Blog: The Hinge And Bracket Revival

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This month's newsletter has just been unleashed upon a waiting world, and keen-eyed observers may have noted that it includes mention of a slightly unusual gig which I haven't previously mentioned. It's a This Machine Kills Wasp gig in Brighton on Friday August 15, when I will be taking to the stage accompanied by Mr CJ Thorpe-Tracey on the piano, AKA The Artist Formerly (and soon to be briefly again) Known As Chris T-T.

We're going to be playing a set consisting mostly (but in theory not entirely) of my old songs re-interpretated for PIANO. Chris and I have been working on this for a while now, and have had THREE (3!) rehearsals so far, working through a whole bunch of songs to see if he and I performing them together could be a good idea.

I am delighted to inform you that, according to 100% of people who have heard them so far (i.e. him and me) it is a GRATE idea! Not only do the songs sound BLOODY LOVELY with Chris tinkling the ivories, but it has also involved some lovely days out for me round at his house having a RIGHT old natter about all manner of things. I've been pals with Chris for flipping DECADES, and have always enjoyed sitting around and talking SHOP with him, but usually this has been curtailed somewhat by the fact that one or both of us is meant to be doing a GIG. Thus it has been brilliant to be able to sit around drinking tea and YACKING for hours with occasional breaks for SONGS.

We've now practiced about 16 songs and before we go and do anything with them we thought it'd be a good idea to go and try some of them out in front of an audience. The main reason for this is to knock them into shape a bit - it always feels like every time we record a Validators record, for instance, that the versions we record almost immediately CHANGE as soon as we go and play them in front of people, so I wanted these ones to have a chance out in the open air. Also, despite the fact that Chris is one of the Top 10 people what I have ever played GIGS with, we have never actually MADE music together - he was obviously one of the stars of Dinosaur Planet, but we've never been on STAGE together at the same time in a ROCK fashion!

That all changes in a couple of weeks in Brighton, when we'll be joined by a MARVELOUS array of people including The Highchurches, Leslie Bloom and Chris East AKA The Artist Formerly Known As Winston Echo, ANOTHER of my Top Ten ROCK comrades! I am really really looking forward to it, especially seeing what people think to us doing these songs in this way - I have been keeping it TOP SECRET for MONTHS and am delighted to be finally getting it out into the wider universe!

posted 31/7/2025 by MJ Hibbett

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