Playing in a band.

I play in lots of bands, it is true. My dearest darling tart of a husband plays in even more. Why do we play in so many bands when lots of people would like to play in a band, but don't?

One reason, and one reason only.

I ask.

I either ask if I can join, or make sure that someone who knows the person doing the hiring/firing knows that I'm interested, and what my skillset is.

Or I start a band up myself. This is not difficult. You start by thinking about what sort of music you want to play. Then you think what instruments you need. Then you think who you know plays those instruments. Then you get them drunk and ask them if they want to be in a band with you. Sometimes they even agree whilst sober!

The difficult bit is doing something with the personnel once you have them - rehearsals, gigs, demos etc. But if you are sitting at home thinking, "I wish *I* had a group of people to play with!", the only reason that you aren't playing with them is that you simply haven't organised it yet. Go do it! OK, OK, some people will say no. Some people won't have time. But you'll probably get a lot of "yes" answers too.

Case in point. I want a folk rock band. I know what I do best, and I'm a Front Man. Yes, I like to show off, twirl around and sing a bit. I need a band to do that in front of. I want a guitar, a percussion section, a melody section, and a bass. I know that fleetfootmike is always up for a musical giggle, and adores folk rock. I mention it. He bites my arm off at the elbow. Percussion section - well, obviously I'm married to one, but if I hadn't been, I can think of several drummers and percussionists who might be up for it. Bass - I'm stumped rather, but on mentioning my stumpedness to fleetfootmike, he suggests asking Angus who plays bass for "The Contrast". I'd never have thought he would be interested, but after a phone call, it turns out that he is. And so is his mate, Andy, who was our FFM recording engineer. Andy plays drums. I now have a free micktim to move onto something else. Trumpet would be *cool*, as would pennywhistle, or even rhythm guitar, behind fleetfootmike's lead. Oooooh. However, idea goes into stasis for a while, as time is in short commodity. We leave it as a rather lovely dream. Then I meet deborah_c who is an incredible violinist. She's interested. I'm feeling that familiar old itch again...

Where can I buy some more days, please?

Another trip to Gigsville.

Ah, I must be getting professional, I've no idea of the name of the place we played last night :-) Highlights included seeing deborah_c and her partner (who is a *lovely* person! I hope we get to meet up and chat another time...), Chris M., Dave C. and bedlamhouse who ran sound for us. Poor Bill fought the board for the first half, due to none of us remembering a similar problem Rich had a while back, which he proclaimed to be a dodgy channel. Bleah. Poor Bill - feeling guilty now!

Audience were a loud and friendly sort, and I was muchly amused to pull an audience member. He made a beeline for me when I came off stage during Manalishi, and made all sort of lovely comments, ending up with a request as to where I lived :-) His face fell a mile when I told him that my husband - the talented, handsome drummer - and I lived in Lincolnshire. Very entertaining and rather good for the ego :-)

We got three encores, which is always nice, and the Landlord soundly declaimed Tim for not bringing his diary to book more dates there. Fun!

Could have done with less smoke, though. *Cough*

Of course, we're 7 kinds of knackered now, as we got to bed at 3am and Tim was back up at 6.30am. Bleh. No gig tonight - early night, I tell you. Off to bed with our DVD rental copies of "King Arthur" and "Sky Captain" (Giant Robots!). What a rock and roll lifestyle - big mugs of tea and DVDs in bed. Whoohoo!