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CHOCOLATE YULE BLOG PART 2 |
posted by jim on 24/12/06
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December 22nd. Team Jim Bob’s first proper DJ job.
Me, Marc and Mr Spoons drove through a right old pea-souper-and-no-mistaking-guv to DJ at the Little Man Tate/Sheffield Boardwalk Christmas party. I hadn’t really thought it through. What it might be like to DJ from onstage in front of a sold out venue audience who were all ready to see Little Man Tate. Rather than endure 55 minutes of two men in trilbys and another in a silver policeman’s helmet, trying to appear young and hip with their Fratellis and Girls Aloud records. What do you do to look exciting when all you’re really doing is putting on CDs? There weren’t enough nobs to pretend to twiddle, in the way that Fatboy Slim does. Mr Spoons had a telephone instead of headphones, which was good for that DJ look and I think we got away with it. We played lots of new indie hits and a few oldies (Nirvana) for the mums and dads. I waved my hands in the air like I just didn’t care, Marc pretended to look for the next CD to play in Mr Spoon’s CD box. Spoons meanwhile, did all the work. As he always does. It was a great night, I managed to get fairly drunk somehow and a nice way to end the year. A sort of Team Jim Bob office party. I wish we’d taken my photo-copier.
So, 2006. An interesting year, what with the Dick Whittington business, turning down Celebrity Big Brother (yes) and all the other stuff. Next year I’ll record a new album and have that one more shot at the Barry big time. I need to finish re-re-rewriting my ‘novel’ that I haven’t managed to get published yet and just maybe do some of that exercise I keep promising my fat gut.
Happy Christmas.
Now let’s watch telly.
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THE TEAM JIM BOB END OF YEAR CULTURAL REVIEW |
posted by jim on 11/12/06
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JIM BOB’S FAVOURITES OF 2006
Books:
The Book of Dave – Will Self
Haunted – Chuck Palahniuk
Ludmila’s Broken English – DBC Pierre
J Pod – Douglas Coupland
The Secret Life of a Teenage Punk Rocker – Andy Blade
Albums:
Orphans – Tom Waits
Jarvis – Jarvis Cocker
The Life Pursuit – Belle And Sebastian
Born In The UK – Badly Drawn Boy
American V: A Hundred Highways – Johnny Cash
Noise Floor – Bright Eyes
Motion Sickness – Bright Eyes
Gang of Losers – The Dears
Alright, Still… – Lily Allen
The Freedom Spark – Larrikin Love
TV:
Lead Balloon
Saxondale
Family Guy
Arrested Development
That Mitchell & Webb Look
QI
The State Within
NCIS
Man to Man with Dean Learner
Jam & Jerusalem
Radio:
Andrew Collins and Richard Herring on BBC 6 Music
Russell Brand on BBC 6 Music
Films:
Children of Men (the only film I saw at the cinema)
A Cock & Bull Story
The Constant Gardener
Gigs/shows:
The Dears at Koko
Morrissey at The London Palladium
Chuck Palahniuk at the Purcell Rooms
Dick Whittington & His Cat at The Barbican Centre
Personal Highlight:
Being asked to write songs for Dick Whittington & His Cat at The Barbican and getting to meet and work with the critically acclaimed and successful
MR SPOON’S FAVOURITES OF 2006
Albums
Artic Monkeys (Not sure if it was this year, tho' due to the download scenario)
Jarvis (lush)
PSB's - Fundamental (fun)
With a heavy heart I am omitting my boy Numan from this list, whilst I did like his album a lot, I find I haven't really played it much, although live is a different story...
Books
Another barren year on the book front from me I'm afraid, so London Orbital by Iain Sniclair, although i have no idea whether that came out this year... I also have the new Dick Francis in my Xmas stocking, which I daresay will get devoured soon after Xmas. I quite like the Vesuius Club too.
Films
Again, being a cultural philistine I haven't watched many of the latest films, so by default the TJB Day out: Children of Men must win this being the only 2006 film I can remember seeing. Oh and the Johnny Cash one wasn't bad, but I think that was last year...
