It was a bit terrifying, as I found myself obliged to go on after two Northampton rappers, who call themselves, triumphantly, The Shit. As in "To the S...to the H...to the I...to the T...MC Burt Reynolds on the M-I-C." No, really. They were really good. They're gon' kick our asses higher than the Express Lifts tower. We're gonna try and get them on with Wilson, maybe on Christmas Eve.

Anyway...coming on after The Shit was tough, especially as I'd elected to play Nature Boy for a starter. Hardly the "breezy opener", but it went down all right. Things went fairly swimmingly until towards the end of Harlan, which I found myself obliged to finish with 5 strings. I switched to the Burns and carried on, but I lost sight of my sound, got clumsy, hit the pickup switch a few times when I didn't mean to...all a bit scrappy, really. Didn't dig it. Satellite of Love felt like a big mistake (doing this was - indirectly - your fault, Brian Kelly...) Some dignity recovered during Honey and the deeply inappropriate Neil Young cover. Noisy ending. Happy, baying punters. Encore. Not really satisfied with the performance, though. I'm trying to get this shit good, but I didn't really have the time to sort myself out for this night. Small difficulties threw me off course more than I would have wished for.

I think they're having me back in February. Folks, I promise I'll have a proper solo set sorted out by then. Honest.
Credit: ;;