Due to various types of exhaustion, only two of the band made it to Shoreham this evening for a mooted open mic gig. Thus The Halfchurches was born, to go alongside our other doppelgängers, The Girlchurches (the rest of the band without me), and The Burnchurches (our Norwegian Black Metal side project). [1]

The Duke of Wellington is one of those pubs that makes you feel immediately welcome. A very young man was playing the piano as we came in, and crucially did not stop abruptly mid-song so that a saloon of moustachioed poker players could glare at us in violent silence.

Instead, the barmaid complimented me on my jumper.

This particular Halfchurches lineup was me and Elle, which limited us to my songs, though I was at least partially tempted to give Hymn For The Ruins a go.

After a mild tech balls-up (I forgot my plug-in ukulele, Elle’s bass was turned up too loud, though the man did tell her to do that), we settled into our songs. I think we might have missed a bit out of Doris Wu – sorry, Doris – and of course there were no harmonies or call and response lyrics, as I remembered, helpfully, mid-song.

Used to the rapt and reverential audiences we get at The Folklore Rooms, thanks to our crazed superfans The Highchurches Ultras, it was a little strange at first to perform to polite chatter. The pub is very much divided into Regulars Who Are Here To Play, and Regulars Who Are Here To Have A Pint And Chat Shit, with the former sensibly gathered on the side of the bar nearest to the stage.

People listened noticeably more to Even Keel, and I gained in confidence and belted things out a bit more despite being confined to my Westlife stool due to the ukulele-mic situation. Elle was great, a reassuring presence as all good bassists should be, and our three tunes went by in a flash.

Big thanks to The Welly for putting us on. The House Band were fab too, especially the percussionist, all of whom complemented a lovely country-pop act called Marie Dance. Also, everyone was very nice about our tunes and our instruments (well, Elle’s bass at least).

Hopefully we’ll be back, as invited, as a full compliment, to do some black metal in the near future.

[1] Copyright Martha Casey.