Paul's Blog

It's been a more music and blast from the past-filled week than I've managed for quite a while. On Tuesday we went to The Cornerhouse to see Kyla La Grange who is another in an increasingly long list of people I did quite a few gigs with on an equal footing back in the day who are now zooming off towards stardom. I wonder if that happens to everyone or the universe is just trying to taunt me. Or if I should've tried harder. Her style has become a bit more epic over the years - it was comfortably the biggest sound I've ever heard there. Properly professional. The fairy lights and plastic foliage they brought with them made a real difference to the way the room felt too. Good gig.

On Wednesday Annie and I went to Camden to do a gig with Jinder, who I met when we both played round the corner at the (then) Canaervon Castle in 2004. That night had been hosted by a guy who used to be in Neighbours. It's been downhill ever since. It came up in conversation and I was trying to explain to some of the younger people who came along exactly who he had been in Neighbours but we didn't have any of the same points of reference. It was Cameron, Mrs Mangel's motorcycle riding earring wearing lawyer nephew. Oh my God - some wikipediaing has revealed that he's in Neighbours again playing someone else! I guess he must be related to someone high up in the production team. I never thought I'd reach a time in my life when I wasn't addicted to Neighbours. I blame Channel 5 for taking it over and turning the saturation down. 

Anyway, Jinder and I have kept in touch off and on ever since (though I paths hadn't crossed again until this) and he was nice enough to suggest Annie and I to the venue - The Green Note which, is a really nice place. They treated us well too (tasty vegetarian food - I went for a salad with every type of cheese available), but for some reason I felt a bit uncomfortable during my set. Not sure why - there were a lot of friendly faces in the crowd and the sound was excellent too - my guitar sounded nicer than I can remember (they put a mic in front of it as well as pluggin it in). So I dunno.

Set list: The Ghost of Paddy's Night Past, Watertight, This Place is Dead Anyway, A Folly or a Fortress (ably helped by Annie), So Finally a Love Song, Black Coffee and Bromide (new song - might be a bit intense), Edinburgh, You Won't Break My Heart. I meant to play Muscle Memory but forgot.

Jinder is quite the raconteur, both on and off stage. Some of his stories reminded me of the late great Jackie Leven (who was a friend of his), though they were more convincing. Not that I didn't believe the ones that Jackie told. Apart from the one about sneaking in to Mick Jagger's house and having a party. And the one about hiding under a table with Sarah Ferguson at a fancy dinner. Admittedly I was hugely drunk when I heard that one, so it might be a tall tale of my own. Anyway, I particularly enjoyed the tour de force that was Jinder's tour of Britain in accents. He's also one of the most positive people I've met. His new album is for sale on his website and getting a proper release in June. I hope it does really well because he deserves it. And I think there are a lot of people who will really like it if they get to hear it.

Here's a video of 'Edinburgh' from that night. Watch me feel awkward and get annoyed by people talking loudly in the other room and consequently play it a bit too fast.

On Saturday we were teaming up with Jinder again at The Stables in Milton Keynes. We got the coach over after lunch because I wanted to go to Hobgoblin music in Newport Pagnell as part of my search for a new mandolin. The shop is not as big as it looks on the website, and their range of f type mandos numbers precisely two. Unfortunately I tried out the dead expensive one and noticed that it was nicer than any other mandolin I've played. Hard to justify buying one worth that's several times as much as my guitar. Newport Pagnell is kind of nice at first but there is nowhere to get food. If I'd realised we were staying within a short distance of a safari park I think we'd have probably gone to that instead.

The Stables is one of the most proper places I've ever played. Probably there, The Junction here, and Aeolian Hall in London Ontario. We got a green room with sandwiches, fruit, fancy crisps and a small amount of booze. And a gigantic octagonal conference table, complete with projector. We were in the small room, with a David Bowie tribute in the main room. We heard a bit and they sounded good, though the singer was doing his own thing rather than a proper impression. There was the traditional debate about how you pronounce Bowie. I think it's Bowie, but Jinder thought it might be Bowie. I pointed out that his son was called Zowie so it had to be Bowie to rhyme with that. Potato potato tomato tomato.

