On Thursday night, for the first time in ages, I’ll be on stage, singing new songs with my beautiful cream and chrome Wurlitzer keyboard. I love that thing. I dug it up from eBay and had it repaired (it sustained a few injuries in transit) by a man with white hair who smokes rollies and tells stories in a fag-torn voice about playing with Jon Bonham the night before he died. Apparently he once left my friends’ mixing desk out in the rain. Anyhow, the wurly now lives happily in our kitchen, offering the chance of an enjoyable razz whenever I feel like it.
Although I’ll have a couple of oldies up my sleeve, I’ll mostly be playing new material. As the band is still under construction I’ve been working out how to translate what was recorded into a solo performance, picking and choosing what feel like the defining parts and working them into a coherent whole that can be delivered by ten slightly stumpy fingers and one voice.
Just because I can, I’ve bought a handful of guitar pedals to give the wurly a few different sonic flavours. They’re called ridiculous things like the D.A.M. Red Rooster (Germanium Booster) and Malekko Trem. They’re rather beautiful. They’re fixed with Velcro tape to a pedal board that will sit on the floor, under the keyboard. Left foot is for the Rooster and friends. Right foot is for the sustain pedal. Fingers and thumbs are for playing and voice box is for singing. Ordinarily I’m a little clumsy so who knows what’ll happen. It’ll be fine. I’m a bloke. I can multi-task.
Lots of people have said they’re coming, which is amazing. I think pretty much my favourite thing in the whole world is playing to a room full of people that are really listening and getting something out of it. That and Marmite toast, obviously. If, after all the practice and writing and recording and thinking people enjoy it, I’ll be happy.
