Sunday Best

I just wrote a song about a bloke who dresses up in women’s clothes…it’s not that I do, although I quite like the idea and I did dabble in such in a recent video which has found its way onto youtube [just put vinny peculiar into the search and hey presto…]. The idea for the video came from a song entitled ‘Song for the Dead’ [yeah ..I know…another happy go lucky little number] which is, in part, a tribute to Kurt Cobain…Kurt liked to wear dresses, that’s my reasoning. I also had an idea we should use a wheelchair like he did at the Reading Festival which was one of or possibly the very last Nirvana UK show; but no one could get hold of one. It was shot in the catacombs of The Cavern by Rob Ferrier and Steve Owen. Song for the Dead is an older [2003] song I wrote after reading Heaven and Hell the much lauded [well I really liked it] biography; alas the writers name escapes me and I’m too lazy check. We [The Congregation] are recording a series of videos to accompany the release of the new album entitled 'Goodbye my Angry Friend' which is nearly finished but not quite as we keep adding and subtracting various bits here and there and finding versions of songs and parts and sounds that we didn’t know existed. Tim still has some final editing and such. I feel like a spare part in the process sometimes. I expect it will eventually see the light after the summer and the release will be tied in with the UK tour. Meanwhile I have a few solo shows coming up [see the tour dates page] and we are recording new band EP over the summer. I’ll also be helping out playing guitar with The Fischers on a few live shows. The Fischers are from Blackburn and are fronted by Jamie from tompaulin. They have a myspace of course .... www.myspace.com/micktravis Oh yeah...I almost forgot, I’ve broken my toe and bloody painful it is too. Best sit back and Enjoy the Melodic Sunshine…I still love that Cosmic Rough Riders album, VP

Koffee Potting

The Koffee Pot is a new one on me gig wise, I’ve not been since the revamp and I can’t quite recall the exact proximity still getting lost in my adopted home town has become something of an occupational hazard for me. Luckily I’m joined for a pre gig discussion come promoterly type meet up with Damian from Brave Music who knows exactly where he’s going. I pick him up at the Cornerhouse. We arrive, order coffee and meet Nick at last who runs le pot. I say at last we’ve been speaking for a while about exploiting the cafes potential. Anyway, here I am ready and willing to be so. After an hour with Damian spent mostly dissecting the naff from the even naffer and the sad from the plain old moribund and aimless Damian disappears out the back with a stroller and a pretty girl. Nick sends out for beer, sound people sort the gear out, I help myself to more coffee. Then a goggle of Goths appear, sit down, mumble, then disappear and then appear again and I think about that Divine Comedy song ‘The Happy Goth’ and feel for them, in a good way. It’s a great little song from ‘Absent Friends’, I love Neil Hannon’s song writing. We [the band] were up for some Devine Comedy supports awhile ago but it wasn’t to be…the label couldn’t afford the buy on. Anyway, sorry to moan about muso-bis nonsense, it really has no place here and it has to stop now. Finally the Goths go for good, shame really, I was looking forward to some teenage feedback. Then the eternal teenager in me steals a beer and hangs out on the street smoking roll ups bank holiday style. I haven’t started smoking again, well not properly anyway, I tell myself that and amazingly it seems to work. OK I’m talking the brown stuff again here, The Koffee Pot is filling up nicely. I meet some of Ben’s [Knott] old mates and they talk exclusively about the olden days, living in Hulme on bread and kit-kats…or kitty cat or something like that. Michael the clown prince of Victoriana also shows up; its been awhile since we partied like it was 1899 so we have one of those moments of must do agains and wills when whenever. Then its back into the venue to catch opening act Anna Haigh who’s driven over from Sheffield to be here tonight, she broke down on the Snake Pass, still she made the gig. She’s s determined performer too, for positive comparisons I’d say Janis Ian and Alanis Moressette. I was impressed as were the crowd. My gig is an intimate and pleasing affair even if I say so myself; smaller gigs like this bring people together in a more immediate close up way. Listening audiences make all the difference. For that I’d like to thank those there present most sincerely. I sell CDs and its all over by 7.45pm. Later that night I’m watching Wings of Desire again, something about that film has got me all interested in angelic forms and phenomena…it’s also one of the most romantic films you could ever wish to see. The romance and pain of the human condition objectified and sort after by the after lifers…the angels...there’s one at every table in the Koffe Pot…that much I know is true. VPx