GIGS
Monday 10th October 2011
The Jolly Anglers, Reading RG1 3EA
open-mic hosted by Tony Brown
The Last Dance
Remember the discos at school where at the last dance everybody had got off with everybody else except you? (What? That never happened to you? Unbelievable - I can't even reach my target audience.) Well that's how I felt when I got home last night: lonely and alone, a bit dejected. To cap it all, when I did eventually get to sleep, I had a nightmare of being in a jungle and being attacked by flying insects. For someone who sleeps as soundly as I do, it was a bit of a shock to wake up, startled and in a sweat. Go figure what it all means.
Was last night that bad? Probably not. It just wasn't as good as I hoped and it didn't go smoothly. There were wrong chords in the first verse of 'Magic Back (the easiest bit of the song to play). I couldn't even remember how to start Cold Heart (the "easy" song that had been so successful last week in The Crown). In my attempt to start Cold Heart I realised I was playing Silent Valley and so decided to "go with it". That actually went well (ironic, as it was a song that I hadn't intended playing). I then did Cold Heart, which was okay but not as good as last week. And then Something Wild, which again was just okay.
So, what's going wrong at The Jolly Angler? My performances seem to be substandard there. It's not the pub, which is very welcoming and appreciative. Is it because it's a Monday? I don't understand why it should be. Was it because I had another "fan" there? ( Imagine Australian accent: "So you corpsed mate!" followed by laughing.) No, I don't think so (and thanks for coming along!) The only thing I can put it down to is that although the open-mics are essential I've recognised they are quite costly in time and so yesterday I was doing some writing and "creative stuff" right up to the point when I had to prepare to leave. I think I need to give myself a bit more "headspace" before a performance. I'll try that next week and see how we go.
songs played:
