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!
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!
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