Those of you who’ve been reading my posts relating to the latest open mic will know I’ve been in Southern Ireland for the last week or so.
Again, those of you who’ve followed my ‘travel guitar’ posts will know I got one last Christmas. Well, this was its first outing overseas.
Photo shows back seat of the car, bikes on the bike carrier and loads of stuff in the rear of the car. What’s that peeping out? Yes it’s my PRS SE parlour acoustic. Photo was taken yesterday as we waited in the queue for the ferry back to Scotland.
Did I bring the guitar out in public? No way. Every pub had semi-pros performing. I restricted myself to some practice in our self catering cottage. 
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Hi Gordon,
Now that your guitar is travelling, could you accompany it one time to Germany! I would like to hear it live. Not nearly as many semi professionals on stage as in Ireland, so the coast would be clear in one or two places that I happen to know…
Cheers
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Thought my trained eye recognised a PRS gig bag, Gordon 
I would (probably) recall you acquired a travel guitar but not the make.
I am sure folk in public would have enjoyed listening to you play and sing. Once one is beyond a certain point in the learning, the enjoyment is as much based on intangible qualities as it is on pure technical ability.
I’ve said it a million times, ok more than once, based on your single and first take recordings, your more than ready to perform at Open Mics, where the expectation is appropriate ie nobody expects a pro.
Just for interest sake you mentioned pubs having semi-pros performing. I’m assuming that actually these are pros ie people being paid to entertain, who are not signed-up recording artists and may also have a day job?
Again, beyond a point (a point you are beyond) performing for others is about the desire to do so and the blend of confidence/courage (maybe courage/confidence) to do so. For my own purely selfish reasons, I’d love you to perform at a Community OM, it would be a treat. But also appreciate that it is not (currently) something that interests you.
Anyhow, best I stop waffling, as a reply should not be longer that the FP (First Post) of a Topic 
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Hi Gordon, I hope you had a nice trip together with your travelling guitar. When we travel, our car always is fully loaded with a lot of sports equipment and a dog, I think my husband would ask me, whether I’m sane, if I wanted him to load a guitar on top 
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Concerning playing in a pub: your time will come, for sure!
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I’m sure you would have been more than capable of holding your own. Maybe next time?
I hope you had a nice break.
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Hi David. I suspect most of them will have other jobs as I doubt if you could make a living playing pub gigs. Most of them had top of the range instruments too, not the sort you would use if you were a street busker trying to scrape a living.
The format was usually three people, singer/guitar, violin and bodhran drum/singer/harmony. The few bands we saw in the smaller pubs we went to during our stay were in the 50/60/70 age groups so presumably had been at it a long time, all very experienced and knew their set inside out.
Traditional Irish music in the main. Singalong for those interested and ignored by others chatting and drinking.
I didn’t get the impression that people had come to see any of the bands, they just happened to be on that particular night. Some of the larger pubs in Dublin city centre had billboards/blackboards outside advertising who was coming so perhaps they have a more professional set up and you could make a living there.
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Beautiful thing!!!
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Haha no. These guys were all really good entertainers and could play for an hour. Then come back later in the evening and play another hour. We didn’t see the second hour. Us old timers were in bed, unlike the old timers in the band!
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I’m sure you could have managed one for a free pint 
It would probably have been thrown at me!
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Sounds fun.
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