

“How to take country to the country parts 1&2” – TTO at Bridgewater Arts Centre, 4/2/06 By Simon, guitarist with the TTO Rico & I set off about half two from Stevenage , accompanied by The Who and The Stooges (good choices, though Pete Townsend has a very weak bladder)). Rico is great to travel with as he knows where every road in the country seems to go, where as I tend to amble around in roughly the right direction for a bit and get there eventually. So I was very grateful for his “back of the hand” type knowledge. Plus, he'd been there before and I had not. We pull up outside the venue, which from the front looks like a (very) nice terraced house after a flawlessly executed 2 and a half hour trip (ahem). I was pretty excited as I have heard how good these gigs are – great stage, great sound, really nice crowd/hosts/rider (woohoo!) etc, but my natural miserable/confused state takes over and says “naa – can't be all that”. But wait…. Our hosts/promoters for the night are about the most hospitable people you could hope to meet. They are old friends of the band and right away the atmos was jolly and welcoming. When you walk in the front door of Bridgewater Arts Centre you are in Tardis territory – the place seems to go back for miles and is very nicely done out. This is important, as when you gig a lot in different places you get used to the “fleapit” type of venues that appear to be one day away from being knocked down by a wrecking ball. But not here. Very nice. Not too shabby for Simon. Our dressing room (see piccies) was also very nice, with proper lit mirrors and all that – (it's SO nice to have your own space at a gig) and leads on to the stage – which, btw, is also very nice and big, so I can move around and not spend two hours trapped between Des's enorma-stand-up-bass and Steve's' snare drum (ouch). Nice. We are due to play two sets with another act in between, a very amiable fellow by the name of Clive Pig. So come set list time we (sorry, Grae) decides we need some more tunes in the set – jolly good, always up for a bit of randomness at these gigs, it makes them more fun. So post sound check we have a little acoustic rehearsal of some new tunes on the stage, just standing round in a circle – no mics/amps or anything, just us. It was great. I'd like to do that more often. In fact, that little rehearsal might be my fondest memory of that gig – it's a shame we didn't video it or something. Ah well. The place starts to fill up and we get on with it. The first set is pretty good as it goes, I like starting with Russian Roulette, ‘cos the guitar break is about the best I have and the easiest too! We do two new tunes toward the end of the set (Divine Intervention and That's Alright Mama) and they go down pretty well – so we're all happy. But we're still pretty sober at this point and Clive Pig is up next. Clive Pig is a great fellow – very friendly and relaxing to be around. I hadn't heard his stuff before, but was keen to have a listen. It transpires that Clive is a crazy person. I am struggling to articulate what he does on stage, so please excuse me if this doesn't make any sense. The set is based around three main stories that are set to music, one of which was about some people who went to tell the king something and objects that usually don't speak (fish, chairs I think etc) started speaking to these narrator chaps and then the king himself (who was pretty confused by the sound of it) runs around the village. The music is largely produced through a single Indian drum. Clive sits in front of a birdcage. I really enjoyed his set – it's kind of a cross between spoken word, folk, performance art and bumping into a crazy person on the street and not quite knowing what to do with them, even if they are very nice. I don't think I've seen anything like it before, and that's enough of a recommendation to see him if you get a chance. We start our second, longer set with “The yodelling song”, which I had learned about 3 minutes before going on stage. It starts with me on my own and then the rest of band comes up and joins in one by one until we're all at full pelt, and then we double the speed of it. Great fun. By the time we're a couple of songs in I have exhausted my two pints of Guinness on stage that I thought would see me through the set, and (bless him) Kev gets a round in and we're off again. This set is more lively, as both the band and the audience are more “lubricated” than before. I can't remember which song it was, but Andy threw himself into the audience at one point (I think it was in Brown Eyes Blue) and landed straight on his knees. It looked (and sounded) very painful. S'all anarchy though innit. I think he's ok now. Bet he does it again though. We finish the set with Funtime (another newie) and the audience seem very happy. Us too. So happy in fact that we go to our lovely hosts' house and drink until early/late and I believe I passed out around 3am after having stolen Steve's sofa (sorry dude) and possibly disrespected a framed photograph of Grae dressed as a woman. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm……………………. Good night, that. S xx

“How to take country to the country parts 1&2” – TTO at Bridgewater Arts Centre, 4/2/06

By Simon, guitarist with the TTO

Rico & I set off about half two from Stevenage , accompanied by The Who and The Stooges (good choices, though Pete Townsend has a very weak bladder)). Rico is great to travel with as he knows where every road in the country seems to go, where as I tend to amble around in roughly the right direction for a bit and get there eventually. So I was very grateful for his “back of the hand” type knowledge. Plus, he'd been there before and I had not.

