Join the club

Wednesday night saw the first meeting of the Kendal and District T-girl Society. Actually no it didn’t, but it’s kind of getting that way…

My new t-friend Stephie, from Kendal, has met another girl from a small town just a few miles away. Her name’s Gillian, lovely girl. So Stephie invited her out to one of our several Chinese restaurants to meet me and Sue, and then out for a drink or two and meet up with Laura, Sue’s t-daughter. Ok I’ll drop the t-prefix now, it’s getting boring. Suffice to say we’re all in the same club, so there you go. Alright, it’s only 5 of us, but hey this is only a small town.

The food was good and we all had a good chat and compared notes, like you do. I really never thought I’d get the chance to do that, certainly not locally anyway, so that’s kind of nice. It was the first time I’ve used chopsticks since I’ve been going out wearing lipstick. I thought I’d make a mess of my lippy using them, but I actually did rather well. Quite dainty even.

We went to the bar at the local arts centre to meet Laura and some of her friends. It’s the kind of place you know you can relax, know there won’t be any beer-swilling loudmouth yobs, it being an arts centre and all. The sort of place where girls like us go virtually unnoticed, regardless of how passable (or not) we are.

It was the folk jam-session night at one of my other favourite places in town – Dickie Doodles, a small pub on the high street, so that was the next stop. The guy who hosts the folk night is actually an old employer of mine, from when I worked part-time as sound and light engineer at the arts centre, about 20 years ago. This was the third time I’d been to the folk night since I met Sue, who always goes, but the first time I’d spoken to Bill, my old employer and folk-banjo maestro. Sue had to tell him who I was, though I think he’d realised he knew me from somewhere. He was very sweet, especially when I got up and joined in on someone’s cute ickle harmonium. All of the (partially impromptu) band had only ever seen the harmonium player play the harmonium before, so it caused a bit of surprise to see someone else sitting there. Just in case you don’t know a harmonium is a bit like a small organ, with footpedals operating bellows, no electronics, something I’m not used to! This however was very small, about knee-high and only 3 octaves, cute. If you know "The Wall" by Pink Floyd, the very beginning and very end ("All alone or in twos, the ones who really love you…"), that’s a harmonium. Anyway, that was my first public "performance" in over 3 years, and I quite enjoyed it. Never even really played any folk before either, but I’ve done my fair share of "jamming", so I can follow chords, and I know my scales, or rather, modes.

Bill said thanks and well done and told me that musicians get free drinks so what would I like, well, how could I refuse, so I had yet another drink, it was getting quite late by then. Of course there was a lock-in and the die-hards in the band carried on playing and/or drinking, as folk bands do I guess, so me and Sue stayed on to soak up the atmosphere and yet more alcohol. During a lull in the music I got up and played the pub's piano on my own, now somewhat oblivious to the fact that it was so long since I’d actually played in public, but hey, it’s like riding a bike. I probably could have done with stabilisers after all that booze, but I enjoyed playing, and just lost myself in the music. And blimey, it was only a bloody Bechstein wasn’t it, an upright of course, me only vaguely so... After a couple of songs from my repertoire and a bit of "improv" someone else offered me a drink so I gave them all a rest from my drunken playing, but got lots of pats on the back/arms/shoulder and warm compliments so that was nice. (No, Pip; Pat is not an Irish folk musician).

I may need to get used to playing in public again because a local, recently reformed band has offered me a job with them. Well, I say job, the occasional gig at weekends, that sort of thing, but that’s all I’d like to do at the moment. Their bass player was there at the folk night so I had a good chat with him and it sounds like the sort of stuff I will enjoy so he’s going to get me a tape of songs (all covers), and hopefully soon I’ll go along to a rehearsal and just see what happens, no obligations on either part.

Nothing may come of this, so I won’t make a fuss about it, but I can’t help thinking it’s rather brave of them to have a tranny in the band. Although they all used to know me (the guitarist was in my last band for a couple of years, early on in its history), only the bass player has met me in my new role.

As I’ve grown up, and especially recently, people around here seem to have evolved from small-town mentality to liberal thinking, free-spirit attitude. It feels not in the least daunting to go on a tranny night out (I expect the other girls wouldn’t thank me for describing it like that, but you know what I mean). There is no need to feel daunted, whether with friends or alone, because no-one seems to think anything of it. I suppose it is different at weekends; there are many more heavily-drinking blokes out, the local rugby team for example were at my brother’s gig in town last month, but even those sorts seem to have the sense to not take the piss. They’re just curious really, some approach me, very politely asking questions, risking their sexuality being questioned no doubt, "Do you mind if I ask you this…" and so on. I don’t mind that, why should I mind? I bet some of them are just jealous, wishing they could do this, if only they weren’t rugby players…

All in all I had a great night; another really lovely girl initiated into our local women’s guild, some good music, some drunken piano playing, and a wonderful atmosphere. The next day of course I seriously regretted the over-indulgence. The day after, I’ve nearly recovered. I really mustn’t do that again. The alcohol part that is, the rest of it was fantastic.

xx