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Blog: Totally Acoustic

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I set off slightly late for Totally Acoustic last night, on the way worrying that Tom (a.k.a. Special Guest Vom Vorton) would get there before me and be AFEARED that nobody else was there. I needn't have worried, as I bumped into him, going in EXACTLY the wrong direction, on the way there. I turned him round and off we went.

I got there to find a range of MY REGULARS setting out the chairs, and we sat down to a lengthy and LEARNED discussion of topics various, including RELIGION and ASTRONOMY - I'd learned earlier in the day (from Wikipedia, obviously) that while there are officially only 8 Planets in the solar system these days, there's LOADS of Dwarf Planets, one of which is LARGER than Pluto! Pluto used to be a PLANET proper, and there's a BIGGER planet in the solar system that I'd never heard of! How did this happen? I looked at the sky CRITICALLY on the way home, but couldn't see it. ALSO, there's a whole PLUTOID, Ceres, lurking around in the asteroid belt! THAT wasn't in the Ladybird Book Of The Solar System!

Talk soon moved on to Stories Of Famous People We Have Met (with Lenny Kravitz somewhat disproportionaly represented) before it was time to round up STRAGGLERS and get going. I couldn't be bothered... sorry, I mean, I thought it was time for an artistic change so CHOSE not to learn any ukelele songs and instead went for a COVERS set to kick things off, as follows:
  • Le Pastie De La Bourgeoisie
  • Brickbat
  • St Swithin's Day

  • I must say, Le Pastie De La Bourgeoisie doesn't half LOSE something when you play it solo... like most of the point of the song, really. The rest of it was all OK, I'd meant to do Brickbat at the wedding the other week, then did a SHORTENED (by forgetting the middle verse) version of St Swithin's Day just because I couldn't decide what else to do.

    Then Tom came on and did a GRATE set - I've ALWAYS liked Lardpony since the very first demo of theirs we got at AAS and would really like to have SEEN them more often, especially now they're on reduced gigging due to CHILDBIRTH. I especially like the way Tom writes the lyrics like a tightly packed package, with all the words snuggly fitted together, with loads of writing and RAZOR SHARP puns.

    There was a LOT of that sort of thing, also a DAZZLING ukelele section in the middle which made me relieved I HADN'T done my usual fist-handed display of ineptitude. The STRANGEST bit was near the end when he played It's A Fair Cop, the song we collaborated on for February Album Writing Month earlier on in the year. It was WEIRD listening to my words being sung by someone else, and especially THOSE words, which sound monumentally FED UP! He made it all sound lovely, also PLAINTIVE, I was well chuffed!

    Then there was BEER and then there was me again, doing THIS:
  • ThePeterborough All-Saints' Wide Game Team (Group B)
  • TheNight I Denied Myself To Comedy
  • (themefrom) Dinosaur Planet
  • ItOnly Works Because You're Here
  • ThePerfect Love Song
  • TheStores Of Not To Be
  • MentalJudo
  • DoThe Indie Kid
  • BillyJones Is Dead

  • It was a bit of a funny old set, largely dictated by REQUESTS before we started. I wrote all the songs down and then put them into order as we went along, which worked quite well, i think, although did rather lead to a LOT of chatting. Towards the end I looked at my watch and was ALARMED to find I'd been going on for three quarters of an hour! It was a lovely evening though, full of lovely people, so I felt like YAKKING.

    I was pleased to get TheNight I Denied Myself To Comedy DEBUTED and, as ever, EXTREMELY happy with the way everyone joined in with (themefrom) Dinosaur Planet, although I really MUST remember to explain about the EVISCERATION section, as it's a bit alarming when I just start screaming in the middle.

    Job done there were farewells for some, BEERS for the rest of us, and further gentle discussion of matters pressing. It was a WRENCH to tear myself away, but as The Pint In My Glass was POORLY and was a) at home, being so and b) NOT at Totally Acoustic LEADING ME ASTRAY into drinking more BOOZE, I wanted to set off.

    On the way home Pete and I walked past a CHIP SHOP - Miss K Kennedy had mentioned it earlier on, and I had POO POOED the very IDEA that there could even BE such a thing as a Proper Chippy in central London, but MY, it didn't half smell nice! We walked on by, in a saintly manner, but next time I may be rather more DRUNK and WILLING!

    posted 22/10/2008 by MJ Hibbett

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    Comments:

    Ha! I was right! You all doubted me, but the chips are ACE from there, and it's open after Totally Acoustic. Nice!
    posted 24/10/2008 by The aforementioned Miss K Kennedy

    It was an ACE night! I got chips on the way home, then fell asleep IMMEDIATELY after eating them which made me feel QUITE BAD. They weren't proper chips though.

    Thanks for having me!
    posted 25/10/2008 by Tom

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