THE ROCK GOD IS 40!!

Big night tonight - cos it's Andy's 4oth Birthday Party! Yes his age has finally caught up with his hair, and we'll be celebrating it in style!

It's to be hoped that, having reached this estimable age, Andy will now realise that he's supposed to go to bed before 3:00am on at least some days of the week, if he intends to reach 50 (which he probably doesn't!) - live fast, die young is his motto (well, middle aged!).

Last weekend saw us out on the road twice - Friday night at AstraZeneca to bid farewell to a group of folks who are moving on to pastures new, and Saturday night at the Congleton Beer Festival.

Friday was a good night, even if the first set felt like we were playing to people in the next county, as everyone was gathered round the bar! However, a few brave ladies eventually led the gathering to the tables, and there were even people dancing by the end! Sex on Fire and Ever Fallen in Love got their baptisms at the gig and seemed to go down well! Apparently Dave is a dead ringer for Louis Walsh as well - who would have thought it!

So, on to Saturday, and the Congleton BF. Seasoned readers of this twaddle will know that this was the 3rd year we'd been asked to play, and it is always fun - this year turned out to be no different, for a number of reasons!

When we arrived, Nigel (the beer man) said he was convinced that the beer would run out because, due to the nice weather, they had 500 people turn up for the afternoon session, all of them drinking for England! Nigel's view was that, if they ran out it was fine, but we were a bit concerned that, if it ran dry at 9:00pm, it would make for a very quiet second set for us!

However, all worked out well - the beer lasted till the end, the crowd became more and more friendly! Once the punters realised that there wasn't a crocodile infested pond between them and us, the madness began and the night finished on a real high with 3 encores (Delilah almost bringing the marquee down!)!

As ever, the evening was not without its comic moments, the supreme one (in addition to Paul falling all over the stage when he tried to jump on it!) was when an esteemed Round Tabler approached the stage, just as we were building to our big finish, and asked if he could read the raffle prize winners out! Of course, we obliged, thinking it would only be a couple - 21 prizes later he left the stage - we were fully expecting the bingo caller to appear next! It was a bit like coitus interruptus (I believe!)!!

We're expecting some photos from the BF to be posted on Flickr anytime and, when they are, we will post a link on here; in the meantime, here's a link to some video clips from the gig at the Windmill in May - they are only short, but Pete Robinson did a sterling job, and there may be some more from the Nag's Head gig later in the month (more on that to come soon).

Next gig is a wedding next Friday - let's hope the weather's nice again, and we've even had 2 bookings for next April - good God!