the fencing flatworm recordings first birthday revue

thursday 25th january brudenell social club, queens road, leeds

Well, ffr is a year old and to celebrate I wanted to do a benefit gig for local listings pamphlet copsandrobbers starring as much of the roster as I could get to play. I booked the Brudenell because it is a big comfortable venue and I was feeling ambitious about the number of people we could attract. Come 8 o'clock when there was nobody there I was a bit anxious but need not have worried because in the end we must have got 60ish people. I was a good mix in the crowd of friends and friends of friends who were curious to see what I had been up to for a year, music people from in and around Leeds and a few brave souls who'd travelled from further afield. The atmosphere was good and I got given some demos, birthday presents and sold a few CDs too.

Beforehand I played a CD of a collaboration between me and John Wilson of mouthmoth records which went down well (watch this space...) then Graham played another noisy but controlled no energy set. He played from the back of the room, not the stage, which disconcerted some punters but gave everyone the chance to settle down. Jeremy was on next and it was a straight pop set from Straight Outta Mongolia. All songs with lyrics, all new stuff, some he had to read from clutched bits of paper. His non-stage presence had everyone rapt and he ended up signing CDs after his set!

Neil Campbell graced us with a rare solo set and managed to sound like a whole drone orchestra on his own. It was tremendous - voice, guitar, effects etc. all melting into one big beautiful life-affirming SOUND. I really hope the tape of that comes out OK. Klunk were next, again all new sounds, and a nice performance with the three of them crouched around a table of electronics. Their sound seperated the noise people from the enthusiastic friends. The former dug it straight away, the latter mainly didn't like it. Abi Bliss in LeedsGuide described Klunk as like a 'magic eye' picture and she is right.

Anyhow, this is where it all gets hazy for me and I don't remember Random Number's set though apparently I was doing the rob-hayler-patent-random-industro-dance much to the amusement of everyone ("that stomp out the burning newspaper dance" - Mark Just Glittering). I also don't remember the FFR-kestra set which is embarrasing because I was part of it. Neil said it was too short. Who knows? I also forgot to hand out the lyric sheets for audience participation chanting that I had made which was a shame but maybe a blessing in disguise....

We made a fair amount of money for copsandrobbers - enough to keep it running for a month or two so I think it was a success. The only bummer was that a (model: sharp) minisdisc walkman that I had borrowed from a friend to record the gig was apparently stolen. If any of you out there picked it up by mistake or have been 'keeping it safe' for me then please give it back and I will shower you with thanks. I'm pretty sure though that it has been nicked and this has left me pretty annoyed: what a low thing to do, nick someone's minidisc at a birthday party which is also a benefit gig! If they don't give it back I hope their genitals fall off...

And on that note, bye and thanks again to all who came and enjoyed it.