A Really Great Weekend

Have had a great weekend, although on the face of it, perhaps not as successful as I would have hoped…

On Friday night me and Josie went to Acoustica at The Guildhall, and had a really good evening, mainly because the company was so good. Finally met Martin the man behind the only other Gloucester blog that I’ve come across - Uprock Narratives and Unknown Pleasures, which was good. Also caught up with a very old friend of mine that I’ve not seen a lot of for ages, really good to see him.

The music was not quite as good – I didn’t really go for the Emily Maguire Band – I do find myself taking the most ridiculous prejudices at times. This evening it was the bass players’ dreads – all uphill from there, really. But I have to say she seemed to go down well, and she did have a certain stage presence.

The main part of the evening was dedicated to Martin Stephenson, of The Daintees fame. I remember borrowing an album by this guy in the eighties, so he must have been interesting to me then (though, tellingly, I didn’t tape it…). To be honest, the only thing I can remember about him then was that he wore some sort of homberg and included a song of support dedicated to a friend who had come out as a lesbian, which today sounds like a standard script from Grange Hill, but I remember raising an eyebrow at the time. (Hey, I’m from Gloucester, OK!)

It was actually Martin (the blogger) who’d recommended we get along to this evening, so I’m afraid he’s going to hate me for saying that I found Stephenson a bit frustrating. The man’s clearly extravagantly gifted with his guitar (I mean, really – the ease with which he could drift between different styles and play seemingly anything, it was really impressive) but I just wished he’d treated himself a little more seriously.

Now, I’m sure Stephenson fans will say that this is part of the man’s appeal, that he’s a modern-day troubadour, who just loves to entertain; but I just found his constant jokes and asides got on my nerves fairly quickly. I found myself wanting to hear a bit more music and little less banter. It was all a bit Mike Harding for me. (Again, though, I have to say he went down really well.)

[I have to mention the rugby as well. We lost but it was a quite outstanding game, the sort that you almost don’t mind losing, the Cherry & Whites having scored two of the best tries I think I’ve ever seen at Kingsholm, and came very close to winning. Really cracking entertainment. Check in at the Sports Desk for the full report…]

No new music to report (though there’s some in the pipeline), but I do have the April May digest of all the tracks featured in the past two months, if you’ve been having trouble getting some of these Myspace tracks.

April May