Maybe it was the wind and the rain battering against Brian and Jenny's french windows as we all sat snugly inside; or perhaps it was the belly-warming cosiness of a bowl of Brian's fine pasta or the waft of brownies baking in the oven... Either way, yesterday afternoon's rehearsal in Brixton had a wonderfully blissed-out feeling about it that found its way into the latest clutch of songs that we - myself, Dan, Brian and Jonny - primed for the adventure.
Mark Knopfler might not be too happy about it, and I think it probably negates any thought of rawk-star headband-wearing, but one of the highlights was a lilting version of 'Walk of Life'. Be-bop a lula, baby, yeah, in a pair of fur-lined slippers. A couple more classics, too, knocked off fairly quickly on uke, guitar, bass, melodica and clarinet: 'My Girl' by The Temptations and 'Tainted Love', the latter straying nicely from Soft Cell's bombast into a warm, rolling drift of a song. Time, too, to reinvent Coldplay on 'Viva La Vida' and to pick up the tempo a little bit by going over The Libertines' 'Don't Look Back into the Sun'. Last word to a couple of Brian's babies: 'Hang on to Yourself' by Bowie, a tricky song which is starting to take shape; and 'Rambling Rose' by Nat King Cole, which has all the hallmarks of a Buskers on Bikes sing-along-a-classic... Nice.
It's been a bit of a struggle over the months to get the whole group in one place at one time - we were all aware yesterday of the need to fit three more musicians into the mix; doubtless there'll be fluctuating line-ups at the rehearsals from now until the off in five-weeks time (five weeks! five weeks!)... But we'll get there. We've now got a working list of 15 songs and a handful more to throw into the mix either before we go or on the trip itself. As long as we can all get up and play from our hearts and with big stupid grins on our faces, then we're laughing. As the man (nearly) says... 'Yeaaah, the boys can play...'
Got to love a bit of Dire Straits.
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