A Thames Delta gig not to be sneezed at! Robert Rotifer will be joining me for a few songs at the end of my set
Next gig! Saturday night at Rams Microbrewery in Rochester, Kent: a bijou venue with the heart of a lion! Tickets:https://wegottickets.com/event/647479
... magnificent! Thanks to Jude and to Barnaby's Lounge for putting on the gig. Jude did a lovey set with a particularly distinctive penultimate song about generosity which I found really affecting.
The audience was mostly women- could this be to do with the venue? Wendy May came along, such a long time since those Boothill Foot-tapper and Helen and the Horns days! So did Enid Williams and there was time to chat to both of them. Wendy was sporting a fabulous cowgirl shirt she'd made; she is an excellent seamstress/designer. My ex-Westminster student Ed Frith came too. It was unexpectedly well-attended and full of bonhomie. The sound was great: I know this because people laughed at the funny bits in my songs!
Next one, Rochester in Kent at the Rams Microbrewery, again with Jude and with Robert Rotifer accompanying me on a couple of songs at the end of my set. he's mixing an album of his songs today with lots of guest vocalists, mainly Kenji Kitahama who is sounding absolutely fabulous. Bout time we heard more from him!
I'm slobbing about today- that was a six-hour round trip, even though Hastings feels close. It's not, but it was more than worth the journey!
This is a rescheduled gig, organised by Jude (who I haven't seen for ages).
Early evening, so get there at seven. Music finished by nine, and I'll have some albums and badges with me.
See you there!
Tickets here: https://wegottickets.com/event/647479/
Robert's going to join me for a couple of songs, and I'll have copies of the album with me! (and badges)
Still here in Toytown! Have you heard my album yet?
https://helenmcc.bandcamp.com/album/showtunes-from-the-shadows
Who were they? Was it a stag do? Were they going to the football?
They enjoyed having their photo taken, a lot.
I'm convinced that being a non-famous pop star is much more fun than being a famous one. Today, I listened to a song that Robert's written for me to sing. It's too high for my voice, and I will have to either transpose the part (nice little learning job for tomorrow, perhaps) or wait till Sunday when he gets back from holiday and can re-record it a little lower.
So I started working on James's Bandcamp page and realised that I need WAVs and not mp3s to upload. I did as much as I could, and now I'm waiting for the music to put into it.
So there was little to keep me away from going round to Gina's and being the dancing feet body-double in the latest video she's making, first of all in my Tommy 'Ilfiger pink, purple and blue cowboy shoes (cheap at the price from TK Maxx), and then in my saddle shoes (black and white, flat and oh-so-comfortable). I wore a pair of Gina's striped trousers, so I guess I was legs as well. Then I was the arms, pushing and punching, wearing one of Gina's yellow stage shirts. I had to revolve on a small stack of bread boards (I'm a shortarse and needed to pretend to be her, off-camera).
Meanwhile, Harvey, the amazing sound engineer from The Rock and Roll Brewhouse sent through a great video edit he did of a couple of my songs from that night. The sound is amazing and it looks quite good too. And Joao sent a mix of Balloon from the Betsey Trotwood gig that also sounds great.
It's all go in Nowhere Land. Now I'm home and thinking 'What the hell just happened today?'
On the way back from Gina's on the tube, a selection of teenage boys and their sidekick teenage girl got on, vaping horrible strawberry vapes and swearing horrible swearing. You know, territory carving. I decided I'm going to write a very loud, clashy instrumental, put it on to my phone, and the next time that happens, I'll press 'go', rise to my full shortarse height and sing: 'BE QUIET, SWEARY BOYS, THIS IS MY TRAIN, MY TRAIN, MY TRAIN!'.
That should shut 'em up.
James has some songs ready to release as an EP, and we are just working on setting up a Bandcamp micro-site for them. Watch this space!
