Microphone

25-07-2022 – Hot, Sweaty And Microphones

Hello Earthlings!

Just a short report of the weekend’s gigging – we actually have next weekend off, so that’ll be a welcome relief for y’all…

Friday night, and we’re back at one of our favourite old haunts, the Railway Tavern in Fishponds. It’s been ages since we played here, and that’s why we found ourselves not quite up to speed with the current timing regime.

In the Before times, there was a fairly robust half-eleven finish time, and in fact, even if we started bang on nine o’clock (which we rarely did, as there are so many nice people to talk nonsense to), we’d sometimes struggle to fit in two full sets. So, come the witching hour of nine, we promptly crack on with things.

After about three songs, the landlord Sam comes up and asks worriedly “You haven’t started already, have you…?”

It transpires that these days they start the bands at 9:30, usually with a view to finishing as close to midnight as possible, thereby preventing an exodus to the nearby Wetherspoons, which stays open later. So, Sam is very concerned that we don’t finish too soon and let the punters escape.

Ah, okay. So, we have to see what other tunes we can remember to try and drag things out a bit. Much to everyone’s surprise, (especially Ben’s), there are another few tunes to which he can remember the words to. He wins Player Of The Month. Not to be outdone, I do my bit to extend the set by clumsily breaking a string, and having to faff around digging out a spare guitar… I do not win Player Of The Month.

Still, a mighty fine night it turns into, much jumping around from a cheery sweaty crowd, and, best of all, folks are queuing up to buy us beer.

In the end, we’re still playing past midnight, happy in the knowledge that we’re depriving the obnoxious Tim Martin of some trade. Every little helps!

The following night, we fetch up at the Albert Lounge in Bedminster, and after a bit of careful planning, manage to cram ourselves onto the stage. The first set is marred by technical problems; due to the room shape the sound onstage is very odd, and after a while, our nice expensive wireless mic keeps cutting out.

Between sets, there is much fiddling with the PA and we manage to get a spare mic at least roughly balanced; then, three songs in, I break another string.

This is why we cart around so much spare kit with us….

Nonetheless, the folks in the pub seem very pleased with us, and once the bar has called time there’s just room for a couple of encores before we pack up, and head home to start leafing through expensive microphone catalogues….

Oh well. With a bit of luck, we’ll have everything sorted out before the next gig, in a couple of weeks’ time. We’ll keep you posted….

Square on
A

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *