'Big tings a gwan'

Now where were we...?

It's only been a couple of weeks since our last post but a lot has happened, both in band-life and real-life. 'Big tings a gwan' as they say. Not that we've upped sticks to Jamaica or anything. Although we do have a pretty nifty little reggae song on the cards these days! I digress.

Now where were we...?

We left you hanging I seem to remember! Port Eliot Festival was about to start and we had a deputy bass player who knew the songs better than we did. The piano player had gone to the wrong festival and the drummer car's kept breaking down. What could possibly go right? As it turns out a lot. The piano player finally arrived, albeit with no tent or sleeping bag, the drummer's car drove smoothly on to site, we set up and began playing to 20 revellers and ended up with some 200 'stompers' clambering for more! The deputy bass player, Mr. Drinkwater, slotted in perfectly, remembering all the songs and even going one better by learning one an hour before the gig! 

The buzz was electric as we stood signing albums at the end; our first major festival and it went as smooth as a beaver's hat! We partook in some mild revelling, a few drinkypooh's and some bum wiggling and then rolled back to camp by the light of the silvery moon. 

The next morning the piano player returned to the wrong festival, the drummer whisked his French muse away in his broken car and I returned south to continue rehearsals for the play I was doing, leaving the guitar player to mooch around the festival and ponder his continued failure to buy his house!

"This buying a house malarky is pretty easy!" He had certainly been eating those words for months now and still no completion day in sight! 

Yes, real-life had swung back into play; the piano player went back to paintball selling duties determined to climb the selling charts and fend off competition from younger versions of himself. The drummer returned to his windmill and prepared the grain for milling. Rehearsals continued apace and then my play opened in a blaze of pomp and publicity and I forgot I was in a band altogether until the guitar player burst the bubble and brought me back down with a bump, and on to Boomtown! BANG!

'Let's go and watch The Odd Folk man!'

This was to be our biggest gig to date. Now a major player in world festivals, Boomtown was kind of a big deal! We had a decent stage and a decent time slot and our beloved bass player back on side! What could possibly go wrong? As it turns out a lot! The stage shrunk from it's imposing pre-festival pictures and more resembled a large yurt spiced by the continued cooking of Chai Tea. Oh, and the time slot changed, we'd been shunted back a few hours, a little too early for stomping!
 "This place is full of mega hippies with massive bongos!" remarked the guitar player with a wry smile. Slighted but not defeated we ploughed on regardless, sticking to our pre-made setlist and not letting the Chai get to us. As with Port Eliot, we opened to 20 and closed to 200, it could have been more, for beyond the crusty white walls of the yurt scores of people sat in the shifting sunlight, listening to us or to the chime players across the way? It's debatable, but we'll take em! 

We didn't sign any CD's this time, but the buzz was just as electric, and it continued long into the shoulder of the night. And indeed throughout the weekend random people would seek us out and compliment us on our music, warm words were well received...

We're back in real-life again now, all eagerly awaiting our next instalment, a rousing sunday night performance at Shambala Festival. 'Big tings a gwan' as they say! We are gathering new fans, CD sales are up; just this morning we received an order of 5 albums from Florence in Italy! Our long-awaited film, How NOT to be in a Band, is due for release onto the worldwideweb in September, and soon after that we'll air on BBC 1 in front of an estimated audience of 13 million! 'Big tings a gwan' 

                                      www.theoddfolk.com