Let's start in reverse order for once, just for fun...
Although probably our earliest finishing gig, I was conscious of getting home at a reasonable time to let our much appreciated babysitting father in law get home. As a result, I think the guys discovered I DID know where the accelerator was in the car! 35 minutes door to door from The Coach House to my house! Not bad going!
Sunday morning, and in fact all day, I was absolutely burst due to taking advantage of being the only adult in the house and finish the night with a couple of large glasses of red wine and a surf of the net. Well, wine finished I suddenly discovered it was 3am. Off to bed for this post gig rock dude! Unfortunately by 7am the wine wanted to come back out and could I get back to sleep after the visit to the wee room? No...
Rewind to the gig... Originally we planned that Andy and I would double up and head up together. Well, after a fruitless attempt to fill his car that plan was abandoned and both cars were required. Just goes to show that Andy doesn't swallow - well, his Audi anyway...
A return to the Coach House is always a welcome trip. We've been playing this one for about 8 years now and every time we're greeted with a warm welcome and made to feel like part of the family.
On with the acoustics and into our now obligatory "unplugged" session - this one kicking off with Proud Mary. A really decent assortment, including some really off the wall choices, followed - the most risky gamble being possibly the first ever acoustic outing of "Butterflies Under Glass" from our last album, preceded by my intro where I said the inspiration was a post nuclear landscape where the only survivors are cockroaches and drummers... Butterflies proved itself absolutely stunning done in the stripped version.
At the break we were chatting to Allan & Jock from Blue Steel (another of my band links from the past) who asked if they could do a couple of numbers. We agreed, they played... The return of The Shine saw us kick off again with a long rested "Sugar Mice" which was an absolute pleasure to play again (I LOVE playing the softer stuff like this, Whiter Shade Of Pale, Wish You Were Here etc). We then upped the pace to more rocky material - almost totally ignoring the setlist. New tracks (for us anyway) included Are You Gonna Go My Way & Walk This Way, both of which rocked. We also included a resurrected version of Andy's track "Different Day" - due to be recorded on our next album next month.
Finishing the night (and coming back full circle to relieving faither in law), we finished bang on 12. Allowing for the obligatory "one more song" - we launched into Sex On Fire, pleasing Kim. Down with the volume controls but... NO... Another "One More Song"! I looked pleadingly at Kerry before telling the still strong in numbers audience it would be disrespectful to the Robinsons to abuse their hospitality - only to discover the one more song request had come from Jan & Kim Robinson!
All in all, as usual, another brilliant night with some brilliant people! That was the last one for 2013 but certainly I'll be back up - both to see my friend Stuart McFarlane & also, hopefully with some of my fellow rock monsters, for the band night in November!
