Blog: Joyfest

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On Sunday afternoon myself and The Bands On My Bill set off to distant New Cross, to play at the Joyfest All-Dayer, celebrating ten years of Joyzine. I'd originally planned to just GO to see Chris T-T, but then Paul Who Runs Joyzine saw I was going and asked if I fancied playing too. I said "Yes Please!"

Getting there was made a bit more difficult than usual by the fact that the Central Line was OFF, so we had to get a BUS to Stratford, which made it all a LITTLE more stressful than i would otherwise have preferred, but DID mean we could pop into M&S on the way for a LUNCH SALAD. Sophisticated! We'd just finished these lunches and were sat on the Overground to New Cross when Mr Eddy Bewsher, long-time pal, Hull Promoter, and all round good guy, got on our carriage. I knew Eddy was coming (he'd requested a song which I'd been re-learning in the morning!) but it was a bit of a KRAZY COINCIDENCE to bump into him on the way!

At New Cross we rounded the corner to The Amersham Arms where we found the gig in full swing although, as ever with All-Dayers, not going EXACTLY to plan. My slot had been put back by 45 minutes which was GRATE as we'd been a bit late arriving due to aforesaid Central Line Lackage, so it gave us time to sit with Eddy and have a BEER and also a CHAT, which was DELIGHTFUL.

Soon, however, I had to get on stage and ROCK, and i did so THUSLY:

The Peterborough All-Saints Wide Game Team (group B)

Call The Lyric Police

20 Things To Do Before You're 30

(You Make Me Feel) Soft Rock

My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once

If You're Too Turned On

It Only Works Because You're here

I Want To Find Out How It Ends

The Lesson Of The Smiths

I really enjoyed this set - it felt a bit strange to be so FAR from the audience (I was on stage, everybody else was about ten feet away, in the dark) and I found it quite hard to ENGAGE because, as usual, my ears were attuned to the few people chatting at the back, but I was VERY happy with the songs I'd chosen. Over recent years I've been a bit TIMID about what songs I play live because I worry about knowing the words to the ones that I DON'T do ever gig, so it ends up that I DON'T do them at ANY! However, over the course of these few solo gigs I have developed an exciting new strategy of PRACTICING BEFOREHAND - it works! THUS I re-learned Call The Lyric Police on Eddy's request (he filmed it too, so evidence of me {mostly} remembering the words will be online soon) AND did I Want To Find Out How It Ends at a solo show for the first time. This latter was WELL overdue - I should really have been doing it at ALL gigs, it being our CURRENT SINGLE and all.

UPDATE:Eddy HAS uploaded Call The Lyric Police, false start and all!



My favourite song this time though was 20 Things To Do Before You're 30 as I could hear somebody going "HA!" and "YES" after nearly every line. I think I might need to issue a CHECKLIST for future audiences, to see how many of the 20 things they a) have done so far or b) DID. My other favourite bit was a SEGUE into "Waiting For The Man" at the end of The Lesson Of The Smiths (we'd heard of the death of Lou Reed just before I went on) which ended up being a VERY short - one line - TRIBUTE, as I realised I didn't know the chords OR most of the words. It's the thought that counts!



With the show done we retired to the front bar for more CHAT, where we were joined by the ever delightful Chris T-T who had laboured through STORM LAGGED TRAINS (NB readers of the future: there was a bit of a storm across Southern England that night, and the news had been getting everyone PANICKED about it for several days beforehand) to be there. It was LOVELY to see him for a chat, and GRATE to hear how well things are going with his current tour and new album "The Bear". If you've not got a copy yet I would HIGHLY recommend BUYING IT as it is ACE.

Chris went through to the GIG room and we joined him a few minutes later, to see he'd SOLVED the problem of Audience Distance by simply moving the microphone to the floor IN FRONT of the stage. I'd never thought of that - I've often just done these sort of gigs Totally Acoustically but I don't think it'd have worked in the back room of the Amersham Arms, whereas playing WITH PA but OFF stage totally DID. He was magnificent - I mean, he always is, but this time particularly so with a mix of old and new songs and ESPECIALLY the best ever version of "Market Square" I've ever seen him do.

Afterwards we hugged our farewells to Eddy and The Hull Contingent then darted round the corner to the Overground Station where we got CONFUSED by an almost complete lack of SIGNAGE telling us where to go. Eventually we located Chris's platform, HUGGED some more, and then myself and The Carriages On My Train headed back home. We were girded for more rail replacement buses, but it actually all went FINE, especially when our bus back to Leytonstone dropped us off NOT at the station but opposite the Red Lion. It would have been rude NOT to have popped in for lasties and a game of PINBALL, and I am happy to report that RUDE was something we weren't. We thus ended a busy day and VERY busy weekend overall enjoying a lovely glass of beer at the bar. It was ACE, but I was pleased that the working week was starting in the morning, I needed a rest!

posted 29/10/2013 by MJ Hibbett

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