I'm in love with a Hillbilly

Stupid internet connection put paid to me writing this earlier but a couple of weeks ago Izzy and I had possibly the randomest of random nights that ever was.

Let me take you back to July 1st, a quiet night in work and I overheard Hywel telling someone that Hayseed Dixie were playing in the Arts Centre in Pontardawe. Now, I've loved Hayseed Dixie ever since my brother introduced me to them a few years back and I was ver ver gutted that I missed them when they played Sin City last summer so this was finally my chance to see them. Tickets were bought, the night was booked off work and we were all set, Hywel came up with a plan to kidnap/bribe/whetever it took to bring them back to the pub after the gig and good times were going to be had all round!

The gig was one of the most amazing I've ever been to Although the Arts Centre is quite small, there were enough of us to make a noise! Izzy and I met up with Hywel, Liz and Gareth and stood right in front of the stage (quite an interesting view of the band from there!) Iz fell in love with Jake the hairy scary bass player and I confessed to finding lead singer, guitarist and fiddle player Barley Scotch strangely attractive! As they finished their 'Duelling Banjos' encore, Hywel handed a piece of paper to Mr Scotch telling him to join us back at the Gwachel after the gig. After handing out some Festival fliers (always one to find an opportunity to advertise!) Iz and I left Hywel to work his charms and headed back to the Gwachel.

After half an hour or so, Beth had a phonecall from a slightly tipsy Hywel to say he was on his way back with a few of the band so we headed out for a cigarette (after a nasty hi-five incident that lead to her poking me in the eye) and were greeted by the sight of Hywel, Jake, Barley Scotch and Dave-the-sound-guy, complete with bass, guitar and fiddle which hailed the start of part two of the randomness.
There were some quite confused looks on the faces of some of the customers still in the pub, especially those who had also been at the gig and had come back to the Gwachel to catch last orders, when several hairy scary men trail in complete with guitar, bass and fiddle cases and proceed to start jamming with whoever felt like joining in! Iz and I headed out for a cigarette with Dave-the-sound-guy who didn't smoke but fancied the pants off Izzy and were then joined but a slightly tipsy 'When I've got my glasses on, I'm just John'. Holy crap the man came talk shite for Britain! After most of the customers had headed home and Sara (Hywel and Beth's daughter) had threatened us all with death if we didn't 'SHUT. THE. FUCK. UP!' (well, it was about 3am) we decided to call it a night, Jake fancied a walk and had already left so Iz and I offered the other two a lift to their B&B.
Surreal is the moment when you get in your car with the singer of a band that you've admired for years, turn on the engine and the CD player starts playing their songs...that just goes to prove how uncool I really am :) Anyway, John covered it up by singing to me instead while keeping an eye out for Jake (though what we would have done if we'd seen him, I've only got a small car and with the two of us in the front, his guitar and fiddle on the back seat cos my boot was too small, there wasn't really a lot of room for anyone else!
Pulled into the car park, unloaded the cars and had a hug goodbye (and got picked up and shaken so my back 'would feel better because if all else fails in your life you have to look after your back and I've just saved you a trip to an osteopath'), Iz and I decided to go back to hers for a quick smoke before bed (it being half 3 and her having work at 8) but John and Dave took this to mean we were having a smoke in the carpark instead, decided it would be rude to leave us and cracked open a beer each. Tragedy almost struck when we realised we didn't have any Rizlas but a quick phonecall to Jake who was at that moment almost dying as he struggled up the ver steep hill in an alcohol and other stuff induced haze soon averted the situation! So, a drunk sound engineer, a more than tipsy singer and two caned groupies had the most random of random conversations that ever was. We went from driving 10 hours across Kansas tripping on mushrooms to 'Es gibt eine Sonnenblume in meiner Hose' (look it up before you ask questions) to the citizens of Alaska being Devil worshippers for half the year and Jesus freak for the other half (all down to the months of continuous day and continuous night). We traded the phrase 'grinds my cookies' with 'grips my shit', swapped opinions on Jonathon Ross (I'm not special and neither are you...but Jonathon Woss is), gave them a new word...randomest (Me 'Iz, this is probably the randomest night I ever had.' JW 'Rando..randomness...random...don't you mean "most random"?' Me 'No, you're in Ponty now, it's randomest') and had a song sung to us about big old brown balls.
As the sun came up and John was waxing lyrical about the view out over Pontardawe we decided that at 5am it was most definitely time to call it a night so the boys headed off to their rooms and Izzy and I went back to reality. Not to bed, just to reality. Well, it was light and I couldn't sleep for the sunlight shining through the curtains!
Definitley a night that won't be forgotten in a long long time!