Setlist: The Ghost of Paddy's Night Past, Watertight, This Place is Dead Anyway, Muscle Memory, A Folly or a Fortress (again with excellent backing from Annie), So Finally a Love Song, Edinburgh, Waiting for You (dunno why - I meant to play Phosphorus Burn but it was an older audience and it has generally gone down well with older audiences), You Won't Break My Heart.

Hungry Horse breakfasts are not good and not as cheap as you would expect. The sausage and bacon tasted of too much and the eggs tasted of absolutely nothing. I've never had such untasty eggs.

Bloody hell, I had a feeling Chelsea would do it tonight. Should've put my money where my feeling was.

A few of us went to see Shearwater at The Scala last week. We went to a backstreet pub I'd not been to before (something about King Charles) for pre gig drinks/sheltering from the crazy rain and it was how pubs should be. Cramped, wooden, with stuffed animals everywhere, bar billiards and a toilet designed with the size of people in the 17th century in mind. They also served a beer called Bethnal Green Bitter which led to a series of jokes about German taxi drivers.

We got in about halfway through My Sad Captains, who I'm pretty sure I saw playing with The Broken Family Band once. They were pretty good then, and they are pretty good now. They did have their sound slightly shafted in that way that support bands at "proper" gigs always do. Boomy drums, overly intrusive bass. You'd think that society would've grown out of that kind of thing. I get that headline bands don't want to be upstaged, but there was never really much danger of that. I suppose they weren't to know.

The second act on was Julie Doiron, who I'd not heard of, but, based on the number of requests and reverential atmosphere, lots of other people had. She varied between charmingly ditsy and annoyingly ditsy. I can't remember much about the songs, but I do remember enjoying it, despite the crowd treating her (and her coming across) a bit like a child doing a party piece rather than someone who's been playing for 20 years.

I spent most of the Shearwater set trying to pretend that Jonathan Meiburg wasn't the only member of the lineup left who'd been playing when I saw them play at a tiny club in Gothenburg. A lot of what I love(d) about them is how obviously great at playing music the entire band are (were). And the variety of instruments. And how cool Thor Harris is. This line up was much more standard and the new guys mostly seemed to be trying too hard to show how into it they were (I think the drummer had the wrong end of the stick about the Animal in the album name) they and had an air of "oh look, we're in a real band suddenly, that makes us great". Especially the keyboard/guitar sideman who was mean to someone making a request.

"It's not about you!"

"Its not about you either mate - where's Thor?" 

They were very rocking to be fair, which was great for about half the set, especially on the new stuff (I think the new album is the first that's captured the intensity of the live show) but it got a bit wearing by the end. I think the rest of the band are only having a year off. I hope so anyway.

That all read a lot more negatively than it was meant to. It was a very enjoyable show. Just not quite everything I'd been expecting. Check out the new album "Animal Life" if you haven't - I really like it.

I finally made it to my first Cambridge game of the season, which was fun, but unusually relaxed as neither team had anything to play for (Cambridge are safe but too far from the playoffs, and Kettering are down). Cambridge won and the Kettering keeper got sent off for handling outside the area.

I've got two gigs next week! In real venues and everything! I'm not sure when that last happened. Please come!

I've put some more videos on the video page too - check em out.

We were in Liverpool and Manchester at the weekend because Annie was doing a couple of gigs. I've not been to either place for at least a decade. Liverpool is supposedly a lot nicer than it used to be, and to be fair the dock area is pretty grand (though we were bothered by a herd of acting students at one stage making some ham fisted political point), but the whole place felt slightly aggressive. And the Zizzi's tasted a bit funny. And we spent a while looking for Underwater Street, which sounded amazing but turned out to be a children's education centre. I took a lot of nice photos of the shimmering river and the Liver building and the statue of Billy Fury (there are a LOT of statues there) but my camera has misplaced them. It's happened before, and I expect they'll turn up again. But not in time for this. All I'll say about the gig is that I reckon 90% of the unsigned things I've been to this year have had at least one act from the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, and I don't reckon the entry requirements can be that high. But then I've always felt that training drains the feeling out of things. And writing good songs isn't really something you can teach. Not that either of those things are what you need to succeed, and I guess that is the point of stage school.

