Other people and the unpleasantness of dealing with them

A couple of weeks ago we went to see Tony Joe White at the Jazz Cafe, which once again proved that it attracts one of the most appalling audiences of any venue I've ever been to. The support act they had 'chosen' was not only one of those rubbish whiny girls who sings in a pseudo sexy voice which bears no relation to their speaking voice and drone on endlessly about their feelings, but also actively bad, so once she had buggered off we went to find a suitable spot in the crowd. It was sold out, so there were loads of people there, and it was a bit of a crush but we found a spot which wasn't behind too many gargantuan specimens from which we could almost see the whole stage.

Unfortunately for us, we were also immersed in the 'crowd' meaning that we were forced to endure the unpleasant habits of those who share our taste in music. The first was a guy who was standing behind me, so closely behind me in fact that I could feel his breath on the back of my neck (which, due to the methods of my childhood optician gives me the creeps anyway) and almost every part of my body was being touched by his. As if that wasn't creepy enough, he then interrupted a conversation that the Boy Wonder and I were having to begin an annoying chat with the Boy Wonder about his previous experience of seeing Tony Joe White.

He actually apologised before interrupting, which demonstrated some understanding of the social convention of accosting a stranger, but when the Boy Wonder said that he wasn't surprised that he was a little late he started grilling him on every time he had been to see him and how late he was each time. The Boy Wonder gracefully extricated himself from the situation, but I was still left with this guy leaning on me, until after the second or third song the Leaning Man managed to hit me round the head whilst clapping and I asked him to move back.

He seemed strangely put out that I had asked him, despite the fact that it must have been obvious that I couldn't actually move properly with him basically standing where my shadow should have been. But, having removed one source of other people's hideousness, we were still subjected to downright horrific personalities of several hundred other people, from the 'I'm so crazy' guy behind us who couldn't shut up to the group of twats who found themselves completely incapable of just standing and enjoying a gig without constantly rearranging themselves.

Tony Joe White was awesome, but once again we were reminded that UK gigs seem to attract the scrapings from the bottom of the barrel in terms of other attendees. There are quite a few gigs coming up over the summer that I'm really looking forward to except for the fact that I suspect there will be other people at them, ruining them and making me cross, which in turn makes me feel like a fun-hating old crone which makes me even more cross. Is it really so much to ask that people get a drink, find a place to stand and then do so quietly and without moving too much for the whole gig? Or do we really have to go back to New Orleans to find a good crowd?

Why is UK country so lame?

Blues music in this country has traditionally failed to live up to the standards of the original black blues singers, which is understandable because we don't have that heritage over here. However, country music has always been the preserve of red neck white guys living in isolated rural areas, so why can't we replicate that in the UK? In particular, why is the festival featured on Ceol Country on BBC Alba so unfailingly poor? I know it's only a small Scottish festival, but even the members of the bands looked like they wouldn't pay to see their performance, and the liveliest thing we saw over the entire series was the octagenarian line dance troupe who stamped away with a graceless vigour that suggested the music was secondary to the fact that there was something to do in their remote part of Scotland which they would not miss come hell or high water. Good on them I say - the views of the audience make that show.

Good gig, bad gig

Good gigs that might not have been : Guy Clarke when he didn't play the only song we knew of his but turned out to be generally awesome anyway; Tony Joe White at spyderfest when he was announced about 5 minutes before he actually found his way through the incredibly thick fog into the tent, but was still wearing sunglasses when he did appear. Gigs that should have been good: Tony Joe White and Mavis Staples and the Muscle Shoals Rythym Section, where they showboated and vamped their way through the whole performance and didn't really bring the funk; Dr John in Amsterdam when the fuckin saxophonist played way too much; when we went to see BB King and super ugly guitarist Gary Moore was his support and overran with his shitty widdly guitar solos so that BB King had to cut his set short to finish on time

Organising a surprise party

It was the Boy Wonder’s 30^th birthday on Saturday and to mark the occasion I organised him a surprise jam/party, which was fun! Admittedly, doing it so shortly after our wedding was a little stressful, but mostly not being able to tell him what I was doing was very difficult – I kept speaking to people who updated me on news etc, and then couldn’t say anything to the Boy Wonder. But, not content with organising two events marking big occasions this year, in my drunken state on Saturday night I also began the process of planning the next extravaganza – a New Orleans fundraiser in the New Year. I have already recruited our richest friends to provide a venue and possible source of wealthy attendees from amongst their friends (although I have a feeling that my subtlety was slightly lacking when it came to sharing the details in my Bow-laden state!).

So whilst on the one hand I was just pleased that everyone came and nobody ruined the surprise element, the completion of our second successful gathering of the year did give me a sense of satisfaction, marred only by the fact that it was more fun planning things with the Boy Wonder – we are both people who like to picture things as we would like them and then recreate that on a larger scale, which makes the planning much more fun than following a formal path of doing what you should do, or compromising, or the dreaded ‘done thing’.

All of this means that I am already thinking of ways to make the fundraiser work, and I am really excited about the idea of supporting a charity which is so in line with our shared interest. The whole thing is still very much in the ideas stage at the moment, but I am sure it won’t be long before the whole thing is imminent and being as I have just looked it up and found out that Mardi Gras 2009 is on Feb 24^th, I’m already thinking some kind of Mardi Gras theme would be a good basis for the event…