March 2015: New Open Mics, Song Selections, Symphony Hall and an untimely death.

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.

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!

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 31^st 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.

February: A Quick Run of Gigs and the Search for a New Singer

In February I managed to condense most of what I did musically into the last two weeks. After doing nothing for the first two, and for most of January, I seem to remember doing five gigs in one week if you count the Open Mics.

Two of them were with No Questions Asked; one was our last gig with Mike on vocals, and the other was a constantly-changing plan of how we’re going to manage without him. Rich Sadler’s helping us out until April, and I’m happy with that as it’s always a pleasure to work with him. But if we don’t get a singer by then I’ve got no idea what’s going to happen.

Not that we haven’t been trying. We’ve been auditioning people over the last couple of weeks, most notably at a jam night that we do at the Old Bush in Wombourne. We had a few people come through that, sadly the one we were really happy with later told us that she couldn’t commit to it. Some other people have contacted Dave and have been trying, but to be honest I’d rather put off saying anything else about this until there is something to say. In the meantime, I’ll keep playing with NQA as long as they need me.

The others were solo gigs. Some of them happened on the same day as the NQA gigs, as I sometimes support the band with some acoustic songs. When I do this, I generally play covers; we’re being paid for it and that’s what’s expected of us. The other gigs were a learning experience:

The first was an open mic at Katy Fitzgeralds. I deliberately played three new songs: The Cold Side of my Bed, Give Myself Some Time and Denial, Revisited by The Offspring. They are all very much break-up songs. I wasn’t happy with my performance of The Cold Side of my Bed, as I kept forgetting the words. The other two were a little better but I found that these songs packed together made for very poor pacing, so I don’t think I’ll be doing that particular run of songs again. Still, that’s the whole point of Open Mics; try this sort of thing out where the stakes aren’t as high!

Then I had a gig at the Grain Store in Wolverhampton. This was hosted by Sam Draisey, and as it was a both a new gig and a full one, I brought out my A-game for this and played what I thought were my strongest songs. I think I did well; the standard of the night was overall very high, though I was told later by some friends that I should have more confidence in my own material! (I tend to do a 2:1 ratio of covers and originals.) That’s something I’m going to be keeping in mind in the coming weeks.

The next one was a cold night at the open mic at the Plough in Trysull. I started out playing a melancholic set consisting of some of my slower songs including two of the new ones. I had… questions raised about my cheeriness during that, and when it became clear that absolutely no one else was going to turn up, I got up again and played a much lighter set. I enjoyed that one a lot more, funnily enough. Who knew?

Finally, towards the end of the month, I played The Stile in Whitmore Reans. I’d never even been to that part of Wolverhampton before, but I rose to the challenge and once again brought out my A-game. Sadly I didn’t bring out my guitar, since the bridge pin on the bottom E had popped out and nothing short of superglue will get them back in again. Bash was kind enough to let me borrow his, and I think I played well in spite of it!

I’m trying to keep the momentum up with gigs, and I think I need to be taking the idea of a new recording and also Youtube videos more seriously. I could be doing a lot more than I am to promote myself, I’ll consider it for next month. I’ll let you know how it goes.