Pick a card...

So, two gigs in one day. Darren had moved house. In fact, out of a house and into dingly dell and no one had seen Ben since sunstock. Doddle.

A quick exchange of phone calls and a basic plan was in place. I'd pick Darren up and head for the first gig "Rock at the Lock", where we'd meet Ben, decide on a set list of awe inspiring pop/folk/soul/prog and that'd be that.

We'd arranged to meet Ben at 1pm. I set off armed with some vague directions for dingly dell at 12. I arrived in the fairy glade around 1.30 after a delightful jolly around leicestershires finest villages. All that was left was to battle a particularly crappy sat nav and find this here "Rock at the Lock". Well, in a carbon copy of our first visit to the Steamboat Inn the sat nav took us down some dead end 15minutes away from the venue.

We arrived 5 minutes before we were supposed to go on (and 3-0 up in the football! :)  and was told it was running an hour late so there was no mad rush. This knowledge fresh in my mind I headed back to the car to listen to Forest stuff Derby 3-2. Darren, Ben and Rich re-appeared freshly adorned with passes, upon which was the legend "Artist". The graphics on the passes are beyond description so.....

it was almost as if the 90s never happened.

Anyway, we played a pretty decent set with such classics as Counting horses, There, Open, Circles and a good few others to a largely indifferent crowd awaiting the next version of "summer of 69".

So, off to Thringstone. This, promised Darren, would be a more receptive crowd of people who enjoyed their music and appreciated the creative process. Also, he said, it was much more like a proper festival stage.

It was two lorrys parked next to each other. The crowd.....that was mostly old women and old blokes sitting about half a mile away, in a line just outside the refreshments tent.

Immediate reservations aside it turned out quite well. A good turn out from our lot and a gradually growing crowd meant it could go down as a success.

With re-newed vigour it was back to Dingly dell for tea and crumpets and to toast another glorious day of doing card tricks for dogs.