Blog: Supporting The Wave Pictures

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Yesterday afternoon found me travelling VERY VERY SLOWLY to Nottingham. It was a Sunday so I knew it was not going to be an EXPRESS journey, but we got delayed by an extra half hour so it took me nearly THREE HOURS to get there!

Luckily the trip was VERY MUCH worth it, for LO! I was up there to meet The Validators for our gig supporting The Wave Pictures. I arrived to find a) The Wave Pictures doing an EXCELLENT soundcheck version of "Everything Is Broken" by Mr B Dylan and b) all Validators except for Tom already there. Within in a matter of minutes The Tiger had arrived, the soundcheck was completed, and it was OUR turn to take to the stage. We were aided in the process by Phil The Soundman, who is GRATE. It's weird with SoundPeople - it APPEARS to just be putting microphones in the right place, but when you get somebody who's actually REALLY GOOD it makes an ENORMOUS difference. We could all HEAR ourselves AND each other, so we actually sounded DEAD GOOD rather than Crash Bang Wallop. It was fab!

The soundcheck was LENGTHENED by a new experiment - Tim had brought his CAJON with him (it's one of those BOXES that you sit on and then TAP various bits to make drum noises with) to try out on It Only Works Because You're here so Phil got it miked up and... it sounded really good! Then we started playing and COR! It sounded AMAAAAZING!

Thus it was a very happy Band who strolled down the road to get FALAFEL, as recommended by a group led by Mr A Hale, PROMOTER and indeed BIRTHDAY BOY for the evening. The Falafel's were LOVELY - everything was going VERY well!

Usually this would be the cue for DISASTER, but no - everything CONTINUED well! We got back to the venue, had a drink, and then went on stage to get set up. The only hitch was that Tim had gone to the bar and it was a bit busy, but that was soon sorted and he dashed back to join us in doing THIS:

20 Things To Do Before You're 30

Can We Be Friends?

You Will Be Hearing From My Solicitor

Billy Jones Is Dead

(You Make Me Feel) Soft Rock

It Only Works Because You're here

Do The Indie Kid

The Lesson Of The Smiths

Easily Impressed

We Did It Anyway

It went PRETTY WELL. The room filled up CONSIDERABLY as we went along and but the audience were a little bit WARY of us to start with - they had, after all, come to see The Wave Pictures and were probably not expecting to have someone SHOUT at them or indeed take quite so long introducing Emma's SHOES (they were SPARKLY) - but they warmed up A LOT as we went along and joined in with the "Oi Hibbett!" bit of Easily Impressed with GUSTO!

We also did You Will Be Hearing From My Solicitor for the first time in just over TEN YEARS, cocked up the middle of (You Make Me Feel) Soft Rock (it doesn't matter who is to blame, I'm sure EVERYONE forgot when the change was...) but then SMOOTHLY got back into it, and the new Cajon Enhanced version of It Only Works Because You're here was GORGEOUS!

Afterwards we had our usual CHAT and TV ROUND-UP ("Tom! The BAND are watching 'Parks And Recreation'!") then saw The Wave Pictures, who were really really good. I do love the way they'll lean back, relax, and just PEEL OFF an amazing solo as if it's nothing, nobody else can do that like they do!

When it was all done and dusted The Validators went home, I stuck around for a bit more chat, and soon it was hometime. As I wandered through Nottingham almost, but not quite, getting lost, I thought about how much FUN this had all been. I'd really enjoyed playing and, even more, lurking around catching up with people. Next gig is Totally Acoustic, when we're doing a WHOLE SET with not just Tim's cajon but ALSO Frankie's new acoustical bass. I feel it may be ASTOUNDING!

posted 7/11/2016 by MJ Hibbett

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