Month: October 2011

I had a good night out on Friday and I should be feeling chilled and relaxed, but I am totally wound up and very jumpy.
Its like I have my own personal demon just throwing me often balance when I think I have got it all together.
Whats it like not to jump at your own shadow?  I wish I knew and I wish someone else could actually know what it is I am talking about, but it will make no sense to them.  I do feel that as the days go by I am losing it more and more day by day.
Whats lurking in the shadows? I don’t know, but I feel like there is something chasing me…

I had a fun gig last night (Sat 15th October) at the Mermaid which is a bareboards ale house in St Albans that has always been an enjoyable gig for us and I finally felt back on form again. I was begining to wonder a little. We were not in the slightest bit subtle last night as the place was very crowded and we had a very noisy but appreciative crowd so we put ‘My old mans a dustman’ in the set, but no Cole Porter though quite a lot of Rock and Roll Piano. We had a guest player last night too. A guy called Ramone who really is from Barcelona, and yes he has seen Faulty Towers and totaly gets the joke. Hes a very good harmonica player and warmed up the vibe nicely. Its nights like that that make you realise why you do it, I mean getting paid to party, you can’t really beat that can you The violin was well received last night too. The back and related stuff is easing slowly and I am feeling a bit stronger, plus I am not half-asleep all the time.

Got to go back to the studio for the ES Album this week, though we are getting quite near the final thing now

Also did a good gig at Cambridge Folk Club ( takes place at the  Golden Hind 335 Milton  rd cb4 1sp), a 40 min support slot to Chris Sherburn and Danny Bartley, to promote our Delta Ladies full gig there in February 2012.

I am still feeling quite rough at the moment, my body seems to be doing its best to repair itself, but I having some very rough days. Today seems to be one of them though and my mood is not good. The meds that I have to fix the problem also make me feel a bit ill on the days that I take them, but the good thing is that I now know what is wrong having had an array of symptoms including cronic pain and exaustion and that there is a fix for it, but it will take a while. The annoying thing is that I had written off a lot of my symptoms as depression or anxiety and then to find out there was a definate and very specific reason why I was waking up completly exausted everyday was a real shock as I thought it was just me being lazy and neurotic

Musically we are in a quiet period with the band excetera with only 5 gigs this month, but thats actually a help as its giving me a chance to build my strength up, but I would like to be busier and feel a bit more up for it.

I finally got my main violin fixed, so that at least is good health and a new stage piano which made its debute at the New Inn Witney on the first of October and seems to do the job OK, though I could have done without the expense. So at least the first gig of the month was a good one. Nothing this weekend though, but we have been in the studio a lot recently so thats not a bad thing at all, in my somewhat depleted state.

I managed to put together a 1000 words for Transliving mag about Elephant Shelf though I am not sure how interesting that will be to most readers of a transmag as its all very normal stuff. We are really just another struggling band and the TG aspect is a very small % of it. We compete on the same basis as everybody else re gigs and so forth. We do have a bit of a once seen never forgotten aspect though and we are a bit like Marmite in that people seem to either love us or hate us

There are a few annecdotes that I managed to dig up that may make it seem slightly more colourful, but apart from the bit where your are actually on stage its mostly hard work and so much driving as most of our gigs are well outside London.

Still if it all keeps together, we should be back to France and hopefull on to Spain, Italy and Holland for 2012 in various incarnations of the Shelf and Delta Ladies. Driving is often a lot more pleasant though outside the UK IMHO.