Secrets For September - Crumlin 28th May 2011
So Wales it was,
We got asked to do a gig in Wales, well it was more the promoter put out a Facebook we need a band type post. The gig was billed as things, A Festival Camping, Vice Squad headlining and Family Friendly all for charity.
So in my mind was a field, a Marquee, Camp site, side shows and someone going round with a collection bucket.
What it was when we arrived was pub in the middle of a housing estate full of Hells Angles, all very polite and friendly but not exactly the mini Beautiful Days that I was expecting and no sign of a camp sight anywhere, there was a food wagon with nothing Vegetarian on it at all, Drink prices though, happy days a round for under a fiver!
Anyhow, this gig was initially going to be an acoustic show, at the time the gig was booked the band consisted of just Me, Naill and Mike. If you have not been aware, Secrets For September had a bit of a re think, the band is actually Me on Guitar, Dave on Bass, Mike on Drums and Marina is the singer. We only do 1 song from the last year + of the bands official existence everything else is new.
We were always down to being the first band on, this has a big advantage that we can sound check properly this was also our first show as an electric set.
The PA was well below what we had been promised, more or less a vocal pa with some sub standard monitor and no reverb. Still we managed to get something resembling a sound. It’s a totally different dynamic to rehearsing, and using the excellent facilities at Sound Gallery meant that we have made a lot of progress as a band in the last 6 -8 weeks.
So by the time of the set I was quietly confident that it would go ok. We did just over a half hour set, nothing technically went wrong, Mikes happy playing to the click now because we have keyboards on a backing track, everything else is totally live. There is some great interplay with Dave and Mike, they really hit it as a rhythm section. I was starting to feel a lot more comfortable playing this material, I mean it’s a real change from playing the best of ALF for the last god knows how many years. Marinas confidence is getting there too, she was nailing bits that that were a bit iffy at the last acoustic gig, so all in all the band is progressing well. The high point for me was the funk song we do called ‘Wandering Minds’ that was the best song we did for me. I think once were in a better venue with a decent pa then its just going to get better and better for us. And my now all analogue pedalboard was great and the Acoustic pick up on the Les Paul also worked well.
Here is a video of the gig with the sound from another of our new songs.
After the gig we all headed off our separate ways, Myself and Lee-Anne ended up eating Soup and Panini's at the Picturehouse was a good day.
So Wales it was,
We got asked to do a gig in Wales, well it was more the promoter put out a Facebook we need a band type post. The gig was billed as things, A Festival Camping, Vice Squad headlining and Family Friendly all for charity.
So in my mind was a field, a Marquee, Camp site, side shows and someone going round with a collection bucket.
What it was when we arrived was pub in the middle of a housing estate full of Hells Angles, all very polite and friendly but not exactly the mini Beautiful Days that I was expecting and no sign of a camp sight anywhere, there was a food wagon with nothing Vegetarian on it at all, Drink prices though, happy days a round for under a fiver!
Anyhow, this gig was initially going to be an acoustic show, at the time the gig was booked the band consisted of just Me, Naill and Mike. If you have not been aware, Secrets For September had a bit of a re think, the band is actually Me on Guitar, Dave on Bass, Mike on Drums and Marina is the singer. We only do 1 song from the last year + of the bands official existence everything else is new.
We were always down to being the first band on, this has a big advantage that we can sound check properly this was also our first show as an electric set.
The PA was well below what we had been promised, more or less a vocal pa with some sub standard monitor and no reverb. Still we managed to get something resembling a sound. It’s a totally different dynamic to rehearsing, and using the excellent facilities at Sound Gallery meant that we have made a lot of progress as a band in the last 6 -8 weeks.
So by the time of the set I was quietly confident that it would go ok. We did just over a half hour set, nothing technically went wrong, Mikes happy playing to the click now because we have keyboards on a backing track, everything else is totally live. There is some great interplay with Dave and Mike, they really hit it as a rhythm section. I was starting to feel a lot more comfortable playing this material, I mean it’s a real change from playing the best of ALF for the last god knows how many years. Marinas confidence is getting there too, she was nailing bits that that were a bit iffy at the last acoustic gig, so all in all the band is progressing well. The high point for me was the funk song we do called ‘Wandering Minds’ that was the best song we did for me. I think once were in a better venue with a decent pa then its just going to get better and better for us. And my now all analogue pedalboard was great and the Acoustic pick up on the Les Paul also worked well.
Here is a video of the gig with the sound from another of our new songs.
After the gig we all headed off our separate ways, Myself and Lee-Anne ended up eating Soup and Panini's at the Picturehouse was a good day.
Comments
cheers
Tory Boy