Month: April 2023

Day 78

Friday March 10, 2023

A little visit to The Old Red Lion in Angel tonight. It’s a great bar. What can I say? And the staff are starting to become just a little bit familiar to us and vice versa which I think is kinda cool.

Day 80

Sunday March 12

Just a great London walk today as we go from our eastern place all the way across central and on to St James’ Park then Hyde Park, taking in Buckingham Palace on the way. Then to take advantage of the great public transport here. As soon as we think we’ve walked about as far as we can, or want to, we just find a bus and ride it all the way back home.

Day 86

Saturday March 18

We take a walk out and Maja, mischievously, seems to have a destination and a plan in mind but she isn’t saying, although she does make sure we stop off to buy some notebooks. Our destination is Ye Grapes in Mayfair, a fantastic bar in a setting that seems totally apart from the rest of the city. Leaving the main road and coming into Mayfair is like wandering into an old style village. Another one of those times when you suddenly feel like you’re on holiday and a tourist in your own town. Yeah, London is doing that a lot to us. Once we’re sat in the generous March sun outside the bar, Maja gets the notebooks out and says, ‘We’re going to write now.’ Oh. OK. With that, we really do start. And for the next considerable while we take our time to write a whole page or lyrics each, at the same time, then when we’re both done, we read what we’ve written to each other. A quite brilliant Saturday bar activity and we complete three full pages each and yeah, we really might have some potential songs there.

We’ve timed things on our walk and been in touch with Per and Maja made sure to give us plenty of time to ourselves before we had company because she really wanted to follow through with that plan. It all connects almost perfectly as we finish our session, the sun goes in, we go in and then not too long after that we’re joined by Per and Saturday afternoon and evening just winds by comfortably on our own time.

Day 88

Monday March 20

Mark:

I told you there were discoveries to be made here. Maja calls me towards the end of the day and pulls me out with Andri, one of her colleagues. He says we’re going for a drink at a roof bar. We wonder where it could be. Well, just a few streets away from us and still very much in our immediate neighbourhood he turns a corner and declares that we’re here. A non-descript door set just a little way back with a discreet sign giving just a hint there may be a public business here. We’ve walked past here loads of times and never seen it. In we go and straight into a lift. Which rides up and opens onto a long, elegant restaurant/bar type setting. Which has large windows all the way along its right hand wall. And these windows look right across the cityscape. It’s past sundown and the lights of all the buildings form an incredible backdrop for our impromptu Monday evening.

Day 89

Tuesday March 21

Mark:

Zaid and Maja finally get to meet as we arrange a trip to his area of Clapham. It’s so great to see him and the energy’s high, taken to another level as the two of them hit it off massively and immediately as our table soon becomes a three person party. He’s been running live and original music events in London since the Britpop years and quite possibly before. How long before I’m not sure but he’s something of an institution and, hugely gregarious, known by just about everybody. To me, he seems happiest when creating a stage and a scene for the talent to come in and do their thing. 

We’re going to be all round this town tonight with Zaid as our faithful guide to his home area. But before we head off, he has something for us. With some ceremony, he produces an envelope, removes the sheet of paper contained inside then opens it up on the table before us. This is a handwritten list of contacts he has made just for us. What a fantastic gesture and what a treasure. We carefully place it in our own bag, and yes, we will most definitely be working through it. Thankyou very much. Now to keep this party going and hit the town. We take it deep.

Day 90

Wednesday March 22

Maja’s off to Sweden. With that, we come to the beginning of the end of the beginning. As soon as she gets back, the beginning will have ended and we’ll be getting on it.

Soon after arriving at the airport, Maja sends me a photograph of the large backdrop in one of the souvenir shops. It contains two street scenes. One of a famous Camden Town landmark bridge, and one from Brick Lane of Shoreditch. 

Day 97

Wednesday March 29

Maja was supposed to be away until sometime mid to late April but things have changed and she tells me she’s coming back this Tuesday, two weeks early. This also means she’ll have to return to Sweden in early May and stay there for much of that month, but it also means we’re now available to gig from Friday April 7. Finally, we’re on.

Day 101

Sunday April 2

A little Sunday day trip to the White Hart and Kristoff’s set aside some time in his busy weekend to talk to me to see what we can do about playing here. We quickly settle on Tuesday the 18th. So, first chat and first full London gig booked. 

Day 103

Tuesday April 4

I have a few, I think, semi open people to try to visit today  so I head out to see what I can make happen there. First stop is the Bridge Bar to try to meet Rico. The place is closed when I get there but I see Rico and a few people inside down at the end and give a little knock. Rico comes out and is quite generous with a smile as he ushers me in. I remind him of when he suggested we come and play here and he says yes, he remembers. Then, with a slight and dismissive air of weary  doubt and cynicism, he says, ‘Can you show me anything of you guys?’ Yeah sure. This is the first time I’ve been asked this and I do stop to think what I’m going to show as I open up our Youtube channel. This doubt and decision making all flashes through my mind quite quickly as I know I have to jump on this immediately, and I settle on our medley video, which is this one.

Almost immediately Rico’s eyes widen and his voice, as of up to now so authoritative, quietens. ‘Oh,’ he says slowly. ‘I’ve never seen anything like this.’ I’ve run my own events, and had local original band submissions as a music journalist and worked with many people in considering new acts. I’ve even dabbled in the A&R world. his reaction is far beyond anything I’ve ever seen from anybody watching or listening to any new band. I stop the video and he looks up. His eyes are now wide and infused with a whole new, yes, excitement. ‘Come, come,’ he says. ‘You have to show the other guys this.’ So he leads me down the bar to his two companions, calling out ahead of us, ‘You guys, you have to see this. Show them. Show them.’ I do and they take it in with Rico’s infectious enthusiasm. Now he really begins. ‘It looks like you’re made of music,’ he says. ‘The guitar looks like it’s part of you. And the girl. She looks and sounds fantastic. You have a good speaker and microphone, yes? Because we will really want her voice to be heard properly in here. How do you get paid? What do you want from us?’ Then I tell him we want nothing but their space and the permission to do the hat. ‘Of course, of course. What a great idea,’ he continues. ‘You must make a lot of money.’ Well, yes, we have had a few nice results. ‘I don’t doubt it.’ Now he starts to think about when to get us in, saying he wants to have a nice crowd for us. The long, narrow bar isn’t quite right so he says, ‘I would like to put you outside. In the garden at the back.’ So he suggests we wait until the weather is reliable and consistently hot, and then I should come back. This is definitely a summer thing, he says. So maybe June. Yep. Come back in June. Brilliant. Yes, I leave that place absolutely buzzing to the best reaction I’ve ever had to a hustle even though it didn’t result in a solid booking. Oh, just wait until Maja hears about this.

With the winds of that encounter blowing in my sails, my tail is most definitely up as I head for Deli Theatre where I find Aneirin behind the bar. He also remembers me and our performance with some enthusiasm and as soon as I talk bookings and what we want to do, he’s there. No problem. When do we want to do it? But then he remembers a few things they have already on and suggests a date in mid May but Maja’s away for most of that month. So we settle on June. It’s far enough away so no set date and he says these kinds of things have to go through a few other people as well, but assures me we’ll get it done. So yeah. The same as Rico, leave it a while and then come back. And again, we’re looking at June. Great. Thankyou very much. 

