My Exciting Life In ROCK (part 1): 27/3/00 - Fair & Firkin, Nottingham

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And so began the great PLAN to promote both our album "Say It With Words" and the Johnny Domino album "Players" - The Players With Words Tour!

Do you see what we did there? This seemed very clever at the time and, unusually for such a daft idea, the name stuck, so that years later we STILL refer to this string of gigs by this name. The general idea was that we'd have a GRATE time gigging together around the country, combining our forces so that anybody who'd come to see ONE of the bands would end up enjoying the other. Johnny Domino, in my opinion, are pretty much the BEST band to have ever come out of Derby (and there've been MANY good ones), with a live show that is as AWESOME as it is IRREGULAR: and they can go YEARS without a gig, so that's actually PRETTY AWESOME.

The only slight flaw in this plan was that neither band really HAD many fans - The Domino's policy of hardly ever gigging, and almost never doing so outside of Derby, meant they were as little known as they were, well, AWESOME (see above) and a quick glance through previous items on this very page will show the kind of popularity level we were operating at. The only advantage to this situation was that each band knew there'd be at least FOUR people who really liked them at every gig ... even if they'd got in free, owing to being on tour with them.

Calling it a "tour" was also perhaps going a bit overboard - there were four gigs in the space of a few weeks but none of them were consecutive. It's very difficult to organise a tour at the best of times, but when you have to beg and plead for each one it makes it tricky to line them up properly, although when the people you're booking for have a variety of jobs, children, pregnancies and house moves to fit in, keeping them far apart from each other does at least make it easier for everyone to get to them.

The line-up for The Validators was at the end of its transitionary period, with 80% of the final membership turning up for every gig and other people gradually drifting away. The Durham Ox Singers had recently packed in gigging with us, Dr Brown was on his last outing as our synthesiser player (we only had one song that needed it, so it always seemed a bit mean to drag him out just for that), and Ollie was about to set off to University. AAh, Ollie - how we REVELLED in the fact that he was ten years younger than the rest of us, it was like having an APPRENTICE in our Factory Of ROCK, and we were forever metaphorically sending him off to get us cans of stripy paint. I don't know what the metaphorical equivalent of stripy paint in ROCK would be - the chord H minor, perhaps? - but we certainly sent him to get it, and when that DULLED we would tell him he was middle class. He clearly WASN'T but the fact that he got so upset about it was always a joy to watch. I wonder if he really WAS going to University?

The rest of us were in it for the long-haul, but had a long journey ahead of us before we became the INSANE ROCK AND ROLL ANIMALS that we are today. I clearly remember standing talking to Tom, gently suggesting that although we were not - AS YET - Monsters Of Mental, it was still a good idea if he didn't tuck his JUMPER into his trousers when we are on stage. "If you do this", I said, "you will be DELUGED with women!" We then looked across the pub to see Mr Frankie Machine (as Rob was by now to be addressed) surrounded by THREE women, all hanging on his arm and every word. Jealousy levels were EXTREME - that was more women than I'd spoken to at gigs all year!

The gig part of the evening was all a bit depressing. It wasn't that people actively HATED us, they didn't boo or throw things, they just LOOKED at us in a distinctly disapproving way. The more we bounced around or ROCKED OUT the more I got the impression that we were DISAPPOINTING them, and that it would be best for everyone if we just packed in all this nonsense right away. Come on, you've had your fun, just stop it now and we'll say no more about it.

The mood was not improved by Johnny Domino's set, which went down FANTASTICALLY. People danced, cheered, and ELBOWED their way past me to get to their merchandise. I, of course, took delight in their success, as ALL people in bands do. People in Bands are KNOWN for their selflessness and delight in the triumphs of others and I am no different - it may have LOOKED like I was skulking at the back of the room with the rest of The Vlads, SCOWLING at the stage, but I was actually OVERJOYED that a room which had regarded us with DISDAIN was going loopy for The Domino. Couldn't have been more happy. Wish it happened more often.

There'd be plenty of time for similar JOY over the weeks ahead!

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