Posted: 21 October 2011 at 11:57pm | IP Logged

Ah, yes,  will come up trumps, with a literary touch, no doubt

I saw that Rob posted a couple of concert photos of Bill Mason on FB. He should have given Bill Mason his mobile, so we could have some ATF pictures too!

...assuming that BM watched ATF...

Posted: 22 October 2011 at 11:45pm | IP Logged

 Ha, yeah, Rob should have passed his phone onto someone to take pics. Maybe Bill Mason was too busy having a beer when ATF were on!!

(hope  doesn't trump in public  )

Posted: 24 October 2011 at 1:47pm | IP Logged

The Manchester gig was great and John and I enjoyed the evening. Everyone played excellently.  Hannah Atkins was there again, and was on first; she's very talented.  She does some clever thing with her laptop where she records what she sings and then accompanies herself with it.  She also sang some songs with The Bill Mason Band. Bill Mason had again flown in from the US and commented that this might be the band's last live performance. They were also very good.  We appreciated Si Hawthorne's guitar playing. 

The evening built up to ATF and you can see how good they were from this clip of Let It Go that Rob has put on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybR1ymMsjAg&feature=youtu .be

I love this song of Rob's; the first time ATF have performed it.  Some of the other songs were: Time to Think, Der K, Life in the City, You, Billy Billy (as always a fantastic guitar solo from John!) and Laser Love (lovely to hear the Moog again!... and enjoyed Rob's running about in this).  Please will someone help my poor memory and post a set list?  Tim had bought a new drum kit on Friday; the drums were all sparkly!  (Tim, please tell us how your new kit differs from the old one and what you like about it, or have you worn the old one out?! )  A big thank you to you all, Peter, Rob, John, Ian, Tim, Paul and Martin for all your efforts, a long day and late night; it was a great evening.

John and I were a bit sorry there weren't more people there; it seemed quite quiet, but maybe it was because the hall was big, and it can be hard promoting gigs, and good reasons why people can't go.  A nice hall, reminding us of The Martletts in Burgess Hill.  The stage lights were really good.  I also missed you, Zippy, Rich and Bry, it was strange without you there!  It was good to meet Shaun there, promoting Soapbox.

There were seats, which was relaxing, but they all got us up and dancing, so we enjoyed that!

I can't disappoint Seagull, so here's the literary bit: as well as Dalit candles on sale, was Simon Hawthorne's book, about his life and the Dalit people and how he came to start the charity, Life Association.  I haven't started it yet but look forward to reading it.  There are also calendars for 2012.  Neither of these items seem to be on the website yet, but I imagine they will be: www.lifeassociation.org.uk.  This and the Dalit Freedom Network are great charities. The numbers quoted are staggering and make painful listening, of the amount of people affected by the modern form of slavery, human trafficking: possibly 100 million people.  £8.50 of the £10 cost of the CD One Rule, recorded at last year's gig, goes to the charity, which is great!

It's always good to visit John's mum and relations further north, and we're very grateful to them for their willingness to put us up...

Love and hugs xxxx  

Posted: 24 October 2011 at 11:06pm | IP Logged

No Tim, just the be-bops.  John and I love the Moog in Take Me Higher, but that is a much taller order, I suppose.   Yes, they were really together.  I'm always impressed with how fresh and vibrant they make it, even though they've played the songs loads of times.

Have you seen Ian's video of Laser Love from Friday?  It's on FB but I couldn't see a way of copying it to here, even with my new copy and paste skills.

Posted: 25 October 2011 at 8:14pm | IP Logged

https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/photo.php?v=265833386794 820

Try this, see if it works.. Don't know of you can get it if you're not on FB? It's not on Youtube

Posted: 25 October 2011 at 11:11pm | IP Logged

Yes, it works, well done Seagull