Damn You, Fishsticks

So, jaunts and hi-jinks all over the place lately! Where to begin? Probably the beginning, that'd be good. Sunday saw Alphino head off to Poole Park to take part in an awesome-sounding open-air concert. Except we didn't. Well, we did go there, and were all ready to play... until we saw it. What was promised to be a 17-tonne, open-sided lorry on which to perform was actually best described as a run-down ice cream van with a hatch! What was promised to be 2 aluminium towers with speakers and sponsorship banners was actually what looked like stepladders with a single finger-painted piece of cloth! What was promised to be a crowd of 1000 people was actually a children's playground and noisier-than-hades bouncy castles/burger vans. So after a quick shoofty, we bailed. Unprofessional? Hmmm, maybe, but if we'd not been, say, LIED TO then we'd never have to put ourselves in that position.

Monday night saw Alphino head off for Miche's Monkey Bash. I should point out that this was nowhere near as nasty as it sounds, as it was a night to raise funds for equipment to study Spider-Monkeys in Ecuador. Nerves were tense, and tensions were nervous due to these reasons:

-Will all the bands show up on time?
-Will the sound guy, who has been over payed, ever show up?
-Will any members of the public show up?

This event lived or died on audience attendance, as for a charity gig it would actually end up costing the organisers money if there weren't enough bums through the door. So, with all the sound stuff finally in place, a strange thing happened. People started arriving. And they didn't stop! By about an hour or so in, the place was packed! It was nerve-racking for us (Alphino) as due to Sunday's fiasco this would be our first live gig in over a year. Add to that we were playing with a full band, who we'd only rehearsed with once (and never all at the same time), so we had no idea how it was going to go.

Luckily though, it was mega, and great fun. The night ended up covering all costs and making a tidy profit for the cause at hand. So, if you came down, or gave your time to play the night, a massive thank-you for being skill! And yes -- oh, yes -- DJ Jazzy Jon & The Fresh Crabb WILL return!

On a side note, the week was rounded off nicely with the arrival of many great comic books, including possibly the best one ever written. 'My Monkey's Name Is Jennifer' is just too hard to describe, but it's a comedy that features an insane, violent monkey who's obsessed with maiming humans, and also has zombies and pirates in it! (for legal reasons I should point out the above image is by the book's creator Ken Knudtsen). 'Tricked' is fantastic also, and well worth checking out if you like character stories (plus the writer Alex Robinson was nice enough to email me when I wrote to say how much I liked it).

'SAY GOOD BYE TO YOUR FLESHY TESTICLES!'