LINE UP: UK Subs, Last Gang in Town, Braxton Hicks
(from Crudblog) The floodgates opened and the dogs of
war unleashed the wrath of god upon us. Basically, it fucking pissed it
down all day. So much that I got a call at 3pm to say the A55, A5 and
North Wales coast train line were closed due to flooding, and our
drummer, Gwion was the wrong side of the water with no paddle. Fuck!
Main-man, Joe and myself are sat in the Marine [sic] in Old Colwyn; it’s
my birthday and were drowning [sic - again] our sorrows with a pint of
Kronenberg. I can’t go home to Bangor as the roads are closed. We can’t
do the gig as Gwion is marooned. We asked ex-Sons of Selina drummer,
Cumi if he’d stand in, but he doesn’t know the songs. What a downer…
The decision was made to go to Buckley anyway and enjoy the gig. We may
as well leave now as to ensure we got in as a ‘band’ rather than a
punter.
The journey was pretty silent… Yeah we wanted to see the Subs, but we were supposed to be supporting them too…
Last Gang in Town and
UK Subs were
milling around backstage when Joe and myself turned up; bits of drum kit
were being set up and amps were being rolled in. I saw soundman (he is a
sound man), Chris White and told him our bad news and he said, ‘There’s
plenty of drummers knocking about, see if Last Gang’s will stand in for
you.’ It’s not that simple though as our songs are not
that
simple. We met up with Subs mainstay Charlie Harper and relived tales of
yore. He was telling us they played on the south coast last night and
spent all day travelling up here and then a long journey to Glasgow
tomorrow, he was concerned as the weather may have prevented them from
getting here today. We said how gutted we were that Gwion was stranded
and we couldn’t do the show. Charlie quipped, ‘Ask Jamie, he’ll do it.
He’s a great drummer.’
Joe and me were still dubious, no one can learn your songs in an hour and we didn’t want to make cunts of ourselves.
The UK Subs did their soundcheck, and we thought, ‘Fuck it, let’s ask
him,’ and approached Jamie with Charlie’s suggestion. ‘Yeah, of course
I’ll do it! Get me a copy of the songs and I’ll learn them.’ (!!!)
With 4 of our tracks on Soundcloud, Jamie sat in the dressing room
nursing a hangover and taking in our songs as we tucked into curry and
rice. Last Gang sound-checked and their bassist and guitarist are
probably the two friendliest band-persons I’ve ever met, letting us use
their amps, helping us get the right sound, even tuning our guitars!
Jamie came down and we soundchecked
Get Outta My Head – fuck
me! He’s nailed that song in 5 minutes, the beat, the stops, the
changes!! – he said he’ll have the other 3 learnt with the half hour
that we’re due on stage.
