• Setlist:
• The Things You Get
• Unison

• Setlist:
• Gravity
• Learning to Crash
• Little Games

Turned up early enough to play third (the list filled up so quickly after that that some people didn't get to play at all!). Hung around with my little video camera catching various fly-on-the-wall shots, which can be found at http://www.grangousier.com/archive/2010-10-29

I didn't include the version of Little Games as I went to pieces, rather, and there didn't seem to be any point - there are some perfectly good versions floating around. The video was shot from the only angle that really worked for the Gorillapod the camera was sitting on. Bit of a strange angle. You can think of it as exciting and experimental, if you like.

• Setlist:
• Bagatelle III
• River Rise

• Setlist:
• Crazy Baby, Lazy Charlie
• River Rise
• Iodine

Open mic at the Stage Door - I'd not originally intended to go, instead thinking I might watch it on the Interwebs, but change my mind on a whim. Consequently not sure what I'm going to do. Usual folk, some of whom I've only seen on the web so interesting to see them in real life.

I play Crazy Baby, Lazy Charlie first - I do like that song a lot, but worry whether it's not overlong for solo performance. Perhaps if there was a band, I'm not sure. Seems to go OK, but the audience's attention feels fragile. Then do River Rise, with the whole first verse a cappella, which feels good and gratifying when the guitar comes back in and I've not drifted too far off-key. I attempt the guitar solo and baulk, having to try (not entirely convincingly) to noodle my way out of it. Back to the practising, then.

Tonight is short on acts, so we go round again. This time I do Iodine - some powerful moments, I thought, though again the guitar was a bit ropey. Strange and dispiriting how quickly one slips out of practice.

• Setlist:
• Gravity
• Crazy Baby, Lazy Charlie
• The Secret Agent's Dream
• Déjà Vu
• Bagatelle 3
• 100 Horses
• Nothing But Green Grass
• My Bumper Book of Lies
• Iodine

Kids running around my feet, which is fine, though less of a distraction outside in a festivally context than in a cellar. Good feeling though, and I'm very glad I did it. The setlist isn't complete, and probably not in the right order.

• Setlist:
• Gravity
• Care
• My Bumper Book of Lies

There were a lot of cameras. Not all going at the same time, but that was quite an instructive thing. In fact there's now a video of me on YouTube, singing Care, which is where most of the bummers I made are. I've linked it, anyway. Instructive, in a horrific way. Shoulders look terrible - all hunched. Perhaps not the most flattering look, but I'm not sure what that would be short of total darkness.

If you do watch the video, there's a bit of banter at the beginning - a bit NSFW, by the way, I didn't know at the time it was going to be put on YouTube - and what I'm talking about is an area of ceiling plaster that had fallen off, which I was standing under. Everywhere else there was still plaster on the ceiling, so it could, theoretically, fall off.

As usual, it was a very informative way of discovering new mistakes and things that escape my attention - a couple of "where on earth am I?" moments, and I have a clearer idea of the sorts of songs I need to have, though whether I can write them to order is another issue entirely.

Still, free pizza.

• Setlist:
• Gravity
• The Secret Agent's Dream
• Learning to Crash
• My Bumper Book of Lies
• Logodaedalus
• Bagatelle 3
• 100 Horses
• Iodine

Tonight I'm on first, supporting Teppei Tanino and Jude Edwin-Scott, which means that after my bit I can have a beer and enjoy the rest of the show.

The proper classical still being down (I've addressed this problem since, and it wasn't the loose wire everyone thought, but something stranger), I took the Godin and the VG88. On the one hand this was a bit excessive for the room, on the other hand it did sound very nice and gave me access to things like reverb and effects - mild for Iodine, strong for Learning to Crash, over the top for Bagatelle 3.

Also, the concert was streamed, so theoretically people around the world could watch (or at least hear) the proceedings. Some of them - from as far afield as Wales, Scotland and Camberwell - did so. How very Modern.

One problem I had was sweating on the ends of my fingers - just enough that they stuck to the strings. This often happens, but I'd left my talcum powder in my other bag, and didn't remember until I'd started playing and found the stickiness occurring. What then happens is that I need to play with the tips of my fingers rather than the nails, which can make the faster passages trickier and a bit drunken, and of course distract from the other places that need attention (like singing, lyrics and left hand). It's curious that the things that go wrong, and the chords or lyrics that I forget, are never the things that go wrong in rehearsal. Always, on stage, I'm faced with a completely new set of difficulties. I suppose that's why I do it. That and the adoration, of course.

Special mention should go to Janeen, who struggled up from Sussex and reached the venue when I'd just finished.