Surprise! with Lapis Lazuli and reduced Cocos

secret woodland location near Canterbury
Monday 16th October 2017

Wow. Just back from seven weeks in Wisconsin in the wake of my dad's passing, and my friends back in Canterbury threw the most amazing surprise gig/party for me to welcome me back and thank me for the effort I've been putting in to bring people and music together in the woods in recent times. I was completely in the dark right up until I walked to the site wondering what was going on! Thanks go to Juliet for instigating (and then distracting me during the setup, along with Emilia, Cam, Jacob and Laszlo), Adam, Kim, Dave and Libby for actually making it happen.

A reduced three-piece Lapis Lazuli (Luke on bass, Adam on drums, Neil on guitar) played a semi-acoustic set, getting the audience to provide key sound effects and drones. Amazing to see Neil pulling off all those intricate guitar parts on an acoustic instrument! Altogether wonderful. And then Cocos Lovers (minus Nicola and Dave) played, almost all new material (Natasha's song "Mother" stood out), followed by a few Billy/Phil songs and then a jam involving me and Lapis which went on until everyone had drifted away. The whole thing was quite dreamlike, as I'm used to being the one organising these gigs, running around, making announcements, making sure everyone's OK...this time I could just sit back and enjoy the magnificence of it. I woke up feeling loved. Thanks everyone!