Dear all,
Well it’s been a rather breathless time since my last blog! As I write, I am being the steretypical twat with a laptop in a cafe. Ah the joys of being self employed. The tour is underway with three gigs down and another up tonight in Abingdon – what a pretty little town. Last night was Dorking, also a very nice town and I had a lovely gig with some of the loveliest praise to come my way. Thanks everyone! Twickfolk was equally lovely and great to have some family amongst those present! People seem to like the stuff from the new album which is of course always a plus as I now have bloody hundreds of them…The other gig to report on was The Bulls Head in Chelmarsh, a cracking music pub which always has a lovely crowd.
Early reviews for the album have also been great with glowing reports from Acoustic and Froots as well as some online ones and one even in Dutch! Waiting for reviews is a little like waiting for exam results at school, except I care more.
Other exciting news is international trips galore await! This year alone I’ll be going to Germany, Norway, Canada and the US solo and to France, Belgium and Denmark with the UFQ. Next year I’ll return to New Zealand and hopefully get Australia in there too. Good lord! It’s just as well travel always goes so well for me isn’t it? Hmm…
On which subject, to the title of this slightly short blog as my time on my car parking ticket is almost up. Last time I posted how delighted I was that my reliable little car had sailed through its MOT. It’s always a tense moment for anyone I think the MOT. Despite the fact you’ve been driving your car with relative comfort and ease for a considerable time one always fears the worst at this point. It’s like when you go through airport security and immediately think what drugs you have hidden in your shoes despite having never once taken drugs in your entire life. Such is human nature, and as a musician with a tour imminently upon me the tension was rather heightened but then came the good news with barely an advisory item. Fantastic. That was Tuesday. Then came Friday. Yes driving home from feeling very smug, pleased and excited that UFQ recording had gone so well and my parts were wrapped up a day early I spied a dreaded red light on the dashboard – engine overheating. I was also on a roundabout leading to the M5 at this point which made it rather more worrying but anyway I got onto the motorway and immediately onto the hard shoulder. Open the bonnet (which to be honest unless there’s something glaring is relatively pointless in my case as I am a total muppet with cars) and there is no water in the engine coolant water thing. Not a drop. And I knew full well I’d only filled it up a couple of weeks ago. Bugger. So the AA were rang and it turns out there was a crucial leaking housing pipe thing which needed replacing and the magnificently reassuring and comforting AA man said when I asked ‘I need to drive to a gig tomorrow’….’you won’t be driving tomorrow, you’ve broken your car’. Quite what I’d done I’m not sure but anyway he was a prat. He then towed me home which by the way is bloody scary! Steering a car to follow a van towing you with a bar is bloody scary. Especially when he drives like a prat. Which he did.
Anyway, that’ll teach me for being so bloody smug about my passed MOT won’t it? Car is now fine by the way, he says hoping/praying.