Gig report: Flaming June @ Oxjam - All Saints Church, Bury St. Edmunds

Band: Flaming June
Venue: All Saints Church, Bury St. Edmunds
Date: 29/10/11
Audience: Charming, lots of them
Set: Rejoice, Under My Skin, Nerves Of Steel, I Know What It's Like, The Insane Ex-Girlfriend Parade, You Do Moody So Well, The Devil's Daughter, Stop The Ride, Rumplestiltskin, Little Love In A Cruel World, Wednesdays And Weekends
Notes: My second Oxjam gig in seven days, this time with Flaming June over in Bury St. Edmunds. On arrival my first impressions were that this would be one of the strangest gigs I've played in a while, and in theory it still was - but also one of the nicest. It was an all day event I think (I'm not too sure - I turned up half an hour before the gig and had to leave shortly after our set), and it had a very Vicar Of Dibley vibe to it all, I mean that in a good way. The act before us was a bunch of Morris dancers, the audience were all seated and either drinking tea or real ale. There was lots of them, they were perhaps slightly older than our usual crowd, but also incredibly lovely - they seemed to pay attention attentively and really enjoyed what we did. Perhaps this is why I felt slightly uncomfortable at first - I'm just not used to this level of niceness. Anyway, despite a minor issue with the monitors we played well I think, haven't played with Flaming June for a few weeks but the songs are pretty embroiled into my head now and I thought we were pretty tight and everyone played well, came away feeling happy. I then went off to a Halloween party with Heather, dressed as Frankenstein and generally looking a bit awkward in my costume and unable to see out of my mask. Fortunately, on arrival, a small child was frightened by my appearance so I had to take the mask off for the rest of the evening, and apparently my real face isn't half as scary, which is always good to know.

Gig report: Aidy @ The Missing Sock, Stow-Cum-Quy

Band: Aidy (acoustic trio set)
Venue: The Missing Sock, Stow-Cum-Quy
Date: 22/10/11
Audience: At best, 7 of them, at worst it was just the bar staff
Set: Make It Happen, Pain In My Heart, Down Like That, Maybe, God's Front Porch, 3 Years, Guns, Not Your Day, New Song, Prettyish, Miami Beach, 22, Washing Machine
Notes: My second gig of the day, a quiet one this. We were well looked after by the venue - I genuinely like The Missing Sock; it's a bright and colourful place, the staff are friendly and it's very quirky. For example, there are games on some of the tables, so pre-show we played 'Truth Or Dare' because we're a crazy band like that, unfortunately for Aidy one of his 'dares' was to perform a glove puppet show with one of my socks. As I say, it was my second gig of the day - my feet were proper sweaty. They gave us lovely food (I may go back as a customer one day), and a beer, and it's always good to socialise with Dave and Aidy so I enjoyed that element of the evening. There was a swear box, which was not ideal considering some of the lyrical content of the set. It's just difficult playing a gig in a restaurant when the people are (obviously) eating in the room next to us, so we pretty much played to absolutely nobody. We played okay though, especially the stuff we really knew (this was the touring Aidy line-up so we know these songs inside out by now), and I was home by 9.30pm, just a bit of a weird gig really.

Gig report: Trevor Jones Band @ Oxjam All Dayer - The Emperor, Cambridge

Band: Trevor Jones Band
Venue: The Emperor, Cambridge
Date: 22/10/11
Audience: Half-full, responsive
Set: Alive, Roll On The Rain, I Don't Wanna Talk About It, Old Fashioned Woman, Can't Take This Anymore, Falling
Notes: A late afternoon slot at an all day event for Oxfam, was nice to be asked and nice to be involved for such a good cause. We played this as a trio (Trev, Bill and myself) so without bass I took to percussion instead of drums as we all know full kit sounds rubbish without a rhythmic partner. Was only a short set, but it was all slightly rushed - I had dashed over from the other side of town where I had been watching the legendary Charlie Higson (Fast Show etc) give a fascinating talk about writing kids horror fiction as part of the brilliant 'Festival Of Ideas' - it's things like this that make Cambridge such a nice place to live in. Trevor himself was also understandably stressed, what with his wife Maddy due to give birth at any moment, so it was very much a case of run in, do the set, cheeky half pint to calm down and go again. It was good though, not too much of a crowd but you get that with a Saturday afternoon gig, but we essentially cut out the ballads and went straight for the uptempo stuff (apart from the cover) and came away happy enough.

Another glimmer of Christmas, Twitter etc

I've spent the last few days working on some new material - in fact lots of new little projects. See, this is what tends to happen when I don't drum for a few evenings in a row, I just get over-excited about the prospect of actually spending some evenings in for a change that I try to write three plays at the same time. Some bits and bobs are coming along nicely, some stuff for our new material evening that is on 4th November in Cambridge, some stuff for the Christmas show that is on at the end of December (still very much in the notes stage though), and also some content for a potential 'Awkward Christmas Live' show in London- although Helen and I are both so busy it's still very much up in the air. All good though, I can feel my creative brain slowly kick into gear, as much as I'm looking forward to a weekend of drumming.

