I am very far behind with my blogs. There has been a blockage. Perhaps it’s a bloggage. Anyway the last few weeks have been pretty full on (like Blondie said) ‘one way or another’, so I’m going to need to take a few episodes to get everything back up to speed.
This blockage has even resulted in me missing the blog birthday, which would have been November 28th. Had time been more plentiful, OCD me would have loved to reach 100 blogs within one year of writing, but, it just kind of didn't happen. By the end of this year seems reasonable, but it's not really that important. To have just been writing consistently like this for a year feels like an achievement. I need to read my earliest blogs, I suspect I set myself a target or two and outlined some things I'd like to achieve, it'd be useful for me to revisit that and see how it's going.....
Getting up to date...
So first up, you might recall that I was politely pestering you to attend two of my upcoming gigs, the first of these being the ‘Stanmore / Learn To Drive / WestingWay’ originals gig at The Chichester Inn. It was the first time I’ve tried to put on a show quite like this, and Matt, Steve and I weren’t really quite sure what was going to happen, or how it was going to go.
If you follow WestingWay on Facebook or Instagram, or even better, you came to the gig, you probably already know the rest….
8.30am on the day of the gig, my phone rang. It was Matt (Stanmore). Early morning calls on gig days are rarely good things. It does happen sometimes, just to check some final, critical, overlooked detail, but nobody’s ever rung me at breakfast to tell me they couldn’t sleep and how pumped for the gig they are. 99% of the time there’s an issue.
Matt is fine. Feels fine, talks fine, but his singing voice has suffered a problem. It kind of doesn’t exist. Like the singing voice equivalent of the tooth fairy has paid him an unwelcome visit and not left him £2 (or whatever the going rate is, I think it was 20p for me, anyway…) It’s never happened to him before, and at the time of writing almost two weeks later, I don’t think it’s still properly back. Emergency measures are called for, the show must go on.
A quick consultation with Steve reveals his busy daytime schedule means it’s up to me, so it is decided to try and enlist a replacement, in the form of Mike Fry, who I’d seen the previous night at his originals only open mic night in Arundel. I’ve sort of known Mike for ages, but it’s only recently we’ve really connected. He’s super talented, got loads of experience, and as an old original music hand, has been very supportive and encouraging of my efforts this year. He felt like a safe pair of hands, and he didn’t disappoint.
So Mike, Steve and I (plus Jeff) played the gig. Matt came along, bless him, and ran the door for us, which was really helpful. It wasn’t overly busy, but we all played really well and everybody I spoke to at least had a great time - thank you if that was you.
I'd like to put a particular 'thank you' out there to Mark and Helen. Mark runs the online songwriting group I've mentioned on occasion, and he and his wife, aside from loving their trips to the seaside, came down specially from London to the gig - thank you!
That night has helped to make this year feel like a good start for WestingWay as a project. I’m trying to stay realistic with it, but it’s led me to play some great new places and meet some new people, which was always one of my goals.
Recording wise, as you know, ‘I Got Mine’ is out now. I need to push it harder, but ultimately I’m just pleased that it’s done and out there. Jeff and I are now working on a song called ‘Horses’ which will potentially include some vocals from our friend Helena Mace, and will probably be out in the new year.
I think that’s enough about that for the moment, suffice to say that I’ll be playing a set supporting the brilliant Tim Shez Band at The Princess Royal in Farnham on Thursday December 12th, and I’ll be playing the longer, invited guest slot at Mike’s originals only Open Mic night at The Red Lion in Arundel on Thursday December 19th, both of which are a bit of an honour. And they’re both free to get into ;-)
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