The Hat Club. 5: Paul Gilbody

Thanks to all of you who supported our last Hat Club.
Martin Stephenson was a sell out; justifiably so as he and his partner Helen charmed us all with tall tales, fine finger picking and sumptuous singing.
Our next presentation is Paul Gilbody on April 26th.
As well as being a member of KT Tunstall's band Edinburgh based Gilbody has a thriving solo career.
His songs are confessional singer/songwriter fare, with a little bit of blue eyed soul added to the mix. He's also a master of the loop, so be prepared to be gobsmacked as he, erm, plays with himself...
You can reserve your tickets now by paying your £10 and getting your name on that famous club clip board.


You can read about Paul's career here.


Some future dates for your diaries:

May 17: Kathryn Williams and band. Kathryn has recently been nominated for 'Performing Artist of the Year' by the Journal Culture Awards 2014. She will feature songs from her Mercury prize nominated album Little Black Numbers and her new album Crown Electric.
Katherine's backing band will include a guitarist and a cellist.

Read a recent Independent on Sunday with Kathryn here.


July 12: Paul Armfield: 
'A voice like Leonard Cohen steeped in honey'. 
I said that.
Me.
And, yup, it's true.
Paul has a new album out 'Up Here' which is gathering rave reviews.
Read about Paul here. 


September 27: Boo Hewerdine: His work includes lead singer and creative force behind The Bible, formed in the 1980s, and reformed in 1994, as well as master of solo recordings and much work for film. He has also produced records by several artists, including a long association with Eddi Reader. Boo has been described as "one of Britain's most consistently accomplished songwriters" and is truly a legend amongst aficionados of the songwriting craft.
For any Arsenal supporters out there, Boo also wrote the soundtrack to the move 'Fever Pitch'.

Meanwhile, back to Paul Gilbody: Here's a video or two for your delectation:

James Wyatt v Mike McLaughlin 11.30 am Saturday Morning

This just in from Mark Wyatt to Chairman Mears after an invite to Charlie and James to enter the Club Championships on May 10th.

Hi Kevin,
Many thanks for thinking of the boys.
Charlie has been at home for Spring break, so we went ski-ing together on Friday in Verbier having been to Chamonix on Monday.
He has just flown back to the USA for his final semester and we will be attending his graduation on 19 May when John Kerry (US Sec of State) is giving an address, so it should be interesting. He starts work at UBS next to Grand Central Station 16 July but hopes to be back in the Uk for a couple of weeks before then to sort out his US Visa.
James won the Austrian Open a couple of weeks ago (see attached photo).The man in leather shorts is apparently the Austrian President, but James wasn’t convinced having been told not to talk to any Austrian’s with a dodgy tache !
On 10/11 May, James is due to play in an u17 event at Surrey Health & Racquets and Charlie will be gearing up for his graduation, so I think it unlikely either of them will be able to participate in the Club Champs.
I am coming back next weekend to look after James, so he asked me if anyone in the 1st team would like a friendly match on Sat morning after 11.15am or sometime on Sunday?
He is just looking for a fun match !
Cheers and thanks again for thinking of us.
Best wishes,
Mark

James Wyatt v 1st teamer Mike McLaughlin: 11.30 am Saturday Morning

Tigers v Gerrards Cross

Tigers v Gerrards Very Cross (GVX) at Beaconsfield.
Tigers are second from bottom just 7 points ahead of the bottom placed team, CB 1B whose last match is against the new champions CB1A on Sunday! Tigers are hoping that CB1A field a normal strength team.
So Tigers need 13 points to seal their own destiny and another season in Div1. Jonny Machin returns from the City and making his first million to strengthen the team. Mike McLaughlin will give us a good start against Trevor Loran. Other matches will be closer. Team is Mike, Jonny, Dan, Dave Powell et moi.
Please come and support us.
Gazza

Happy 50th Birthday Timbo!

I hate Karaoke! 

I always resist the call at parties. 

I'm supposed to be a singer right?

I'm not really a 'singer' though am I?

I'm a songwriter who sings his own songs in the controlled environment of a studio... but...

"Come on Trev, show us how it's done!" comes the inevitable call.

You can't win, folk expect and, I suspect, secretly bate their breath in the hope of a car crash.

So, I always resist.

Except... on Saturday night it was my good mate Tim Westall's 50th birthday.

He'd reformed his school punk band 'The X Men' especially for the occasion.
Tim, Tim, Stu and ringer, 'Plinky Plonky Paul'.

I somehow ended up playing keyboards on The Specials' 'Message to You Rudy' as 'Plinky Plonky' needed to do that trombone bit. He did it very well, and I kind of bluffed my way through the song; there were only 3 chords and it was in the key of 'C'. No black notes to bother...

The X Men trundled splendidly through a zestful set with muscularity and no little affection for their beloved Sex Pistols, Damned, Vibrators et al. Great fun as these successful businessmen rolled up their sleeves, rolled back the years and rallied against Thatcher and 'the system'. Anarchy indeed! Tim sprayed out some fine riffs, gurning, grinning; garrulously shooting from the hip with his sunburst Les Paul. Drummer Tim (shipped in from Norway) thumped away with grey abandon, making a glorious, orgiastic, organic din with his rubber drums, whilst singer and bassist Stu came over like a holy union of Paul Simonon and Eric Morcambe as he spread his legs wide and formed a solid foundation in that bopping basement, playing all the right notes but not necessarily in the right order. The high spot was a gusty, gutsy encore of The Stranglers' 'No More Heroes', which The X Men grabbed by the throat and dutifully... strangled; Plinky Plonky's airy arpeggios adding an oddly lofty musicality to the dynamic dirge. It was lovely to glimpse old firm friends re-engaging with the folk and folly that they'd forgotten they loved. 
I think we'll call it 'Joy!' 
I'd have them at The Hat Club but I fear that we'd have to sand bag the place to protect us from the neighbors....

