Blog: A Portfolio Career

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Throughout my life in ROCK I have lived what The Answers To My Survey has referred to as "A Portfolio Career", in that it is made up of lots of different THINGS. There's the ROCK, obvs, but also the shows with Steve, the PLAYS, the skits with John Dredge, the podcasts, and all the other stuff that has been known to delight audiences sometimes reaching double figures. I like it this way - I guess that I might have been more "successful" at it if I had been like those SENSIBLE bands who stick to one thing, but then again a) it's more likely that I would have been rubbish at that one thing and also b) it would have been really boring. I prefer to think of it all as me staggering round a crowded pub, bumping into EVERY table and mildly annoying EVERYONE, rather than sitting in the corner only annoying a few people.

These THORTS were brought to my mind this week due to the UNLEASHING of the SIXTH (6th!!) edition of the Totally Acoustic VODCASTS, which you can see here below:



This week's show featured The Mini-Skips, GUMS!, and Panic Pocket, three GRATE acts who, as far as I know, don't have an awful lot in common apart from being in this week's show and being GRATE. They all come from different "tables" in the "PUB of ROCK" metaphor what I was using above, and when the show was released yesterday I was DELIGHTED to see it being passed around by the bands and their chums, so that each group would be EXPOSED to the works of the other two acts.

I always loved it when this happened at the LIVE Totally Acoustics, so it was ACE to see it happen VIRTUALLY. It's far too easy, in ROCK and in the rest of this life, for us to just stick to the people we know who are like US, but it's fun every now and again to go and IMPOSE on some totally other people, and be similarly imposed upon ourselves. I always used to LOVE it, approx 17 centuries ago, when I'd do gigs at places like The Bull & Gate, where promoters would just stick together any 3 or 4 bands who'd sent them demo tapes, and you'd end up playing WITH all sorts of weird acts, and more importantly TO their audiences. As I always say, if you only ever play gigs to people who are going to like you anyway then it's PEASY, whereas if you play to a mixture of GOTHS, ROMOS, METALLERS and EMOS all in the same room then you're forced to work out ways to get ALL of them on side. This is not, by the way, looking for a lowest common denominator. It is looking for the HIGHEST!

So yes, it was lovely to see that this sort of thing can still happen, and I'm looking forward to getting some more going with the next bunch of shows - stay tuned for details of who'll be playing, you'll know not long after I do!

posted 22/4/2020 by MJ Hibbett

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