Rawhide!

Good gig at Rawhide Raw in Liverpool last night.

I needed to have a good one. Last time I was there I had a torrid time. I died such a terrible death that night that I half expected there to be floral tributes still tied to the mike stand in my honour.

Fortunately I've improved a lot since then. I got stuck in with my best five minutes of material up front and won them over enough to coast through the final three.

The only down side was that in the final clap off, I got a fairly lukewarm response. I was beaten into submission by two Liverpool lads who both got resounding cheers. Being the graceful loser that I am, I shook hands with the winner on stage and whispered
in his ear: "You scouse bastard."

With hindsight that might have come across as slightly bitter.

That's the problem with gong shows. No matter how well you think you've done on the night (lots of good laughs and several rounds of applause) you can still feel like a total failure if you don't get a good response in the clap off.

That said, it was a great night all in all. Sam Avery did a great job as compere as usual. And it was lovely to have my step-daughter Nikki there in the crowd as well as my old mate Dave Mac.