Good evening, ladies and gents, I trust you are well?
I found myself thinking about the odd things that pass through one's mind during those half-hour stints upon the stage, today. I think about those odd things a lot, actually, usually when I'm on stage. You inhabit two very different forms of existence when you're playing music in front of people, where you're living inside the song, and equally aware of what's going on around you. My attention was drawn to this earlier today as I was playing a solo set for Burslem Festival, when what I can only describe as "a piss-soaked drunk" happened upon the outdoor stage, and made varying lurches to and away from the stage. On the one hand, I'm singing a song called 'Change' - a tender song about heartbreak, and a song that can get me a little teary if I'm not careful, and as such, the song is thankfully brief - and on the other hand, I'm watching him carefully in case he makes any move to join me on the stage for a mid-song cuddle.
That duality is precarious, or at least it can be, because at any one time you can weigh too heavily one one side, and either become so engrossed in the song that you don't realise you've fallen off the stage until you're in mid-air, or become so distracted by your surroundings and the people therein that you can't play for shit.
If you were to make me choose between those two states, I would plump for the former. At least if someone gets his cock out during a love song, I'm not going to notice. I have played songs while minor ruckuses (rucki?) have broken out and subsequently extinguished before now, which still doesn't beat the time my parents and their friend John were playing a gig in a pub's snug lounge (out in the middle of nowhere), when a fight broke out in the bar, which ended up with several police vehicles turning up and the rozzers hauling several people out of the premises. Only Dad was placed to be able to see any of this, and so while John & Mum played their parts undistracted from the blind spot, Dad was left to try and get through the lead guitar part to The Shadows' 'Apache' with blue lights flashing in his eyes.*
I don't seem to get too distracted when the band are playing, and walk the tightrope fairly well, I think. I seem to be totally immersed in the music, while also looking around the room and taking in what's happening, mentally looking out for things on which to pass comment when the song's finished. There are slips, though. Sometimes I'm so caught up in what I'm doing that I don't think about the lyrics, and occasionally an entirely wrong lyric comes up. I will either get lines the wrong way around, swap whole verses or a similar word appears on my tongue and nobody notices. The other week we were playing in Birmingham and over the course of the set, all of those lyrical errors turned up once each. The one that stands out to me, was on a song called 'Universe Colliding' where the lyrics runs "There's a lot of things we want to do, but we never get chance / The opportunity arises so I'm gonna stand up / And sing out..." and even now I can hear myself sing "The university arises..." and two weeks later, I am none the wiser for why that happened.
But it's all part of the magic, getting from the first song to the last. Every time it's fresh and exciting, and these days, with the band especially, utterly joyous. It's a genuine pleasure to be on stage with Angela, Matt & Paul, playing all these songs and turning to them whenever possible just to enjoy what they're doing, and share a smile. We played a show at Fenton Manor Sports Complex (in the cafe bar - it was unusual, but actually pretty sublime, like a German TV studio taping) a week or so ago, and we had plenty of room to move about, no one felt like we were going to trip over each other, and it was a pretty relaxed feel. What made it weirder was turning to face the band and seeing people walking around behind us with towels under their arm, ready for a swim. Still, it was good. It's not happened yet where I've been reassuring the band during an instrumental & realised I should be singing, but there have been a few races back to the microphone...
The coming weeks hold promises of joy and treasures galore, with some studio time ready for May, June & July (where we hope to make further significant progress on our debut record, among other things), and where we are also playing shows for the Newcastle Jazz & Blues Festival, at The Rigger and Old Brown Jug respectively, and there are other shows coming up that we're waiting to announce. We'll also be playing at The Sugarmill on June 7th, which is really exciting for me (for all of us!). I have wanted to step onto that stage since I was 18, so I'm very proud to have that chance. We'll be supporting Junction 16, and I hope it's the first of many times we get to play there.
So with all that to look forward to, I'm going to go and think about things, plot stuff, and try and get the image of that bloke with the wee-stained trousers out of my head. Oh yes, and drink some tea!
See you soon, keep behaving nicely!
Love,
John xxx
*It was bloody weird. About ten minutes prior to this, I had left the gents' just as a man with a sharp farming implement walked into the bar. How there weren't any casualties I don't know.
