It's been a long time since we've sat down on here with the purpose of updating you with actual news, with physical events, real life gigs that you can actually go to, that involve real people and crowds! During the long lockdown months we have been wallowing in the past, gloriously, like pigs, reminiscing with rose tinted glasses, regurgitating all our past endeavours. We've written eulogies about our cars, about our family homes, about our kids, not eulogies about them mind, we just added them up and realised they outnumber us and that's worth a blog too! We've documented that time we nearly died in Sweden, that time the piano player tried to go solo during a pandemic, and we finally disclosed what really happened in Berlin! Or maybe that one's still a secret? Anyway, you get the picture, for over a year we have made no new memories and so trawling up the past is all we've had.
And thanks to you for continuing to support us, for staying connected. It means a lot and to read your nice comments and from so many of you we don't yet know. It remains our goal to come and find you all. In time.
Anyway, we take to the stage in a pub garden this coming Sunday, and I have a feeling half of Penzance will be there. We're up in Wales in late June, then there's this gig on a boat, then back in Cornwall in early July for a run of shows that include an open air theatre, a wedding, two festivals and two arts centres. That's 10 gigs and they all arrived at the same time, each scribbled on the nearest thing I could find; on the chalkboard, now covered over with doodles, on my hand (since washed), on the table (since cleaned) and perhaps most bizarrely on a old envelope that has since been reused and sent back to CTG Windows.
The new album is coming along too, it's a bit like watching paint dry isn't it, waiting for updates on this mythical record, here we are talking about the third album for the third year in a row. Groundhog day. But plans are afoot, and with the podcast too! We're planning a lot this year. Probably too much. Definitely too much. It's going to be hard enough to remember the songs and find that scrap of paper with all the important information on it.
But now, suddenly, life is almost back to some kind of normal. Is this a new era? Post covid! The calendar is filling up which is crazy cause we don't even have a calendar; gigs are being rushed down on scraps of paper and then lost and doubled booked. Last week I said yes to two things on the same day just because I panicked. I'm so out of practice with the running of a band that I can't remember what to do and who's even in the band anymore? The piano player is still in Portugal and nobody knows (least of all him) if he's ever coming back? The accordion player is about to give birth at exactly the same time as starting a huge theatre job (haven't I taught him anything!). The bass player is off walking in the Lake District and expecting his second child and the drummer's just moved back to the Forest of Dean. Needless to say we are incredibly displaced at the moment, perhaps as stretched as we've ever been, but the show must go on. At least The Deputy is keen and it's quite possible that he will step in for all of us at some point this summer, even the drummer, despite the fact he doesn't really play drums. Yet!
That's if we remember the songs, or better still our instruments! We had a rehearsal the other day, our first in 6 months and it was hilarious how bad we were, worryingly so. It's one thing forgetting the lyrics, but when everyone is playing different chords, in different keys, it's frightening. A bit like Jazz.
In other news, there is a stage show being written about this very blog which is kinda bonkers! After some meetings over the winter; Arts Council Funding is being secured and How NOT to be in a Band will be turned into a live show. All these blogs, 85 of them, and some 300 pages of waffle will be turned on its head and bought to life. All our greatest adventures and our very best failures... The plan is to tour it as a live music and theatre show, to show you what really happens behind closed doors, and what really went on in Berlin! So watch this space as they say, which is a stupid saying really, cause this space won't do anything. So maybe watch something else, or better still carry on as normal until we wheel out it in front of you.
The furture is bright, or brighter than it looked over the last year certainly, despite the fact we're all in different places again and expecting two new babies which will makes things trickier. But we've learnt to combat these things in the past. Being on each other's doorsteps seems to make us complacent, and obstacles often bring us closer. And if the last year has taught us anything, it's that we've really missed playing music, and you've missed seeing it too. And that's what's spurring us on. And the loss of Europe as a realistic touring destination has made us hell bent on returning there next year, come what may, cause you always want what you can't have, and whether we come in under the carpet or on bicycles, we will be back!
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| the next odd folk tour... |
So thanks for staying with us and please do come and see us soon. I'm hoping to upgrade the website too, something I've been promising for a decade. Failing that, give us follow on Instagram, it seems that's how a band's progress is judged these days ;) That and how many scraps of paper you can loose. Notches on the bedpost.
