Bull & Gate, Kentish Town, London, 25/02/09. Sid's Tour Diary.

Bull & Gate, Kentish Town, London - 25th February 2009

I’m looking forward to this, the ‘Bull & Gate’ is one of my favourite small venues in London Town. It should be good this.

So, Mark and Kat arrive at mine, then we head off to our Sainsbury’s rendezvous to meet Ben. We circle the car-park just as Ben arrives. He must be feeling generous too, he gives a stranger £6 to clean his car, but then tells us he’s left his wallet and phone at home. No beers on Ben tonight then. Maybe it won’t be so good this.

We head off and Kat asks me to ‘look after’ the cookies in the front. These had been left in Mark’s car from the recording session on Sunday but it really isn’t long into the journey before Ben and Kat ask for the cookies and start to munch away happily. Then they start to discuss how when they were kids they weren’t allowed to eat more than 3 (Kat) or 4 (Ben) cookies at a time. “Just what is this all about ?” I ask myself. Mark and I sit in the front like gay parents disapproving of our kids behaviour. Kat and Ben then duly inform me that I’m not allowed to mention any of this in the blog of tonights gig, as if their parents might find out or something. There’s good banter going on this afternoon. It’s going to be good this.

We take my tried and tested M3, A316 route to Kentish Town (Sat-Nav, Schmat-Nav !) and arrive early for the second London gig running. We park easily too. Right next to the 2500 capacity ‘Forum’ venue. “Wow, some nice gigs you get us Sid” says Ben. “Errr, no, ours is in the little pub next door” say I. We unload and shuffle round the back of the ‘Bull & Gate’ with all our stuff. Upon entering we see a smatter of other band members dotted around but nothing actually happening. No probs, we are early. Kat introduces herself to the sound engineer who asks “Are you all here ?”, Kat replies “Yes, we are”. “Great” says the soundman, “you can soundcheck now then”. Smiling heroically Kat turns to Ben, Mark and myself and is just about to say “hey guys, we can soundcheck now” when the penny drops that Neil’s not actually here ! Kat sheepishly apologises to the soundman and we decide to slope off for a game of pool while we wait for more people to arrive. That was a good start that.

The pool table is rough. I like it. I play better than normal. Mark does too. We beat (nay, thrash !) the doubles partnership of BenKat 5-2. 5-2 I say. We only let them win the last 2 out of sympathy, oh, and the fact that I was mentally elsewhere after Kat tells me she is going to try and distract me by showing me her boobs. It was just talk, but it put me off my stroke a bit. It’s on my mind now. It’s going to be good this.

Neil arrives, confuses Ben with his unloading technique (don’t laugh !) and then we soundcheck. It’s quite loud. The mix isn’t great on stage and we have to try our new structure of ‘Treasure It Because You Care, Natasha’ twice, just to get it right. By the end of the soundcheck it sounds good though. Should be good tonight this.

First band ‘Skinny’ (just where are the other 2 bands ?) follow us to soundcheck and again we retire to the bar. Which is through the toilet. This confuses Mark the first time, he thinks I’m just going to the toilet and doesn’t follow me. Kat, on the other hand, is braver, hoping to catch a glimpse of an old-man I guess. There’s no genitalia on show here though. Poor show that.

Eventually ‘Skinny’ take to the stage and we amble through to watch. They’re loud (we think the guitar might have been a little ‘too’ loud). They sound okay though. Apparently it’s their first gig. They’ve brought a crowd with them. Their bassist even buys Neil a pint for letting him use his amp. We like these guys. Y’see, when lending out equipment I cheekily always say to other bands “It’s fine, just look after it and buy us a pint”. No one ever has though. Until now. So, thank you ‘Skinny’, we salute you. Congrats on your first gig too. Good gig that.

