So a couple of weeks later we do it all again, this time upstairs at The Yorker pub, and we are better, I think, although Julian from The Headbirths says I am 'no basist' to Matt, and I overhear. Oh well, I suppose he was right. I take comfort in nailing 'marc's song', there are probably about thirty people and we appear to be well received.
The full 'Mouth' line up couldn't make it from Manchester, just John Bramwell (he now of 'I am kloot' fame), who I knew from hanging out drinking tea in The Cornerhouse, we share the cheap Trent Bus journey over the Peaks and he does his usual solo set, most of which have since turned up on I am kloot b-sides.
The Headbirths blow me away though, they play a great version of 'Postcards from Beachy Head', but Glen's not happy, on the walk home, he confides that The Headbirths have become a band he no longer wants to be in, oh and he says he didn't like our cover version of Boy Disposal Unit either. Why would we do that ?
It feels pretty good to be in a band, even Matt seemed happy afterwards and I think sometimes when you look back at stuff you've done or been apart of it's natural to try to understand where things went wrong or where they peaked. I think illinois could have ended here, or at least for me. I'm not sure if Matt ever felt it was going to work out and at the end of August he moved back to Nottingham. He'd run out of money, living in Manchester and had managed to get his old summertime job of delivering Pizza in Nottingham. It was also time to give Paul's bass guitar back that Matt had borrowed on my behalf, Paul was back from travelling and was kind of wondering where it was.
So I was stranded musically, bassless, and with the final year of a degree to do in Manchester, with hindsight this probably would have been a natural point of closure. The summertime was over before it begun...
... but we would have finished on a high.