Sinister: weekend-AH, go out, have a good time

[Stephen Hewitt]

Had one of those long weekends, starting on thursday evening (it's the
new friday evening, you know) with tompaulin, who were "stripped down"
to a five piece, playing in Oxford.  Unfortunately, contrary to rumour,
Tom Paulin himself didn't turn up (apparently he was having dinner with
Gordon Brown), but Mrs Tom Paulin did, and seemed to enjoy herself. 
Thursday also saw the start of my meeting lots of listees, as I spent
most of the evening with Mark Hester, and several of tompaulin are/have
been on the list too. 

Friday was boring and spent getting over thursday, so we'll move swiftly
on to Saturday, which was GRATE fun.  We met up at the Spitz to see the
gentle waves, but unfortunately there were no tickets left for Dr Sean
and Mrs Dr Sean.  Listees present consisted of myself and mrs carsmile,
juicy lucy, ally96, chris mmmm brown, sally moore, miss vicky and mark
cassarotto, who, i had great pleasure in finding out, is two months
older than me, THE OLD BASTARD!!! ;)  Bill Wells Trio were on first,
with Stevie Jackson playing guitar and harmonica and singing a bit of
falsetto. 
Frankly, they were a bit dull, in a jazzy kind of way, and also very
very (very) quiet.  There was actually a sign on the door telling people
to turn their mobiles off, and conversations had to be whispered if you
didn't want the whole room to hear.  I think the highlight of the set
was when a gentleman came on to the stage with a euphonium and i turned
to chris and whispered "look, a great big horn!"  which he found highly
amusing...

Now a statement that will no doubt receive howls of derision.  "I
thought the gentle waves were QUITE GOOD"  there, i've said it, and i
don't care
what anyone else says.  The jazzy numbers were particularly pleasing,
although, well, her voice (bless it) does grate (and i mean grate, not
GRATE, you understand) after half an hour.  BLOODY SING A BIT LOUDER
WOMAN, IT WON'T KILL YOU.  Unfortunately, due to the lack of height of
the stage, and the people standing in front of me, I'm unable to give
you an arse update (new listees who do not understand this are advised
to search for "isobel's arse" on the archives), although they did manage
to get about 12 people on the stage at one point...

Humourous conversation overheard as the band came on stage:

person 1 "which one's stevie jackson then?"

person 2 "um, i'm not sure, he'll be there somewhere"

me (stepping in to avoid any further embarrassment, sotto voce) "he's
standing behind you, dear"

and another thing, Bill Wells *is* Steven Wells' brother isn't he? 
There's definitely a family resemblance, maybe that explains why swells
doesn't like twee stuff, maybe Bill used to hit Steven over the head
with tallulah gosh records when he was little, or something.

By now the sinister posse had expanded to include the pinefox, trousers,
xsophie and maria.  After the set had finished, with what can only be
described as a rousing commitments-style cover of "and the beat goes
on", we all tootled off to the Garage for dancing and general mayhem
with the strange fruit mob.

After dmatt's fantastic sleeping exhibition at the last strange fruit,
it was geoff's turn to delight us with a little drunken snooze.  The
bets are on for the next strange fruit, will it be rich or martin who
conks out in a corner.  Baxendale were guest djs and thrilled us with
tracks from britney, betty boo, and, as we arrived "je suis un rock
star" by bill wyman...  There was much dancing by pretty much everyone
named above, the pinefox being particularly energetic.  Other listees
present included my tapetree goddess cressida, adam and paul
arathoooooooon and his mate, who didn't look like a justin (quick
aside:  I'm sorry justin, i can't remember your real name, due to
advanced pissedness, but please mail me about what we were talking about
if yr still up for it ;)).

I'd also like to take this opportunity to say thank you to miss lucy for
putting me up (putting up with me, more like) on Saturday night.

well, i think that's enough from me for one day (I haven't even got on
to sunday yet!!).  A large crate of props to all of you who were out,
and friendly beckoning gestures to anyone who feels like joining us next
time (and humble apols to anyone i missed).

xoxo
CarsmileSteve
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