Gigging Again! Mon, 9th Jan 2012

I was supposed to return to the office last Wednesday (the fourth), but because I was “out of it” for a few days with the ‘flu, I decided to make today my return-to-work-day. Starting back on a Monday makes more sense, I reasoned, and it gives me a few extra days for fun and relaxation… or so I thought.

We got an emergency telephone call from Charlie — the band had basically (and rather suddenly) split up.  A guitar and bass was needed for the weekend — could we help?

Well, it’s not really our thing anymore, but we agreed to help out on the basis that it must be a really desperate situation to ask us!

This turned into a booking for four gigs — one-a-week — starting rightaway!  We got about an hour-and-a-half’s worth of practice and about an hour as a soundcheck before actually playing live!  This is madness, and I hadn’t even started back at work!

To help Charlie, we have put on hold the work we’ve started on the house.  Hey, we can do it in February!

It was funny to be playing together again. It must be seven years since we last did that.  Mummy Ruth played my Tanglewood bass rather than her fretless Yamaha.  I played my Fender Stratocaster through my usual set-up.  Charlie played the customised Martin, Brian played his electronic drum kit.

We did pretty good — especially considering that we did not know the material, we had little rehearsal time, the set up was all DI, the mix in the monitors was weird, our stuff was covered in dust, we haven’t been playing (our fingers and muscles are sore today), and we haven’t played live for donkey’s years. It was a laugh anyway.

One down and three to go!

After a single day of work, I feel as though the festive break never happened!  There is so much to do, it’s staggering. O well!