Play something we know

My favourite question to get asked after a gig goes along the lines of 'that song you do, you know, the one that goes xxxxx? Who did the orignal version? I can't remember who did it'. How to answer it whilst avoiding sounding even remotely smug? 'That's because it's ours, glad you like it.' Is that OK? Wouldn't want my ego getting too big to squeeze back in its box would we!

It's happening more often these days and we had a couple at the Bull Hotel last night. Hope it's acceptable to allow myself a small satisfied grin here.

All being well, it won't be too long now before I can expand on my response, including a casual 'wanna buy it? I think there's a few left.' After an annoying but unavoidable break from recording we're back on it. Legster has been doing a fabulous job of it and we feel we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. We have eight or so tracks close to being ready to polish up, meaning we need to decide on another three to have about 45 minutes worth of skufflepunk delights for public consumption. That's not as straightforward as it sounds because it means having to leave a dozen or so out, and we've been playing some of them for a good few years, so it's a bit like letting down an old mate.

Every band I've been in from the age of 12 has played it's own original songs. Not always only originals and sometimes they've been in a distinct minority, craftily hidden in plain sight amongst whatever popular ditties we happened to be murdering at the time. Have to admit that sometimes I allow myself a cheeky smirk on seeing people miming along to a song I know they've never heard before. My band of brudders and me really believe in these songs and knowing that there are people we respect and love that genuinely agree with us is one of the best things about this daft hobby of ours. For me, the covers are all well and good and I've nothing at all against covers bands because they play music folks want to hear, and mostly play them far better than I ever could. However, even though we only play covers we love, they are essentially what opens the door for us to impose our own creations on an unsuspecting public. The best response to that irritating heckle 'Play something we know', was when DNR's singer Marc gave a beautifully delivered 'Fuck off, do we look like a fucking juke box'.

With hardly any gigs in the diary for the next few months we've got no excuse now. Watch this space Piglets.