Next up is us. We set up quickly so as to try and catch all of ‘Skinny’s fans before they head off to the bar. It works. Most of them stay for the duration of our set. We play well. Very well I think. Newbie ‘Too Much, Too Drunk’ goes well again and looks like it could become a firm live favourite. Overall it feels like we really are a tight unit now. We maybe need a few tweaks here and there, performance wise, but thanks to Marks’ business nous we’ve managed to get a dvd of our set tonight, for a knockdown price. Nice. This should make for interesting viewing, we can now all sit and watch ourselves to see what we look like and where we can improve our performances. Should be good that.

So, some other band play next but the less said about them the better. They don’t turn up for their soundcheck, they don’t bother to watch any of the other bands and they stand in our way when we’re trying to get off stage as if they own the place. They don’t even say hello. They’re not really worthy of our attention, especially seeing as they sound like ‘Curiosity Killed The Cat’. Dated and soul-less. I say to Ben that if they carry on playing gigs like this then the singer will soon start auditioning for X-Factor, he’ll think he’s above gigs like this. Anyway, I’m giving them too much space here as it is. No, wait a minute I haven’t even named and shamed them. ‘Domino Theory’. That’s them. I hope they read this. That’ll be good that.

So, after a brief flurry of interest, from ‘Skinny’ members and their fans alike, for our free cd, we look around to see that nearly everyone has gone. But there is still one band left to play. We think. This’ll be a laugh this.

There’s a couple of guys that have been hanging around all night, looking very lost. They see that we are here for the whole evening (we don’t play and go straight home, hello again ‘Domino Theory’) and duly try and explain to us what’s going on. Their drummer is stuck in Old Street. That’s right, stuck a few miles away. Errr, hello, we’ve come from Hampshire and Berkshire ! Anyway, they think he might make it in time so decide to set up and start without him. The audience now consists of a very stern looking soundman, all of ‘Brassneck’ and our friends Frank and Steve (although the latter quickly thinks better of staying and slopes off, we can’t blame him, we would too but it is our duty being on the same bill as this band to sit and watch). The band are called ‘End’. They start. Without their drummer (who mysteriously never does show up). We can’t wait for the end. One guitarist sits down on a drum stool and faces away from the audience, the other guitarist starts to sing (I use the term loosely) and the bassist sits on the front of the stage as if he really doesn’t want to be there. How long is this going to go on for ? It’s painful. No rhythm, no melody, just droning. No point, no spark, just droning. No style, no bassist, just droning. Hang on, what’s that ? The bassist has had enough mid-set and is packing up ? I’ve never seen this before. I’m not seeing things though, he’s had it, zips his bass in to it’s case and walks off. He laughs as he walks past us and mumbles at Mark “They’re just 2 dumb Italian cunts, I only met them on Sunday, we’ve only had one jam and they’re shit”. Then, he’s gone. The other 2 guys are still playing on stage, almost oblivious. This has got to stop. I jump on stage and start to pack away Neil’s bass amp, I just can’t take it anymore. Their ‘set’ duly flops to an end. I thought they were going to be good them.

So, we depart without saying a word to them. Just not worth it. We say our goodbyes, only to Frank though, there’s no-one else left to say goodbye to. Ben starts to complain that it’s not his turn for the blog tonight. I knew it was going to be good this.

We’re just about to set off from our parking space very close to a very busy main road. “Look, there’s a fox” I say. “Yeah” says Mark, “And it’s only got 1 leg”. “I think you mean it’s missing a leg Mark”. We carry on, regardless. “Sat-Nav, Schmat-Nav” I say, again. We get lost. We miss a turning. Everything looks different when you’re driving the other way. A small detour and we’re soon back on the right road though. Relaxed, happy, full of the joys of an eventful evening and looking forward to a pleasant drive home. This’ll be a laugh this. Kat and I have been drinking, the talk turns to sex. I try and rattle Ben by saying I can’t believe he’s never tried it gay-wise. “I just wouldn’t want to kiss a man” he says “But I’ll happily suck one off”.
I knew it, I just knew it was going to be a good night this.

Sid.