2003

Xmas 'Redneck' Session :: December 2003

Whilst traveling around the East Coast of the USA, I stayed at a god brother's house in the middle of Pennsylvania. He and his wife (who aren't rednecks) threw a big party for their friends and neighbours (who are), and one of the party goers was local guitarist Joe Bogwist, who brought two guitars with him. The amazing thing is that he has been blind from birth, yet plays professionally! For the next two hours we strummed and sang (whilst everyone else at the party endured!)
 

 25th November – LIVE! Cabaret
Mandela Bar / Ar2

1st December – "Singing for Sex"
Avon Gorge Room - Bristol University Union

2nd December – LIVE! At the Croft
"THE CROFT" – Stokes Croft

7th December – Spotlights Revue
Mandela Bar / Ar2

8th December - LIVE! Caberet
Mandela Bar / Ar2

It's been a hectic two weeks! I've done five gigs in Bristol, which required co-ordination between three different societies, sleeping on a lot of sofas and lots of money given to National Rail for all those return tickets from Didcot to Bristol!
 

LIVE! Cabaret :: 25th November 2003

  • It Takes So Long - The Paperboys
  • Blue Highway
  • The Hunting Song - Tom Lehrer
To ease myself back into performing live music, I played my old favorite venue, Livesoc's Cabaret. I started out with some hot and fast Bluegrass, in the shape of The Paperboys' 'It Takes So Long'. The crowd lapped it up, and it felt good to know that I was secretly introducing folk music into people's lives without them actually noticing.

I then cooled it down with my new song at the time; "Blue Highway", a very 'left coast US' style folky number. I had a bit of a panic when I realised (mid set) that I had stolen the song name off of a Paperboys CD, but fortunately since the lyrics, chords and melody are different, I don't see any lawsuits coming my way! I iced the night off with a sprinkling of the immortal Tom Lehrer, a cynical look into US hunting culture "I've got ten stuffed heads in my trophy room right now, two game wardens, seven hunters... and a cow.".

Singing For Sex :: 1st December 2003

  • Gecko Hunt (The Gecko Song)
A fantastic gig! This one took the form of a 'talent contest', but was really a fundraiser for World Aids Day. I turned up, played the 'Gecko song' and gave it my all. The audience was fantastic, by the end the entire packed room was clapping (and sometimes singing!) along. At the end of the night I even won a prize: dinner for two and wine at a Bristol Restaurant.
 

LIVE! At the Croft Review :: 2nd December 2003

  • Time of Your Life (Good Riddance) - Green Day
  • Gecko Hunt (The Gecko Song)
"Always a crowd pleaser and seminal performer, Glyn took to the stage for a belting, high impact set. His energetic style and rendition of “Time of Your Life (Good Riddance)” [Green Day] enviably wooed a pulsing, throbbing throng into his masterpiece “The Gecko Song”, an entertaining three minute sing-along." 

“…as usual Mr. Collinson’s muse is not fettered by such inhibiting factors as…taste.”

(Note: Personally, I thought I sucked.)
 

Spotlights Revue :: 7th of December 2003

  • The Answering Machine Song - Romanovsky and Phillips
This night was really an evening of student written comedy sketches that I managed to get myself shoe-horned into. My song was the "Answering Machine Song", by Romanovsky and Phillips, which is a comedy song all about rejection, set on an answer phone tape.

I didn't have any amplification, so I had to strum and try and project my voice. In the end this worked very well as the audience had to work to listen to the words, which must of helped the comedy! I got a fantastic reaction, and (more importantly) lots of laughs :-).

LIVE! Cabaret :: 8th of December 2003

  • Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Queen
  • White Noise Lullaby - The Paperboys
  • Midnight on the Highway - Hot Rize
Because it was going to be quiet night out with not a very big crowd, Livesoc's president was cool with me playing a second cabaret in a row.  I hadn't played that Queen number for almost a year, so warmed up on it, and then decided to try out some new material that I've been kicking about in my bedroom. Out in the corridor I jammed with Matt McManus (another Bristol singer/songwriter/Live junkie, and used the fruit of this in a sound check: 30 seconds of the one and only "Badger Badger Badger"
 

T-shirts!!!!!!

I decided to blow £200 on getting T-shirts professionally printed! Lots of frustrating phone calls to clueless artists and a trip to Oxford whilst my country were winning the Rubgy World Cup later, I had a big bag of shirts which I started giving out to friends. After all of that, they forgot to put the tour dates on the back! Ahh well, I'm thrilled with them (especially when I saw people wearing them in public! :-)

I still have some left over (in assorted sizes), so if any of my mates who are reading this are interested, contact me and I can get you one.