Gigs
Now here I can write with more authority, it's probably been one of my favourite years ever for gigs. If I had such a thing, there would probably be three or four entrants in my all time top 10 giglist:
Head honchos: Gary Numan (x2 Mar & Dec), Morrissey (outstanding despite my expectations), Jarvis, Depeche Mode (Wembley), Artics (Berlin), PSB's
Special mentions: Little Man Tate (Aug), Depeche Mode (Dusseldorf), Chris T-T & David Rovics (shame about the rest of the bill)
Bloody sure I've missed some here that I'll be kicking myself about.
TV
Doctor Who, The State Within, Studio 60 on Sunset Strip, last series of the West Wing, Lost (only for series 3 though, series 2 was largely cack) Prison Break. And the amount of time I spent watching the Cooking Channel is frightening. Can't decide whether I really like Heroes or not - was shocked/pleased to hear that EcclesCakes has a part in it soon though!
Others
Best Footie Match: Karlsruhe 4 Hansa Rostock 4 (nov)
Best televised Footie match: Manure 0 Arsenal 1 (Adenbaayooooor!)
Best UK ground visited: Ashburton Grove
Best foreign ground visited: (A real toughie this one due to World Cup...): Will have to go with Gelsenkirchen/Schalke (spit)
Personal highlight: Being in the LMT video
MARC’S FAVOURITES OF 2006
Albums
1. Pet Shop Boys - Fundamental
2. Morrissey - Ringleader Of The Tormentors
3. The Strokes - First Impressions Of Earth
4. TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
5. The Killers - Sam's Town
Honourable Mentions - Jarvis Jocker: Jarvis, Pet Shop Boys: Concrete
Books (this is what I read, rather than what came out)
1. The Closed Circle - Jonathan Coe
2. George Orwell - 1984
3. Ryu Murakami - In The Miso Soup
4. Chuck Paluniak - Haunted
5. Charles Dickens - Hard Times
Honourable Mention - Strategic Marketing Decisions - Lowe and Doyle (this must have been good as I read it twenty times)
Films
1. The Prestige
2. X-Men 3
3. Match Point
4. Saw 2
5. A Cock n' Bull Story
Gigs
1. Morrissey @ Wembley Arena
2. A-ha @ Shepherds Bush Empire
3. Pet Shop Boys @ Tower Of London
4. Morrissey @ London Palladium
5. Girls Aloud @ V Festival
Honourable Mentions: Keane, The Strokes, Primal Scream, Babyshambles and The Dears.
TV
1. Doctor Who
2. Lost
3. Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares
4. Saxondale
5. Extras
Honourable Mentions: Torchwood, The Biggest Loser UK, I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, Strictly Come Dancing, Celebrity Big Brother, Britain's Next Top Model, Question Time, Tonight With Jonathan Ross, Jimmy Hill's Sunday Supplement, Location Location Location, Property Ladder
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LAST NIGHT I HAD THE STRANGEST DREAM |
posted by jim on 6/12/06
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Last night I went to see Dick Whittington & His Cat for the first time. It’s a superb show. With its outrageously lavish stage sets. Its great cast, script, daft jokes, double entendres, costumes, dance numbers and of course the songs. It was the first I got to hear what had happened to the two songs I wrote for it since I’d recorded my simple demos back whenever that was. I was nervous, waiting for my tunes, like I was waiting for my children to appear on stage. And Tom Waits would tell you that in a way that’s exactly what I was doing.
Sarah Travis has done an amazing job orchestrating them into brilliant over the top show tunes. It was pretty surreal, sat there listening to them being performed in such a way in that big theatre to a load of screaming kids and parents. I can’t adequately convey what it felt like, so I won't. Almost dreamlike.
There was champagne in the interval and a big old party in a pub in the heart of the city afterwards. Got a bit pissed drinking all the free stuff, we even got a taxi home. For at least one night this was for me – what my manager Marc and I refer to as Barry Big time. You should go and see it. I’m going again.
