Bring on the Gherkin

Julian (the drummer) and myself are all set and ready to go ahead to play this Saturday nights' gig, as a two-piece band. Yup, me on guitar. Look, it'll be easy - and a whole lot more fun that way.

I'm not trying to big-note myself, but Julian and I don't have to 'practice and rehearse to death' the 50-or-so songs I've pulled together that we'll do on the night. I mean, there's 24 songs we've looked at together just the once - and we know how to play and perform them just fine, unrehearsed. YES! Julian and I have that confidence in one-another to do this - it is SUCH a freeing feeling! FREEDOM!

Part of our ongoing frustration with Matt as a performer is that he still hadn't learnt some basic material after EIGHTEEN MONTHS of seemingly endless rehearsals.

Julian and I can just walk into a situation and play stuff off-the-cuff, and do it just fine, thank you very much. It's all about playing music. No pretention, no ego - just celebrating performing music live. I'm no amazing player, don't get me wrong. I'm not. I'm good at what I do, but I'm no virtuoso. It's just that I've been playing "the beast" (ie. live band music) for so many years, I know how it works and how to use it to our advantage in a live gigging situation. I know how to make the punters go 'woah' (in a positive way! lol), yet it's ridiculously simple technique, really. So yeah, just playing guitar and singing isn't strange or alien to me at all, especially with the freedom and confidence as having someone with the ability, talent and skills as Julian right there with me as well.

To make me smile even MORE, Andrew (who's the new singer/bassplayer from Orange) said he was willing to play on Saturday night 'cold', ie. with no rehearsal. YES!!! But he couldn't make it, as he has a prior family commitment that night. No worries. Look, that's the type of attitude and self-confidence we've been trying to instill into Matt for the last 18 months. To just turn-up and do it! He just simply never caught it. Very sad. It really is, as he's a very talented musician. Matt just seems to panic and freeze-up, unfortunately. Tis not stage-fright, it's more a lacking in self esteem and self-confidence. But he is an amazingly talented musician and extremely competent guitarist.

So yeah, now we have a new freedom and unlimited horizon as to what we can play with a new player in the mix. I mean, now I can introduce seven+ brand-new original songs easily straight away with a minimum of fuss, knowing that they'll actually get worked on and get the band 'treatment' to make them work and sound great! Plus we'll develop our own new fresh style, sound and feel, as well as exploring a whole swag of fresh material together. Exciting times. The possibilities to play all over the place are virtually endless, simply because we'll have three players who are ready to play with no fuss or dramas - and just kick-back and relax and ENJOY doing it.


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I've never had that confidence with Matt in the band before, to introduce new original songs to him before... he would have simply frozen-up as a player. I've tried to tell him that repeatedly for the last 5+ months - but twas a classic case of 'selected deafness' in he only wanted to hear what he wanted to hear. Case-in-point: he thought he would be simply able to come back into the band, even tho he quit. Strange cat.

It's not as tho we didn't give him a zillion opportunities to play and perform. Basically - after 18 months, he just hasn't come-up with the required goods. Very sad, for him and for us.

Hey hey, I'm not gonna start a "Matt-bagging" session. It's not like that at all. He remains a good friend, who's just had a bad response to a situation he didn't realise what he was doing or something... but yeah. He's feeling better, but I know he'll be devastated as the reality of his decision to quit the band starts to really sink in for him. Poor bloke.


So yeah, I'm really excited to finally be in a band situation where I know people all have the right working-together attitude, and finding the motivation to motivate people just won't be an issue! YAY! (Constantly having to 'babysit' Matt thru endless hours of going thru rediculously-simple songs until he couldn't seem to remember them afterwards has been exhausting for me emotionally). I simply won't have to do that with Andrew (the new guy), and I've never had to do that with Julian, ever! Release and Freedom!

Bring on Saturday night! Astonishingly, it'll be the first time in 15+ years that I'll actually be playing rock'n'roll guitar in a band in a gig! I've normally played bass, or just quiet strumming guitar in the background otherwise! It'll be a snap, honestly.

Bring on the Gherkin!!!

Julian is happy and excited to do it. He's totally non-plussed about playing as just a two-piece for this one-off gig. Oh, you've gotta love that.


Oh... a passing thought... even tho matt says he doesn't want to play the gig, we're still inviting him along, because there's no "hard feelings" there. If he wants to have a play on a few songs, I'm more than willing to hand him my guitar and let him have a lash, no dramas. I'm taking a bass anyways, just so Julian and I can do some rhythm stuff if the times' right on the night! lol.

Peas be with ewe
Cyalayta,
Mal :)

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