Back from a very enjoyable weekend in Birmingham with Debra seeing (and meeting) the enchanting First Aid Kit at The Symphony Hall I arrived at The Cookie to find owner Tinny deeply concerned about his son who had seemingly vanished after a night out, thankfully he did turn up later but I really felt for his dad, anything like that I feel a real empathy for because of my own personal reasons.. This was another one of those hows, lowly attended but filled with top quality music. The Wild Man Of Europe were like cult folkists complete with musical saw and Simon Waldram was as outstandingly original as usual. Our set was full of our customery good humour and spontaneity including a version of new 2015 song 'Mr Reed' with me singing lines written minutes before going onstage. Our fourth perfomance as a trio, David and Mark just lifting my game so much higher.. A snippet of The Doors 'The End' at the end, my right hand about killing me but no pain no gain.. An excellent first show of the year, new songs and established songs transformed by this band line-up.

THE SET:

1,000 ALBUMS YOU MUST HEAR AFTER YOU DIE

A YOUNG MAN'S DREAM OF REVOLUTION

NEVILLE NEVER

A LOVER AND AN UNKIND WORD

MR REED

LOVE AND GUTS

ANTI-STAR

David Dhonau plucks the bass, Mark Haynes strikes the djembe and stuff and I folk off on the acoustic guitar and following our 3 spirited debut shows in December 2014 we now enter 2015 at: The Cookie Leicester January 18th with The Wild Man Of Europe and Simon WaldramThe Silk Kite Tamworth January 28thJack D's Atherstone January 29thThese are all 30 minute sets. We play sitting down in a 'crab formation' with me as the crab head slightly back and Dhonau and Haynes as the pinchers - this is all for mutual eye contact and due to my right hand problems, whilst it is in a splint I've found that I can play the guitar better sat down.