WAS IT SOMETHING WE SAID.......?

Well, what a difference a week makes!!

We came off the back of last week's gig flying as high as it's just about possible to fly, and then the week went from bad to worse! Bear with me, dear reader, while I share the collective woes of Dazed & Confused with you:
1. Sunday evening - made contact with Matt Johnson, whose body had arrived back in Blighty, but whose mind was somewhere between Bangkok, the Mekong Delta and Duke's Court Macclesfield! Brought Matt up to speed with the 2 cracking gigs that had happened in his absence, hoping that he would not take it personally, and confirmed with him that he was OK to practice on Thursday and play the gig on Saturday (knowing full well that he would have to be reminded at least one more time once his body and mind had been re-introduced to each other!)
2. Wednesday - brought the gig list up to date ready to check that everyone was OK to do them (including the triumphant return the Windmill, that had hastily been plugged in for Feb 27th!)
3. Thursday morning - got a text from Matt Rose to say he was just being measured for his coffin because the flu had got him, and he wouldn't be able to practice that evening because dying would probably take priority! However, he was still confident he would be fit for Saturday - needed because Dave was escaping to Lincoln (a very shrewd move, as it turned out - see below!)
4. Thursday evening - practiced in the freezing cold (the Brewery is having a new wall fitted, as the previous one had started to march towards Macc town centre!) - not very productive, and also found that half the proposed gigs had changed or were not going to happen - including the Windmill one, because they now had a party on that night!
5. Saturday morning - text from Matt Rose - he hadn't died yet, but was still polishing his wings and harp, and would not be able to play the gig!! Mass panic, followed by calmness, when we realised that of course the remaining 5 of us would be able to carry it off - just a matter of playing and singing louder!
6. Saturday evening - I was still buoyed up by City's win against Wigan (it was quite a pleasant afternoon, all round, actually!), but felt more like a kip when I got home - then found that Chrissie, Matt J and Andy had all been over-celebrating the night before, so none of them were at peak either! Then, the rain and wind started so we got p**s wet through loading and unloading the van (it was Matt's turn in the back this week - that'll teach him to go on holiday!)! We got a lively reception from the locals when we arrived - especially as we had to throw them off the dartboard so we could set up (we did check they'd put the darts down first!) There then followed some lively exchanges which revolved around them wanting us to play the whole of the Kings of Leon back catalogue or, alternatively, for them to do that with us! We disabused them of both these suggestions, so they resorted to trying to get off with Chrissie (brave men indeed!)

On to the gig itself! We were billed up to start at 8:30 but, because many of the locals that had fruitlessly tried to get the better of our verbal exchanges had gone off to the Dog & Partridge (they did suggest we picked up our gear and came with them, because it would be packed!), we decided to wait until around 9:15 to give more people a chance to arrive. This did, in fact, happen - to the tune of our wives and Hugh's brother and sister in law!! So, we kicked off Set 1 with a total of about 15 people in the pub and, during the course of the evening this number fluctuated between about 10 and 20, as we drove some away, and enticed others in! We've been encouraged to throw some Killers numbers in (and it may even happen!) but, I'm sure if we'd done that last night, we'd have driven even family and friends away! Special mention for Iain Wilkie - a stalwart supporter, who happened to be in Bollington (not knowing we were playing) but responding to a text from Chrissie, he arrived for the second set, and even did his famous wobble dance on his own to "Bohemian Like You" - thanks Iain! Perhaps we should all have texted our friends! Mein host did go to great pains to point out that we played fantastically - just a shame that very few others were able to verify that claim!
So now we have a few weeks off to recover from the shock of last night before the next gig (21 Feb at The Nag's Head) - plenty of time to polish up some new numbers (and hit the Facebook advertising hoardings)!