It’s Christmas. I read this in the Radio Times from Sir Cliff Richard, talking about his new seasonal single. It made me laugh:
“This new one is called 21st Century Christmas. I love it because the lyrics talk about ‘The satellite tracking Santa/We text our Christmas lists and leave our mobile numbers just to help out old St Nick.’ Then the chorus comes back with, ‘But still tonight we’ll thank Bethlehem.’ So you still have the essence of Christmas, but also the fun of contemporary living.”
Toodaloo.
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THE DAY THAT THEY SHOT KENNEDY |
posted by jim on 22/11/06
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I’m not going to harp on about how with another birthday I’m feeling old. The last time I did that Les wrote a song for me/about me http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Medical_Hologram and as nice as it is for people to write songs for you or about you, I think he’s probably got better things to write about than me, so I won’t mention my fear of old age and death any further.
I’ve written and recorded demos for 11 new songs and when I’ve finished two more, probably on my birthday when I should be eating cake and getting bumped, I’ll try and get some real musicians together to record properly what I hope will be my greatest album ever. Not sure what to call the LP, I’ve got a few ideas and working titles. Some of the songs seemed to be related to the same theme and I have toyed with the idea of calling the album ‘Work’, making it the centre piece of a trilogy, ‘School’, ‘Work’ and ‘Death’. One of the downsides of such an art wanky move would be that I’d dig myself (appropriately) into a hole with what my next record would be. And then when it came to making it I might be in a real positive mood and want to write a load of songs about life instead of death. Watch this space.
As mentioned before, my song ‘The Lord Mayor’s Show’, written for the Dick Whittington & His Cat panto was used as musical accompaniment on the Barbican Centre’s float in last week’s Lord Mayor’s Show. I had planned on going along to see and hear it but decided to get up late and watch it on telly instead. The BBC decided to cut to a short film about plumbers at the exact point the Barbican float floated by the cameras and so I never got to see it or hear my demo tape on the TV, which was a bit of a disappointment. The first time I’ll probably get to hear what has become of my 2 Dick Whitters songs in the hands of professionals and actors will be when I go to see the panto in a couple of weeks time. I can’t begin to stress how exciting this is for me.
God I’m old.
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I POD |
posted by jim on 8/11/06
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Until we all live in our own individual pods, headphones on and visors down, I suppose the people standing or sitting around me will always be a part of my cultural experience. My memory of what a great film ‘Charlie And The Chocolate Factory’ was will be forever tainted by the family at the back of the Odeon in Streatham who talked all the way through it and rustled about with their Sainsbury’s shopping bags. If I close my eyes and think about Bright Eyes’ fantastic gig at Somerset House, I can always see it through a sea of mobile camera phones and girls waving their arms in the air like that thin bird from the Corrs. When I went to see Jarvis Cocker last night in Brighton, I couldn’t just come home and say what a brilliant gig it was. How hilarious his onstage banter was and the genius of the new songs. I’d have to also talk about the nob jockeys stood in front of me and Mr Spoons, shouting a combination of “Jaaarviis” and worse, “Common Peeeopoolll!” in between every song and during the quiet bits of actual songs. I saw The Dears the other week. They were amazing too, although I might also have to tell you about how difficult it was to find a place to stand where somebody wasn’t recording or photographing shitty quality clips on their bastard phones. All that and the endless firework ‘displays’ that are October, November and no doubt December. What a miserable old twat I am.
My demo recording of ‘The Lord Mayor’s Show’, one of my
Dick Whittington songs, is being played on the Barbican’s float in the Lord Mayor’s Show on Saturday. I might go and have a listen. Back at that Barbican website, by the way, you can read about my, and other members of the cast and crew’s first ever pantomime experiences.
Tomorrow I must start recording new album demos proper. I’ve written about 12 songs and have a rough gist of what kind of record it’s going to be. I expect, as I always do, to win the Mercury Music Prize. Maybe I should actually enter it this time, shall we have a whip round?