Next up was the dreaded Karaoke.

Tim dragged his lovely wife Donna on stage and they sweetly mugged their way through 'You're the One that I Want'; charming as John and Olivia. 

Then came the call. 
I resisted as best I could but... Tim presented me with a lyric sheet for The Kinks' 'Lola' in an unfeasible font with tiny unreadable text and... we were off. 

I thought I knew the song. 

Do you? 

Go on, give us the tune.
And the lyric then? 

Not so easily rendered or remembered eh? 

"I met her in a club down in old Soho..." and then, nothing. 

A blank. 

So I let Tim lead and decided that I'd just 'guest star' and flesh out the chorus. 

Easy. 

Sorted. 

But could I spell 'Lola'? 

Could I buggery! 

It's L  O  L  A. 

LOLA! right? 

I did 'lilo', 'Loulou', 'lala'. 
Anything but 'Lola'. 
Tim then suggested 'Waterloo Sunset'.
'Dirty old river...' and then... nothing; a blank.
Tim avoided eye contact and pulled the plug.

I shuffled off stage to tumbleweed and bewildered whisperings from a nonplussed audience. 

Not for the first time, but definitely the last. 

Di took my hand and sympathetically whispered "you were rubbish!"

She did however profess the X Men as 'brilliant'.

Here are some clips of the band's performance. 

Something for you to rate her judgement of me by...

Happy St Patrick's Day WKP. Your Ship Has Come In.

Here's WKP.
One eyed as ever.
Rattling on about Ireland's lucky win.
If France had a kicker the Paddy's would have been well beat.
Any other ref would have penalised the Greens for throwing themselves into and over the French rucks in the last 10 minutes... 
Yellow cards akimbo.
Bitter? Moi? Nope, just have a better grasp on realty than Willy Von Krackpot...

Dear Trevor,

Please make sure you post this on the blog.

Six Nations

I turned up at the club for the big decider. I thought I would spare them the wig and hair so I only wore the Irish shirt. Well , it was like the Marie Celiste. Instead of finding the usual rabid Englishmen all waiting to be bought a round, the bar was echoing with the sound of Juniors fighting over potato crisps. To their credit, two English supporters did appear in the shape of Tim Westall and Richard Lubek. Tim left at half time and Richard stayed until the bitter end. Where the rest were was as big a mystery as the current missing Malaysian Airways missing 777. Ireland scored more tries, had a superior points difference, played attractive rugby and came from a nation of about 6 million people to choose from. This suggests to me that English rugby is still in the dark ages and needs to wake up to the fact that they need to look at their players on merit. Ireland won't win the next world cup, so don't try to get a bet on. England could win it if they get their act together. it takes a team like Ireland to show up the continuing  weaknesses in thinking and selection to expose this fact. I am looking forward to buying all the shrinking violet England supporters a drink on Paddy Power, where Ireland were 9/2 before the tournament.

Ireland, Ireland!

Regards

Willie

Saturday Evening's Hat Club; A Big Hit!

Saturday evening's Hat Club was a great success; indeed a sell out!
Martin Stephenson and is partner Helen (not the bearded fiddle player left) produced two idiosyncratic sets of wonderful, rootsy, warm melodic music. As well as some fine singing and sublime finger picking, there were mirthful moments of unpredictable banter that added to a crackling quirky atmosphere. Part of that dynamic came from the fact that we opened the gig up to 20 non members, folk who brought tickets directly from Martin's website. New faces, new friends who knew all of the words and helped lead the singalongs.
I'm sure some might remember Martin from the 80's & 90's.
'Boat to Bolivia', 'Gladsome Humour & Blues' were never off my turntable back then; I saw him play many times with his band The Daintees. And Helen's band The Chiefs were darlings of The John Peel Show around the same time.
Martin has just released his 41st (yup) album 'California Star' to much acclaim.
Anyway... there was some weird serendipity around on Saturday: In the morning a copy of the monthly magazine 'R2' dropped through my letter box.
My band Miracle Mile have an interview within, courtesy of Jeremy Searle.
We also have a track on the free 'Unherd' CD that comes gratis with this fine mag.
And who do you think has the track before ours?
You couldn't make this stuff up!

A fine night was had by all; I'm told that we hit the £800 mark in bar takings.
Thank Christ for WKP! I think that he accounted for about half of that...
He also sired one half of our formidable bar staff; Connor and Alex, who did a sterling job behind the bar; they even granted me my very own tab, making a very old man sappy...
Kudos also to all of the members who turned up; particularly Howard and Irene Machin, Willie and Sarah Kirkpotty and the Courtney Lucks who, I believe, have attended all of the presentations thus far.
Paul Austin should be wrapped in gold leaf that we can all lick it off; we'd be a non starter without him providing, setting up and taking down his excellent PA.

The next Hat Club is on April 26th and features KT Tunstall band member Paul Gilbody who'll be bringing his unique brand of percussive pop 'n' roll to the club.
Details of that will follow soon.
Have a look below at a clip from The Old Grey Whistle Test as a sample of what you missed on Saturday if you were absent.