mostly david ephgrave

If I were to jot down my Knebworth Park gigs list in its entirety, it would read like this: •1996: Oasis. •2019: Dog Fest. Is that a progression? Today's trip to the canine festival to end all canine festivals (with Elwood in tow) was very pleasant. It's fair to say I've never seen so many dogs in one location, though they were surprisingly well behaved, with no real trouble at all; I'm not sure if the same could have been said for the Oasis gig all those years ago; I'm sure a few Kangol jackets were thrown in anger (without looking back, no doubt). Considering the sheer volume of dogs at the event I'm surprised Elwood took things in his stride, though he did have some jumpy moments when confronted by a couple of the mutts on the planet to be bigger than him (yes: I used the word, "mutts"). Outside of that, he was impressively easy going and didn't flinch when given 'the nose' from his colleagues; he's a very good boy,

It's nice to see my dog get more and more used to being in a public place like a pub and not be phased by it. Today, I met my friend Stephen who'd come down from the Midlands for a catch-up, and during that conversation, Elwood lay on the pub floor, perfectly relaxed and totally on standby; if he had appointments to keep, he didn't let this show. While he's always been pretty accepting of whatever you expect of him - the dog, not Stephen - he's become even more so very recently, which is lovely to see. He knows we're his owners and he tries to please us. Previously, he would have taken longer to settle in a pub, if he ever settled at all, yet today he was quickly fast asleep, which meant I could relax too without worrying that he was on edge; ultimately, he's a very good boy. As for my time with Stephen, it was good to catch up. We briefly discussed the dates we're doing at Bath Comedy Festival next week - Stephen is supporting me there - and did t...

On Wednesday, I got home for a brief window between an appointment with my dad and meeting Glyn at The Sun to set up equipment for Mostly to find my flat like this: That's right: it was that age-old 'dog got into the flour' situation. Except the scene was a little more complicated than this; not only had the dog got into the flour, he'd trampled it with similar success into the sofa, his bed and the front room carpet, before returning to the kitchen and somwow shutting the door behind him, locking himself in. When I put the key in the front door, I could hear him moaning, and when I released him from his baking-based prison he was panting and stressed and needed a good long hug to calm down again. There was no point in getting angry as by that stage it would never read what I was telling him off about, and ultimately he'd grown so wound up he just needed attention to bring him back from anxiety. It was just frustrating that I'd been gone just long enoug...

I think I’m starting to get used to this having a dog malarkey. He’s settled in with remarkable ease and is no trouble at all really. He’s currently asleep next to me on the sofa and - despite being officially fucking massive - somehow manages to take up so little space. It’s nice to have his company during the day when I’m working, although we still need to get him gradually used to spending a little time on his own so I can go out without a big dog in tow (today was a good example when I narrowly missed out on a hair cut as the shop had closed early by the time my wife had finished work and got back to take over the dog-sitting; consequently I’m going to loaf around tomorrow like some kind of long-haired layabout. I’m also grateful for the chance of extra exercise, having become increasingly lapse with getting out of the house in the months since Edinburgh. At the moment I tend to take him out for around an hour in the morning, and either my wife or I will ...