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TUESDAY |
posted by jim on 24/10/06
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Returning from the Isle of Man, feeling a bit weird and slightly down. I’d just played my last gig for the foreseeable future. Looking at the ‘LIVE’ page on my website and seeing nothing is like unwrapping a new pocket diary from Woolworths on Christmas Day. We decided that maybe people had had enough of me singing for a while and I should spend a bit of time writing and recording a new album and trying to get that unpublished book published (it’s been a year since I ‘finished’ it and still no takers from publishers or literary agents, mind you that bloke from Bog Brother who can’t help swearing has signed a million quid book deal for his biography, so it’s not all doom and gloom in the publishing world). Hey, wouldn’t it be good if his book was written exactly as it’s dictated to his ghostwriter. “And then I was in this crusty circus band in Brighton fuck off! wankers! And then I auditioned for bollocks titfish! whist;le etc”. I sent another few sample chapters to an agent in the post this morning, I chose Recorded Delivery – not as safe as Special Delivery but at least I’ll be able to track and trace to see if the package reaches its intended hands. The man behind the counter in the post office of the shop that actually features in the book I’m posting asks me the Recorded Delivery question that’s supposed to make you paranoid and supersize your package to Special D, “Is there anything valuable inside?” And I say no. Nothing valuable. Just a few years of my life, some sleepless nights, reams of wasted paper and gallons of printer ink. Nothing valuable at all. Just my imagination (running away with me), all those nights out when I couldn’t concentrate because I had my stories on my mind, sneaking off to the toilet to scribble ideas on bus tickets and then waste more of my time trying to decipher what it was I wrote down in the dark at the Brixton Academy when I was supposed to be enjoying Beck. No, nothing valuable at all. In fact could you write instructions for the postman to do his best to lose my parcel, drop it in a puddle, hide it behind a radiator, or throw it away in the street with all his red elastic bands.
Spent a couple of days in Devon. Went to see my nephew appearing in a play at the Plymouth Drum Theatre. It was his first ever stage appearance, so quite a big way to begin: In a proper theatre with real grown up actors and a set etc. He was of course totally brilliant.
I should be recording demos. My computer monitor that I use in this process has broken and I need to sort a new one out so I can’t use it as an excuse to not get the hell on with it for God’s sake. I’m now going to stop writing this blog to weirdly go back to my latest new song, which is called ‘God’s Blog’, everyone’s doing them you know.
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STORMIN' NORMAN |
posted by jim on 9/10/06
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If my Cub Scout years taught me nothing else (other than that ugly stuff in Carter’s Baden Powell song) they made me aware of the importance of being prepared. Hence, knowing I had to get up at five in the morning to drive to Liverpool for a ferry ride across a rough Irish Sea to the Isle of Man I had my Kwells sea sickness pills ready and waiting. I lined my stomach with a couple of Weetabix that’s two Weetabix and had an emergency sandwich packed in my bag for the pre-boat car journey. So when the Sea Cat set off for Douglas in a gale force seven storm I managed to survive the two and a half hellish hours of being chucked about on the waves without chucking up myself. Unlike many of the other passengers, including Mr Spoons who had a horrific time, 180 minutes retching and roaring into a paper bag, horrendous. And Marcus T Manager who went to the toilet half way through the trip and never returned: instead choosing to spend the rest of the journey on the floor by the amusements arcade being sick. The contents of the closed gift shop kept falling crashing to the floor and the onboard TV sets that showed a picture of the vessel with the words ‘Welcome aboard Sea Cat’ led one German dude to point out to his friend, “Welcome aboard Sea Cat? More like Welcome Aboard Sea Sick.” Who says Germans have no sense of humour.
This was the inauspicious start to Team Jim Bob and Chris T-T’s two days of gigs and fun in the Isle of Man. This was my first time on the island and I was made to feel incredibly welcome. Lots of meals out – usually accompanied by about sixteen people, it seems to be a very community conscious place, nothing like my unfriendly hometown – I felt like the Queen.
