We arrived at the gig in plenty of time for a sound check and what a lovely venue it was. When we arrived a guy in the bar said “were you busking in town today?, I saw you before and you were very good” We told him about the gig with Dodgy and invited him in.
The guys from Dodgy hadn’t arrived yet, the other support artists arrived at the same time so we exchanged stories whilst we waited. We introduced ourselves to Syd the sound guy for the night and waited our turn to soundcheck. In the meantime Nigel, Matthew and Andy from Dodgy had arrived and they proceeded to tell us the running order of the night.
One thing that struck us about the band is how down to earth they are. Here is a band that had huge hits with the likes of “Staying out for the Summer” and “Good Enough”, who have performed in front of literally tens of thousands of people, they are fantastic song writers, musicians and performers, and here they were discussing last nights antics with us. It’s rare in the music industry that anyone gives you a chance, let alone allows you to perform with them. Over years we have learnt that the majority of people who work in the music industry are in it for themselves, this is the harsh reality of the music business. It truly is “who you know” and not “what you know”.
Gone are the days of naivety of believing that we are “going to make it big” were just enjoying the ride and ceasing every opportunity and experience that we can. Tonights gig on the other hand is different; Dodgy are embracing undiscovered artists and allowing them to showcase their talent by allowing them to perform infront of their fanbase and we admire that. It truly is a rare occurrence and we are grateful to be given the opportunity. Dodgy also support The Trussell Trust which is fantastic and they were happy to hear about our “Sing for Your Supper” challenge.
After the sound checks are complete, the place starts to fill with the anticpated crowd. This is an intimate gig and you can feel the love in the room. First up we have Yoshe. Yoshe is a beautiful singer/songwriter originally from Aberdeen with her own unique style. Her voice is powerful and she has great stage presence, she seemed nervous during the sound check, but that soon faded when she was in front of the crowd. Her performance went down fantastic as an attentive audience embraced her style. We can see this girl going far.
Second up was Jason Bradley, now heres a man with a voice and the songs to suit. We can imagine Jason busking although he rarely tries it, which is surprising as his voice is perfct. His voice is gritty and powerful. He looks like he was born to be on stage and impressed the audience with his original songs.
Next up was us. We had to follow these two amazing acts and I must say I could feel butterflies awakening in my stomach. I always think its good to have butterflies though as I think it adds to your performance. Its difficult to tell the difference between nerves and excitement, but the butterflies were there non the less. Its difficult to predict how an audience is going to react to your music, especially when its your own stuff.
We performed “Three Steps Forward” and “Colours”, in hindsight I wish we had the Ukelele so we could of performed “Over You” as I think it would of gone down well too. But for the sake of 2 songs, swapping from Cajon Drum to Ukelele after one song is a bit awkward for the sound guy. The audience reacted well to our set and were very kind to us. We finished, happy with our overall performance and the reaction we received from the crowd. We thanked our audience, the guys from Dodgy and Syd the sound man and cleared the stage ready for the main act.
As Dodgy took to the stage the crowd were nicely warmed up ready to be treated with an evening full of musical delights. Over the next 90 minutes they worked the crowd and threw in a couple of surprises. We were particularly impressed with a musician they had performing with them who played the harp like I’ve never seen before.
I shed a tear at one point when they performed a song which was based on the book “Animal Farm” and they performed their hit songs which went down particularly well with the crowd. When the show had finished the band performed an encore much to the audiences delight and proceeded to sign autographs and sell merchandise. They mingled in with the crowd and engaged with their fans.
Overall the night was a great success and we left feeling very positive, it was a wonderful experience and one to remember. All we had to do now was decided were we were going to park the van for the night, it was late and we needed to get our heads down. Thank you Nigel, Matthew and Andy for your support and for embracing new music, we wish you all the success with the rest of your tour.