The Woodman - 25th April, 2009

We arrived at the pub to find the car park full to the brim. Our first thoughts were "my god, it's heavin!!! Upon entering the pub to introduce ourselves and obtain permission to start setting up we were greeted by a packed pub all merrily drinking away shouting and screaming. Nobody in the band realized it was live football afternoon and most of the the crowd were loud and drunk!
At this point, we felt a little intimidated to say the least but continued to set up never the less.
Needless to say, we didn't experience any trouble and they were a good, cheerful crowd just out to enjoy a chilling afternoons footy. By the time the van was unloaded, a lot had left as the game had finished and the place seemed empty rather quickly. It was a good two hours before the set-up was finished and by then the evening crowd had started to filter in through the doors. The pub wasn't overly packed but busy. We did our sound check with "Teenage Kicks" this time which seemed to go down ok. A few claps were heard afterwards. Dan did us proud again setting and mixing it all up. We had time to chill before we had to go on, so we took advantage and Beanz retired outside to smoke a fag or ten, whilst Harley emptied his bowels for the third time that day and Andy and Jock took advantage of a free pint or two.
The band had all agreed that our origional set layout appeared too much "nothing in the first half and balls out in the second" so during our weekly rehearsal we rejigged the set to vary it up a bit. This proved to be successful and we will continue to use the current format until more songs have been learnt to filter them in one at a time. We kicked the night off this time with one of our favourites, "Pretty Vacant" and we could see a few heads moving around and lips following along to the words which is good to see. During the whole evening, we were experiencing technical difficulties with some of the equipment. Beanz monitors kept cutting out (not good as he is deaf anyway!), Harley couldn't be heard by any of the band, Andy struggled to hear either of us and Jock, well he was his typical merry just go-along-with-it happy self with his toes hanging out of a pair of flipflops! A lot of the songs, we struggled as we couldn't hear each other properly and the timing was out for a few, not to mention a few words forgotton, but hey-ho, we got through it and we don't think there was one song that didn't get a positive reaction from the audience. For us this was good as unusually there was only a handful of our own mob there. This meant that the majority of clapping and cheering that we did hear, came from the regulars of the pub. They must have liked us!
Once again, we closed off and got asked to do two more. We finished playing at around 1145 and the Landlord approached us and said "Look lads, take this as a compliment, we never let bands play this late usually. Please do us one more". This is always a good sign and of course, we obliged. We came off stage at around 1155 and retired outside to cool off. We cooked again under those lights of Andy's but it was well worth it. The Landlord came out to thanks us and said we were very good, offering us three more dates before Christmas. Friday nights aswell, which i am led to believe is busier than Saturdays. Thanks to everyone who showed up to show your support and another special mention to Donk, who after arriving late due to falling asleep (no surprises there) helped us yet again to break down the gear, carry and load it into the van. Diamond geezer!
Despite it being our first gig where the majority of the audience were strangers, and some technical difficulties, we enjoyed ourselves performing and hope that the rest of the pub enjoyed listening. We will definately be looking forward to playing in the Woodman again. Thanks for the opportunity!

Loomies Cafe - 12th April 2009

We couldn't make up our minds whether the crowd weren't keen, or whether it was because it was a small crowd spread out in a large area that sort of made it difficult, but feedback at the end of the night confirms that most enjoyed us.......
This was our first outside gig and unlike last week, we were not cooking under Andy's lights. Harley and Jock struggled to strum and Beanz voice took a downward turn towards the end of some of the songs....It was cold to say the least. Andy, we assume was the only one who managed to keep warm, but then he does have a habit of jumping around on his drum kit like a madman........true kneeslider stylee! Give him a shiny helmet and some drumsticks and he's off like a ??????
Simon and Dan did a fantastic job setting us up and the set-up looked proper professional. Well done guys, you did us proud! At one point, we thought the tiny village of West Meon was wiped out by the amperage Simon was draining from the grid to power all those lights and speakers! Turns out it was Leon's genny playing silly buggers!
Another "cheers mate" goes out to our old friend Donk - Utilising your muscle in getting the gear transported from the van to set was a godsend!
We were looking forward to this gig and it was venturing into the unknown. Being only our third public gig since we started and still learning. This was also an opportunity for Mr and Mrs Loomies to measure the reactions and see if a full licence to host live music on a regular basis was feasable. Speaking to them at the end of the night it was apparant that they loved it, as did their customers and they will be making enquiries to obtain the necessaries to get it going. They have asked us back too which can't be bad!
It was great to see Kerry, Dil, Crazy L and Jax doing their bit up the front yet again true groupies style! We knew we could count on you guys to show 'em how it's done and another special mention to our littlest fan P.J. You rock little fella and you can come up and shake hands and ask for "again, again" as many times as you like. That's how we roll baby!
We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who turned up to show their support and especially Leon & Jane once again for giving us the chance to play, and for all their efforts behind the scenes to make it happen.
In short, we set out to establish whether or not live music would be appreciated by the regulars at the cafe, and for Leon & Jane to establish whether or not it was a worthwhile project to venture into. It came good on both counts so the evening was a success in our book, regardless of how we played!
Roll on the summer - there is fun to be had doing this lark!

Brewers Arms - 4th April 2009

Wow - what a night! A bit of a nerveracking, shaky start but all turned out great in the end. What an awesome night. We were cooking under those lights of Andy's and to be called back for no less than six encores was a fantastic experience. It was hard as we had run out of material. Instead we re-ran some of the set as requested by the nutters in front of us boogying the night away!
This was our first "general public" gig and although we took a fair few of bods with us, everyone seemed to enjoy it immensly.
We'd like to thank all of our friends and "groupies" who attended and showed their support, Tanya at the Brewers for giving us the opportunuy to play, Dan for helping us out with the sound and everyone else who made it an evening for us to remember. Needless to say, we will be back and have agreed between us that the set needs a bit of jiggin' and definately a lot more material to add in so watch this space.
Hope to see you all soon...........:)