That was a long day. Up early to teach an early morning lesson with one of my regulars (who was equally as reluctant as me to start at such a painfully cold hour...9.30am, is too early for drums) but we soon got into the swing of things.
Home, quick shower and then a cab to the station. Met up with Will our new guitarist and a bunch of the ladies from the choir, and then on the train where they made me drink gin and we had a very merry time.
Into London, half an hour to kill so had a coffee with Lucy, and then over to the venue itself. A huge space, an epic tent. The sound guy was struggling, anyone would, but he seemed to struggle more than most. I mean, not being harsh, but we had 4 hours before the audience were allowed in but we didn't get a soundcheck. Didn't get a chance to run over the two songs that had been causing us a few problems in the dress rehearsal, instead it was dinner time and then the huge audience piled in.
The electric kit I had to play was terrible and it was causing a lot of issues with both the sound, and also it's stability was a great concern. Found out later after the gig that it was a cheap kids' kit, not the 'top level professional set' I was assured it would be, in my reluctance to go electric due to the local council's sound restrictions.
The gig itself was by far the most stressful I've ever played; the kit fell apart, constantly, the sound was terrible, the songs we didn't know...we still didn't know. We got through it. All two hours of it. Nobody could hear each other onstage, timings were all over the place, we snapped at each other, we had a horrible time.
The audience loved it, they had no idea what we had just been through.
In some ways it was a huge achievement; to pull off a show to nearly a thousand people when we've never been so unprepared. But I didn't have a great time tonight.
Got drunk at the aftershow party and made the last train home.
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