We recently played our biggest gig yet at the first ever Suffolk Pride held in Ipswich. Not only had we been asked to perform as Suki and The Science but we had the enormous privilege to be asked to be part of Friends As Family who were performing the finale.
It was a complete weekender for us where we got to spend some quality time with some amazing musicians. We started off by travelling to Birmingham on Friday for a big practice of the Friends As Family stuff. We were in the studios from 1 til 8 and we were all pretty shattered afterwards. We were also pretty hungry and a few of us decided to go and get some gutty food from a take away. Unfortunately this resulted in the keyboard player getting food poisoning and spending all night throwing up! We all really felt for him as it was an early start in convoy down to Ipswich the next day, and he was still pretty bad at 7.30 when we started out.
After a 2 and a half hours drive (Tom with a bucket between his legs) we arrived at the practice rooms in Ipswich where we were booked in for another 6 hours. It was a boiling hot day and the room was really small and stuffy. Another disaster was narrowly avoided as some equipment had been left behind, but they managed to find everything they needed locally (phew!) After the practice we loaded the cars back up and went to Christchurch Park to unload some gear ready for the next day. We got our first look of the stage which was still being built. It looked amazing! That was when the real excitement started to kick in!
THE DAY
Up at 6 and out the door for 7.30...too early for breakfast! Scheduled to arrive at the park to set up ready for sound check at 9. When we got there the stage looked less ready than the day before! In the end sound check didn’t start until 12! Well thats the life of a musician - anyone will tell you you have to be quite laid back and ready for anything! After sound check it was just a case of getting ready and waiting...there was a really nice back stage tent with a photographer who had set up a mobile studio (his pictures are amazing by the way - will post when we get our finished ones back) there were also snacks, drinks and a sectioned off area for changing. We met some really lovely people, and the other acts were all top notch. Started to feel the nerves as the afternoon went on but by the time we got on stage it was just pure excitement - BAM! Before we knew it, it was over and we were running off stage to getting ready to go on with Friends As Family. It was such an awesome buzz to be part of this amazing finale and we highly recommend you check out the DVD of the show when its released!
We came off stage at 6 and got home about 1am having stopped via a Little Chef for some well earned supplies. The amazing Suffolk adventure was over, but for us it felt as if something had just begun....
