The DQ, Sheffield, 23rd June 2012
This was Secret Romance's 4th gig. We supported Without Our Crowns. Other bands included Volumezero, Find Me On Broadway, Reaching New Heights and Permission On Standby.
Well, I'll start from before I got to the gig. Because THAT was fun... (That sarcasm was intended to be that sharp it cuts your throat.)
So, "arrive there at 3" I was told. OK cool, no problem.
Listened to Billy Idol and Megadeth all day, relaxing basically. I also went to teach a guitar lesson at 12, skipping half of my dinner expecting it to be preserved for when I returned.
It got to about 1:30, so I decided it was probably time to get ready. I wanted to restring my ESP LTD V200 guitar, (mainly because the E string was still snapped from the O2 gig, and I hadn't used it since. (Which astonishingly, I've just realised, means that the last time I had played with Secret Romance was at the last gig. No practices in between.)) (I also planned to change the B string of my ESP LTD EC-1000 Deluxe due to it being a bit... Weak, as if prepared to face is imminent death anytime soon, probably on stage I thought.) Practice-wise, one of the band members (not naming names) kept organising practices during my working hours (yes, I work now. Oh what fun.) And got angry when I didn't turn up. Oh well, I still played perfectly well. As expected. *Arrogance - Off.*
(Technical Guitar Stuff, it will get more interesting further down.)
So yes, I was to leave getting ready "image" wise until about 5 minutes before we set off, and spend most of the time cleaning my guitars. I noticed, before restringing the V, that the Bridge pickup was far down, and therefore a screw was missing. I decided to take a screw out of the Neck pickup (as I don't use the neck pickup much/at all) and put it in the missing slot for the bridge, expecting this to solve the problem and hurrah I can move on!
BUT NO.
Look; it makes me uncomfortable thinking of the stress this guitar put me through that day, so I'm going to skip the details about the pickup thing for your benefit and mine. Basically, an hour and a half was wasted and nothing good came of it. The pickup was in the same position as I started trying to change, I lost a screw so the neck pickup is now wonky too. Those who can do maths/tell the time, you will realise that it was then 3 o'clock and I was meant to be there. I texted and apologised to the band that I was to be late, and tried to remain calm (Billy Idol helped me here).
Then I tried to restring the V, got to the highest string, the one that actually snapped, and basically used 3 different strings on it, (One from my Schecter Damien FR, one from my sisters guitar, and a B string (thus meaning I didn't restring the EC-1000). They all snapped. I had to resort to leaving it at home to go dusty.
Ha. Serves it right.
So yes; I just used one guitar for the gig. I was worried about this, as my EC-1000 is harder to tune, it requires allen keys as well as fingers, so to do this on stage seemed impractical. But, as I'll explain, it worked really well.
Anyway. I wanted to go for a 70's/80's punk look. (Think Billy Idol early-days (yes, I have a new obssession,) or Spike from the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer,) so I got all of my old studded bracelets out. (At this point, my mother was rushing me as she wanted to go out herself, I apologised for being late, but tried to explain it wasn't my fault. Loud voices were used.) I recently had my hair cut short, so I spiked it all up, threw a bit of foundation on; (stage make up. Nothing against transvestites, just pointing out I am not one.) Would've actually liked a bit of eyeliner and black nail polish but unfortunately, I had 2 minutes to get ready. Got my leather jacket, Megadeth shirt, skinny jeans, and surprisingly looked very punky to say I got ready in a few minutes.
I was very hungry, if you remember I hadn't eaten my dinner due to being a dedicated guitar teacher, I went to look for my dinner in the kitchen and it had been thrown out. I was very annoyed. I could've grabbed a rifle and hunted for food. I could've quickly made a sandwich. Maybe take some fruit.
But no: I took a packet of Jammie Dodgers, and some Hula Hoops. That was my dinner for the day.
So, I'll skip to "I arrived at the DQ for the second time in my life, and my equipment was taken upstairs into the venue.".
Today was the first day I met our new bassist, Kriss Stainton. Our original bassist, as you can probably tell by me mentioning "new bassist", was removed for "certain reasons" I shall not write in words.
He was wearing a shirt and tie, so at a first glance I was like; "Oh."
Two words to describe him after five minutes of conversation, (Coincidentally about Megadeth);
"Bloody awesome."
This guy, (he's 22, and I thought he was about 17! HE HAS ID!) really is a nice person, he had that confidence about him when he spoke, he knew what he was talking about, and it wasn't awkward at all for a "first meeting". Especially when I had missed 3 practices in which I was to meet him, where my band probably called me many bad things for not being there; (again, not my fault), (I'm actually a negative, paranoid person. If that wasn't obvious. In my head I picture them telling him "Oh, he couldn't be arsed to get here, he's not dedicated enough. Let's vote him out, OK?")
