ComEnts

Wow! What a week! White Sunday's gig at the Legendary After Dark Club was an unmitigated success, going on first in front of a house so packed that the walls were creaking, and playing a set that wasn't flawless (the Georgian judges scored us a 5.7, the Polish judge gave us a 5.9!) but one that was met with huge enthusiasm by the crowd! The Palestinians were punky and were giving it loads; the Heartwear Process surprised me a lot (they weren't my cup of tea when I last saw them) by looking every inch as good as their reports and reviews would suggest - theatrical, emotional, powerful and armed with some HUGE skanking riffs. The Race were - just like last time I saw them - completely energised and on top of their game, it was just a fantastic show from start to finish - what a brilliant venue, what a brilliant night! Big love to all concerned!

Also, I got confirmation that White Sunday will be supporting Hundred Reasons at Reading uni this Fri (4th Nov), so two big shows in the space of a week for le Dimanche Blanche! COME ON! We're now sorting out pwopah representation to try and move things to the next level, considering I've only been in the band for 11 months, the progress we've made is incredible. Jim and Mike have really come into their own as songwriters this past year, I feel amazingly lucky to be working with a) such talented people b) a band who are in it for all the right reasons (and who only give it large prima donna attitude after a skinful!).

Away from band stuff, COME ON THE TOON! WBA weren't playing well (tho neither were we, really) but Michael Owen's lethal finishing was a joy to behold and Alan Shearer's impersonation of Roy Race continues..

Oh, I was in London on Saturday night: caught the tube at Putney and suddenly a dark shadow fell over the carriage as the unfeasibly large figure of ex-South African rugby captain Bobby Skinstad walked towards where I was stood. Very surreal moment, the tiny suicidal voice at the back of my head was telling me to rugby tackle him as hard as I could but in all honesty I really don’t think he would have noticed if I had. Anyway, he seemed genuinely surprised that anyone should recognise him, shook my hand (N.B. blood came back into my hand later that night) and proceeded to chat to his stunning blonde female companion (wife?) while I stood there and wondered why he had stopped playing, he's only about 29. He does the South African Currie Cup reports for Sky Sport's Rugby Club show, think his old team pulled off an upset to win it this year. Nice bloke - especially for a South African! No, I know loads of cool Saffa's, they're not all veldt-roaming Dutch rock spiders.. Great player, too: a flair, head up back rower (see Zinzan Brooke), incredibly athletic for someone who is 6'5 and prolly 18 stone when trained down to a fighting weight - was the star player for SA for about two/three years, but the selectors made the classic mistake of making him captain, and he struggled a bit. Not sure what he's up to these days, playing for Richmond I heard, prolly taking up the media opportunities.

Being ill is rubbish. Getting cool gigs at Reading university is much more like it. Still waiting to have it confirmed, but likely that White Sunday will be supporting Hundred Reasons at the Whiteknights seat of learning.

YOUUUUU!!!! SHAADDAAPP!!!!!!

With your comments you got AK to post the hi ho joke again. Well done.

Forgot to say in my earlier post that I'm sending the script for "Reservoir Dwarves" to a guy at Reading university who seems interested in putting it on in January. This is the first in my series of PanTarantinomimes, even though the second - and only other - is actually a PantRitchiemime "Lock, Stock, and One Smoking Lamp". I have a bit of tidying up to do, some dodgy references to highlight as possibly needing cutting (such as when Evil Queen Evil goes "Mirror, Mirror, on the table - laid down flat so the chang is stable" - but you know what these students are like, they'll prolly ask me to write in more stuff like that. When we did it in Durham, we had a few Christians complain afterwards, and I take that as a measure of how well it has been put on!). Also need to double check some copywrite issues, seeing as we nick songs from Rocky Horror Picture Show, Otis Redding, Rolling Stones and several others.. But hopefully it will go ahead as a public perfomance! Yay!

In case I hadn’t already bored you stiff with the background, the whole thing started out with one joke made up in the middle of a whisky session one Christmas:

The Seven Dwarves were all sitting around bored one evening, Snow White was deep in her coma and there was no sign of Prince Charming so Doc and the boys were kicking their heels. As if prompted by some joke-related time-line of events, Doc's mobile phone went off ("Crazy Elf" ringtone) and he answered:

"Hey! How are you babe? No.. Not much.. Really? Do I know any of them? Right.. Really? What time? Wicked! See you there!"

The other dwarves crowded round him expectantly.

