Glanville Wharf Hotel Gig - 13/02/05

On Sunday afternoon we played 4 – 8 pm at the Glanville. This was our second gig here. Musically it was a success and there there was enough of a crowd (not bad for a Sunday) to make it worth it to the pub (two staff behind the bar at the busiest).

We had set up by about 3.30 pm, Terry had been there from maybe 2 pm. We reverted back to our ‘new’ line up, with Steve on the wing with his instruments and myself in the centre between Sox on the drums and Nancy at stage front. I managed just to fit the amp I am using (Steve’s Laney) between the drums and Steve’s keyboard. Being a daylight gig, we had no lights to worry about, cutting the amount of cabling and un/loading quite noticeably.

We were all still wiping off the red dust from Peterborough from our gear as we set up. I used the cables which proved alright the week before, and had no problem. That will teach me for using a cheapie cable with my guitar. In retrospect, I thought as we played through the first set, when I had troubles was when the band’s troubles began in the previous week. We were professional enough then to keep going. This week, we showed our professional attitude in the tightness of the sets, the enthusiasm and fun we displayed.

The audience was composed of four fairly distinct groups. Steve and Jacqui’s friends were there right through. Good on them. They seem to still enjoy it, and give us someone to keep us sharp by continually improving technically and artistically. A second group was a bunch that knew Sox. They stayed to nearly the end of the third set. They gave lots of inidicators of being quite surprised at the quality (I hope) of Sox’s band, and displayed by their dancing and toe tapping movements at the table that they enjoyed what they heard. Wayne, Tracy and their friends and kids were also there for the first two sets. This was excellent. The kids (Nancy’s (and my(!)) grandkids) burbled along until it was time for them to go. The final group was the amphorous clientele of the pub, 6-10 through the show. Included men women and children. Again, seemed to be pleasantly surprised (younger) and thoroughly enjoy it (older). The kid was transfixed and danced his way through the sets, wide eyed, until he left. Hope we have inspired him.

Encouragingly, one of Nancy’s mate Joe’s friends, who had made the cowgirl trip to Peterborough, came in during the last set. Was real good to see her all dressed up in black. We have a few people who have seen us before doing this at our gigs now. I’m not sure whether it is a conscious identification with the band (we dress black for gigs), or a combination of coincidence and personal taste. Shape of things to come?

The show was composed of four sets. Nancy had listed five sets but by the end of the third we realised that we we’d finish the fourth at about 7.40 pm, which wouldn’t leave any time for more music if we had even a short break (which we always try to limit ourselves to), so we played through ‘til eight in an extended fourth set. Again, the first and final sets were each just short of an hour, and our breaks were 15 min at the longest. Compared to a lot of bands I’ve seen, these are long sets and short breaks. The band holds up well to it to this call on their resources and therefore, as we all like being on stage making music more than sitting around, I think this is a now a permanent feature of our performances. As someone who used to see a lot of bands, I know this is a good thing.

We started with almost the same set as we did last week. It was really nice to get into ‘Alright Now’ (Free) and play to Steve’s nicely distorted lead. Doubly so considering that this was the piece during which my guitar crapped out on me in the previous week. We played four of our own songs this week (Misty Eyed Vision, Scream, Butterflies and Decisions). They went down fairly well with the audience, had their attention with the words and their feet tapping to the music.

There were no major stuffups technically, nor total clangers artistically. Steves’s guitar leads continue to develop. Tempo holding, regulated distortion, rhythmic bends, confident improvastion, a ‘brighter’ and more truly pitched sound than there once was. This is really good and justifies the band’s choice to stick with Steve rather than look for another guitarist after the departure of our previous lead.

The best points for me personally were the moments when the ‘rhythmic section’ (keyboard, drum, guitar) developed a rolling momentum of its own (these moments make music worthwhile), when Nancy cut loose on her vocals (always a favorite), and when all the backing vocals sang in key (increasingly likely).

This has turned into a long post. Before concluding I should observe that Sox was feeling unwell when we started, but played through without flagging. And Nancy had been sick in bed for almost the whole previous week, only feeling up to the show on the day we did it. Both of them came through, and they have the highest physical workload during a gig. Well done!

Final point – we play at the Cumberland Hotel (down the road from the Glanville Wharf Hotel) next Sunday afternoon (4-8pm), before returning to the Gaslight in Brompton for a Saturday night gig a couple of weeks later. We also have another Saturday night gig at the Glanville, and Easter Sunday at the Cumberland booked. See you next week …