W-e-e-e-e-e-e-l-l-llll. Typically at this stage of gig post mortems I open with a confident assertion of mercurial brilliance on our part. Can’t do that this time. This gig was a salutory reminder that no matter how well-drilled you are as a band, and no matter how well you know your material, when you’re playing live it’s still a tightrope and you can still have an inexplicably bad gig.
This didn’t fall into the ‘bad gig’ category, but it certainly fell into the adjacent but still dispiriting ‘well that was fucking mediocre’ category.
The venue itself is pretty cool. It’s a well sized and proportioned room with a little raised area that acts a riser for the amps and such (sometimes you can blame the venue when you play badly, just to soothe the ego). Most crucially, there was a free curry during the mid session interval and the landlord stood us a pint 
Perhaps the problem was the sheer heat. Whether it was the hot day we’d had or whether the heating was on is hard to say, but under the lights it was blistering. As I merrily pitched my voice towards the high notes I could hear it get thinner and start to crack. We play for knocking on 2 hours at gigs like this so when your voice starts to crack in the first 20 minutes you know you’ve got issues. The less said about our individual performances the better, but another lesson you learn when you’re in a band is that much of the time the audience doesn’t hear the mistakes. On that basis we were received pretty warmly and are coming back in July to make amends for what for us was a slightly iffy show.
On the plus side, we knocked Hey Bulldog out of the park. It’s one of those less well known Beatles tunes (tucked away on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack) that actually pisses over some of their better known material. If you’re not familiar with it, check out the vid and revel in its splendour – as well as rare footage of the Beatles actually at work in the studio.
As ever if you came along: thanks very much and hope to see you again soon.
Setlist (Covers)
- Hey Bulldog – The Beatles
- Steady as she Goes – The Raconteurs
- Queen Bitch – David Bowie
- Suedehead – Morrissey
- Be-Bop-A-Lula – Gene Vincent
- Shakin’ All Over – Johnny Kidd and the Pirates
- All or Nothing – Small Faces
- Waterfall – The Stone Roses
- Green Onions – Booker T. and the MGs
- Substitute – The Who
- Can’t Explain – The Who
- Tin Soldier – Small Faces
- Honky Tonk Woman – The Rolling Stones
- Saw Her Standing There – The Beatles
- Seven Nation Army – The White Stripes
- All Your Love – John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers
- Come Together – The Beatles
Originals
- In The End
- Mississippi Fishcake Blues
- I Was Confused
- Until Tomorrow
- No Flies On Me
- (I Want You To) Be My Sunshine
- Everything I Want
- Sorrow for #1
- Still Don’t Understand