The first gig was sold out, I’ve said it before many times but they are my two favourite words when combined together, I love playing sell out gigs, it takes away at least 80% of what makes me anxious about the whole process of being a performer. A great gig, perhaps too much audience talking and I wished I’d been more in control there but otherwise… Afterwards there was a small party and a good night’s sleep, with a pre-bedtime drunken promise from our host Gypo of ‘enough cheese and toast with various sauces to fill that big rug on the floor there for breakfast’. We did indeed get the spicy cheese on toast, maybe not quite as big as the sitting room carpet but we’re all entitled to boast a bit when we’re hammered.
Spent the Satur-day in Peel. A lovely little seaside town where I was thrilled to see Isle of Man man Norman Wisdom walking along the seafront. Remembering the episode of Father Ted where Ted says to Richard Wilson “I don’t beleeeve it” I resisted the temptation to shout Mister Grimsdaaaale! and do a funny walk with my cap on sideways. Went for a superb ice cream that made me feel sick and then had a pint in a pub with a pumpkin and walked along some steam train railway tracks to the second of the two gigs, this time at the Bay Hotel in Port Erin – I got you a postcard. I was doing a short set supporting Chris not-named-after-the-motorbike-races T-T and I had a blast. I love supporting and don’t do it nearly enough. There’s a lot less pressure and more time to get drunk. Yes, ignoring all I’d learnt in the Cubs I drank Baileys and gin and beer and some shots of something blue that could have been washing up liquid or Esso Blue paraffin for all I knew and stayed up till I could hear the birds whistling my name ouch . Simple schoolboy errors for getting up at six for another what would surely be rough sea journey full of puke and tears back to the English mainland. But hey, we came back home on the slow boat, which was the smoothest boat ride I’ve ever been on. Nobody so much as belched. Three cheers for us, hip, hip… For all the things I’ve forgotten, look out for Marc’s War & Peace length blog on the subject or ask me about it next time you see me.
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MISS WHIPLASH |
posted by jim on 2/10/06
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That's the question Do I miss whiplash? The ache and the stiffness I woke up with the day after the second of two gigs at the Barfly in London, the one where I played a half hour punk set with a six piece supergroup we’re calling The Abdou Girls. All that headbanging on stage – particularly during the long instrumental wig out at the end of Angelstrike! – it’s given me an incredibly stiff neck. I’m just not used to such rocking out anymore.
The second part of this Best Of tour began in Sheffield. Marc wasn’t there again, just me and Mr Spoons and Spoons having to do the work of two. A weird gig, less people than last time I’d played there – well, less people to see me that is. There was a big queue pretty early on, all about 16 to 18 years old and there for the two support acts. I sat backstage while Spoons was on the merch stall out front and I could hear a lot of screaming and cheering for the first dude on stage. It sounded like Westlife might be doing a surprise gig. Taking a peek I could see a large crowd of enthusiastic young folks who I knew and feared would leave the building pretty much as soon as I set foot onstage. I felt very old. Came onstage incidentally to the Little Man Tate single ‘House Party At Boothy’s’. The ‘Tate have been using ‘Sheriff Fatso’ as their intro tape for a while and I thought it would be a funny thing to return the gesture. Don’t know whether anybody noticed.
Marc was back for Birmingham. We got stuck in a gridlock in the centre of the city for two hours when loads of main roads were closed after a series of knife attacks. The policeman outside the gig when we eventually got there told us it was a terrorist attack but he was just showing off and it turned out to be the start of a midweek orgy of teenage gang violence that would include two kids being shot in the queue at Brixton McDonalds. Are things spiralling out of control? The Birmingham gig was great, one of the best of the tour. I started to rethink my retirement.
Which brings us to the two London shows. For the first one – partially because I’m always too stressed to eat before London gigs and partially because I found gin and tonic in a tin in Sainsbury’s for £1.39 – I was a bit tipsy and I really enjoyed myself. On the way home Mr Spoons’ popemobile was hit by a truck on Waterloo Bridge and if the lorry driver hadn’t fallen asleep I think Spoons might have beaten him to death with his Yorkie bar.
