Canvas May 15th – Music and madness

Another month and another Canvas, this was (as usual) a good one though. Yolanda Grace debut’d with Helena Garfit (guitar / vocal) Dave Weaver (harmonica / mouth organ) and James Stonly (vocals) with a number of covers as well as some original material which was really nice.

After a few minor problems with PA (I guess setting up for 4 people in 10 mins is pretty tough) the sound saw an improvement and the various arrangements of musicians

/vocalists meant that things stayed fresh and provided the audience with an all-in-all enjoyable set.

Shane Beales (second outing at Canvas) was as confident and comfortable as ever, dropping dedications and shout-outs randomly through the set to obvious friends, even one to the unborn daughter not yet in his wife’s womb. That’s how Beales rolls!

Shane’s set was as soulful and honest as his last outing which was pretty much what you’d expect from a guy with a laid-back attitude and a pair of flip-flops I guess.

I had a bit of a chat with Mr Beales afterward and learned that he’s actually offering musical tuition so if you’re interested in learning guitar/piano or something else it’s probably worth giving him a shout.

When it doesn’t rain…

After a warm afternoon lazing in the sun and enjoying the sun, the last thing I expected was to get home to what is probably the heaviest rainfall I’ve ever seen. In the space of around 30 mins we were pelted with hail stones as big as marbles, thunder and lightning giving us more flashes than a paparazzi with an itchy shutter finger and enough water to put our garden under a 6 inch reservoir.

I felt like one of those guys in films where they’re in a boat emptying the water with their hat in a vain attempt to save the boat from drowning. I was stuck at the back of the house filling and emptying buckets of water from the back garden without too much joy, definitely not an experience i’d reccomend.

In the end though all was fine (when I eventualy found the drain was blocked and saw the water all leave within a few seconds) although there was a bit of aftermath as the pressure from the drains had forced the manhole cover up onto the road which was pretty crazy, Lucy wouldn’t let me go and put it back and in the end it didn’t really matter as a shortsighted jeep driver from around the corner drover straight into it and put it back in place.