Wrecking Ball Arts Centre, Hull

In the afternoon, I got the bus over to Barton to Yuba Studio to meet Lee, who will be remastering The Chefs tracks for the vinyl release some time next year. I found out yesterday it's going to be a double, and will feature some of the tracks we recorded for an unreleased album for Graduate Records. Lee is great, and we could have talked all afternoon about sound, music and everything around it. He gave me advice about drying out DAT tapes with silica packs, which was really useful. I've had my mini-DAT player fixed, but alas one tiny screw is missing, and irreplaceable, apparently.

Anyway, I headed back through the cold wind into Hull, checked in to the hotel and walked through to Wrecking Ball. What a wonderful treasure that place is! Big, warm, yellow light, loads of vinyl, a cassette section, a really eclectic selection of books and a café at the back. I had a great chat with the co-owner Gary, scoffed a pasty and a cup of fresh coffee before heading upstairs to sound check. 

The room upstairs is a miniature theatre with wooden floorboards and a great sound. It's didn't take long to set up, and Graham Beck showed up and sorted his sound out quickly. We'd not sold many tickets but Mick, June and Laura came and sat in the front row, and the small audience was thoroughly committed- they joined in Graham's song with gusto, and gave me the support of four times the number of people. 

I'd been hoping to play Things Like This, but messed it up in the sound check so kept the set fairly straight and normal, though we did have a good Bathing Pond singalong. The sound was superb. Hats off to the staff for being super patient and friendly! What a lovely venue- a little slice of New York in cold, grey and rainy Hull!

After the gig, Mick, June and Laura dropped me off at the hotel. we sat and talked for ages in the car when we got there. It really was nice to see them again.

Here's one of June's videos, Woodwide Web. Two of the women in the audience recommended another book about trees but I can't remember the author or the name. And there was a man there who had seen Helen and the Horns at Imperial College in the 1980s. So there you go!

After a day recovering from the chilly travel, I went to Gina's on Thursday and we began writing stuff for Beefheart, The Musical, which we'll be doing on Saturday 6th January in Bury. We'll have to work out ladybollocks off to do that, but we have the work ethic and we have the guitars. Wish us luck!