Dave's Gig Guide
Album Launch gig 21st March 2001
This was a one-off gig to celebrate the launch of our 'oh-so-difficult' second album, The Fabulous Neutrinos.
We booked the upstairs area of "The Bridge Hotel", the same room we'd played the year before at R@id on the Road. We even hired the same PA guy, Chev, just to be sure everything was as safe and predictable as possible.
We promoted the event amongst a small number of friends, most of whom stayed over at our place that night, though I hasten to add that we were almost universally ignored by the rest of the UK scene. Who cares?
Dave Gurr and Ed Britten of CHAOS kicked off the evening, whilst Steve Summers provided an interesting intermission on thumb piano and Northumbrian Pipes. Both were excellent and helped to emphasise that this was not your average bland Indie band doing the rounds in a pub in Newcastle.
The performance drew near. Dave was looking pretty calm and relaxed but there was no sign of Jules. She was still fixing her make up in the loos.
We'd billed the gig as "Tangerine Dream meets Ultravox" and this really did seem to work. The doors opened and the crowds streamed in, not in their ones and twos but by the bloody dozen. We still had people queuing on the stairs to get in as we took to the stage.
We kicked off the performance with a guitar-heavy version of "The Fabulous Neutrinos", the focus set squarely on a big, rock-oriented sound. Dave taught me the chords to "The Fabulous Neutrinos" and "Gazing at The Edge of Forever" and I thoroughly enjoyed myself as a fully fledged guitar hero, if only for two or three numbers.
Realising that we were a much tighter band, more confident and better rehearsed than ever before, Chev, our sound guy, decided to push the volume up a little. Now, we have a reputation for playing loud and this gig was particularly loud, even by our standards. Comments were passed afterwards that we'd shaken up the bar downstairs and some people said they had to leave because we were just too damned loud. One to watch out for next time.
The rest of the gig went particularly well. I'd reworked Tranquillity Bass with better drums, better sequences and a smoother flow and it sounded particularly good, as did Lovesong, Wow and Memory Lingers Here. Apart from the chords in "Network of the Heart", which I screwed up royally, everything went well. The band were tight, focussed and professional. The crowd were just brilliant and the place was packed out. A few nerves, a few fluffed notes but the experience was seriously excellent in every possible way.
We were back. We were players again.
We had a minor party at the house that night although this was completely booze free because yours truly had assumed that the 24 hour ASDA down the road in Boldon would be able to sell us alcohol after 12 o'clock at night. They wouldn't. Bugger.
I felt that we finally had something to celebrate. We slept in the next morning and I came downstairs to find people dossing on every available surface, with bits of pizza stuck to their faces. I won't ever forget the expression on Carl Jenkinson's face when he was woken up by our dog, Dilys, licking his chin and trying to get up on the couch with him.
On a high, I drove down to Jodrell Bank the next day to see Rainbow Serpent perform in the planetarium and to sell some of our brand new discs. I arrived on the back of a major, positive gig experience and was seriously enthused by our terrific performance the night before. Imagine how I felt when I realised that 90% of the people in that Planetarium audience couldn't give a (excuse the profanity) flying fuck that we'd even released the second CD, never mind played the concert of our lives. I left vowing never to have anything to do with those people again and yet...