Sunday 29 January 2006

Lots to reflect on from the last few days on this sunny winter Sunday, after a fun gig last night in Perth. I'm completely exhausted but that's fine.

For one thing, good singing is good singing no matter what it sounds like. It was fascinating to share a stage with two very different singers, both of them technically assured and emotionally engaged, and as songwriters themselves, appreciative of what Burns could do. Karine's 'The Lea Rig' was a unfollowable end to the first half, and Michael blew us all off the stage with his breathtaking delivery of 'Ae fond kiss' and 'Parcel of Rogues'. He's a formidable musician.

The creative team at Perth Concert Hall are pretty formidable too: production manager Patrick and stage manager Mary somehow manage to be ruthlessly efficient and effortlessly entertaining at the same time. This is important.

This was Chris's first time with us as a quartet (OK, quintet now). When he first heard Spring Any Day Now he said 'David, I want to be in your group' and we finally managed it. At the end of a few days together, the dynamics work out like this: Katherine remains calm and organised at all times, Chris remains calm at all times by being strategically disorganised from time to time, and the other three of us take it in turns to get stroppy with one another. I don't think any of us are taking it personally though ... yet.

Our relationship with Perth is proving very valuable though. Having the freedom and the budget to try new things is very important to the continued life, sanity and artistic well-being of the group. I described it to Chris as our R&D department.

Other things to reflect on: 1) Not wearing shoes on stage is really good ... for me anyway. I like my feet to be free to move. I've never had the nerve to do it before, but then the January sales brought me an Armani suit I can play in, which means I still feel like I'm dressed up and stageworthy when in my socks. 2) Playing sets of several tunes with long names inevitably leads to them being abbreviated, but how did my set list come to read Arse/Monster/Peggie/Flower - Barse/Hell-Sausage/Bent [see above]? 3) As a result of the photo session below, Chris's nickname has changed from 'Big Bois' to 'Small Pipes Guy': a bit of a come-down.