Rose Parade - Sell out B*st*rds

There are two words that when put together elicit equal amounts of joy and sadness.

They are sold, followed by out.

If we aren't going to go down the path of talking about artists who have allegedly sold out their credibility for stardom.

Then what we are left with is the proclamation of the two words together regarding an event being now ticket-less.

On the one side of the coin are the artists who know that people are going to make the effort to come and see them, and a busy night rather than playing to one man and his dog, is ahead of them.

For the venue the words are accompanied by the ringing of their tills.

For a promoter the sound is one of a sigh of relief, and for those with tickets there's a smug little voice reminding them that shelling out early for a ticket was a good idea.

On the other side of the coin are those who thought that they would just leave it until the night and pop in.

The ones who know that they had the chance to attend, but let it slip through their fingers.

With them sharing sad faces are unfortunately the people who simply didn't have the means at their disposal to grab a ticket and are now a tad pee'ed off that the night has arrived and they are still skint.

I feel for the later, but I'm not so fussed about the former.

And tonight is one of those nights that draws out all those feelings.

Rose Parade actually sold out weeks ago, but tonight is the night where all the work they have put into recording their debut album is revealed.

The excitement is mounting and with three excellent supports in place it's all shaping up to be a 'you had to be there' gig.

I'm fully expecting to indulge in a weekend of reading posts from people on the social networking sites that mention how utterly fantastic the gig was.

I would advice people to pop in as early as they can so that they can grab a bite from the much loved menu that the 13^th Note has prior to them securing a space with a prime view.

I can feel it in my water that this is going to kick off in a spectacular manner.

Little Fire/Matt Scott - Claire's House gig - 9/3/12

Third gig in three days and it's something a little different.
A house gig.
Not a party with some entertainment, but a real gig in a friends house.
Claire booked Jamie (Little Fire) McGeechan to perform and Matt Scott kindly played for us all and made the evening all the more special.
Between them they've supported some big names and appeared on stages from King Tuts to the Royal Concert Hall and now it was the turn of Claires front room.
For some it may seem a strange premise, but there is far more plus points to it than negative ones.
For one the musicians are playing in front of an appreciative audience and not having to compete to be heard over uninterested patrons of a bar.
They also don't have to haggle to get their expenses covered.
Instead there's a prearranged price and everyone chips in and covers it.
Another plus point is that while the night isn't exclusive the people participating are all looking forward to a relaxed evening of hassle free entertainment and no one has to deal with the downside of socializing in a pub.
None of the women are hit on by leery strangers and none of the men feel the need to play macho games designed to massage egos.
People can feel free to drink what they want, or not, eat what the want, or not, and no one has to queue for the bathroom.
I could go on as in its totality it simply works on so many levels.
When Little Fire sat down to entertain us it was all unknown territory for everyone involved.
Here we all were about to step out into the unknown, about to try something different.
In the spirit of this he had brought along a large song book and instead of focussing on his own material edged into doing a set mainly made up of covers.
Up until this I had never seen him sing the material of others and it was a pleasurable surprise.
Nothing sounds like the original and all have a Little Fire twist to them.
The familiarity of the songs worked wonders as no one came to the experience completely unfamiliar.
Time flew past.
Literally just slipped away.
I lost count of the songs played and then it was time for Jamie (Little Fire) to have a break.
So while he wound down from his first set of the evening Matt Scott took over.
He played a good mix of his own self penned material and covers such as Springsteen's Thunder Road.
We were even privileged to get the first live outing of a new song that in different surrounding we may not have.
It was that sort of night.
One that was conducive to trying out new things.
Once Matt was finished Jamie took over again and the amount of ground covered was expanded upon.
From Neil Young to Slade and more, all got the Little Fire treatment.
Between both Jamie and Matt most musical genres were covered in their own inimitable style.
The entertainments didn't end between sets either as everyone got on like a house on fire.
Plenty of chat and nonsense was effortlessly spun out to fill the gaps.
Prior to this evening not everyone actually knew each other, but once again it was all so relaxed there was nothing uncomfortable about it and at the end of the night people swapped contact info and since have kept in touch.
It was around 2am when Kelly and myself left and Jamie was just starting to sing some more.
It was nearer 4am by the time Matt left and he ended the evening performing to a room full of 15 year olds on a sleepover.
Is this the future for live music?
Well if it is then the future looks bright.
All ages, no barrier to gender, no pressure to conform.
Definitely a gig that could stand shoulder to shoulder with any other in a so called purpose built environment.
Many thanks to Claire for hosting this.
It was a pleasure to be part of it and I'm looking forward to a repeat performance.
(Photographs were not taken on the night)