Like a china shop in a bull.

Yesterday, [08/08/09] was a glorious day.

The Striplings have got a final line up, with Josh 'Roland' Nolan and Alex 'Alec Baldwin' Bowen [bass and drums respectively] joining James and Joe. With this exciting development, Josh and Joe arrived at my house about 17:30pm, for our first practice before we had to arrive at the gig at 19:30. We didn't really know what we were going to play until about 18:30, so had an hour going over a few covers before setting off. Well about, 45 minutes, cos Joe had to do his hair. The four of us [Alex came round to listen to one of the songs he was going to be drumming to..he'd never heard it before] piled in Joe's mini, with various bits of drums and two guitars in bulky cases.

We turned up at the Bull Inn about 19:45, set up, had a drink, said hello to people, Joe went to go and dump his car, all that stuff. Took to the stage at about half eight. We started with Rock & Roll Queen [The Subways], which went pretty well, and it was good fun cos Joe got to scream. Breezed through I'm Going Down, which we went more electric style for. More Bruce than Florence. Actually, I think most people think that is our song, and to be honest, I've stopped correcting them. Next we did Teenage Kicks, which was nice. I got to play with the G String a lot. Ha. Did our old favourite, Town Called Malice. Josh 'forgot' his bass solo, but we sort of just plucked away and it all worked out. Finished with Are You Gonna Be My Girl [Jet], which was probably the best. I liked it, nice to play on guitar. Stunning backing vocals from Roland.

The Insults followed with a great set, as you'll come to expect if you go to a few of their gigs.

Ended the night with pear cider and a few sambucca shots in the beer 'garden'. It was quite convincing, even had a few palm trees.

http://www.myspace.com/wearethestriplings


love love love x