Last night was a busy affair which involved a dash across town to see a brand new band performing their first official gig. Before that I went to Goose Fair again, this time with Mandi and my dad, essentially for my dinner as I had a hot dog, mushy peas and some doughnuts. The atmosphere on a Friday night is wonderful to just walk around taking it all in (and eating of course), but I had to cut short this highlight in Nottingham's year by heading to Bunkers Hill, where I'll be playing ringmaster this Sunday, to catch Jay Brow's new band playing.
We first met after I wrote a nice thing about his former band The Breakfast Club, and have been friends since then. I was invited to see the new band, currently without a name, because Brow knew that I would be honest with him and not sugar coat things. A three piece band of two acoustic guitars and a cajon, this is a fresh project that will hopefully lay The Breakfast Club to rest. It is great to see Jay enthusiastic again because the messy break up of the band was something that hit him pretty hard so I was flattered to be asked to watch simply to say what I thought.
Obviously they were rough around the edges but through that roughness I could see where they were going, the songs themselves were great and the humour of the old band hadn't been completely lost. They engaged well with the crowd and went down really well, (one guy in the pub kept shouting 'witty' remarks but piped down once he realised he was being ignored). I recorded some of it on my phone until the battery ran out (I had been recording noises from Goose Fair and hadn't been home to charge) and listening back to it I can tell that things are going to get better with time until they are ready to start going out properly, with a name, and staking their place in Nottingham's music scene.
That is of course if the curse of my endorsement doesn't catch up with them first, otherwise they are fucked.
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