Wellingtons

I realise I’ve been neglectful in updating this diary so apologies all round should you have checked and been found wanting. It’s just a lazy spell I’m going through I think partly because it’s all been a bit slow, what with the album delays, damaged hard drives, disputed working methods, broken speakers and cancelled tours the up factor would appear to be waning somewhat. Still thanks be to those people who continue to say hi, come to shows and wave a demented fist in the face of the enemy within. I do appreciate it. I spent the best part of the day mooching from room to room, losing stuff, finding it and losing it again [I seem to excell at loss]. One part of the it in question is a CD Craig and I have recorded for Salford Lads Club who have a community arts Ghost Camp open night on the 3rd of November and have lost their copy. Today, Sunday I find it again and will drop it off this afternoon. Les from the Lads club popped into our rehearsal with his official clipboard the other night and persuaded Mike and I to have our pictures taken wearing the new Salford Lads T Shirt. The picture has been posted on the Salford Lads site. I do hope it doesn’t put too many potential buyers off. Meanwhile Craig and I are heading south for Wellington on a warm and windswept Thursday with our open neck shirts and our mineral water. For reasons that I can’t quite remember Craig and I have started a fantasy band called Mineral Water. The gig has been rescheduled from the original Haygate venue [where we played as band last year] to a new pub called the Queens. We arrive in good time, have a Guinness, chat to the landlord, make the usual enquiries and realise there is no PA [the promoter has taken the acoustic tag somewhat literally]. When he finally shows it’s all apologies. Our sound check is understandably made simple, luckily the venue is newly decorated in wood panels and flooring so the sound is audible at least, though there are no punters as yet. We have to laugh. We do the gig in two halves as the patron count increases and we thoroughly enjoy it. Intimacy is the key, it’s a bit like playing one of Bill’s soup gigs in a huge kitchen; it goes off pretty well. We meet up with Paul, Mark and Richard and have our own little party in the corner talking about football and New Order. Then the promoter disappears but despite such surrealist overtones we have risen to the occasion and are happy with our lot; this gig so much more satisfying than the previous, happy days. VPx