At a loose end on the Friday so I went to see Phil playing as the other half of Elaine Samuels' Kindred Spirit duo, at the Fox in Twickenham. I like the Kindred Spirit vibe although at times I'm a little sceptical, particularly regarding rock songs like Horse With No Name with an Irish jig or two stuck in the middle of it. However I'd been to see the duo at the Fox in Hanwell a few weeks earlier and it had been a very lively night with a diverse and 'up for it' crowd so we all had a wonderful night until Elaine's guitar amp was stolen, but that's another story. Well, we arrived at the pub and Elaine and Phil set up the PA, people were vaguely curious but being a Friday after work crowd not necessarily there for the music. Then the music started: It was a very rainy August day so a few sing along summertime songs were in order, people bopped about quite enthusiastically enough and then the strong stuff started - an early favourite being Freebird by Lynyrd Skynyrd, complete with wild fiddle! People were going bonkers - cheering the band - grown men hurling themselves at Phil in their enthusiasm (the fiddle does seem to catch people's imagination) and knocking into the mics and everything! Phil and Elaine have to literally barricade themselves into the performance space with guitar cases, chairs, anything else to hand!
The songs and the jigs got more extreme and Elaine said that Phil had gone into overdrive , to which Phil replied that overdrive was his default setting. A great night all round because as well as the set fee the pub was paying the duo, the bar staff went round to collect tips for the band and they got £60 in tips as well from an extremely enthusiastic audience!
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