Boss Cube Street II

Regular readers will know that the last time I took the Boss Cube Street II out, I was in rehearsal for a debut gig in London.

The slight twist was that I decided to rehearse on the streets of Glastonbury, by busking my way through my set over the course of several lunchtimes. After all, there's nothing like performing for an audience - even one composed of passing pedestrians - to sharpen up your playing fast.

Despite these preparations, as the night of the gig approached I started to feel a few butterflies. I was booked to play the Clerkenwell ArtsLab event at the Betsey Trotwood (do check it out, it's a regular fixture and always great) with a debut performance of songs from my fingerstyle acoustic album, Withershins, released in March of this year.

I'd be sharing the bill with John Hegley, a poet and comedian I'd long admired, and some other fine London musicians, so I wanted to give a good account of myself.

With a week to go, I was still making the odd slip that could have halted a song in its tracks. However, two hour-long stints busking on Glastonbury High Street passed without incident, so I began to feel the prep was paying off and that I might do okay on the night, especially as I had the excellent and highly experienced folk fiddle player Aaron Catlow of Sheelanagig to accompany me on stage.

My intention was to play through my Trace Elliot acoustic amp on the night, using a Boss GT-1000Core modelling multi-effects to provide reverb and delay in the effects loop.