Skip to main content

Craic-ing Up.


Of all the potential choices for 'on-hold music' you could go with, a musical theatre version of Danny Boy isn't the one.

It was while calling the Grove Theatre in Dunstable to opt for a credit to be kept on my account due to the cancellation of a Sean Lock gig there tonight, that I was faced with this aural monstrosity. The show was pulled due to unforeseen circumstances, which couldn’t be helped, what with them being unforeseen and all that. The staff were pleasant and efficient when it came to sorting it all out, but I could still have done without the quasi-Irish prelude to our conversation.

They must have had to field a lot of calls today as a result of the cancelled gig, with many of them from irate ticket-holders with zero understanding of the situation; thanks to running a comedy club, I know exactly what the public can be like. I'm sure the venue would have given themselves an easier ride though, if they’d chosen less offensive hold-music; the death metal album Eaten Back to Life by the band Cannibal Corpse would have done it.

It’s a shame the show was cancelled, as I’d bought the tickets as a Christmas present for my dad who - like me - is a big Lock fan. If I could just get him to play Mostly Comedy in the near future, it would act as compensation. I could have been worse: in 2002, I was standing in the queue to see Paul McCartney at Sheffield Arena, when an announcement came across the tannoy to say the gig had been pulled because he'd lost his voice. A sea of confused and saddened middle-aged men in Beatles t-shirts and Nineties-Macca mullets surrounded me everywhere I looked. I’ve never faced disappointment in such like-minded company since. If only he hadn’t damaged his Pipes of Peace.

Popular posts from this blog

Not The Bayeux One.

The Carole King album Tapestry has been my 'getting-ready-in-the-morning' soundtrack for the past few weeks.  It's been a favourite album ever since I was a student, which makes for a pleasantly gentle way to usher in the start of a day. I've always been a fan of a well-crafted song, which is something of a Carole King hallmark, ever since she started writing with her first husband in the early Sixties. Tapestry may be an unimaginative choice for a favourite LP, as it suggests I haven't delved that far into her career, but it's still an undoubted classic; anything with '(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman', 'Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?' and 'You've Got A Friend' on it can't really fail; if nothing else, it proves she likes writing songs with long titles.  Next month, she's set to perform the album live in its entirety for the first time at a gig in Hyde Park, which I would have loved to have gone to, if it weren...

Shakerpuppetmaker.

Have Parker from Thunderbirds and Noel Gallagher ever been seen in the same room? The resemblance is uncanny. So much so, I think something’s afoot. If my suspicions are correct, I've stumbled across a secret that will blow the music and puppet industry wide apart. In the mid-60s / mid-90s at least. It doesn’t take long to see the signposts. There’s the similarity between the name of Oasis’ first single, Supersonic, and Supermarianation, Gerry Anderson’s puppetry technique. The Gallagher brothers would often wear Parkas . Live Forever was clearly a reference to Captain Scarlet and Standing on the Shoulder of Giants to the size difference between Noel and his bandmates. The more you think about it, the more brazen it gets. It’s fishier than Area 51, Paul is Dead and JFK's assassination put together. The only glitch to the theory is scale . According to Wikipedia, Anderson’s marionettes were 1’10” and Gallagher is 5’8”. How does he maintain an illusion of avera...

Hitchin is Mine.

As of six o’clock tonight, I take over the Hitchin is Yours Twitter account for a week; a stewardship I’m anxious to get right. I’m proud of my hometown. It’s a great place to live, with so much going for it. I've always sold it to my non-Hitchinite friends; so much so, that a lot have gone on to move here. Any town expansion plans are partly my fault. Feel free to picket outside my house. I love its history and architecture. Take St Mary’s Church, for example. The building is beautiful inside and out, and huge for a town of our size. There has been a place of worship on site since the 7 th Century. Much of the present building dates from the 1300s. You wouldn't get that in America. (Don't forget the British Schools Museum too.)  Hitchin is a hive for creative people and a hub for the arts. It boast two theatres, two comedy clubs, a couple of art galleries, a festival for world music and a thriving music scene. This drew...