ally's journal

this is a photo of me (hello) playing in london on thursday night at the green note (thanks to nigel for letting me use it). it's a perfect acoustic club to play i think, especially for a solo show. the set up was great and i thought the people really cared about the music and their venue. i was really at home here. it was fun to try out some non-album songs and i did one called "monkey business" for the first time ever. my set mostly consisted of songs from my latest album 'off the radar' but also a couple from the first one. immediately after coming off stage i had a surreal conversation with a guy who was wolfing down chocolate with wreckless abandon. my mind was still digesting what had just happened over the forty minutes of my set and i was heading briskly (or possibly running) towards the bar coz i had a right thirst on. anyway, the guy in question told me he'd enjoyed the set and would i prefer to possess crab claws or tentacles. the unexpected nature of the questioning continued and towards the end of our bizarre q&a session i noticed that he was holding his phone in a way that suggested our conversation (or my bemused replies to these unusual questions) might be being recorded. so, maybe it'll appear online one day. my fingers - or possibly crab claws - are crossed that it won’t however.

gin and tonic is my new drink. usually i'm a beer / wine / jack daniels guy but i don't know, i seem to be enjoying this drink lately. also, i noticed that i seem i suffer no ill effects from it. i'm sure this theory will be shattered (along with my nerves) as i push it to its limit one night in the not-so-distant future. coming back from london i saw mark lawrenson from bbc tv's 'match of the day'. i was contemplating trying to whip a bit of his moustache, but i didn't. i got another gin and tonic instead and watched some planes taking off. at glasgow airport my guitar was a no-show and when i was reunited with it the following day, i noticed the guitar case was cracked. ah, the power of the 'fragile' sticker. the case looked like it had been on an adventure. madrid next friday, hopefully that'll be an adventure too. i'm looking forward to returning to spain :)

coffee and cake mid-afternoon. i love it. i'm eating banana bread actually. it's really tasty and a great way to utilise nanas that are pretty much at the decaying, bruised and battered stage. i've just put the acoustic guitar down for a while to think about my set list for the solo gig in london on thursday. i'm having trouble deciding which of the new songs to play. i'm having to decide what key to play one of them in coz on the demo recording it's got a female vocal that comes in and struggle as i might, i just cannot reach the notes. so, i'm playing around with that and also some whistling on another track that i've recorded as a demo and which has some flute/strings kicking in at the beginning. i'm getting on well with the third album demos. i'm at about eight tracks that i'm sure are going to be on it and i'll record a few more. i reckon ten to twelve tracks on this one if i'm really happy with each one. no room for messing about here. oh no.