I’ve had two pretty good results there so I call time on the street hustle and head back home to start making calls to some of the numbers Zaid gave us the other night. One or two people aren’t in the game anymore and others aren’t answering right now, but a guy called Mike does. His event is Acoustify and it’s a series of open mics all over London. We have a brief chat and he’s warm and friendly and happy to hear from a friend of Zaid’s. He books his open mic slots so that they’re mostly organised ahead of time. What would you call that? I’ve seen this a little now and I’m not entirely sure but I do like the concept. I’ve been calling it curated open mic but even that doesn’t quite work because the open part of it still isn’t really there. It is more an extended lineup but try putting that on a poster. Anyway, he says he has an event this Sunday in Dalston, and another on Thursday in Fulham. He’s happy to put us down for both of them right now. Brilliant. Do you want me to send you something? ‘No need,’ he says. ‘You’re a friend of Zaid’s, he’s given you my number to get in touch, you’re in.’ Wow. Just like that. Fantastic. So now, when Maja gets back tonight I’ll be able to tell her, first about Rico. Oh, I have to tell her about Rico. Then yeah, that and Deli, so two solid leads for gigs in June, and then I’ll be saying we’re playing this Sunday and next Thursday. Oh, I’m sure you can imagine she already knows, but yeah, The White Hart is in the book too. And the venues for June. I think Maja’s going to be happy to come back to that. A nice little first evening back.

But…

Over in Sweden they’re having delays and not much information, and that which does come through is conflicting and confusing with the 11pm flight at one point pushed back to 1:30am. In any case, she’s going to be arriving hope sometime middle of the night. She finally gets home at 4:30am. She’s due to be back in the office at nine. Ouch.

Day 104

Wednesday April 5

We’ve both kind of been up all night and now Maja’s off to the office. For me, I’m off to my outside office as I’ve decided today is my first day out on the real hustle, visiting bars completely cold. 

As usual with these things I wait until afternoon, hitting bars after lunch has been done and they have their lull before they pick up again early evening. I’m walking around our local areas of Shoreditch and Hoxton and I cover over five kilometres, quite a bit of it in a gentle but persistent rain. In the time I manage to visit ten bars, with one that I really wanted to pitch to being closed for a private party. Out of those ten, only three have managers there and available to talk to. Two seemed mildly interested left the door open for me to return sometime, while one manager was really kind and interested personally, and watched the video, but said we most definitely were not right for his venue. Looking at it from the outside, I thought we would have been, but when he tells me of the cool chill club vibe he’s going for, I agreed that yeah, we weren’t what he was looking for. It’s the nicest kind of rejection and we part with all good wishes.

Overall, I have to say it feels a bit like an empty, dispiriting hustle day, suitably mirrored by the gently consistent rain I’ve been slowly dampening in. But I have to keep reminding myself that no managers were around so there really isn’t anything I was able to do about it. All you can do is keep knocking on those doors. And besides, of the three I did speak to, two of them are still in play. So I guess that’s OK.

Then later the phone rings and it’s someone from Clara who saw us play at The Trap. The guy’s got my number and wants to book us for a children’s party. I’m not sure how, but he had no idea we’d moved to London and sounds disappointed as he says he was really looking forward to it and now wishes us all the best. Wow. You really just have to love that.

Day 106

Thursday April 7

A walk out to Hackney today, mainly because I want to check out a farm cafe we found and had tea and cake in a few weeks ago when on a walk out this way to check out Victoria Park. Really, just because we discovered it’s the closest park to us. And farm. No, we’re not thinking the big rolling hills and the cows of our immediate Ireland surroundings – oh I do miss that just a little. No. This is a city farm. A small patch of green, all very well fenced in in between a bunch of busy roads. They have a whole bunch of farmyard animals, a load of vegetable patches and, in the middle of all this, a charming very rustic feeling cafe. And we saw they advertised live music. I walk in today to see what that’s all about. I’m keenly met by Gianluca who says it’s once a week and they look to pay a certain amount for two 45 minute sets, or something like that. I tell him we’re not that kind of act so that won’t work for us, but why don’t I tell him what we do do. Go for it. This gets him thinking and he comes back with, ‘Would it work if we put together a bill of original acts based around you guys doing something?’ They would pay the same, so we could all share it out, and meals and drinks are in the offer too. Yep. Sounds good. He adds, ‘We’ve never done anything like that here, but yeah. Let’s do it. Let’s make it happen.’ Oh wow. It looks like I’ve just opened up a new London venue possibility for original acoustic acts. Like I said, you’ve just got to hit the street and keep knocking on doors. So many people will knock you back, but eventually you will meet a Gianluca. Then once you’ve done that, knock on a whole load more until you find another one. Sing and repeat. He says he’ll try to put a bill together himself, but if I have anyone I know who could be interested, he’d appreciate it if I could send them his way. Of course. We set a provisional date of June 1.

I reach Hackney and hit a few bars, but either managers aren’t in or I decide they’re already a little too busy to hit. I also find at least one lovely venue run by lovely people which is just a bit too small. A shame. I was expecting more out of Hackney. I must be looking in the wrong places. It’s raining now anyway, and starting to get more insistent, so time to go home. Well at least I got Hackney Farm, and one result per hustle is a perfectly acceptable strike rate as far as I’m concerned. Hey, if you can go out with nothing and get back home and you’ve got a gig, that has to be cool, right? I’m doing a fast walk for a bus that I don’t quite have to run to catch but I do have to, er, hustle, when I suddenly see a large industrial fence under the bridge I’m passing through and there’s a sign on it advertising a venue somewhere on the other side of it. Oh. I ignore the bus, and the by now quite heavy rain, and take a few hesitant steps into what looks like a large, long, industrial yard next to higher up railway tracks. Oh again. I now see what it is. Stretching far into the distance are railway arches. Inside six or seven of them is a variety of bars and nightclubs. How cool is this? It’s back on. I walk along what is probably wrong to call a promenade, but what are you going to do? Searching for possibilities, I see they’re all too busy to approach right now so I keep going. When I get to the end, I discover there’s even more if I take a turn to the right and go round the back of this thing. Talk about being off the beaten track. Next to the track. Back there I find a yard type area. No other way to describe it. A few benches over the other side. And in the middle, a lorry/shipping container. Yep. One of those corrugated looking things. It’s had the top half of one side knocked out and the whole thing’s been turned into a bar. Not a bar you go in and sit down and drink in. I mean the part the people serving you stand behind. Kind of where I used to do a lot of standing behind only way cooler. Actually yes, make that properly cooler because it’s freezing right now. And raining. So it’s handy that this thing has some kind of awning covering out front. I go and say hi to the guy running it and, as I usually do, ask if he’s the manager. He is. Right. One little thing. Whenever I go into a bar, the very first person I encounter, no matter how young looking they appear to be, I ask if they’re the manager. Because you just never know. This guy isn’t at all young looking, I just thought this was as good a time as any to make that point; in about a million and a half words of writing in these Diary things – yep, that truly is about right – I’ve never made that point before.

I make my pitch and he goes into consider mode before saying, ‘We’ve never had music here before, but I don’t see why not.’ I ask if he’d like to see a little of the video I have cued and he says, ‘I’m on the phone right now.’ He is. I just hadn’t noticed. He’d very generously taken the little amount of time he was on hold to talk to me. No worries. I step back and let him get on with his call, as I can see it’s proceeding again now. I wait. And wait. And get wetter. And wetter. Yes, he does have that canopy/ awning thing but I think it would be polite to not be hovering in earshot of his phone call. I think this goes on for about 20 minutes but all the time I’m like, that’s OK, I’m about to have a chat entrepreneurial hustler to entrepreneurial hustler. A meeting of the minds between two guys who just get out there, take the knocks, and try to make things happen. He hangs up and I approach the bar again. He looks up as though he’s never seen me before. Fair enough. I had my phone out and was scrolling through stuff. ‘Oh, sorry,’ I say. I was just trying to call up my diary. I was. ‘Oh,’ he says. ‘I’m not going to be booking anything now. I’ve got your card. I’ll have a look and give you a call if I’m interested.’ Oh. Again. And that’s that. To be totally fair, in any scheme of things, he’s done nothing wrong. But I can’t help but feel just a little led on. And in this weather too. Not impressed. Maybe he’ll get back, maybe he won’t. There are plenty of other places to hustle. If I’m round these parts again, I may drop in and say hi and see where he is with it, but…You know, no buts. I don’t think I’m going to do the incessant bar chasing again. Not like I did with The Insiders where I’d hammer and hammer at the tiniest possibility of an opening. If a door’s properly left open and I really think a dialogue has opened – see Rico, I will be – then yeah. But this? Maybe it’s cos I’m soggy and getting soggier and it’s partly his fault, but yeah, I do feel led up and let down.

