Gigs, CDs and poetry

Well it's all happening at the moment. I've had a busy week, with a number of gigs - some private, some listening ones.

On Tuesday I did a mini slot at a poetry and music night, called PoeJazzi, in town. It was a really good night. Sometimes when you're checking out these things, the line-up is erratic at best, but here, everyone was good. It was so refreshing. There were three performance poets - Nathan Penlington, Catherine Martindale and Rhian Edwards - and two other music acts, a guitarist Joe Schmo, and a really cracking flute and drum duo, Zashiki Warashi. And then the compere, Josh, who was a charismatic host.

I only did one song, but it seemed to go down well. It's hard to choose a song that really sums you up or will make an impact, as you never know how the audience is going to react. I would've done one of my more humorous songs, but I prefer playing them with the band, so I did Before, one of my more intense, melancholy numbers. People seemed to like it.

Then last night I did a nice private gig, which went as well as any function could - all the people were helpful, respectful and appreciative, there was decent food, it wasn't too far away and I'm getting paid for it! You'd think all those things were a given, but sadly, no. There are so many gigs where either the management / other staff treat you like a liability. I could go on and on about this, but I'll save it for the memoirs.

Other good news is that I got my demo CD wallets back this week - hooray! They look fantastic. Thanks so much to Lorna who designed them. And ALocalPrinter.com who printed them. They're on recycled card, which is quite hard to find, but these guys were friendly and reasonably priced. Unlike 10th Planet, who practically scoffed at me for asking about recycled card ("Well, we can get it, but it's gonna cost you loads and anyway, the CDs aren't recyclable are they?" Oh. So does that mean because buses use petrol, I should just use my car all the time? Dur.)

And now that's quite enough name-dropping for one post.