Thursday 4 November 2010

Guildford, this is Guildford: full of lovely mature musicians.


I like going to Guildford. I have loads of good memories of Guildford, notwithstanding the 2009 Boileroom Disaster. Almost every part of the place sparks at least one.

Last night's ROCK-TIL-YOU-DROP-SOCIAL was held there. The hosts were enthusiastic RTYD members Paul Santilli and Kirsty Pollock of Surrey band, The Greedies. I'd met Paul before, but not Kirsty who is also lovely. Did I just call a bloke lovely?

Charles Ranson of Said & Done (also lovely, too) came out with his bassman Howard (lovely), and both were soon followed into The Keystone pub (not exactly lovely, though it did have some nice beers) by bandmates Trevor and Colin (very nice). Finally, we were joined by RTYD stalwart Trisha McNair (it goes without saying...) and members of her band Riff Raff (riff-raff....just kidding....nice guys)

It was a modest turnout, but enough to constitute a social event. Said & Done had not met the Greedies, and both promised to support each other at their upcoming gigs. We talked a lot about the ins and outs of choosing and playing cover versions. Apparently, it is quite common to create spreadsheets to establish the popularity of song choices amongst the band members. I have even been promised a glimpse of one of these. We'll see.

Almost all of those present had been Weekend Warriors or through the Get Rocking programme for mature musicians who want to get on stage again, or indeed, for the first time. This is how and where they had all initially joined bands, though their bands, it seems, have been through some personnel changed since completing the course.

I had to leave at 10:20 to get my train, which was a shame, but hey! there's always next time.

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