Day 107

Saturday April 8

We find ourselves in Kentish Town today sometime after eight as we’re getting together for a little with my friend Cris who I used to live with in the Carrol. Before that we got to know each other from the jam scene, then I played with his heavy metal band The Wild Child, including gigs in Italy, then I worked for him on his building sites when I took a hiatus from pub world as my gigging and rehearsing diary was starting to get too busy to fit around an evening job. Of course Maja knows him well too, and it’s a lovely hang.

The route is a tube to Ktown then a walk up to his place, what used to also be our place, and before that, my place. For six years. The last time we were here, we were dismayed when we went to check out The Oxford and discovered it had closed down, or at least looked like it had. It all appeared desolate, sad, and broken. This is the bar I worked at full full full time for my first year in London. Oh, it felt like I was living in the place at times. Customers just to actually jokingly ask if I did because they started to feel like I was never not there. I grew to love the place, got to know all the regulars and count some of them as friends, and continued to go there as a regular myself after leaving. So it’s a massive part of my own London fabric. We’re really keen to just swing by tonight to see if it’s still closed, or if it’s managed to open again and if so, how it’s doing.

We walk in through the side door – on Islip Street if you care to check it out – and a guy sitting at a high table facing the door smiles at us. Then he leaves his seat and walks around the table to walk towards us. It appears they take their greetings seriously round here. ‘Mark, isn’t it?’ he asks. ‘Er…yes.’ ‘Hi Mark.’ And he gives me a good solid handshake. I can’t style my way out of this one. ‘I’m really sorry. Do I know you? It looks like I should.’ ‘We met at the 100 hour jam,’ he says. ‘You were the guy who did the whole thing.’ Oh. Wow. ‘It’s Steve,’ he continues. I tell him again I’m really sorry but I don’t remember. He adds that it was quite deep in and things may well have been a bit blurry for me around then. I’ll say now that just after we leave, I have a Doh! moment when I suddenly do remember. And yes, I also remember it being significant at the time as I was told that Steve, one of the actual owners of the Blues Kitchen, was in the house and I was taken over specifically to be introduced to him. We have a little bit of a chat now and I ask him what the story is with this place now. Oh, it’s called The Parakeet now by the way. We did see that on the way in, I just forgot to tell you. Well, Steve is the new owner and it only recently opened and he says it’s going very well. It certainly is. It’s packed right now, all the way through to the end of what used to be the restaurant. And I tell him how, madly coincidentally, I used to work here. No, practically live here. Now the owners of The Blues Kitchen, the place I made my second home in London, if The Oxford was actually my first home, own this place. While we’re chatting, and while I have the opportunity, I tell him what we’re doing, give him a card, and pitch about what we’re looking to do. Would that be something he would be open to? He gives me his own card and writes someone else’s email on it. ‘Email this guy,’ he says, and gives me a card for the overall company, The Columbo Group. Apart from this new bar The Parakeet, the also owns a whole load of iconic London places including The Blues Kitchens, and Camden’s Jazz Cafe, while also running a few prestigious festivals. Now I have to ask, and I go cautious because it could come out sounding all wrong. ‘I know I can’t really use your name when contacting him because we really don’t know each other, but would he somehow know where I’m coming from or … who I am?’ That who I am sounds all wrong and I should tell you I’m very halting and hesitant when saying it. I’m really just wondering if, having been given this contact by one of the very owners of the group, there’s some way my email would be properly seen and considered. ‘Oh, don’t worry,’ says Steve. ‘He’ll know. You’re a legend within the company for what you did at the 100 hours jam. Everyone knows who you are.’ Oh wow. If there’s ever a time you want your girlfriend at your side to hear someone talking about you to you. And yes, she heard it.

Oh, and I’m assuming knowledge here. What was the 100 hours jam and what exactly did I do at it? 

What it was:

Well, it happened in June 2019 at The Blues Kitchen and was the longest non-stop open jam ever. Hundreds of musicians took part from June 9 to June 13 with the criteria being that the music on stage did not stop. So musicians would swap in and out one at a time.

What I did:

I was the only person there for the whole 100 hours and I was on stage for a total of over 24 hours. I started this thing with an unbroken awake period of 66 hours – no. No drugs at all. There are people to this day who still don’t believe it but it’s true. After that first period, I slept for six hours in a room which was specially provided for me upstairs. Immediately after that I was on stage for another two hours. I had two more sleeps before the conclusion – naps really; one of two hours and one of one hour. So for the 100 hours, I slept for a total of nine hours. And at the end I was invited on stage to play in the finale as the clock counted down to zero.

For my account of the whole thing, you can go here.

The Blues Kitchen’s 100 Hour Jam

And for verification, there’s this: 

https://www.worldrecordsofmusic.com/open-jams

And there are these quite wonderful videos.

Day 108

Sunday April 9

OK, we did Dial Up. A month ago to the day. March 9. But with that only having two real punters in attendance, and possibly even only one by the time we started, I think we’re really starting today and I’m seeing this as our first real London performance, although you could validly say it was Dial Up. But in any case, this is where we’re really beginning as The Diaries are officially open for business now in a way in which we weren’t on March 9. I feel we’re more among a London crowd here tonight as well, in Copper Cats, Dalston. This, I think, is where we’re going to be tested by fire for the first time. The first time our impression of ourselves makes contact with reality in London. How will we really measure up? For myself, I’m not nervous as such, just filled with adrenaline and absolutely raring to go as we pitch ourselves in this environment of people who have seen, and continue to see, all the best up and comers. Although it might be a friendly audience of singer/songwriters and people who want to see such shows, it takes a lot to impress, especially as these people know how it’s done. I think singer/songwriters are by far the friendlier crowd as a general group, but I do still often see this as comedians performing in front of comedians. Many of them are almost famously competitive and reluctant to laugh at other people’s jokes. So yeah, I want to absolutely hit the ground running in here, smash it and overwhelm. Nervous? No. But I do feel a strange kind of pressure to prove ourselves at what I see as a different level to what we’ve ever played before. We’re in London. We’re in the real arena now. This is where it really begins.

Into the venue and we’re told who Mike is and he comes to greet us very warmly after having chatted on the phone a few times. ‘And you’re Maja,’ he says, seeing our rockstar for the first time.

After that, we settle in, enjoy the show, and wait to be called. Just as I suspected, some of the songs on display are truly fantastic, if a little more on the downbeat side. There’s a keyboard singer/songwriter who comes on and warns us to be ready for a few depressing songs, adding that he has a few about heartbreak. Not exactly what you want to be prepped for when you’re waiting to be entertained. But entertain he really does. I just wish he hadn’t made such a low hearted intro. It kind of rolled the energy out of his prospective audience. You want them to be up for you, surely, not put down by you. However, he plays and sings with such passion and power that I’m won over and I think he gets pretty much everyone else as well, although Maja says, ‘Imagine having to sing lyrics like that all the time.’ Fair enough, but there is a big market for it.

