On Monday we were at Carlton Digby School in Mapperley not too far away from college, but before this I had a practice session with the BA Students for their Musical Direction which I was playing drums for, so my morning was quite busy. We met up for school gigs at about 12pm to load the van. Once we got there we had a fair amount of time to set up which was nice and we had to unload into the building from the side because it was the shortest route to the hall, which was quite large. We managed to get the stage set up quite quickly for our first go, but when it came to the actual the show the sound wasn't that great. I could hardly hear my bass and for the last song I had to drop tune quickly to D on my E string and ended up being a note out, the problem being that I didn't know it was out by a semitone so it must have sounded terrible, either that or like jazz.
Once we got back I had to drive home to get changed and then drive back into Nottingham. Matt, my tutor had arranged for my course group to go and see a talk on theremins at the Theatre Royal, it just meant I had to do a bit of running about. I didn't want to turn up all sweaty from the gigs and I was desperate to wear my new boots, hand made in Italy. I quite enjoyed the show, I can't remember her name but the lady played the Zelda theme and the Doctor Who theme and that is plenty enough to make me happy. Everything else was just as interesting, but those themes were certainly highlights.
Tuesday was a lot better, even though a little more intense. Once the van had been loaded we had a long drive to Newark, for our first gig at Newark Orchard School. We struggled to find it, but we got there in the end. The hall was quite small and our stage set up and PA ended up taking up nearly half the space, but it worked and the sound was much better. Later we had a second gig at their sister school, basically it was the same school but another site which meant we had to take down the equipment not only to put them back in the van but also to set it all up again. The hall was slightly larger at the second site and it was obviously used as a dinner hall as they were still clearing the tables when we arrived. This caused a bit of a conflict between Andy Oakley and the dinner ladies, especially with us now being pushed for time. He explained to us that we need to be in and out as quick as possible otherwise we will have to wait for all of the minibuses to leave which would mean waiting about an hour. The sound was much better again and I think that day we packed down in record time, it took us about 10 minuets, maybe and then we were off. Obviously, no one wanted to be waiting around!
Wednesday was a nice easy one and bit closer to home, or college even: St Ann's Wells Academy, though before I could even think about playing this gig I had to finish and send off my context essay as it was was the deadline and I wasn't sure what time we would get back. Playing this school was quite a treat. I bumped into Ruth, who was my tutor for the first year of my level 3 course and it was nice to sit with her and have a bit of chat about this years tour after we had the PA and backline set up. It's fair to say that our best audience reaction came from this school. Every other school we had been to up to this point was a special school, this one I believe was infants and juniors and the children were lovely. I watched from the back with Ruth and our drummer, Hannah as the kids started to get up and dance, one or two at a time and they were all really enjoying themselves. By the time that we got on stage, more than half the kids were up on their feet to one side of the room, organised a little by the staff for health and safety reasons, but it really was amazing. For our last song, the head sat them all back down again so that they could watch exactly what each of us were doing on stage and so they could learn a little about how a band functions. The only difficulty that came with this school was the stairs, so loading and unloading was slow, but thankfully there was a lift that we could use for some of the gear.
Thursday was another full-on day and was very intense. We had an early start of 08:15am and three gigs to play at two different locations. I decided to take my Ukuelle with me for extra musical entertainment purposes because we had such a long day ahead of us and it is the perfect size for travelling. Our first gig was at Yeoman Park School in Mansfield Woodhouse. It was another fair sized hall complete with lighting and all of the walls were white which gave it quite a contemporary feel. The second and third gigs were at Ash Lea School in West Bridgeford, so was a fair drive from our first gig of the day. At this school we were booked to play two shows in the same hall. For the first show, we played our set first for a change to give the Andy's a chance to have a bit of a lunch break, the day had already been a rush as it is and with them doing the driving and coordinating the most of it, it's important that we kept them well maintained.
 |
| Friday -Pre show shoot. The band, L-R:, Kim (me), Zane, Chris (standing), Keiran (below), Jacob and Hannah. |
After packing down, we had already made the decision as a group (or at least the staff had) that we had to go to the Melton Mowbray pie shop on the way home. So, we parked up the mini van and Luton van with all the gear in a pub car park so we could walk into the town centre. Jasmine, one of the helpers that came with us that day pointed out that there was a KFC around the corner so most of the boys ran off across the road (with permission) to get some chicken, while I went off with the staff to grab myself a pork pie. Young Andy Peet was debating buying a six pack of mini pies and a larger one, but I think I convinced him that that was a bit much. I just brought myself one of the average sized ones which cost me about £3.50 and lasted the Journey home.
It really was such an amazing experience to do school gigs all over again and it's helped my with my course too because I've been about to familiarise myself with the basic PA set up, while showing and helping the level 3's to do the same. I'll never forget some of the kids reactions to hearing live music, especially Wednesday, that was phenomenal. It was a chance for me to bond with the level 3's a little more and really get to know them too, which I think was vital to do for the sake of networking. They know, or they should know now that I'm the one to ask (studentwise) if they want anything recording within college or even if they want advice on a project. It amazes me how some of my group don't tent to interact with the other levels, it is really is so important for us to work together. Other than the teaching staff, I am fast becoming the connection between these different groups that makes it work. I was nice to get a big special thank you from everyone for all of this at the end for all of the hard work and extra effort, both from Andy Scoffin and Andy Oakley. I even got a warm firm handshake from Andy Scoffin, which meant a lot - but these thanks were not only me, but also for Hannah. An amazing intro (level 1) student drummer whom I can only expect amazing things from as she learnt the songs in our setlist within two weeks just before the tour, after we lost our first drummer when he decided to quit the course, Amazingly fantastic!
I wonder if I will do this all over again next year? If the offer is going - most probably.
No comments:
Post a Comment