Tickets are now on sale for a special This Machine Kills Wasps in Brighton on Friday 15th August.
MJ Hibbett and Chris Thorpe-Treacy have both been massive influences on my life, my music, and my philosophy. Hibbett writes amazing songs and taught me you don’t need anyone’s permission to make music; Chris writes amazing songs and taught me it’s ok to take your own songwriting seriously.
So it’s surreal and brilliant that they’re doing a little gig for me: MJ Hibbett songs, with Chris accompanying on piano (or, given the venue is up some stairs, probably a keyboard).
Joining them will be The Highchurches, Chris East, Lilla Multipass, and our fragrant host will be Leslie Bloom.
I always put on interestingly varied lineups. I’m terrible at blowing my own trumpet, but… it will be a good night. You should come.
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The Highchurches do a gig on a barge in Shoreham
Kollab is a glorious monthly show on houseboat Verda in Shoreham-by-sea. It’s kinda a curated open mic, with a few professional acts peppered about to keep things quality.
I signed up to do a couple of tunes solo, but with the hope some of my bandmates would be able to join me. This dream became a reality: Martha and Elle were both free, so we became The Threechurches, no-fiddle edition. [1]
The venue was – is – incredible. Two houseboats next to each other in Shoreham harbour, with one boat the entranceway and general hanging about area, the other – Verda – the gig space, in a beautiful, slightly Gaudi-esque barge. A joyous space to perform in.
Martha was knackered from the previous day’s Trans Pride march, so I requested we play in the first half. We kept it acoustic to avoid stress, and played two tunes: Even Keel, which given we were on a boat felt the appropriate choice [2]; and Avalon, which inspired a lot of the other acts to ditch their planned material and sing and recite about their own experiences of being fucked over.
Due to the heat, both my borrowed banjo and Elle’s bass went a bit out of tune, leading to a slightly hesitant start. But we got into our stride, and as always received lots of lovely compliments during the interval: these will, one day, dull the imposter syndrome in our collective mind.
Of the billed non-open-mic acts, by far my own personal favourite was Guy “Guy the sound guy” Jones, accompanied by cello player extraordinaire Robin on the kazoo cello.
We know Guy from The Folklore Rooms, where he’s always been a kind, calm, and very professional sound engineering presence. It was a delight to see him come from behind the curtain and perform his own songs. He has a lovely voice, and his final, largely instrumental pieces were particularly gorgeous affair, mildly reminiscent of Pink Floyd at their most early-70s pastoral.
The night ended with a most beautiful surprise – for me, at least, as I suspect most of the others there were regulars.
I’d spotted Katrina, who runs and hosts the night, making notes as the show unfolded, and absent-mindedly wondered what they were for.
They were for something magical. At the end of the night, accompanied by Guy and Robin, she turned all our own works – poetry, music, everything – into a performance poem, with little snippets from all our works into a new, but coherent whole.
Hearing my own lyrics quoted back at me, put into new and beautiful context, was a genuinely moving and thrilling experience.
A glorious gig, then – and our last, as The Highchurches, until our August 15th show that I’d really, really, really like you to come along to.
[1] Our previous Shoreham gig was also a Threechurches show, with a slightly different lineup of humans.
[2] I changed the lyric “we’ll need a bigger boat this time“ to “we’ll need a bigger barge this time,”, which would have been hilarious to anyone who had heard the song before, aka no one in the audience.
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