Last night went brilliantly as far as the activity on the stage was concerned, I am always a bag of nerves wanting everything to go well and last night I nearly blew a gasket - more of which in a moment. Last month I had asked everyone to be at The Maze for five o'clock and we weren't let in until half past, so I figured that we might as well meet up at half past. As things in my life tend to happen, we were let in nearer to six o'clock, I might say six next month but not bother leaving the house until quarter past.
To further save time there was an equipment share going on so the band who supplied the drums (I paid very little attention to this process aside from helping carry a few bits in) did a main soundcheck just to see if everything worked, with a quick 'line check' (I almost sound like I know what I'm talking about) as each band went on stage. My friend Simon Waldram was first on the bill, having turned up even before I did as I found him sitting on his guitar case outside The Maze as I got off the bus, had I had time to think and get my camera out without causing a fuss it would have made a brilliant album cover. Simon played a great set but he wasn't happy with it and ended by taking off his guitar and throwing it to the ground in frustration. I'm not entirely sure what went wrong for him but he soon cheered up, it would be sad if he went away thinking he didn't play well because he opened the show brilliantly. The Sherwins are a band who got in touch with me on Twitter a while ago and sent me some music which I was sufficiently impressed with to play on the podcast and was glad to be able to get them to play one of my nights. Although not a massive name on the circuit they went down really well with the crowd (a lot more of a crowd than last time so hopefully the gig will build each time) and genuinely seemed happy to be on stage.
The Spangle Corps recently played to a fairly well populated Rescue Rooms so I was in two minds as where to place them on the bill. I have always said that I didn't want the order to be based on crowd pulling ability so part of me thought about putting them on first or second in order to fill the place up early and give the less well known Sherwins and Simon a bigger audience. On the other hand, I have seen it happen far too often where a band will fill a room only for everyone to leave as soon as they're finished making the headliner play to the bar staff. The most obvious placing would have been to have them headlining but that might have had the same effect but in reverse in that the audience wouldn't show up until it was their time to go on. Besides, Fighting Evil Is Cool! are a headline worthy band in their own right and while I didn't want to upset anyone by bringing in a hierarchy I do have to think about how the gig pans out. Nobody else seemed to have been concerned which goes to show how much I overthink things. The Spangle Corps and FEIC! both delivered storming performances demonstrating how to own the stage and put in a show, everyone pulled together and made this a real pleasure to be a part of, I sometimes forget that this is a gig that I am in charge of. My workload was reduced significantly as my dad turned up and ended up taking the money on the door, and talking of which it was cool to be able to pay everyone for playing, especially as my handing money over was met with surprise as they weren't expecting to be paid. Nottingham's music scene usually runs on a mixture of goodwill and bullshit and I (despite what many people think of me) only operate on goodwill and leave the bullshitting to those who do it best.
As good as the gig was I did have reason to fly off the handle at the guy (I won't name him) who had been tasked (and was expecting to be paid) with filming the sets for the series. It soon became apparent that he had fucked up big time and had only filmed the first two sets before his memory card (singular) filled up. I had had a few pints and was running on the adrenalin of having a gig to run and nearly ended up punching him. As a compensation to myself I somehow ended up with his memory card which I took home expecting to find Simon Waldram's set and The Sherwins, at least I would have two weeks worth of episodes. Putting the memory card into my camera and plugging it into my laptop I soon realised that all that he had recorded was around two minutes of footage.
A plan of action is needed now as it appears that people who want to become film producers in Nottingham tend to be either slow or unreliable. Chances are we will be able to borrow a camera for the next one before hopefully raising the money via donations to be able to buy our own equipment and do the thing ourselves.
My conversation with the filming guy carried on into this morning and we have settled our differences. I apologised for getting angry as I shouldn't have lost my temper, I am not apologising for my anger as such because I was justified but I acted on impulse and should have dealt with it in a calm and dignified manner. Of course I won't be using him again for filming but he is an old friend so although things might be uneasy at first I will have a drink with him again in the future.
The Sunday Alternative #51 is available from here.
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August housekeeping
We are now in the eighth month of the year and at a standstill as far as work is concerned. In unrelated news, it is my birthday on the 27th of this month so a nice present would be a donation using the PayPal button. This would be spent on creating podcasts, documentaries, short films, comedy sketches and various other entertainments that I will make available to enjoy online for free.
The above t-shirt and bag is also available to buy, all the money goes to the same creative fund. They are on my shop page.
I'll play you a kazoo song request, find out how here.
Letter of complaint written for you for £2, here.
steveEoliver@gmail.com
