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Blog: Socialising And The Social

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It was a busy old weekend for me this weekend. On Saturday myself and The Tinsel On My Tree went to a WEDDING, which is lovely enough ANYWAY, but this one was added to be fully embracing the CHRISTMASINESS of it all. It was ACE - the wedding cake was ALSO a Christmas cake!

It was a GRATE day all round - I'd been a bit nervous beforehand because we were doing some VIDEOING of the ceremony and speeches, but that all seems to have gone OK, so we were able to get down to some chatting, a little bit of SNIFFLING and a POLITE (hem hem) amount of TOASTING. SMASHING!

Sunday found us hard at work as a Household Team doing some BUILDING. We've got a new WARDROBE to set up and the three of us spent about six hours NEARLY finishing it. It was actually rather good fun - MAKING stuff always makes me think of my Grandads, especially the CLAMP that my Grandad Bike used to have in his garage which he used for making DOOHICKEYS and CONTRAPTIONS, and which I always remember as being GREASED and really good fun to USE (though we weren't supposed to). We didn't HAVE a clamp, see, and it would have been REALLY handy!

We PAUSED in our labours because a) we were a bit knackered with all the lifting, attaching, unattaching, assembling, disassembly, reassembling etc etc that goes on (they don't make it easy, do they? You'd think a stand-up comedian somewhere would spot this and REMARK upon it) but also because b) I had to get ready and go out to ROCK!

For LO! last night was my pre-penultimate gig of the year at The Damnably Christmas Party down at The Social. I arrived in good time to see Former Utopia, who now have grown a BASS PLAYER. This was an EXCELLENT thing to have as everything got all tuneful and actually Quite Funky, tho GOODNESS ME i think George was playing his acoustic guitar in ways that Acoustic Guitars are just NOT MEANT to be played. It was GRATE!

Another GRATE thing: as noted by ME on many occasions, BARS these days are gently accepting the idea that some people like to drink ALE style BEER, and The Social has finally come around to this way of thinking. HOORAH!

Thus armed with some BEER i went on stage and I did THIS:
  • The Peterborough All-Saints Wide Game Team (group B)
  • I Did A Gig In New York
  • We're Old And We're Tired (and we want to go home)
  • My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once
  • The Gay Train
  • Billy Jones Is Dead
  • Being Happy Doesn't Make You Stupid
  • The Lesson Of The Smiths

  • It all felt VERY LOUD INDEED, and I'm AMAZED to see that there's a good reason for that: this was the first amplified solo gig I've done for SIX MONTHS - since the Damnably SUMMER party in June, in fact! Since then nearly ALL my gigs have been QUIET, the only exception being with The Validators around Christmas. That would explain it then!

    Apart from that SHOCK all was well - it felt odd to be playing songs in a RANDOM ORDER, rather than dictated by EITHER Dinosaur Planet OR having learnt them up specially, and it was also slightly unnerving at first to be playing to people who hadn't necessarily come to see my sort of thing. Compared to the other bands I did feel a bit DIGANCE, but then i LIKE The Digance and, actually, had quite good fun BEING so. And as I squinted into the light i did see a whole heap of GRINNING faces smiling back at me, so I think it kind of worked. The soundman ESPECIALLY seemed very keen, which is always lovely!

    Afterwards I found Janice and George AKA The TEAM for HUGS and Christmas salutations, but had to make my excuses fairly soon after and head home. All that MANUAL LABOUR had fair done me in, I needed my BED!

    posted 13/12/2010 by MJ Hibbett

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