Narrow Street

So it’s the day after the Narrow Street Fete and I’m left with this warm glow. It could be sunburn, but it’s not. It was a beautiful day and it started in the best possible way. The Fete was opened by the stunningly lovely Cleo Roccos she was very nice to me) then our fab friend and bass player Bob Kelly’s band Kellys Heels opened up the musical proceedings. For those of you not in the know, Jim and I are the rhythm section for Bob’s brand of million mile an hour power pop. And despite some blundering bass from me, the Heels were much appreciated.

Promoter Paul did the right thing and whisked us off to The Grapes for a pint (I went for the Timothy Taylors, YUM) then we had half an hour before Bruise went on. I had brought my old Ampeg amp but Tim the sound engineer had set up a glorious old valve amp which I just HAD to plug into. After a bit of pedal shuffling … there’s got to be at least one tec head out there interested in this … my pedals generally go Tuner – Delay – Boost – Distortion – Wah – Tremolo – and a second boost set to compensate for the baritone being a bit quieter than the strat. After swapping the boost and distortion round for a cleaner sound we were ready to go.

Onstage it was an utterly beautiful sight to see, loads of sunny faced locals enjoying the canal side scenery and shaking a hoof to our set. There were so many individuals who beamed their approval at us while we were playing, but a few stick out in my mind. There was a little group of very young boys sat cross legged on the ground enjoying some serious rock gurning when we were rocking out, that makes me, a comparatively old girl, very happy. Then the Pearly Queen who seemed to dance through the whole last half of the set, she was brilliant. And finally the stilt walking women, 10 feet tall, dressed in luminous colours and really cutting loose to the last part of the set. It was such joyous thing to be a part of. During our last song “I Don’t Like You” we were surrounded on all sides by these gorgeous giants wigging out, they added a surreal glamour, the perfect end to a fantastic gig.

Thanks to those who bought albums and thanks to the organizers.