the mother ship

Monday 20th October 2008

5:00 p.m. Last night wasn’t the most outstanding night I have had recently, although there were a few couples and groups of people sat nearby who were making requests and helped to make the evening a bit more fluid. During my last set I played a couple of songs that I hadn’t played for a while, namely Walk On By and A Million Love Songs. During the former, a small group were passing through and clearly decided to stay because they recognised it and began to sing along.

Wednesday 22nd October 2008

4:48 p.m. Monday night was fairly quiet, although there was a group of blokes who I assumed to be drivers, sat nearby for most of the time who were listening and making a few requests. I made a point of playing several numbers that I hadn’t performed for a while, such as Song For You, Baker Street, Englishman In New York and Ebony and Ivory, as well as two numbers that I had never performed with vocals before, namely Sailing and King Of The Road, which seemed to be the most popular with the audience. The sea was very rough for the first few hours of the crossing, so predictably, despite gaining an hour, most people went to bed early.

Last night was far from being the best, I had an almost apologetic response from the audience, which wasn’t helped by a large group of drunken youths staggering into the bar half-way through my last set, marauding around the piano. I don’t think they were expecting me to stand up to them though and they soon left. After that, I allowed a young couple to take to the stage, and they played a song that they had written, which had some innovative chord progressions and was certainly better-received than what followed – a rather disjointed solo performance of Angels by the lad of the couple. I wrapped up the evening shortly after that.

Saturday 25th October 2008

11:15 a.m. The last few nights have been better. Wednesday night started off busy but got quietier as the evening went on. There were two older gentlemen (one German, one Irish) sat nearby throughout the evening who were listening and making requests, and afterwards they questioned me eagerly about my musical background! Also, Johnny Higgins, who was Ent’s Manager back in the days when Mathias was working on the Rotterdam, was on-board for a round-trip.

Thursday was very busy, more like a weekend, and as such I had a good response from the audience. Last night was still quite busy but not like the previous Friday, nevertheless it was a good night, and there were a couple of groups of Germans who stayed in until I had finished, and were appreciative. Also in the bar mid-way through the evening was the Captain!

The other day while I was on my way out of the Seafarer’s Mission (where I still tend to spend a lot of my time when we are docked in Hull), this picture on the front page of July & August’s ‘The Sea’ magazine caught my eye, it was an artist’s impression of what a future cruise ship could look like. The full article can be found here [in PDF format].