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Worth Matravers was the destinations on Friday when I was chauffeur for Andy as he is currently between cars. The pub is the Square and Compass http://www.squareandcompasspub.co.uk/  which is a beautiful rural pub with a fossil museum in! The views from the front are stunning across the Dorset coast. The pub was heaving with merrymakers and it looked set to be a truly fabulous evening. My plan was to sit in the corner writing, lots of deadlines looming, whilst Andy strutted his stuff and then chauffeur him home again. This is how it went until just before the end of the first set when there were so many people that I was aware that what I was writing was being observed over my shoulder and I got all self-concious and had to turn it off. No worries though, the second set was really jumping with lots of lovely ladies dancing, I was singing harmonies from the wings to some of the songs and a lovely girl called Annabelle Forty came up and asked me if he did any Blues Brothers stuff. 'Sweet Home Chicago' followed and she was beside herself with joy as apparently this is the song her parents got married to. Her delight was a joy to watch 

Then Saturday WB were out as a duo at the Portsmouth Hoy in Poole (see previous blogs for link). Just as we arrived on the quay fog was rolling in off the sea, it was real eerie. We always work hard there, he pays for a longer set so we play at least 2 1/2 hours. The day after these gigs I usually sound like Mariella Frostrup. The first set was pretty good but in the second set I appeared to have lost my mojo a bit and really couldn't get back into it. I went into the third set thinking - ok I'm so tired lets just do bluesy ones and they really hit the spot. The last set was great, loads of whooping from the audience so we ended on a high.

Duo gigs are hard work, there's something about working with a band that gives you space to sit back for a couple of bars if the tiredness overcomes you and knowing that others are still carrying the load. With a duo it's full on all the time and especially as you're often multitasking that makes it more complicated. Hats off to soloists like Andy who make it seem so easy to do all the work yourself! *Respect*