We couldn't find a hotel in Liverpool for under £150, so we got a late train over to Manchester, which was full of people who think Jersey Shore is some kind of religious broadcast. There was more eyelash per person than in an entire trainful of people from south of Birmingham. Still, it's not so long a journey. We were staying on Hilton Road, and still feeling nervous from spending 10 minutes on the street in Liverpool, decided to get a cab, which took us to the Hilton hotel, 15 minutes in the wrong direction. The driver was a good sport about it though.

Next morning we went for a walk after watching a bit of The Sorceror's Apprentice. No, not that one, this one was even worse. Manchester seemed a lot more relaxed, nicely run down rather than threateningly run down, with some cool little cafes and restaurants and some dubious grammar.

We got "brekkie" which only really works in a northern accent, hung around in a music shop until the guy showing off on the piano got too much to bear, and had some Guinness and chocolate cake, which sounds like a great idea, and was nice, but on balance probably wasn't as nice as the chocolate milkshake I was considering instead. The day was made more relaxed by the venue being nice enough to let us leave our stuff there.

We also met up with my old mate Cavan, another of the friends I've made at the Folk Club over the years. He's still living the dream and it was really good to see him. The gig, which was great, finished in time for us to wander past the canal district which, maybe not surprisingly, reminded me of Amsterdam, get a pretty good pizza, and still make the train. Sitting on trains, doing the crossword with the sun setting is one of the nicer things in life.

I went to see Bell Wells and Aidan Moffat at The Portland on Tuesday. Support act RM Hubbert mostly played very impressive and emotional instrumental guitar pieces, with the occasional song thrown in. He seemed like a very nice chap. I'm not sure why he looks like a painting in this photo.

Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat was comfortably gig of the year so far, though I was expecting that, as "Everything's Getting Older" and their "Cruel Summer" EP must be two of the records of last year. It's not the kind of thing I'd like the sound of if you described it to me - lots of spoken word over almost jazz backing, but the words are so brilliantly funny and moving, and the voice so full of character. I doubt he'd get into LIPA. This is what gigs should look like. 

They turned around while waiting for the encore rather than going offstage. Nice.

I feel like Scotland and Canada are making most of the good music at the moment.

On Wednesday I did my first gig in Norwich in 3 1/2 years, having had a very traumatic experience last time. Fortunately this time everyone was much nicer to me. The night is called Grapevine@Bedfords and Steve who runs it must be one of the nicest promoters out there. It's so much better when people are doing things for the love of it rather than to make money. Little things like giving us food and convincing people to come make all the difference... The venue is lovely too - a big room above a bar with wooden beams and wonky chimney breasts. And great sound. Setlist: The Ghost of Paddy's Night Past (I forgot some words - though I'd not even touched a guitar since the Portland gig 6 weeks ago, so maybe it's forgiveable), Watertight, This Place is Dead Anyway, So Finally a Love Song, 60 Miles with a Slow Puncture (someone requested it before the show!), Edinburgh, You Won't Break my Heart. Here's a video of So Finally a Love Song

Annie and The Willows were great too. Here's a picture of Cliff pretending he's the banjo player in Kiss.

They were nice enough to give us a lift home because we'd missed the (just too early to be properly useful) last train. Mostly due to their soundcheck (just kidding). It's been a long time since I was last in a car on the A14 coming back from a gig at half past midnight. I got a bit nostalgic.

Here's something you've probably never seen in real life. Can you guess what it is?

That's right - it's a dessert from an Indian restaurant. It wasn't bad either. I'm glad I didn't get the funky pie.

So, the Kevin Devine gig the other week was brilliant, though we left early because a rail replacement bus service would've meant a really, really late night. The support act, JayMay had a nice voice and everything but was Not My Cup Of Tea At All. I'm becoming almost completely intolerant of the slightest hint of jazz I think. I thought people descended into liking jazz as they got older? Maybe I'm just intolerant of competent but boring songs. I thought people descended into liking competent but boring songs as they get older? Anyway. Kevin Devine had the Goddamn Band with him, which was a nice surprise as I was expecting it to be solo like it had been the other time I saw him. They were as tight as a bastard, but weirdly, the sound was very similar from song to song. I'd have thought a band would lead to more variation. Maybe it was just that most of the songs were from newer albums than I know well. Cotton Crush was worth the travelling and ticket alone. I particularly enjoyed the bass player (visible in the picture below, but you don't get the sense of his movement). And I really love The Borderline. Every other venue in London seems to be sending me exhortations to vote for them in some "best venue in London" competition. I'd only vote for The Borderline.

