Haddy called at about six-thirty.
She’d arrived, changed and along with the rest of the
family had gone straight off to catch the ferry.
Apparently a few of the guys are making the crossing with
her and have got a van they can all fit
into ?
Well they got over the river ok and then the van decides
to break down just before going through Senegalese customs.
That’s not good.
Apparently they were stuck there all night as the part
they needed to fix it would not be there until morning.
They finally got it fixed just after daybreak and drove
straight to her Uncle’s house in Dakar.
As you can imagine, it was a very sad occasion.
Apparently they are staying until Friday and then making
the return trip back to The Gambia, so it’s quite likely that she’ll be ‘on the
road’ when I head off to do the gig ?
So, it’s Friday night and I’m off to the Leisure Centre
or The Gordon Craig Theatre or whatever you want to call it ?
At least it gives me something else to think about rather
than just hoping that the wife and kids are ok, not that I could do anything
stuck here, but if you’ve ever had to go through that sort of enforced
separation then you’ll know approximately how I was feeling ?
When I arrived, the P.A. was already erected and ready
for testing so all I now need do is get a vocal level on the two mic’s and drop
slightly on the guitar, then plug in the cd player for Francesca June’s backing
tracks.
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| Setting up. photo courtesy of Grant Meaby |
As soon as somebody else turns up I can get them to test
to the back of the room and we’re ready to go.
Thankfully, it’s Grant who’s the next to arrive so we’re
all done and dusted in five minutes.
As soon as Nick arrives we can soundcheck his guitar and we’re
ready to go with forty minutes spare.
Well we would be if he’d remembered his guitar lead…
I cannot believe he’s not put one in because he forgot at
the last one as well ?
Oh well, he’ll just have to cope if nothing can be found.
I’ve brought along one of my minidisk recorders, none of
which are actually working properly at present, which I’m going to test later
by recording the second half of the gig.
None of the damn things are working properly at the
moment and the one I’d brought with me I’d unscrewed and rescrewed a couple of
nights earlier and apparently I’d got it recording again ?
The way things are set up it’ll be Grant’s introductory
poem then Joy T. and then me.
I’m not prepared to keep switching it on and off because
the truth is I just want a recording of my long piece so that I can edit and
mess about with it afterwards.
I’ve cut it from fifteen verses to nine but it’s still
going to be about four minutes of non-stop verbal and sometimes it’s fair to
say that the audience has the attention span of a gnat…
Oh well, whatever ?
Everybody is beginning to appear.
All the artists are here, Jackie, who most of us meet for
the first time.
Seems ok ?
She’ll fit in to the madness without too much tweaking
which can only be a good thing.
The Mayor, and his wife the Lady Mayoress.
He’s an old friend of Parnassus.
It was his late wife Margaret who founded us with Tom
Hulley but that was a while before I bought my ticket.
The Lady Mayoress is named Margaret also…
I hope she enjoys it.
I also hope Jack (The Mayor) has warned her ?
It’s just one of those things.
We can sometimes be a bit…
Abrasive.
Oh well, whatever ?
We seem to have a small audience too.
Grant’s up for the opening poem and then he introduces
Graeme.
Graeme’s set is ok.
 |
| Graeme Lloyd. Photo courtesy of Grant Meaby |
I wish sometimes he’d vary the tempo and style a bit ?
Don’t get me wrong, he’s damn good at what he does but
sometimes I wish he’d try a different style.
But it’s very ‘likeable’ and he’s a lot better with an
audience now.
Francesca June is singing show tunes and standards’
tonight.
The backing cd she’s brought along has some reasonable
backing on it.
A small group playing in a more jazz style rather than
orchestrations, which can only be a good thing.
I have to say that she sounds good.
 |
| Francesca June. Photo courtesy of Grant Meaby |
She’s definitely got a voice for this sort of stuff even
if she does happen to be Grant’s daughter.
Besides which, she’s been coming along to Parnassus shows
for nearly twenty years to support the old man so it’s about time she got her
own spot again, and it’s a few years since she appeared for us.
Parnassus is definitely a family thing.
