Martin Carr at Deaf

When I first joined Twitter (in March 2009), it took me a little while to get the hang of it. There were no published rules of etiquette: for example, was it OK to join in a conversation being had by two other people? (It was.) And over a period of time, I built up a little group of friends, many of whom I'm still in touch with today. Some have even become 'real life' friends.

There was one chap that I used to chat to occasionally, called Martin Carr. He seemed like a nice guy and I gleaned pretty quickly that he was a musician but - a little slow on the uptake, here - it took me quite a while to realise he was once in the Boo Radleys. 

At some point we became friends on Facebook and although I used to see the he 'Liked' some techie stuff, I must confess that I had him pigeon-holed as the singer-songwriter type. But then I bought his recent album, 'New Shapes Of Life', which I'm really enjoying. Thus, when I saw he was playing at The Deaf Institute (a fave venue), I bought tickets for the Minx and me. 

When we got up to the venue, this evening, I found that I was surprised by the set up on stage; I realised I'd been expecting a traditional band. Instead, it looked more like a Blancmange gig, albeit one with a lot more guitar pedals. Loads of pedals, actually.

And, in fact, the whole gig took me by surprise; it was a lot more electronic than I'd anticipated and Martin was clearly at ease and adept with what - from my vantage point at the bar - looked like a comprehensive set up of effects boxes. And to complement my sonic enjoyment, the songs were great, as was the singing. 

I was tempted to go over and say hi, afterwards, but there were loads of people chatting to him, so I satisfied myself with indirectly buying him a drink, having passed a beer to him on stage, earlier on.

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-12.7 kgs
0 words
Reading: 'Tin Man'.