Gigs!

Obviously I haven’t been to a gig since March but the weekend, well Thursday onwards, brings a threesome of streamed gigs in four days.

Or rather it was supposed to and first up was Ride who streamed their gig from Omeara, London Bridge on the Dice platform but we all watched as the display constantly froze and the stream buffered throughout the first four songs before they canned the whole thing part way into song five.

They ended up recording the whole thing ‘as live’ and then sending out a link to the show which I then watched on Sunday. So three gigs in three days then. When it finally came Ride’s show was worth waiting for. Fairly short at just thirteen songs and the thing it brought home to me was how good last year’s ‘This Is Not a Safe Place’ album is. I hadn’t bought it but I have now.

Next up on Friday were the Slow Readers Club streamed from The Met, Bury on Veeps. This was the Readers’ second live stream and they were more ambitious than Ride, playing 21 tracks.

The band have been trying to get on the road to tour their fourth album ‘The Joy Of The Return’ but have so far failed to do so with the dates now kicked back to 2021. They play plenty from that album even though it’s no longer the new kid on the block with album number five ‘91 Days In Isolation’ previewed tonight. This is material written in isolation with the band sharing compositions with each other online and it will officially be released in the Autumn.

Finally on Sunday, and now with the rescheduled Ride supporting (on my TV at least), came Frank Turner which, like Ride, was streamed on Dice but without the technical issues. He was playing at Vans for Bands, Oxford and he’d billed this as his 2500 gig after counting 14 solo shows during lockdown. Actually I think he did far more than that... but accuracy would spoil the occasion.

He’s performing with his band The Sleeping Souls for the first time in months and the proceeds will largely help them out after they took a financial hit during the pandemic.

Frank delivers of course even if it’s not quite as riotous in my lounge as it was at Rock City for his 2000^th but I try my best even if it is only 16 songs from Frank.

On my night off from ‘gigging’, e.g. Saturday, we visit the Horse and Jockey in Stapleford which seems to be operating almost as normal with just a few chairs taken out of use. You’re even allowed to visit the bar. Not that I want to visit the bar as I much prefer having table service. Which means it probably won’t be top of my list to revisit.

(Sunday 9^th August)