Inn In The Park, Verulamium Park, St. Albans, August 2009

Weird gig. There was a barbeque, and it was mostly attended by mums with kids and pushchairs. Sam Killin and I set it all up [the cables, extension leads and speakers you see in the picture are his] and we got free food, so I for one was very satisfied. I went on in early evening. Before that, a happy-clappy Christian woman sang show tunes to a backing track, and a middle-aged German woman did some Bob Dylan covers. Afterwards, she left with her husband carrying her guitar case and one of her kids. It was quite an idyllic scene. Then I played a few tunes, seemed to go OK. The highlight of the gig for me, though, was playing lead guitar [and thus indulging my inner slash] with my brother Will and our friend Boris, who are collectively known as The Doubletakes. Here's a picture of the incident:

In November, I played a gig with them again in a weird pub called The Palomino in Newmarket. Newmarket is a strange town, cos it's built around horses. At the side of the roads in Newmarket, they have one pavement for horses, and another for people. I think they also have a bike lane; they are very environmentally friendly in Newmarket. That, too, was a really strange gig, including a singer-songwriter who lit 4 candles for "atmosphere" and had a song with the chorus lyrics; "I am your lifelong stalker", without, as far as I could detect, any irony. He was also a massive, muscled skinhead - I don't mean to generalise, but Dashboard Confessional-style ballads were the last thing I was expecting. Then there was another band of slightly greying gents who had one song that - as far as I could hear through the singer's speech impediment - went something along the lines of "I'm in loooooveeeeee... with a square-faced girl". We mainly just hanged around outside and smoked, even though it was literally freezing cold and I was running out of Marlboro Lights.

Anyway, this summer me and my partner in crime, Sam Killin, are hopefully gonna produce and record a proper EP for dem boiz. Watch this space...