So I’m sat in a coffee shop in Headington in Oxford with my laptop open in front of me skimming through emails and working on my blog. I am literally THAT guy. This is me now. This is what I have become.
I had a gig booked in Oxford through a friend called Devon that I’d met at a gig in Birmingham a few months previously. Oxford’s a gorgeous place (I saw a lot of it as I got spectacularly lost en route to the venue.) I’ve been a few times; Once for a girl and I’ve played it a couple of times since. Now one of my closest school friends (Barber) lives here and Oxford, well, Headington and more specifically; my spot on Barber’s sofa in Headington is quickly becoming my base in the South of England. Post gig hotels are an option up north; I get paid better, I shift more CD’s and T Shirts. Down South it’s a different story. Barber’s great, he always has me stay and loves the opportunity to come to a show and hang out with new people.
I’d been booked to play at a fairly swanky piano bar in the centre of town on a songwriters circle night where 3 acts play 3 songs each and rotate 3 times. Also on the bill were Jake Elles and Alex Ohm; who’d had a pretty successful summer playing Y Not Festival (video looks nuts). Alex and Jake were great, really great. They’re both one of those acts that couldn’t be any better at doing ‘their thing’ it just becomes a matter of how much you like ‘their thing’. I really enjoyed both.
I opened up my set with ‘I Will Find,’ a loud one to try and make as much impact as possible, I then played my other songs in that tuning; ‘Falling‘ – A slow tune about an old friend of mine and a new song called ‘Love Is Easy‘ – (which I rate as one of my best). After that I fell into autopilot but played ‘Richest Man Alive‘ again for the first time in a while – (It’s probably my best song but people have to be listening) before rounding the night off with ‘More To Life‘ and ‘Still Not The Same‘ – two of my loudest tunes. The show was cute, I played fine. The crowd was small but appreciated the music and I got a few new page likes and the bar management sent on a lovely message saying they’d love to have us back. No CD sales (student town, lots of “I’ll check you out on Spotify.” – which is fine)
Next week i’m heading out on tour around Europe for 3 weeks with my fellow musician Chris Tavener. Today we received a confirmation off Sofar Paris offering us a gig on the final day of the tour. It’s a fairly massive detour with an accumulated drive of ten hours for us to be there (Dortmund -> Paris -> Rotterdam). But the decision was made on the basis of ‘Hey.. are we ever going to be closer to Paris.. and it’s a Sofar.’ – For those who don’t know Sofar Sounds put on intimate shows all around the world in unique locations and has brought some of the biggest acts in the world along to perform. Me and Chris have both done a fair few Sofar shows in our time but this would be our first one abroad so this is a show we’re both excited for. I’m going to do a whole separate blog post about Europe tour prep as it’s been a NIGHTMARE behind the scenes but I’ll chat about that another time.
The rest of the day was spent catching up with a mate from uni in Oxford, a four hour drive back to Manchester and chilling with Lucy and her flat mates. I enjoy long drives in general, it’s one of my favourite times to think. One thought kept swinging around in my head though the whole way home. Sofar Sounds Paris. What a gig that’s going to be.
If you are reading this and are from Paris and would be interested in coming to the show on 26th September then you can apply for tickets here:
https://www.sofarsounds.com
Help fund my Europe Tour by grabbing some merch!
https://joelgardner.bigcartel.com/products
Joel's Side Of The Story 
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