Time flies and it doesn’t seem 5 minutes since Ed, Paul and I formed Lost The Plot in January. Things have been going exceptionally well, with gigs rolling in on a regular basis (thanks in no small part to Ed’s hard work [I have to say that, or else he gets very grumpy]) and repeat bookings being the order of the day.
To date we’ve played 19 gigs and have a further 16 or so booked between now and Christmas. The set is developing nicely as we figure out what works and what doesn’t. We started with a selection of songs that Ed and Paul had previously played (including a number from the gig where the three of us first played together), and quickly figured out which were the stronger songs, adding more as we have gone along.
More important than the song choice, however, is the catalogue of stupidity we are building in order to entertain. Jokes, silly hats, masks, weird instruments (kazoo, bicycle horn, crash helmet and, soon, a bouzouki) all go together to create a Plot evening. A recent weekend trip to Aberystwyth saw us driving through Welsh towns wearing Ant & Dec masks, waving at pedestrians who, I am sure, were convinced we were the real deal.
Clatter
The October half-term break sees us heading north of the border for a weekend in Dundee and there is talk of heading to Denmark next year. Time will tell whether these audiences will understand our brand of humour, but our song choice ensures that people will hear something they know and love – there is little or no self indulgence, with songs only making the set if they are good, well known songs. On the face of it, this can seem quite restrictive, seemingly limiting us to standard pub-rock fodder, but it is strangely liberating, especially when combined with our slightly left field choice of instrumentation, as we can attempt songs that other pub bands couldn’t, or wouldn’t, attempt – how many of you average pub bands could jump from Don’t You Want Me to The Boxer, via Price Tag and The Irish Rover? We’ve found that we aren’t limited to one or two genres – anything is fair game, particularly if we can find something stupid to do.
My personal aim is to get a regular 2 or 3 gigs in my home town of Worthing. There’s talk of a summer festival slot in Sussex next year, so perhaps we can pull that off. In any event, I’m back to gigging regularly and loving the stupidity of it all.
Have a look at our website at LostThePlotBand.co.uk, follow us on Facebook & Twitter and check out our videos on YouTube.
If you want to talk about booking us, e-mail us on info@losttheplotband.co.uk – we are available for weddings, bar mitzvahs, christenings, wakes… in fact, anywhere people want to have fun and we can be stupid.
WeeMann, Clatter & Edcase
WeeWorld 