Playing catch-up - 3 for the price of 1

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Welcome to my ‘mega catch-up’ post! I’m three open mics behind on the blog, and with more imminent I gotta get up to date! My best laid plans to write each post the day after I played didn’t quite manifest as I’d originally hoped (as with so many things in my life - but that’s a tangent we don’t want to go on today ;)). You may also have spotted the blog’s a little out of order in terms of timelines. So here's a reminder of the full list in the order I played them, with links to the posts I've written about them.

The Journey So Far


Week Three
Monday 17th: Bread & Roses, Clapham
Thursday 20th: Bishops, Fulham
Sunday 23rd: Bucks Head, Camden (CANCELLED) Zoom

Week Four
Monday 24th: The Queens Arms, Battersea
Wednesday 26th: The Library, Islington
Saturday 29th: To be revealed
Sunday 30th: To be revealed

Week Five
Monday 31th: To be revealed

As you may have spotted, I've not yet written about Bishops, The Queens Arms or The Library - so here you go :).

Bishops, Fulham

Mike is the host of Acoustify open mics - I initially got in touch with him about Mondays in Brixton but he said he wasn't running those in January, and suggested the Thursday one at Bishops instead. I was glad he did - as it was a super-fun night which obviously had a lot of the same people coming along each week, who were joining each other on stage and generally creating a lovely atmosphere. My friend Nia, who was visiting me, came along too, so I had company again! This was the next open mic I went to after my "Pete Tong" experience at the Bread & Roses (I told you the blog was out of order! I wrote about that one ten days ago!). So I was 'getting back on the horse' - and hoping to rebuild my confidence. 

If you remember, on the previous Monday the song I'd messed up was one which Nick and I had written together. I was playing rhythm guitar to his lead, and we had mostly joint vocals with some harmonies (if you're interested in hearing the song, the recording is here!). To properly vanquish my demons, then, I thought it would be good to perform that song again as soon as I could - without making the host of mistakes from the previous attempt. So in the lead-up to Bishops, I spent a lot of time practicing it - mostly with my eyes closed so I couldn't rely on visual cues! I wanted to keep the song structure the same, but without the lead guitar that'd leave a lot of gaps of unnecessarily repetitive strumming. So I thought I'd sing the lead part on Oohs and Aahs - which probably sounded a little bit odd - but gave me the chance to play the same rhythm guitar part as I would with Nick, which felt important at the time. You'll be pleased to hear this time it went a lot better - only a couple of slight fumbles on the guitar, and the other slip-ups were in my recollection of the lead, or of words I wouldn't be singing when joining Nick so hadn't committed to memory in the same way.


Another nice little story to tell about this one as well. The place was crowded and we sat on a table with two other people. One of them looked super-familiar, so during one of the breaks I mentioned that - I said I wasn't sure if we'd met or if he just looked like someone I knew! Turns out he'd played at the Magic Garden open mic the night I went, and had also been watching the gig at the Spice of Life when I joined Kieran on stage! We hadn't actually spoken before, so I didn't have to feel embarrassed at having not been sure if I knew him. His name's Alberto and he's a fab pianist - I loved his performance. Another highlight of the night's acts was utterly mesmerising voice and piano of Oggy Why, which genuinely has to be heard to be believed.

The Queens Arms, Battersea

I found The Queens Arms open mic when I happened across this handy list - I hadn't spotted this before, and it was great to find another local option! I was back on my tod this time. I'd emailed in advance, and their reply was at the most relaxed end of the range - no need to book, I could show up any time in the evening and would definitely get a slot. So I turned up around 8-ish, made myself known to the host, and he asked if I wanted to go next! I barely had time to tune my guitar before I was on stage. It was a lovely supportive crowd, and I played songs I was comfortable with so was fairly relaxed. 

Afterwards I was chatting to Cairo, a supervisor at the pub (off duty and watching the open mic with a pint), who mentioned that if there was time, we'd all get the chance to play another song at the end. As I'd done three originals - and hadn't specifically prepared anything else - I was thinking about fun covers I might be able to do, which the crowd might enjoy. I mentioned to Cairo that I had recently learnt Torn by Natalie Imbruglia, and his reaction told me that was a guilty pleasure of his! Cairo's not a singer but when the time came for me to play one more song he was something like 3-4 pints of cider in, which probably helped me to persuade him to join me on stage! It wasn't the greatest performance in the world - from either of us! - but we had a whole ton of fun and the crowd were singing along with enthusiasm!

The Library, Islington

Last but not least, my most recent open mic outing was to "The Library In Highbury!" (as our host Eran called it, much to my approval :D - it's technically in Islington but hey, I'm not arguing :)). My friend Ash also came to play - check out his Instagram to hear his amazing voice & guitar skills - or even better get yourselves tickets to his upcoming gig in Dalston on 27th February. I tried out a new song that I'd been messing around with for a while writing but had struggled to get to a point I was happy with. I kinda decided even before it was finished that I would commit to playing it at this open mic - I was getting frustrated with it and figured I needed to give myself a deadline to finish the damn thing. According to witness statements it went ok / pretty well :).

Ash's set went down well as always, and after he came off stage one of the girls on the adjacent table (Saskia) asked him if he'd play guitar for her if she put herself down for one song. So they went off for an impromptu rehearsal and the new duo "Sash" (below) was born! As you can imagine I was happy to hear their name (I'm still disappointed that my friends Helen and Doug missed the chance to call their duo "Hug" ;)). They played a cover of Dreams by Fleetwood Mac, which sounded great - Saskia has a lovely voice!



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