The ball is now finally starting to roll in my quest to find some regular gigs in Lisbon. An afternoon spent exploring the town centre for likely venues and opportunities bore some slightly unpredictable fruit when I found a rather trendy little "English bar" - The George, on Rua Da Crucifix in Baixa...
Upon walking into the venue and pleasantly finding an opportunity to enjoy some genuine English beer for the first time in six weeks - London Pride on draught (get in!!), I sat down among the complimentary peanuts, union jacks, London tube signs and other homely decor to wait to speak to someone of authority in order to hassle (politely) for a gig.
A rather important looking chappie in a tidy suit, making what seemed like a never ending phone call, looked a likely candidate, and upon noticing his concentration would only break for a fleeting second to glare menacingly at the Portuguese girls on the bar, I concluded this must be one of the managers, or perhaps even the owner.
Indeed, after merely two half-pints of the lovely London Pride (forgive-ably chilled on such a hot day), his phone call ended and I was able to confirm that he was indeed a man of appropriate authority and I launched into my sales pitch...
...He must've had a cancellation or something, because within a minute he had opened his events diary and was booking me in - in flawless English - for next coming Saturday, which happened to be July 4th, and completely in-line with what you'd expect from an 'English' pub, I had agree to do a two hour set in celebration of Independence Day! Oh, the irony...
To save my sanity, national pride and considerable set-list constraints, I managed to re-brand this "American" theme into a musical recreation of the War of Independence (at least giving us Brits a fair chance of a different outcome) and offered to pitch the best of theirs vs. the best of ours on the musical battlefield. And so here it is, my latest Lisbon gig, along with the accompanying promotional blurb...
"Two musical national powerhouses, who have provided the world with some of the greatest songs of all time, go head to head to re-draw the world's musical map.
To celebrate the anniversary of Independence Day, Trevor Hambidge Music will be pitching classic songs from classic artists on either side of the Atlantic against each other in a 2 hour musical battle...
Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Nirvana, Green Day and more will be hoping to tread on the faces of such noble, plucky British musical upstarts as The Beatles, Arctic Monkey, The Kinks, Oasis and other imperial pretenders...
Which side are you on?
The battle commences at 21:30 at The George Pub, Lisbon... be sure to be there!"
It's good what you can do with a little positive spin...
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