OOTB 1 – 1 Nov 2001
[Ed’s note: Out Of The Bedroom started life under the moniker “Sounds Like Edinburgh” before we realised that was a crap name, and before Jim coined the current name]
Hello, and welcome to Sounds Like Edinburgh, the weekly musical review from the open mic night at the Waverley Bar.
What we’ll be doing is letting you know about the shenanigans at the open mic night called “Sounds Like Edinburgh”, which takes place every Thursday at the Waverly Bar, St Mary’s Street (just off the High Street). It’s free for performers to come along and try out their material in front of an audience. For people who just want to watch, it’s only a £1 [we gave up on that idea too – Ed].
Last Thursday saw the compere (a man known simply as “Maff“) introduce firstly, a Mr James Igoe. For those of you who don’t know, Jim’s been occasionally singing and playing at various songwriter’s nights in Edinburgh since 1993, when a certain Mr T G McEwan started “Workers In Song”. Jim sang the song “Tragic Clowns” to kick things off, but then needed a rest due to his shoulder injury, which was a shame, as it was sounding good.
Next up was Norman Lamont (yes, that is his real name), and he didn’t mess about, launching into a superb rendition of “New Eyes”. This was a new song to me, and I was enjoying the pleasant sun-speckled strummy poppiness of it all, when suddenly it went diving into a rather darker and weirder place. This proved to be a very interesting and enjoyable twist in the tale, and I won’t spoil it by telling you any more. But I was singing the song for the next few days. Then came the more accustomed swagger of “Beggar Of Love” and others, culminating in one of my favourites of his, “Submarine Girl”. Norman was at pains to point out that there was a comma between “Submarine” and “Girl” in the line “But I never went down on a submarine girl”, just in case of any possible accusations of lewdness. His website is at: http://www.normanlamont.com
Then came Gordon from Ballboy, fresh from the highs that only those who have just released their first album can know. If you’re interested, it’s called “Club Anthems 2001”, is rather good and is available in the usual places. Gordon also was responsible for a song going round my head for some time, but this time it was the one-minute “I lost you but found country music” that did the damage. And I don’t even like country music. But Gordon was as charming and personable as ever, and the set had a good version of “They’ll Hang Flags From Cranes Upon My Wedding Day” too. I just hope that he’s talking about construction cranes and not the birds, or you could end up with a good pecking if you tried to hang a flag off the beak of say, a crested crane.
Freeloadin’ Frank then hit the stage, with a completely outrageous song called I think, “Bloodshed on the Way”, which hit the political nail square on the head, for me at any rate. Splendid stuff. That was without having remembered to plug his guitar in, too. Then came fine renditions of well-known Frank material, (such as the wonderful “Magic Cornflake” and “I’m in Love with Scully From The X-Files”), Frank’s cheeky personality and radical reworking of two songs was overlooked on this first night , as normal policy is to have no cover versions. A version of Johnny Cash’s “25 minutes to go” was particularly rambling in the middle section, but bloody funny too and I’ve never enjoyed “Ghost Riders In The Sky” quite as much before, either. Great cowboy-esqe shouts of “Whoh!” and “Haarrr!”.
The evening was finished off by the return to the stage of Jim, accompanied by myself. This was made possible by the consumption of two pints having overcome our trepidation at having not practised for a number of weeks, and the fact that we attempted a song that we hadn’t played together for about eight years. Luckily for us, the audience were “pleasantly tipsy” by that stage, and were no doubt full of good cheer from the previous superb performances, so we escaped the lynch mob.
Some of the audience went on to celebrate a certain Mr Blacklaw‘s birthday, but apparently the wooses only went for one.
A very enjoyable evening was had by all, so if you fancy it, come on down next Thursday!
Nelson Wright