So, we played a gig. But that’s not all.
It began early on Monday afternoon, in our experience Monday gigs are generally a wash out; people are unwilling to brave the elements in search of a good time, and normally us bands end up playing to each other. However, this Monday seemed to be of a different ilk; the sun was shining and faces were bedecked with nervous smiles. We all appeared at the Millpond bright and early, around thirteen hundred hours, and stood around looking at each other expectantly for a while. With our normal slow paced charm we ambled into practice.
Things were plugged in, fiddled with then unplugged again we were off; with a successful band practice under our belt. We piled into various modes of transport with our instruments, and in James’s case; crutches. We sped through the New Forest at a recklessly slow pace, only halting for the inevitable traffic jam or dull witted wild animal. We saw lots of them. Loads.
We rocked up in Southampton some time after four o’clock, and descended on the Joiner’s Arms. The Joiner’s has always held a special place in our hearts, we’ve played many, many gigs there; this one was to be something entirely different.
Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike. Mr Michael Breach is our favourite sound engineer; he seems to understand what we’re doing a little better than we do, most of the time. Also his band is really cool. He was there to greet us; for a while we all just stood around saying how glad we were to see each other. Hugs were exchanged after a short interlude. Then we bumped into Phil Cory, Phil is some kind of wizard, I’m sure. He knows lots of arcane things about music, guitars especially; he actually helped mix our last attempt at a single. That night he was on hand to dazzle us with lights, and his choice of headwear.
We nudged the other bands out of the way and leapt onto the stage, everyone took their places; and there were more places to take than usual, as we were to be joined by some special guests; Ladies. Up on stage with us animals there was also to be two delightful little beings; one Lady of the Lake (to play keys and emit sublime vocals) and one Jess Illsley (to play harmonica, and jiggle around a bit). Sound check was fun; everyone in the room was astounded by the direction our music has taken. So were we.
We ate and drank and headed upstairs to the green room to relax, instead we boiled. We couldn’t open the door onto the roof terrace, and the promoter who was running the night had decided (we think) to retain the keys until we gave into his demands to go on earlier. Needless to say we continued to boil, much to our eventual credit. I think we went on at the right time, in the end.
The doors opened and people flooded in. Lovely people, people you’d like to dance around with. The bar was packed, and it was not long until we all overflowed into the live room.
We clambered up on stage, and from there on it all gets a little hazy. We played four new songs unheard by cultured ears before. They all went down incredibly well. The other four songs are available to download, just email Moses. There are videos of the gig up on youtube somewhere, for your delectation. We danced, the audience danced, the audience clapped, we clapped, we sang and they sang. Fun was had, by all.
We came off stage to a room full of smiles, the band included. I was a bit dazed afterwards; people wanted to talk to us, buy our CDs and ask us questions. I must apologise for being incoherent; both then and now, it still hasn’t really sunk in.
After playing we stuck around for a while, but we were all a little frazzled by the day’s events by then; so we headed back to the Mill Pond; into which we promptly jumped, after imbibing a little liquid courage. We then, somewhat inadvertently imbibed some pond water, and felt a little sick.
A perfect end to a rather bizarre experience.
We’re now back in Brighton gearing ourselves up for yet another gig; wish us luck.
… …
… …
Jacob / Bassist / Modern Fighting Vehicles.
No comments:
Post a Comment