slow death

ladyfest 2008 starts here.

there hasn't been a ladyfest in london since 2002; the first 'event' (not even a fundraiser at this stage) of 2008 took place on monday night. it's hard to get your head around. what with there being a 3:1 ratio of male to female performers.

first we had 'acoustic singer/songwriter one' who had a pretty good voice on her and some interesting hands. her cheerier song was quite good, but the others ground me down a bit.

then some smiths/hefner fans came onto the stage and sang some slightly dull songs about killing a man or being dumped, depending on the song. they were three men and i was confused. they seemed like nice guys; maybe it's turned into 'lady and gentleman' fest.

then the bobby mcgees came on; hooray! the bass player was late, so i had to set up the stage, which i didn't do very well, but was still rewarded with two beer tokens. i think they made a lot of fans, as they always do. 'we've got loads of cds', quipped jimmy, 'ocean colour scene, a pound..' or something.

i suppose they should have been headlining, because the band who were last on were pretty quiet and not very enthusiastic. stoney delta blues slide guitar and droney fem vox in period attire. two piece. 'er, great to be here at lady fest 2008' she said, sounding completely bored. 'it's my birthday, if anyone wants to buy me a pint,' she let on at the end, like eeyore questioning the quality of the morning.

and that was that. great eh?