Happy New Year...

Happy New Yearrr!! Hope you're all well :)

Well It's January 5th and so far the years got off to a cracking start! To kick the year off we began with our first heat in the Original Bands Showcase in order to try and secure ourselves a slot at the Summer Sundae Festival in Leicester. Overall there are 9 Heats and then a Final gig on the 27th Jan which will showcase the acts chosen to play at the Summer Sundae festival.

In our heat there were 7 acts all of a very high standard creating a brilliant night of midlands talent, each artist/band presented a 20 minute set in which they could show off there talent. The evening began with Marc Reeves, a singer songwriter from nottingham with a beautifully clear tone and pure voice, this warmed the audience up nicely and he was follwed by the amazing Kieren Hebdon - The Kids Bob Dylan; a 9 year old singer songwriter who held his own on stage better than many 19 year olds and blew the crowd away!!

We were on next and thoroughly ready to play! On donning the stage we set ourselves up and were introduced to the crowd by the OBS organiser Val McCoy and then we were off...

We played a set of 6 original songs and the set list was as follows:

1. What Will I become
2. Spare Me Some Change
3. By The Wate
4. Soldier's Song
5. Old Flame
6. Romeo and Juliet

The set went down well with the crowd, we were ideally placed in the line up to experience a full venue and got the full attention of them. Our reherasals payed off well which meant that the few mistakes that we made were covered well and we managed to play through within the time limit. With all this working well we were able to relax and enjoy ourselves and really let loose with the songs playing to the crowd.

Overall this gig was a successful one, that we all really enjoyed, it felt like the first time that the band had gelled in that way and it created a brilliant musical groove on stage. If anything, the only problem that I really experienced was not having enough of my guitar in the monitor, i managed to cope and played well considering, however in the future I think I will make sure the levels are set well for ease on stage. Also whilst clearing down after the set, moving the bass drum i knocked over a full glass of water, luckily missing anything electrical but lesson learned, be more spacially aware!!

This gig gave us a good introduction to the Leicester Music scene as amongst the crowd were Trevor Locke, editor of www.artsinleicestershire.co.uk, a site that lists and reviews bands and gigs, Val McCoy, a local promoter who organises the OBS gigs as well as many other gigs around Leicester and Darren Knokles, owner of The Musician and the man in charge of the Musician Stage at the Summer Sundae Festival.

It was a very entertaining night with an array of brilliant talent, other notable acts where a band called Humble He, who hopefully we'll gig with in the near future, watch this space ;)

More gigs coming soon and a recording session on 11th January at the University of Derby so hopefully first single release coming very soon!!!

Thanks for Reading!
Much Love
Dan

Hours So Far...

Planning & Promoting: 2hrs
Travelling: 1 and 1/2hrs
Rehearsing: 4hrs
Time at Gigs: 5hrs
Total: 12hrs 30mins

Total so Far: 24hrs 30mins