What a brilliant night the first Open Mic at The Royal Oak, Bishops Cleeve turned out to be.

Things started of quietly with a short set by myself followed by another from Rich Howie, (right). Within 30 minutes the room was beginning to fill and people were congregating outside the door. When Rich started his set, there was quite simply a lot of jaws dropping. It was electrifying.

I was really pleased to welcome Joe Griffiths and Nicole Warfield, both from 'Krush' in the audience.

Then Steve Parkes, (below), turned up, guitar over shoulder having just ridden in on his push-bike from Cheltenham. It wasn't long before he was up doing his first set. Scary following Rich!

Nonetheless he carried it off well and was well received by everybody. Despite being concerned how his voice was coming over, I can assure you Steve, it was bloody good.

While Steve was playing, we were joined by Alan Jones, (right), who had WALKED it from Cheltenham! Thank's Alan, that was really nice of you.

Again a great set which went down well, lots of contemporary stuff and a great, distinctive voice, made Liam Gallagher sound a cheap imitation. No names but one young lady was shouting, "Your my favourite, I'm your biggest fan". I had to smile as her husband was sat besides her. I do like your style Alan, always look forward to you playing.

During a short set by myself I was pleased to be joined by Joe on Sax. What a privilege for me. Certainly improved the numbers having the sax filling it out with a couple of solos from Joe.

Everybody came up and did another set ending with a bit of a jam with myself, Joe and Rich, (right). Boy, did I enjoy that!

A longer set by Rich just had people on the edge of their seats. Rich plays loud at times, but it was nice to see that people were listening and not talking, in fact it was like that for most of the night. One good reason for having it in a separate room.

Getting towards 10:30 and three chaps who had been sat in the top bar earlier came into the room. One asked if they could get up and do a couple of songs. Forgive me lads, but the first thing that went through my mind was that they thought it was Karaoke and I wasn't sure what they were going to do. So I said, "Ok, just the one". It was therefore a pleasant surprise when one asked if they could borrow my acoustic and another my electric. But even then I had no idea what was to come. What I didn't realise was that this was "Salty Dog". Halfway through the first number and I was in the bar negotiating an extension, which fortunately they agreed to. What a great time the lads gave us. Everybody was grinning like Cheshire cats. Wow, what a night this was turning into. 

Salty Dog were the surprise of the night.

Just when we thought it was all over, with Rich doing a couple of closing numbers, we were in for the treat of the night. He started playing "Smokestack Lightning" and was joined after the first minute by the harp player from Salty Dog. Things like this don't happen too often these days.

Rich ended the night with a superb version of Black Sabbath's "Fairies Wear Boots", How the hell do you hit those notes? Awesome.

Yes, it was a great night and one for which I was so proud to have been part of. What astonished me, was at the end, everybody was shaking everybody else's hands. Audience and musicians, musicians and musicians, but amazingly, the audience were congratulating each other! What a success. Thanks to everybody. It really was a dream come true for me.
Let's hope that the landlord lets us do it again.

In the normal course of events, nothing would drag me to a Simply Red concert. Nothing except, that is, Karan likes them, so I went.

The shock was that this was probably the best concert I have been to in some 35-40 years!

The band was awesome, but Hucknall’s voice was unbelievable. At times his mike was down at waist height and he was still filling the whole of Westonbirt.

I’m not going to rabbit on too much, I wouldn’t know how to explain it.  Great Atmosphere, great music, great venue.

I’m a fan for life.

Last night we went to see the amazing Robert Fripp, most famously known for being the guitarist for King Crimson. He was accompanied by flautist and saxophonist, Theo Travis, of The Soft Machine.

What made this a once in a lifetime experience was that it was in our local church, St Michael & All Angels, Bishop’s Cleeve!  Having said that, it is the second time that we have been graced with his music.

The was an audience, (congregation?), of about 100 people listened in total silence as Robert and Theo filled the church with a soundscape of weaving loops and swirls of sounds gently sweeping around the speakers distributed around.

I have found this clip on YouTube, but in honesty, it does not really tell the full story. 

The problem is, is that it WAS that once in a lifetime experience.  Unique.  The expression, “You had to be there”, does sum it up.

Remember this too when you listen to the clip, there are no other instruments except his guitar.

Where else could you sit 15 foot away from one of the greatest guitarists in the world, playing for just a small audience and for free?

Thanks to Pam and Richard Crook and of course the church for organising this truly spiritual experience.

I had a nice surprise on my real birthday, (the 28th), Karan had booked a couple of tickets for Bob Dylan on the Wednesday.

It was a bit of an odd concert with Dylan playing a wide range of his stuff, on the organ! 

A couple of his older numbers, ‘Blowing in the Wind’ and ‘Desolation Row’ were almost unrecognisable with neither Dylan nor the band playing the same tune and neither playing the original tune.  Weird!

Nonetheless, it would not be Dylan without a bit of surrealism so 8/10.

No cameras allowed so this crap picture from my mobile.  Actually, it was a really good seat.  Honest!