Post by DAVE HURRY on Oct 31, 2008 21:25:40 GMT
HI-ON CAMBRIDGE
The Corn Exchange gig had been rescheduled once already, when the promotor realised that the original date coincided with Easter. Nice! Instead, on a slightly chilled late October morning, your humble narrator found himself hurtling along the tracks on the Cambridge Express out of Kings Cross. I'd taken a well-earned day off work for this gig, and was pleased of the lie-in as well as the arrival of Opeth's latest gig DVD (a gig that was filmed about 2 years ago, with myself in attendance!). After a morning of rocking out and making my vocal chords hurt with all the death-metal cookie monster vocals, I packed up (remembering my earplugs!) and headed out the door. We had to be at the venue for 4pm to load in and soundcheck - schedules must be kept as this is a tribute band festival, with multiple bands on. I couldn't wait - a slightly truncated set, but double headlining with another tribute band was bound to be fun.
I arrived at spot on 4pm, just as I was supposed to, and hung around with the Acca Dacca band while I waited for the rest of our lot to appear. Nicko "can you give us a hand lifting this?" McBrain Jnr appeared with his roadies (that's right, boys and girls, he gets two roadies!) and pottered around outside for a bit. Speed "he's been my bitch tonight" Harris was rolled up, having had a horrendous journey traffic-wise. He was swiftly followed (geddit?!?) by the Van of Wonder, Terror and Ultimate Doom. Adrian "Bruce doesn't look that pregnant!" Swift and Bruce "walked a long way for a cashpoint" Dugginson looked in good spirits - Angry Swift was not in attendance!
The idea was that AC/DC would get in at 3pm, load in, soundcheck and be done for us to load in at 4pm. Traffic and venue issues prevented this from happening, which ultimately left us with the fastest soundcheck ever (5 minutes, maybe a tiny bit more) and off just in time for the opening act to set up. Bit of a rush, and we were due to go on at 7:45! It all felt a bit chaotic.
The gig itself was a bit of a mixed bag. The crowd were ASTONISHING - it was absolutely brilliant to see a packed room in these dark credit crunch / smoking ban days. The audience definitely carried us through the gig. The onstage sound was not good at all, and reviews were mixed on the sound out front. Although at some points, it did all pull together and work wonderfully, the difficulties kind of won out for us. Still, we all have dodgy gigs once in a while, and we were long overdue one! The punters all seemed to massively enjoy it, which was great feedback. The horde who entered stage left for Heaven Can Wait was just an awesome moment - so many familiar faces there that were a complete surprise to me (I should read the message board more often!). Fan-bloody-tastic.
Post-gig we sauntered out to the bar to gauge the crowd reaction and say hello to some special guests. It was good to see some friends from the boards, and we hope to see them all again in Dodloy next week! Myself and Mr Dugginson sampled the bar upstairs with the AC/DC guys and enjoyed the atmosphere. It would be great to get some more gigs with these guys, as it's a great package. As it were.
We made it to the digs, and then Mr Harris fielded a phonecall from the other band - turns out we'd wandered off with a couple of their guitar stands! Sorry lads! These were duly returned at Cambridge Services (where we'd been Speed-ed to for Ginsters and Pringles...). We'd procured two rooms in order to accomodate HCW security, but as they bailed on us at the last minute yours truly bagged himself a private room (my "thunderbox" snoring has been causing a bit of trouble at recent gigs...)
Parting ways the next morning (after a Little Chef, naturally), I sauntered back to Manic Towers and promptly collapsed on the sofa. Till next week!
Dave "couldn't think of nicknames this week" Hurry
The Corn Exchange gig had been rescheduled once already, when the promotor realised that the original date coincided with Easter. Nice! Instead, on a slightly chilled late October morning, your humble narrator found himself hurtling along the tracks on the Cambridge Express out of Kings Cross. I'd taken a well-earned day off work for this gig, and was pleased of the lie-in as well as the arrival of Opeth's latest gig DVD (a gig that was filmed about 2 years ago, with myself in attendance!). After a morning of rocking out and making my vocal chords hurt with all the death-metal cookie monster vocals, I packed up (remembering my earplugs!) and headed out the door. We had to be at the venue for 4pm to load in and soundcheck - schedules must be kept as this is a tribute band festival, with multiple bands on. I couldn't wait - a slightly truncated set, but double headlining with another tribute band was bound to be fun.
I arrived at spot on 4pm, just as I was supposed to, and hung around with the Acca Dacca band while I waited for the rest of our lot to appear. Nicko "can you give us a hand lifting this?" McBrain Jnr appeared with his roadies (that's right, boys and girls, he gets two roadies!) and pottered around outside for a bit. Speed "he's been my bitch tonight" Harris was rolled up, having had a horrendous journey traffic-wise. He was swiftly followed (geddit?!?) by the Van of Wonder, Terror and Ultimate Doom. Adrian "Bruce doesn't look that pregnant!" Swift and Bruce "walked a long way for a cashpoint" Dugginson looked in good spirits - Angry Swift was not in attendance!
The idea was that AC/DC would get in at 3pm, load in, soundcheck and be done for us to load in at 4pm. Traffic and venue issues prevented this from happening, which ultimately left us with the fastest soundcheck ever (5 minutes, maybe a tiny bit more) and off just in time for the opening act to set up. Bit of a rush, and we were due to go on at 7:45! It all felt a bit chaotic.
The gig itself was a bit of a mixed bag. The crowd were ASTONISHING - it was absolutely brilliant to see a packed room in these dark credit crunch / smoking ban days. The audience definitely carried us through the gig. The onstage sound was not good at all, and reviews were mixed on the sound out front. Although at some points, it did all pull together and work wonderfully, the difficulties kind of won out for us. Still, we all have dodgy gigs once in a while, and we were long overdue one! The punters all seemed to massively enjoy it, which was great feedback. The horde who entered stage left for Heaven Can Wait was just an awesome moment - so many familiar faces there that were a complete surprise to me (I should read the message board more often!). Fan-bloody-tastic.
Post-gig we sauntered out to the bar to gauge the crowd reaction and say hello to some special guests. It was good to see some friends from the boards, and we hope to see them all again in Dodloy next week! Myself and Mr Dugginson sampled the bar upstairs with the AC/DC guys and enjoyed the atmosphere. It would be great to get some more gigs with these guys, as it's a great package. As it were.
We made it to the digs, and then Mr Harris fielded a phonecall from the other band - turns out we'd wandered off with a couple of their guitar stands! Sorry lads! These were duly returned at Cambridge Services (where we'd been Speed-ed to for Ginsters and Pringles...). We'd procured two rooms in order to accomodate HCW security, but as they bailed on us at the last minute yours truly bagged himself a private room (my "thunderbox" snoring has been causing a bit of trouble at recent gigs...)
Parting ways the next morning (after a Little Chef, naturally), I sauntered back to Manic Towers and promptly collapsed on the sofa. Till next week!
Dave "couldn't think of nicknames this week" Hurry