The Battersea Barge

December 20th 2011

- Setlist:
- The Things You Get
- The Rest of Our Lives
- Gravity
- Iodine
Typically lovely Jeays Christmas gig - I prepared six songs with David Harrod, the Jeays Band piano player, and in the end played four. Therefore I didn't play the guitar at all on my songs, which was very instructive. The most pressing question being "What do I do with my hands?"
The Things You Get was completely rearranged, and the two that we worked on but left out were Aerodynamics and My Bumper Book of Lies.

The Battersea Barge
Tideway Walk
Nine Elms Lane
London SW8 59Z

Hair of the Dog

October 16th 2011

- Setlist:
- Gravity
- Learning to Crash
- The Rest of Our Lives
- Bagatelle / 100 Horses
- Aerodynamics
- Sin Nome
- River Rise
- My Bumper Book of Lies
- Iodine
I got a call from David Sherwood as I was finishing dinner. I'd been out for a run, and (as I didn't have any outside business) I'd changed straight into my pyjamas. I was planning an evening of possibly light television, very likely a glass of sherry or two.
Could I do a half hour set at about nine-thirty to ten?
Um. Yes.
Always say yes under these circumstances, it makes your life more interesting.
I did the washing up, got dressed (nothing especially rock and roll, unless rock and roll is stretching to Next tank-tops these days) and set off. After waiting at the wrong bus stop for a bus that understandably didn't arrive, I went to the tube and eventually got to the Spice of Life. It would have been quicker to walk.
As I arrived, the act before me was about to go on. He was also a ringer. In fact, given that the first act of the evening now performed under a different name, none of the performers' names on the poster were accurate.
I did such prep as I could, including trying to explain to a very drunk young man that I didn't play Scarborough Fair. I think he might have been making fun.
It went rather well, considering that half the audience left as I was beginning and a largish group on the raised bit at the side sneaked out halfway through the set. people who are enjoying it still look to me pretty much like people who are not enjoying it. I don't know why this is and it makes gauging a performance quite tricky. Still I told them about the pyjamas, which went well, I suggested that the point of the sound meter was to put it into the red as often as possible (though I didn't really have the repertoire for it), and I played a bunch of songs and generally it went well. At the end of Aerodynamics there was infinite sustain feedback, which I'd have been able to do something interesting with if I were Jimi Hendrix, but at my advanced age, the fact that I'm not Jimi Hendrix comes as no surprise. The solo to River Rise was a train wreck, sadly, but I moved on as best I could.
In generally both very nice and completely unexpected. And I had a couple of glasses of sherry when I got home.

The Spice of Life
6 Moor St
London, W1D 5NA

Stage Door

June 4th 2011

- Setlist:
- Gravity
- Learning to Crash
- The Rest of Our Lives
- Bagatelle / 100 Horses
- Care
- Sin Nome
- Tiki
- River Rise
- My Bumper Book of Lies
- Iodine
For some unknown reason - perhaps the weather, perhaps the superfluity of fine performers around town, perhaps the Britain's Got Talent final - it was a selective room tonight, in fact the minimum required for a quorum (the performers + sound guy + audience member) and actual pub punters who would drift through from time to time. Also, the order of performers got reversed, so I was on first, which was fine by me.

The Stage Door
30 Webber Street
Waterloo
London, SE1 8QA

Open Mic at The Calf, Clapham

June 1st 2011

- Setlist:
- Gravity
- Learning to Crash
- The Rest of Our Lives
- Care
- 100 Horses
- Iodine
Nice, bijou open-mic, with fewer acts, so longer spots. The beer is very nice, too - I bought one with slices of orange in the top, which is a new one on me.

The Calf
87 Rectory Grove
London, SW4 0DR

Virtually Acoustic Club at Tinderbox

May 12th 2011

- Setlist:
- Gravity
- Learning to Crash
- The Rest of Our Lives
- Nothing But Green Grass
- Home
- Little Games
- Care
- Bagatelle / 100 Horses
- Charm
- Sin Nome
- The King of All the World
- Deja Vu
- Bagatelle / River Rise
- My Bumper Book of Lies
- Iodine
- ---
- Twilight
Lots of fun, at least for me - an hour-long set (which meant that I could drop in things I normally wouldn't do), and I meant to do less talking than I eventually did, but never mind about that.
Found it a lot easier to ease into the songs and play them (rather than just covering the notes), partly because I had more time to play with - it gave the show more air, somehow.
And there was another half an hour of material that didn't quite make this particular cut, which makes me pleased. And very nice to see the various peoploids that turned up.
Hooray!

Tinderbox
100 Middlesex Street
London E1 7HD

Door Jam at the Stage Door

November 21st 2010

- Setlist:
- The Things You Get
- Unison
Spent most of the evening videoing events, so my own performance was a bit of an afterthought. Also, I wasn't sure what to do - interesting to try these two in an open mic environment, though the audience seemed to find The Things You Get as non-plussing as I always assumed they would, though usually they seem to like it instead. Unison goes well, though I can hear the conversations in the gaps. Still, it's interesting to compare with the times I used to play it when I first wrote it and the conversation in the gaps unnerved me. Though not as much as the times there was no conversation, just gap.

The Stage Door
30 Webber Street
Waterloo
London, SE1 8QA

The Ship

October 29th 2010

- 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.

The Ship
171 Kennington Road
SE11 6SF

Virtually Acoustic Club Open Mic

October 11th 2010

- Setlist:
- Bagatelle III
- River Rise
Another visit to the VAC - I had a chance to try out the transition of Bagatelle III into River Rise, which I thought worked quite well. Hands seemed to be freezing up, though. Don't know if it comes over on the recording. Felt sort of as if they needed oiling.

The Perseverance
11 Shroton Street
Marylebone
London, NW1 6UG

Stage Door

September 26th 2010

- 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.

The Stage Door
30 Webber Street
Waterloo
London, SE1 8QA

Gwent Twenty Year Reunion

September 11th 2010

- Setlist:
- Gravity
- Crazy Baby, Lazy Charlie
- The Secret Agent's Dream
- D�j� Vu
- Bagatelle 3
- 100 Horses
- Nothing But Green Grass
- My Bumper Book of Lies
- Iodine
I took a bit of convincing from my college mates to do this - playing in a cellar, singing into a microphone fixed to the ceiling, such that I affected the lemmy Style of Upwards Vocalisation. Can't remember what I played very clearly - the list is a fairly hazy one. I changed my original setlist on the fly on the grounds that the quieter, gappier ones would be swallowed up.
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.