It’s hard to know where to start with this blog piece, but here goes.
Once upon a time, in a land far far away…
When we first set our website as live, back in November last year, about an hour later we received an email from Roz asking us to headline at Littleborough. Everything we did up to this point was now leading towards this hour and a half set. Like a 16 year old frat boy - we were excited to do it.
Eighty percent of the proceeds go towards the conservation of the beautiful St.Nicholas church. This tiny church in the middle of NOWHERE is used as a church once a year for the harvest festival. Then six times a year for the Littleborough Unplugged gigs.
Some time around midday our tour bus arrived. Dean claimed the back seat and promptly fell asleep amongst the guitars. Jude and Beth… I mean… Tour bus manager and Beth went in search for pizza.
Foreign beers to the left of me, unbranded trainers to the right, there I was, stuck in the Lidl with Jude. (If you didn’t sing that in your head, we demand you go back and read it again).
As we turned down the mile long cul-de-sac we knew we were headed in the right direction.
The usual manager spiel of ‘no pooing in the tour bus toilet or you empty it!’ commenced and we popped our pizza in the oven.
Being parked at a somewhat precarious angle, tea was both delicious and exciting. The game was to see how long you could leave your plate of food before it simply slipped off the table and smashed on the floor.
We headed over to the church for a sound check. St Nicholas is easily the most beautiful place we have played. We had the quickest sound check we have ever had and we were ready to go.
The church was filling up fast and both Kootch and Sign of a Teaspoon were regretting not bringing some fingerless gloves.
Everyone brought their own cushions for the pews, their own snacks and their own booze… What a venue!
The gig was now, officially, sold out. The church was full to capacity, and we were glad for the heat of all those people’s baited breath.
Sign of a Teaspoon were fantastic. 80’s synth pop on ukulele’s. We danced in the isles and sang along heartily to the songs of our youth. So good were they, in fact, we felt that just one set of hands was not enough to applaud them with.
There was a small wee/smoke/vape (even sometimes at the same time) break. Two lucky (or unlucky, depends how you view it) winners of the raffle got to take home a Kootch CD. The rest had to pay (sorry about that, we must keep Dean in bananas, he’s a growing lad).
Then we were up. We were like Laurel and Hardy up there (or maybe more like Dick and Dom). Making the night run seamlessly, with quick wit and classy humour… Okay okay, we said the word ‘vagina’ a lot in a church and the groans from Beth’s puns could be heard by civilisation (over seven miles away from our current position).
We had a great laugh and thoroughly enjoyed playing for everyone. However, the night wasn’t over yet! I over heard someone say ‘Squeezy John has already gone back to the house’. Intrigued, we just had to be wherever this mysterious creature known only as Squeezy John was.
The party really began in the kitchen of the boat house. People flocked back from the gig to play their own instruments. It may come as a surprise to you, but Squeezy John did not play the violin!
Andy Gibson (co creator of the event) will be playing a support spot there on 26th May and he is well worth going to see. He sat in the corner of the kitchen unassumingly, playing some beautiful songs. Sign of a Teaspoon played another 80’s classic. Then Beth and Katy took to Morris dancing for the rest of the night. Katy then danced back to her seat while Beth crawled across the floor, gasping for breath and kneading her cramping calfs. Dean, of course, was paparazzi for the evening.
The videos below should give a little idea of the atmosphere that night but you really do have to go there to understand. It is a stunning venue, populated by stunning people. We can’t wait to see you again, Littleborough!
