Thursday, December 21, 2006

A dead rat and a good gig

Poor Ratso. The radiator in the hallway wasn't working and I noticed a nasty smell when I went to switch it on. There was a pile of clothes there and I hung a jacket on the stairs to air and heard a gentle 'plop' on the carpet. He's been dead up the sleeve for several days. Ahhh. I miss him.
Songbird was great last night- I hadn't been to the new venue, Passing Clouds, but it's a bit like an alchemist's parlour- lots of things lying around; a small warehouse space with a really good atmosphere. Allan came along to play cello and we dressed formally for the occasion. The sound was really good, thanks to James, and it was just one of those gigs, for me... sometimes you don't know whether you're singing the audience's feelings or the audience is feeling your singing. Those gigs are worth all the horrors of the ones when you play to two people and one of them is so drunk they wouldn't notice if you exploded in front of them. Last night, the audience was totally silent and it meant I could listen to what Allan played and listen to what I was singing, and feel that I was finding feelings that I had never felt before in the songs. Other things happen when it's like that- one song, Colour My Day, I have never really felt the audience liked as much as me, and I was on the verge of abandoning it forever: but last night it was unnerving because I could tell people liked it and I got flustered and forgot the chords of one bit. And Allan's written a really good part to Memento Mori. I'd uploaded it to Myspace so he could see if he wanted to write his own part (normally I do it), and it was brilliant!
Of course, anything to do with Diana has its elements of madness. Her new friend, Merlin, was languishing on the landing as he'd had lot of injections to go to a faraway country. By mid-evening, he'd become a sort of feature, a stopping off point for various lustful people walking past; a very camp gentleman tousled his black curly head and snuggled up to him for a while before instructing me to kiss him! Oh yes, and Serafina was great as always; her songs are so poetic and the harp sounds like a million instruments instead of just one; I'll never tire of listening to her. We swapped my CD for her vinyl single which has the most beautifuly-drawn cover of the year and I'm looking forward to listening to it, on listening day tomorrow. The best thing is, there is room in the world for all of us, and we can inspire each other and drive each other on to better things. Mikhail Karikis sang some abstract songs in his very beautiful voice- and I felt as I always feel when people sing backing tracks- you want more of the real and the now, especially when it's as powerful as that: do an acoustic or acapella set Mikhail!!! And then I spilled half a bottle of beer into my bag- I had it clasped in my hand, and tried to open my bag with the same hand to put my purse away. So now my bag smells of gigs. How rock'n'roll is that? It's the best sort of evening, when you get to see and hear really great music and you get to play too!
DJay Buddha has asked for a couple of tracks for his podcast and I'm dead pleased about that. Roll on tonight, Offline at Jamm, more good music, Allan will be there again, might even try another new song. Looking forward to seeing Mike and Em, and big up to them both for being quality designers of 2007!

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