Anything But…

We’ve just returned from our annual trip to France where we spent a week at Philip’s cottage in the Ardeche rehearsing and adding new songs to the already-bulging repertoire. This year’s trip was far more relaxing than last year’s in that we decided to limit the amount of new songs to nine. Last year we attempted to learn nearly 25 new songs and it was grueling. We wanted to have a bit more fun this time around and we debuted the new material at the Bar de La Palisse gig at the end of the week. This was Nikki’s first France trip with the band and she proved to be very popular with the male contingent in the bar!

Our trip was very nearly cut-short on day one however when we were very very nearly involved in a car crash in Bourgogne. We had come to a stop at the front of a T-junction, about to join the main road, when a car pulling a trailer on the main road lost all control and missed us by mere centimeters. The trailer jack-knifed in such a way that the car screamed past us going backwards on our side of the road, skidding across the other side of the road, and hitting a tree with such force that it totaled the car…and the tree! Thankfully there were no cars coming the other way otherwise it would have been far worse. The occupants were incredibly lucky to be alive it was that bad. With adrenalin pumping through our veins, we drove very very slowly from then on as you can imagine!

The highlight of the trip was our interview live on local radio. A friend of Philip’s who lives in the area made a few phone calls, and the next thing we know, we are all sitting in an interview booth at RDB FM in Le Cheylard. It’s a good thing that most of the band can speak French and subsequently gave a good account of themselves when faced with the many questions thrown at us. Alan on the other hand (who admits he has trouble with basic English let alone French), could only muster a feeble and embarrassing ‘Hello’ to the listening masses. The station then played three tracks from our album, Rediscover. Hearing ourselves live on air was quite simply mind-boggling.

 TOUR AWARDS

The ‘Trooper of the week’ award goes to Nick, our drummer. Poor Nick was still suffering from a delicate medical operation performed two weeks earlier and wasn’t able to play as much as he would have liked. In fact there was a point where we considered canceling the La Palisse gig. But not wanting to let the side down (he left that to Nikki, see below), he soldiered on and kept it all together. The timing of Nick’s operation however should be bought into question….he is a drummer after all and timing is everything.

The ‘Boules’ award also went to Nick. Whilst he couldn’t drum, he most certainly could throw a boule within inches of the cochonnet.

The ‘I should have left the BlackBerry at home’ award goes to Mike. He’s recently changed jobs and spent far too many hours answering emails and phone calls when he shouldn’t have been.

The ‘Letting the side down’ award goes to Nikki for choosing to see Take That in concert over our Goring Sailing Club gig on July 4. Shame on you.

 OTHER NEWS

We’ve got a second gig at The George Hotel and Village Bar in Pangbourne on September 11. Our first George gig in May was such a success that we were originally asked to play again in July. Sadly, due to other commitments, we’ve had to settle for a later date. We hope to be regulars at The George from then on so hopefully we’ll see some of you there in the not too distant future.