A few more acts and it’s our turn and we give Mike our wireless connections for the sound desk. Again tonight, we’re doing our thing of letting other people choose our songs from a secret pile of 10. We’re confident that every one of them will smash. Well, let’s see. The first one picked out is My Game, My Rules. Maja seizes upon the moment to introduce us and the song, saying, ‘This is my game, and this is my rules.’ It begins with a fast, heavy metal influenced guitar riff. I am so wound up to get started. Pulled taut like a catapult. Now I get to feel my release. It comes hard. Way too hard. Oh man we are fast but, caught up in the moment and filled with adrenaline and suddenly released onto the playing field after straining at leashes to get out there, I don’t feel it. What I do feel is that somehow the guitar now feels really hard to play and my rhythms just aren’t quite there. This is because I’m kind of unaware that I’m playing so fast I’m not able to be fully in control. But we’re still doing it, although Maja is really caught up in this too and, together and separately, we roam the room with domination. Many of our songs are already designed to be fast smashers, and this is one of them. To ramp it up so much is to go deep into the red zone. That’s where we are now and Maja can barely keep up. So much so that words get lost to the extent that the entire second verse ends up being a rerun of the first. By any measure, we are really making a mess of this but the train is already at full momentum rolling down the hill and there’s no way to stop it or slow it down. That’s the really weird thing sometimes. It’s often far easier to speed a song up than to slow it down. Especially when the guitarist doesn’t really feel things are going too fast, but they undoubtedly are. But somehow, it really doesn’t matter. The audience before us is swept away by the energy and electricity of our performance as we ignore and smash through all self placed obstacles and just continue to storm the thing as though everything is just as it should be. I guess that’s what two European tours and almost a hundred shows does to you. You’re just conditioned to carry on no matter what. When we finish, the reaction is loud and very enthusiastic. And maybe a little shocked. Wow. We’re in. I think we kinda got away with it. Let’s go again. The next song pulled out is Make Me Shine. Seriously? This is even more intense than My Game My Rules, and yes, once again we launch into it far too quickly, or rather, I do. Unfortunate because this song has rapid almost rap like verses. Which Maja is of course singing in a second language. Again, this song, performed as it should be, is already fast enough. Right now it is not being performed as it should be and, as with the previous song, Maja once again gets caught up in the lyrics. But once again, she gets away with it, although it must be clear we’re having some frantic levels of communication going on. But again, it fully lands and the shouts go up as we smash into the end of the song and stand there breathing heavily at the exertion this performance is demanding of us. We are playing fast and in this thinly scattered audience of about 15 people, we really are giving everything. As the next song is being picked, Mike calls out, ‘Could you perform this one with a bit more energy please?’ The laughter in the room is immediate. He is clearly enjoying himself and that is so good and encouraging to see.

Now we’re informed that our last song is to be How You RocknRoll. After the last two this feels almost tame, and I’ve finally caught myself and lead off with something at least resembling the pace of how this is supposed to be played. And, with the more assured performance we slip into this time, it really shows, especially when we come to the a capella part and I go into audience clapping mode and they completely come along with us. Yes, I think we’ve done something here. As we finish and the applause rings out, I walk across the floor to our seats and say out loud, ‘We’re in London now.’

At our table, one of the performers looks over to us with a massive smile and says, ‘That wasn’t a show, that was a workout.’ Yes, it was. When it’s all over a few performances later, someone else comes up to us and asks where we’re playing next. When we tell him it’s with Mike again, in Bishops in Fulham on Thursday, he says, ‘You guys are going to blow up there.’

Now it’s time to leave and we decide to walk home rather than get the bus like we did on the way down here. It’s a fantastic evening walk with Shoreditch at the end of this straight road. As such, the whole way, we are walking towards the bright city skyscape. In the context of what we’ve done tonight, more than any other walk towards those iconic buildings, this feels epic.

Day 111

Wednesday April 12

We’ve just had the four day Easter weekend so I think bar managers will be even more elusive this week than they usually are, so probably best to leave the hustle trail for a few days. And by the time they are out in the open again, it will be weekend preparations again, so I’ll probably be leaving the hustling alone this week.

Day 112

Thursday April 13

Having seen us do our thing on Sunday, Mike has decided we’re the show closers tonight in Bishops in Fulham, south London. This is a really classy venue and again, he’s put together a solid lineup and we sit back and enjoy the evening until it’s our turn. As soon as we start, the crowd is with us. Totally. And not just the musicians. A whole bunch of non participating regulars are here too and they really go for it as we once again get the audience to pick out the songs we’re going to play. I think Mike really gets this and the statement it sends out. First song to prove yourselves? Pick one. Last song to really close the show strong? Pick one. The order tonight is Nobody Said, Six Sense Lover, My Game My Rules then How You RocknRoll. I’m really glad My Game My Rules came out because I really wanted to make amends on this one after the speedfest of Sunday. And this time out, Mike is really seeing us as our usual assured and solid selves. There’s no rehearsal or growing experience like live and Sunday was a bit of a shock for us and I’ve spent time since then really getting into the tempos of the songs again and holding myself back to trust them. That they don’t need to be smashed out. Like I said the other day, they’re already designed that way. They were literally written to be pulled out and smashed into difficult and even hostile environments. That was always going to be our path as, right from the beginning, we set out to play bars that were not live music venues, or at least not original live music venues. 

Out there at the tables tonight, people are banging their heads and rocking and so many are also trying to sing along. And again, none of them have ever heard these songs before. And the energy becomes cyclical as the whole synergy between us and audience fills the room. But really, it starts with us as we have to front it out at the beginning and take it to them. And I can feel it as we do. As we leave the stage and stand in the middle of the room, then loom over the tables, I can feel it. ‘Almost arms folded, ‘who the hell are these guys and what the hell are they doing?’” But bravado and front will only take you so far. It’s when you can back it up that they really come with you. And they really come with us.

And tonight we have the first audience member to have our album title written on the back of his hand in the same way we wear it when we go out live. HEJ – with a backwards J. Damn, I’ve got so used to looking at ours, that this actual ‘J’ looks backwards to me now. His name is Robert and he is all over us in the best possible way. He admits to sitting back a bit at the beginning. It starts, and he thinks, ‘These guys are going to be terrible.’ A bit into it and it’s like, ‘OK, they can play, but really?’ The cynic isn’t letting go. But then. ‘All of a sudden I realised I was singing along.’ That was when his thoughts switched and he was absolutely with us from that moment on, and now it feels like we’ve got a fan. Then he says it. ‘You guys belong on the Jools Holland Show. That’s the next thing for you.’ Now, there’s saying you’re good and you enjoyed it and there’s saying, this is really serious. Yes. We are. Robert, thankyou very much. 

Now to say goodbye after Mike’s closed the show with a really cool cover performance joined by his singer friend. As he comes out to give us a huge hug goodbye, in the process saying, ‘You guys are amazing,’ he adds, ‘Anytime you want to play, just let me know and I’ll put you down.’ Great. We’re in. No booking, no need. We just keep an eye out, pick out an event of his we like the look of and we’re on it. We really do want to keep this London open mic thing going and the two shows with Mike – set up thanks to Zaid and his list – have been the very best start we could have hoped for.

Day 116

Sunday April 16

We decide to soundcheck at The White Hart. One of the reasons is to see if we can go through their house system because it really is a big and long venue. Secondly, we’re thinking we could use it to advertise ourselves for Tuesday. We arrange this with Kristoff and head on down there for around 6pm. First off, we discover after a while that we can’t go through the system because that requires a powered mixing desk which we don’t have. So our own stuff it is. That discovery made and we announce who we are and what we’re doing, then it’s into a few songs starting with I Like You (Better When You’re Naked). By the time we do this we have three tables in the place, so not a massive audience. Hardly any reaction. We try two more songs, both to pretty much nothing and call it a day. Oh well. We conclude we’ve caught Sunday afternoon hungover vibes and people just want to chill and aren’t at all ready for our in your face, shock and awe approach right now. Could we have gone for a quieter, more chilled set and would that have worked better. We do discuss this as we walk through central Covent Garden and down to The Marquis once we’ve packed up but we conclude that it’s hard to call in the moment but even if that had worked for that crowd, that’s not the side we wanted to show of ourselves. But having had this experience, maybe it would be better to slowly bring people in on Tuesday rather than running in and smashing it out. OK. That’s something to think about.

