Making poetry history

Here are a couple of photographs from Saturday night - I'm the (ahem) blurred action figure wearing an ill-advised hat in the top one, while the second one was taken in the last minutes of the evening and features on the left T.V Smith, in the middle John Otway and on the right Attila The Stockbroker. I'd imagine that Attila is holding the remains of a pint of 30th anniversary ale...

More about that in a minute - first things first though, and it was a roaringly good evening at The Horns in Watford on Thursday when Wilko Johnson entertained a capacity crowd as only he can. I sometimes wish that I'd kept a list of gigs that I've been to for many reasons not least to see how many times I've seen Wilko play - I must be up in the three figure area now, and I've never come away disappointed. Some relatively rare performances ('Western Plain', 'Hello Josephine') sat next to the expected classics, and the addition of Jerry Tremaine on harmonica and vocals for 'Twenty Yards Behind' (only harp on that one) and 'Roxette' pushed the level of mayhem up even further. Excellent stuff as always. Support came from The People's Republic Of Mercia (great name!) who went down well but who I found to be a bit ramshackle in places - and it wasn't good ramshackle if you know what I mean... still they were working that night and I wasn't so they must be doing something right! And The Horns are definitely doing something right - it's a great venue that's always good to go to. When I'm there I often think that I'd like to live nearer to it or somewhere like it given the standard (and indeed the diversity) of the acts that play there, and then I remember that I should occasionally be doing a few things other than watching people playing music, like playing some myself...

2 gigs with the mighty T.V. Smith this weekend, and the first one was a real one-off - a show at The Ropetackle Centre in Shoreham to celebrate 30 years since Attila The Stockbroker played his first gig. Joining Attila (both solo and with his band Barnstomer) and T.V. on the bill was the incomparable John Otway, and when we arrived everyone was present and correct - well everyone except the soundman, who it turned out had been told that the gig was on Sunday. Doh! After 4 soundchecks in 20 minutes (that's the way to do it! Or is it..?) the show began with a solo set from Attila before T.V. and myself took to the stage. Halfway through the first song 'Tomahawk Cruise' I realise my vocal isn't in the monitor and T.V. can't hear his guitar (it went off altogether during 'In The Arms Of My Enemy' - I turned mine off and we played acoustically until his guitar came back on) so maybe our soundcheck was a bit too rushed after all... still we go down very well, and with Attila joining us on violin for our last 3 songs ('One Chord Wonders', 'Lion And The Lamb' and 'Runaway Train Driver') our set ends to tumultuous applause. It's good when that happens! After a short interval there was a suitably surreal set from John Otway including excerpts from 'Cheryl - The Rock Opera' with Attila, before a final set with Barnstormer bought a cracking evening to a close. Just before we left I happened to find myself in the dressing room with the 3 stars of the show, and in what was a rather unusual move from your humble narrator, I took the photo that you can see at the start of this posting. I never do things like that! Still, it turned out rather well don't you think? Oh and I'm told that the 144 pints of Anniversary Ale that were on sale at the event sold out in 1 hour and 43 minutes - Attila had predicted that it would take 4 minutes more...

And Sunday night's show at The Load of Hay turned out rather well too, with our 23 (23!) song set running from the start of T.V.'s career with The Adverts and The Explorers through his solo albums (including this song) right up to the present day, finishing with the as-yet-unrecorded 'Man Down' then encoring with some old Adverts favourites. We're playing in Croydon next month with Dave Sharp - that should be a good night. And the evening had a real ale moment of it's own - East offered Upper Cut bassman Terry a drink who asked for 'a half of Doom'; East replied ' would you like DO or OM?' He went for OM... I forgot to wear the afore-mentioned hat (which is becoming something of a trademark at these gigs, albeit an accidental one) until halfway through the show, and T.V. earned the undying gratitude of the bar staff by removing a spider from the kitchen. They all agreed that he can come back anytime - so that's how you get gigs!