First Gig Friday

Submitted: 2007-12-10 13:33:19 (Updated: 14-12-2007)

Friday night. Gig night. Can you say nerves!?

We headed down to the Gregson (or up to from Rich's flat, and the we being Rich, Daisy and I) at about 7 to meet people there and get our stuff sorted, ready for the gig that was due to start at 7.30. Or so we thought.

Rich, Daisy and I met Matt there just after 7 and had a chat with him and Abi and her friend who walked in just after us. Then we decided to try and find out what was happening, gig-wise, so went through to the hall to have a look. Two people sat inside...

After a brief discussion with the two we found out that the gentleman was also due to be playing and that he had been told the same times as us and looked just as confused that nobody else was there. After leaving them to it we returned to the bar and found out from the bar steward that we were not due to start until 8.30 at least! Thankfully so too because Harley decided to show up about 45 minutes late... *sigh*

Finally, the other bands started to arrive and it came to our attention that 'Mostly Hums', the band that had organised the whole event and whose amps and drum kit we'd be using, weren't actually playing because the lead singers' son was very ill in hospital. The rest of the gig was, however, due to go ahead as planned so whilst they set up their sounds for the other bands we sat twiddling our thumbs in anticipation and growing dread because of the audience and other band members floating around.

Now, at this point I should point out that the evening was called 'The University Of Rock', which to me means that we were to expect some guitars, so loud noises and plenty of rocking out. Turns out this was not the case.

The first band on consisted of 3 members, acoustic guitar, banjo (and ukalelee), and Father Christmas sat at the back of the stage with thimbles on his fingers playing what can only be described as a work bench! The genre of music they were playing mainly consisted of '1920's Gangster Rap', apparently. There was talent there, but nothing that could remotely be described as 'rock' in any way, shape or form.

It was time for 'The Syst3m' to step up and show everyone just what rock was, if a little apprehensively after that last performance, which still got a resounding round of applause much to our confusion.

It was time for us to set up, and set up we did. Once everything one sorted and we were all ready to go we started up Crazy will a will, Matt findling that bass like it was his child and Nigel giving the public a superb beating on the drums. We were off.

Despite there being one or two sound altercations that apparently consisted of Alex stepping on the power to the whole stage a couple of times and turning everything off (!!!) there were no problems other than the volume of the backing vocals, who unfortunately, were a little too quiet to hear. Never-the-less, we soldiered on and did what we knew we could do best... put on a great performace.

The applause steadily increased after each song as the audience realised that they were listening to proper rock, and not expecting it after the first set, realised that they really enjoyed it! 'Crazy' was nailed... 'Not A Love Song' was absolutely hammered and went down a storm, as did 'In This Great Land'. It was time for Creep, and the song that Alex was most dreading, requiring a very strong vocal performance that had been a little faux-par recently, due to illness. But things were going well, and despite not being able to hold 'that note' as long as he would've liked he got a small applause (that he rather stupidly interrupted a little early).

The rest of the set went without hitch and after Warning was complete so was The Syst3m. We left the stage to a resounding applause hot, tired, and very happy! A few comments preceding the performance were all praise, particularly for Creep. The Syst3m were a happy bunch!

We decided to stay around and enjoy the rest of the music on offer that evening and the girl that followed us was extremely talented and sang some very beautiful songs with grace and passion. Once again, we were feeling very out of place again, but the hard job was done, we had been on and put on a show not to be forgotten lightly.

It was time for the final band, 'The Navigators'. A slight personal touch to this performace came from the fact that Daisy had to be taught RS by the lead singer of the band, and lets just say it made for an entertaining half hour until we left. Singing mostly songs from the 80's the band certainly got the crowd uplifted and there were even a few dancers to be seen! After about 30 minutes of 80's we were ready to leave and set off back to Rich's flat for some aftergig thoughts and musings, content, happy and 'full of beans'.

Till next time...!!

(875 words)

- Posted by Alex Hall

<< Previous Blog || Other Recent Blogs || Subscribe to feed || || Next Blog >>

Alex Hall

10 Dec, 2007

Our first feedback on the gig is as follows:

"Amazing, especially as that was your first gig, I really enjoyed it. The guy in the shorts had me in hysterics he is so funny, without actually doing anything. I will definitely be at the dog and partridge if you are definitely doing it." - Caron Harvey