the future, is untrodden ground...

March 17, 2008 at 2:30pm

or: 'pauly's marijuana loop'...

man, what a crazy few days, i hope y'all had a good st patricks weekend of gigs and stuff, i think it's safe to say we had a blast...

i'll try to avoid making this too long a post but there's a hell of a lot to report. i guess i have to start at the middle of last week, and my conversation/interview with podcaster extraordinaire and all round good egg, mr Dave Coroner. Which of course, while it was an absolute pleasure and privelege to do, i must apologise in advance for subjecting you all to my, frankly, utterly inane ramblings, eg "the future, is untrodden ground", come on pauly, what the hell is coming out of your mouth son?. However, our boy Dave has done a hell of a job in the edit room and i come across as only half as twattish as i actually am in real life so, jobs a good 'un! But, i have to say on behalf of us all, a huge and heartfelt thanks to Dave, Keith and everybody on the ukm/unsigned chart team not only for having us, but for always being there bigging us up...

so. thursday night we headed down to the boars head tap house in kidderminster, a venue which we simply love playing - if you ever get the chance, you gotta check it out and i guarantee you won't be disappointed. Joined by our good friends Andy and Kate from Fola, who played a bostin' set and then i think we finished the night off in relatively fine style. massive thanks to the gaffer Andy and all the team - we love yers!

friday night... i think the bridgecross club in burntwood is the only remaining 'folk club' type set-up that we still do; because, frankly, it's one of the only remaining 'folk club' type set-up's in the midlands area that is actually worth doing. Barry, the organiser is a very dear friend and has been a jugopunch/clay faces supporter through thick and thin, so it's always a pleasure to play for the burntwood audience who are simply a cracking bunch and we always appreciate their tolerance of us! joined once again as we were by our 'paddy's-period-sidekicks' Fola [great gig Andy, well done], and a good night was had by hopefully, all.

then the madness began in earnest. Saturday afternoon i headed down to stoke station to meet the legendary mr Ray Heffernan; and following a couple of beers and a chin-wag, headed up to the tytherington club, macclesfield. and a great gig by the cf's and the heff, though unfortunately the room had been set up in such a way that we were unable to make any kind of contact with the audience. there was a perfectly reasonable, natural stage area in one corner, where someone had seen fit to place a large table, meaning the bands were shunted up to the opposite corner, playing to two huge concrete pillars and about 20 feet away from the audience. which was a shame, but you just put it down to experience hey? big thanks to Bryn and Faith for the lift, way above and beyond the call of duty.

but, shit, we made up for it on the sunday.
meself and the heffster strolled down to the brown jug in newcastle, about 4 o clock, did a quick set-up, by which time individuals carrying various instruments were turning up and what ensued was an afternoon/evening showcase of some great local acoustic talent. compered by my boy mark bailey aka the trent vale poet, i think the running order was something like: our buddy Bryn, and his ukelele with a superb opening set, followed by James, one time jugopunch mascot and now all grown up and purveying some fine pink floyd and christy moore covers, followed by our very own crazy davey walker - you should check out dave's myspace, some cracking tunes - head over and listen to 'maybe i'm a fool' and come back to me and tell me that it's not a 'CHOOOON'!; followed by uncle Scotty, doing his fantastic dylan-meets-moore, dulcet belfast style tunes, brilliant; followed and wrapped up by the frighteningly talented mr mark murphy-burke. more on that man in a separate post to follow very soon.

so, come 8 o clock-ish and the first of the bands. A thousand wild flowers kicked off the nights line-up, i think if i do say so meself, i got their sound sweet as a nut and boy these guys put on an impressive show, check 'em.
Fola were next up, and what can i say? belting gig guys really, a cracking show.
cometh the hour, cometh the heff. i was so glad, particularly following saturdays apathetic crowd, that Ray got such a great reception from the brown jug audience, and he didn't disappoint them. a deadly set, great tunes, a big shit-eatin grin on his face and yeah, thats what it's all about. i can't big the guy up enough man, and can't wait for his next visit.
all's i have to do now is persuade him to ditch his bloody facebook profile in favour of getting an RH page going on this very website. a campaign that also ties in with my mission to get Dave Coroner to play some of his own stuff on the podcast; two righteous causes which i'm sure all of us in the unsigned chart family will welcome and support?
oh but yeah, anyway, we finished the night off and were spectacular as always.
massive massive thank you's go to: Nigel and staff at the jug, all our buddies and everyone at the jug gig, everyone, staff and punters alike at the boars head tap house, kidderminster; Barry et al and the crowd at bridgcross club, the trent vale poet, a thousand wild flowers and their crew, Andy and Kate, Bryn, Scotty, James, Mark MB, and anyone who i've forgotten to mention.
and a very happy st patrick's day to all of you reading this!
hare hare krishna