Posted by Gareth The name of this blog is a reference to this week's main act at the Barn - Busy Burning Bridges (linked with a line from Brilliant Fire - how cheesy LOL) - the first part of a really successful, laid back, enjoyable, fun, happy evening at the Barn. - at one point (early on - during Lee's set) while I was standing at the bar getting Ali a drink, a regular attendee(not sure of his name) said these classic words, which i'm sure Nick will want me to repeat here.... He said: "this is, like, the perfect pub" That was the tone of the evening. Thanks to Pete, Jay and Brad for joining me again in the organising, compering and stuff in Nick's absence - we had kind of divided roles this week in a way. Jay was mostly the sound man with the occasional moment of compering, Brad was mostly on kiddie duty (which Oli took over when Brad was indoors), with the occasional early compere bit and I did a lot of the running up to the mic as the act finished and saying the intros and outros. - after my coloured blind episode of last week during the raffle, I was very happy to let Brad and Jay do it this week - but then they had something special planned anyway....which i'll go into when I start talking about the night in order of appearance rather than this meandering nonsense LOL. So yeah, Busy Burning Bridges - excellent stuff - Paul, I think, is a solid frontman with a command of the material he does and a confident posture. Claire and Mike gave nice backup, with excellent use of a second vocal in the song with the second vocal near the end.... Great set - a little short though LOL So then came the open mic bit - with Lee requesting first spot as he had to leave (he stayed till the end!) - he did two great performances again - although I think he was a bit wired - not sure what he was on - but the performance was great anyway - I like it when Lee does the Three Doors Down song - it suits him well. Becky was next, she tackled Sheryl Crow's "If it makes you happy" which is not easy to sing! So kudos for that one! Rory decided he was a gay cowboy tonight (I am quoting him, not just labelling him LOL) and did a song about being a cowboy (which may have been why he wore the stetson) then a song called "Dear Penis" - which is full of the content you would expect with a title like that. LOL At this point we seemed to get a good compromise with the "lights issues" - where the new barstaff didn't know how to turn on the lights going across the ceiling, by the performers (a crucial set of lights as it turned out) - we got a good mix in the end but apologies to Becky (echoing the apologies I gave her at the time too) for the weird switching of lights to near darkness during your set while the bar staff were going "wonder what this button does" LOL - it may have been brief but i'm sure it was distracting so sorry about that Becky. Jon performed Patience which was nicely done. Smudge then went up and shocked me with Games People Play - one of my all time favourite songs. Brad was now firmly locked outside stopping the football police from getting tempted to watch the younger attendees of the Barn (and the general atmosphere and attitude of all attendees were all positive and lovely too this week which is nice - it always is, but with the football match on, with such a crowd etc - nice that it was as "lovely" as normal) Karaoke John became Karaoke "Elton" John tonight, with 2 classics, done in his distinctive style. At this point, Ali and Tania were going around the room selling raffle tickets. Thanks loads for that. Cool Banana fired up the room with 3 cracking songs - "Waiting for my man", "Burger Bar" and "Death by Stereo" - strong performances of songs that ALWAYS go down well anyway - i'm gutted that i'll be on holiday when they do their hour - a must see. This time it was just Matt and Brandon but they had a full sound! - really full sound! So then there was the "Jazz Raffle" - yeah you read that right! Jay and Brad assured me they got the raffle covered and said they had an idea of what they wanted to do - and it was inspired LOL - fantastic LOL - Ali said she wasn't sure if people found it hard to hear Brad's cool, crooner style delivery of the numbers (while jay is playing subtle jazz guitar in the background) - but people went up to get their prizes so it must have been okay in some respects LOL - it had me laughing my head off - ESPECIALLY when Rich went up to the mic and started singing scat between the number calling - brilliant! LOL - at this point I was laughing my head off, the scat was the perfect icing on the cake for an inspired raffle delivery. I would welcome comments from the audience though (the victims LOL) to know if Brad needed to be clearer - it may have distracted him from his smooth, winking posture but that has to come second place to the crazed scarper for the prizes LOL. Also the highlight of the Jazz Raffle would have to be my mate Rachel's embarrassed scream at her boyfriend Rich when one of their tickets was picked out - she screams at the top of her voice "RICH!! GET YOUR BLOODY PRIZE AND SHUT UP!!!" LOL - classic. (she wasn't enjoying th scat) Rich was up next - he gave us Atomic Kitten's "Whole Again" (and really the Barn as a whole should be ashamed at how many people were singing along to THAT one!!! LOL) and "Trouble" the recent hit by Ray Lamontagne - which suited him well again - he was hampered by the mic being too loud though, distorted a bit - our bad. Then I played my take on Leon Rosselson's "World Turned Upside Down" (never tire of that song - or that period of history - they feature heavily in the dissertation i'm doing next year). Then, as it was requested last week, I played Brilliant Fire again - with some people singing along - which I enjoyed hearing - thanks. Dirty Hippy was next with some solo Hobo Jones material - "Rock Island Line" and "Roll in my sweet baby's arms". His voice was obviously in fine fettle again - much missed last week! Lorry brought back the 50s again with his rock n roll - and my table enjoyed shouting "Sparkplug" at the appropriate time. (well we thought it was appropriate! LOL). Paul from Busy Burning Bridges gave us another 2 songs as they did such a short set and we had time left at the end - 2 really good performances too! - then Jay finiished the night off - one song on his own - a Paolo Nutini song.....then "Dancing in the Moonlight" by Thin Lizzy - with the much underated Brad on bass (still got that song in my head now!) - and finished with a big jam.... The big jam consisted of: Jay, Brad, Dirty Hippy, Me, Matt and Brandon - all sharing the stage for the Doobie Brothers "Long Tran Running" - and it was GREAT fun! - I thought it best that Brandon started it with his djembe drum. Jay burst in with the chords and we were off! LOL - Jay took the 1st verse, Del the 2nd, and I took the 3rd verse (with a dodgy dance/walk across the floor as I sang it) - my voice went a bit weird in the first harmony (it's been squeaking a bit all day) but thankfully did the rest of the song "ok" LOL - me and Del bounced off eachother with the ad-libs and variations on the chorus (without Brad, where would you be now LOL) - and eventually we stopped LOL - it was a great jam though. - and a lovely finish to a classic night. Nick - you should have been there, you would have loved it LOL (hope you're having a good holiday mate) Gareth
on August 11, 2006, 1:47 am
80.3.160.12
Busy Burning Bad Memory Down 
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