Okay so it went well last night. Perhaps thirty people, but really pleased we didn’t know most of the audience and they really seemed to like what we were doing. I was so nervous before going on, that’s probably because the set up was the most professional that we have done yet and it wasn’t a crowd we knew. But in the circumstances we did a good job, even though I managed to switch off my microphone as we were rocking out. I faffed around until the engineer rescued me saying, “what have you done…you switched the microphone off.” Yes I felt like a twat, but carried straight on singing. We are still learning, we are going to do stupid things.
When we arrived early for our sound check the funk band that were headlining were still doing their soundcheck. Seven musicians who each kept complaining that they couldn’t hear their instruments, getting theirs turned up and the others down. When we eventually got up for our sound check it took four minutes. Plug in, turn it up and play and we sounded fine. The funk band also had rows of foot pedals and effects stuff, and for what? To make them sound like a funk band. Back in the day people would get up and play funk, no effects, no perfection, the raw tunes shone through. The striving for perfection makes the sound sterile, you lose the edge that is the essence of performing live in a band and all this for a funk covers band. As I say, we plug in, tune up and play. And we play our own songs.
When we did get on to play, most of the members of the funk band didn’t even bother to watch us, electing instead to stay at the bar. Even though I’ve only done four gigs, one of the things I have learned, is that all the bands watch, support and encourage each other. Not this lot, we were an irrelevance, which takes me back to our status on the poster, tiny practically imperceptible and spelt wrong. See, I told you that size matters. No freebies this time, although I was able to sign in my partner as a guest, so that was a small bonus.
Going to a strange promotional thing this evening at the Brunswick, which coincidentally is where we played the other night. Don’t know what it is; it sounds like a big get together for bands and anyone locally in the music industry. It’s being run by somebody called Zooberon, I guess it’s about making contacts and finding out what we can do for each other. Anyway I’m going, so I’ll let you know.