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03 : Rock City, Nottingham – 04MAR08
If we felt a bit nervy at Cambridge for the first leg of these dates then it was nothing compared to how Jock and I felt about playing Rock City, Nottingham.
Pics: Drew Lorimer
We have been to the venue for so many years to see all the hard-hitting bands that Jock follows, we have both had our times in the mosh pit and I have been on the stage once at The Drop Kick Murphys gig a couple of years ago but that wasn't by invite!! Jock and I went to see the band and I bet him that I would get onto the stage and did.....he tried and was hurled out by Ratty, head of security and president of The Hell's Angels (it was good to have him looking after us last night) – so this time we were booked and arrived to find SLF crew in place and the stage prepared for the gig.
Our sound check was what made us nervous, the sound was booming, very loud and clarity was what we were going to struggle with. Of course, we have been here before over the years and there are ways of dealing with a sound like that when you perform…basically, as a band you have to be very, very tight and as a singer you have to be on the nail with the rhythm or else the whole thing starts to go wrong!!
So we headed round the corner for a pint where OOR BEN was challenged about his age (he is only 17) and the city barman threatened to chuck him out although he was only drinking a coke. Jock was feeling sparky…
"I'm not leaving my boy outside on the streets on his own, so you better get me a refund for all these drinks and cancel that food order. We're only here for 20 mins pal, we're off to do our gig."
Well that was that then and Ben got his meal…it's never a good idea for the boy not to eat, at 6ft something and size 13 feet he needs his food.
So…back at the venue the promoter had left us some ale and we started to warm up. We climbed the stairs from the basement, stood to the side of the stage and we could see the crowds starting to gather. Jimmy Baker had got our merch stall set up in the hall next to SLF and I could see him grinning. We were on…and this time we were cheered as we walked on and so it happened, our new bit of history, we rocked Rock City and took them on a Celtic Rock journey of all our own songs, 'Liberty', 'But It Did', 'Changing', 'The Hunger'. The atmosphere was amazing, the band were flying high and Mad Dawg had gone into auto but just stepped up a gear to make sure we kept the pace that was needed. The sound out front must have been right, Jimmy Baker was struggling to keep up with sales…
Thank you to SLF and their crew they couldn't have been more helpful or supportive. We look forward to Doncaster Dome next week.
Joolz
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