The first night of any tour is always the most nerve wracking. Have we rehearsed enough? Is the kit going to behave itself? Can I remember all my parts? Can I remember my own name?......
Driving down the M1 to London isn't the most enjoyable experience. Most of the route south from Milton Keynes is through road works and driving down on a Friday afternoon is probably the worst time to do it. It's about 75 miles to the venue from Northampton and we allowed 3 hours to get there. We got lucky.
The traffic flowed smoothly through the roadworks. We averaged about 45 mph and, once past the M25 the last section was very light. The North Circular Road flowed smoothly and we soon negotiated the Hangar Lane intersection. We headed west along the Western Avenue and arrived at the venue at 5.30, an hour early.
Normally Chris would drive the van, but his work commitments saw him driving around Leicester until almost 5.00pm, so I had to drive the van both ways. He followed on behind, and where we sailed through the roadworks, he crawled. He arrived at the venue 15 minutes before the show started. One of the club's organisers Becky made us a cup of tea (which was a life saver) and it was time to start the show.
Considering the lack of rehearsal and the last minute change in personnel when Lee Goodwin stepped in at the last minute, the show went amazingly well. Yes it could have been a bit tighter and one or two of the endings could be better, but the show was well received by a good sized crowd. The first set flew by, very tidy, very tight. I spoke to the club members during the intervals and they all remarked how good the show was, how different from the usual acts they have, and how much they were enjoying it.
Towards the end of the night we played a song that we hadn't had a chance to rehearse. I won't say which song it was, because some might say that there were a few like that....but when I spoke to Chris after the show he told me that when Nicki sang this particular song he noticed half the audience on his side of the room were filming it on their phones. Hmmmm, we might have a winner here.
Once the show was finished I was exhausted, so sat with Evelyn and Pam, two of Bob Howe's friends who had come to shows on each of the previous tours. They really enjoyed the show, and were pleased as punch that the venue was only a bus ride from their home. I think they enjoyed themselves so much that they'll be back there again. The people who run the Western Avenue CMC are a really friendly bunch. They made us very welcome, kept us supplied with tea and brought out sandwiches for the band once we'd packed the kit away. Thanks for being great hosts.
Once the van was loaded it was time to head back home. We drove back to the M1, stopped at London Gateway services for some more tea- yes, more tea- and then drove back up the M1 in convoy. just before Luton the traffic slowed to a standstill and we switched lanes, drove up the exit ramp and down the other side, saving us a good 15-20 minutes on our journey, as four lanes of traffic were funnelled down to single lane as they installed a new bridge over the motorway. When we left the motorway, we swapped around a bit and Chris drove Cozy and Lee home while I carried on to our home. I'd just made yet another cup of tea when Chris arrived back. He'd had two hours sleep since the rehearsal on Thursday night, so we got to bed at about 3.30. I was up at about lunchtime the next day, still tired from the previous day's exertions, but looking forward to tonight's show in a tiny picture postcard village near Evesham.