We went to Berkhamsted last week, which seems like a much nicer place than I'd imagined. It has a castle and everything!

Ruined castles are among my favourite things. If I could spend all my time looking at ruined castles and dinosaurs, that'd be ok with me. We stayed in a pretty swanky hotel - I got the thickest of steaks for dinner and the toilet was square. I'm not sure square toilets are either as stylish or as comfortable as oval ones, but a change is as good as a rest. This is a bit Chris T-T, but here's a picture.

There was some confusion among the people I overheard about how to say Berkhamsted. I'd instinctively say BerkHAMsted, and I did hear that, but I also heard a lot of BERKumsted. I asked someone and he just said "well, mostly we say Burko". Fair enough.

Did a chocolate tasting last week, which was good fun. I learnt that Galaxy is better than Cadbury's because Cadbury's replace cocoa butter with vegetable, but the absolute best chocolate comes from the shop that the woman running the tasting owns. Though to be fair, having tasted some, it's hard to disagree with that. I also learnt that pure cocoa is gross. I got 4/6 in my tasting test. Someone got 5, but I don't see how that's possible without cynically putting the same answer for 2 of them.

Most of the rest of my non-work time has looked like this:

Though I recently discovered Draw Something, which is amazing fun, and I did (just about) finish a song! First of the year! Probably first for a year.

Guess which of these meals was mine.

It's been a busy couple of weeks again. The other weekend we went up to Sunderland because Annie was doing a gig at a really nice venue called The Independent. The guy who runs it has the (rare, but correct) attitude that if you make a nice place and consistently put on good things people will come. It seems to be paying off because the room was packed. Maybe there's not much to do in Sunderland.

The main act of the night were The Cornshed Sisters, and although I'm not convinced they're really sisters, they were good to watch. Excellent harmonies, and falling just on the right side of the suprisingly thin line between traditional folk and musical theatre. I first noticed said line when I saw The Unthanks (at the time called Rachel Unthank and the Winterset) in the early days when they had a comedy pianist who kept trying to steal/spoil the show depending on whether you like musical theatre. Maybe the two styles are so far apart that they meet up again round the back. Other things I enjoyed about the weekend were taking pictures of the snow out from the train, the word Jesmond, the fact I finally got to see You've Got Mail and getting addicted to Bejewelled on my phone. That still hasn't worn off. I used to be addicted to it on facebook and that was pretty bad, but you can take your phone anywhere.

Last Saturday we finally did a band gig again with the now semi-classic line up of Mike, Andy and Dave. As with pretty much all band gigs it was at The Portland. We're all too old and too busy to be travelling far, and nobody else will let us play anyway. The night itself was a bit stressful because it was a crowded bill and the soundman (who did a good job in the end, despite his fondness for disco lighting) didn't turn up for ages, but I had a brilliant time while we were playing - the crowd was really friendly and enthusiastic and (for the most part) we played well I thought. Setlist (along the lines of): So Finally a Love Song, The Forked Tongue and The Blind Eye Turned, Watertight, Cold Case, Cabin Fever, Borderline, 60 Miles With a Slow Puncture, Soaked to the Skin, Closure (encore! One guy was even quite forceful about it). We had a new (to the world in general) song to play called Guilt Edged Opportunity but there wasn't really time and I bottled it. Would've probably been a good time to do it though because everyone seemed to be on our side. Or maybe we'd have lost them... There might be video depending on how bad we sound...

All the other acts (Andy Buclaw, Annie, and Lester who I've written about before) were really good. Lester has probably got the tallest band I've ever seen. He's incredibly tall and his brother is somehow even taller. I questioned him about it and he said all the best genes come out first. I'm taller and better than my brother too. They also swapped instruments to the extent that they almost but not quite sounded like a different band with every song. Not a bad thing.

