LandspeederDave

Thanks, gang. I don't know why I let this one get to me so much but it really did. My first gig was in 1988 in a village hall and I've had plenty since then, from pubs to sold-out universities - I was once in a band that had a very, very brief 'moment' before it all went to tits 🙂. I suppose if I analysed it there have been more one-man-and-a-dog incidents than I care to remember and we've always managed to take some fun from it: my traditional greeting of 'I'd like to thank you both for coming' to a small audience (said with a smile, I hasten to add!), testing songs in the live environment. all that. But the after-effect of this one has left me feeling deflated, for the first time. It's odd but I suppose it's because it was on our doorstep. In a couple of weeks we're playing in Barnstaple, 20 minutes in the other direction and I'm now beginning to dread it, which is pathetic. Oh, I should add I'm that rare breed: lead singer, main songwriter AND bassist, so maybe I'm just taking it too personally and need to get over myself. Pfft, listen to me. Grow up man! But thanks, everyone - much appreciated positive vibes from you all 🙂

Last night we played the Palladium in Bideford, a proper Music Venues Trust place that hosts the likes of Soap Girls, Undercover Hippy, assorted Levellers solo projects, that sort of thing. A decent low-end venue. To 10 paying punters. Two months ago we played for the eighth or ninth time in Camden and it was a good crowd and a blast but, being based in North Devon, a backwater for original music, that's not really a viable regular option for four blokes in their 50s with day jobs. We're all old hands and what we're doing - a sort of indie, punky psych-rock'nroll thing is great. Random strangers keep popping up on Twitter to tell us so and the streaming stats are good; this is the best band I've ever been in. But I'm really quite down about the whole thing this morning and not sure if I can be bothered to go out and do these gigs in our local area when even our friends can't be bothered to come out. For the first time ever, I'm actually starting to feel like chucking it in. Sorry - self-pitying whinge, I know.