Oh, it's been such a long and busy week: here's bits of what I can remember:
Last Saturday, down Smugglers for Tom Waits Day (celebrating Simon Shaw's birthday: the theme being everyone must cover Tom Waits songs, an idea cribbed from Alfie's annual Neil Young Day celebrations). I'd forgotten it was on, and had resigned myself to a night in, when Reuben rang and reminded me. By the time I got there, I only caught the sole songs by Regular John (minus Pete, sitting it out), before the ad-hoc group conceived by the birthday man himself (I don't know the feller, by the way) settled in for the long-haul of the rest of the evening. My familiarity with Tom Waits' oeuvre (I said oeuvre!) isn't strong, so I recognised only two or three of the more obvious tracks (Heart Of Saturday Night, Downtown Train...), which the group (some musicians I recognised and could put names to, some I couldn't) played them in a rather bluesy, laid-back way, which is entirely fair, though I'd have enjoyed less classicist performances, and maybe some more of the junkyard-styled clatter of the bits and pieces of Tom Waits' later stuff that I've encountered. So I stayed mostly getting drunk up the back of the pub with Regular John, Rufus, Dean etc, which was damn funny. Whole bunch of disparate other people out (Wookie, Jamie, Karen, Tara, Emma Foster, Reuben - failing to make it around the corner for Seasick Steve at Brass Monkey, and more). Stayed a fairly long while, but it was gonna become a heavy drinking night, and my internal dipstick let me know that I really needed to get home rather than hang around too late.
Tuesday was Dean at Revolver, accompanied by Bonj, as Jim is holidaying in Australia. Fabulously, Jim rang Dean's mobile halfway through the gig, so the crowd were all able to shout "Hello Jim" down the line to him, and he there and then mentioned to Dean that he'd decided to extend his trip from a fortnight to six months. See you in August then, Jim! Bonj performed an admirable job of filling in Jim's place on many old and new songs, including a repeat run through Here Comes Your Man, and one or two other covers (eg Blister In The Sun). Michael and Caroline were sitting with me, and Michael was able to point out that a lot of the songs Dean is now playing are actually earmarked for a Third Rumiko Jr album (thy've almost finished recording their second), leading to the possibility of two new Rumiko lps this year, if all goes very very well (only a possibility!). Matt was also along to support his Regular John bandmate, and stepped up for a few brief songs himself (finishing with Lemonheads' Being Around), and Jonathan managed to fit a few of his own in a bit later too. Kim, Rufus, Reuben etc were all present, in fact the evening was much better attended than last time (and I've forgotten several of my friends who were there I'm sure), though as Caroline pointed out at the end, she was eventually the only woman there (apart from the bar staff), which is unusual for Revolver, but there you go.
Thursday was time for the next Other Words, so I was in a bit of a rush early in the evening. I'd seen Nat and Bill Lambie when I'd passed by St Mary In The Castle earlier, as they were helping prepare for the private view of a photographic exhibition (including some of their work) which is running there for the next month. I saw them again when I met Tara there a little later, and handed her the remaining Other Words flyers that she wanted to hand-out. It was busy there, lots of recognisable faces, but I was conscious that I was at a private view that I hadn't actually been invited to, so I was happy to go on ahead to St Leonards to get things sorted in time for the poetry. Despite a miscommunication mishap up at The Cloisters, I was able to procure a mic, stand and amp from Duncan (many thanks!) and get them down to Bar Blue in time to meet Tara outside. Rather than performing from the middle of the bar, Rachel who works there had set up a stage by the front windows, so I arranged the gear the best I could, and waited around with Tara and Kim for Richard to arrive so that the evening could begin. It had just reached the point where Tara was asking me to fill-in for him when, fortunately, he turned up, so we were soon underway. It turned out to be a very lengthy evening this time, and again much better-attended than the previous occasion (all the flyering, postering, word of mouth and articles in the Hastings Observer, The Entertainer etc, and various people's online promoting, had clearly made a difference). Some of those who took turns at the mic included the guy from Colonel Mustard, Kim, Richard, Jamie, Erika Smith, Caragh (previously referred to on here as Cara - I get things wrong..), Debbie Delux, Kate Sedgwick and (headlining, though many others continued to step-up for more turns after) Dave Arnold. All of whom managed worthwhile sets of differing poetic or musical styles, though the evening gradually degenerated into a very lengthy coda of quite drunken near-karaoke singing turns (the final, ensemble performance of Suspicious Minds may be the most ragged vocal performance I've ever heard..) And, an unexpected burst of egotism from one contributor apart (hands were shaken afterwards, so we'll allow it to rest at that), it was a wonderfully well-played evening. By the end, I was getting very tired, and had started drinking all the jugs of iced water that had been left for the poets (which they didn't touch, the boozers) in order to sober myself up in time to drag the musical gear away, whenever the evening was gonna end (I didn't want to call time on the performances myself, cos the longer everyone was willing to speak, the more could be added to the Sara Lee Trust collection jars, but beyond 1am I ended up having to politely request some kind of cessation of activites soon, as I really needed to get away and get some sleep before the next day's work). Fortunately, everyone else was so far gone they were running out of steam too, so we struggled free evenutally. Said it before, but it's worth coming down for...