Into The Marquis and Tommy’s out front and in great form having just had a full on afternoon with The Pop Tarts cover duo rocking the place. The stage is all set up and the lads have just set down. Kristoff was kind enough to let us leave all our gear at his but we have brought the guitar. Tommy looks at us, points to the stage and says, ‘We close in 20 minutes but if you can set up and do something with that time, do you want to have a go?’ Oh wow yes. This time we have a warm crowd to work with, and it really is a crowd. No messing about here. It’s straight in with, yep. I Like You (Better When You’re Naked). Oh and it hits. It really hits. And so do we as we have no let up, keeping it right up to 11 with RocknRoll Tree then closing this mini show with The Cat. We simply tear the place apart. The reactions to the songs are simply enormous and we roam all around and totally take the place over. We even have the bar staff dancing behind the bar. Stepping up to this, we set ourselves right at the bar for a section or two and just give it to them. After the disheartening dampness of the reaction half an hour or so ago, it feels so amazing to have got right back on the horse and stormed it round the track. This is what we can do and this is what it’s really like when we play. Tommy is delighted, as are the bar staff, and Maja has now achieved one of her London ambitions. To play The Marquis. And this is all we need. Two, three or four songs. Give people a short sharp good time, throw our markers down and leave the stage, job done. And it feels perfect in here today as we head to the bar with beers courtesy of Tommy – thankyou very much – and settle down for the hang as they bring the tunes back out again for the last five minutes. Yes. This has all been timed very very well. And another drink on the house again. Again, thankyou very much.

As it settles down and things start to close, Tommy tells us we’re in no rush and we can stick around. So we do and we get talking to a guitar player called Jack who’s intrigued as to how we’ve been getting on. We tell him about our Now Hustle and his eyes widen. ‘Nobody does that,’ he says. ‘Nobody.’ Nope. And as far as we can tell, nobody ever has. And we’re probably going to do the same around here although not with the ‘Now’ element. But still, hustling bars where the original acts don’t play and just trying to crowbar them open for ourselves. And other people in the future. Who knows?

Here’s Tommy now to answer that question as he comes and joins us. We talk about w wide range of things musical and he introduces us to a few London bands he thinks we should check out, including a rocking Ska feel band called The Chase. As he does, he says to Maja as he gestures to me, ‘This fella has got a lot to answer to regarding live music in here. He got it going.’ Then, from his own memory of the time, he describes the process where I first cold called, got something of a reaction, then just kept knocking at the door every now and again. How about this week? This week? Until Tommy relented and said, OK, have a go. That was with my cover act The Insiders and we ended up playing in here every month for the next few years. And as those afternoons grew in popularity, so Tommy started introducing more and more live acts. Now he has them on all the time to the point that this is practically a live music venue. And yep. Tommy has confirmed today that I alone got the ball rolling on that.

As for what happens next for us in here, he says that of course he wants us in, especially after what we did today. He’s fully booked until August though and doesn’t have the diary with him now. And to be fair, he is in full post weekend wind down mode so I can see not really up for too much shop talk so I don’t push it. But yes, this will happen.

Day 117

Monday April 17

I go for a local hustle round Shoreditch today which begins with a few underwhelming reactions. The most surprising and disappointing comes from a bar I thought would have been a good, soft start because it advertises a comedy night. When we see stuff like this we associate it with a bar, or a bar manager, which is proactive and open to ideas, or at least live entertainment. Maybe this person really will get back to me like they say, and I’ve just caught them a little preoccupied in their total indifference, but I leave thinking, ‘Why does this have to be so hard?’ But just carry on. Forget the last one and just keep going. We’ve had far worse rejections to be fair, but this one is just 

so benignly dispiriting. Like, what? ‘You didn’t even want to engage? Not even a little bit?’

From here I walk to Hoxton Square and a bar called The Red Dog Saloon. There, I am met by manager Adrian who definitely does engage. Then his reaction is along the lines of, free live music? For 20 minutes or so? What’s not to like? Sure. Come and do your thing. We settle on this Saturday. He even asks if we could do the following Saturday as well. If it works, of course. Damn. I can’t believe it. I’ve got us a Saturday gig in Shoreditch. And not only that, a possible repeat show. And who knows what after that? A regular Saturday in the heart of Shoreditch maybe? Why not? This really is just too cool. Once again, like we’ve experienced so many times, this hustling thing can feel like an impossible task and then it suddenly becomes the easiest job in the world. Catch the right person at the right time and it’s all, of course. Come on in. Sometimes you don’t even get to finish the pitch. You can just feel them straining to interrupt and say yes. Adrian really feels like one of those right people. He just seems to get it.

There is a brief chat before he completely opens the doos. This is where he asks a few fair enough questions including, ‘How many people do you think you can bring?’ My answer is immediate and I totally own it and stand behind it. ‘Probably no-one. But that’s not what this is about. We just want to use your bar and your customers.’ He actually nods smiles at this. A reaction I like to think means he appreciates the forthrightness of the answer. In context, and he gets this too, I’m saying we’ll give you a short free show on the back of almost a hundred gigs and two European tours of experience. This next part of the pitch has been expanded here a little for you. We’re not even massively that bothered about money in the hat anymore; we will still do it just to make the point that what we’re doing has value, and it’s nice when it comes back that we do, but anyone can decide what that value is. But from now, we’re really going to feel the bars out and bring the hat out if we feel it’s appropriate. And anyway, places and people are becoming more and more cashless. But hey, there’s always the Paypal donate button on our site. However, money or no money, these shows do have definite, solid value for us. You know that old cliche about gigs being offered for ‘exposure’, well for us it really is like that right now, at least for these gigs we’re arranging ourselves; they’re all about building our brand as they put us in front of new audiences. We also feel we’re taking our songs direct to the market. People who might hear us, and maybe even come to see us once we’re on the radio, or maybe have some sort of bigger profile. However, those people will not be seeing us in a dedicated music venue, or on some cool lineup. But they are seeing us now. To take this even a stage or two further, and to the idea we had right at the beginning, at this stage we’re often playing to people who don’t go and see live original music at all. Certainly not unknown live acts. So yeah, we really are going to completely new territories. This can be evidenced in much of the reaction we had when we first stated these intentions. Reactions that, while coming from a caring place, sometimes strayed into borderline verbally aggressive territory. ‘I am telling you. Do. Not. Do. This.’ And other people actually using the word beg. ‘I am begging you not to do this.’ Well guess what, we’ve done it almost a hundred times now. All over Europe. And now we’re doing it in London.

By the very fact that we’re playing even just a few songs in a bar, as well as being seen and heard, we have the opportunity to give out our cards and beer mats – and, when we have it, maybe sell merch with permission. We’re also able talk to new people and personally introduce The Diaries. That is the act, the website, and the very Diaries themselves. Then afterwards, if we get a person or two wanting to chat and know more, which we often do, bring it on. If we can gather up just one fan at a time along the way, that’s a fan who is now on our side and who will be out there spreading the word. That might be person to person, or person to a few people. There really is no more powerful message or advertising than that. There’s the value right there. Also, by taking ourselves out there again and again like this, we continue to socialise in a highly active and targeted way, and increase the chances of a personal meeting or introduction to a person, or people, who would like to get involved to try to take this to other levels. And it’s only three or four songs or 20 minutes or so anyway. It’s not like we’re giving a whole evening away. Meaning we don’t have to give that much of ourselves, and we’re not taking gigs away from those who play bars to pay their way.  This could all be the very definition of direct marketing.