Last weekend was great in the studio with Laura Tapp, her album is going to be fantastic - probably missed the boat for it being out in time for Christmas (unless we rushed it through, but what's the point in that?) but for an early 2012 treat it really will be something rather special. A lot of the arrangements are so simplistic, because she's a proper songwriter who uses melodies, and I'd like to think this album will help push her properly into the limelight. She was good on the radio too on Friday evening, and Martin's production on the album is already looking rather splendid. We're back again in a few weeks time to do more work on it, with hopefully an iTunes exclusive single coming out just before the festive season. There's a lot of good things coming out musically actually - Eureka Stockade are releasing our lovely track, 'All Alone' next month (it's always been one of my favourites in the set), the Christmas track I wrote with The Prisoner Of Mars ('I Don't Care If Santa Doesn't Come Around') is being released at the end of November, and we're evening plotting an Under The Streetlamp festive single...although given our history, the chances of all four of us being available at the same time to actually record the thing is unlikely, hope so though. Ahhh, Christmas is brilliant, even it does spell the end of another year in which I've not really achieved as much as I wanted to.

I've just joined Twitter by the way, no idea how it really works, but I'm here: @paulrichards30

Currently reading: Alan Partridge - I Partridge
Currently listening to: Carole King - Tapestry, Emmy The Great - Virtue, Julian Velard - Mr. Saturday Night, Paul Goodwin - Trinkets And Offcuts, Young Rebel Set - Curse Our Love
Currently watching: Match Of The Day, Family Guy, very little else

Gig report: Aidy @ The Cornerhouse, Cambridge

Band: Aidy (full band)
Venue: The Cornerhouse, Cambridge
Date: 15/10/11
Audience: Half-full, enthusiastic
Set: Make It Happen, Pain In My Heart, Down Like That, Guns, God's Front Porch, 3 Years, Edinburgh, Washing Machine
Notes: In between simultaneously writing three stage shows and also recording drums for Laura Tapp's debut album, this was a nice break for me to get out and hit things with sticks nice and hard. It was a Saturday night at the Cornerhouse, a regular venue that I've played (it feels like) a million times before, but it was a nice enough evening. It was our first Aidy gig as a four piece, with the outstanding Dave Simpson (from The Bomb Factory) joining the ranks as a lead guitarist. It changed things a lot, for the better I think, we certainly rocked out more than I've done in years, there was a snappy energy about it all but (as somebody pointed out) there was more than an element of early Elvis Costello to it all, which can only be a good thing. Decent night, could have done with a bigger audience but those who did make it down were treated to a diverse line-up, with last minute opener Rishi playing quirky songs about science, and headliners Buzzard King (featuring Aidy's bassist, Dave Martin) putting in a superb stint of proper old school rock, they were frighteningly tight, great to watch. Anyway, back to recording with Laura tomorrow/eating Pringles in the studio for endless hours, being a drummer is wicked.

Gig report: Trevor Jones Band @ Troubadour Club, London

Band: Trevor Jones Band
Venue: The Troubadour Club, London
Date: 12/10/11
Audience: Busy, nice enough even if a few of them were engrossed in loud conversations
Set: All I Am, Badman, Shine A Light, Alive, I Don't Wanna Talk About It, Old Fashioned Woman, Roll On The Rain, She Was Me, Can't Take This Anymore, Falling.
Notes: Headline gig at the world famous Troubadour for Trevor Jones Band, we'd been looking forward to this one a while. Easy journey up, the stage was the perfect size for us and the soundchecks were excellent and lengthy. Good food kindly provided by the venue (pasta, chicken, salad and red wine) and a nice vibe throughout. We had three support acts, two of which were absolutely outstanding, and by the time our set arrived we had a nice big audience crammed in to the relatively small space too. Although, let's be honest, a majority of the crowd weren't there for us, we managed to grab their attention and our well rehearsed set was warmly received. In fact, we were even on the verge of an encore, only for the host to jump on stage and play his own songs on his acoustic guitar. For the sake of professionalism, I can't say much more than that, but rest assured he quickly cleared the place and we came away with a bad feeling about the whole thing which was a shame because there was a lot of positives to take from the evening.

Big Hopes In Little Winhaven

A week ago I set myself a challenge; to write a novel. In seven days. I say a week ago, but I had been rambling on about it for a while to friends, but having talked the talk for a considerable amount of time, my week out of the office seemed to come out of nowhere and I was less than prepared. Discussing this with friends at the Portland Arms on Saturday night, I admitted I wasn't sure what it was going to be about but somewhat arrogantly stated that my 'ideas' folder on my hard drive has 27 pages worth of notes and surely one of them would be usable...none of them were.

