Harps & Angels, The Dears - Degeneration Street
Currently reading: Grow Up (by Ben Brooks)
Currently watching: Him & Her, Not Going Out

Gig report: Eureka Stockade @ The Secret Garden Party Festival

Band: Eureka Stockade
Venue: The Secret Garden Party Festival, Cambridgeshire
Date: 24/07/11
Audience: Hungover, but plenty of them, very appreciative
Set: Through Every Darkness, Resistance, Been There Before, Caught In A Fire, Without You, All Alone, Sharks
Notes: I love the Secret Garden Party. Okay, so I lost my car for a day and got a bit flustered, okay, so it rained a bit and they don't make it easy for you to get a taxi there, okay so it feels a little overcrowded these days and I can't help but remember the good old days when it was a bit smaller, okay so Alabama 3 were a bit rubbish...but it's the Secret Garden Party, one of the most exciting things to hit Cambridgeshire in my lifetime, a big whopper of a festival with some incredible bands, incredible people and a cheery vibe that is relentlessly addictive. We were playing in the Living Room tent, which is the best tent of the festival and don't let anyone tell you otherwise - it's decor, it's choice of bands, it's quirkiness kind of sums up the whole festival in one medium-sized tent. We were the first band (on at 1pm) of the day, following a cool DJ bloke who played vinyl from the '60's. Sunday is the hangover day - the audience, whilst many of them attractive, looked drowsy and sleepy. It doesn't matter though because the band were too, as we all had a tipple or two last night watching Blondie and other such treats, so we were all pretty much in the same boat. We played well today - acoustically but with guts and passion, and it was great to have the always fantastic Anna Scott with us on cello, she fills in the gaps nicely and adds a whole new dimension to the sound. We went down very well, and gave away a massive pile of CD's, we're happy to be at the festival, it was nice to give some stuff away. Eureka Stockade works acoustically - I think I'm starting to prefer us slightly stripped down but still with a full kit, we're recording a live album in this format at High Barn in September and I can't wait for that. Today in the meantime was great - I wish I had the energy to write more about it, but it's been a long three days of watching some outstanding bands and drinking too much and I need sleep.

Probably The Greatest Goal Ever Scored @ The ADC Theatre Bar, Cambridge

My very latest play, 'Probably The Greatest Goal Ever Scored' was performed for the first time tonight by WriteOn at the ADC Bar in Cambridge. I wrote it a couple months back, 15 minutes before the deadline on a Friday evening, and kind of forgot all about it. It's late, I'm still hungover from last night (in which, on a rare break from anything I met up with friends Andy and Marcus and went to a local festival, where we got drunk and I fell into a ditch on the way home), but I'm actually buzzing about how well tonight went. People continually accuse me of being modest, but in all truthfulness I wasn't sure about this script - it's long, it's rambling, I got bored reading it again the other day. But this cast and director are awesome - Grace and Alan were perfect for the roles and really gave the whole thing a sense of life, Jenny is an outstanding director with frightening attention to detail skills. It worked, it was the closing piece to the current WriteOn season and it went down remarkably well - better than a majority of my stuff does by some distance. A lovely sold-out audience who laughed at the right time, understood the subtleties, the feedback session was largely positive, my ego was enhanced considerably. The slightly fluffy ending was warmly received thanks to the beautiful way in which it was performed, I had genuine doubts but it was just one of those lovely evenings when things work out. It just goes to show that I'm not really a good judge of my own work at all, but I'm happy tonight. I want to write more for these characters, I want to work with Jenny, Grace and Alan again as, apart from one small monologue of mine ('Slow Puncture') that Alan performed last year this is the first time I've had the pleasure of working with these people. And it was a pleasure. Maybe a 6 x 10 minute YouTube series for the characters of Lucy and 'My Beloved Nigel'? My head is buzzing with ideas, which is annoying because I could really do with some sleep. It's evenings like this though that gives me faith that all this constant working on new material does sometimes lead to fun times.