The excitement has worn off again now, which is just as well because it really is a great feeling and it gets frustrating sitting at work wishing that you were doing something else. There's some more music going on in the next few days though. I'm playing keys with Annie in London on Thursday and then seeing Kevin Devine on Monday at my favourite of the London venues The Borderline, which is getting nicely worn out again since they spoiled it by neatening it up a couple of years ago. He was brilliant last time I saw him, so fingers crossed.

We were in Copenhagen last week and having checked my bank balance I can happily report that it's even more effing expensive than I thought at the time. 8.5 kroner to the pound is quite different to the 9.1 I thought I was spending.

It was one of the easier journeys I've made - the flight is only an hour and a bit from Stansted and the airport about 20 minutes on the metro from the centre. I dunno why but I find metro systems much less stressful than the buses you often get at the airports that budget airlines use. Probably because it's obvious where to get off. The whole city centre is only served by about 5 stations though which means there is a good 20-25 minute walk between them, making it less useful than it could be.

The first night we got an expensive but nice burger in a place with slow and surly service and checked out Danish TV. Half of which is American, so that was good. There is one channel which at night has footage of various life sized monster puppets snoring, occasionally cutting to children snoring. Not sure what that's about.

The next day we went for a long (cold) wander around the Longest Shopping Street in all of Scandinavia (why is everything in Scandinavia the biggest/only something in all of Scandinavia? Maybe I exaggerate). It's a really relaxing city, all trendily industrial looking coffee shops and galleries but spotless streets. And a roaming marching band that people were treating like a slow moving tractor on an A road rather than any kind of spectacle.

January may not be the best time to see it though as it was too cold to do any outdoor activities really. The only cultural things we managed (despite the national museum being next door to the hotel and free), having been warned that the Little Mermaid statue is boring and hard to get to, were the Carlsberg Brewery, getting a McDonald's in a new country and a very short expedition to Freetown Christiania.

The brewery was very cool - like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory but with beer - all minarets and concrete elephants with swastikas on (it was the company logo until they had to change it sharpish in the 1940s), novelty cars and giant beerstoppers.

They also have the largest bottle collection in All of The World (only 20,000 - I reckon I could beat it with a bit of determination) and an exhibition about the history of the company, which is more interesting than you would think.

The entry includes 2 free beers and at 7 kr wasn't much more expensive than that beer would've been in a bar. I wasn't as impressed by the taste of it as I was by Carlsberg in Sweden or by other beers I've had at breweries (Steam Whistle straight off the production line in Toronto was gorgeous) but it was much nicer than here. Oh there were horses too.

Freetown Christiania was weird - a squat that declared itself to be outside society in the 70s - read the history on Wikipedia it's quite interesting and I suspect I'll get it wrong. I'd only really heard of it from a zombie shoot 'em up I played once. There was a lot of graffiti and a street where you could buy (elsewhere) illegal substances as if they were different flavours of fudge. We didn't stay long. You weren't allowed to take photos.

Did some playing too. With varying amounts of noise, but exactly the same amount of attention from the audience every time. Night 1 setlist: The Ghost of Paddy's Night Past, Watertight, Muscle Memory, So Finally a Love Song, Edinburgh, Soaked to the Skin Night 2 setlist: Edinburgh, The Ghost of Paddy's Night Past, Watertight, The Easy Way Out (first time in years! I had to look up the words on the internet. I was surprised they were there) Night 3 setlist: Edinburgh, The Ghost of Paddy's Night Past, So Finally a Love Song, Watertight, Muscle Memory.

Oh,there's also a Lego shop, which was pretty exciting. It's always been a dream of mine to go to Legoland, but it was too far away to justify time getting there. One day. To compensate we took advantage of their build 3 of your own Lego men for 5 Kr offer. I made a scared architect. I'm both surprised and impressed that they make Lego theodolites.

So what have I learnt about Denmark? They like candles a lot. Really a lot. January is cold there. There's a lot of free wifi. McDonald's is not up to more central European standards. On one late night tasting. Metro stations are further apart than you really want. Buses run very often but cost a lot. Nazi memorabilia is still acceptable and readily available. They only seem to eat burgers. Food, booze and taxis are very expensive. Clothes and the cinema not quite so much. Not mentioning my surname at any point during gigs is probably counterproductive. Their forks only have 3 prongs, which looks weird. More people than you would think bring ice skates to the bar. Service does not come with a smile. I really like it there. Foreign languages will always be funny.

