ComEnts

Recently on Berkshire Live I suggested that if people were fed up with not being given gigs, they should just put their own on, and that's exactly what we did last night. It was a very incestuous affair really. Joey Ultra invited Monkey Bob (our guitarist Paul's other band) and The Limes (my brother Pete's Uni band) to play with us at the BBBs (where my other brother kinda sorts out bookings for wednesday nights).

The BBBs has some great points and bad points. Good points are; it's easy to sort out a gig but bear in mind they might be booked up a few months in advance, it's free, there's a PA you can use and you can just basically get on with it and sort your own thing out. The down sides are that you have to sort it all out yourself, including everything from getting someone to work the PA and someone/something to play music between the bands. We were lucky yesterday to have a couple of great people step in to help us with that stuff. Many thanks Luella and Joe! It's also quite a difficult room to do sound in, there's a low ceiling and loads of pillars so the sound bounces around all over.

Monkey Bob opened the evening and I wasn't sure what to expect. PaulC had told us stories of past Monkey Bob gigs that sounded like complete carnage but in the end it was much more about the music and less about the mentalness which was nice. It's still punk but Lawrence can actually sing and they did well, especially for their first gig for ages!

The Limes turned up with 2 bass players, 3 guitarists, a percussionist, keyboardist and a drummer. Approximately double the number of members they had last time I saw them. They were a lot less laid back and rambling with the full band, and I don't mean that being laid back and rambling was a bad thing, but it was all a lot tighter and more professional sounding. I really enjoyed it.

We were on last. I got all confused about sound levels and a bit paranoid, kept turning myself up and down. Enjoyed playing a lot more than the last couple of gigs, but I was still frustrated that we don't seem to be able to play as well as we do in rehearsals in a gig situation. When I say we, I mean me obviously I think everyone else did pretty well. My little brother said he was quite impressed which means a lot. Next gig I'm attending is the Jail Guitar Doors thing at the Fez this saturday which has been plugged to death but it's a great line-up and cause. Kicks off early, first band is 4pm.