Having said that, there were cats in abundance, and no surprise that P&O took to befriending every single one...

 It became a common site to see Johnny pottering about with a cat on each shoulder... He does seem to have an affinity with the feline race... either that or he’s some kind of bestial pervert who can’t help himself from grooming our four legged friends, or both... He did insist that he has a special relationship with animals... Well, I suppose they can’t understand a word he’s saying... I do envy those cats...

Anway... Neilfields... What a night!!!
The whole thing was set up to celebrate the 40th birthday of... wait for it... Neil, hence... Neilfields.

We turned up at four o’clock ready to soundcheck... all good, everyone friendly until they wheeled out the sound engineer who seemed to have turned up from planet Anorak, just next door to Jobsworth who seemed to look so far down his nose that from our point of view he appeared as two large hairy nostrils on legs.

Well... patronising is not the word!
When we suggested that we would need more laptop through the monitors, he in turn suggested that, if we wanted more volume than that, maybe we should find ouselves another job! What? We were so stunned by his arrogance that we all tried to pretend he’d never said it in the first place...

Then after we soundchecked ’Ectoplasmic’ he quite seriously came up on the stage and gave me a lesson in how to hold a microphone, taking it apart and explaining all it’s components in minute detail... How I didn’t nut the guy I will never know... and it takes a lot to annoy me...

Anyway all this was only a minor glitch in what progressed to be one hell of a night...

The Chorley Crew were there in style... Paul and Mandy had set up camp in there new aquisition... A huge black monster of a coach, all rigged up with kitchen, bedrooms, bathroom, living room and all the comforts of home... Needless to say we spent a lot of time with them... Well they are our dear, dear friends...

Back at the barn there seemed to be two crowds of people... the majority seemed to have come from Lancashire, mostly Warrington and then another crowd from West Wales... both groups mixed really well and all were up for a good time.

First band to play was Generator featuring Neil, the birthday boy, on bass...
Quite heavy punk feel, lots of covers, mostly Nirvana, which they did pull off rather well I thought... had me bouncing round the room like a demented baboon anyway.

Then a DJ put on some more dancey tunes while we prepared ourselves...

my own preparation involved shouting random bits of advice via the megaphone over the dancey beats... I was on one, let me tell you... eventually P&O suggested I have a break otherwise I would have burned myself out before the gig proper... No way!!!

I was ready to convey my message from a pulpit of fiery indignation... they were gonna get it... and get it they did...

By the time we’d finished the opening number ’I’m in love’, extended to include some freeform ranting about barns as great locations in 70’s porn films, they were gripped!!!

We played the usual full on, all out set, but extended quite a few of the tunes to really allow ourselves to sink into them; inhabit them... then come out screaming, rattling the doors and demanding our reward!!!

Needless to say... they loved it... te he.
It seemed that a lot of people there had come on recomendations from friends of theirs who’d seen us before, and they weren’t dissapointed...

Neil said that we should be charging a bigger fee, and although he said we were worth at least £500, he didn’t up our fee on this occassion... ha ha... Well, they won’t be able to afford us next year... ha ha !!

Had some really good, genuine feedback from lots of people... and it’s this that makes it all worthwhile... that and having great friends like the Chorley Crew... God bless every last one of them!!!

Neilfields... WE CAME, WE SAW, WE CONKED OUT ON A BUS!!!

Incidently... blasting out ’Get on the bus’ in Paul and Mandy’s bus was one of the highlights for me...