Psicle: Chewing the CUD

I catch an early train up to Leicester watching a lovely red sunset on the way before Bruce picks me up and after a stocking up at Aldi we settle down to an evening of jamming, a crash course in rhythm guitar and watching Porridge over dinner. A nice relaxing evening and probably a better bet than braving the Earl of Stamfield on a cold dark night. Saturday we're up relatively early and cycle into Leicester with the sun warming our backs as we go. An unsuccessful trip to get a 2nd hand guitar for me but at least we've sussed out the market both new and used. Rain starts as we cycle home and by the time we're back it's pretty heavy. After lunch we're off to a local shopping centre where we find a Squire Strat for 75 quick so I'm pretty happy. After another practice of difficult bar chords (not the chords, the barring is hard) we go into town to meet Debbie who's arrived on the ICF Express (West Ham playing Leicester in the late kick off) and soon after we're back home Ramsay and Jo arrive bearing food (smashing chilli sin carne and drink). We all admire Bruce's garden especially the terracing he's put in over the summer then after eating we're all set for the main event. We're into town to the Shed for that brilliantly quirky yet fantastically excellent CUD. First up we watch Jack Adaptor who I'm not sure about at first. Three piece (vocals & knob twiddling, bass, guitar) playing a fairly laid back set which sounds pretty electronic dance in a low key way. It grows on me maybe cos they're great musicians and by the end I'm starting to groove to a great "all back to mine" vibe. Ramsay is feeling Kitchens of Distinction. Note: always spot on and with a memory for music that astounds me Ramsay is on the money. After web research for this I discover that the singer sang for The Family Cat and has collaborated recently with someone from KoD. Well done Ramsay - have a cigar! They go down pretty well although hardly tumultuous calls for an encore. A nice way to groove us into the headliners. The Shed is a small place which I call has about 300 people in it tonight. Maybe a bit less. Venturing downstairs to powder my nose (not really, nothing more potent than pale ale and a sneaky roll up consumed tonight) I discover the other gig happening which is full of young uns dressed for Halloween and dancing to a heavy rock type band. Pretty good in there although after being down another time the band and music style is sounding dated and tedious. So back up for that up and coming band that is CUD. They look the part and the lead singer is full of stage presence. Although I was a bit of a fan back in the day, at least I bought an album, which I can't find in my collection but maybe it was a CD or the spine is worn away. Anyway I can't remember all their songs but during their set I realised that I know most of them. And damn good they are too. Still a quirky indie sound but they have a real funky sound and get most of the admittedly ageing crowd grooving around. Ramsay and Jo squirm their way to the front to throw shapes and jump around with the crowd. Debbie and myself groove around with a bit more space further back and Bruce seems to be studiously studying the guitarist's licks and spaced out rocking twiddly bits. They are damn sharp too which I guess given the time they've spent playing these songs... They have someone on stage towards the end who looks like a cleaner version of Bez (cleaner in so many ways) who I assume is a punter. They go off saying that it's traditional to have an encore which I fully support as too many bands bugger off with them deciding whether to come back on. We're paying yer wages so don't get all principled with us. Yes the last band I saw - listen well. Anyways CUD know about the piper and the payers and come back to rattle through another couple of storming indie funky dance numbers prompting a stage invasion with half a dozen groovy groovers, and half a dozen not so groovy not so grooving but grinning inanely at their mates looking awkward instead. I like a good stage invasion but resist the temptation to storm to the front and jump up just as they're finishing. A fine finale it was too. Excellent. No second encore but that IS the band's prerogative. Not wanting the evening to end we dance around to the excellent indie disco and then it turns into a silent disco and we have to get headphones. There's 3 channels, although one's not working most of the time, and so you can dance around with people listening to completely different tracks which is fun. The 3 DJs are up on stage. After a while it wears a little thin and I sit down to chill lout. With the headphones off you can hear others shouting lyrics badly so I spend a good bit of time with my headphones on tuned to the silent channel. Blissful. The room is filled with dry ice I guess to hide the fact that there's not many here. Eventually we pile out into the chilly air but at least the clouds have cleared up. Bruce is designated driver and once back home we watch YouTube music videos chilling and chewing the cud. Next day we're up not so bright or early but it's a bright day out and after breakfast and more chewing we wander down to the local station to see the steam train come in and go out. Lovely to see the old train despite the amount of pollution caused - just hanging around for 15 minutes is like smoking a pack of Marlboro. Makes me think of my granddad who worked on the railways becoming station master at Shepton Mallet - you can see him in action here, he's station master A: https://youtu.be/F79R3Fg-pPY. After that excitement we wander back, fond farewells, gifts of hostas for the Yorkshire lot and screwdrivers for the Londoner then Bruce drives me and Debs back into town for our train. Thanks Bruce for all the driving around and a great weekend.