11. The Bell Inn in Bath

There are two bands on here tonight, One in the main bar, a seven piece, and us in another room at the back of the Pub.
The main bar is quite busy and warm.
The back room is empty and cold
There are no posters or any mention that there will be a band playing at the back.
I resign myself to playing to a cold, empty room.

Yet this room has some charm. An upright piano, which I find Jim playing and later Lydia.
Old leather sofas lined up for comfortable gig listening, and the lighting is nice.
The sound engineer rigs up a couple of mics and then disappears to the front bar to sort out the other band.
I take the opportunity to get something to eat, a very good lamb tagine, in the front bar with Lydia.
Then, returning to our room, we start to run through a few songs.. a kind of soundcheck / nothing else to do type of thing, even though the sound man is still not back from the other band and my guitar is not wired in.
As we play, people start to wander in and even faces that I recognise; Jim Reynolds, who heard us at The Old Bookshop the Saturday before has come to hear us again. He has come with Bjorn, a Norwegian graphic artist.
There are also a group of friends from around Frome and Loredana from Sicily who heard us in Nunney and she has come with Haley, who together run 'Soundbites' where we will be playing in April, served alongside home cooked, Sicilian food.


   


At the back I see the silhouettes of a couple dancing, a slim, elegant African girl, a really good mover.
no one in the band seems to know what is really going on.. are we doing the set without guitar? is this a soundcheck? as I play, there are attempts to get the guitar plugged in. Finally the sound engineer returns and the sound is established.
By now the room is well populated and we progress through the set, stop for a break after bout forty minutes and then continue until closing time.

 
At the end are meetings with new people who like the sound and with those already familiar. Jim Reynolds gives me his CD, which I will come to listen to on the way to Brighton, the next day.