Tales of the unexpected! New pub with a new landlady in a new town with new people and a bass player that we met 10 minutes before going on stage! Shandy, the landlady of the Wheelwrights was given one of our cards and was the first person to use our online booking service. We would like to think that we were booked through reputation, which of course put us under pressure having lost Jock (our bass player) the day before. Like all bands, we wanted to make a good impression for our first appearance in this pub, in an attempt to secure more bookings in the future. Andy was in good spirits and full of confidence whereas Beanz and Harley were a little worried. We didn't doubt the Chaz (the fill-in bass player) could play the bass and play it well, however we were concerned over the fact that we are a covers band and many of the songs we do are not identical to the origional. Some have been extended, some shortened and some key changes to enable Beanz to sing them, and we didn't have enough time to brief Chaz before the show started. Origionally, we were contemplating with deep regret cancelling this gig, but after numerous phonecalls to various contacts that Andy knows in the business, he managed to find somebody who, by his own words, "loves to be chucked in at the deep end!"
We arrived at the pub around 700 and proceeded to set up. Dan and Donk were on hand to help as usual. We thought it only fair to pre-warn the landlady of our emergency change of line-up and simply explained that rather than let her down totally by cancelling, that we would endeavour to give her pub a good night and that it was unknown territory for us aswell as her.
By 830 we were set up and ready to go minus one bass player, but sure to his word, a mature man arrived, amp in hand and guitar on back with his "plug and play" attitude. He introduced himself to each of us and then worked with Dan to get his sound set up. We were due to go on at 845 so the remainder of the time was utilized by going through the set list with Harley explaining various differences and key changes to the songs. We mutually agreed that a couple of them that he had not managed to "you tube" and learn before he came should be dropped from the set, but fair play to the man - we did leave some in that he wasn't sure about and he did an awesome job improvising. The songs he did know were truly played really well and after the first two songs into the first set, both Beanz and Harley were put at ease by Chaz's talent. This was also the first pub gig that Beanz successfully completed without a music stand. He sung them all from memory which reflects the old saying that we are at our best when we are at our worst. Had we done the whole set, this may have been a different story. It's just coincidence that the songs Chaz didn't know, were the ones that Beanz needed words for. Feedback from the audience and our usual "groupie" crowd suggested that it was great and you'd never know that we hadn't played together before. The other factor that put us at ease was the fact that Chaz was very interactive with the audience and quite often we were bantering amongst ourselves and the crowd with some interesting and funny quotations which was welcomed as light hearted entertainment. At one point, Harley was giving a "live" guitar lesson on stage, and after having a laugh, quickly trying to put a song together, we all suddenly remembered that there was an audience in front of us waiting for some music. They took it well, understanding the issue and joined in with the banter.
The pub itself wasn't overly busy but not empty by a long shot. We found out later that on this particular night, every pub in Havant had some sort of entertainment on, and had they not, our pub probably would have had double the amount of people in it. Not blowing our own trumpet but it is so nice to overhear comments from strangers that "the band playing down the road were nothing on these guys!" - it makes all the effort worthwhile. Our music is not everybody's cup of tea but we certainly have had more positives than negatives about our performances and we still maintain that our set is broad enough for us to have at least one song for everyone.
We did get called back for an encore and of course obliged. Feedback from our last gig suggested that maybe "Baggy Trousers" by Madness was not the right song choice and we reverted back to Steppenwolf's "Born To Be Wild" as requested by a couple of our groupies. Even after this one had finished, they asked for another and we would have finished on our usual "Vertigo" by U2 had we not run out of time. We had to be totally finished by 11pm due to the music licence and respect for the neighbouring old people home. Despite dropping a few of the songs out, we still filled our slot by longer intervals between songs, used to brief Chaz about what was coming next.
Dan, as usual did a good job making us sound good. The Wheelwright Arms has a reputation for being awkward accoustically and by all the instruments being MIC'd up and running through the mixing desk, Dan got our noise travelling all around the pub successfully. Keychelle did her bit and managed to sell some more "Kneeslider" keyrings, raising a further £18.00 for the Rowans Hospice. Another special thank you has to go to our No. 1 Groupie Wayne, and his partner in crime Gayvid who kept our spirits up with their comedy act! Keeping us smiling and laughing throughout the night with their stories, Michael Jackson impressions and interaction kept us at ease. Wayne was also a rock to Beanz, who was extremely apprehensive about gigging since the loss of Jock and drummed positiveness into him. He said simply in a cheezy manner "the show must go on. It will either be your best gig or your worst." As it happens it was neither but successful in so many different ways and the Landlady made it perfectly clear that we will be returning, as long as Beanz changed his t-shirt!!!!!
We'd like to take this opportunity to thank Shandy for giving us the opportunity to perform at her pub and donating extra for the Rowans, Wayne and the posse for supporting us yet again, the people of the Wheelwrights for making us feel welcome, but most of all, Chaz. The bass player that stepped in at the last minute and did a fantastic job. Without you, the gig wouldn't have happened and we all look forward to maybe working with you again in the future.
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