This gig was set up by my good friend Kev Rook who had spent a lot of effort in getting the gig properly promoted, by distributing flyers, putting up posters and arranging interviews. He did a fantastic job even to the point of printing out and sending me detailed direction to the gig. If only all promoters were as diligent ;-)
WE were told beforehand that the gig was small but it was still a bit of a shock when we arrived, piled out of the van and walked into a room that would have trouble holding little more than 100 people. We were warmly welcomed by the venue crew and by the guys from Miss Black America, who were to the main support for the night.
Before long Dave (abdou new guitarist) had a beer and we were on stage sound checking. I had to gently scold our roadie Chris Bell, as the guitars were horrendously out of tune (apparently the batteries were flat on the tuner ;-)). Anyway, after we got the guitars sounding reasonable, we whipped through a few songs and handed the stage over to Miss Black America. We stopped and listened to a few of their song but then had to leave as we had heard that there was to be a huge Firework Display in town. We arrived just in time to see the fireworks and even the teeming rain didn't dampen the pyrotechnic splendour.
We returned to what was a rapidly filling venue just in time to see the first band on ?????? who did a grand job of warming up the crowd.
Next on were Miss Black America, who were really great. My favourite was their theme song Miss Black America. If you see the name around and they are playing near you, I suggest that you get down there and see them.
After several too many beers the drunken but still coherent Abdoujaparov ambled onto the tiny stage and played a shambolic and energetic set. Yeah, we weren't exactly note perfect but we kicked serious arse in my opinion.
Favourite songs for tonight were Birthday, Shut Up & Baby Food.
I could go on about how great a gig it was, but you had to be there really. A big thank you goes out to everyone that was there, packed out the venue (apparently a venue record) and cheers, danced and drank.
After the gig we hung around for a bit chatting to peeps and then we headed for Kev's place where we had a bit of an aftershow party and I ended up fast asleep in a drunken haze on Kev's sofa whilst the rest of the band wrecked Kev and Elpie's house (in a very polite way, of course).
We had to finish partying eventually as we still had to drive back to London. Der the only sober member of the entourage drove us in the van and towards London. The trip home was fairly uneventful apart from when we lost Dave at the service station and nearly left without him.
Thanks so much to Kev, Elpie, Steve and everyone that helped make it such a great night.
Roll on the next one I say!
Fruity xxx