As for that ‘how many people can you bring’ question, which Adrian was totally right to ask, we have thoughts there too. Really, at this stage of the game, it means how many mates or supportive family members do you have. Because sure, I could say 50 people, book a show and bring 50 people. Great. We’ve played to our audience and they’ve all spent money at the bar and made it worth everyone’s while. But have they really? When, in all good will and support, do you think those 50 people will come and see us again? They’ve done their thing, they’ve supported us, they’ve taken the time to see our show and, I’m sure, had a lovely enjoyable evening. Will they come out again if we get a show tomorrow? Next week? Two weeks’ time? Realistically, you’re looking at another six months before you can excite enough of your mates to make this ‘worthwhile’ again. Three if you’re lucky. But even then, will they come again the time after that? So no. That model doesn’t work to build an act either. It just gives you a one-off hit in a venue, and maybe an ego trip as you can pretend to be a rockstar to an adoring crowd for a night. One night. Good luck getting out regularly and building a name and a brand with that.

Day 118

Tuesday April 18, 2023

You really don’t get much time to impress for the kind of gigs we’ve generally been doing so you have to grab them straight away and claim the territory as yours. Sometimes the overwhelm option is good, or sometimes you just hit a big singalong number straight away. Or sometimes you should just read the room and settle into it. Which is a lot easier said than done and, of all the options above, we’ve not always got it quite right, but this is what experience is all about. We’re in The White Hart tonight and, after Sunday when we didn’t get it quite right, we’ve taken that experience and put together a setlist that eases us into this show. So we’re starting with Freefall which has a really nice build of pace to it and has served us well as a first song quite a few times. It starts really gentle, settles into somewhere around mid pace, then goes through the gears quite steadily before a more rocking ending which prepares an audience if we think it’s now time to turn it all up. We won’t do that tonight. Yes, we start with Freefall, but we’ve decided to keep it chilled and basically not be too intrusive or dominating. We’re bringing out our play it nice set with the plan being to then really rock it up in the second half and storm it home.

We have ourselves set up and we’re ready. The place is really big and long and it’s mostly a work crowd catching up after work. We’re not going to be heard down the end anyway, so we decide to concentrate on playing to what we have up here at the back of the bar in a large enough raised area. We get started and I think it’s fair to say there’s a little bemusement among the people to suddenly find the two of us singing and playing among them. They’re kind of with it though, but the talking level remains high and we’re somewhat lost in the overall buzz. This goes on through our second song, although we can see that, around the room, some people are paying attention and really starting to get into it. But we’re still very much on the losing end of the battle and make the spontaneous decision to just enjoy it and play for ourselves. So there we are in the middle of the room just playing for each other and getting off on our own music. If no-one else is, we’re not going to let that touch us. We carry on like this for four or five more songs, generally feeling ignored, but knowing that there are pockets of people at least giving us a chance and some individuals truly starting to feel it. But it must be hard for them anyone get into it if they want to because I’m not sure how much they can really hear. But the end of each song is greeted with some applause and even the odd shout, so we are connecting somewhere out there. At the same time, we feel we really are losing the battle of noise with this room, even if we are mildly starting to win over the odd heart here and mind there. We’re just gearing up to get into the rocking part of the set and are thinking that we might just have enough people in here to take with us who can then maybe bring some other people. That’s when Kristoff looks over and gives us the signal that we have one more. Oh. Oh. That wasn’t the plan at all. We feel we were just getting warmed up, but maybe we’ve already lost on points and there’s no point carrying on. No matter. We’ve stood up to this and we haven’t backed down an inch.

We have one more. One song to attempt to maybe land one punch in a very one sided contest and go home thinking that we might have lost, but we at least got one shot in and we never went down. Nights like this are tough, but I can’t help thinking they’re tougher on Maja who, afterall, is the singer fronting this, and maybe not even able to hear herself too much on a night like this. Can’t be much fun. But she really does tough and front these things out and this has been one of the toughest. No-one’s been nasty at all, it’s just that there, well, hasn’t really been anything at all. Unless she’s been able to look up and see some of the positivity coming back that I’ve been seeing.

There really isn’t any debate about what to play next, or last. We have to. I Like You (Better When You’re Naked). Now we just go for it. What happens next stuns us. We haven’t even got to the hook of the chorus, or to the sentiment of the song. We’re still in the verses and playing our way into this, but what’s this? All around us people have started and joined in a spontaneous rhythmic clapping along to us. This has never happened before. It pulls in more and more people until we’re in the centre and out of nowhere in the middle of a show. In a room that feels it’s all totally there for us and there with us. It’s a long bar so down there we still haven’t quite connected, but we sure they can sense something’s happening up here. We certainly do. And we’ve stayed connected and in gear all night, so when the call comes to really go for it, don’t worry. We’re already there. Yep. Into the chorus and with the crowd already warmed up to is, they hit another level now. And we’re in. Where’ve you been guys? You took your time. But welcome. Now we feel in charge and in control. At least up here. But yes, down there too, more and more people are starting to look up. Something’s happening. Has been happening all night and they missed it. But come on. You might just catch up now.

We smash to the end of I Like You (Better When You’re Naked), and we’re done. Goodnight and thankyou. We haven’t just landed a punch. I think with that final flurry, we’ve levelled the contest, but when you come back from a goal down to equalise in the last minute, you always feel like you’ve won. And here we are. But what now? There’s no smattering of applause or odd shout out for this one. No. It’s a roar that greets us this time. A spontaneous, from the throat roar. Ladies and gentlemen, we have landed. Maja says thankyou very much and we start to pack up. Then it begins. One more tune. One more tune. And they’re clapping along to it as well. What they make of this down on the floor I have no idea. I look down at Kristoff and his face is just a picture of shocked bewilderment and, I have to say, a little joy that we have turned this round so spectacularly. He nods and mouths. OK. One more. So we do. And as I hit the first bouncing chords of The Cat, our new little pocket of fans cheer. They’re getting more. And oh we have them now. This is true turnaround territory when the fighter has been on the ropes all night and you’ve been begging the referee to stop it or for someone, please, someone, thrown the damn towel. But no towel got thrown, the referee didn’t call it and the guy didn’t go down. Instead, he got his one shot in, staggered the stunned opponent who’d had it his own way all night. Then, out of nowhere, the guy on the ropes just kept coming and was suddenly unstoppable. Punching punching, the previously unassailable opponent flailing backwards wondering where the hell this came from and powerless to stop it now all momentum had flipped the other way. And the crowd was on its feet in stunned, jubilant disbelief and cheering the supposed, defeated underdog all the way. And he’s going to go all the way. They never saw it but they have no doubt now.

Now you see what I mean. You can’t stop me. I’m a killing machine.

Yes they do. Each new chorus lands like a new punch and the cheering goes up another level. We have them and we are letting go. They know it and they love it. Maybe they were really on our side all along.

We smash out the other end of this song and it really is all over. Kristoff has already signalled that it’s late enough for live music and it has to stop now. OK. If we’d known we had a deadline we would have pulled out some of the bigger guns a little earlier. But I think we’ve made our point. The encore shouts are still coming and the clapping is still ringing out, settling into an insistent rhythm out of the final applause. And down on the floor and behind the bar, they can all see it.

We got battered, we got bruised. We never went down, we refused. Now, as we set microphone and guitar down and take our turn to clap, and then go over to thank those who joined and came with us out of such difficult beginnings, everyone around can now see what happened here tonight. 

We won.

