Brad-bothering on Sunday..
I’d deliberately planned a quiet weekend for the one just gone, and it was very welcome – a chance to relax, watch the England match with my Dad and generally not be dashing about all over the place was great. But come Sunday with the working week looming I had a craving, and spotting Brad Dear was playing at the Workman’s in Warsop for Star Bothering on Sunday I fired off a WhatsApp message to Andy to see if he fancied a sedate road trip oop North.
He was! So we were off – Brad was due to play as well as of course a bit of Star Botherers and a couple more acts… or so we thought. A young lass due to play did arrive, but hadn’t realised the start time would be a bit later and had another open mic night to play, a pity – Bart too wasn’t around so no Star Botherers – and I’m not sure what happened to the third act – Warren Ireland – but well, it all worked out pretty well for us all told.
Brad arrived – and with a fairly small crowd of friends to watch we basically had a lovely ‘evening with Brad’ – he kicked off the evening, unusually opting to sit down with his guitar (I think he wanted the novelty of moving a mic-stand downward. A quick initial set took in the likes of Far Away, Festival Bar Blues (see first video) and Maid of the River (unprompted – and my favourite Levellers song too!). With just a few locals, Dave and myself and Andy initially it was a very up-close and personal session!