The momentous event has happened and Pocketbooks have lost their gig virginity!

t was certainly more than a fumble behind the bike sheds, so the pressing question

is of course, 'Did the earth move for you?' Well, here we have it, blow by blow...

SCENE: Outside The Windmill public house, Brixton. Late afternoon in midsummer.

A passer by smiles warmly at five young types sitting on a pub bench and asks:

"Are you playing tonight?"

"We are, yes," comes the reply.

"Oh, what time are you on?"

"Um, Nine," answer a slightly confused Pocketbooks.

What on earth provoked such spontaneous curiosity? Was it Mark's pre-gig KFC scarf-fest? Perhaps Ben's cosily striped cardigan lured her in. Whatever it was, the first time these five indie chancers played their music to the public was clearly a hot topic on the streets of Brixton.

Within the darkened confines of the Windmill however, Pocketbooks are like the unfavoured sibling at a family wedding, left to skulk in the corner while the more handsome brothers and sisters are soundchecked. Well I suppose Scarlet's Well are quite famous. We say hello to their guitarist, and it transpires that they really are rather good, although they inexplicably have a song with a chorus of 'Scaramanga!' Time drips slowly by like liquor from leaky optics behind the bar. Emma finally rigs her keyboard stand, but the celebrations are muted. There's soundchecking afoot! We rather hoped that a casual onlooker could not have guessed at the inexperience lurking in the hearts of these pop purveyors as they smoothly unsheath guitars and even the keyboard and xylophone stand that had obstinately refused to assume the position dutifully buckled down to the task in hand. We then find that when plugged into loud amps, even our twee guitars go 'KERRANNGG!'

"Running Circles, then?"

"Right-oh," Dan counts four...

"That sounded pretty good. I'm really looking forward to the performance!" At some point, HDIF auteur Ian Watson esquire has arrived, and he's given us copies of the rather tasty looking How Does it Feel? compilation CD. Do buy a copy, it's very good, support independent labels, blah blah. Ian then proceeds to enthuse upon the merits of our song. We can of course, only demur to the wisdom of the King of Indie.

By now the venue is starting to accumulate actual paying punters. We give out our rather tasteful badges, green with white lettering or the other way round, since you ask. Some alarm is caused when someone arrives wearing the same dress as Emma, but hey, it's a nice dress. Otherwise, time passed, Dan chewed his fingernails, Ben pulled a face of alarm, Mark had a drink and Andy maintained an outward veneer of calm. Alarm accumulates further when opening band H Bird turn out to have rather a nice line in St Etienne bothering synth-matter.

H Bird take the applause, cut their synthesisers off and are finished. Nerves or not, there's no getting out of it now, so with a "Well shall we?" and an "um, yes I think we ought," we clutched our instruments and oozed elegantly onstage. Whether we decided to cut the banter to save on time, or like the protagonists of 'Girl Afraid' we simply couldn't think of anything to say, Pocketbooks clattered straight into their first song. And without alarm or hitch, get through to the end of it. This comes as something of a shock, but thus it continued through the set. Dickon from Orland..., sorry Fosca made his way to the front of the crowd for a while, yet despite such celebrity being in close attendance, we wilted not. Sure, there were some technical problems, and I admit to a hefty botch in the middle of 'Every Next Day' but in general we managed to maintain tumescence throughout.

Eight songs later, and grateful for all the applause, we exited the stage. And so how was it for us? Well, it was rather like being on 'Who Wants to be A Millionaire?' Without the desperate urge to punch a smarmy git's lights out, obviously, but in the 'it's all very well shouting at the television from your sitting room, Chris, but it's a different ball game when your actually up here,' sort of way. The earth certainly moved, but we didn't quite get to a million. However, unlike certain ITV quiz shows, we will return to the stage, and next time, we're going to look at the answers.

Anyway, thank you so much to everyone who came along. Especially everyone who said 'good luck!' beforehand and 'well done!' afterwards. You are the best! Like I say, we will be doing this again soon. See you there!

Ben x

myspace | lastfm | soundclick | flickr | site by emml

Website by Emml

pocketbooks@gmail.com