The Old Neptune, Whitstable and Canterbury Tales, Canterbury, 24th November 2002:
Twice in a night is more than I usually can manage, but Phil Davis was beginning a new regular open stage, so how could I resist? The Neptune wasn’t quite as rockin’ as last week, but the dyna-mic was a source of much amusement (to me, at any rate) as was an impromptu semi-acoustic version of “Blue Monday” and a demolition of “Twist and Shout”. I finally played “No Way Home” on stage. Malcolm Moss was back again and played well, although he severely pissed me off later, but let’s not talk about that… The open stage now starts at 4pm, by the way, and the sandwiches still arrive about 6. Marvellous!
The Canterbury Tales: Carpets! Blimey! And a landlord who’s extravagant enough to put bulbs in ALL of the light fittings! This is a big change from Simple Simon’s. The usual clientele seemed a little baffled by the music on offer but were mostly receptive. We mostly had refugees from the now defunct Simple Simon’s open stage: Chris-with-the-Washburn; a newly beard-equipped Jake and his violinist cohort Emily; Malcolm Moss; and me. I don’t think I’ve ever played twice in the same day before (except at school), but I really enjoyed it. I felt… UNSTOPPABLE!!! Should be good, so turn up next week, eh, readers?
The Old Neptune, Whitstable, 17th November 2002:
After a truly crap weekend spent trying — and failing — to complete Rumble, the Neptune’s open stage turned out to be the best so far. I took my freshly re-fretted Ibanez Artist and left my long suffering Atkin acoustic at home. Ian had a shiny new Tanglewood acoustic and Malcolm Moss (for it was he) turned up with a Jazz bass and Marshall fuzz-box, so it was obviously the week for new (or in my case, renewed) toys to be tried in anger.
I did some stuff with Ian’s Tanglewood (without wrecking it) and the Ibanez, including “Jago” (the only thing of mine that my mum likes!) and “Put Your Weight On Me”, which I’d never attempted before without a band to hide behind. I hadn’t seen Malcolm play for ages and he seems to have some interesting new material, at least when he can be arsed to play it all the way through!
The serendipitous atmosphere that pervades open stages (well, good ones, anyway) led to the impromptu formation of a SUPERGROUP consisting of Ian on keyboards/guitar; an unidentified bass-man (he swore he hadn’t played in a decade, but it didn’t sound like it); The Willoughby, as reliable as ever, providing some bongo-fury; Abi (one half of Lucky & The Dead, if that’s what they’re still called) on vocals (she was very good too — there’s no need to be so modest!); and, er, me on guitar and bass. We played some hastily chosen covers, including Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game”, Jewel’s “Who Will Save Your Soul?” and Kylie’s “Can’t Get You Of My Head”, (well, if The Flaming Lips can do it), which lent itself to my best Peter Hook impersonation. All in all it was bloody excellent, though I say so myself! Ian then sang “Sympathy For the Devil” before we affectionately murdered “I Saw Her Standing There” and decided we’d better call it a day. Now, where are those sandwiches?
The Old Neptune, Whitstable, 3rd November 2002:
The second weekly extravaganza. I was late (doh!) but it was good. There was more from Ian who this time was joined by a superb singer, Sacha (I think, again it’s that old premature senility). I played, but I was feeling somewhat below par (excuses! I know…). A slightly cocked up cover of “Folsom Prison Blues” was very well received even though I forgot half the words! There were fewer people to play this week but fortunately Ian’s extensive repertoire (including the Pink Panther theme!) kept things ticking over. I played some guitar for a harmonica-cum-bodhran player named Tony and even played bass for some cod-”Oirish” manoeuvres. Turn up you bastards! It’s good: you even get some food.