Gig report: Emily Blickem @ The Man On The Moon, Cambridge

Band: Emily Blickem (with myself on percussion)
Venue: The Man On The Moon, Cambridge
Date: 12/07/11
Audience: A few friends, and a bunch of slightly confused exchange students
Set: Not sure, 4 or 5 originals and some covers
Notes: I'd been meaning/promising to play percussion for Emily for a while now, she writes really nice songs and is keen to get out there (for further proof of how good she is check out the video for her track 'Butterflies' on YouTube). She recently launched the open mic night at the Man On The Moon venue in Cambridge, a venue I know well from over the years, and she's genuinely trying to start something good for the local scene. This is the second week it's run, and it's not really kicked in to life just yet as there was barely any audience, and apart from us the only other performer was a man who played instrumental guitar for about three minutes. But the effort is there, and I'm certain it will take off, it deserves to. We were the house band for tonight, but as nobody else was really playing we ended up playing for quite a long time, starting with Emily's originals, and then branching into cover territory to keep things ticking over, doing songs by the likes of Loudon Wainwright, The Cure and some film soundtrack stuff. It was good fun, the 5 audience members joined by a sudden influx of foreign exchange students, who looked confused at first but despite the language barrier they became really enthusiastic so our extremely unrehearsed set went down very well. As a result, it was a surreal but nice enough evening and we'll do it all again in a couple weeks time.

Gig report: Aidy UK Tour

After months of putting the dates together, working out the logistics (accommodation, travel etc), the three of us - Aidy (guitar, vocals), Dave (bass, vocals) and myself (percussion) hit the road for 7 UK dates, a tour to finally get us out there to cities we've never played before, to see places, to meet people, to get the hang of this whole 'being on the road' thing. Armed with a stack of CD's to sell (Aidy's 'Not Your Day' album), a mailing list and flyers, we worked hard on the PR side of things, we lived in each other's pockets for a week, toured in a slightly battered Peaguot 406, we drank far too much, and we made lots of new friends along the way. By the end of the run lessons were certainly learnt and there's a real sense that when we do this again it may be slightly smoother. But as a team - a trio - we never stopped bantering, pushing the tunes out there, and I feel that by a couple gigs in we were also proper tight. A pleasure to be cooped up in a crammed car, or a tiny hotel room, with two people who previously I'd only really known from gigs or occassional party, but throughout the week there was never a cross word or even an ounce of tension, which in itself is a miracle. And that's even when Aidy and Dave continually sang 'Boys On Tour' (to the tune of 'Girls On Film') throughout pretty much the whole run, I thought it would get annoying but the spirits remained high. We even created a new sitcom character called Routandhi, who will live a lot longer than this tour ever will. But of course it is about the music at the end of the day, and we played a bit of that...

GIG 1

Venue: The Horns, Watford

Date: 04/07/11

Audience: Minimal, but enthusiastic

Set: Make It Happen, Pain In My Heart, Guns, Miami Beach, God's Front Porch, Prettyish, Life In Monochrome, Down Like That, Edinburgh, Washing Machine

Notes: Arrived in Watford a fashionable 7 hours early, and after trying (and failing) to make additional contact with the local media, we advertised the gig in all the local music shops, found the venue, had a cheeky afternoon pint, and walked around the town. I'm not sure what to make of Watford - it's a friendly enough place, but very much a clone town, it might as well have just been Peterbororough. We then went over to Aidy's mate Tim's house, where we would be staying for the night. We rehearsed for a couple hours, working out the odd percussional arrangement, getting tight, as - although we've been playing as a trio for a while now, I've not really had a chance to rehearse with Aidy and Dave what with other gig committments recently. We also worked out a fairly generic set for the tour - basically the plan is to start and end with the same songs, but change things around a bit in the middle. Got a taxi to the venue, met up with my old mate Ade Bailey and had a couple pints with him, and we played a good but slightly loose set. A few teething problems, but nothing too obvious - it's the first night of the tour, it was always going to be like this. Also, going on stage with 6 pints inside us probably wasn't a good idea, but it's a learning curve. Small audience, but went down well, the promoter was a dude and we sold some CD's. Realising there was a strong football raport with our host, I then spent several hours chatting to Tim about the Spurs FA Cup Semi Final side of 1991, football is great for social boundaries. Woke up feeling slightly rough.

