Make the sound of fried brass duck.

Mr Lewis made a comment about playing in the Tavern and poor audience response. It’s always strange playing in certain venues, some nights people love it, some nights people don’t. Some bands always seem to go down well; some bands seem to have the correct sound for the place they are playing in and the people they are playing to. Move them somewhere else and they just don’t work. But in Swansea pub music is the order of the day if you want to see a live band.

I wonder if we have been fooled into thinking that music pubs are good places to play and to listen. Each pub is different admittedly and each pub has a different clientele. But there does not seem to be, as far as I have found, anywhere in Swansea that is hip, cool and chic. There is nowhere that seems to say we are new, we are cool and we don’t care much for Cream or Bob Dylan or The Beatles. There is nowhere that says “come see the future, today!” Maybe it is because Swansea is not a very urban city. It sits on the sea front and likes either aged wooden interiors or fat sofas in primary colours stained with beer and dented by bum impressions of overweight telesales “winners” drinking bottled fruity booze. A good guitar solo will go a long way in this town, as will a boob tube and peddle pushers.

I don’t want that to sound disparaging, because that is not the point. People go out, have a good time and the cash all seems to be creating some prosperity. But I remember when I was in my first band, back in Reading a decade ago, playing in places where there were no surfers, no hippies, no hoary old rockers. No one was “just having a good time”. Everyone was on speed, everyone was well dressed and everyone wanted something new. We were not very good, but the bands I got to see once we were finished were by turns funky, taut, dangerous and exciting. And we watched them in temples made from concrete and neon. Where do you go for dangerous and exciting in Swansea other than Townhill in an England shirt?

Like it or not Swansea is conservative in its tastes. Whilst it has great exponents of certain types of music; there are some great rock bands and folk groups and singer songwriters, it is not a place where the avant-garde gets up to much. In fact what some places would call conservative is sometimes viewed as a bit artsy farty in Swansea. Personally I’m going to deal with it by finding new places to make music, not sure how and not sure where. Who wants to spend all their time in a pub anyway?

So, here’s a plan. Rather than worry about entertaining a bunch of people in a pub why go not somewhere else? Not a theatre, not a festival. Somewhere that will attract interested parties simply because someone is going to play there.

We’re playing in the Tavern next Saturday with the King of Despair. I’m going to enjoy it and the audience can as well if they like. But the Uplands Tavern is a very small building in an entire city and county. There are many possibilities contained within all that architecture and geography.