Gigs gigs gigs that’s what we’ve had, loads of them, all over. A quick mention for the Hoxton Underbelly (27th Sept) we played a half hour set which was a real pleasure. Mateo the Sound engineer did a bang up job with nothing but a line check and enabled us make a real impact grabbing the audience shaking them up and putting them down in a better place. It was an intimate little gig which was made even nicer for us because we met some longtime Bruise fans for the first time, Richie & Louise thanks for coming and thanks for bringing friends.
1st October, the day before my birthday we took our first trip down to Whitstable’s grooving Neptune, a serious music pub in a seriously beautiful location. On this night however it was pissing it down, waves blowing in off the beach, things were not looking good. By the time we were set up there was a happy smattering of familiar faces (Mr and Mrs McBride get special mention) and an expectant clutch of regulars. I really liked the space, Jim and I had room to ourselves, with great sightlines around the quirky boozer. And more importantly a wooden floor, with my amp sat on it letting the bass frequencies of my Laney really rumble. We built up a good momentum, balance was lovely and the crowd grew, and the rain fell and the wind blew. We rocked em, we soothed them then we rocked them again. Very nice rise and fall, both sets and particularly nice to have bar manager Darren come up to us after just one set and say, ‘we want you back, we’re loving it’. Feeling good, we loaded out in the horizontal rain and we’re looking forward to going back!
The new album arrived in the doorstep a few days later and we were ready to start Bruise’s Tiny Tour in earnest.
6th October we returned to one of our favorite venues The Latest Music Bar in Brighton for a very special night hosted by the charismatic full on talent that is Z-Star. It was a 6 band night everyone contributing a couple of songs, we played acoustically at the very top of the night then had the pleasure of listening to a collection of acts with Z-Star jamming in with percussion and vocals, the lovely Jo Harman taking a few impromptu tracks. I’m still singing some of the songs I heard that night. All preceded by a lovely session on Radio Reverb with Jeff Hemmings, always, always a good vibe. This was a great start to our involvement in this years Brighton Live festival.
7th October we were back at The Latest Music Bar to launch the new album ‘Little Victories’. Totally looking forward to this night and with very good reason, we’d hardly got through the door and were greeted by Stephen and the good news that downstairs were John and Jan from Folkmob. It was a great welcome and felt like the true beginning of this tour. Emberhoney opened up with an atmospheric set, then we hopped up and delivered half an hour of new material, songs from the new album, it felt good, it felt fresh, it felt sharp, then just for a moment it felt a little precarious. On the last song I was troubled with crackle, nasty ‘your amp’s about to die’ crackle, but it made it through. We sold the first copies of the new album and we were on our way home. It looked very much like the Folkmob contingent were going to continue a great night out in Brighton, we wished we could have stayed and joined in. Thank you so much to all who came along.
Saturday 9th October was the London launch at the spice of life, it feels very much like home territory and everybody there contributes, the guys at Substance Music and the crowd who show up, Katy, Johann, Peter, Gail, Leia, Frank, Jose, James and their friends and strangers and their friends, it’s just a good vibe, it just IS. The place was rammed Bob Kelly was on Bass we had a great time, 35 minutes of music, and an encore…or was it two? Whatever it was it was a treat, and coming off stage after a storming gig everybody was glowing. Late arrivals told us of bouncers saying ‘you’ll not get in tonight’ Sold Out signs on the door and the usual comfortable chatty mayhem slow dispersal, count out the money, hump the gear upstairs and swing off home. Aaaaahhhhh, Nice! Come on the rest of the tour!
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