The man known only as Gafro, jamming with Gaz and Kitch in the days before Liquorice Allstars

For the second date of Liquorice Allstars West Wirral tour, we travelled ooh… at least 5 miles down the A540 Hoylake to Chester road, to the uncharted land they call Hes Wall, where we were booked to play a gig at the Hes Wall Racquets Club. This was well out of my comfort zone; my comfort zone being a 10 minute walking distance from Deva Road Studios. Coupled with the fact that we would be playing in front of an audience that weren’t comprised entirely of friends and acquaintances, I must admit I was feeling a teensy bit nervous.

Furthermore, tonight’s Liquorice Allsorts was to be a trio, with me on lead guitar and vocals, Joe Elephant on bass guitar and vocals, and the mysterious man known only as Gafro on drums and percussion. We’d had a grand total of five hours rehearsal time and were playing a number of songs that none of us had ever played live before. Joe admitted that he had never played a gig on bass. I had never been lead guitarist (basically coz I can’t play lead guitar).

Just then I started thinking that maybe, just maybe, we’d bitten off a bit more than we could chew…