Days Of RD (What's going down)

Now and again it's nice to do a little catch up post, to tell you what's happening in my life. It's like a signpost except it's a blog post and has far more words.

Frankly, things around these parts are a bit mental, so mental that it would be far more productive if I got on with sorting stuff instead of writing stuff. Oh well.

The gig on Saturday with Mimosa was great. It was a venue that was new to us but well established and we went down well to the small audience. A small audience in this case is one that was low in numbers, it wasn't a small audience as it would have been if we'd played to a dwarf convention. Our percussionist had to cancel at the last minute so I was left with all the hitting things duties, which was interesting and surprisingly challenging.

It meant a couple of extra and unexpected solos for me and I had to play with a "bigger" feel at times. With the percussionist there I often have to lay back in my playing to stop it sounding like a teenager doing his work experience in a drum shop falling down the stairs while carrying too many drums. On Saturday I had to do the opposite and it was a nice little challenge to face.

Packing up the contents of my house continues. This weekend sees me moving back to my parents' place while the house sale of the former family home ticks away nicely. So, at the ripe old age of 42 27 I'm going to be back with the rents, as I believe you call them, for a while. This is both good and bad.

Having Sri Lankan parents is great when you need some of the things at the bottom end of Maslow's hierarchy, food and lodging and those sort of things. I'm looking forward to the food and the company. I'm dreading the whole Sri Lankan motherliness and the other bits. Positives and negatives.

Being a drummer isn't very space friendly I must admit. When I was looking for my house the drums were a major consideration. Space for my electronic kit and easy parking and loading are requirements that can be limiting in London. On top of that there are noise issues, even with a "silent" electronic kit that's played through headphones. My Dad is pretending not to be, but is seriously excited about the prospect of having my electronic set there. He's kindly cleared space for them and I know that he'll be spending lots of time when I'm at work sitting in front of them.

The packing, the bubble wrapping and the driving car loads of things continues. Sunday is D day.

The first evening of practice with the covers band after our summer break happened on Monday. We all had our "homework" to do over the summer and, just like schoolkids, we'd all done it to different levels. It's fair to say that I'm the Dinidu of the band, the swot, the teacher's pet, the only one who actually had done all his homework. I'd learned the intro to Rock 'n' Roll, something I was proud of, then found out that it was "too complicated" for the guitarist to understand and he wanted me to simplify it.

It's one of the best and most recognisable drum intros ever and so often played wrong by dodgy drummers in dodgy pub covers bands so it hurt my pride a little bit to be asked to simplify it. I guess it's similar to asking a lead guitarist, after he's meticulously learned the lead guitar part to "Sweet Child of Mine", to forget it because the band have decided to do a bit of karaoke and maybe a toilet break there instead.

Talking of toilet breaks we had an amusing thing happen during Saturday's gig. Our guitarist began "Little Wing", that long bluesy sexy Hendrix intro and, as he started playing A, our bassist, literally put his guitar down and ran off the stage. He returned several bars later, I think it was sixteens bars after the bass was supposed to come in, and carried on playing. Later he told us that he was "busting for a piss" and couldn't hold it in any longer. It was one of the more bizarre things I've seen at a gig, though I accept it's probably not right up there in the top eschelons of bizarreness at gigs. It's not quite in the same league as Aerosmith running off stage to do hard drugs in between songs, but close. I don't think he washed his hands though. Chee!

Next week is a no mercy week. On Sunday I move, then Monday evening there's a covers band pratice, Tuesday there's a Mimosa practice, Wednesday will be with the girls and then Thursday sees me jetting off for just over a week. But they're all my choices and I love them all.

And I'm still writing the post about the improvements God will make to Man. There's a lot of them!