GIG 2

Venue: The Langtry, Norwich

Date: 05/07/11

Audience: Crammed in, wonderful

Set: Make It Happen, Pain In My Heart, Down Like That, Miami Beach, God's Front Porch, Life In Monochrome, Prettyish, Guns, Edinburgh, Washing Machine

Notes: Leaving Tim's house in good time, we made the short trip up the road to Norwich for our second gig. The Norwich media seemed much more helpful and were keen to help us, and we hit the town centre in good spirits. Norwich is a beautiful city - I feel it has a bad name because of Alan Patridge, but I could live in Norwich any time, I'm actually seriously thinking about it as a future option. It's so individual, the shops have identity, it's the right level of progression yet retaining it's roots, and yep - the women are very pretty. We had a couple pints, met up with one of Aidy's mates, and then walked our gear from our hotel to the venue, everything was so close, so easy, so friendly. Gig itself was a cracker, Amy's a good promoter, we had a lovely friendly audience in a small but welcoming venue, and any issues from the night before were discussed and as a result our performance was spot on. Met lots of nice people, felt happy. Small hotel room for the three of us to share, but for that sort of money couldn't really argue.

GIG 3

Venue: Milo, Leeds

Date: 06/07/11

Audience: Minimal, but really into it

Set: Make It Happen, Pain In My Heart, Polly, Prettyish, Not Your Day, Down Like That, Guns, Edinburgh, Washing Machine, God's Front Porch (encore)

Notes: Leaving Norwich in good time, complete with substantial fry up from the hotel, we moved up the country to Yorkshire. On the way up we stopped off at a tiny village called Coddington, and popped into the pub for a coffee and a rest. The only people in was the landlady and and old man, but they seem fascinated by the fact we were touring musicians. We ended up giving her a free CD, and then she asked us to sign it, and then we legged it before she put it on because we sensed it may not have been her kind of thing. We get a call saying that the Liverpool gig at the Cavern Club has been cancelled as the other two bands have pulled out, and they want to reschedule us for later in the year. Arriving in Leeds, we realised we were staying in the 'rough bit', with a hotel that was far from desirable and the bathroom smelt of chemicals. Still, with spirits high we walked into town - realising it was a fair bit of a walk and feeling slightly intimideted by the locals with their screaching cars and thuggish faces. The closer we got to Leeds centre though the more realised it's actually a really nice place, a big city but friendly enough, and that our first impressions may have just been because we were staying in one of the cheaper areas. We tried in vein to sort another gig in Liverpool aware that the Cavern gig for the day later had been pulled, but despite phone calls had little luck. Had a pint, it rained a bit, met some of Dave's friends, and decided to get a taxi back into town with our equipment as we didn't feel comfortable walking such a distance with expensive instruments. We're not snobs, far from it, but we felt slightly wary about where we were staying. Our venue, Milo, is a brilliant, vibrant venue in the city centre. We played in the upstairs room, our promoter for the evening - Kevin, is an enthusiastic and very organised chap who did well for us and we appreciated that. I liked the space a lot, perfect size for an acoustic trio, and downstairs there was a covers band playing. Some of Aidy's mates who now live in Leeds turned up and they were pretty much half the audience - it wasn't busy, but in such a small place it worked really well. We sold some CD's, got more names on the mailing list, got an encore, and played easily the best we have done up to that point. Dropped 'Miami Beach' from the set and replaced it with 'Polly', which I preffered from a percussion point of view. The other acts on the bill were fantastic, and then Kevin says that he's had a band drop out for the next day and as we were stuck for another gig for the tour what with the Liverpool gig being postponed he offered us the slot. We readily accepted, happy with that fact that we could play a second night at Milo in Leeds as we all felt very comfortable there, and we could also leave our equipment there over night locked up so we could hit the town afterwards. And we certainly did that...this was the really drunken night of the tour, Aidy's friends kept buying us drinks, we went to a pub where it was 'Whiskey Wednesday' and then moved onto a dark, but brilliant, rock club. Whilst there we seemed to drink what was endless Black Russians, and in between those other shots, we danced to the music of Warren Zevon, and some Britpop tunes, we bantered, we had a brilliant night out, Aidy was sick in the hotel garden and Dave tried to pull a lesbian. Got back at 3am, slightly relieved we didn't have to travel far the next day.

