Dave's Gig Guide
Skin Mechanix, Brudenell Social Club Leeds, October 28th 2006.
A year later and another gig in the same venue. It felt like history was repeating itself over and over. I'd christened the project "Rapture", in keeping with the semi-religious Fallen Angel theme but a better name might have been "Groundhog Day".
I had the headline spot again and so I decided to try something different this time. The organisers had requested fewer beats and less screaming solos and so I settled on a largely improvised set made up of pre-recorded backing with me attempting to construct something over the top using various keyboards and sequencers. Some of it worked, some of it didn't. It was hard to tell because the audience was desperately small at just 12 or so and the applause wasn't very loud.
Norman Fay joined me on guitar for the first number, America, though his guitar was so far down in the mix I suspect that there was a fault on the desk. The set was mostly SkinMechanix tracks though I recycled a couple of T-Bass tracks, Mariner and Four Wheel Jive, and the response to those seemed positive. I loved the new versions of these tracks especially Mariner but the audience? Hard to tell.
Norman and Jules joined me on stage for the final number, the modern version of Tranquility Bass, which went down fairly well. I enjoyed this track more than any of the others, partly because it was nice to have a band around me again and, in particular, to have Jules rattling away beside me but also because it felt like closure of sorts. The end of an era.
Driving home, I decided to quit the UK EM scene altogether. I'd had enough. I know when I'm beat.