Hi all,

   Well we've had a couple of local gigs over the last 2 weekends.The first in our hometown of Torrington in The Torrington Arms which is literally just around the corner from where I live , so no tedious van journey needed. Set up and soundchecked at about 6pm and then went home and relaxed for a couple of hours.Walked backed to the Arms at 9pm and the place was pretty packed. Sometimes hometown gigs can feel more pressured  to do than gigs away from home, you know your gonna be seeing most the people there sometime in the near future and you worry about messing up, but felt pretty relaxed this time. First set went pretty well and had  a great response from a packed in crowd. Had a break for half an hour or so, a few drinks and went back on, played a good second set and couldn't have hoped to have gone down any better. Had lots of great feedback from people and will enjoy playing there again, at the end of the year sometime.

The gig last weekend was in Barnstaple which is only about 12 miles away in a new club called the Underground. The venue is pretty cool, holds about 250 people with a decent sized stage which also had a drum riser(stage for the drummer) so people could actually see Jo playing his drums for a change, setup and soundchecked without any problems and went to the pub next door. where I kicked everyones arse at pool (haha) The pub is actualy attached to the venue which we could see into from the pool room. We were going on at 9pm but at five to nine the place had about 10 people in and we thought we might be in for a quiet night. But we needn't have worried, by the time we actually got onstage about 9.15 the place had filled up pretty well. Went down well and ended up doing Boy Named Sue for encore which we never normally do. Must say thanks to the promoter, Tom for making it all run smoothly. He has had lots of good feedback about the gig and I think we will play there again later in the year. Thats all for now , Delmar 

hey everyone, this is the first time i've put anything on here.But thought i would give it a go. Thought it might help me remember where i've played and what the gig was like,  i have a terrible memory, someone might  ask me about a gig somewhere we did a year ago and i can't even remember being there, it may be something to do with the alcahol, but thats not going to stop so thought this could be a solution.

   Travelled up to outskirts of Manchester, Ashton Under Lyne, to play in The Tameside Hippodrome, last Staurday.Took about six hours in our noisy, cramped, old van, but it got us there without any mechanical disasters. Found the place quite easily(thank god for sat nav's, well not god actually the U.S millatary, who said war was good for nothing) and had plenty of time to set up. The theatre itself was great, had a huge stage , which we only used a small part of.The venue seated about 1200 people.Had a few hours to kill before we had to play so thought we would go for a wander, didn't get very far as it was pretty cold, infact we probably got about a hudred yards before deciding to frequent the nearest public house. We didn't have to go far, there must have been 6 pubs within 200 yards of the venue,got the feeling from the pubs and the people in them that this area wasn't flourishing with an abundance of jobs or prosperity, the faces looked warn and aged beyond their years, but had plenty of lively characters.Had a few drinks then headed back to the venue. We knew we were likely to get around 250 people to see us and were a bit worried they would be scatterd around the theatre in small groups making the place look deserted but sensibly they all came and sat right at the front and created a great atmoshphere.Went down pretty well with the crowd i think, called us back for an encore which was cool.As we packed up our gear we found out from the very helpful technician that the theatre was going to be shutting down in a few weeks due to the local council, even though it has been  making a profit. Its over a hundred years old and will no doubt be sorly missed by the the local people.So another venue will be lost, probably knocked down and sold to tesco's or something, a quick buck for the council to squander at the publics expense. 

We headed off to a travel lodge we had booked for a stop on our way home. Thought we would get there have a few drinks at the bar and just relax for an hour or so, only to find they had no bar!!Jules, who was driving and hadn't had a drink all night was particularly peeved. Thought we might be in luck as across the road was a 24 hour garage, more disapointment,it was open but only the type where you tell they guy through a little window what you want and he wasn't serving alcahol.So crashed out and made an early morning start for home. Got back to Devon by 1pm without mishap, so overall a pretty successful trip.Thats all for now, will try and do this on a regular basis.But wouldn't count on it. Delmar xx