Star and Gartered

Craig and I are quaffing real ale in the smallest pub in Manchester, tompaulin are still sound-checking, the rain is spluttering and the winter ever beckoning, still I like the winter, I’m not complaining. Manchester will never be home to me as long as I keep getting lost, which I seem to do often, much to the amusement of the local boy. We are both smoking again for no good reason. I’ve not played the Star & Garter for sometime and it’s not changed a bit which is no bad thing. It’s probably best known for Smile, an indie disco starring Wayne Hemmingway look alike Andy Woods. Oh yeah, that and the legendary Smiths nights. First up tompaulin play poetically, prophetically even, as an acoustic duo as Stacy gently heckles from the back of the room. Hearing The Boy Hairdresser once again takes me back to their first album which I co-produced in Liverpool with Rob Ferrier. What a beautiful haunting song it is, the album version, for what it’s worth, has real seagulls in the distance…a real hippy dippy touch, microphone on the roof, proper Merseyside reverb. Jamie reminds me just how long ago all that was. The flight of time and suchlike. Our gig was much of a much-ness. Not a lot to say other than we were not happy with it. We didn’t really fire up like we should have. Remarkably I sold some CDs, all to students [who really should know better]. Sometimes you don’t deserve it and this was one such night. The next gig will be the best gig I’ve ever done; goes without saying, VPx