Richard in "Organising a gig" shocker!

Since I was ill with flu in December, I didn't manage to write about the very, very awesome thing that Richard did. We are fans of a musician called Ginger Wildheart - indeed, I have been a fan of his since 1994. Every year he does a gig on his birthday, which is 17th December. It's a very non-standard gig with a rotating cast of musicians, called the Birthday Bash.

This year it was postponed because Ginger was in hospital with depression, which sucks. Fortunately Ginger is getting better and the Belated Birthday Bash and Hey! Hello! tour are back on in April.

Richard knew that a lot of fans were flying over from elsewhere in the world and wouldn't have anything to go to. So he pulled together a pub meet. He spoke to a couple of venues and the guy who runs the Boston Arms in Tufnell Park said it would be no problem at all to host us. Even more impressively, Richard got Hollis and Davey from Love Zombies to play an acoustic set. (Hollis is also the new singer of Hey! Hello!). There were something like 50 people present over the course of the evening, including Ginger's legendary roadie Dunc.

I am just very, very proud of Richard for putting this event together, especially considering the short notice. Even more so considering that he is an introvert who finds dealing with people difficult. I doubt he'll ever organise anything this big again - it was a lot of stress for him - but I'm really pleased to know that he can.