Ok, it’s more a mixture of The Munsters or The Addams
Family or even the Corleones or The Sopranos at certain times, but it’s a family
nevertheless.
Nice applause from the cheap seats.
Nick’s up next.
Well, I for one was disappointed.
It’s not that he can’t be good, he can.
 |
| Nick Brown. Photo courtesy of Grant Meaby |
But his set was totally puerile and vulgar without any
comedy.
Material that might just have made a twelve year old
laugh or possibly a drunk or two and the sad thing was, we didn’t have too many
of those in the audience.
And the tragedy is, he’s capable of so much more.
It's like he turned up but couldn't be arsed.
Bummer !
Ok, let’s take a break.
Without Murray, Sarah and Jon this year the sets have got
longer.
We’ve all got our fifteen minutes of fame tonight.
Usually it’s a cram job for six to seven minutes but
tonight we can actually stretch out a bit.
Oh, the Mayor and Lady Mayoress are leaving…
Shame, but that’s the way it goes.
I wonder how much that decision was influenced by Nick’s
set ?
At least the rest of the audience seems to have elected
to stay for part two.
Blimey ! Jon’s here, I never even saw him come in.
‘Hey mate, how are you ?’
We hadn’t heard from Jon Falconer in a few weeks because
of his health problems so it was great to see him up and about.
He’s looking a bit tired but then so would you if you’d
been in and out of hospital with infections.
It’s like two steps forward and one step back followed by
one step forward and two steps back and it’s been going on for about a year,
but he’s still Jon, the spark is still there and that’s the main thing.
Grant’s going up to start part two, so ‘scuse me while I
switch a couple of things on.
First things first… Switch on the minidisk recorder.
Grant does the intro’ and finally his ‘Old Folks Home for
Rockers and Freaks’ gets another airing.
I like that poem.
It has just the right amount of reality and just the
right amount of humour.
And then he introduces Joy T…
 |
| Joy T. Chance. Photo courtesy of Grant Meaby |
Whose set goes off like a rocket and there is welcome
applause when she’s done.
Ok, she went ten minutes overtime but who cares about
time when you’re having fun ?
An excellent set and I’m going to have to push it if I’m
even going to come close to that one.
Get the corny introduction out of the way and I’m up…
 |
| Me. Photo courtesy of Grant Meaby |
Start with a little bit of hard and sarcastic humour,
bring in a bit of observance of people, keep the humour but keep it hard and
then hit politics where it hurts, preferably in the soft underbelly of
hypocrisy and by Christ there’s a lot of that over here right now.
Shame our M.P. wasn’t here.
There were rumours that he would be but never mind…
There’s always a next time.
And end with Africa.
I actually managed to keep the long one going.
I finished with it and got fifteen seconds of applause at
the end.
Wow !
They were actually listening.
And I feel drained…
Usually if it goes off reasonably then I’m on an
adrenalin high, but not tonight.
Tonight I feel absolutely drained.
Another song from Francesca June...
But it’s not over yet, Jackie’s up next.
I don’t think any of us have seen Jackie perform yet so
it’s going to be a first for most of us, but she’s been doing it in her own
patch for a little while and she seems quite confident so here’s hoping ?
Jackie actually performs and is published as J. S. Watts
so that’s the name on the posters.
If by chance you get a chance to buy any of her stuff or
go to see her then I seriously advise you to do just that.
She’s good and she has the confidence to hold an
audience.
Nice set.
I’m impressed.
 |
| Francesca June. Photo courtesy of Grant Meaby |
Which leaves one more song from Francesca June and we’re
done for another year.
We just about finished on time too.
Now I can go home and worry about my wife.
I know it’s this that’s dragging me down and I wish I was
with her right now.
Jon’s off as soon as it ends.
He says he feels tired but it’s been a good night out for
him and he’s glad he came along.
Say all the rest of the goodbyes and then pack up and
offer Grant a lift.
I think we did alright over the whole event but I’m sure we’ll
find out if we haven’t ?
And the Rhythms of the World gig will be upon us before we know it.
Please note Photo Credits. All photos not credited are mine.
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