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!
Thank you Gideon for playing The Ginger Line last night- and also Pheasant Attack by Asbo Derek, after some intense lobbying by Mark last Saturday!
This was particularly poignant, after Jem's story about throwing the album over the high barrier at Bob Grover's behest when the Radio 6 roadshow was in Brighton!
Of course by the time I got home I was well and truly knackered! So here is Thursday's gig report, in the wrong order.
Adrian Goldberg does a radio show as well as promoting gigs at this lovely bijou bar in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter. Some clever person had set the line alight on the way there. We were chucked off the train at Northampton, told to go over the bridge to a different platform, told to go back over the bridge to the original platform, then told to go upstairs to the booking hall to await further instructions. 'Just go through the barrier and wait, and we will let people through when the train gets here', said the man in the hi-vis jacket. I looked at the ocean of angry people. 'No', I said. 'When the next train comes, I will get stuck in the stampede and I've go a heavy guitar, a bag of merch, I'm recovering from an operation and I don't believe you'. 'Just go through the barrier please madam, and when we are told what is happening we will let people through when the train gets here', said Mr Aye-Eye. 'No', I said, and at that point, the ocean of people attempted to squash through the gaps in the ticket barriers in response to an announcement that neither me nor Mr Aye-Eye had heard.
Anyway, I ended up on an overstuffed train with a young couple being given instructions in how to buy and sell silver and gold by a wheeler-dealer who told them (and the rest of the carriage) what a friendly lovely bloke he was, meanwhile leaving his suitcase across two seats while exhausted people were standing in the corridor.
I'd planned to get there early, check into the hotel and rest for an hour before soundcheck. Alas, I also got lost on the way to the venue, being misdirected by someone at the tram stop when my phone stopped working.
Argh! Gigging!
However, all was gracious peace at The Brewhouse. Lynne, the owner, had seen me play on the train at Indietracks and came over to say hello. It's a lovely bar. The toilets are spotless and I've been dreaming of having a lime green toilet seat every night since Thursday.
The support act was Humdrum Express, a comedian/musician who made me laugh several times. I particularly liked the suppository advice line joke, but then I'm smutty that way. Lo and behold, all the Nightingales came apart from Andy, who lives in Germany. Julie, Rob's wife, is lovely to talk to and I had a chat with Rob as well. They have a fantastic new album out, and I told them how much I'd enjoyed listening to tracks from that on the radio.
Once the gig started, all was well. There's a really good PA in that place, and the sound guy Harvey really listens: he got a great sound. It wasn't a big crowd: I realised that most of my friends in the Birmingham area are single women around my age, and it's difficult to go out to a gig if that's you. Selfishly, though, it was perfect for a first proper gig since being ill. I was so excited that I kicked my water over and soaked the set list. The guy who asked for it afterwards had to dry it under the hand drier.
Lo and behold again, Julie from The Sunbathers was there as well. She told me they are beginning to record again, which is good news. After selling a bit of merch (Jim from the Nightingales showed me how to circumvent the stubborn electronic card reader), Adrian urged us out and I went back for a jolly good sleep at the hotel, The Frederick Street Townhouse. It was so nice that I got up extra early just to have a bath in the swanky bathroom.
The journey home was fine. I took in the joys of the huge steampunk bull in New Street Station, which (ahem) I didn't even notice at first, as I sat and gorged myself on sandwiches and cakes after realising that all I'd had the day before was a banana and four hotel biscuits.
Ahh gigging!
From the first rehearsal next week, I had an inkling that this was going to be a particularly unique afternoon. The rehearsals were so good, in fact, that I became really anxious in case someone got ill and couldn't turn up, or something like that. Luckily, from the outset everything went really well; the Betsey Trotwood staff are incredible and the room was being set up when we got there at 12. Soon, we were sound checking, ready, and set to watch The Would-be-Goods Three. Upstairs, I'd cracked a joke that made Andy Warren (who plays bass for them as well as The Monochrome Set) laugh. I wish I could remember what I said. Famous for being non-expressive, he walked off down the room until the smile left his face. Result!
A queue was forming outside the door. 'Gideon Coe is here!' said someone. I went out to say a quick hello. I only saw two of The Would-be-Goods Three's songs, but they were absolutely on form, and did an excellent job according to the applause that reverberated up the stairwell. I sat upstairs to count my blessings, of which there are many.