Day 122

Saturday April 22

So, Tuesday done and we have our second full London show tonight in The Red Dog Saloon in Hoxton Square, Shoreditch at 6pm. I have high hopes for this. Not so much the actual gig itself, more that Adrian really seemed to get my pitch when I spoke to him. It’s just possible that finding a regular venue could be a big part of the journey to building a very real audience. It could start here as well as anywhere else.

Until we arrive. Oh damn. The place is a restaurant. It really didn’t look like one when I came in here and spoke to him. As soon as we see that, me and Maja are like, ‘No. This isn’t going to work.’ We wait for Adrian to extricate himself from being very busy and then just tell him, sorry, but no. Oh. What are we going to do now? We were all set up for this. Maja has it. Let’s go do the Now Hustle. Why not? 

This first leads us into two bars in this square. Both seem like they could really be something. For one of them, we get talking to the security guy on the street, and he then offers to show us the place. Cool. It goes back to another place, back to another place. There are the private rooms. And then through another door, and oh. You’re in a full on music venue with a huge stage and a room that could hold up to 200 people. All from that little frontage that we first saw. The place is huge. Definitely worth coming back to. We’re not yet quite able to fill a 200 capacity venue, but maybe we could play with someone who could. Just thinking out loud, this could be a place to come back and maybe trial something out front and get to be known by the management. Then…

But the place is empty right now so we don’t Now Hustle it. We thank our guy for his tour and onto the next. Which is another venue on the corner of the square advertising live music. Again, no manager to talk to and again, it’s empty right now. But again, very worth coming back to.

Out of the square and onto the main streets and we head for a bar called The Reliance that I’ve had my eye on in my previous hustle sessions. It’s right round the corner from where we live, and is a lovely looking single rectangular shaped bar with a kind of alcove out back, and has a totally simple bar feel to it. So many of the bars round here are supercool with distinctive features and offerings, and that really is all great and interesting and a big part of what makes Shoreditch Shoreditch. But it’s also cool to find a place like this that looks like it’s not trying at all. Just come in. It’s just a bar.

I came in here last Monday but the manager wasn’t around. I was told he might have been in later that day, but then I got the Red Dog gig and called it a day with a memo to come back here some other time. Well, now is that other time and here we are.

We’re met just inside the door by Mario, the owner, and he immediately comes across as quite gregarious and open. We give him our pitch and he’s all, why not. Come and do your thing. So we do. Not to too many people but the short, sharp four song set we play is very well received by the people that are here, with one guy in particular coming over to join us at the bar afterwards. He is madly enthusiastic about us. A great example of one fan at a time. And he buys us a beer. As he’s chatting, he says, ‘To make it as a new band you need an edge.’ Oh yeah? Inside I’m telling myself just to swallow whatever he’s about to offer as advice and be graceful. Then he adds, ‘You guys have that edge.’ Oh. Thankyou very much. That’s OK then. ‘All you have to do now,’ he continues, ‘is just get out there and keep getting out there.’ Which, as you can see, we’re doing, we say to him both in our own ways. ‘Yes. Yes you are. It’s fantastic to see.’

Now he tells us about the area he lives in now – Hastings – saying it could be a great place for us to try. Yeah. Once we start venturing out of London to hustle, this could now be high on our to do list. It’s right on the south coast, about a two hour drive from here. Maybe a bit far, but maybe still worth bearing in mind. 

A little while later we get to talk to Mario who’s been busy upstairs in the kitchen turning out what looks like excellent pub food. He’s really happy with what we’ve done here tonight and we suddenly realise the place has got busy. He seems to realise at the same time and says, ‘Do you want to play again?’ He laughs to show he’s joking and we laugh too. But we think he really would have been happy if we had been here to play to this newly developed crowd. ‘A guy came in here a while ago and also asked to play on the spot,’ he says. ‘He emptied the place. After that I said I’d never say yes to that again. But then you two walked in. All humble but with a very good energy.’ And he really wanted to see where that could go. Well, here we are. He says he’ll be going away soon as he generally gets quiet over summer. The place will still be open but he won’t be here. When he gets back, he says he’d be very open to talk about us coming and playing here again and see how it goes. Just like that, out of such a false start of a night, we’ve potentially opened a venue for ourselves. Right round the corner from where we live.

Around the same time, Matt calls. He and a group of friends are heading to Shoreditch to go The Big Chill, one of the nightclub type places just off Brick Lane. Would we be up for it? Absolutely. Turned a gig down, gone out and got another one and played it, and now into Shoreditche’s Saturday night life. Tomorrow really isn’t going to get much out of us.

Day 123

Sunday April 23

It really doesn’t.

Day 126

Wednesday April 26

Maja decides we should go and try an open mic tonight. I have one on my list. All About Eve in Camden Town. And it’s on. Cool. We head down there for sign up at 7, with the thing starting at 8.

Arriving we meet the host Paul who’s just setting up and he asks where we want to go on the list. It’s currently empty, apart from his name at the top to start. All down the left hand side are numbers for the slots. I ask what he’d recommend and he says that he could say slot number four or five, but if I write our name there, the next person could just choose six and so on. Oh OK. You really can’t be too cute or second guess-ey about these things. So I say we’ll help him out and go first. After him of course. In what is a full night of performers, our slot at the top of it all is the peak for attendance so, totally unexpectedly, we do get the best slot. I told you you couldn’t second guess these things. 

So far at open mics we’ve asked people to select songs at random for us to play. Tonight we’re using it to try out a few new song, or at least lesser established songs – Give Me The World and Without A Gloria. Give Me The World competes with My Game My Rules for the heaviest song we have, and I certainly think it’s our most intense. Then Without A Gloria is more mid tempo with a warming gentle start. It’s a real contrast to go from the huge ending of Give Me The World into the delicate openings of Without A Gloria. We still haven’t fully connected with either of these to comfortably play live, but no matter. Both still totally hit here tonight. People really buy into the intensity of it and come along with us for the ride. Then, when Without A Gloria comes in, they’re there for that as well, their emotions segueing as effortlessly as we click from one mindset to the other. The room really is with us. For the third, we’re back to the cards and How You RocknRoll gets picked out which gives us a really good sprint to close it out.

As the evening is coming to an end, Paul comes up to us and says, ‘I’m going to put you guys on again so you can headline the thing.’ And he does. And we do. For just one song to end the night. We don’t go to the cards for this one. As soon as he says it, we both know. We’re doing I Like You (Better When You’re Naked). The cheers are still going on at the close of this song when Paul announces to the room, ‘I think we’re going to need another one.’ Well, what can we say? I think it makes quite the statement that after closing so strong with a song of our choosing that we now return to the randomness of the cards and let someone else pick what we’re going to finish with. The Cat comes out. Oh yes, this is a massive end to a really cool evening. And yet again we’ve been asked to close an open mic after playing it for the first time. This also happened in Germany.

A big part of playing open mics, and going to gigs, is having the chance to meet and talk with other songwriters and performers and just people in general. We get speaking to someone now as things are winding down who’s keen to see how we’ve been getting on gigging. When we tell him our model of just turning up and hustling to play there and then, he says he’s never thought of that and has never heard of anyone doing it. ‘I’m sorry but I might just have to steal that one,’ he says. Me and Maja jump in and say the same thing at the same time. ‘Yes, please do steal it.’ The next bit of course we don’t say at the same time. That would be just a bit strange. But our general message to him is, Tell everyone else you meet about it and tell them to do it. If more people are doing this it might make it a bit easier.

And there’s more after this. Bar manager Tom tells us we were really entertaining and should come and play again. I get talking to him and tell him how we generally operate and he likes the sound of it. The result of that, with Maja away in Sweden next week and for most of May, is a loose arrangement for me to come back sometime soon, have an afternoon coffee with him, and see where that takes us. Let’s not jump the gun, but yes, let’s. Saturday gave us the possibility of a regular venue in Shoreditch, or at least a conversation to be had. Now we have an in in Camden. We also have possibilities in central too. Shoreditch, Camden, central. I think those three areas are the key to breaking London open. Not counting The Dial Up in March, tonight brings our gig count here up to seven. A reminder. The Dial Up aside, Mike’s Acoustify on Sunday April 9 was our first London show. That was two and a half weeks ago.

