When the carnival leaves town

Published on Tue 4 Sep 2012

I did two gigs in the space of three days the week before last, both at The Portland Arms. Seems excessive even to me. Both were really nice in their own way. On Wednesday I supported Paul Kelly, who is apparently a massive star in Australia (someone told me his last gig before going on tour in Britain had been the Sydney Opera House). I'd not really heard of him, but the gig was sold out, and I haven't played at many sold out gigs. Admittedly it was full of Australians who were only really interested in seeing Paul Kelly, but still it was good fun inflicting myself on them for a bit. There was a wonderful moment when I had a couple of songs left that I wanted to play and I asked what time it was. Rob the soundman who I first worked with at The Boat Race more than 10 years ago (still the best in town I reckon) said "8.35" and 3 or 4 members of the audience piped up "Aww look it's 8.40 mate. Strewth. You great Galah". They were friendly though really.  I should've worked harder to sell stuff because quite a lot of people came up to me to say how much they liked it. Ah well.

Setlist: Take it All, The Ghost of Paddy's Night Past, Watertight, This Place is Dead Anyway, A Happy Ending, Soaked to the Skin

I enjoyed Paul Kelly's set, though I think maybe it helps to have grown up knowing all the songs. I spoke to him and his nephew (who was on guitar) after and they were really nice.

On Friday I was supporting The Dawn Chorus who are one of very few bands that I've seen knowing nothing about them and have completely blown me away. And the only one ever to do it in the inauspicious surroundings of The Globe pub (which has slightly improved as The Emperor, mostly because the beer garden is now a beach). I've been lucky enough to play with them a few times and they've been brilliant every time. Sadly they're splitting up in a couple of weeks because being a 7 piece band who don't live very close to each other and have real jobs got too annoying. The whole reason for the gig was that Steve and I wanted to see them one last time and we figured that even if nobody came, putting a gig on would be cheaper and easier than going down to Portsmouth to see their last one. In the end plenty of people came. God knows who they all were - at least some were from one of the US Air Force bases. Whoever they were, they were very nice.

Sam Inglis went on first showing off his surprisingly good (surprising because it's trad folk, not because of him) new trad folk direction. My set went pretty well on the whole though I did forget how to play the guitar during Cold Case, and my voice was going by the end...

Setlist: Cold Case, This Place is Dead Anyway, Watertight, The Ghost of Paddy's Night Past, 60 Miles with a Slow Puncture, Closure.

The Dawn Chorus were far and away the best I've seen them, even though they didn't play my favourite song of theirs ("Heartbeat in 5/4" for the record). The sound was big and clear and joyful and I was grinning from ear to ear and singing along to every word. Their albums are great, and you should buy them while you still can, but don't quite capture the exuberance of the live sound. Which I'll not get to hear again. They're all in other bands now though so maybe one of those will play here at some point. Onwards and upwards.

That was also the last time I'll be in the gig room at The Portland as it's been the entire time I've been playing. It's being extended to twice the size in the coming weeks. It's weird to think of, as it's been one of few constants in the local music scene. It's got to be a good thing, as there's nowhere in town for small to medium sized touring bands to play, but I wonder if I'll get to play there again and how it'll feel if I do. It is/was absolutely my favourite place to play in the world. Probably 5 of my top 5 gigs have been there. I've seen some great things there too. Onwards and upwards!