We pull up outside the venue, which from the front looks like a (very) nice terraced house after a flawlessly executed 2 and a half hour trip (ahem). I was pretty excited as I have heard how good these gigs are – great stage, great sound, really nice crowd/hosts/rider (woohoo!) etc, but my natural miserable/confused state takes over and says “naa – can't be all that”.

But wait….

Our hosts/promoters for the night are about the most hospitable people you could hope to meet. They are old friends of the band and right away the atmos was jolly and welcoming.

When you walk in the front door of Bridgewater Arts Centre you are in Tardis territory – the place seems to go back for miles and is very nicely done out. This is important, as when you gig a lot in different places you get used to the “fleapit” type of venues that appear to be one day away from being knocked down by a wrecking ball. But not here. Very nice. Not too shabby for Simon.

Our dressing room (see piccies) was also very nice, with proper lit mirrors and all that – (it's SO nice to have your own space at a gig) and leads on to the stage – which, btw, is also very nice and big, so I can move around and not spend two hours trapped between Des's enorma-stand-up-bass and Steve's' snare drum (ouch). Nice.

We are due to play two sets with another act in between, a very amiable fellow by the name of Clive Pig. So come set list time we (sorry, Grae) decides we need some more tunes in the set – jolly good, always up for a bit of randomness at these gigs, it makes them more fun. So post sound check we have a little acoustic rehearsal of some new tunes on the stage, just standing round in a circle – no mics/amps or anything, just us. It was great. I'd like to do that more often. In fact, that little rehearsal might be my fondest memory of that gig – it's a shame we didn't video it or something. Ah well.

The place starts to fill up and we get on with it.

The first set is pretty good as it goes, I like starting with Russian Roulette, ‘cos the guitar break is about the best I have and the easiest too! We do two new tunes toward the end of the set (Divine Intervention and That's Alright Mama) and they go down pretty well – so we're all happy.

But we're still pretty sober at this point and Clive Pig is up next.

Clive Pig is a great fellow – very friendly and relaxing to be around. I hadn't heard his stuff before, but was keen to have a listen.

It transpires that Clive is a crazy person. I am struggling to articulate what he does on stage, so please excuse me if this doesn't make any sense.

The set is based around three main stories that are set to music, one of which was about some people who went to tell the king something and objects that usually don't speak (fish, chairs I think etc) started speaking to these narrator chaps and then the king himself (who was pretty confused by the sound of it) runs around the village. The music is largely produced through a single Indian drum. Clive sits in front of a birdcage. I really enjoyed his set – it's kind of a cross between spoken word, folk, performance art and bumping into a crazy person on the street and not quite knowing what to do with them, even if they are very nice. I don't think I've seen anything like it before, and that's enough of a recommendation to see him if you get a chance.

We start our second, longer set with “The yodelling song”, which I had learned about 3 minutes before going on stage. It starts with me on my own and then the rest of band comes up and joins in one by one until we're all at full pelt, and then we double the speed of it. Great fun. By the time we're a couple of songs in I have exhausted my two pints of Guinness on stage that I thought would see me through the set, and (bless him) Kev gets a round in and we're off again. This set is more lively, as both the band and the audience are more “lubricated” than before. I can't remember which song it was, but Andy threw himself into the audience at one point (I think it was in Brown Eyes Blue) and landed straight on his knees. It looked (and sounded) very painful. S'all anarchy though innit. I think he's ok now. Bet he does it again though. We finish the set with Funtime (another newie) and the audience seem very happy. Us too. So happy in fact that we go to our lovely hosts' house and drink until early/late and I believe I passed out around 3am after having stolen Steve's sofa (sorry dude) and possibly disrespected a framed photograph of Grae dressed as a woman. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm…………………….

Good night, that.

S xx