But he did seem really cool, and we spoke for a while, he bought me a drink. (Coca-Cola and nothing else in the drink to make it alcoholic). I still hadn't heard him play. "He'd better be better than our original bassist" I thought.
Anyway, we waited for hours, like you do before a gig. Get told to be there for 3 for a sound check. Obviously we now go there expecting not to have a sound check.
We didn't have a sound check.
Cameron turned up about 6, when doors opened. (Our drummer).
(It's time for a new format I think here, let's see how it goes- I try and keep all my entries to a similar style to the previous, this is something I'll try out.)
(Review is here, from my O2 gig. "Good solo work on guitar for Last Stand". *Holds head high, like a Lion who has just slain his victim to feed his two children for the next day.* http://www.thesheffieldscenester.co.uk/#/sbsquared-presents-12512/4565212666 )
Find Me On Broadway
This band had a female singer, as well as a guitarist who did some vocals too.
The sound was so bad that night; until the last song or something, you couldn't hear the vocals. Just the loud drums, bass, and guitar. When we could finally hear the vocals, they were out of tune. I don't say this to insult the vocalists, I say this to blame the sound. When you can't hear yourself, it's very hard to sing in tune. I'm sure they're perfectly good singers, but that night, the sound didn't help.
Secret Romance
So... The moment we waited for, for about 5 hours. We set up in front of about 50 people. Some girls stood near me at the front; this always encourages me to play my best. *Lead Guitarist Mode: On.*
Basically, this was our sound check. Our opening was our soundcheck.
OUR OPENING WAS OUR SOUND CHECK.
Thanks, cover band. Thanks a lot.
So, we played Teenage Kicks. My guitar was actually loud, I could hear i- wait, nope, can't hear it ag- Oh! I can hea- Nope gone...
That was my mind for the first two songs.
It was turned up and down, and I was looking at the sound guy/the organiser Matt Crowder, (who I have great respect for; he got us our first gig, and this gig, and goes through all this hard work and stress for us, but this doesn't mean I wasn't mad at the time at him.) and was trying to get him to keep my volume up.
We got to Song 2 (our third song, the song is actually called Song 2; if this is my first entry that you've read, O' Glorious Readers,) and we had to stop... to sort the sound out.
WE HAD TO STOP TO SORT THE SOUND OUT.
Wow, we were pretty mad. In the end, it turned out there wasn't enough power to keep us all as loud as we liked, so when mine was loud, someone else had gotten quieter. I then was mad at the power, not Matt Crowder. (Apologies again for being mad at him, (I didn't take it out verbally or anything. Just a mental thing.)
I eventually plugged into someone elses louder amp, and that amp was standalone, it was that loud. Didn't need mic-ing up.
So, we finished "I Can See You", (this is a link to us "debuting" this song at the O2 Academy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkwY-5D9prQ ).
It was now time to rapidly Drop-D tune my guitar. First time I've had to do this on stage. First time I'd Drop tuned that guitar. Nervous.
I did it in about 10 seconds; it was beautiful. I managed to get into the mood of playing again, after my anger about the sound. I enjoyed playing; got very hot and sweaty. It was a shame about the sound, because I was really enthusiastic about playing that night, and that would've been the best we played.
Kriss Stainton was excellent. He didn't stand there looking like he had "peed" his pants, and he didn't just play single notes/wrong notes. He actually played proper basslines and added his own thing to our songs. He was enthusiastic on stage, and seemed hyped about it afterwards too. He was only meant to be temporary, (I was told afterwards) but we all want to keep him. "Please mommy can we keep him?"
To be confirmed, I believe.
No strings snapped.
No drinks spilled.
Awesome. We finished, packed up, talked to some girls for a bit (you know you're a rockstar when you're talking to girls after a gig...! All in good time...)
Then I went home! Had a curry, played Guitar Hero, you don't care about that stuff. Sorry I cannot review or say how the other bands were. One of my colleagues inform me that they all sounded the same to him. So I guess they did OK.
Thanks for reading, a big gig coming up in August supporting Room 94 again at the Corporation. They have a music video now. Come and check us out 12th August 2012 Sheffield Corporation!
***
(The new format was actually giving bands a title to themselves).
Smallprint
(I do not hunt. Not for fun, not for sustenance.)
(The drink Kriss bought me was Coca-Cola. I couldn't buy it myself due to a lorry parked between where I was sat and the bar. Kriss is immune to lorries and HGVs.)
(Any opinions expressed by the individuals are that of the individuals and not of the Adam Walton Company.)
(I do not slit people's throats with my sarcasm. This was a metaphor.)
(I do not slay victims in order to feed the two children I pretend I have.)
(All of this small-print is because of how strict the government are on blogs nowadays.)
Yours truly,
Adam Walton.
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