Vanderbilt and the Yeggman. Vipers. Vigor, the Hammersmith wonder.

Last night was the gig at the Railway Arms, the farewell for Saul who's off back to SA for a spell, to 'get his head together' or some such. He will be missed of course, but it'll give us the chance to do some experimentation with drum machines, which should be fun.

It was a busy crowd, the usual mix of teenagers up on the train and people our sort of age from town, the urban sophisticates as we call them. And a few lost-looking football fans still stuck here after the afternoon game. But even they got into it. We are a pretty tight unit now I think it's fair to say.

Sophie was not in a happy mood, though. During our close-up fret-frot bit in 'Brother' she gave me quite the glare. And after the encore she went and stood outside with a friend of hers called Jason, while the rest of us were drinking, chatting to fans and so on. I found out why later on, when we were loading up the van (packing those bloody drums of Saul's for the last time -- yes!)

"Why have you been ignoring me?"

"What? Er, I thought you wanted a bit of space or something?"

"Well, you were wrong. There's something I want to say to you."

I looked politely expectant. Although inside I was a bit pissed off at this rather childish behaviour.

"You're splitting up this band, did you know that? With your fucking ego issues. Everything has to be about you."

"What do you mean?" I wa a bit taken aback. She hadn't even had anything to drink, as far as I could see.

"Saul's gone now. Martin's pissed off too, he'll be off as soon as he gets an offer somewhere else. And I'm only staying here because I fucking love you, you shithead."

"You what?" That last bit was not the only bit that had sunk in, but it was the bit that stood out the most.

"Jesus Christ! You fucking sicken me, did you know that? You're such a fucking drama queen. 'Oh, look at little surprised me.' Well look, one day you're going to have to face up to some fucking facts about reality. Just come down out of your fucking little dreamworld!"

I sat down slowly, and Sophie stalked off into the chilly night. I looked around for Martin, in the hope of finding a bit of sanity to connect to, but he was nowhere to be seen. Could he really be on his way out of the band, too? It didn't make sense. And as for Sophie loving me, well, if so she had a funny way of showng it.

I shook my head to try and clear away the confusion. Tell you what though, this would make a great song. OK there are plenty of songs about love confusion and bands breaking up, but I felt I could really get my teeth into this one. Of course, the others probably wouldn't want to play it. But if the band did actually break up, then bam, my solo career. It's not just drum machines, you can do all sorts of good backing stuff these days. And if Sophie was really that keen on me then I could find her something to do.

The manager of the pub came over: he looked pretty chuffed, they must have taken a fair bit of cash. "You guys OK for a repeat in six months or so?"

I smiled. "Sure, that'd be great, thanks. Put it down just under my name, though, I'm not sure what the band's going to be called then. I'll give you a call once I've sorted out a few things."

So, overall, a pretty good gig.

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Another weekend RHD, but better late than never eh?