Remember The Jasmine Minks? They were signed by Alan McGee to Creation Records back in the pre-Oasis days, and I'd met Jim Shepherd at Glasgoes Pop last year and had a really nice chat with him. It was an honour to appear on the same bill last night- a gig to play and a gig to watch at the same time, my favourite sorta gig.
The sound engineer, Tamara, was incredible. They had seven people on stage and she took the time to get everything sounding perfect for them, and apparently this was also the first time some people could properly hear my guitar for our set. I think we won the crowd over with our exuberance as much as anything else; despite rehearsing there was the odd duff lyric and chord here and there. Basically, though, we enjoy playing these songs together so much we can latch into that groove and really do the stuff. It's a pity we play so rarely in this duo format, but we both have other things keeping us very busy so gigs like this are a treat.
The Jasmine Minks have a lot of singers (they were augmented last night by a female singer with a gorgeous voice). It's unusual to hear so many male voices singing together and swopping lead vocals at a gig. I suppose Jim is the main guy and he was in fine voice last night. I fully expected to see yet more personnel appearing as the night drew on... seven... eight... nine; but they remained a seven-piece, telling anecdotes between the songs (nicking the demo tape they made for London Records was one of them), and delivering a hearty encore to the extremely enthusiastic crowd. Here's a photograph of Tamara, one of the essential people who rarely get a shout-out, checking the sound.
Excellent evening, big thanks to Caryne and Dave for putting it on, and lovely to see Ruth and Dave out and about! Oh yes- Stewart Lee was there, too.
No comments:
Post a Comment