The gig itself went by seemingly rapidly. I had to work hard to remember the words. One prompt I'd unwisely written on my left hand, which of course was pointing away from me playing guitar. I missed out that verse. For a band some of whom hadn't met each other before the day, things went remarkably smoothly. I could sense a feeling of pleasant surprise as people in the band heard songs that had been rehearsed on a different day- or even not at all. It was hard to remember to sing and not just listen to what was going on myself! What felt particularly good was the gentle gear-shifting of dynamics according to who was playing: Ruth and Karina's strong vocal harmonies bookending the line of musicians, Robert's powerful guitar parts and energy, Terry's sparkling trumpet style, and Jack's wonderful lap steel that completely transformed the sound. He seemed to be enjoying every minute and started playing on our final song, Three Cheers for Toytown, just for the joy of it. We did it twice at the end (we got an encore) and everyone in the audience roared along with it, which was perfect. It was just the atmosphere: the sun shone in through the windows, everyone seemed to be in a good mood, the audience smiled and nodded along to the music, laughed at my jokes (I wish I could remember what I said), and completely got into the whole thing. Caryne and Dave came up from Frome, there was a large Brighton contingent (Mark AsboDerek and Sarah, Steve and Anne, Simon from The Popguns/Perfect English Weather and more), family contingent (Offsprogs One and two plus friends, Little Bruv), band contingent (members of the aforementioned Asbo Derek, Perfect English Weather, The Loft, Papernut Cambridge, Drew from Drew Morrison and the Darkwood, and more), friends from long ago (Valerie!), and our own Instagram influencer who took a pic of me with Terry and Gideon.
It was a perfect afternoon, all the more perfect for its imperfections. How brilliant to be back gigging again!
We had another great rehearsal yesterday, this time with Ruth and with Robert Rotifer. The chap's a genius- he picked up my guitar overdubs from the album and could play them in seconds!
We've also added his backing vocals to a couple of songs. It's going to be so interesting on Saturday, performing with musicians some of whom have never met each other before! It's thrilling hearing the songs change like this, though.
Today I was up at the crack of dawn, actually before the crack of dawn, because I had to buy a new cooker and I was the first on the delivery list. When I've recovered I'm going to do a bit of drawing and then practice the solo set for the gig at the Rock and Roll Brewhouse in Birmingham tomorrow evening. I'll be doing a few of the songs off the album, will have albums and CDs and free-badges-with-each-purchase and the ticket link is here: https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/Birmingham/Rock-And-Roll-Brewhouse/Helen-McCookery-Book-Plus-Humdrum-Express/40471794/
Yesterday Ruth Tidmarsh and Karina Townsend came over to rehearse vocals, bass and melodica for Saturday's gig at The Betsey Trotwood. Part of the rehearsal was just catching up with each other, which was a really good way to rehearse. If you're going to harmonise vocally you need to know the person you're going to be singing with, and Ruth and Karina hadn't met before although they have a lot in common.
Their voices blend together beautifully. There will be a lot of other musical stuff going on during the songs on Saturday, which made the rehearsal something of a treasure-chest of an experience. There was something timeless about the whole afternoon: three women sitting singing together in a kitchen (with an obtrusive cooker that's waiting to be taken away and recycled, and that's too heavy to push back where it's supposed to be). Calmly, we went through the songs, ate a bit of food, drank a lot of coffee, and had the sort of afternoon that can never be replicated. It was a bubble of beautiful sound, listening while singing, singing while listening, facing each other and working it all out. I can tell you that their voices sound gorgeous together; as experienced musicians they know how to blend and find a timbre that works with the other. I felt honoured to spend the afternoon with such musically intelligent women; it was a 'thing' in itself, almost like going to an art gallery and being blown away by the work of an artist you've never heard about before.
Incidentally, we discovered that the three of us learn out parts in entirely different ways. That's the great thing about music: it gives itself to people in ways that they can personalise and mould to their own ways of being creative.
The rehearsal recordings sound well, awesome. Very few people will hear them, I suspect, but different incarnations of Saturday's line-up will appear over the next few months (as well as the solo shows), and whenever I can practically do it, I'll augment the gigs this year with people who've contributed to the album.
