Just Another Day At The Office

Just when I thought I'd had my fill of surreal and (mostly) enjoyable evenings, another one has come bumbling along. Last night I thought I'd try the open mic evening at The Cross Kings in, erm... yeah, you guessed it, King's Cross. By reputation this is a good night with a good host and nice P.A. My friend was playing piano between acts and I wanted to check that out too.

I was very tired from the goings-on on Saturday (see below), but I made my way down and found the venue easily. First impressions were very good. The bar has friendly staff and is decorated in a fun, bohemian style. The host, David Goo (great name), was friendly too and introduced himself as soon as he saw my guitar. The Sunday night consists of floorspots followed by booked acts, and promised to be great fun.

Floorspots kicked off at 7.30 with birthday boy Pete Scott, and I followed next. The venue was almost completely empty, but I'm used to those sorts of gigs, and it was a welcome relief after Saturday's boisturous punters. I played three songs, and my tiredness showed a little as there were a few small playing mistakes, but the vocals still sounded strong so I was pleased. Several more floorspots followed one of which was a friendly chap by the name of Edwin Addis, who I'd met previously at Edwards in Hammersmith. The venue was still empty, but we all tried our best and the standard was pretty high.

After the floorspots ended we went on to the booked acts, the first of which consisted of a cello player, violinist, percussionist and two female singers singing in some language that sounded a bit like Turkish, but could have been anything. In a slightly surreal twist about 80 people emerged, as if from nowhere, and packed out the entire venue. Where were they when the other acts were on?! Anyway, they seemed to enjoy the band they'd come to see and some even stuck around to see the next acts. These consisted of a couple in jeans and check shirts singing about how sick they made each other (kinda funny, but a bit lightweight), You And Me singing songs about the trivia of life (with a superstar recorder player... more on that in a minute) and Preacher Boy, who had come from the States and played Dobro steel guitar extremely well and sang pretty good. My friend Wayne Myers (Fit and the Conniptions) provided a variety of ivory-tinkling between acts.

I have to say that I was most excited by the recorder player for You And Me... who looked and sounded exactly like Keith from The Office (far left in the picture), and you know what? It WAS Keith from The Office, or more accurately Ewen MacIntosh who plays him. How cool is that?! I only wish I'd known for sure it was him when I was there, I would have got his autograph.

Who knows what will happen next? I've no idea, but I do know when "next" is, it's this Thursday at Leonards in Angel. See you there!!

Dxxx