I'm behind again! Good lord...
I actually came to the Hartley Arms tonight because I needed to talk to Sam about something, but while I was there I figured I might actually play some guitar as well. This not being a conventional gig, nor one that I was taking too seriously, I decided to break out from my usual conventions...
I sound-checked - and thereafter played - my rendition of an old Dastards song Shoot From The Hip. What Wake would think of me playing his songs I don't know, and it seems strange to play a song from a relatively unknown band I haven't actually been in for nearly 4 years, but do you know what, I like playing it, and it stuck a very poignant chord with me that to be honest resonates with me to this very day. Plus it's simple, enjoyable, and judging by the reaction I got, people like to hear it. I don't know whether they necessarily wanted to know that it wasn't my song, but I wasn't going to play this song without giving the writer some credit.
I followed that up with Dear Mr Manager, which I haven't played for ages because it doesn't really have much of a place in the gigs I've been doing over the last couple of months. I had to concentrate because the guitar work, while easy as pie to any halfway-decent fingerpicker, is still unexplored territory for me. However, it was I think at this point that I realised how attentive my audience actually was. They weren't being loud and giving me standing oviations at the end of every song, no. They were paying me the far more appreciated compliment of being absolutely silent for the time I was playing and showing a real intensity in their listening. I might attribute some of this to the fact that a few people there had seen me play before and to start playing quiet songs all of a sudden was a new experience for them...
Next came One More Show, I've been waiting to do this for a while because of Sam's off-hand comment about me looking like Boyzone when I play guitar sat on a stool and writing a song in what I consider to be in the style of the aforementioned boy-band of the 90's. Laugh if you will, I grew up in the 1990's, and if you listened to the radio or TV at all during that time at some point you'll have heard No Matter What, which is where I got the idea for the key-change from. I don't think it's one of my best songs, and I rarely get more than polite applause from it, but I definitely wanted to play this one for Sam. Inspiration can come from the strangest of places!
I wrapped it up with something a little more familiar to the venue which was Storm From The North. Not much to say about this, other than I avoided putting in the 'Nothing Else Matters' bit in at the end. I've said before that I'd need a somewhat familiar audience to make it work, and I stand by that. But I also believe that said familiar audience will only find it funny once. I may do it again at some point but not for a while!
All in all I think the gig was a little more interesting for me in that I changed the set list around from what has now become the norm. And I'm fortunate to be in a position where I can go and change things like that in a venue like The Hartley Arms where I can get away with it. It wouldn't necessarily work around the so-called 'big' venues, because the stakes are higher and I need to be on form. But I think tonight, I couldn't have done it better. Cheers Sam, and well done for passing your driving test, see you again soon!
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