The Old Neptune, Whitstable
The Old Neptune, Whitstable, 27th October 2002:
A brand-spanking-new open stage, which should now be a regular event for Sunday afternoons between about two and five-ish (very “ish”!). The man behind it is Ian (I must remember to ask his surname, but you know by now what I’m like with names; one out of two isn’t bad, surely?), who played two sets of mostly original material with influences that were hard to pin down. I could make lazy comparisons with Syd Barrett or Ray Davies but that wouldn’t really give an accurate impression, so I won’t. I caught something in his lyrics about “picking off shoppers from the roof of a multi-storey” and “living in a sit-com, shame that it’s a shit one” — a man after my own heart! Also there was an acoustic duo named Lucky & The Dead playing for the first time (they said, anyway!), with a set of suitably obscure cover versions (or maybe I’m getting old). They were pretty damn good, although they themselves didn’t seem to think so. I played two short sets of some of the usuals and crowd reaction was pretty good. I was told “thank god they’re not paying you, they couldn’t afford you!”, which was nice, though sadly couldn’t be further from the truth!
Afterwards there was a bit of impromptu jamming, including an, er, “rendition” of Nick Cave’s “Stagger Lee” which seemed like a good idea at the time (well, we didn’t get lynched and I couldn’t stop laughing) and one or two other things. My memory gets fuzzy at this point as the London Pride was taking effect, but as far as I can remember, it was all good. I just hope I’ve mentioned everybody.