March Roundup

It seems that our equipment doesn’t enjoy sitting quietly when it could be making noise. Following our break in February, we went through a weekend of gear breaking down. It’s times like these that test your mettle.

On Thursday the 6th we were invited back to play for the Headteachers’ Association’s annual conference following a successful appearance last year. All went well for this evening and we even ended up with an impromptu band forming after we left the stage:

The Band

On Friday we returned to The Barley in Newport. We don’t play in Newport very often, so it was going to be interesting to see how we went down. The good news was that the pub was full, particularly the area where we were playing. The bad news is that this is where our equipment woes began…

We had quite a complicated PA setup for this one so that we could throw sound back into the corner alongside us and, amazingly, everything here worked fine. What didn’t work, however, was Ed’s monitor. Then Si’s monitor. We got Ed’s working and Si used a spare, but it knocks the confidence when something goes wrong. On the plus side, the sound going out the front to the audience isn’t affected, but it seriously affects our ability to hear ourselves when there’s a problem with the monitors.

Saturday and we were playing for the first time in Tipton’s Kings Arms. We set up, we started our soundcheck and got about 30 seconds in before the PA speakers failed. We changed the speakers, soundchecked again and set off on the gig. Halfway through it was the turn of Paul’s monitor to go down. He struggled on, but being at the back it’s even harder for him to here what’s going on than for Ed and Simon when a monitor fails. The gig went down well, however, and we’ve been asked to return on 10 May.

Tipton

We headed out to Shrewsbury on Sunday afternoon to The Telegraph again. It was 6 Nations time and Wales were playing England. Si was one of only about 3 Wales supporters in the pub so started the gig in a bad mood. Ed played on this by starting the set with Swing Low Sweet Chariot. Si stood with his arms folded as the pub joined in. Paul quietly ignored his Welsh heritage.

This time it was the turn of one of the PA speakers to play up, although we pretty much got through the set unscathed.

The following Thursday we headed out to Stone in Staffordshire to play at Langtrys ahead of St. Patrick’s Day. The mid-week crowd was appreciative and the set ended up with a game of Drummer Buckaroo. Si had to balance as many hats, trays and toys as possible on Paul’s head while the band played their final number.

One more week and we headed to Bayston Hill for a charity event. Local school teacher Hilary Doyle was diagnosed with Breast cancer last summer. She’s been battling since and the evening was set up in her name to raise money for local cancer charities. The evening was a sell out and Hilary was guest of honour, spending the evening dancing and generally having a good time. Our love goes out to Hilary and we hope she beats this cruel disease.

Bayston Hill

This Friday we’re playing at The Malthouse in Ironbridge.