Preaching to the converted

Published on Sun 13 May 2012

We went on a work trip to Exeter last week, proving once again that even after all this time mobile internet isn't really a thing when you get west of Reading. Nor is drainage it seems.

I bet they have a hosepipe ban too. We stayed in a proper old school hotel. I would have been in big trouble if I'd booked it for a gig.

Exeter is a pretty nice place - we did a little team building treasure hunt of local landmarks, which proved once again that even after all this time BlackBerrys aren't a real option.

The morning journey back was livened up by a heroically drunk guy talking nonsense the whole way while reading Scootering magazine. I think the only explanation for that is that Scooter, Scooter Rider, and Pootle were already taken. I stayed in London for the afternoon working in Camino's by Kings Cross like a proper new media person (and trying not to earwig on the wideboy dickheads that hang around in places like that). Top tip - the octopus leg there looks creepier than it is tasty...

The point of hanging around was to go and see Dan Mangan at Bush Hall in the evening. His gig at St Pancras Old Church was by a distance the best thing I saw last year, but, as nice a venue as Bush Hall is, it's not an ancient church, and I'm not quite as in love with the new album as the one before so I was curious to see how this would compare. In the event it was great, but not as great as that other one. The sound was less intimate and there was a lot more avant garde noisiness. The solo version of 'Basket' was absolutely brilliant though. Here's a less intense approximation of what it was like.

The feeling of career progression was palpable too which was great for him because I think he's one of the best around at the moment.

 

The support band were also one of the best (and most Canadian) I've seen in a long time. A really tight psyche (maybe - never really figured out what that meant - in this case it means a bit weird) rock thing called Zeus. My friend Mike said they were like Dr Dog, but I liked them more. I think because the bass player did a policeman leg bending dance and reminded me of a moustachioed Bruce from Kids in the Hall. Though I've only seen Dr Dog at a festival which rarely does a band justice.

I did one of the most gratifying gigs I've played in ages on Wednesday, supporting Chris T-T at The Portland. Things didn't look promising at the start - my lucky necklace has disappeared so I only had the little bits that had already fallen off. I hope it's not permanently lost - I'll have to finally give up playing live. Though actually this one went really well so maybe it wasn't all down to after all. Except my set was delayed because one of the two plectrums Annie brought along at the last minute because I forgot to bring any broke and I lost the other one in the guitar strings for a while. It picked up pretty quickly mind you - I felt like I played better than I have for a while and the (modest, but there were a LOAD of similar gigs on for some reason) crowd was absolutely lovely to me. The delay at the start meant I only got to do 6, which is a shame because I wanted to give Black Coffee and Bromide a go. I decided it was going so well that I didn't want to risk finishing with it. Set list: Take it All, The Ghost of Paddy's Night Past, Watertight, This Place Is Dead Anyway, A Folly or a Fortress, So Finally a Love Song.

Chris T-T was on top form and played almost my perfect set (missing Tomorrow Morning and The English Earth, but I guess those are pretty old songs now). A string broke in A Box To Hide In, which was a shame because it was giving me the spine tingles, but there's nothing to be done about that kind of thing. His new one about being the last of the fraggles left after Jeremy Clarkson bought their lighthouse and his wife thought they were vermin was genius. Who said that all the songs had been written? There's a whole concept ep on the way apparently. He also said very nice things about me on stage, which was very generous. Another one of those nights that makes me want to play more. Which is not necessarily a good thing. I bought a poster of 72 photos he'd taken of toilets which I'm going to frame and stick next to Chris at work. I enjoyed the other acts a lot too.

Off to New York now.