This is the first blog I've written on my brand spanking new website!  What do you think?  Pretty flash hey?  My evil web genius designer has put in the hard yards and delivered a brilliantly streamlined, smaller and more efficient site that puts the spotlight on my blogging and gigs. You can also see my Twitter status feed and links to my Facebook, Twiiter and MySpace pages.  How 2010 is this?  It's been a really quiet January this year.  The post New Year lull is at a low ebb, which may have spiked briefly for Australia Day, but is plateauing out again.  Hopefully February will kick things into gear a little.

The Scouts have gone from having two gigs a week in December to none!  We played a ripper 45min set at the Perth Zoo's annual Kids' Night Out (which, seriously, would be in my Top 5 Wes gigs of all time) and that was it for the month, Scouts-wise.    Gigs with Murphy's Lore have been sporadic too; a wedding, a rock festival in Esperance, Australia Day in Geraldton and a trip to Albany I didn't partake in.  The only regular work I have at the moment are my solo gigs, which are The Deen Friday evenings and The Boat Sunday afternoons.

There's a longing in me to do more Wesley gigs, which isn't happening at the moment.  This is fuelled by a killer list of songs that we came up with to learn.  The great thing about the WesGoods is that we can get away with playing different music.  We do a lot of well known stuff, but for every Got My Mind Set On You, there's a September Gurls (Big Star, their spelling, not mine).  I've found that playing solo seems to drag at times...particularly if the crowd aren't responsive.  Playing with the trio just flies by, and if it's just one 45min set for the whole month, then even more so. I have a weird relationship with an audience as a solo performer.  I always make the first move, introduce myself after the first song and welcome requests, and then just keep playing.  If people yell out or clap or whatever I tend to become more interactive and chatty.  The quieter the venue is, the less I talk in between songs.  It's not uncommon for me to just keep playing song after song if no one is clapping or saying anything.  It's a strange little quirk that finds me feeding off the vibe to be either introverted or extroverted.

Like many people on stage, I came to the conclusion that I was so introverted I would become extroverted, if that makes sense.  Hiding my real self in an outgoing, funny, chatterbox.  That was one reason I really liked Thursdays at Rosie's in Freo when it was pumping.  The fact that I tended to know almost everyone there helped, but I used to get such a great response...almost created a rush through my system.  Quite addictive, and difficult to know when you'll achieve that feeling again, given that crowds shrink and grow erratically.  Sometimes I think I should just relax and do my thing and get on with it.  Seven times out of ten I think I do. Roll on February!