Moondog Art Stop Café, Reading, 04/04/09. Sid's Tour Diary.

One of the greatest aspects of ‘Brassneck’, I think, is our ability to play gigs ranging from the full-on electric gig in Camden (see previous blog) to this, a chilled out matinee acoustic set in an arts café.

This particular Saturday afternoon starts with Kat and Tall George arriving late to pick me up, apparently held up in ‘Guitar Village’ in Farnham where Kat has just purchased a new tuner, the same as Ben’s in fact, except it was £20 cheaper. Don’t tell Ben though, he’ll feel like he’s been ripped off.

We arrive at the venue in Reading just as Ben is frantically trying to call us to find out where we are. As well as running late the parking near the venue wasn’t particularly easy, so we opted to park in a nearby swimming pool car park and walk from there.

As we walk in we are immediately greeted by Craig the owner and spy the others all lounging around on very cosy chairs and sofas. Ben has even brought his family with him, kids and all. We say our hellos and order coffees. Hang on, this isn’t rock’n’ roll is it ? Or is it ? Yes, we are all that rock ‘n’ roll that we all have caffeine habits.

Upon looking around the venue is very nice too, nice artwork adorn the walls, nice seating arrangements, a veritable plethora of teas / coffees on sale and a general really nice vibe all round. There are people coming and going a lot too, a really vibrant happening little coffee shop.

Neil then informs us that there is no PA so this will in fact be our first purely acoustic gig. No worries I think, that’s cool. But hang on, we didn’t know this and Kat has only brought her electric violin with her. This could be tricky. Or not. Straight away Ben realises he has a splitter socket with him meaning that both Kat and Neil can play through Neil’s small bass amp. Hurrah ! Too easy. No need for strops in this band.

So, no need for a soundcheck and as we were a little late we decide to just start (we’re due to play 2 x 30 minute sets). We arrange ourselves accordingly on the comfy seats (luxury !) and are just about to get going when Ben notices a nasty smell coming from somewhere. He gestures to girlfriend Amanda that maybe their daughter Charlotte has soiled her nappy. I nudge Ben and gesture to him that maybe it was Neil who in comedic fashion is bending over adjusting his bass amp. Ben doesn’t laugh. I thought it was funny. Then, without warning Ben says “Oh shit”. “What ?” we all say. It appears his eyes are going, the sign of an impending migraine. Gulp ! Having witnessed Ben having one of these before this is not good news, they really knock him out. Kat says the best thing to do is take Paracetamol straight away as this may hold it off for a while. Nobody has any though, except a lovely lady in the audience who manages to save the show, for a little while anyway.

We start, there’s a lovely vibe going on, lots of grinning, there’s no nerves or tension. It’s just great to play our tunes to a bunch of people drinking coffee and eating cake on a Saturday afternoon. The first set goes great, people really enjoying what we’re doing. We like it here.

Ben appears to be okay and so we continue with a second set after a break for a cup of tea (see how rock ‘n’ roll we are, we’ve switched to tea now !). Lots of songs are getting aired that we don’t normally have time for in the short sets, everything from ‘Sometimes I’m Ashamed To Be Quite Normal” to our version of Van Morrison’s “Jackie Wilson Said” (in the ‘Dexys Midnight Runners’ style). Halfway through this set a couple of kids squeeze past Kat to get to the toilets out the back . They leave the door open though, causing a draft, and so Kat has to shut the door. No problem, except towards the end of the set we decide to play our nearly 8 minute epic song “Depression Is A Young Person’s Art Form”, which wasn’t planned. We finish the set. It’s gone great. Then we hear the knocking, the 2 poor kids have been locked outside all that time. Kat goes very red and apologises for locking them out. Bad Kat.

So, after the swiftest pack up in the history of rock ‘n’ roll (only one amp and no PA to help with) Ben decides to head off sharp-ish. We don’t blame him. He looks grey. More so than usual. The rest of us stand around idly chatting to Craig who has really enjoyed the afternoon. He wants us to come back. We probably will. He also offers us some advice on other acoustic places to try and get bookings at. This we probably will. A superb afternoon. Neils wife Marion likened it to being in an episode of ‘Friends’. A great analogy.

Sid.