Kickin' the Year Off . . .
THE HORN, St ALBANS
Ahh, we thought, Where shall we launch our cunning, dastardly, 2007 plan, for world domination, and loosening more knicker elastic . . . Well it could only be the legendary HORN in St Albans, home to some of the greatest bands ever to have toured the North Home Counties . . .
Strange how things sometimes dont quite go according to plan aint it. Dont get me wrong,we were,as usual,awesome,and we even had a support band (a young up and coming band who were bloody fantastic, and will go far - check them out at the link to the left)
But it was a dark, wet and windy, January, Thursday night, and so the turnout could have been a little bigger, but Hey, we rocked the place, and look forward to doing it again, on a Saturday night next time . . .
THE BOOT, BALDOCK
The next outing was to ... Cue trumpet fanfare ... The Boot in Baldock!
I know, I know, we hadnt ever heard of it either, but turns out, its a great pub, under the new management of vivacious BABZ and her lovely daughter, and the place was stuffed to the raftersfull of looney-tunes gagging for a good time.
This seemingly sleepy little town strokevillage, appears to be a hotbed for saucy young things looking to get their rocks off,in the best possible way - right in front of us ...
We arent complaining, mind!
But it wasnt just the possible ladee loving that made it such a cracking night, but also the general, up-for-a-good-time locals, who got down and boogied with the best of them.
it gladens our hearts, and puts steam in a mans strides, to see a packed pub bouncing around without a seeming care in the world, to the classic sounds of Meppershalls premier beat combo!
Even Kerfuffle, let his, brighter than the sunset, ginger hair down for once, by partaking of the odd pint or 2! What is the world coming to when even the most restrained, and we thought, most chaste, and uncorruptable of men, can be caught up in the heady, swirling atmosphere of a pub audience in full-on drunken debuachery . . .
Although, thinking about it, lets not get too excited. On second viewing, it may just be a pint of shandy . . .
THE ARENA TAVERN, LETCHWORTH
This place had been teasing us for about a year to let us play there.
Surely, as singer of another, equaly frustrated, rival band suggested, (admittedly when he was very, very, drunk), it would be easier, just to get an audience,by kidnapping a bunch of people waiting at a bus stop, and driving them to an empty warehouse, and tying them to chairs until theyd finished their set ? We would never lower ourselves to this level , but he was addamant it was very effective, although he was due to attend court the next day on 16 seperate charges of aggravated assualt. . .
So our advice to you is, dont stand too near to any bus stops in the Letchworth area after 8.00 on a Saturday night. Unless we,re playing, in which case youll be perfectly safe in The Arena Tavern...You have been warned!
Still, never mind, were in now, and looking forward to playing a large hall full of willing punters . . .
Heres a top tip, never let your guitarist quote you to fit carpets in your house, (coffee machines hes good at, or as he now is taken to putting it Coffee Solutions, but never, ever carpets!) as his spatial awareness and judgement of floorspace, is to be frank, bloody rubbish!
The Arena Tavern, is a normal sized, perfectly formed pub. One thing is is NOT is an arena! as Kerfuffle seemed to think it was, maybe he just got excited by the name . . .
But,it was full of punters and abunch of groupies from THE BOOT followed us down so we were in for a good night!
And golly gosh, we werent dissapionted!
The place rilly rilly rocks! With the youngsters enthusiasticly bouncing around, and the more mature fans sitting at the back, drinking their warm, brown beer, and stroking perfectly groomed beards, nodding sagely at the masterclass of old skool rock before them. It was a wonderful place to be.
Even the bar staff were bopping along to the grooves and managing not to drop their drinks, when occasionaly Mary looked around, and shot them one of his saucy winks.
In fact his hair was looking particularily funky that night,it looked like it had been styled in a wind tunnel!
And he finally perfected his Catch the stick in the Mouth during me solo trick!
Oh, and i almost forgot! - Mary actually BOUGHT A ROUND OF DRINKS! If we hadn,t been sitting down, wed of fallen over in shock! Thats the first time in nearly 2 YEARS!
And so to the end of another triumphant night for the Rock Gods Of Meppershall, as the crowds disperse, deaf and pissed, but also jubilant with the memories of another perfect night, the band winds down, telling tall tales, of how they could have had that blonde at the front, if they could be bothered to try, and did you see that guy sticking his head right into the PA, before downing the last pint that they know they shouldnt, cause theyll only bring it back up, on the drive home . . .
Nighty Night everybody - Catch you nexttime...
