March was a busy month for me in terms of playing live at
open mics. I decided to take a few weeks off from the roleplaying group I’m
involved with on Thursdays which meant I was able to get to a few of them that
I wasn’t able to do before. That
included The Plough in Trysull, which didn’t last very long, and The Crown in
Codsall which I’ve been aware of but rarely get the chance to play. Both times
I’ve been up there recently have been very poignant, because of recent deaths
that occurred amongst our friends, so playing at the Crown and also watching
Sam play there has sometimes been a very emotional experience for me.
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| The Yard. Great night! |
The other one was The Yard in Stafford .
Funny story about that: After driving around looking for the place I had to
ring the promoter, Steve, who had to come out of the venue to find me. He
managed it, but because of the way the road network in Stafford was designed,
we had to drive for about another mile and a half before we could find
somewhere to park, then walk for ten minutes to get to the venue. When it was
finished and it was time to leave, I realised to my horror that I couldn’t
remember where I’d parked my car. So there I was at Stafford
in the middle of the night, walking around not having a clue where I was or
where I was going, thinking “Where’s my car? I’m sure the college was on the
right when I passed it. How far did we go? Have I ACTUALLY turned into Ashton
Kutcher?”
I found it in the end.
In all seriousness, that night I made a very good song
selection. By then I was actively trying to have some more confidence in my own
material, and since the audience consisted mainly of other musicians and
students, I planned my set accordingly and I think I was very well received.
Complete bait and switch for a couple of weeks later when I
found myself playing at The Stile once again. That night, I played mostly
covers, but – and I really can put it no plainer than this – that is how the
night felt. It was a Friday Night, Wolverhampton Wanderers had just won at home
(you can see The Stadium from The Stile) and people were on a night out. They
wanted a party, so I thought I’d give them one! I really enjoyed that seconds
into my set, I had a lot of people singing along to A Little Respect. I tried
to keep it cheery, and I did play Bitterness at some point which was
well-received – by the other musicians. Everybody else was happy to hear Oasis,
Don Henley, The Offspring… the usual favourites.
But that’s what it’s all about: gauging how the night’s
going, understanding your audience and planning your set accordingly. Most of
this is done in the half an hour before I’m due to go on stage but it is
important to do it.
I don’t write much about what I’m doing with Dudley
Performing Arts on this blog because when the kids do well it is every bit as much
to do with them as it is to do with me. Plus I’d get Data Protection Acted for
it. But there are few times I’ve been so proud to work for them as when with
less than three months to turn it around we managed to organise and play three
full concerts at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham. In 10 years time the kids
will realise just what a big deal this was, but for now I can legitimately say
I’ve played Symphony Hall, and I’ve seen what we can do under pressure!
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| Crashpoint before our first gig. We'll miss you Luke (far right.) |
I hate to end on a sad note, but unfortunately it doesn’t
get much worse than this: On Tuesday 31st March, my old friend and
former Crashpoint band-mate Luke Clarke passed away. I don’t know everything
that happened, but as I understand it, he’d been ill with epilepsy most of his
life, and would sometimes have violent and dangerous fits. On that Tuesday
morning, he didn’t recover from this one. He didn’t have long on this world,
but he was always writing and recording music – he had ambitions to write
scores for film and TV – and I can’t think of many people who followed their
dreams right up until the end. I’m glad I had a chance to listen to some of his
music and tell him I thought it was good before it was too late. We could never
have known what was going to happen, but there was no unfinished business, so
it’s some comfort to know we parted on good terms.
Rest easy mate.
