Behind the times

Winchester Railway 4th March Two bands cancel and the crowd is only just there or there abouts still the surprise appearance of old friends Adrian and Joanne suitably lifts my maudlin mood into instant elation and relief. The show goes well and the CASIO behaves itself. I do the usual obscene negotiations on CD's then I'm back at A&J's house reminiscing on the stuff of human services and the psychiatry of life. I leave for Cambridge suitably refreshed and revitalised after a wake-up call from the children Ellie and Dan who get the postcard signing pop star in the house treatment...the least I could do [OK so it's not a Limo, it's a Peugeot, sorry about that...]. VPx Cambridge, Portland Hotel,5th March I get to Cambridge mid afternoon and spend an hour or so gawping at all the history, the medievility, the other worldliness is quite over powering and not unpleasant. I stay with Ben the ballroom dancing PHD student in his house of a hundred gadgets. He's developing a water pump made out of beer cans for the third world market, and moving to Paris. I meet up with the Helene band at the venue where the talk is of giant seagulls , tap tap tapping on the windows of the soul. And there's the one with a deep biblical voice after a lot of herbal cigarettes who uses a retro delay pedal akin to a Watkins Copy Cat. In short it's good to see them all again. Sam Inglis opens the show with some caustic acoustic tune smithery that is both entertaining and thought provoking. I especially love his song about god the support band. The Helene band next up go down a storm, don't think I've seen them play with such confidence, such class, everyone is thrilled and the venue is buzzing. My set is heckler friendly and somehow all the better for it. And then it's all over, VPx