"Get your best pixie boots on boys, we're all off to a party tonight where there will be lots of very loose women, and they are all gonna be sky-high on drugs!" exclaimed their leader, to cheers of excitement by the others. True to form, Dopey needed this clarifying:

"You mean there are gonna be some high ho's?"

*Dwarves start singing "High Ho!"*

Wow! Thanks to all who commented on Mike's last Coment, safe to say that I will try and keep my inane ramblings coming as thick (easy-peasy) and fast (hmm..) as I can. Several good points were raised: most of the comments make far better reading than the Coments themselves, and we can only thank all those who post for that! Thanks to Andy for reminding me of my aim of making this blog a record of my "meteoric rise to fame", I almost fell off my chair laughing at that one.. Ah, the blind naivety of exuberant determination! Or was that determined exuberance? Ah well, you've got to dive into these things with both feet, haven't you..? No..? shit.

White Sunday were rehearsing at Plug n Play last night, imagine my distress to find that Off the Radar were gigging at the same venue at the same time! Distress because I woulda liked to have watched/heard them but instead we were thrashing out a new tune (which Jim made as awkward and impossible to remember as he could; good because formulaic songs are a cop out - bad because I'm lazy and a bear of very little brain. Years of attendance at the Mandela Court School of Short-Term Memory Loss also impede my progress..), while three of us were struggling with flu. We didn’t end the session on a happy note, so just left promptly. Looked like a cool gig, I saw members of LazyWall in attendance and a couple of others I recognised, but we're fully geared up to making sure we are on top form at the After Dark on 27th Oct, so we're not very sociable at the mo.

The new White Sunday EP should be ready by middle of next week, initial mixes sound fantabuloso - cheers to Mixmeister Blaumfeldt for the loan of the conga's (which I'm sure should be called bongo's, but I defer to other's knowledge of these things). Good fun to watch Danny Lovegroove banging on the bongos like a chimpanzee, if referencing a Dire Straits lyric isn’t musical suicide in todays climate..

My flatmate is making me feel down. He won’t want me to post intimate details on here, but long story cut short, he's recently single after a long-term r/ship and is now having to manage the steady stream of female admirers whom it would seem have all been gazing at him longingly from afar these past five years. I'm getting him a shitty stick for Christmas, that he may beat them off with. *jealous mutterings*. Oh well, perhaps the scraps will be rich from the king's table, mais non?

Speaking of Christmas - "arse". OK, peace on earth, goodwill to all men, true meaning of Christmas, yeah that's all well and good. However, it does mean I have to re-learn all the Christmas tunes that All Wrapped Up wheel out for pissed people: Shakey, Noddy, Wizzard.. *shudders violently*. See? If I had pulled my finger out and landed that fat record contract by now, I wouldn't be sat here wondering if Jimi Hendrix ever hated having to play other people's songs. Probably not, given that for him "other people" meant James Brown. Or rather, "JAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY BRAAAAAAAAAA!".

I'm hoping to get Eddie Murphy's "Raw" and "Delirious" this year. Have ordered an industrial-strength girdle just in case, as well as some rubber pants. "Ice-cream van is coming!!!!" etc.

Müf gigs coming up, next Wed (19th) at the 3B's, Fri 11th Nov at Face Bar/Boxing Club (tbc) and 26th November at.. somewhere secret. Not being poncey (well, OK, maybe a little) but I'm genuinely not sure if we are allowed to advertise it? Must check with the Heffernator..

So, again - thanks for messages of support and encouragement, it's safe to say that I will no longer have any hesitation in wasting time at work in order to compose semi-deluded meanderings for general consumption.

You kids be cool.

I am officially rubbish at remembering to write stuff in the blog.

The Müf steamroller is slowly gathering pace. We have our first rehearsal tonight in Rebus' new lock-up. Which looks fantastic. Unfortunately it means that I can't go down and see them play in the gigantic 360 bar at the Students Union. Although we'll see them at the Fez on Saturday...

I was in Bristol at the weekend. What Reading needs is more, better venues. Our music scene at the moment is very healthy but there aren't that many really good places to play. The Uni has a couple, the Hexagon is great for bigger bands. The Fez is pretty good (other than the pillar onstage) but for smaller gigs there's very little of decent quality. I'm going to win the lottery and buy and run one. It'll be great.

Oh yeah, back to Müf. We have 3 gigs lined up for October/November which is good. Yay, gigs. Müf has been such a stop/start band that we've never really managed to get even vaguely established locally. Hopefully we can raise the profile a bit. (maybe we'll even sell some CDs!

Anyway, come and see us play at the BBBs on the 19th October, maybe we'll be good.