This was a very frenetic day, and I'm pleased it's over, if only because I can now catch my breath! I had managed to borrow a friend's PA and head for the gig. Although it hadn't been used in 18 months, I was reassured that it would still work. I headed over to the uni to test this equipment, along with the new PA that I'd just gotten for the band. To cut a long story short, the new PA didn't work, and the old one did. Therefore we elected to use the old one, but with some lingering doubts, plumped to temporarily 'steal' a third PA from the uni to cover ourselves.
We arrived at the Mad Hatter in Tolworth, and set up. We were due to be on at 9pm. The old PA was fine all the way through soundcheck. We started our set bang on time, and ... less than a minute into the gig, the damn thing cut out. Cue a lot of frantic looks and bar staff trying to help us out. There were actually two problems; not only had the old PA cut out, but the power supply to all our equipment had too! I made an emergency call to Adnan, who does sound engineering and mixing for the Cricketers pub. Luckily, by 10pm, we had the problem fixed and had Adnan's gear to use as well - for a fee, of course.
The gig started again at 10pm and we played our full set, avoiding any further embarrassment. After a little break in the middle of the set, we finished our performance just before midnight. Our final song of the night just had to be Car Wash, as it was at the Cricketers - the difference being that this was a rather extended 9 minute version getting a lot of audience participation! (Thanks to Jan for playing along with us on tambourines, fancy becoming a regular band member?) Although this gig did not in any way resemble our hopes or expectations at the start, the band generally agreed that the quality of performance was a reasonable one under the circumstances. We have learned our lesson to fully test all the equipment to be used in a live music setting, and will never be as naive in the future.
The band thanks everyone who turned out to support us, in particular our friends from Kingston Uni who had to sit around for an hour while we sorted everything out. The set list was as follows:
The Boys of Summer
California Dreamin'
Rescue Me
Stand By Me
Love Lifts Us Up/Your Song
Brown Eyed Girl
Fields of Gold
When I'm Sixty-Four
A Whiter Shade of Pale
I Say a Little Prayer
Love Is All Around
Dancing Queen
Moondance
Don't Stop Me Now
If I Ever Lose My Faith
Never Stopped Loving You
Too Much Love Will Kill You
The Boys of Summer (Reprise)
Car Wash
