OH WHAT A WEEKEND!!

So, that's another Beer Festival chalked off! Two days gone in the blink of an eye - but what a great 2 days!!

As per the last post, Friday night was a blast - as you would expect going on at 10:00pm when everyone had been drinking for 3 hours!! However, it's probably fair to say that we didn't expect the "early shift" on Saturday to be as brilliant as it was. We took the stage at 8:15pm and found an audience of 2 in front of us (and one of them was Mickey Jones - a bit of a change from Tiger Tiger for him!!); however, never a band to look on the gloomy side, we challenged the "crowd" in the drinking bit of the marquee to join us and, within seconds, we had about 100 people in front of us - and this continued to swell and swell as the moments went by until there was upwards of 500 people srutting their stuff!.
We had put together a set that was designed to break the crowd in slowly, and build them up to a frenzy; the plan worked fine - except the frenzy set in long before we expected it! Within 15 minutes everyone was up and jumping - even Chasing Cars (which we did as the second number) had full audience participation, arm waving, everything! By the time we got to Whole Lotta Rosie, Sweet Child of Mine and Somebody Told Me, the roof was coming off the marquee - and it was still only 9:30!! The only downside of Saturday's set was that we had to drop some songs, so that we finished in time for Monkey Harris to have a go - although we felt we could go on all night!! Double gloom because it meant we couldn't do Delilah - again!!
Anyway, finishing early did give us a chance to sample some of the fine beers, and to relax - by the time we left at 12:30, we were very relaxed!
So, onto next year - perhaps? We have done 5 years in a row, and we know that is something that no other band has been given the privilege to do - but we enjoy it SO much that, if we were asked, I'm sure we would say yes!
Next gig is a private party this Friday (Dave will be missing because he's on holiday!), and then we return to the Time Out Group Ball the following Saturday. Those of you with long memories might recall the great time we had there last year - for those who don't, check out the April 2009 reports on the blog (link on the right).
So, I'll sign off now, leaving you to enjoy some photographic records of the evening, and there is a recording of Saturday's gig on its way, so we'll try and find a way of posting a link to that on here at some stage!
Macclesfield MPs - old and new, sampling the wares!
Bouncers in action to stop the stage being rushed by groupies!!

What's he got to smile about??

Paul (looking like he's lost a piece of his brain) and Matt (looking happy)

A portion of the happy crowd (shame we didn't have a wide angled lens!)

Dave (not on holiday!)

Chrissie (in typical full on Token Bird/Rock Chick mode!)

Look everyone - a crowd!!

SOUNDED BAD BUT SOUNDED GOOD!

Writing this after completing Round 1 of our 5th Macc Beer Festival extravaganza! Last night was an absolutely brilliant night, although it was not all plain sailing!

We went on at 10:00pm, having been well set up by a great set from Monkey Harris - however, the first few numbers were blighted by some horrible sound gremlins! For whatever reason, the microphones made it sound like someone was frying chips in them, the on-stage monitors were giving some horrendous feedback and we had some problems hearing what was going on - very strange considering all had seemed fine about 15 minutes earlier!

Anyway, we persevered and, as ever, everything seemed to fall into place! The organisers had placed the usual plastic "crowd barriers" in front of the stage (a good move as we are renowned for our ability to kick things off!); however, the fact that these barriers were about 10 feet away from the stage created that horrible "shark infested pool" space between us and the audience - never a good situation! So, something had to be done, and the easiest thing seemed to be to ask the crowd to pick up the barriers and move towards us with them! Once this was done, and we could feel the closeness of the hot, sweaty bodies, thing really took off - 24 songs ripped out in an hour and a half (see attached set list), and it was just an incredible feeling to see so many people having such a great time! The fact they they were all drinking for charity was a bonus (and, I'm sure, totally unconnected to the good time they were having!).

We were given 11:45 as our cut-off time (to avoid annoying the neighbours too much) and, I have to say I thought we had timed the set to perfection, as we finished the main set at 11:40, giving us five minutes to deliver the encore that the crowd were salivating for! However, we had not taken account of the fact that the sound man had been told to "pull the plug" at 11:40, so our attempts to launch into a mass crowd-driven version of "Delilah" fell somewhat flat when all the electrics were turned off! A REAL disappointment for us and the punters but, as the saying goes "leave them wanting more", and that was certainly the case last night!

On to Round 2 tonight and, as we want to have the opportunity to enjoy the ambience of the Beer Festival for ourselves, we are kicking the show off at 8:15pm and giving Monkey Harris the chance to try and match what we did last night in the later set! If you have got tickets, make sure you are there in time to see us, as we guarantee that the energy levels will be just as high for the "early shift"! If you haven't got tickets, there may still be some available from the outlets mentioned on the poster (or even on-line). We'd love to see you there.

As an aside, we also attended todays lunch time session at the Beer Fest - as ever, it was a much more laid back event, although the numbers have swelled enormously over the last few years. Made the acquaintance of our new MP (accompanied by Lord Nick of Winterton, of course!) - seems a nice enough guy, and has got the message about making sure he keeps local priorities at the top of his list, irrespective of central party politics - if he does that, he won't go far wrong! By the way, STILL didn't get Nick W to buy me a drink!

Will let you know how tonight goes, in due course!

LOOKS LIKE FRIDAY IS SOLD OUT ALREADY!!

Well - I go away for the weekend, and what happens? They only go and sell all the tickets for Friday night at the Beer Festival don't they!

Actually, that's probably not strictly true, as I think there are still a few available at the retail venues, but the online sales are definitely done and dusted!! No fear, you can still get some for Saturday, which is nearly as good! Just go to the "Tickets" page on the Beer Fest website, and your every wish will be fulfilled!

We're practising again tomorrow night - promises to be a late one, as Paul has to go and watch City beat Spurs first! After that, it's all systems go for Friday night............................!