GIG 4

Venue: Milo, Leeds

Date: 07/07/11

Audience: Half-full, enthusiastic

Set: Make It Happen, Pain In My Heart, Down Like That, Guns, God's Front Porch, Edinburgh, Washing Machine

Notes: We all woke up with the worst hangovers you could possibly imagine and didn't make it downstairs in time for breakfast. Man from hotel was banging on our door at 10am to try and get us out, we were more than happy to leave and leave that part of the city, but that didn't stop us feeling really rough. We sat in Aidy's car motionless for a fair while, unable to really move, because of the amount to drink we had the night before. I was the only member of the band to not throw up, I am proud of this fact. We eventually drove in to Leeds centre, but having done all our promotion the day previously and not expecting a second day in Leeds we didn't have much to do at all apart from kill time for several hours and not spend too much money, so went to the cinema to watch that new Tom Hanks film. It's a load of rubbish, but I've never been more grateful for the opportunity to sit in a small dark room for a couple hours as my head recovers. Checked in at a much better hotel, okay - so it meant sharing a bed with Aidy as Dave nabbed the bunkbed above us, but it was clean, cheap and we didn't feel intimidated in any way. It was also close enough to walk to the venue so after an Italian meal we headed back to Milo, still feeling a touch on the rough side but really happy to be playing at a great venue for the second night in a row. The headliners were late so the gig was a touch delayed and our set was cut to 25 minutes, but we were moved up on the bill from the first night to second on which helped us have probably the biggest audience of the night. That audience were all neatrual, for the first time on the tour, but they were so in to what we were doing it was brilliant. After a slow start (possibly hangover induced) we played really well again, again possibly a rival for our best performance of the tour. Enjoyed the other bands a lot, and we're keen to get back to Leeds soon as despite our initial reservations, Aidy's sharp, sometimes brash sense of humour, has never seemed to work so well. For example, when asking the olbigatery "what you would you like, the clean version or the explicit version" before Washing Machine, someone shouted out "clean version" and Aidy told them to "fuck off, you're getting the explicit one" and everyone found that amusing - in some venues that wouldn't have worked, but I think we all know that.

GIG 5

Venue: The Royal George, London

Date: 08/07/11

Audience: Busy, partially ignoring us, but with warm applause after each song at least

Set: Make It Happen, Pain In My Heart, Guns, Down Like That, Not Your Day, God's Front Porch, Prettyish, Life In Monochrome, Miami Beach, Washing Machine, 22 (encore)
Notes: We cheated a little for this one, even though we're on tour and you're not supposed to come home, we realised that London is so close to Cambridgeshire it would be financially a rubbish move to try and stay over, so we left Leeds bright and early and drove back to our respective homes for a little rest. I say rest, it's a fair old trip, and by the time everyone was home, showered and got clean shirts it was time to get back on the train to continue the tour. If anything, all the rushing around left us with little time to rest and we might have been better just staying in the car and keeping up the momentum. Outside the venue there was a taxi exploding, which was a bit strange. This was the first time they've put on these live music nights at The Royal George, and the venue itself was downstairs from a lively, central pub. It was a small room but pretty busy, some people there actually for the gig, and a lot of passing trade as downstairs is also where the toilets are. It was a friendly show, but not our best at all, we had a couple small sound issues on stage which hampered our performance, and although these were fixed pretty quickly we never really hit top form, we just seemed slightly jaded. Saying that we went down very well from those who were watching, and word is that we sounded a lot better off stage than we did on it. We even got an encore, so played a new song for the tour, '22', which is a lively one, and I liked playing this very much. At the end of the gig, for no other reason apart from to entertain, Dave jumped off the stage and rolled around the floor with his bass in true rock fashion. Still not sure why, but it added a element of 'show' to it all. Was nice to know that even when we're not having our best day we could still go down well.

