Cracking Gig Grommet!

The Hop Pole Inn, Bromsgrove

15th January 2011

Hello Folks!


How are you this year, feels like a year since we last spoke :-)


We we asked to perform a stealth gig at the wonderful Hope Pole this weekend. It was a short notice affair due to a cancellation and we though it an excellent vehicle for preparing our new live set (thinking of course that mid January would be a very quiet night out). We were wrong - more on that later.


GMT of arrivals still in force we turned up at 19:00 to rig for the gig. Nick Tunes was already in residence and he kindly added an extra 2 Optikinetic Solar250's to my light show to turn the gig into a full on psychedelic event (see above for swirly patters and general craziness).


Setup was good, we were sporting our new chopped down equipment for these smaller gigs; Little Dave without Acoustic or Dij, Big Dave without extra HH Speaker and myself without the Electric piano. Timmy even managed to get by with one amp and just the two 4x10 bass cabs.

Ron there sporting and excellent 60's Paisley design!

So we got setup without the usual GHM technical hitch took my view from the stage banker and sat down for a pint, all of us together - and that's nice when that happens. We are busy guys personally and professionally and we run with clockwork precision (sometimes) so its nice to let the (grey in my case) hair down and chat with mates.

Banker View from the Stage shot

Moving to the set, the band were tight - this is a reflection on the effort that we have been putting into working our new songs through for both the Space Ritual Support on the 27th Jan and the River Rooms gig on the 28th (as well as the other gigs to follow). We have 4 or 5 new songs in the set and judging by their reaction on Saturday they are going to stay there!

We stuck to script, mainly, with regards to the set in that we didn't play many songs that we hadn't planned to. Inside those songs however, it was the usual cosmic free for all and telepathic psychedelia that we are becoming known for and really enjoyable to play.

Notable high points were when we went into an impromptu jam of the phrase greenheadman dot com (something you should all sing to yourselves on a regular bases - go on do it now, I can wait....). We played this to a Chuck Berry (I'm gonna tell you how its going to be) kind of rhythm and we even managed to stop at exactly the same time at the 'end' of the song only to hear little Dave solo (as part of the improv lyrics) "WE KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE".


Intermission and I took the opportunity to have a look at some of the literature and posters that were on offer instead of heading for the bar:

Space was at a premium and how I didn't hit Timmy's headstock with my head is a mystery but we pulled off another excellent gig - Although this gig was hardly advertised GHM did the trick again of stopping people from moving onto the next pub and by the end of the night the place was rammed - well done all of you !

Second set went like a dream, the first few songs were exactly as the Space Ritual support will be and a good method of trying them side by side in a live environment, they worked. It was nice to see the young bar staff singing the choruses and tapping away to songs that they had never heard before, that was a real confidence boost for us!

The Dance Commanders

Sorry about the quality of the above photo but in my defence I was playing Lucifer Sam by Pink Floyd at the time!

That's it for another week, we will be back coming in your psychedelic ears on Jan 27th Supporting (ex-Hawkwind) Space Ritual and the day after at the River Rooms in Stourbridge will a headline set full of belters.

You see if we won't!

Layters,

Nick