Day 130

Sunday April 30

Just a quiet Sunday with vague plans to have a wander down to The Marquis during late afternoon. There may or may not be some music on. And we may well catch Tommy and have a chat about playing in there. However, we’re not entirely sure what that means because we don’t fit the general model of playing two 45 minute sets or two hours I used to do here or anything like that. We’re really just thinking that every now and again we might be able to jump up after or during someone like we accidentally did in here a few weeks ago. It’s most unlikely to pay, and we’re not entirely sure about doing the hat. We’re pretty much going with: this is London, we’re trying to build, so just getting ourselves out there is enough and we think this is a great venue in which to do that. But really, just a Sunday hang and anything else is a bonus. As we often say, you’ve just got to be on the scene and keep being on it. Which is why we went to The Reliance yesterday for a drink or two, in the process getting to know some of the bar staff and having a lovely little fun catchup with the owner, Mario.

We walk into The Marquis at some time after six. Oh cool The Poptarts are on. This is the band who was on when we came in near closing time two weeks ago just as they were finishing. Tommy offered us the stage and we rocked the place. It’s really cool to walk in now and get a big hello from them from the stage and also from a lot of the barstaff who were in at the time as well. I’m sorry, but it really does feel like a bit of an entrance.

And there’s Tony as well watching everything from just about stage right. He also comes over and says hi and I introduce him to Maja and tell him we’re playing together now. Tony saw me play in here way back when so knows what I’m about and almost immediately he says, ‘Do you guys fancy getting up?’ I think he’s joking, but no. We soon discover this is a bit of an open stage. Not quite an open mic – although Tony might disagree but it doesn’t have that vibe – but more a show played by Tony who is joined by different friends, with the stage being, as I said, open. And now he’s offering to open it to us. Well, thankyou very much. We will take that. Not long after we’ve got our drinks, we’re summoned and called to the stage. The place is packed and very well warmed up. Tony has told me there’s a guitar on the stage I can use and it comes complete with a set of plectrums and a capo. Game on. We haven’t brought anything with us so we have no wireless gear at all and Maja’s using their microphone and of course, lead. So today will see us perform exclusively from a stage for the first time since April last year – The 22nd, and John Lees, Tullamore incase you’re wondering. I certainly was. We play four songs and oh, it goes massive. It’s also fantastic that some of the bar staff were here last time we played so they know at least two of the songs we play today. And the fact that they know them really does show.

We leave the stage and settle in for the rest of the afternoon as Tony leads a quite wonderful show with various people joining him, including some of the bar staff getting up and doing their thing. What an amazing event to have walked in and become part of. Tommy’s having a great time out front and is joining in everything. He and Maja have a huge hug when we leave. Maybe we can just keep doing stuff like this in here? That would be enough. No need to have a talk about that. This is one of our hang out places anyway.

Now we join all the people involved in today’s show in The Lemontree pub just round the corner. Among other fun conversations is one with Tony who tells us to keep an eye on when they have events happening and to let him know when we can make it. That way he can put us on for a bit longer. We were delighted with what we got today, but sure we’d take longer. He then says that after that, he may well put us on in his local area which is just outside London. Out there, he says, he might be able to make sure a few of the right people see us. Whatever that could mean, but it does sound pretty good. With that and today’s outing, that could be the sign of a door or two slowly creaking open. It really does feel like it. If nothing else, it’s another open mic, or more, open stage, where we now have a reputation and can put our name up whenever the opportunity arises. And now we can add a second show now in The Marquis to our gig list.

During all this, Matt gives me a call and says he’s heading to a bar to catch some friends in a live show. We invite our new friends here but they have last trains to catch. As the place starts to close we all joyfully say goodbye and now it’s off to The Queen’s Head just off Piccadilly Circus. In here we catch a good half hour of a fantastic blues rock cover band before we all head off across town to Ain’t Nothin’ But… where we hook up with a few more people we know, not least, Teo who I’ve played with many times in here at the jam nights. He tells us he’s playing his own show here next week. Well, Maja will be in Sweden by then but I’ll be around. Teo, I’ll be there. Not long before we decide to leave, another live band gets started in here so that makes three shows we’ve caught tonight while also having played our own. I told you we were only heading out for a quiet Sunday afternoon. We cap it off with street noodles and a walk back home.

Day 132

Tuesday April 2

Well, it’s that time again. Maja has a few admin things still to sort out in Sweden so she’s off for a few weeks and I’m going to keep ticking along here. We knew that show on Sunday would be our last for a while, and we weren’t even expecting that to happen. So a really great end to our first period of hitting London, and by definition, a really good and solid beginning. And you know, just great that we’ve now tested ourselves on one of the best music scenes in the world, possibly the best, and what we have has continued to work and produce great reactions, just like it has all across Europe. 

There have been a few really big moments for our live show on our journey. Times when our hopes, expectations, and yes, confidence, have had to make contact with reality and we’ve been like, let’s see if it can survive this one. Our very first show at The Trap in Clara. Oh, I was nervous about that one. So confident beforehand, but then, ‘Will this really go down well?’ Yes. Very much so. But then Europe and first Berlin, another of the great music scenes of the world. OK. So we did alright in The Trap. Berlin? And our first show there in the heavy metal bar. What a baptism. And Maja’s first ever show. And yes. Tick. Then how about around Ireland? Would we be able to just turn up in bars and play and be accepted, no, cheered. And would people like it enough to put actual money in the hat? Tick, tick and tick. Then a few other countries and cities, not least The Hague where we were told to forget about it because, while we might have done it other places, what we were trying to do would be impossible there. Nope. Done. Another tick. Great. So it works all across Europe in many different types of bars and scenarios and to many different audiences. But then the toughest test. What about London? The ultimate contact with reality for aspiring original acts. Well, so far, tick.

For building on this now, we do have a few leads for gigs in June and we also have a few open invitations for people we’ve played with so far, very not least The Barrytones from Sunday.  But we’re not entirely sure right now when Maja will be back, so we’ll see where we are when she does return and take it from there.

Day 137

Sunday May 7

So here I am for Teo’s Sunday night in Ain’t Nothin’ But…

I’ve decided to walk here and I’m going to walk home after. I’ve also made sure to be in at least half an hour before the show so that I might just manage a bit of a hang before it starts getting loud. And yes, apart from it being a great blues show, it really does turn into a bit of a reunion night, not least with Woody, who has his own claim on the 100 hour jam when he pulled in a non stop shift of the first 38 hours or so. And yeah, it’s fair to say there’s a bit of reminiscing on that. I also get introduced to a few people who’ve turned up in the past two or three years which is great. As for the people I do know, I haven’t seen most of them since late 2019, so around three and a half years ago. That seems crazy, but really, things generally tend to be quiet in Januarys and Februarys. Then in March 2020, the whole lockdown thing happened. Then in May 2021, just as things were opening up again after a few false starts, me and Maja were off to Ireland. Of course we have been in here once or twice since returning to London, but not on nights when a lot of blues regulars would be around, so not too many (no) familiar faces. So yeah. just a really epic night meeting people again.

Day 138

Monday May 8

The most of the rest of the month now and I get my teeth right into studio and songwriting and all kinds of musical bits and pieces and practice around that. The occasional social out but nothing Diaryable to report. We’re currently a little bit ahead/behind in here so I’ll tell you now. Maja will return on Tuesday May 23, so day 153 so no more Diary days until at least then.