I’d asked Les (Fruitbat) if he’d put together a band based around Abdoujaparov to play some of my punkier numbers at the final gig of the tour. The supergroup, who we called The Abdou Girls, as they were a mix of Abdoujaparov (Les, Richy Crockford) and the Subliminal Girls
(Arran J Lovechild, Jim Rhesus, Jimmy 2 Shoes and Danny Le Pelley) managed to make a fantastic racket and as I say, I got into it and that’s why I’ve got this stiff neck. That’s another band formed and split for people to ask if they’ll ever reform again.
Today I went to a press launch for Dick Whittington & His Cat at the Barbican, where I was filmed for ‘The Culture Show’ (look out for it on a Saturday night BBC2 soon) and got to meet the cast and crew, including the lovely Roger Lloyd Pack , with whom I posed for quite a few press pics, look out for those too. And Miles Jupp whose first live music experience was when he won tickets for the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party in 1991. I was talking to the musical director and arranger Sarah Travis about what she’s going to do with my songs and I’m looking forward to hearing them develop into something special. It’s all very exciting. Still don’t know who’ll be singing one of my songs, I’ve been imagining various famous people who it might be. More news soon. Need to get some sea-sickness pills for the Isle of Man trip.
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TOUR DIARY PART ONE – my longest ever blog entry |
posted by jim on 25/09/06
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FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD
In Cambridge we had chips from the Chinese opposite the venue in Cambridge. We sat in the back of the Popemobile to eat them because we wanted to get away from the argument that was about to begin inside the gig over the rubbish PA system that five separate people would unscrew, solder and screw back together again through the course of the day. The promoter for the gig Steve is a lovely bloke and shows that when promoters do what is suggested they might do by their job title, the gig will invariably be a lot more successful and well attended. I don’t know why more promoters don’t have a go at this system, they’d make more money themselves and be a lot happier than some of them seem to be. So in spite of the rubbish PA, Steve’s enthusiastic promoting – including booking 2 quality support acts – helped make for a great gig. My first attempt at solo electric guitar wasn’t too embarrassing either and I managed to slot in a few new songs, including my soon-to-be-one-day novelty hit ‘the Wheels On The Bus’.
The next day was a day off. Not because we were already exhausted one date in to the tour but because Mr Spoons (roadie, driver, tour guide, webmaster, tough looking bubble machine operator, loud snorer, etc, etc) who will be suffering with chronic toothache all week had a Crystal Palace game to go to in Norwich. Instead of going home me and Marc (manager, comedian, moonwalker, mature student, etc, etc) went along to the game with Spoons. Palace won with a goal in the last minute and then we went to the rub a dub dub followed by a very nice Italian meal, with wine and dessert, the whole bit. Afterwards we retired to our empty hotel bar and the games machine which had about thirty different triv and TV related quiz games on it. Naturally we chose the Q Magazine quiz and pissed ourselves laughing to be greeted by a big picture of me and Fruitbat under the heading ‘Where Are They Now?’. As we played the game the picture would keep returning, until it started to annoy me and we moved onto ‘Deal Or No Deal’ with the voice and face of old tidy beard Noel Edmonds.
Before the Portsmouth gig we had a speedy Thai meal. The gig was superb, as it was last time. Lots of banter between act and audience. Almost a stand up comedy performance with music, like Richard Digance or Sid Little
Marc had to return to London due to forseen circumstances, leaving me and Mr Spoons on our own to deal with the turning up as late as he possibly can promoter/soundman. The Bristol gig is a free to get in gig and I get paid with money put in to a jug by the audience. Last time we went there we got one free drink each. This time they’d cut it back to one free drink for the performers only, not for Mr Spoons who does all the real work. With hindsight I wish I’d told them to shove their free drink up their tight arse, but I’m so soft these days you could call me a pillow and so I said nothing. I’d actually prefer no free drink rather than one. One is somehow more insulting. Especially when you consider the amount of money they make off the bar on what’s probably one of their fuller nights and how they don’t have to pay me because that money also comes from the punters. When bands go to Germany or Holland for the first time they often come back talking about how well they’d been treated and about all the free beer and food etc and how England is rubbish in the way it treats their bands. This is why. We didn’t have our usual after the Bristol show pizza at the restaurant up the road, mainly because I was too drunk to sit in a chair. Mr Spoons had though bought me my favourite sandwich. Which is the Veggie Delight from Subway
The Leeds gig was always going to be difficult. The venue had been changed and it had been impossible to buy advance tickets for the new venue where the – I refer you back to my first point about promoters – practically secret gig was taking place. Still, it was an alright gig, I was perhaps bullied into playing too many Carter hits but not the end of the world and we had Japanese noodles in an authentic looking place up a back street.
