Good old fashioned acoustic fun.

Over the weekend, we were lucky enough to be invited to one of those impromptu BBQs that spring up amongst friends when the weather improves. Ours will be shortly I suspect.

Anyway, the occasion was firing up the Ozpig (www.ozpig.co.uk) amongst other things - this fantastic little piece of steel ingenuity is the result of Aussie outbackers converting gas bottles into portable wood burning stove/heaters. There is even. Community of OzModders, I understand, who weld further brackets and acoutrements on to utilise more of the heat.

This is by the by though. I brought the trusty Acoustic Bass with me, and had a grand old plonk well into the evening while being warmed by the pig. Some étude style pieces, a little bach, a lot of funk and some two-handed buffoonery. I must perfect the Inspector theme tune, although the full brass section middle 8 is probably a pipe dream without the MIDI driver.

A great night. My first public performance in a few months, so to speak; best compliment was the agreement that people only realised how much they enjoyed what I was playing when they detected the silence as I took a swig of beer or zhivago (Nic, of course, had a full portable kit with her - we have converted further masses to the zhivago cause).

Otherwise the warm weather is, as usual, and in an entirely predictable way, playing merry hell with any practice schedule I try to keep. But it's the best reason to spend more time on he acoustic. I just need some good backing tracks. Hmm...