#21 The Glee Club, Birmingham

I don’t mean to brag, or set myself up for an epic fall, but I am very very good at handling tequilla. Something the rugby lads I met at my last Ed Sheeran gig were keen to test again tonight by laying out 6 shots for me as I came off stage, with 5 minutes left til chucking out (hopefully not chucking up) time.

This couldn’t have sat in stronger contrast with what was actually a beautifully intimate evening of live music at The Glee Club. It continues to amaze me how drastically different each gig is – the songs may be the same, but like I said in the Winchester blog, audiences are not just observers they are participants. So a different audience always means a different night. I don’t think we realise how influenced we are by a room, the people in it and what we’re hearing. It could determine whether you talk loudly at the back or stand speechless in the front. Picture yourself raving up a packed, dark dance floor on a saturday night. Now picture the place suddenly empty with all the lights on. Haha you look like a fool! It’s all context. We go with the flow.

So one day we get pissed up clubs, and another we have tonight – rows of chairs occupied with silent, attentive bodies, keen to absorb every note and probe the performances. No band this time – just John and I. It was a real examination.

Part of this was necessity – the room holds a couple of hundred but we’d only sold 32 tickets. Low sales means the promoter makes it a quiet, acoustic seated gig, which is fair enough. Personally I think 32 presales is pretty bloody good for a place I’ve never played before. You have to start somewhere right?

The venue didn’t seem particularly impressed, tho I suppose they have their own costs to cover. Thank the lord for Emily and The Woods who we brought along as a support act. She’s a kindred spirit just out to make music and play it to people. She played magnificently, and sold plenty of CDs which made me very happy. Good for you Emily.

I felt humbled that we had a crowd at all, and by the end they all felt like friends, each with their own little links and reasons to be there. We played our socks off.

Emily shared the shots with me in the end, perhaps just as well. Our journey home was split between discussing the notions of truth and beauty in philosophy and playing The Knob Game.

Postcards sent to: Millie
Next postcard to: Mika Dave
Free T-Shirt: Nicky Sargent
Thanks to: John and his sound team, Marcus, Emily, everyone who came along –
No Thanks to: The bouncers who demanded we leave 10 minutes after leaving the stage for no reason whatsoever.