The Old Neptune, Whitstable
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?