Понедельник 30 Авг 2010, 7:42

It is a much known fact that my driving skills are not the best and that my love of driving is not up there with my love of Waitrose yum yums or maltesers with tea or even with being hit around the balls with a stinging nettle bush but still, here i am again, in the car driving 280 miles (roughly) to play to some people who dont know me who i hope will be moved by the words i sing and the way i sing them. Tonight though I'm playing in poshville, the people here actually live in waitrose! i just run in get yum yums and run out again in case they catch me out for being 'poor' and ask me what I'm doing there. It has rained all day. i have listened to two Patty Griffin albums Impossible Dream and 10,000 Kissses (both brilliant) and a whole load of Jamie Lawson stuff in order that i can do some 'work' while being bored out of my skull in this delicate cage of motion. I want to close my eyes, every now again i just want a little shut eye. I resist or pull over.

Tonight I'm at The Elgin Pub in Notting Hill with the brilliant Jose Vanders and the equally brilliant Lucy Rose. I have friends here too, Paula and Ro have travelled from elsewhere to come see me play, how nice is that?! The culture shock of cornwall - pub? hows the surf? yeah, all good n that, to Notting Hill - I dont know wether to have the braised duck? is still settling in as i take to the very lovely and grand looking stage. It would be a great venue if it wasn't full of cocks. but then I notice, I have judged books by their covers (which as books go, i do believe you can actually do these days) some people leave and go sit in the other bar but some stay and gently become quieter and listen. I play The Last Time and More Than I do, then go into The Touch Of Your Hand, I watch a girl cry. There's nothing i can do from here. A few times people have said, "your songs made me cry." I always apologise, it's never my intention. I notice however that this girl's boyfriend is being a bit of a dick, he keeps getting up and leaving her to use the loo but dashes into the next bar, i think he maybe putting it round but what do i know. She'd be better off without him, they leave together at the end of the night, they haven't come to hear singers but they should've. I sing Real Thing, talk very little, sing that song about the horses and then A Darkness which sounds completely out of place in this room with its elegant chandeliers, beautiful ornate wall paper and overly well dressed clientelle. i like it all the more for that! I end and get off the stage and am greeted by a girl called Maddy Mead who is also a songwriter who tells me I'm brilliant, which is always nice to hear isn't it.

I join my friends at the back of the venue and sit back to watch Lucy Rose. I haven't heard Lucy before but she's brilliant, really tender songs and haunting vocals, all breath, sex and loss. I could listen to her for hours. She's playing again soon on the 12th September in London at the old queen's head in Islington, if you're around there you should definitely go along.

http://www.myspace.com/lucyrosemusic

Jose Vanders turns up half way through Lucy's set. I was beginning to think she wasn't going to make it. I asked to do this gig after seeing her play in Bath a while back. I think she's brilliant. And again tonight she really impresses me with her effortless stage presence and the ease-ability of how she talks to her audience, it isn't something i find easy, more often than not i say nothing, mainly because what's in my head is truly not appropriate to share with others in public!
Jose has a song called, "Man on Wires" that i really love which she plays tonight, I've listened to it alot, go check her out here:

http://www.myspace.com/vandersmusic

After the gig I drive my friends back to their hotel and drive round in circles trying to find my way home! London, how much I must love you to be back so soon. Or uh, no.