Its been a while since this descended into Watchdog style consumer advice, but if you're on O2 don't order the white iPhone 4S. After 3 months of waiting we gave up and got them from Apple. I thought if I went on about it on twitter enough we might get some free stuff but no. Presumably because hardly anybody follows me on there, and most of those that do are suspiciously attractive Russians who don't have a great deal to say but are very interested in the outpourings of other people. Fnar.

It is pretty life changing having a phone that works, but I'm still a bit miffed that I had to forfeit all my games of Words with Friends because my phone couldn't run it (paulgoodwin if anyone wants to take me on). Also, my old phone won't talk to computers any more and I still haven't figured out how to get plants vs zombies off it. Ah well I'd finished it anyway. My latest game of choice is Cut the Rope but it's a bit easy. In case you can't tell, the new year hasn't been that eventful so far. Thankfully we exhausted all the series of Vampire Diaries and 30 Rock on demand so in principle things could get done.

One of the other benefits of having a phone that works is that I can be writing this while I'm on the train to Balham to watch Annie play at The Bedford. It's been a long while since I've been there - I played a fair few times a few years back, and always felt like I&nbps;went down well, but eventually they noticed that I don't sound like Paulo Nutini and wouldn't let me play any more. I think maybe the Nutini-only restriction has been relaxed again (albeit maybe not as far as me) but I haven't got the heart to try now. I'm looking forward to the gig though, it's a really cool place and their policy of two songs in each half of a show is great for keeping an audience who are there to see a particular act in the room.

To be honest I'm not really up for playing at all at the moment. A so-bad-all-you-can-do-is-laugh review of Trinkets and Offcuts got me down a bit. It didn't exactly dent my confidence but it did hammer home again how hard it is to get anyone to give anything a proper go if there's anything difficult about it, especially now that the songs themselves seem so far down the list of what most people seem to judge music on (after whether it's been on One Tree Hill, how many retweets it has, whether it's been on a deodorant advert, the shoes that the guitarist is wearing in the promo pictures, if it has a banjo in it). Not that I deserve to get a proper go over anyone else. But if attention spans keep going like this in a few years all the music we get force fed will consist of 30 second versions of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" in reverb soaked harmony/with a Pet Shop Boys style backing/sung by a cooky girl with lots of handclaps. Actually, that last one has already been in some kind of advert hasn't it? As entertaining as it is, I'm not convinced the internet has been a positive influence on the world overall.

So, the end of another year. One of the more eventful of my life to date, though it feels like there hasn't been that much time for music. My only resolution was to finish off Trinkets and Offcuts, which I managed, so that's good I guess, though I failed miserably to promote it. I was hoping to make some progress with another CD, but I've not. Maybe I'll make that next year's resolution. I'm hoping to do something with the "live" recording we did in a primary school in May if I decide it's good enough to let out. I've not done a great deal of playing, and not much of what I have was especially gratifying (though Jack's birthday gig was good fun and I enjoyed Dalston last week). I've seen quite a lot of stuff I guess - 62 "proper" acts (3 of which are comedians) though that's less than the last few years, mainly due to not getting to any proper festivals.

One step forward I have made is to vastly improve at table football after we got it at work. I'm unbeaten so far in 2012.

The traditional list of what I've seen then, and what I thought. No comment means they were somewhere between not that great and quite good: David Bazan (great), Joseph Arthur (seems to have lost it), Boy Without God (really good), Daniel Kitson (not a band, but wonderful), Wintersleep (x2), The Hold Steady (x2 fantastic), Richard Walters, Dolorean (brilliant), Simon Munnery (very funny), Stewart Lee (very funny), The Golden Retrievers, Katie Costello, Rachel Platten, Bess Rogers, Deer Park (x2, great), Singing Adams (x3, great), John Smith, Josh Ritter (really great), Polly Paulusma, Simone Felice (outstanding), Crazy Arm (great), Two Cow Garage (great), Emily Barker (x2 great), Okkervil River (x3, amazing every time), The Submarines, The Mountain Goats (fantastic), The Pony Collaboration (great), The Wave Pictures (great), Greg Holden, Future Islands, Titus Andronicus, Dan Mangan (gig of the year), The Weakerthans (amazing), Owen Pallett (seemed really good but I was far away), The Vaccines, Beirut, Mumford and Sons, The Arcade Fire, Stephen Fretwell, Rachel Sermanni, The Duke and the King (great), Gary Numan (brilliant), Justin Townes Earle, Frank Turner, Richard Thompson (great), Pentangle (just awful), Raul Malo, Caitlin Rose, Villagers, Femi Kuti (uplifting), Mary Chapin Carpenter (really good), Stealing Sheep, Emmy The Great (great), The Kittens, Rozi Plain, Withered Hand (wonderful), Steve Earle (wonderful), MJ Hibbett, Juan Zelada (really good at what he was doing), Lelia Broussard, Adam Barnes.

