We've just had an eventful weekend, in the studio all day Friday,
managed to get 3 tracks down, guitar boy was knackered after doing God
knows how many overdubs, we don't know how successful we've been till
we get the final mix, by the way, be careful about the Burger King at
the end of Meadow Lane, we saw a rat running AWAY from it.
Saturday
night saw us at the Mill in Mansfield, we finished up first on with
Chelsea headlining, which meant the crowd was on the thin side for the
first couple of bands, it was also bad news for Ronnie, one of our
Mansfield faithful, he normally gets thrown out for climbing all over
the speakers during our set, but because we were first on he didn't get
to see any of the other bands this time, and it was £9 to get in! Also
out of 4 bands it turns out I was the only one to bring a bass amp,
after Apocalypse Babies used it I decided enough was enough and took it
off stage, the sound engineer asked if I was going and I said "yes" and
he turned round to the guy behind him and said "We haven't got a bass
amp then" amateur hour or what? It's not quite as disastrous as it
sounds cause bass can go straight through the PA, not ideal though. I
was going to stop long enough to see the next band till Wendy Verbett
pointed out that I had said I was going and that I might be not a
little inconspicuous standing on the front row with white jeans and a
bright red tie on, so, in the best rock star traditions we left the
building.
On to the Vic at Derby on Sunday, now we may have had worse
gigs but I can't really recall one at the moment, hardly anybody turned
up, we made the mistake of using the amps that were there and the sound
was truly horrendous, on stage as well as off it, Drummer Boy couldn't
hear his drums! the rest of us couldn't hear the vocals, Phil Spector
would have been proud of the wall of noise that engulfed us, front of
house was just as bad apparently with a bass drum to take your spleen
out and a sound as muddy as Morecambe Bay sands, there's not many gigs
we've played when we couldn't wait for it to be over. Felt sorry for
the guys from Still Dying promotions, everything was against them, King
Blues at the Rescue rooms, beer festival down the road and a deaf sound
engineer. A special mention in dispatches for Lee Cooper and his mate,
Wendy and Janet Verbett who stuck it through to the bitter end.
Next gig at the Stumble Inn on November 20th, should be a good one we're doing the sound ourselves.