Last night we took Jack round
my dad’s to take his birthday presents, and thankfully he behaved himself (I’m talking
about Jack) although was a bit hyperactive (again, I’m talking about Jack). At
least we know he isn’t going to tear up someone else’s house and shit
everywhere in polite company, we won’t be taking him around on Sundays though
as he might be a little bit too much for Nana.
Mandi took Jack home (I’ve
already stopped referring to him as ‘the dog’) while I went into town for a
gig. Jake Morley was appearing at the Rescue Rooms, his second appearance in
Nottingham this year. I’m not going to mention how I was the first person to
play him on the radio when I was at Sherwood Radio. After that he did sessions
for Dermot O’Leary and Janice Long on Radio 2, and appeared on BBC 6 Music. He
was meant to be doing a headline tour last year; he appeared on The Sunday Alternative as part of the promotional run back
in February 2012, but the tour was mysteriously cancelled. He appeared at a
small venue this year and last night was playing at the shitty little room upstairs
at Rescue Rooms. There was a reasonable crowd in attendance, so I don’t
understand how he isn’t a bigger name.
I arrived too late to catch
all of the support act, just the last two songs, but I wasn’t impressed with
what I heard so I don’t consider it a big loss. In the past I have written
(managing to crowbar it into several reviews for The
Nottingham Post) about how the important job that support acts do
and that they should be given some respect, but there are occasions such as
this when I think we should be excused such torture.
My mate Darren (not that one)
was already there when I arrived, and during the interval I found that we had
both been trying to encourage a mutual friend (to protect his identity let’s
call him Barry, I chose Barry because it rhymes with his name, Gary) with no
confidence in his talent that he should be hitting the open mic circuit in
order to build up his act and get himself back in the swing of performing again
after such a promising start to the year in his band that sadly had to split up
in the summer.
Jake was on fine form and
seems to have built a small but enthusiastic following in Nottingham, but for
such a talent I can’t understand why he isn’t bigger. The response to some of
his established songs from the album Many Fish To Fry
speaks volumes about the kind of performer he is, the way he plays the guitar
is something to experience. He mixes the set between playing the guitar
‘properly’ and using it as a percussion instrument like he is doing here.
On the way out I noticed that
the main venue wasn’t open, which made me wonder why Jake couldn’t play there
instead.
Due to the fact that both
Rescue Rooms and Rock City like to squeeze two events per night into their
venues, straight after the gig a discotheque (I still call them that) was
taking place. We weren’t able to leave by the front door of the building because
of the queue of people waiting to get in. The queue amounted to about twenty
people so I’m not entirely sure why we had to leave out of the side door
instead, which took us straight into an extremely packed queue for Rock City’s
student discotheque (I’m bringing it back). It took ages to push our way
through these idiots onto the other side of the road, so why DHP think this is
a good idea is anyone’s guess.
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