Thumb's up?

A couple of postings ago I mentioned that I'd started having acupuncture in an attempt to relieve the pain caused by my wrist injury. I've since learned a bit about the type of treatment that I'm getting- it's called Intramuscular Stimulation and, without wishing to tempt fate too much, it seems to be really helping. It's not particularly pleasant- check the above link and you'll see what I mean- but it's got me to the stage where I can play guitar with nowhere near as much pain and discomfort as I've had for the last few months which in my little world can only be a good thing.

Talking of playing guitar...

Friday saw The Chicago Blues Brothers visit The Pizza Express in Maidstone for the first time this year. Marc, Squirrel, Richard and myself are in our usual places, but with Ian still away Roger's back on keyboards, Steve's in Dave's place on trumpet and the comeback king himself Pete joins Mike in the hat and glasses. It being the Friday of the Bank Holiday weekend traffic is even heavier than usual meaning everyone arrives when they arrive (if you see what I mean.) Soundcheck's is a fairly swift affair although Squirrel sparked a fit of attempted-joining-in by playing the bassline to 'Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick' (which in itself is a measure of what a good bass player he is as it's legendarily difficult!) and 'Steamroller Blues' (a favourite soundcheck number of Pete's) gave us all a chance to have a solo. In a break with tradition I'm using my recently acquired Relic Stratocaster rather than the usual Telecaster as it's got quite a slim neck which given my thumb problems make it a little easier to play- it feels great 'though I'm not sure that it's the right sound for us, or maybe I'm just used to hearing what I normally hear?
We've got The Cornwallis Room to use as a dressing room which we've not been in before, it's on the third floor which gives us a view down onto the streets below. We order pizzas (of course!) which arrive in good time but don't come with cutlery- by the time that arrives most of the band have used their hands... we're due on at 8 but actually start some 15 or so minutes late, it's a full house and it's very hot on stage but everything goes according to plan 'though Pete forgot himself (and indeed his American accent!) on more than one occasion (it almost got a bit sweary!) and a glass fell off a front table and smashed on stage during 'Mustang Sally'- or maybe someone threw it? We weren't that bad were we?!?

Last night it was of to the wilds of Hertfordshire for a show with The Cane Toads at The Artichoke in Croxley Green. I last played with them at the end of March (I'm not in the band, I only help them out if Malcolm their regular 6-string strummer can't make it) and they'd not been gigging much lately so myself and Pete (their other guitarist) got together for a couple of hours in the afternoon to remind each other of how some of the songs went. With us as ready as we were ever going to be we headed of to what turned out to be a nice little pub in very pleasant surroundings. (Bruce the drummer notices that the sign outside advertises 'coffee's'- then again he is an English teacher so I guess he should spot things like that!) As we were setting up it became clear that quite a few people had been drinking for rather longer than was perhaps wise (we were later told that one group of brave souls had got through '4-or-so bottles of Sambuca' before we'd got there) and by the time our start time of 9.30 came around it was I think fair to say that many had peaked too early...
Our second song 'Bohemian Like You' saw 2 young ladies dancing in a very interesting manner a foot or so in front of Martin the singer; by the next number 'Valerie' they'd begun pole-dancing with one of the beams near where we were playing and were so joined by a few likely lads in a similar state of confusion. With space limited and things hotting up it was almost inevitable that something mad would happen; by the middle of the set people are wanting to sing songs and trying to get on the microphone with Martin (he wasn't happy!) and the girls take a tumble or 2... the last song of the first set is 'School's Out' and suddenly there's broken glass on the floor in front of us, no one seems to notice- or maybe they don't care?- until the end of the song when we take a break. One of the girls is in trouble and there's blood on the floor- yes, you've guessed it, she'd taken her shoes off to dance...
There's no less mayhem in the second set- 'Delilah' sees a young man take his shirt off to dance and to bellow along (according to Martin this often happens!) and by 'Ever Fallen In Love' it's like a punk gig down the front, we've got 6 songs left and can't wait to play 'em- except the landlord comes up to Pete and tells him that we've got to stop as the neighbours are complaining about the noise. The audience aren't happy, the band aren't happy, but there's nothing any of us can do (one of the barman's rather rueful comment 'I don't make the rules' summed up the general feeling) so the evening comes to a somewhat unexpected close with a couple of drinks and a Take That song from an audience member.

So- 2 gigs in a row with broken glass involved; now there's something that I hopefully won't see again. Still my thumb doesn't feel too bad this morning so it's not all bad news- then again I'm off to see the man again this week...