It’s August already!
August 3, 2014
Where’s the year gone? It’s moving too fast to keep up at the moment.
So, Thurs 10 July – The Crown. A comedy show on before us, Patrick Draper and Roger Swift ahead of their trip to the Edinburgh Festival. I’m a little wary of comedy in the pub – is it going to be any good? The answer in this instance was yes, it was great. If you see these guys around, go and see their show, you won’t be disappointed – http://energyapathy.webs.com/
Sat 12 July – Lower Lacon Caravan Park. There were pigs in a pen just outside and air conditioning in the room. The drowned dog attacked Nichola from a great distance.
Sun 13 July – Christening Party. Our friend, Chris Payne asked us to play for his daughter’s christening. We used every extension lead we own in order to run power out to the beer garden, on the edge of the River Severn. The weather held!
Thurs 17 July – Private Party. Headmaster was leaving the school he’s headed for many years. The weather was great, but the staff had put up a gazebo in case of rain. As it turns out, this made it extremely warm for us.
Fri 18 July – Molloys, Bury. Another packed Molloys – hot, sweaty and fun. Fantastic chicken tikka kebabs on the way out of Bury.
Sat 19 July – The Milwich Music Festival. Our luck had to end at some point – the rain came down with us playing on the back on a lorry. Fortunately the organisers had the sense to put up numerous gazebos, so the crowd was there for us. Note to self, don’t jump up and down on a lorry stage – the suspension causes the PA to wobble dangerously.
Fri 25 July – The Malthouse. The first time a band has played with the doors open. It’s possible we would have died of heat exhaustion had this not been the case. Despite the heat, the pub was full. A great night.
Sun 27 July – The Telegraph. Ed and Si offered cheese and ham onna stick. Turns out that some chilli paste was placed between these items. Hot, hot hot. Kindly, landlord Alan offered us a glass of white port to cool us off. Note to self, don’t trust Alan again. Despite the label, this was actually chilli vodka. Even hotter than the paste. Unable to sing due to burning vocal chords.
Fri 1 August – The Old Post Office. The pub was full before we arrived and kept getting busier. What could go wrong? Turns out that the mixing desk could go wrong. After two years of faithful service it decided to pack up mid-set. While Paul sorted the problem out using no more than our pet keyboard player, the landlord and a spare desk, Ed and Si jumped up onto a couple of chairs to sing as loudly as possible and keep the crowds amused. It worked.
Sat 2nd August. Clivestock, a private charity festival. What a great crowd. As we left home for the site, the rain was coming down in stair-rods. The skies cleared for our arrival, but it clouded over again just as we took to the stage. A little rain, but it didn’t dampen the crowd’s enthusiasm. Loads of dancing and singing ensued.
This week we’re off to Wales for gigs at Brynrodyn Caravan Park on Friday and Rummers in Aberystwyth on Saturday.
That Was 2012…
December 24, 2012
Well, that just about wraps it up for 2012. Our final two gigs were on Thursday at The Crown in Oakengates and Saturday at The Green Man in Milwich, our first visit to Staffordshire.
The Crown doubled as a leaving party for our friend, Chris Payne, who is moving to Abu Dhabi in the new year. As usual, the crowd were great, getting into our brand of humour from the get go. Ed made several references to his new rubber chicken (or Cock, as it has been christened). Cue endless jokes about squeezing/holding/waving/stroking/treading on* Ed’s Cock. The fun never starts!
*delete as applicable.
Of vital importance to the band was the addition of a new ale into the pub’s repertoire – Arkwright’s Tarquin F’Tang F’Tang Ole Biscuitbarrel. On name alone we had to try it and, as should be expected in The Crown, we weren’t disappointed. A lovely English Pale ale, we had to try a couple, just to make sure it did taste as good as we first thought. It did.
The only sad part of the evening was the fact that Chris, unfortunately, had a dodgy pint which made him rather ill. He can’t remember if it was the 14th or 15th.
On Saturday we braved floods to travel to Milwich in Staffordshire for our final gig of 2012 at The Green Man. We walked in to find a very small, old fashioned pub and spent 5 minutes nursing a pint of Doom Bar whilst figuring out how we would fit without preventing people getting into the pub. We worked it out and were soon kicking into Road To Nowhere. People came in from the other bar after eating and, about 4 or 5 songs in, a large group of people arrived.
“What happened?” asked Ed, “Did a coach break down outside?” Chatting to a couple of people in the interval it turned out he wasn’t far from the truth – a coach trip had become a pub crawl – these people would soon be leaving. Or so they thought. As the second set developed they stayed, stunned at what they saw, wondering whether it would get any more sensible…
This audience was probably a microcosm of the audience Lost The Plot aim to please – we had people from 19 to 90 watching and, without exception, getting into everything we did. WeeMann picked out the person who would catch our drowned dog during Irish Rover, a young lad in with his mates. Unfortunately he missed and hit a frail, if feisty, 90 year old lady perched next to him on a bar stool, nearly knocking her to the floor. Fortunately she took it in good humour.
We couldn’t have asked or hoped for a better way to end the year than this gig and we’ll certainly be returning.
So with those two gigs Lost The Plot is finished for 2012. We’re going to have a rest over the Xmas period and come back refreshed in the new year. We start 2013 the way we finished 2012 – with a party! In fact, we’ve been asked to perform for The Malthouse’s staff Xmas party. Our first public gig is on Fri 11th at The Old Post Office in Shrewsbury followed by a return to Oakengates on the 18th at The Duke and The Malthouse on the 25th.
On the 26th we’re off up to Coton, just outside Whitchurch, to visit The Dog & Bull for the first time and we finish off January with our next gig at The Wrekin in Wellington.
You can keep an eye on our gigs at http://www.losttheplotband.co.uk/gigs/ and you can explore the site and find out more about the band.
The rest of 2013 is looking fairly busy, with over 40 gigs already in the diary, so you needn’t miss out on your dose of silly next year. February sees the first anniversary of the formation of the band and we have a special event planned, so keep your eye on our website for more details as we get closer
We’d just like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who’s come to see us this year, from people who have returned on several occasions (fools!) to those who have stumbled in unaware of what was going on (Newspaper Man in Aberyswyth). We’ve really enjoyed our first year as a band, from the highs to the lows, everything has given us a laugh and that couldn’t happen without you, the audience.
If you like us, please share the link to our blog across Facebook, Twitter or any other website you’ve got access to, tell people about us, drag people along to see us and generally spread the word. That word being ‘Stupid!’
We love you all,
Ed, Paul & Si.
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