Edinburgh's original open mic night

Ghostboy

In his own words

Describe your first OOTB

I had just got back from playing two open mics in London and I had actually heard about OOTB there. Before London I had only ever done two or three open mics and let me tell you that the first one that I did was really scary @the bongo club, but the acts who were on before me told me that my shit was good and to continue. So I went to London to test myself. I had a great time at the second of the two gigs in London. When I was on stage i had my eyes shut and I sensed that something was up, when I opened my eyes, my ears seemed to open at the same time, they the crowd were singing my song ? they don’t know me ? they don’t know the song ? it blew me away. So I came back up to Edinburgh to play at ootb the place that I had heard so much about in London. They really bummed it up when I actually got to the Waverly and put my name down I think I was shaking. My first ever song was I feel so small it was a squashee I never knew what that was I do now. Oh do I know now. So yeah slightly shaky and frozen to the spot. That was my first ootb.

Which OOTB performers really rock your boat?

I have to say Spam as we are good friends now, also Danny Dyer, Nick Smith, and Ewan Michael Riley. They all ooze a primitive rawness (don’t sit too close or it will stain your clothes).

What's the best OOTB performance you've seen?

Puggled

How would your best review sum you up?

There’s so many (cough cough)!

How would your worst critic sum you up

Don’t have one (cough cough)!

Who do you fancy at OOTB?

As if I would tell you lot. Definitely the girls, not the boys.

The consumer question: album, book or film you've enjoyed recently.

Favourite Bands: Queen, Ozzy, Rainbow, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, The The, Supertramp, and many many more.

What's the best piece of songwriting advice you've ever been given?

Keep writing! And this next part is important so listen up - throw nothing away: you never know those lyrics that you wrote five years ago could come in handy some day.

at OOTB

(Feb 2006)
Gary Ghostboy’s opening shots came in the form of Too Many People. His
lovely Ovation guitar sounded crisp and bright. I’m really quite jealous.
I got a lovely sense of The Charlatans peeping over his shoulder as he
wrote this song, but I’m not sure of Tim Burgess’ opinion on asking “Where
you going with that gun?”. But then, he’s indie-tastic and so is probably
immune to bullets anyway. Both his first and second numbers were new,
untested songs – a feat that takes a great deal of courage, but is always
greeted with warmth and giddiness by the friendly (soon to be migrating)
Waverley crowd. The world then took a distinctly biblical turn, as we were
reliably told that “Hell has frozen over, the Angels won the war”. Good-o.
What with the Devil being laid to rest and all, one would expect quite a
skippy, happy song. But no. Minor chords rang through, calling to “break
down the walls”. It’s like someone had been eating a melon. And then sadly
caught the colic. Returning to familiar ground for the third song, he
rather caught us all off-guard by letting loose a surprisingly sprightly,
upbeat number. The strumming patterns were squished and stretched, and
then left to spring back like a rubber band.

(May 06)
In something of a slough of despond (Pilgrim’s Progress anyone?) Ghostboy explores the doomy world of the many minor chords for “Man with tears in my eyes”, “Feel small” and “Falling Down”. He does this however with a healthy degree of self-awareness and honesty, exorcising the demons and opening up various boxes of discomfort. He also spends a lot of time gazing into his laptop which no doubt contained a catalogue of new ghostly songs that are about to emerge. Watch this space.