Blog: Totally Acoustic

< previous

next >

Off to The Lamb again last night for Totally Acoustic, where I was DELIGHTED to find ACTS already there - Mr George Death had set off ESPECIALLY early, having been told by the radio that central London would be in RIOT, due to all the World Leaders and Protestors, but instead found it merely SUNNY and easily navigable. The Gresham Flyers, meanwhile, were so punctual they had members there who weren't even PLAYING!

There then followed BEER and a steady tho forceful trickle of people arriving, until at 7.30pm it had become one of the most attended for AGES, and so it was to a full room that I performed THIS:

I Did A Gig In New York

My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once

My Theory Of A Dinosaur Planet

Here Come The Dinosaurs

My Grandad Is Nuts

My Theory Of A Dinosaur Planet (reprise)

Being Happy Doesn't Make You Stupid

The Lesson Of The Smiths

I can't speak for anybody else, but I have to say i had a WHALE of a time! I especially enjoyed doing the chunk of Dinosaur Planet - I may have said this before, but I've recently had a mini, not CRISIS, but WOBBLE about it, wondering if it might actually WORK, but in trying it out at GIGS I am somewhat relieved to find it is taking SHAPE and gaining JOKES along the way. We got our Accomodation booked for Edinburgh yesterday too, so we're WELL on the way. All I have to do now is finish writing it!

Next Mr George Death took to the stage, and was GRATE. I've seen him several times playing with a backing tape but this was the first time I'd seen him JUST on guitar, and it was FANTASTIC - he was full of CHAT and STORIES and the songs SHONE - as I watched him I thought "This is the BEST thing about Totally Acoustic, watching people i think are brilliant BE brilliant, in front of people who wouldn't normally see them." It was ACE.

As indeed were The Gresham Flyers, who finished the official bit of the evening off after a break. I'd originally thought that Totally Acoustic would be a way of getting people to do DIFFERENT stuff than they usually do, but it's never really gone very far in that way, largely because most of the people I've asked to play have tended to be Solo Artistes who are already doing the Songs And Stories thing. The Gresham Flyers, however, GRASPED this particular METTLE and did a LOVELY set where their songs became sunshiney, slightly folky, very TUNEY melodies, like something out of The Fictional Sixties where everything was DELIGHTFUL. It was GRATE to watch it happening, and a FAB way to draw the music to a close.

The evening itself, as usual, carried on significantly longer, with MUCH discussion of... er... all sorts of things I expect. For some reason my memory becomes clouded for this section - it's probably caused by the same thing as is giving me a DICKY TUMMY and slight headache this morning!

posted 1/4/2009 by MJ Hibbett

< previous

next >

Comments:

You might like to know that your theory of a dinosaur planet (well, the escape from Earth bit) is also espoused in Steve Cole's "Astrosaurs" children's book series.

NB if you have postulated dinosaur spaceships that run on dinosaur poo, it might look like plagiarism. But I'm hoping you haven't done that.
posted 1/4/2009 by Dan H

No, the spaceships aren't poo-powered (GRATE idea tho), but i was a bit alarmed, for reasons which will become clear when the show is going, to see a PIRATE DINOSAUR on the front page!! NO!!!

... but I think it'll be OK. It'd better - I'm half way through writing A Dinosaur Sea Shanty!
posted 2/4/2009 by MJ Hibbett

Your Comment:
Your Name:
SPAMBOT FILTER: an animal that says 'oink' (3)
	(e.g. for an animal that says 'cluck' type 'hen')