It’s all done. The Gunpowder Works managed to stage a brilliant 3 night tour – we’ve had a great amount of fun.
Last night at The Tom Thumb was excellent. Packed house and an emotional ending to the night with The Flowing wrapping things up nicely with ‘Lullabies’.
Sad it’s over.
Maybe we’ll do it all over again next year…..
There’s so much that can be said about last night’s show at The Avenue Theatre. Great turn out, lovely audience, sumblime performances.
But there was one four minute section of the night that has to rank somewhere in the top 3 moments from all the years I’ve been playing in bands.
Last April at The Sweeps Festival in Rochester, Bob Carling from Swale Sings community choir introduced himself after our Castle Gardens performance. He’d picked up on the Kent legend songs we’ve written and said the choir would love to get involved and perhaps do a collaboration with us.
We decided Holly Shore would be the best suited (due to the location of the story) and practiced for a few months at The Avenue Theatre, throwing ideas around with the choir to get the best arrangement for both parties. Two performances in 20111 – one at Artists in The Woods in Oare and another at Maria McCarthy‘s MacMillan Cancer fund raiser/book launch night at The Avenue – both went really well and we thought it would be great to get the choir involved on the Theatre Tour if we could.
With no hesitation at all, Swale Sings promised they would be at The Avenue. And by crikey, did they ever turn up last night! The four minutes of Holly Shore backed by Swale Sings was a beautiful moment.
To have that much power coming from behind you on stage, 25 singers giving their absolute all for one of our songs is just an experience that can’t really be explained.
During the second verse I was getting a bit emotional – which I don’t think has ever happened to me at a gig before…it felt like something clicked. 30 people on stage together, completely wrapped up in the moment.
The reaction from the crowd said it all. A great ending to a great night. All of the choir’s hard work to learn our song, all of the months of preparation summed up by a standing ovation and a couple of minutes of solid cheering and applause. No words really do the feeling justice.
Swale Sings are a brilliant bunch and great singers to match. Their enthusiasm is unlimited and they take great pride in what they are doing. Support those guys if you get the chance.
Tonight was the first leg of our 3 night tour – Sheppey Little Theatre was the venue – a converted church buried in the back street ghettos of Sheerness. But let’s talk about all of that in a minute.
Yesterday I had an e-mail exchange with our insane violin player:
“I will be meandering to the theatre at five o’clock come the ‘morrow. How will you be journeying to our destination?”, said I, in excellent written English.
“A train get right in Sittbor at ‘arf 4 mate, I’ll geddit. Gissa lif boy”, came the rather outdated reply.
Not to be disheartened, or put off by such intollerable speak, I continued:
“Very well. I will appear from my automobile to hail you towards the passenger seat. Then you will enter the vehicle and we shall converse of the days events on our short but pleasant drive to Sheerness.”
Confirming the accompaniment, Hannah replied “Reddot chav maboooey. See yooooz at 16.29 WIVVOUT FAIL! LOL!”
“Fare thee well Hannah.”
“LOL”. Whatever that means.
So. It was all set.
Me and old man G arrive at the station at 16.29 on the dot. Never late. Ever.
No Hannah.
G phones Hannah x864.
No answer.
Time gets round to 16.45.
No Hannah.
Train says it’s delayed.
Great.
Hannah rings.
She’s in the car with Vicky, on their way to Sheppey.
In summary, don’t organise anything with Hannah.
She’ll just not bother turning up and won’t tell you about it either.
Unless you’re her friend. Then it will be fine.
Hang on a minute!
Hatred.
We started the night off with a 30 minute set of 6 songs. 30 minutes is a normal set time for this sort of 3 band night…but in my head 6 songs isn’t right. I suppose that’s what you get when you have songs that are 5 minutes long. We are well self indulgent. We played about a 7 out of 10 I reckon. Sold a bunch of CDs and had some good feedback though which was nice.
