#gigdiary

Ah, Aylesbury. If I told you that we loaded out through a pub absolutely packed with drunk people, none of who saw us play, into the pouring rain, and overheard a woman screaming 'I didn't do it' at her boyfriend until she was hoarse, you might think we had a crap time. As it was, this was actually a kinda fun show, and much better than our last visit to the town. 

Not much to see post-soundcheck in a rainy Aylesbury, so it was a case of ordering dinner that had PLASTIC IN IT, then heading back to catch 1877. This band boasts the biggest pedalboard outside of Kevin Shields' house, and do a nice line in repetitive, drum machine-led but kinda groovy industrial stuff. I think they're going to remix one of our tunes next. 

During the quietest bit of opening track 'Skipper's Daughter' (fast becoming the ginger stepchild of the set, not much beloved of most of the band, which makes me want to stick up for it), an amazed voice exclaimed 'you're good' in a way that had to have been prefaced in his mind with 'I thought this was going to be shit, but...', causing us all to crack up mid-song and politely thank him for the compliment. We managed to land a brand new song for the very first time - it's changed a lot in even the two weeks since then, but it was good to give something completely new a go. And a third encore from a crowd that more than made up in enthusiasm what it lacked in numbers. Orderly queue formed at the merch table for tour CDs afterwards, and as we were packing up the undoubted highlight of the night, with the following exchange between Dave, our drummer, and a drunk woman who looked as if she may have been pushing fifty:

- 'Have you got a girlfriend?'

- 'No'

- 'Are you gay?'

- 'No'

- 'Take your top off then' (wanders over to talk some more). Best chat up lines ever - nothing like cutting to the chase. There seems to be at least one nutter at every single gig. I think the venue provides them for colour. 

Setlist

Skipper's Daughter

American Steam Company

Melusine Romance

Baychimo

The 100 Gun Ship

Alba Adriatica

Then Venice Sank

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OK, Wantage. We were kinda dreading this show - as you would if you'd ever been to Wantage, and upon speaking to a friend's band about playing in the town, he spoke in a haunted voice about how they would never go back and almost split up after playing a show there. The Marie Celeste of shows? We were afraid. 

But from the lowest expectations you often get the nicest surprises, and the promoters at the Swan are great. A free bar for the band, food laid on, payment at the end of the night, a free recording of your set, and really attentive all night - excellent stuff. Decent crowd as well, and a second encore of the tour. Tonight was really about the lyrics, though. One guy sat through our soundcheck then proudly declared he'd written lyrics to 'The 100 Gun Ship' along these lines:

''Baby, I want to see you

I want to come into your bedroom

I want to drive your car''

When I suggested he might want to change 'car' to 'ship' to fit in with the whole ship thing, he actually looked offended that I'd interfered with his poetry. Whoops. Following the show, someone else told us that although we could all play, we definitely had to have a singer, and that he was the man for the job. He'd already thought of some lyrics during our set. To cap off the lyrical theme, the support band Refugees of Culture were also instrumental. At least until someone else from the audience decided he'd had enough of the instrumental thing, got on stage with them and improvised some lyrics over their last song. The sound engineer only looked only half as surprised as the band at this development. I was half-offended that he didn't feel similarly-motivated to throw some lyrics down over one of our songs. 

Side note - a game of Beatles songs with a nautical twist. Can anyone beat 'A Day in the Lifeboat' or 'Eleanor Dinghy'? 

Setlist

Equus Ager

American Steam Company

Melusine Romance

The 100 Gun Ship

Then Venice Sank

All Aboard The Andrea Doria

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First gig, and our best show in London by, ooh, about 100 miles - there were more than seven people there for a start. Smallest venue we've ever played - we had to set Dave's drums up outside the toilet door, almost blocking access to the DJ booth as well, and Jim's guitar was in a corridor on the other side of some concrete benches from the tiny stage, so we practically had to wave at him from across the room. Bit of a concern, but the sound ended up really good actually. We'd been planning a collaboration with Mark Gardener on a Ride song for weeks, and soundchecked with an instrumental of 'Leave Them All Behind', which apparently sounded great. Unfortunately on the night Mark had had a rubbish day and was exhausted, so the collaboration never materialised. Last time we planned a cover (of our friends the Half Rabbits), technical problems stopped us from doing that, so I think we're pretty much doomed in terms of ever successfully doing a cover. 

The show had sold out in advance thanks to some sterling work from Idle Fret, the promoters, who got Mark Gardener onto 6music that morning to plug the show some more, and the night was a screening of the Oxford music documentary Anyone Can Play Guitar, plus someone from the old school of Oxford music (Mark) and someone newer (that'd be us then). Several familiar faces from Oxford were down and the venue was packed with an attentive audience watching the documentary - it was actually great to feel like being in the middle of a celebration of Oxford music, transposed to somewhere near Oxford Street. 

Unfortunately due a practice the night before, two gigs the previous weekend, and commuting to London for work every day, I was totally exhausted and actually fell asleep at the back of the venue, only to be woken up by Jim during Mark Gardener's set, which wasn't ideal preparation but hey ho we are the HERBAL TEA of rock n roll bands. We were incredibly well-received, with some lovely feedback afterwards, and got an encore, which in London is frankly unheard of (for us)... we played a full 45 minutes with only two major fuckups. First I managed to unplug all the synths out of the DI with my massive feet during 'Then Venice Sank', cutting all the synth sounds... and Mike turned off his amp before the encore, with it only warming up enough to make some sound about 30 seconds into the last song. Oops. We're also the worst ever band at marketing ourselves - I forgot to mention our next London gig the following week, and we didn't have any CDs for sale or even any flyers. 

Lift home with Mr Jon Spira to Oxford was massively welcome, along with the bizarre conversation about Disney films with Mark Gardener and Mark Cope. 

Setlist

Equus Ager

Alba Adriatica

All Aboard The Andrea Doria

American Steam Company

Skipper's Daughter

Then Venice Sank

The 100 Gun Ship

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