I saw this festive scene on the way to work. I'm not sure if it was the wind or if he's just outlived his usefulness and has been put out of his misery before they turn him into glue.

I was back in Dalston on Wednesday to do a couple of songs at the "Folk Modern Christmas Party", mostly because Steve who runs it felt bad that nobody was there when I played last month (including the rest of the acts on the bill). There were about 15 people doing stuff (not just playing - there was unusually effective (and affecting) poetry and this guy who did some hula hooping and juggling, as well as a song)

with names being drawn out of a hat of who was going on when. Which would be a good way of running open mics. Anyway, the room was full of lovely people this time and when it was eventually my turn I played Watertight and Ghost of Paddy's Night Past much better than I have for ages. People said nice things afterwards and I went home happy. Can't ask for much more than that. Apart from maybe a visit from an inflatable Santa. Which we also got.

Wow, it's been quite a while since I had a chance to write - I'd forgotten about the gig at The Living Room, which was a nice evening. First up were The Half Sisters, who were down from a 3 piece to a duo, but you'd never have known it. They were ditzy and fun and because they're sisters and have the same voice could do a really cool double tracked kind of effect by singing in unison. They also had a tambourine with all but a couple of the metal bits taped up to stop it being too loud, which is a great idea. I was on second, and did OK, though the crowd thinned quite quickly after the sisters were done. Apart from anything else, it was really nice to see the guys who run the night - it'd been ages. I did finish my set by kicking someone's water over on one of the lights. I think it survived, but they unplugged it to be on the safe side. Smooth. Setlist (approx): The Ghost of Paddy's Night Past, Watertight, This Place is Dead Anyway, Phosphorus Burn, You Won't Break My Heart, Magnetic or Rhetorical, So Finally a Love Song (which I stopped after a few lines because someone's phone went off), Edinburgh.

Headliner Evi Vine was great - a three piece of singing/guitar, cello, drums/bass/guitar as required, all of which were put through looping pedals at one time or another. Really atmospheric.

Talking of looping, last Friday I saw Rob Jackson's latest outfit The Eloi Cole Collective (named after a man they found at CERN who claimed to be from the future). It's going to feature a rotating cast, but this time was Rob on little synth and guitar, Tony on laptop and Peter Chilvers on iPad and iPod. It was all improvised (the setlist consisted of three modes they were going to stick to) and was really engaging (hypnotic even), even over the Friday night Cornerhouse crowd who were there to see some dubious singer/songwriters.

I also did a last minute Portland thing with Aidy, Flaming June and Eureka Stockade (all of which feature Paul Richards hitting things). Just the 4 songs: The Ghost of Paddy's Night Past, Cold Case (only partially spoiled by the sound guy's decision to turn on some disco lighting about halfway through. Bellend), 60 Miles with a Slow Puncture and Watertight. I had to leave before Eureka Stockade unfortunately, but Flaming June and Aidy were both really good to watch.

We had dinner in a restaurant the other day with the most unusal cutlery I've seen for a while. 

