I've just had a long weekend, a really good weekend but long. Mr. So & So had a gig with Also Eden on Friday at The Peel in London. It was a good gig and we all enjoyed it, sold some CD's and caught up with some friends too and the audience enjoyed themselves.
I had booked Friday off work for the gig, given the travelling. It started at 8am as I wanted to see my wife before she went to work and also I needed to change the strings on my Strat, I was teaching the night before so left it till the morning. Charlotte was picking Shaun up at 10:30 to meet at my house and we would then get in my car and meet Stu at motorway services, Andy lives down south so he made his own way there. I had to use my smaller rig as I was carrying Shaun's bass rig too as well as the merch (CD's and T-Shirts). They arrived at mine just before 11, we loaded up and made our way down the M6. We had a coffee break when we met Stu at the services and Shaun transferred to Stu's car so each driver had company. We arrived in London at around 3 o'clock and then had the usual wrestle with the traffic in the busiest city in the country. The clutch on my car slipped and for about ten minutes it looked like I would be clutchless for the rest of the journey, thankfully it re-tightened shortly after. We arrived at the venue at 4 and waited for the sound guy to turn up so we could unload the gear, half of Also Eden had arrived at roughly the same time. The sound guy duly arrived at 5 and we began to fill the venue with cases and bags. The gig was a double header, meaning that technically there's no support band, kind of like a double A-side for those old enough to remember them. We elected to go on first as I was in work the following day, though Shaun and Stu we're gear sharing with Also Eden so they would travel back home after the gig. As is the norm with gigs like this the last band sound check first and Also Eden were up playing at about 6:30 and we sound checked at 7:30 till just before 8.
A very quick change of clothes for us and we were on stage at 8:15, the sound was quite good on stage though I couldn't hear any bass or keyboards. The important thing for any band is that you can hear the drummer and the singer and I could hear both so all good there. We played for an hour, oddly our set was about 10 minutes too long and had to drop 'The Visitor', instead we closed with 'You're Coming Home'.
Next up was the part that is always difficult, getting gear off stage - and quickly, there was a 15 minute change over. Charlotte made her way to the merch desk, she's better at selling CD's than the rest of us, leaving us to remove our gear from the stage. At round about 9:30 I was loaded up and had chance for a quick drink of Coke and a catch up with friends before Charlotte and I started our journey back home.
M3, M25, M40 and then a very welcome coffee at 11:30, I was knackered then and knew that I had another couple of hours at least in front of me, though Chazzer could drive if I got too tired. The Motorway was closed at Walsall so we had an hours detour through the midlands before re-joining the motorway. We arrived back at my house at 3am, Charlotte collected her things while I unpacked my gear back into the house, a quick hot chocolate and then I was in bed at 4 and I was back in work at Toneworld at 10 later that morning.
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