the gig (house of moleman) and the recording

last night musicians of bremen were celebrating not only their second ever gig (ok there was the abortive 'first ever gig' where howard got ill and had to go home) but also the arrival/ release of their eponymously titled first album ('like led zeppelin' hopefully remarked horsemouth).

the album

this morning

horsemouth is gingerly feeling round his skull for the lager-lager-lager hangover but he seems to have escaped the worst of it, just when he was about to go for the fatal final can the bar closed. saved by the bell. earlier he had bullied tim goldie into buying reduced price beer tickets (thereby drinking the proceeds of the event before it had even been played).

before the gig

to kill time horsemouth and howard went for a womble about in sunny and prosperous de beauvoir - horsemouth took howard to the stabilised concrete backfilled carcass of house of the hackney moleman - who after 40 years of tunneling under the gentrifying streets (undermining property values one street at a time) was evicted by the council, harrasssed to death, (and with the plot of land later sold for 1.2 million pounds). it's better than rachel whiteread's house in horsemouth's humble opinion.

the gig

so lisa fannen & jer reid opened (http://vimeo.com/86801954 http://jerreid.co.uk/), tim goldie having retired behind the decks. a very poised poetry/ guitar and effects collaboration (and one capable of responding promptly to world events). later jer reid played again in a trio caroline kraabel / jer reid / mark sanders (http://www.marksanders.me.uk/biography.html http://masskraabel.com/ http://jerreid.co.uk/) horsemouth liked the way they weren't on the stage behind the apparatus of microphones and p.a. - the drummer in particular did it for horsemouth. as usual he would like to put all the 'bands' or improvising duos and trios together into one 'super group' (but it probably wouldn't work).

between these two setups musicians of bremen played - howard was complimented on his voice, there were a few fuckups in horsemouth's playing (but nothing too shameful - better placement onstage would probably have sorted most of it out), they played the same set as the first gig but with the order swopped around a little and with the addition of a short guitar instrumental - horsemouth had left the guitar slide at home and so had to play the set dobro style (with the slide guitar flat in his lap). myk became the first person to buy a musicians of bremen cd, horsemouth tried to tempt nick (but he wasn't having it).

the night ended with a.j. holmes (the hackney empire)http://ajholmesandthehackneyempire.co.uk/doing a solo 'palm wine guitar' show. curiously enough he was taught by folo graff who also taught horsemouth (very briefly) courtesy of the inner london education authority and their evening classes way back in 1988 at jenako arts in balls pond road. to horsemouth there's a trick to finding out how to 'place' this music with people (which a.j. manages very well and which horsemouth and the band he was in never quite did - plus a.j. plays it much better than horsemouth ever did). horsemouth has mythologised this so much in his backstory.

thereafter horsemouth chatted drunkenly before shlepping his way home through the liquid darkness. thanks once again to tim for booking them and thanks to the other musicians and the soundman - that was good dudes.