The evening started fairly predictably, with Sid ringing the doorbell, and me heading out into the rainy night. Sadly I realised fairly soon after closing the front door that my keys were still inside. And my boyfriend is out and due back a lot later than we are. Bugger. I then hit my head on the boot of Ben’s car. This was not a good start to the evening. I finally got myself settled in the back and we established that we all knew where Guildford was, but none of us were actually one hundred percent sure where the bar was. I knew I’d walked past it, but seeing as I don’t know my left from my right that didn’t actually help us an awful lot. After a U-Turn or three we decided to park, walk and ask. We asked what initially appeared to be a friendly native, and although he did indeed turn out to be friendly, he also appeared to be German. Not so native then, but he knew Guildford better than we did, and directed us confidently to Fahrenheit 55.
The bar turned out to be one I had walked past on numerous occasions, and I knew exactly where it was. Once we were there. Not so helpful really….. It’s a great place with a nice atmosphere, although it could have done with a little more heating in my humble opinion! We hit the bar, where we were excited to discover that we got free drinks for the evening. Sadly there were two of us not drinking, but having not let on to Sid about the free drinks we got a heartfelt thanks from him for our ‘purchase’ of his pint of Student!! He later cursed us when we told him it was his round, and he discovered that the drinks were on the house.
After a mightily efficient soundcheck, with Byron the organiser/soundman managing to be one of the nicest most helpful people we have come across in a while we settled down for our next free drink. We requested coffee. Sid looked shocked and tried to refuse to go to the bar to order coffee. Ben told him it was Rock ‘n’ Roll coffee and therefore OK. Sid pulled his collar up round his chin to avoid recognition and headed for the bar. Even though we had spotted a coffee machine it apparently wasn’t working, so a very kind member of staff scooted round the corner to the supermarket and bought instant coffee. Ben and I were happy! Niky turned up, and I remembered him and said hi and everything. He seemed to take that as making up for the last time I saw him, when I totally failed to greet him, even though I looked right at him. I still blame sleepiness!
The first act was someone who we had come across before, a girl called Carly Rocket. A great name and one you can’t forget, she has a really pretty voice and plays nice inoffensive background music: The perfect accompaniment to the compulsory Brassneck bollocks. We talked it with aplomb. New band names were bandied around, The Blacksmiths, a potential Smiths/Black & White Minstrels tribute band. Using mime and a lot of black face paint. We thought we were hilarious!
Then came the time for our set. We played well and people seemed to enjoy it, even Ben’s sparkling new arrangement of ‘Leave Me Alone’. Ben’s guitar slapping during ‘Mess of Contradictions’ meant that I played most of my notes in the right place, even if they were mostly the wrong notes. Ah well. I’ll try harder next time!
The final act of the evening was Mark Aaron James, a great entertainer, who had hours of fun with his loop pedal. His lyrics were often amusing, and I stood through most of the set with a smile on my face. Definitely a guy to catch if you can. The other reason for the smile on my face was a bit of disbelief. Neil had spotted a lookalike at the bar, and it was Brad Pitt. But an ugly Brad Pitt. I have no idea how a man can look like Brad Pitt and not be attractive, but this guy sure managed it. We were amazed!
It was finally time to head home after another successful evening of Brassneckage, but there was one more hurdle to jump over before I hit my bed, and that was getting into my house. Over the back fence. In an extremely short skirt. And the elastic in my knickers had gone. Thankfully Ben and Sid remained in the car for this indignity, and it was dark! A less than elegant end to an otherwise successful evening. Tonight I will check I have keys three times before we head for Portsmouth.
Kat.
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