mostly david ephgrave

A song can sometimes send your mind whizzing back to a particular time of your life, or an event. One record that has this effect on me is Stephen Stills’ hippy-tastic ‘Love the One You’re With’.  When I hear it, it’s 2004 and I’m touring the Netherlands, playing bass for the show Hold Tight it’s Sixties Night; you weren't there, man (unless you were). I wasn’t familiar with it until I came across it in the set; Buck’s Fizz’s cover version somehow passed me by. While the show was full of great music, this song sticks in my mind the most. It epitomises those three months in Holland (my first tour outside of the UK), and the atmosphere of the company. Its communal singsong nature made it a highlight of the show. I got to wear a Kinks-style suit, play my Beatles bass and sport a mass of hair and sideburns, so I was living the Sixties dream. Another song that reminds me of the tour is My Girl. We sang an a capella version of it as a company, which had a surprisingl...

Twelve years ago, I toured the UK with a show called ‘Rock and Roll Heaven’. One week, we found ourselves stranded at Grimsby Auditorium. There are a few downsides to touring. One of them is having Grimsby on your itinerary. The town has very little to speak of, except for the Auditorium which isn’t ; it’s a sports hall, caught adrift in the midst of a deserted residential area. You could put together a strong case suing the venue for Trade Descriptions; a theatre, it’s not. Another problem with touring is finding somewhere to eat. You can spend hours wandering a city, trying to find a decent meal before you need to be at the theatre. The only options in Grimsby were chips, chips or chips (with optional fish). One day, we visited the neighbouring town of Cleethorpes. The streets literally smelt of gravy. It was as ominous as it was savoury. Whilst sitting in a café tucking into a round of fried breakfasts (which wasn’t much different from eating chips), we looked out o...