It was Friday. The A43 was closed due to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone and we were playing in Gloucester. There was no choice but to drive from Northampton to Coventry via the M45/A45, take the A46 to Tewkesbury and on to the M5 for the last few miles to Gloucester, and hope that the traffic would behave itself. They don't called it Gridlock Friday for nothing.
As it happened, the traffic behaved itself and we arrived at the club in very good time. We had time to set up and sort the lights out (see the pictures), but still didn't have time to run through songs in an empty room. People started coming in from 7.00, and we weren't due on stage until 8.30. It was a big room with a huge dance floor that Nicki kept full all evening, but the downside is that the audience seemed very far away and didn't seem to want to engage with Nicki. It was hard work, hot and hard work.
I'm going to have a bit of a moan and ask why is it that clubs insist on the artists playing until 11.30 when most of the audience leave just after 11.00? Would the audience leave halfway through a play or a film? Nicki doesn't just play a few songs- she performs a show, with a beginning, a middle and an end, so why leave before the end?
Trish and her husband, plus several people from Dumbleton and Notgrove turned out to see her and they made all the difference. I'd better shut up because I'm finding it difficult to say anything positive. Vicky, the Club Secretary was very helpful and friendly, as were most of the audience, but a few grumpy old gits spoiled it for me.
We were originally due to play the Americana Festival this weekend, but Nicki was an unfortunate casualty of the current economic crisis when the organisers took her off the bill. Ah well, a night off.
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