Hi all,
Ok before I start with the news here is this weeks gig
Friday 29th November
The Jolly Nailor (Naylor?)
Atherton
Lancs
Its another good venue which normally has a good appreciative audience.
We did have one booked in for Saturday in Colwyn Bay but its been rescheduled due to a clash with Hard rock Hell in Pwllheli. Most of the Colwyn Bay Rock contingent will be attending that so rather than play to an empty room it made sense.
So last week we were back at The Hop Pocket in Chorley. It is a really nice friendly pub with a good stage area. It proved to be an interesting night if not exactly for the right reasons.
As always Steve and I arrived about two hours before gig time to start setting up only to receive a call from Jim that he was broken down on the M6 and was unlikely to make the gig. Two options:- pull the gig (which we really hate to do) or carry on setting up and hope we could locate a sit in drummer? Phone calls to our friends in the drumming community proved fruitless as it was already 8:00pm and we were over an hour from home so even if they werent already out playing it was unlikely they would be able to make the gig in time.
Jcquie ,The landlady. gave us the card of an agent (Alan) and we also put a post on Northwest bands.
The outcome was that we received a couple of responses and we ended up with the agent Alan arriving with an electronic drum kit, Drummer to follow. So just after 9:00pm, Nigel Stewart arrived (with an amplifier?) and started configuring the borrowed kit.
To cut a long story short the gig kicked off at 9:50 and we finished at midnight having played two full sets and two encores! Major thanks to Nigel and Alan the agent for saving the day.
Ok, so it wasnt perfect but it was certainly good enough and we still had fun, more importantly though it was still entertaining. Nigel did a good job although we had to stick to covers rather than playing some unfamiliar originals.
First time for me playing alongside an electronic drum kit and Im not sure it is something I would do again given the choice. They certainly dont look as good as a proper acoustic kit which may or may not be important to most people and out front they probably sound ok. I am just used to having cymbals and drums quite close to me though so not having any sound coming from that area of the stage was totally bizarre and not really very satisfying.
Im afraid I am quite old fashioned and I like to feel the noise (as Noddy Holder eloquently stated) when playing. Still, they did the job.
Jims car is still out of action so it will be a van to Atherton this week. Every cloud has a silver lining though as it gives us a chance to try out some bass bins that Steve has had for a while. We dont usually have room to carry them when we use cars.
Black Sabbath tickets arrived this week so excitement mounting. Only three weeks to go.
The day after, 19th December, we play our Chester gig at Alexanders. I am told by the venue that they have sold quite a few tickets for that one already so fingers crossed it will sell out. All I can say is if you want to be sure of getting in then buy a ticket in advance.
Ok, apologies to regular readers however in the interests of distributing this before its out of date I am going to leave it here this week, no Rants or Music
Hopefully back to normal next time,
Until next week
Keep rockin
Craig