Blurry eyed blog - day???
I just wanted to update the world domination blog while the others are sleeping.
2 days to update you on but will try and keep it brief.
Travelling into Birmingham we arrived at Ort cafe to be greeted by the lovely Josie, who runs the place with a few friends and volunteers. An Old print works from back in the day the venue was yet another stunning building with acres of character. (It was massive) We spent most of the day between the community cafe and at Adam and Josie’s place (our generous hosts) talking about music and sharing Youtube videos… (Mainly comedy films from the rubber bandits and the lonely island guys)
Anyway later that night apprehensive as usual we were pleasantly surprised to be playing to a sufficiently filled warm friendly room of people, except for maybe one guy who didn’t like my fact about Birmingham supermarkets, but he soon disappeared.
Anyway, Dave (the ultimate accompanist) Little played some blinding guitar and then even managed to jump on the house piano to add an almost gospel feel to my song Treading Water. Jack went on to deliver his brilliant blend of story telling humour and skilfully arranged folk songs and we felt warmed as we both received a really great response from the Birmingham gathering.
The hat was passed, a few CDs were sold and we headed off into the rain to our beds for the night… New friends made and another place we would love to return to.
Heading for Bolton on Wednesday with the soundtrack from our host Adams brilliant folk band “The old dance school” playing, we had our usual conversation of “I wonder who will show up tonight?” The road sign that read Bolton A666 could have been taken as a bad omen but fortunately I’m not superstitious, the rain cleared and the sun created a stunning backdrop to the north that I really wasn’t expecting.
Once again we were greeted by the landlord and lady of The Railway in Bolton, John and Hilary, who were very obviously massive music lovers. The whole venue was like a giant shrine to all things great about music and rock n roll. A fantastic place!
A hand picked selection of 6 hours of classic music videos ranging from The Band, Nick Drake, Neil Young and our mate Robert Vincent kept us constantly distracted by the big screen in the corner. John should have his own cable TV music channel it was a choice mix.
What is really evident and reassuring about every place we have played so far is that there are still plenty of venues with owners that genuinely really care about live original music and will go out of their way to make it work, long may it last.
The night saw Jack and Dave welcome some old friends to watch us play and when things got going even the folks around the bar (who didn’t pay to come in) sided their way closer and closer along the bar as both Jack and ourselves offered out our selections of songs and stories.
Rounded off with some great conversation, having again made some new friends, we necked a few more pints and were given 3 bottles of “Elbow” ale to send us on our way…the band Elbow (from just down the road) have their own ale called “Build a rocket boys!” reminding both Dave and I that maybe we should follow up our idea to make Small Town Cider when we get home!
Thanks for taking the time to read my blurry eyed ramblings. Better wake the guys up in a bit…today we head for Leek!
