Saturday, June 03, 2006

Martin Stephenson, and Birmingham

Wednesday's gig was amazing- the whole of the upstairs room at the Sheepwalk is filled with fake flowers, a light-up cactus, a wall-hanging of a man riding a buffalo, glamourous lighting, candles on tables- fantasyland! Fake Hawaii in Leytonstone! The guy who runs it is really nice and there's a DJ, Johnny Clash, who plays the best music I've heard for ages. Then Martin turned up with his little acoustic guitar, the venue packed out with a really friendly crowd- such an enjoyable gig. I was going to leave straight away to go to Birmingham but Martin's a great performer- really funny between songs, great stories, and a crafty fingerpicker to boot- so I stayed for quite a few songs, in the end. Martin has an outsider musician mentality, so refreshing. He gave me a CD that he recorded in Carolina, going round with a minidisc recorder, even has Etta James on it who is now 92! I'm really looking forward to those gigs in December. I got lost on the way home in Stamford Hill, and for some reason lots of Hasidic students were out and about, a little secret world of its own... and then a mad person crashed into the back of my car and ruined the bumper...
Next, on to Birmingham, to run two whole day songwriting workshops with children, with Dan who I do these things with. What hard work! But the children loved it and were all really good singers. Took 4 hours to get back, five miles an hour.Problem is that I can't get the songs out of my head today! I am also so completely knackered that I have melted into this chair in spite of the fact I have to call my insurance company and fuss about my car- c'est la vie!

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