GIG 6

Venue: The Ambassador, Brighton

Date: 09/07/11

Audience: At best 9 people, sometimes between 4 and 5

Set: Make It Happen, Pain In My Heart, Guns, Down Like That, Not Your Day, Polly, 22, God's Front Porch, Race Car Drivers, Prettyish, Edinburgh, Washing Machine

Notes: We came into this one with a few doubts; it was our first gig in a venue that wasn't established as a place for live music. I like the Ambassador a lot - I've put on four Brighton Fringe shows there previously, and the owner Nick is a very nice chap. We arrived in good time, wondered around the seafront, and then set up. It's unconventional place, that dining room, and one point we were just thinking - what are we doing here? I felt a little sorry for our support act - Louise Hamilton from Flaming June, who travelled a fair distance to play in front of four people, but she still put everything into it and we enjoyed it at least. A few more people trickled in for the Aidy set, but it felt a little stop/start at times, that may have been something to do with the fact we were doing our own sound. But the nine or so people who did watch it seemed really up for enjoying our set, and by Washing Machine they were totally on our side. In fact, we celebrated by stretching the last chord for ages, going mental but enjoying elements of theatrics with it at the same time. I really hurt my thumb about half way through the gig - it suddenly seemed to go blue and started swealing up, and some of the set felt pretty painful, but I'm just grateful that's happened at the end, not begining, of the tour. The venue is run by lovely people, who also wished we had a bigger audience, but it was nowhere near the disaster we feared it could be. After realising we had accommodation issues, we tried desperately to find somewhere else to stay, and places were either unavailable or out of our budget. The idea of Dave driving Aidy's car would have been fine but we couldn't get insurance because their phonelines close after 5pm and I only have an automatic licence, so in the end Aidy didn't drink and we decided to drive home back to Cambridge after this one. Yeah, so we wanted a big night out in Brighton, perhaps that would have been keeping with the other nights of the tour, but getting back before 1am to Cambridge actually wasn't a bad move at the end of the day - saved a few quid, saved our livers, and it's actually rather nice to be waking up in your own bed after all the adventures.

GIG 7
Venue: The Cornerhouse, Cambridge
Date: 10/07/11
Audience: Half-full, positive
Set: Make It Happen, Pain In My Heart, Guns, God's Front Porch, Down Like That, Miami Beach, Edinburgh, Washing Machine
Notes: Having arrived back home late last night, it felt good to not be in a rush today. In fact, I slept for 10 hours to make up for the lack of sleep during the week, worked a bit on this blog, went to Tescos and forgot to write my newspaper column. Kind of felt like the tour ended yesterday as that was our last out of town date, but we went into this one well aware that the hometown gig would probably have the biggest audience there for us so we actually needed to be sharper than ever. With that in mind, we actually had another band rehearsal - despite the fact that we've just played six gigs in a row and were often pretty tight, but standards need to stay high and Aidy cooked us a nice roast. Not sure what to think of this one really, we perhaps should have ended the run of gigs last night, out of town, rather than playing in a place that we've played in a million times in front of the same bunch of friends. The problem is though was that it was a humid, rainy, Sunday evening so a lot of friends didn't even bother to make it - possibly because they thought 'I've seen Aidy do his thing times before' - not realising that we're actually back from the tour sharper than ever, a much better live band, all the gigging does actually help. But it was a good gig anyway - nice audience (mostly made up of Narrow Sound fans - the excellent headline band, plus friends Jack, Ken and Emily), more names to the mailing list, and we played a really solid, fiery set so we've ended this little tour on a positive note.

Throughout the run we've made lots of new friends, contacts, I've been called 'the happiest drummer' by countless people and been informed that I look 'a bit like Dave Grohl' on several occassions. We've gone down well everywhere, we drank too much, we'll probably do this all again very soon.