Glasgow 13th Note means vege burgers. We used to get these for free but those days seem to have gone. On the way to the gig we nipped into XFM Scotland to record an interview and three songs for broadcast the following Sunday. When we got the call to come in we were told they’d played a track of the Best Of album that morning and we said I bet it was The Only Living Boy In New Cross, which it was. I played acoustic versions of Touchy Feely, Back To School and New Cross for the Sunday show. Come Sunday they only had time to play one of the songs. Eeni meeni minie New Cross again. I often think the last 14 years have been a dream. It’s as though they never happened.
We’ve developed car trouble. The popemobile is having difficulty starting. We returned to a little pizza place in Worcester that we’d eaten at before, it was nice but I shouldn’t have had the Irish coffee as I returned to the Marr’s Bar in Worcester feeling bloated. Let’s be James blunt here, the gig was empty. I don’t know why. In spite of wanting to go home or to be swallowed up by the earth of Worcester the audience were up for making the very best of things and it was probably the most enthusiastic crowd (how many people do you need for a crowd?) of the tour. That night there were some nob jockeys at the hotel who’d obviously never stayed in a hotel before and so stayed up all night banging doors, running up and down the corridor, breaking things and eventually punching the receptionist and being arrested. We had not a single wink of sleep between us and got a refund.
To pass some time, instead of sitting around the venue or a Little Chef we went to the pictures. We saw the film Children Of Men, it was superb and as a sign of how rock and roll we are we paid for normal tickets and sat in the Premier seats. The last gig of the first half of the tour and we’re back at the Dog & Partridge in Bolton. It was as packed as any venue has ever been and made up for the empty Worcester gig. Drove home at night because Mr Spoon’s teeth are killing him and he needs emergency dental action. Back on the chips.
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TO THE TREEES! |
posted by jim on 12/09/06
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I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Center Parcs
I know some people have the fear of the parcs. They think it’s a big sci-fi-cold-war- nightmare domed building where everyone is forced to play badminton and live together and share sweat. They’re wrong. I wouldn’t go to such a place repeatedly like I do. Center Parcs for me is usually a big old Morrison family and friends trip but a few members of the group were unavailable for holidaying this year – my cousin James for example was on his sell out tour playing blue eyed soul to estate agents (no offence estate agent dudes) – so Mr Spoons joined us and along with Marc (us Tandy) it became a Team Jim Bob / big old Morrison family and friends trip instead.
After three days of ten pin bowling, adventure swimming and adventure golf, boating, line dancing (for the ladies), restauranting, boozing etc, my muscles are aching today. It’s only really with a couple of non injured fingers that I can manage to type my way through the pain with, and even they hurt somewhat from being stuffed into the holes of a large heavy bowling ball.
For a more detailed account of our wet and wild weekend, check out Marc’s myspace blog which I expect will appear shortly on the subject. When I say ‘shortly’ I of course mean ‘longly’. Is that a word? It is now.
‘Dick Whittington and His Cat’, for which I wrote a couple of songs is taking shape cast and crew wise. Roger Lloyd Pack (Trigger from Only Fools & Horses) has been announced as Sarah the Cook. News here: http://www.jim-bob.co.uk/news.shtml
and more here (including a rat squashing game):
I’ve been in the recording studio with Cable Street Spy Club ‘helping’ them with their first single. I really enjoyed the experience and was a bit envious of that gang thing you get with being in a band that maybe you don’t when you’re a solo performer.
Touring begins in a few days, I must rehearse. 8 potential new songs to perform.
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