Strangefish

Rehearsal the… Oh I don’t know…

I’ve lost count now! But I know we’ve had quite a few. This one was to get ready for the forthcoming gig at The Robin 2 in Bilston.

It was great to get together with the guys again after all the messiness of Christmas and New Year getting in the way. We’re now back at it and chugging on to get both the “back catalogue” gig of Bilston done, plus the Fortune Retelling event in April.

In other news through, sadly, Jo Lene has decided to give up the RS Bar. That means our gig in May is now unlikely to proceed and I’ll need to move it. I wonder if Jump fancy a tie in?

Songwriting with the Fishes

Again, last night we had a songwriting session with Strangefish. The four instument players gathered at Paul’s and we spent a good few hours working on The Power of Good – a rather old idea which has been hanging around for years (before Fortune Telling I’m told).

Of course, first, we had to get Food; so Paul and I hunted around for a chippy (not a Kebab shop, there is a difference) so we could have a chip butty each (or a Barm as he kept insisting it was called – but I think that sounds like something that might bite you).

Eventually we located a chippy after the first one had a queue outside, the second looked well dodgy. The third was a charm. I suspect a 2* health rating door sign might have been hidden away somewhere in the depths of a dirty drawer, but actually, the food was rather good and the peas had the colour of a 1979 Vauxhall Chevette, which surprisingly, is actually a very good thing for mushy peas.

Whilst we had dinner I educated Paul into the fineries of Hendersons Relish, and explained why chips should swim in it. It can’t have been that unsuccessful a trip as the Hendos was left behind as a “souvenir” of my trip.

Dave and Bob arrived shortly and we worked on the new song – currently called “The Power of Good”. The idea has now developed and we have a rather nice thing building up now. Having listened back to the recording from last night I’m now really digging it.

We’re meeting again in a few weeks, after my hectic gig schedule calms down a little. Perhaps then the song will have taken on a little more structure?

I’m a Strange Fishy!

Hannah has drawn the entire band as sea creatures food us.

I’m a lobster…

The rest of the guys…

Steve is a cuttlefish.
Jo is a turtle.
Paul is a seahorse.
Bob is a jellyfish.
Dave is an octopus.

They’re very sinister and yet amazingly cool! They’ve certainly gone down very well though. If you’re around Sheffield this weekend then consider this:

Rehearsing with the Fishes… Again!

Yesterday was our final rehearsal before the forthcoming Sheffield gig. We went through the usual stuff, and had a couple of runs through Delicate.

The decision stands that it is officially in the set!

Also compared body sizes… Paul has huge hands!

But short arms!

I wonder if that means he’s a particular creature?

I also got a photo of us with the chimney

But the short video was more fun!

A bloody hefty weekend!

Again a hefty weekend. It all started on Thursday when I did my talk for the Astronomy Club. It was called “Take it to the bridge” and was all about movie and game fictional space craft and if their technology could work.

Friday was a long day of fixed wire electrical testing. A seven board job with poor paperwork so I had to do a major investigation.

The journey home was a two hour slog due to major traffic problems across the county after a fatal accident at junction 34 to 35 on the M1.

The planned Rock the 80’s rehearsal for that night didn’t happen as you can probably guess.

Saturday was Hannah’s auntie’s 70th down in Oxford.

I wore white jeans. Then I remembered why I don’t often wear white jeans! Mucky arse!

After arriving home at after 9pm and going to bed later than planned I had to get up the following morning for the Strangefish rehearsal. 7:30am on a Sunday is quite painful…

Arriving in Bury for 10 we spent most of the day running through the new songs, plus we introduced three additional faces to the band – a couple who will be joining us onstage in July, plus Jake our sound engineer who will be sorting us out!

It was a hot sweaty day. We ate cake. We rehearsed. We went home.

Of Giggage the First

I presume you’re wanting to know how the first Strangefish gig went? After all the build up has been huge from my point of view. About 6 months since I joined the band and we’re doing our first big gig.

Ok so the arrival time was rather early, 2pm, as is always the case with these things. Bob was later than the rest of us but soundcheck went incredibly smoothly. We ran through my most nerve wracking song “Progress in Reverse” and then disappeared off the stage for John Hackett and then Encircled to do their sound checks.

At 9:30 we took to the stage for my first gig with the new band. I can honestly say I’ve not been as nervous to take a stage in years.

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Strangefish Rehearsal the ER… Fifth?

So we are now dangerously close to our first gig in the lineup and I’m looking at it thinking “wow that’s close!”. It’s next Sunday!

Yesterday was our final rehearsal before the gig and we had last runs though the material, tweaked a few bits, and generally played very well.

Unlike the last rehearsal where Steve was poorly we were up to full band again. All six of us.

To see the photos you’d think all we did was wore silly hats though!

We also discussed stage wear, which for the guys is an interesting concept. They’ve never really done the “specific” clothes before. Of course I have the Strange Fish trousers, and the Shark/Kitten shirt. But it’s now becoming a confusing matter of what to do…

The problem with the strangefish trousers is that I can’t actually find anything that goes with them! The shark shirt, on the other hand, makes anything you pair with it look ridiculous.

I have an idea though…