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04 : Woodland Waters, Ancaster – 20MAR10
It doesn't seem a year since we were at Woody's and got home to find out the next day that the venue had burned down after we left.
What a waste, some moron had torched the place and the owners have had the unenviable job of rebuilding and starting again in what was their busiest time of year. Credit to them, one of their ladies was telling me last night that just 14 weeks after the fire devastation they were doing weddings and we were pleased to see the place is as busy as ever and completely restored, in fact it just feels brand new.
I hadn't seen much about our gig there anywhere and was a bit dubious as to how busy it would be but there was no need to worry, it was a busy night and as one lady told me she was booking her pitch for next year if we were going to be there again, people had travelled in and although the rain was falling they were doing their camping thing. So a mixed audience of all ages with some beautiful kids who were dancing like kids do with no inhibitions and feeling the groove. 'Gone to the Dogs' were there to support us and started the night with an hour set of mainly traditional tunes. They were still high from their St Pats night at The Drill Hall but still appreciated the gig and I am sure won over some new fans.
When you have had a big gig in a purpose-built professional venue (ours being The Assembly last weekend) and then you go to somewhere smaller that is really built for other uses it's always a reality check – I remember years ago doing our own show at The London Palladium on a Sunday night and then the following weekend doing a fund raiser for The Pilgrim Hospital in Boston. The weird thing is that the bigger venues are just easier to play, everything is laid on and easy and so it takes the work out of the gig and you can enjoy the whole thing more…I always thought the bigger the venue the more nervous I would be but in fact it is the opposite. It takes far more courage to play to a small audience who are eyeballing you.
I read something the other week about Annie Lennox and how as she got older as a female performer and started playing to smaller audiences she just completely lost her bottle for a while…now she has got over it and enjoys gigging again. It seems unbelievable that someone with that many years of experience should suddenly get hit by nerves and yet I can understand it. My best tonic if I feel a bit nervous is looking at Kenbar…ahh, he makes me want to howl with laughter no matter how many times he pulls those miserable expressions – he has his look off to a T.
Anyhow, the gig…two hours long. Yes, it was a two-hour set boys and sorry it was my fault I know I said one and half hours but we have got the Axe next week so we need to build up our stamina…in fact I was going to do another half hour but Kenbar was off to a party and as Filthy said,
"Joolz, if we don't stop soon the drummer will be dead!"
Sorry Dawg, I do sometimes forget that to play like you do for two hours without a break is just a bit too long – but at least we still had time for a wee dram at the end.
Song of the night: 'Meet the folks' stonkingly good and the audience loved it. Bring on the Axe, let's give Malc a good one.
Joolz
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