"Do you really do this for a living?" asked a slightly incredulous man after my gig tonight. It's not exactly what you want to hear after a set, especially one that had gone pretty well, but there he was asking it. I had mentioned in the show how I'd done ten more minutes then I was meant to, complaining that I was boosting my working day from 20 to 30 minutes. But this man thought I might be just messing about, that this was something I was just having a go at and that surely I couldn't be making a living at it. He was, if it makes any difference, from abroad, I would guess from somewhere in Europe, so he probably hadn't caught me as Percy the Shepherd, so doesn't know that I am nationally known in this country. Still good to have my feet kept on the ground after a performance that I felt had been pretty good (and thanks to those of you who were there on Monday who emailed to say that you though I was being too hard on myself - I didn't think I'd been terrible, just that I'd let the gig very slightly get away from me). "It's a shame you weren't here earlier," the tactless man continued after I had confirmed that I did indeed do this for my job, which made him pull an even more surprised face, "There was a guy on earlier doing a song about the credit crunch to the tune of "Hit Me Baby One More Time" by Britney Spears!" Now he was telling me how brilliant the other acts had been. Ah well, it's always nice to meet your audience. And he was trying to be friendly.
I'd been in a skittish mood in the gig, telling a man with ginger hair in the front row that he was the spit of the kid for the film,
Mask (and here's a drinking game if you want to watch it). It was fun referencing a film from over twenty years ago, which the guy I was picking on had clearly not seen. If he had he might have been more upset.
I had also run all the way up the escalator at Angel on my way there, which was probably a mistake as I believe it might be the longest escalator in Europe. I had to keep running once I had started as I was on the non-working one in the middle and the people traveling on the working one to my left were watching me, waiting for me to fail, knowing that even starting to run had been an act of purest hubris. However I made it all the way and looked pleased with myself, even if inside my heart was pounding and felt like it might explode and I was short of breath and feeling I was about to die. I wondered for how many more years I would be capable of even this weak effort. Surely I am getting to the point where such an act of bravado might lead to serious incapacitation. I think even two months ago when I was at the peak of my fitness (possibly the peak for my entire life) I would still have struggled. I was still feeling it when I got on stage and told the audience about my foolishness. They laughed. It's all good.
On the way home a man got on carrying a guitar in a case. But it was his shoes that impressed me. They were like little foot gloves, in that there were separate fingers (or should that be toes) for each of his toes to go into. I thought it was both cool and quite impractical (but aren't all the coolest things a bit unnecessary). I don't know what you did if you had toes that were too big for the slots, or whether it was a bit of a faff trying to slot your toe into its requisite hole and I didn't want to ask him, even though he wouldn't have been able to give me much of a kicking with these dainty trainers. But I had never seen anything like it in all my 41 plus years. What will they think of next? And thanks to Andy for directing me to
this website, where you can see the shoes in all their glory.
Two announcements that may be of interest
RARE GOLDEN TICKETS: There is a chance to get your hands on some elusive tickets for the TMWRNJ Lyric Hammersmith gig and raise some money for SCOPE. There are two tickets being auctioned
on ebay>/a>. Go and bid now! It's already up to £41 for the pair as I write, but I think it will go a lot higher!
SURVEY: Collings and Herrin have set up a listener survey. Please fill it in if you are so inclined. It's here. My favourite response thus far is this one from someone when asked what they like about me - "He is rude and funny. He makes jokes and comments that others might shy away from or feel were inapropriate. And he talks about bumming and Gary Sparrow, I would like to hear about someone bumming Gary Sparrow. Please note though that I wish to hear NO discussion of Gary Sparrow actually doing the bumming. He must be the bummee not the bummer. That is vital to my correct enjoyment of any Gary Sparrow/bumming material. Any deviation from this formula will ruin things for me."
