Blog: The Lamb

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It was Totally Acoustic last night, so I strolled up to Kings Cross to pick up Mr Francis Albert Machine and together the two of us set off like TROUBADORS, with guitars on our backs and a song in our hearts.

This image was only SLIGHTLY spoiled by us stopping for CHIPS, and Frankie having a battered saveloy, but only SLIGHTLY, and soon we were back on the road, arriving at The Lamb to find my REGULARS were gradually arriving. That's ONE of the MANY nice things about Totally Acoustic, the bunch of people who come every time - it's almost as if it's a universal excuse for a medium piss-up with pals, with a bit of some bloke shouting over a ukelele to get through first, but that can't be right, can it?

We went upstairs and got set up, more people arrived, and I PANICKED as I suddenly thought "What if LOADS of new people come and there isn't room for [the aforesaid] REGULARS to sit down?" For LO! as every pub landlord knows, You've Got To Look After Your Regulars, so I went back downstairs and forced them to come upstairs early.

Needless to say, PANIC was unrequired, and it was a snugly PLUMPED room full of full seated people who heard me do THIS on the ukelele:

Another Man's Laundry

(insert title here)

Friday 13

Despite THE FEAR I think it went pretty well, especially as it was such an OBSCURE-A-RAMA of songs i've not done for YEARS. I made a bit of a mess of Friday 13, but I think that was OK as at least it meant Frankie could come on and show how his songs SHOULD be played...

... Which he very much DID, it was LOVELY. I like the way he does such gentle/sad/intricate songs yet carries the entire room with him through a) the POWER of the songs themselves and b) the bits in between when he's both low-key and ASSURED, also CHARMING. It was a lovely set, even though i was a TINY bit DEVASTATED by him using my ukelele to deliver a DAMNING CRITIQUE on ukeleles themselves... Although the FACT he played it so nicely and made it sound so GOOD does make me wonder if he's maybe being SWAYED by it?

Then it was break time, during which we pondered the possibility of The Lamb offering pre-ordered Interval Drinks, as EVERYBODY going downstairs in one go does make for quite a big queue at the bar.

Once everyone was settled back upstairs I did THIS:

I Come From The Fens

Fucking Hippy

Professional, Competetent, Rocking And Tight

Do The Indie Kid

Girlfriend Alarmed

It Only Works Because You're Here

The Lesson Of The Smiths

Easily Impressed

Boom Shake The Room

Again, QUITE a lot of obscure-style stuff, especially Professional, Competetent, Rocking And Tight which has only ever been released on TAPE, but which I thought I'd have a go at for possibly inclusion in THE SHOW. There was actually quite a LOT of THE SHOW in there, as I had a go at some STORIES - last time I did Totally Acoustic I actually worked out an almost STAND-UP ESQUE bit of story, which was OK, but seemed to work better a couple of weeks later when I Abandoned Routine and just told the story, so did THAT for all of them this time. It seemed to work, especially when I UNEXPECTEDLY ended up doing the story of The Retro-Gaming Convention at the end. This was helped along by Warren (fresh from his triumph performing The Music Of The Future as a duet with Frankie) VALIDATING events.

And then it descended - NAY, ASCENDED - into PUB as we all sat around discussing Doctor Who, Musical Instruments, Beer Festivals and, a little embarrassingly at the end of the evening, how much The Bow Of My Violin and i LOVE Pocketbooks. It's all very well shouting "I LOVE POCKETBOOKS ME" until you realise that one of them is sitting about six feet from you, looking slightly alarmed at this outporing!

So yes, it was a BRILLO evening of lovely people, good times, and BEER. This morning tho, TIRED - how come it's the EARLY gigs that end up being the LATEST nights?

posted 23/4/2008 by MJ Hibbett

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Comments:

And cathedrals! don't forget we dedicated quite a bit of beer talktime to cathedrals!
posted 24/4/2008 by Francis

It was a GRATE night all round, it has to be said, as my website diary will divulge. Still can't believe I ended up being roped into doing Music of the Future though ;)

And many thanks for doing "It Only Works Because You're Here", that's still as lovely as ever - and surprising that so many of us sang along to the chorus, made me feel all warm and fuzzy :)
posted 24/4/2008 by Warren

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