The first gig in Glasgow
So Friday night was the first gig of mine at Barfly, Glasgow. Dave and James were playing guitar for me, and Stuart was on bass. They nicely dressed up in matching outfits of black shoes, jeans, and a black shirt, so very handsome indeed!
I wanted to go on first as it was the first show, and meant we could leave stuff nicely set up onstage after soundcheck. I was worried there may not have been many people in the venue on time, and some might have been annoyed if they turned up late. But, I had been telling folk since the gig got confirmed, so had my fingers crossed all would be okay. The soundcheck amazingly sounded really good. This is normally worrying as a good soundcheck leads to a bad gig, and vice versa. Anyway, 8.30 came, a healthy bunch of people had filled the room, I managed to get some beers for my band, bought a wine for myself, and we went on.
We started with Bruises. It’s a strong song, but my singing was pretty dreadful! I’m hoping it was just the nerves, and will get better….. It was just so strange being in the centre for once, having no instrument to hide me, and having my mic out the stand the whole time so I could wander anywhere. I was so aware for once that every move I made was being monitored, which I’ve never really thought about in Bis as I had it in my head everyone was staring at Steven. (he was the perfect frontman and that always made me feel better!) Also, my band were concentrating on their tricky guitar lines so much that I rarely got any eye contact. Normally at rehearsals we’re having a good laugh, so I’m hoping that’ll come too!
So first song ended, and then it was a great cheer/clap, and silence. It was up to me to talk to the room of people! Scary! I thanked everyone for coming to my first gig, explained why I wanted to go on early, then introduced the next song which was Typeface.
The rest of the set was another 5 songs including Do the Static and the Word Out. I was nervous in the lead up to the gig, but I had no idea I would have been as bad as that. I was really shaky, and I honestly can’t remember the last time I’ve felt like that. It was also strange having John Disco (and his wife and Mum) in the crowd watching (Steven’s still on his honeymoon). It was really nice that so many made the effort to come early, including a bunch of pals who did some dancing to the left of me which made me feel really good.
The fantastic Jim Gellatly was DJing afterwards, and said he really enjoyed it, especially my band’s moves in Do the Static. Guilty Pleasure and DNA seemed to go down really well too. In fact, I was in such a weird state for the gig I can’t remember what songs were the best!
A friend filmed it for me, so I’m hoping to get that online shortly (well, the songs that had decent enough sounding vocals…). It was a good experience, but I hope the more confident i get, the more relaxed I’ll be. The next gig at that venue is 11th Sep with Fangs, so I’m hoping people will come back to see me then. There were lots of posters for the gig all over the venue, and a few were nicked by the end of the night, so that’s a good sign I thought!
I finished my wine, and we joined John Disco’s birthday celebrations at McSorleys along the road which was nice. Phew! I’m just glad it’s all done now, and I can’t wait to do more and get better! I’m off for a rehearsal tonight with my band as I’m hoping to get 8 or 9 songs for London so that’s it’s a better length for a headline set.
That’s the update guys! x