We were surrounded by people who seemed to be on first/second dates. Conversations we heard ranged from episodes of The Simpsons to Dan Brown books (I'm surprised people are still talking about Dan Brown books when there are Steig Larsson books to fill the same need for terribly gripping but terribly written adventures) and back to episodes of The Simpsons. If I'd have realised aged 20 that all that mattered in these situations was saying things rather than worrying about what you were saying I think I'd have had a very different time. I suppose it's obvious really. This guy was in the toilet. It was a bit offputting

Okkervil River were back in London last week and once again, most of Cambridge went. I don't know why they don't just play here - maybe because it'd have an adverse affect the attendances at the London shows. I'd been to Koko 3 times before and the sound had been rubbish at the two that had been full bands, so I wasn't sure how they'd fare, especially compared to the amazing gig at Heaven earlier in the year. I needn't have worried though. There was some confusion about the support act. Twitter suggested it was some girl from Bedford, but it turned out to be a band called A Classic Education that the internet said were from Bologna but confused us at the time by having a Canadian singer. They were alright, but couldn't really take my mind off how smelly the venue was. We could smell the vomit halfway there from Kings Cross. And the sweatiness was quite something too. It was a blessed relief when someone farted.

The Okkervil River set was similar to other recent ones, though we got "Ends With A Fall" which I'd never seen and a jaw dropping slow quiet version of "No Key, No Plan". I've gone on about them enough before. They must be in the top few bands in the world at the moment.

I played keys for Annie at The Cornerhouse in Cambridge on Sunday and the Norwich Arts Centre on Tuesday, and both were good fun. The journey to Norwich was one of the more annoying journeys I've ever been involved in though. I called a cab with plenty of time, only for it to take 25 minutes to turn up, leaving just enough time to get to the station for our train, only for the driver to refuse to take my keyboard, meaning that we had to get a second taxi and a non-direct train, leading to a lot of time sitting in the cold on Ely station waiting for the second half of it to not turn up before being given about 30 seconds warning by the announcer that the direct train an hour after the one we'd been aiming for in the first place was about to show up on the other side of the station. The annoyance didn't end there. I'd carefully chosen a hotel about 5 minutes walk from the venue, and planned the green route on the map below in my head. We were about to go down the correct left turn when we asked a local just to make sure. Who said "hmm... the arts centre eh? Let me see...* you've got a ways to go yet... easiest to follow this road here round, then turn left at Tesco and then maybe ask someone else..."

*every single person we asked said "the arts centre eh? let me see...". Not very comforting.

I've marked the route we ended up taking in red. I've marked in blue places where we asked people for directions. I've marked in orange the spot where we were when it started raining moderately heavily. I've marked in pink the shop that used to be a Tesco but isn't any more. I've marked in brown the place where the rain reached monsoon proportions. I've marked in yellow the one person who told us the right way. It's nice that people try and help, but it'd be much better if they'd not if they aren't sure. Or at least give you some kind of estimate accuracy rating. My keyboard is really heavy. I'm going to be ripped if this sort of thing keeps happening.

Anyway, having spent 15 minutes of so rubbing myself up against the hand drier all was good. I've played in the bar there but never been in the big room - it's a lovely old converted church with a great sound, and really friendly staff. We were supporting Juan Zelada who I'd not heard of before. The recorded stuff isn't really my cup of tea, but live it was a lot of fun. The tightest band I've seen in ages (the guitar player did almost the whole gig with 5 strings) and he's quite the showman.

I did my first solo gig in London for what I reckon must be the best part of 2 years on Wednesday night, at the Servant Jazz Quarters in Dalston (which is only distinguishable from the outside as not being someone's house from a tiny SJQ above the door). Incredibly, of the 4 acts that were confirmed as playing at 4 that afternoon, I was the only one who ended up doing so. 2 dropped out with a couple of hours to go, and one walked out after a long soundcheck, having realised that there weren't going to be (m)any people watching. I've never seen that before. No way to behave really. It's good to know my knack for being the act that turns a hitherto successful club into a bit of a disaster just by being on the bill is still working well. Places should offer me protection money to not come and play. Or just not book me. Oh... Roll on tonight's gig at The Living Room in Cambridge! Anyway, it was a lovely room, the sound was brilliant, I felt like I played really well and the handful of people that did come were very nice. Setlist: The Ghost of Paddy's Night Past, Watertight, Magnetic or Rhetorical, Muscle Memory, A Happy Ending, Soaked to the Skin, Phosphorus Burn (awkward encore). Steve (AKA Blabbermouth) who was the host of the night did a few songs and, unusually in my experience, was brilliant. Really good stuff. I was a bit taken aback.

I'm not sure the sign they had outside was the best choice of words though - to me it implies the presence of flutes.