Weekend gigs

Couple of great gigs at the weekend just gone. First was Saturday night playing with Pickup The Pieces, a great function band I play in with some great musicians I know from the amateur dramatic scene around Manchester. We played at the Oaks hotel, Burnley for Michael & Ken’s wedding party and it was a great party. The crowd were really up for it and we were never short of people on the dance floor. The black haired lady with glasses who was in Phoenix Nights was a guest at the party too so that was a nice surprise. Doesn’t beat the best celebrity surprise I ever had at a wedding, which was my friend Dave’s wedding and David Essex was there! If only I’d thought quicker I could have knocked together a solo version of Hold Me Close but just as comedians say they come up with great heckler put downs while sitting on the bus after the gig, I thought of that as I was driving home afterwards.

The second gig of the weekend was a last minute gig at Gin Lane Bar in Wigan with Conal Duffy. The last minute, unprepared gigs are always the best and we bounce off each other pretty well these days. We also like to try and play as many songs as we’ve never played before in these kind of gigs as one thing we NEVER have is a setlist. Waste of time having one really, especially in these types of gigs as you play to the audience you have in front of you, not the one you imagined the week before. We got in Shape Of My Heart by Sting, Maybe Tomorrow by the Stereophonics and Rebel Rebel by David Bowie among many others I can’t remember. We were also dared to have a solo battle with each other so we obliged and became a full on blues jam between us. Great fun and we’ll have to start doing that more often.

Looking forward to a full Jonny Cooper Experience band gig on 25th October followed by a 50’s rock & roll show at Middleton Arena on the 26th!