Birmingham & Truck

Hello everyone.
Got my tickets for the gig at Bar Academy yesterday: anyone else going?; after being away for the St Martins gig (and missing the UFO?!?) am looking forward to it immensly. I think St Martins would have been a nicer venue though.

Also saw Mr Moray at Truck festival last year - absolutely brilliant. Is he playing again? If so i'll get my ticket in an even greater hurry.

Just me and my girlfriend then.

Excited to read about the Sounds In The Round at the MAC as well, July 1st.

I'll be there at the Birmingham gig. Really looking forward to hearing the new tracks.

I agree that St Martins would have been a nicer venue (that was a great setting for a gig). When the Bar Academy get's busy it's only the front few rows that can see anything as it's quiet a low stage.

The Sounds in the Round gig will be great, providing it's not rained off, that happened to me when Waterson:Carthy were due to play there a couple of years ago.

Col

Saw Bellowhead at that MAC venue last year. It's an interesting place. Take a blanket if you go though - if you're not dancing it gets very cold!

Cheers

Nick

I thought last night was good; there were no worries about not being able to see the stage!
The new songs were exciting, and the old always nice to hear. And Jim mentioned Broad Street (although it wasn't the nicest story).

What did everyone think of Patrick Duff? I'd never heard him before, but didn't particularly like his style or lyrics. He seemed to be blaming all his shortcomings on women. And the rant about people telling you what to do?!?

Yeah it was certainly the quietist I've ever seen the Bar Acedemy. Quite dissapointing to see so few people there. The same happened when Jim played the Custard Factory on the 'smoke and mirrors tour' when SE came out.

I really didn't like Patric Duff. Nice voice and OK guitar playing, but not a very endearing character. His rants were just annoying, in fact we left before he finished his set. My wife and I go to a lot of gigs and that's the first time we've ever walked about before the end! Good think Jim was on first!

Col

Even the girls who were filming Duff seemed to leave before he finished (we did too). However, Jim said he was good, so maybe he was just having an off-night.

What?! Mr Moray played at Truck last year?[Anna checks last years Truck schedule] So he did. Well, thats upsetting, since I was there and missed him...but don't think I was familiar with any of his stuff by that time. How was the gig?

The gig was very well played - a solo slot - but it was quietly attended.

The difficulty with playing Truck, especially these last two years, is that the tickets sell out way in advance of the line-up being announced. So unless you're a known "Truck"-type artist or play the sort of music that most bands play at Truck (indie- guitary bands like Futureheads or folky americana like Goldrush) then you won't have any of your own audience there. I doubt if more than a handful of us knew who Jim was at the start of his set.

Having said that, he still played an excellent show. Some piano tracks, some guitar, and there were more people watching by the end than at the beginning so he was winning the battle.

Cheers

Nick

A fair point and well made, yup. A similar thing happened this year with Seth Lakeman on the Truck main stage, I felt. Although he seemed to convert a few people during the course of the set, and there was enthusiastic whooping by the end, it think it was fairly hard work to begin with.

Sorry I missed Jim last year...am now patiently waiting for him to play somewhere near me!