I always let the moment pass, it's embarrassing

Published on Sat 20 Feb 2010

I can't believe I'm spending Saturday night writing this. I was intending to either be out on the razz or recording, but I don't have enough friends these days to guarantee that someone will be around on any given night, and the steam powered computer I do my recording on is being difficult in the extreme. It's ok though - I've had a productive day (booked the hotels for when I go to Chicago and New York in June, recycled a load of old clothes, bought a pot plant and spent a couple of hours coming up with keyboard parts to  Dave's songs ready for a gig in a week or two), the second part of CSI: Trilogy is on Channel 5 (it occurred to me when I was watching the first part of CSI: Trilogy last night that I'm going to 2 out 3 of the CSI cities this year - maybe I should try and make it to Miami as well. It seems like the saturation is turned up really high there though and the dialogue isn't so strong) and Severine just sent me a link to Shearwater playing live in France somewhere. I keep looking at their drummer (Thor!) and going "hey, I've got that guy's drumstick on my dining table". It's the one where him and the insanely happy bass player are both playing glockenspiels at the minute. What a great live band. I should probably try the records again.

So, where was I... Sunday was Valentine's Day and I spent it mostly sleeping in and cleaning. I did have a bit of a moment when I found some stuff that needed tidying away to the drawer I keep letters and the like in, and I ended up looking through that for a while. It made me sad, but it's good to remember that people have managed to love me in the past, even if it seems like a different lifetime. You draw a line and you chalk it up.

The working week started badly, when this happened (in slow motion) on my doorstep while I was cueing up some TalkSport clips of the week so I didn't have to make myself angry by thinking about where I was going:

Guess how much it costs to replace what is essentially a small piece of glass? If anyone gets it right I'll give them a small piece of glass - they're worth more than you'd think. Apple are amazing - they actually make you make an appointment at their shop with a "Genius". To be fair, they fixed the phone very quickly. And I am a bit lost without it.

Wednesday night was my first "proper" solo gig of the year, supporting David Ford at the Haymakers.

Funnily enough, I played at his first ever solo show after Easyworld split up, back when they'd still have me at The Bedford in Balham. I very clearly remember him playing State of the Union (that video is incredible) and, understandably, bringing the house down. I'm sure he doesn't remember my effort. He was doing a long set, and had a tour support (Hannah Peel I think her name was... She was good - did a really nice song accompanied by a music box that she played by having poked holes in a bit of paper well in advance and turning a handle) so I was on pretty early, but a reasonable amount of people were there. As usual when presented with an audience of people I don't know who have half a chance of liking me, I forgot to mention my name, and didn't feel like I could pollute the merch stand with my albums. Long gone are the days of trying to build up my mailing list. I thought I played well though, and wasn't too awful at the in between song talking, and a few people came and bought things off me. I also finally got to meet Joe, which was nice. I was a bit addicted to listening to things on his myspace page for a while. 

Setlist: You Won't Break My Heart, The Ghost of Paddy's Night Past, Watertight, This Place is Dead Anyway, Radio Silence, Magnetic or Rhetorical (this drew a comment from your man, because it's about how protest songs are (with a Chris T-T shaped exception) pretty much always awful, and he does some politicalish stuff), So Finally a Love Song, Edinburgh.

I've just realised that half of those songs are on the CD I'm pretty close to finishing. I wonder if that means that deep down I think it'll be ok, or if my live sets are less good than they used to be.

Ford played his new album in full. I'd checked it out on Spotify earlier in the day, so was semi familiar with it, but I think it was new to most of the people there so the reaction was a little bit subdued. It seems a bit less intense than the other things I've heard of his, but most people don't much like intense, so it's probably a good move. I thought that the encore where he played some older stuff was where things really took off.

When he played State of the Union (which was properly awesome) the guy next to me turned and said "that beats you mate eh?". Ho hum.