ComEnts

So.. after the hedonistic explosion that was the After Dark gig, White Sunday went and topped it all by supporting Hundred Reasons ("Sundried Raisens" as my mate put it) on t' big stage at Reading university. As Gene Simmons once spat - in blood - it was a crazy, crazy night. In brief, everyone worked hard to make sure it was an amazing experience - the sound guys were brilliant, Cat and everyone at the uni were great (a fridge full of beer and a couple of trays of sandwiches - it's like they've known me forever!), Hundred Reasons not only kicked arse live but were quality blokes to chat to/hang out with b/stage. They didn’t have to, they were tired and wanted to go home but they still took time to chat *makes mental note to self*.

I thought we would play to a half-full venue, as the students would probably feed into the hall in drips and drabs until the main act, but not a jot of it: I walked on and headed straight for my guitar, strapped that bad boy on and turned to face the crowd to see about 1000 people all going crazy, shouting, cheering, clapping. If I hadn't been so intensely focused on counting out to the end of the drum loop intro that heralded our big entrance, I would probably have shat my pants. As it was, instinct took over and we nailed the set, getting much love from the crowd from start to finish. It was amazing, what a rush! 40 mins flew past in the blink of an eye, I WANNA DO IT AGAIN!!!! To hear parts of the crowd scream when Jim announced "Chaperone" was a strange moment - fookin' cool - bit surreal, like we were in a music video for *insert famous band here* where everyone knows the songs! Hopefully we're not a million miles away from that, but it never occurred to me that we may already be edging ourselves in that direction! Keeeeeerazy.

Playing there made me want to have a big guitar solo in every song - that Jimmy G knows what he's doing when he tells me how he thinks the guitar parts should go to suit the song, but now I'll begrudge it every time he tells me to get back in my box.. I think I had 2 - maybe 3 - "proper" solo's in the set we played and it was climactic each time (for me, anyways!). We're not a guitar solo band, we don’t write guitar solo music: it's just that one keeps slipping in there every now and again and I gotta rip the arse out of it when it does!

I blazed away on the solo to "You got soul", too - swept up in the atmosphere and the moment I just zen'd my way through it; it was the closest I've come to euphoria on stage. I used to think lots of different thoughts about how I wanted to feel when playing the guitar; now I just want to feel like that all the time, every time. Impossible to describe, really; kind of an out of body experience, only louder. I expect the fridge full of beer helped! And the weirdest thing? The very strangest, most inexplicable, most melon-twisting part of it all was that I normally sweat like a rapist on stage - like, even if it's just a pub gig in front of one man and his dog I like to get into it and feel the music seeping out of every pore - but here, on a big stage in front of a big crowd, and despite jumping around and grooving away as per standard operating procedure, I remained as cool as a cucumber. Well, OK, I had a bit of a bead on by the end of it, but I didn’t even need to change my shirt. Probably just shock, but I like to think that I just felt perfectly at home on a big stage. My family's always said to me "You should be on a big stage.. sweeping the fucker."

Backstage was as crazy as a turd-flavoured lollipop, too. It started out all nice and quiet (backstage at Reading uni is a non-smoking area: a) rock b) roll. It's also like a police waiting room for décor, tables and chairs, etc.), just us and our close personal entourage (security, religious guru's, yoga instructors, personal dieticians, film agents, etc.) but within 20 mins of Hundred Reasons finishing their set our room was packed and a hive of activity (some nefarious, some ridiculously banal) to the point where we even had girls knocking on the window, shoving bits of paper through for us to autograph. I shit ye not. We'll probably have to wait for a good while yet before we can play another show as big as this one, but I look forward to it, and I'll wait as long as it takes!

Hundred Reasons - some of their songs actually provided the soundtrack to my life at one point or another. "Silver" has particularly strong emotive connotations for me, so to get to warm up the crowd for them was brilliant. Top band, top blokes, will be getting my filthy paws on their new album once it's out. "Ideas Above our Station" has been getting a few plays recently as well, unsurprisingly.
So the last few days has been a bit of an anti-climax, coming back to earth. Just waiting for the new CD to get finished really.. Ho hum.. I expect I have washing to do, bills to pay; if you'll allow me to badly hack up Rudyard Kipling:

"If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch"

Actually, a nice coming-back-to-earth experience was provided on the Hundred Reasons website message board, where some of their fans were keen to communicate their feelings about White Sunday! I'd like to thank those people, because I would have hated to try and go through my day on Monday thinking that everyone loved us! My day job doesn’t support that sort of attitude, so you probably saved me from having to sell drugs to pay for guitar strings and rehearsals. Genuine thanks to you all.