None of the audience are laughing at my jokes. Until …
T
he band I’m in is on a spring tour, 16 dates across the UK, from Tavistock in Devon to Edinburgh by way of Birmingham, Norwich and Liverpool. The first gig is in South Petherton, a village in Somerset where we played once 10 years ago.
Here’s what I remember about last time: we arrived after dark and loaded our stuff into a chilly village hall with a high ceiling and a narrow stage. Normally I set aside time to learn a few local facts in order to ingratiate myself with the audience, but on this occasion there was no phone reception.
So when the time came I stepped up to the microphone and said: “It’s great to be here in South Petherton; it brings us one step closer to our dream of playing in North Petherton.”
