Rock And Roll And Cute Little Kittens

Here is a cute little kitten in the Cuisine Des Girrafes, earlier today.

Cute little kitten in the Cuisine Des Girrafes. Earlier Today.

More on that later.

While you’re waiting, I’m here to tell you that my quest to become arguably the second-best blues organist in North Norfolk took a step closer to fruition. I’ve been frustrated at my inability to play many gigs with my usual partners, King’s-Lynn-based Stone Pony. The reason has nothing to do with them – they’re always happy to let me sit in as often as I want, but opportunities have been limited by my car’s six-week holiday at the garage; work and family commitments; and, more recently, that gigs have become thinner on the ground as recession-struck pubs go down like ninepins.

Through Stone Pony I’ve bcome Hammondista with a band called Antic Hey – but that’s very much a studio-based enterprise. Earlier this year I was pleased and proud to have played on four tracks on Antic Hey’s debut album Blue Horizon – visit the website to hear samples (my favourite is Hit Every Bar, ‘cos that has the most Hammond on it), and buy the album, only a tenner including delivery.

What about live playing, though?

The other day, thank to the magick of teh interwebz, I came across an advert by a Norfolk-based blues band … for a drummer. I replied, suggesting that they might want a Hammondista while they were waiting, and they of course immediately saw the reason of that statement. And so it was that last night Caroline and I, with the help of Google Maps (on my iPhone, naturally) drove to a tidy village hall in the middle of nowhere. There I met the guitarist, bassist and singer of SofaGuru, a terrific band in the style of late sixties British blues – Chicken Shack with Christine Perfect, Fleetwood Mac, Savoy Brown. This suits me down to the ground and we hit it off immediately. Now, all we need is a drummer…

Back to the cat.

That same day this cute kitten wandered into our garden, sans collar or ID, and soon had the whole family jumping to its every whim, including Canis croxorum (who just wants to make everyone happy) and – to everyone’s surprise, including his own, the aged Felis croxorum, who now has another cat to boss around (the kitten shows due deference, but this is only a scheme to get his own way). Sure, notices have gone up in the local stores… but we’re secretly hoping nobody comes to claim him.