Gig report: Flaming June @ Ipswich Music Day, Ipswich

Band: Flaming June
Venue: Ipswich Music Day, Ipswich
Date: 03/07/11
Audience: Lots, lovely
Set: Rejoice, Under My Skin, You Do Moody So Well, Nerves Of Steel, I Know What It's Like, Insane Ex-Girlfriend Parade, Stop The Ride, Rumplestiltskin, Wednesdays And Weekends
Notes: It's nice sometimes when a gig that looked like it wasn't going to be so fun turns into a proper good show. My sense of navigation has always been a cause for concern, and today that concern was justified as I drove around Ipwich for well over an hour (possibly heading towards two hours), awkwardly asking locals if they knew where this really big music festival was. The people of Ipswich are remarkably friendly (especially the chap at the NCP car park who didn't charge me to get out, realising I'd drove in there by accident), yet despite their constant directions I continually managed to get in the wrong lane, or just not see the crowds of people that everyone says I "can't miss". Eventually I found myself down a very narrow street, with a queue of cars behind me, and then faced with a woman in the car trying to come the other way, with a queue of cars behind her, and neither of us could/were willing to back off and reverse, so we all switched our engines off and sat staring at each other for what felt like a long time (in reality it must have been less than five minutes). Eventually she mimed some swear word at me (I think it was 'wanker', not sure, I was trying not to look) and reversed back a bit, and I smiled politely, before turning left down a road that really didn't look like a road. Much to my amazement, the end of that path/road thingy found me a few minutes away from the festival, huzzah! By the time I actually got to our stage (aided by Steve and Mike in carrying equipment) it was just 15 minutes until our set...now, I know I'm a relaxed kind of guy, but this was a bit tight, even by my own slack standards. I didn't even have time to grab a Red Bull (not that there is any Red Bull anywhere in Ipswich, honest, I've looked and I'm pretty sure of that fact), and went on stage a touch flustered. But, despite the odd technical hitch with Louise's guitar, I felt we absolutely stormed it today. 'Rejoice' probably wasn't the tightest from a personal point of view because I couldn't hear anything, but the soundmen were quick to sort that out for me and we absolutely blasted through it today, proper full-throttle, uptempo, raucous, hand-hurting Flaming June. It's always a sign of a good gig when you come off knackered, and I certainly was extremely sweaty after that one. The festival itself is brilliant, our tent was circus-like and pretty busy, we went down very well, by the end of it I'd almost forgotten about my misadventures on the way. And just in case you were wondering, the drive home was completely stress-free, although I did have a navigator this time which is probably cheating.

Gig report: Trevor Jones Band (acoustic) @ The Buzz Festival - The Cornerhouse, Cambridge

Band: Trevor Jones Band (trio acoustic set)
Venue: The Buzz Festival @ The Cornerhouse, Cambridge
Date: 02/07/11
Audience: Moderate at first, but plenty of them by the end
Set: All I Am, Badman, Alive, Can't Take This Anymore, Old Fashioned Woman, Roll On The Rain, Falling
Notes: Back at the Cornerhouse but this time with a difference - as part of the hugely ambitious Buzz Festival weekend, in which there is 40 bands playing across two stages (one indoors, one outside) over two days. A great little festival this, and Jo/Roy should be proud that their hard work is coming together nicely as there was a good turnout, some excellent bands and a real nice vibe to it all. Arriving at 5pm with guitarist Bill, I enjoyed a few beers, some decent acts (notably the always brilliant Benjamin Bloom), things were overrunning a bit (as you'd expect for an all dayer) but we eventually hit the stage just before 9pm. We were stripped down tonight as our bassist, Tony, is moving house at the moment, but we rehearsed as a trio on Thursday night and it works with congas instead of drums I think, certain songs really work. It was a nice gig - due to the lovely weather outside we didn't have much of an audience at first but we actually got a few of them in, and by the end of our set it was pretty busy. Played well I think, not the tightest we've been, but with a good energy, played new song 'Can't Take This Anymore' for the first time (although we've rehearsed this as a full band several times so it's not that 'new', but a live debut for it at least). I got a bit carried away and hurt my hands which doesn't bode well for the next 8 days (which will see me play 8 gigs) but it was worthwhile, top gig, that was.