The Stormcock Community

What a great gig to finish the year off !!

As I can't recall much from the Birkenhead gig ( although I know I enoyed it ! ), I thought I'd have a sober gig in Salisbury ... well that was the plan ( honest ) until my mate Mik said he wanted to come along too ... so it was obvious that we'd have a pint or 9.5 !!

I wasn't expecting much, as I thought the gig would be too posh, being held in an Arts Centre in an ex-church ... and the fact that I didn't recognise any of the other 58 people attending the gig ( though it did look to be sold out ) !!  The age range was from a toddler to a few pensioners and I got the impression that quite a few folk were there to support the Arts Centre, hence they weren't necessarily Nick fans.  The guy next to me was a big Roy fan, but had never seen/heard Nick's music ... and as he lived in Salisbury, he thought he'd "give him a try" !!

The venue actually turned out to be stunning ( well I guess most churches are ) and they actually sold some decent bottled ale ... so it looked like we were in for a good night !!  The support act ( http://www.myspace.com/glowglobes ) were very chilled out and obviously had some friends in the audience, but there didn't seem to be anyone actually in charge at the venue ... they had to introduce themselves and it seemed to be down to themselves, when they actually finished ... which basically meant, that Nick didn't get on to the stage until about 9:30pm and we guessed the venue would close at 11:00pm ... so wasn't going to be the longest gig this tour ( oh how I wish they could all be 5 hours like in Brighton !! ).

Soon after the first song, Nick admitted that he wasn't really in a "gig mood" as he had been busy in his recording studio, getting his next CD ready, so that meant he was pretty much open to what he was to play ... well except for any song he didn't want to play !!  He did have quite a few request shouted out ( which was good to see ) and he did actually play the intros to a few Roy songs ... though he did confess that he doesn't know any in full ... but even the snippets he did play, made my hairs on the back of neck tingle ... I told him not to tease us !!

Can't recall all the songs he played during the night .. but they included ( I think ) shadlowlands, aeroplane, kilty stone, vampire song ... which resulted in a string break at the very end ... so we had the Wiltshire poem ... which was apt as we were in Wiltshire, blue sky thinking ... and obviously more.  Towards the end, when he relised that it wasn't the place to sing Titties & Beer ( some guy had asked for "that zappa song" ) he played the new silly dady song ... and then he realised that he should prehaps concentrate on his new material ( as that's what he's been playing at home ) ... so I suggested 38 ... but no ... he had another song up his sleave to finish the night/year off ... another new one ... one that I don't believe I had heard before ( I can't remember him playing it at Birkenhead .. and I would have thought someone would have mentioned it on here after the gig ) ... and obviously I have no idea what the song was called ... but if I was a gambling man, I'd say something like "This is a story ..." ... can't remember how he goes ... but I do remember thinking ... "oh boy ... that sounds like another corker" !!

Then the gig was over ... and most people seemed to leave rather quickly ( I think that's what you do at arts centres ) ... but Mik & I stayed there for a tad longer, managaging to convince the bar man that he shoud sell us more ale ... as it's all for a good cause (!) ... and I even convinced him that he should give away all the pizzas that he hadn't sold that night ... so what more could I want from a gig, to finish off the year ... decent ale, free food, amazing venue, the best company ... excellent gig which included Roy snippets and a new song !!

All in all a great night !!