Finally clearing any emails and having written my weekly newspaper column, I started 'work' on Sunday evening. I'd stocked up the flat with pizza, Red Bull, snacks and just a couple cans of lager (alcohol can free the creative mind, but this wasn't a private social and I needed to focus). I closed the blinds, I'd locked the door, I'd surrounded myself with note paper for random scribblings, I'd downloaded 'Tapestry' by Carole King as it sounded like it would be awesome writing music, I'd researched what constitutes a novel (40,000 words or more, anything between 17,000 - 39,999 is a 'novella', anything below 17,000 is a short story) and then I stared at a blank screen for about three hours. I was clueless, and had a long week ahead of me.

I didn't sleep well on Sunday, I was frustrating myself; writing a novel in a week is a hard enough task but even harder when you just have no ideas. Things were bugging me - it reminded me of a difficult evening I had with my ex-girlfriend last month, in which she said I was destined to be 'a local hero' forever, I don't think she meant it as a criticism, she was just pointing it out. I took that remark badly, and it had bugged me ever since because I'm striving, pushing myself, but yes - trapped very much still in a local shell. It was bugging me on Sunday evening - I couldn't even think of an idea for a novel, I was destined to be small time forever. But then I realised it was a lovely concept for a story...

The rest of the process was remarkably easy - I conjured up several situations within a small market town within which our trapped, desperate heroes could gradually fall apart, added a very occasional overblown unrealistic element, a little fantasy, and offered hope for a resolution to their despair. It was written quickly - about 10,000 words a day, of course there were times when I got frustrated/went back to bed/kicked a wall, there were times when I looked at myself in the mirror and doubted that this was a good use of my time. But when I was really flying, it was like I was on a different planet. I started to believe, and care for, these characters, I wanted them to succeed but also didn't want them to because that would be too predictable.

I'm really happy with the way it's turned out - 4 and a half days, just over 40,000 words, 11 cans of Red Bull consumed. I left the flat just the once - when my mate Heather invited me out to the theatre on Wednesday evening, it was the break my head needed. I listened to 'Tapestry' in it's entirety about 30 times. It's called 'Big Hopes In Little Winhaven', I'll go back and edit it in a couple weeks time, and then try and find a home for it somewhere next year, will probably end up sticking it online myself.

I checked my emails for the first time in a week to see that I've been offered a small publishing contract for my 2009 play, 'With Arms Outstretched', from a publisher based in Canada. That made me happy, giving a hint that I'm not too trapped in this local shell. I then had a frustrating evening out, confirming in many ways that I still very much am. Bugger.

Gig report: Eureka Stockade @ Wish You Were Here Festival, Cambridge

Band: Eureka Stockade
Venue: Wish You Were Here Festival @ The Portland Arms, Cambridge
Date: 01/10/2011
Audience: Crept into double figures at one point I think
Set: Heroes Fall, Without You, I've Been There Before, Sharks, All Alone, Through Every Darkness
Notes: In it's second year, the Wish You Were Here Festival is basically the Cambridge equivalent to America's popular South By Southwest, with several bands stretched over a number of venues and the audience paying once (in this instance for a wristband) which allows them entry to everything. It's a lovely concept and full credit to Green Mind Promotions who put this on, it was fantastic fun. Our set was at 5pm, which was the perfect slot for us - not too early so we would have an audience, but not too late either so we could enjoy the rest of the festival. Another gig and another slightly different Eureka Stockade line-up, our first ever show without bassist Nathan who has sadly moved on to pastures new and our replacement wasn't available for this one at such short notice. But we did have the ever-brilliant Dave Greeves on lap-steel guitar, Dave has guested with us a few times for the 'bigger' shows as well as playing on the album and he's fast becoming a regular member of the band now, socially as well as on stage and he's a bloody good musician who fills the gaps nicely. With not the biggest turnout (but then again who would want to be inside a small venue when it was scorching hot outside?) but lots of neutrals, requests for CD's etc and we went down well. If our regular supporter Jack Whelpton's opinions are anything to go by that was the best Eureka Stockade gig yet, I'm not 100% sure but it felt like a goodun - we were warmed up from a morning rehearsal then little radio slot, the sound quality was excellent on and off stage, the four of us gelled really nicely. Top day that was, saw some excellent bands later on and then enjoyed many drinks with good friends in the Portland Arms courtyard until closing time. More gigs like this please.

Gig report: Eureka Stockade @ Cambridge 105 Radio

Band: Eureka Stockade
Venue: Cambridge 105 Radio Station
Date: 01/10/11
Audience: No idea
Set: Through Every Darkness, All Alone
Notes: I didn't realise we were doing this one so it was a nice extra bit of promotion ahead of the gig that was to follow. We did this as a trio (leaving our fourth band member for the day, Dave, in the pub to watch his beloved Everton on TV), so it was Rob, Andy and myself. Really chilled, nicely presented show, we sounded okay I think.