Categories: uncategorized
Date: 05 July 2006 16:13:25
...
Well tuesday night gig passed by pretty succesfully all told. Even finished (whisper it) early. Yuppers, I know, I'm as shocked as anyone.
But that, my friend, is only half the story.
We should start at the start of the day though: Got to work late (horrible road accident which meant knock on effect on traffic in Guildford). Worked through break (too much work, lots of help to be given to one student in particular who's big time late with final assignment). Got home late from work to eat a Pot Noodle and then leaving straight away to arts centre. Worked through to gig start, put the printed material up about the centre itself and then watched the crowd come in. The gig, for those not in the know, is a teen band performance featuring six of the bands from the arts centre playing their socks off to a large audience. One incident of crowd surfing (stopped pdq) and one mosh pit (ditto, man I'm ace occasionally).
Bands, of course, were excellent. Couple of bits that they fluffed and I know they fluffed but hey, the positives far, far, FAR outweighed the negatives, slight as they were. One band, one person from a band in particular, thought they bodged yet, to me I thought that the majority of that set was pretty solid and the second song was ace. Go figure, although at the end of the day I am an artist, not a musician. I enjoyed the night and the groups though. Well done them in a big way.
One big bodge for me though, in the busyness of the moment one set of parents asked me when I thought their kid would be on. I said around 9 (conservative guess: we always overrun and that gave twenty minutes flexibility) but said come in earlier than that. As it was we ran to time, quicker than to time, that that particular band went on way early and, of course, the parents missed it by a minute. Shall try and track down a video and pass it on as a slight peace offering if I can get it but all four of us (kid, parents, me) were gutted.
Left the place having just missed one bus and with an hour to kill before the next one.
That's when things get convoluted. Bear with me.
Stopped off to buy a friend a drink. He'd done the door on the night, brought his skills as a bouncer and as a first aider, plus brought three walkie talkies to keep all stations in touch. Ace fella: Cookie you're a star. The least I could do, hence what I did, was to buy him a drink at the end of a hot and unwatered 5 hour stint.
Left the pub at 10.40. Plenty of time to get to the bus stop. I even bought a chicken kebab, have done the day on a couple of cups of coffee, a pink grapefruit and a pot noodle.
That's when the world went mad. I had no idea there was such a large contingent of Italians living in Woking. Nor would I have thought you could fit each and every one in the small lane that the busses stopped in, parallel to the train station. I was wrong on both counts. The place was heaving, more cars, each horn a honking, than you could shake a stick at and, having been in a room with six youth bands and quite a few amps, I decided to walk down the road to get the bus at a later stop. A couple of hundred (conservative estimate. I'm sure the number when counted would have been closer to 3 or maybe even 400) Italians waving flags and honking horns was a joy to see, but after a noisey ROCK NITE! No, ta.
Needless to say the bus never arrived.
Then, at 11.40, one hour in on the long wait, a bus going the opposite way offered us a lift but, half way in, stopped to suggest that he'd have to drop us off a few miles out instead. The three of us left on the bus opted to go into Guildford instead and got a taxi back. Cue the gentle bells of half past zero. Got home, wrote this as some sort of bizarre verbal therapy. Now to sleep, do not pass go, certainly don't get a cash bonus. Even, somewhere along the line, lost the kebab (bag slipped out of my hand somewhere, don't want it back though if anyone does find it).
Gig was excellent though, expertly assisted by the aforementioned Cookie plus Jessica and Sophie (both equally excellent, my go to guys at the arts centre) and the volunteers of the Ypod centre. And, though the laws of unexpected consequence did indeed bite me on the buttocks, the night was... interesting... :) Loved the gig, more of that sort of thing (although it was a shed load of work prior). The afterwards section? Well, I guess it's another yarn if nothing else.
((Wednesday update: dog tired today though and on duty tonight. Welcome to the world of the constantly running hamster wheel. Finished at college now though for the term and possibly longer - lower intake of students this year may mean fewer externals, and surprisingly emotional about it. Tonight, well, I'm on duty at music night two and may have to be the ogre big boss in one case- hope not but we'll see how it goes. Then tomorrow last signing lesson before exam - AAAAAARGH - and then, FINALLY, an afternoon off after three long, long days...))
Currently listening to: Tait: Empty and Nicki Rogers: Feeder Lane (not at the same time - one at machine and the other one the busses). Currently playing: The 'I don;t really want to be asleep' game. Current socks being worn: Charcoal grey Grumpy the Dwarf socks. Ironic, the first ones that came to hand. Currently prayer requests: For possible meeting tonight and the repurcussions from it. For Sandra, Lukas and Magdelena.