Blog: My Little Owl

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Myself and The Steels In My Works set off for SHEFFIELD on Saturday, as I was booked to play at an acoustical My Little Owl night. I have been to Sheffield MANY MANY times but I've almost always been on my own - having The Sheets On My Bed there BLEW MY MIND a little as I kept thinking "OOh, I'll ring/text home" and then realising she was stood next to me. It was ACE!

We booked into My Usual Suite at The Ibis, had a coffee, then wandered along to The Rutland Arms for what would turn out to be (SPOILERS) a MAGICAL night. Unfortunately Mrs V Ransome (Promoter) was poorly, but her deputies Mr D Ransome and Mr M Popstar did a GRATE job sorting everything out. I was also DELIGHTED to see Mr P Knight who I haven't seen for AGES, largely due to him being INCREDIBLY ILL. His Mum & Dad were there too, and they told us how, basically, they'd saved his LIFE!!

Also there was Mr Alex Hale, who took possession of the GTR I was offering last week, Dave The Gardener (who provided us with the TREE we asked for on our rider in HULL many years ago) and Mr Martin Stephenson aka Martin Stephenson Of Martin Stephenson And The Daintees Who Seemed To Play Leicester Phoenix Arts every other week when I was at Poly. It turned out he's the PARTNER of Helen McCookerybook (who was headlining) - Markie was ALSO very excited about this!

Soon it was SHOWTIME and the first band on were Seven Tors, who I knew nothing about in advance but were EXCELLENT. Everything they did sounded LOVELY, especially when they were all singing along together - they had a brilliant SOUND, it was a TERRIFIC start to the evening!

Next were Robberie - I'd never seen them or heard any of their stuff, but had read rave reviews online which, somehow, had given me the idea that I'd find them a bit twee and/or boring. I was ENTIRELY WRONG and indeed BLOWN AWAY by the same - they were AMAZING! They too had a brilliant SOUND and GRATE songs that were a) moving b) FUNNY. I must adjust my Preconception Generator and Enthusiastic Twee Review filter to prevent this happening again - they were my favourite band I've seen for AGES!

Then it was MY TURN to go on. I had been Careful and Professional (i.e. had at some point had a pint of Diet Coke instead of BEER) so managed to get the following pretty much RIGHT:

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

My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once

If You're Too Turned On

(You Make Me Feel) Soft Rock

We Did It Anyway

The Lesson Of The Smiths

Boom Shake The Room

It was a HUGELY enjoyable thing to do - there was LARFS there was REMARKS and, as Helen McCookerybook reports, there was a LOT of singing along. I had a GRATE time!

And then it was Helen McCookerybook herself who, in line with the whole rest of the evening, was GRATE. I played with her donkey's years ago in Brixton and enjoyed it then, but this time, sitting VERY close (we were at the front) in a lovely room full of lovely people, she was magical. Excellent , distinctive, songs sung in a lovely voice, open emotions, and all round BRILLIANCE. I was also moved by Martin Stephenson spending the whole gig trying to Be Supportive (by being nearby and playing some VERY GOOD guitar) while not Taking Over The Attention Himself. It was very sweet!

The music ended and the rest of the evening turned to more BEER and more CHAT and a general air of everything being DELIGHTFUL. It was a totally magical night, really, and JUST THE TONIC as WINTER kicks in. The only downside, really, is that it made me REALLY want to re-start Totally Acoustic sooner!

posted 18/11/2013 by MJ Hibbett

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