Next up were The Flowing – Dave started off the set, just him and his guitar. He definitely looked and sounded the part on that stage – curtained backdrops, warm coloured lights, cracked and heartfelt vocals. Something clicked right there. Gradually the other members of the band joined him and the sound grew. First time I’ve seen them as a 5 piece and it was just lovely. The accompaniment to Dave’s vocals and guitar is quite understated but totally draws you in. I like to pick out the subtleties. (That’s what I say to my girlfriend when I pick my nose too. Although that’s not subtle at all. I can get right up to my elbow.) Great band, see them.
Wheels were tonight’s headline band. They get tighter every time I see them and the guitar work between Rew and Neil is truly inspired. They know I love them so I won’t drool too much, although most of the time it can’t be helped. My face is always wet when I wake up in the morning. Spit everywhere. Just nasty. Especially in this weather. Spit gets very cold, you know?
All the acts said they enjoyed playing in a theatre setting, which is good news as we’ve got 2 nights left of the tour. Would have been rubbish if we’d have all hated it.
Thanks to everyone that came along. Thanks to Vicky for clementines. I ate two in quick succession, underneath the stage.
Can’t wait for tomorrow. It’s going to be a good one.
We’re performing our last song with a choir.
Ooooooooooooooooooh!*
*That’s one of their lines.
Tickets for tonight’s show will be available on the door for £5.
You can buy them online here: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/147097 until noon today.
Just before Christmas I decided that in January I would give up crisps, biscuits, sweets, cakes and alcohol.
This may seem like the normal thing for a lot of people in January – doing the detox thing and all that jazz – but to me this would be quite a challenge.
During the daytime I would normally pick at bits and pieces of badness. Bag of crisps. It’s alright, I’m going swimming tomorrow. Couple of biscuits. It’s alright, I walked to the kitchen to get them – burned off the calories before I even got there.
In addittion to that, I have become accustomed to scoffing something sweet after every dinner I eat. Be it a bit of chocolate, an ice cream, whatever. My brain understands that the main is followed by a sweet. That’s what happens in restaurants, right? Right.
Then, in the evenings it would be commonplace to have a couple of bottles of beer. In the past year or so I’ve been ‘testing’ lots and lots of different beer. I keep track of how good/bad they are so I know what to buy in the future. In drinking these beers, I am providing myself a service. Thank you me. That’s ok. Friends? Lovers. Well, let’s not go quite that far. Dumped! What?!
I am aware the tenses and grammar above and below isn’t always up to scratch.
I thought the 31 day journey would be riddled with temptation, the path lined with lamp post lollipops and chocolate dog poos. Or something. But it wasn’t. I found it quite easy. Even with people falling victim to the evils of devil food right in front of my face, I did not falter. I was strong! Except after I lifted up a massive piece of marble fire place all by myself and pulled a muscle in my back. That hurt. It was the heaviest thing I have ever lifted though. Heavier by 200%.
I suppose there’s not really much to say other than I managed to be awesome for all 31 days. The hinges on the cupboard door have had a reprieve. They’ve served me well in the past. It’s time I repay them.
I’ve ditched about half a stone and gone down more than one belt size. (I’m at the last belt hole and it won’t go down any more and I’ll ruin it if I try to make another hole). I’m pretty pleased with this and I’m not in a rush to go and have a beer and a bag of crisps. I don’t even feel like forcing cake down my gullet after a tuna salad tonight.
I have beer that goes out of date in May. Perhaps I’ll try and make it til then.
@SalvadorVicky there's a folky world musicy thing at Norton Village Hall on March 22. Braga Tanga http://t.co/ZSuHb6mz
Fancy some interesting music from around the world tonight? Tune into departures on www.csrfm.com from 8-10. Always an awesome listen!!
@MarfSalvador Must be something like that since I haven't grown in about 5 years
@MarfSalvador I always want them to do an episode where someone literally has Johnny Cash in their attic.
