DAY TWO – SUNNINGHILL -> BRIGHTON
STRRRETCH. It’s Tuesday morning. Gotta travel to Brighton today. But first – brekkers.
Lindsay drops us off in Sunninghill town – and we grab some breakfast at this swanky looking cafe. I had a croissant stuffed with eggs and bacon. Yum. I don’t normally have breakfast. People don’t tend to believe me when I say this, because i’m not thin, and I have a huge face. BUT IT IS TRUE.
There’s a poster of my huge face outside Resident Records
We’ve booked our train to Brighton from Woking … but we’re miles from Woking. The ticket desk clerk, in slow calm manner, says we can still use our tickets – so it’s all good. Carrying all our gear onto the train is becoming a bit of an arse … literally. My sleeping bag is tied to the back of my rucksack, and sits like an oversized caboose … and I keep thwacking folk in the face with it. Now I know what Jennifer Lopez must feel like. When she’s on a train. Near Woking.
We get into Brighton, and walk from the station down to the shore-front bit. At the first outdoor bar we see, we order a pint, and start texting our Brighton friends – telling them all to come to our show that night. It begins to rain, so we decide to go to the venue to drop off our equipment. My phone has got GoogleMaps on it – which is WELL handy when you don’t know your way about town. Takes us 7 or 8 minutes to walk to the venue … but it’s shut. Bah. It’s starting to rain a bit heavier now.
I remind Rozi that I’ve got an instore performance later on today at Resident Records. How about we drop our stuff off there? On the way, we bump into Armando from The José – another Fence Records act. He’s about to go for a job interview. I give him my number, and tell him to gimme a call once he’s finished, so we can have a pint. He reckon’s he’ll be about 30 minutes. LOVELY.
There’s a poster of my huge face outside Resident Records, advertising the instore show – but none of my albums are inside. I handle all of Fence Records distrbution – and I posted out all the shop stock the previous week … the Resident order didn’t arrive though. Argh. I give the shop owner, Derry, a batch of 10 copies from my rucksack … which doesn’t ease the load all that much, but makes it easier to pack stuff. He says Roz and I can leave our bags downstairs. Phew. What a nice man.
It’s a great store, is Resident. Everything is really well laid out, and there’s bits of blurb on almost every album – telling you what each one is like. It’s a nice touch.
Roz wants to go discover the local charity shops, and I want to have some more beer – so we part ways for a couple hours. I make my way to the White Rabbit pub and sup an ale. There’s some screaming kids at the back of the room. I’ve never heard anything so terrifying. Seriously – they are squeeealing. I was gonna leave, but I had already texted my pal Louise – and arranged to meet her here. Thankfully, the kids are eventually trolleyed out by their tarty mums. Louise and Armando turn up – and we drink and drink. I have a bowl of chilli that burns my mouth, and drink some more. Maybe you’re starting to see why I don’t eat breakfast. When I commence consuming, I CANNOT STOP.
Oh Christ – it’s five-to-six. Time for the instore.
Instore’s are always a bit weird. Everyone is sober (well, almost everyone), there’s no PA, and there’s always some folk in just to buy records. Gasp. It’s an attentive crowd today, though … and some folk even join in on the ‘sing-a-long’ bit at the end. Derry tells me that it was busier for me than it was for James Yorkston & King Creosote, which is a personal victory. HA!
It’s pissing it down outside, now. Roz is already taking off, at pace, towards the venue, with me waddling behind (and me waddling behind). My pal Dom, the promoter for tonight’s show, is there to open the door for us when we arrive at the 3 & 10 Bar. (Dom used to play in a band called Good Morning Captain – who released an EP on Fence a few years ago. He now plays in a band called Euchrid Eucrow).
A cross between Leonard Cohen and Jarvis
We go upstairs to the room where we are playing. The sound engineer is a really really nice chap called Graeme. I’ve met him before – I think he did sound for us at a King Creosote show. He tells me he plays bass in that band called The Bobby McGees. I remember they got in touch a few years ago, asking to play the Homegame – but I wasn’t a fan of the stuff I heard on their MySpace. The lead singer’s got one of those voices that you either tolerate or despise, I guess. So I pretended to have never heard of them. I like Graeme a lot, though. He’s very helpful – and a great sound engineer. And I felt bad about the Homegame thing.
Will, aka Tandy Hard, turns up – he’s the opening support for tonight’s show. I met him a few years ago – when he came up to Fife for our annual festival, The Homegame. He played guitar with Things In Herds – who are also on Fence. Yes, we’re an incestuous bunch. I really like Will’s voice – it’s like a cross between Leonard Cohen and Jarvis. He’s just got an album out, on Drift Records – which I can heartily recommend.
The venue have a guy who introduces all the acts on stage. Weird thing though – with every introduction he says “This person needs no introduction …”. I didn’t know if it was a joke, or if he was just a bit nervous. Either way, I liked it.
Tandy Hard’s set is sublime – just guitar and voice. Plus he’s got good hair. I knew I was gonna have to do something special tonight …
Rozi was fab as always. She’s playing some new songs on this tour. One of them is called ‘Sting, Sting’ – and it lasts about 60 seconds. Great tune.
I’m on now. It’s a busy room – which I’m really chuffed about. I’ve not played many solo shows outside of Scotland … so it’s great to have an audience at all, let alone a packed room. Braw! The set goes well, even more people sing-a-long with the song ‘Into The Smoke’, and I sell a bunch of albums afterwards. Get in.
Pack up my stuff, and saunter downstairs for a few pints with Things In Herds, Armando, George Thomas, my pal Julia, Louise + boyfriend, Tandy Will, Roz and others. I think, if I had to live in England, I’d probably choose Brighton. Although maybe I’d develop a put-on Scottish accent. Maybe that would be a good thing?
Soon enough, it’s time to head off to Will’s house – we’re staying with him tonight. My sleeping bag stays packed away, as there are beds for each of us. Woohoo! I warn Roz of my snoring tendencies, and check the Fence Records messageboard on my phone. It takes ages, and I pass out before I can log in.
