29th September 2007 - The Subscription Rooms, Stroud

It's about three hours from Cambridge to Stroud so for an arrival time of 5pm I planned to leave at 2pm. I'm just about to leave when Jimbo rings up ... "Can you remember how to get to Chris' house mate?". Yep. Lost in Liverpool. Not only that, they'd been driving round for ages, probably in circles, trying to find their way before resorting to ringing me. So back to the computer, onto Google maps and half an hour later I'd delivered them there. Running a bit late, I jumped in the car and hit the road. A14, M6, M42 and M5. Just as I joined the M5 I rang Jimbo and it turned out they were a couple of junctions back from me on the M5 so I trundled along at 60mph to let them catch up. Still took 'em a good half hour though. Anyway, we eventually arrived at the venue at half 5 so not too bad!

The stage was upstairs but they had a lift so no worries there. Set up went swiftly and sound check not too bad. Had the obligatory couple of problems including a real nice low bass feedback which vibrated everything. With sound check done we headed out to find an offy to get some beers. We'd be told it was "just over there" by the support band, pointing off in a vague direction. After 20 mins or so wandering around town we eventually found it - right outside the front entrance of the venue! So we got the supplies in and kicked around in the dressing room playing stupid games for a while. The support band went on about 9ish - Alcatraz Swim Team, probably the most different sounding band we'd had as support. Dark and brooding with some nifty beats and a guitar, I couldn't help thinking these guys must have listened to a fair amount of Massive Attack, Portishead and maybe the odd bit of Red Snapper and Galliano amongst other trip-hop and rap. The first couple of songs had some sultry singing provided by the female of the band with subsequent numbers alternating between said sultry songstress and a pair of rappers. Overall a very interesting set, something different, makes a change from the usual guitar-bass-drums combo.

Our time came to ascend to the stage around 10ish. At this point the hall, which looked liked it could accommodate 300-400 people was, to be honest, quite sparsely populated. Everyone was sat down around the edges and we took to the stage expecting one of those gigs. One of those where they love the gig and you can tell they love the gig coz they give great feedback after each song but they stay sat down around the edges and leave what feels like a gaping chasm on the floor in the front of the band. However it transpired to be one of the best crowds we've had in quite a while. From the moment we started Square One they started drifting from their seats on to the dancefloor and when we finished Square One and I looked out everyone was on their feet and giving us a raptuous applause! We were well happy :) The set continued in a similair vein, we got some great singing out of them for a few songs, including "they spun a web" minus Shane in Trouble. Clocks and Yellow, as always, went down a storm and they were in fine voice for The Scientist. We played the usual trio of Talk, In My Place and Fix You for encores and then bade the crowd goodnight.

We had numerous people come over to talk to us and thank us with a whole raft of positive comments. Which is always good to hear :) We'd have to say, in fact, that the Stroud crowd was one of the liveliest, vocal and friendly crowds we've played too in quite a while (along with The Slaney in Downpatrick of course). The sound was pretty good too, mixed well and not shy on the bass, which is always good for me :) A very enjoyable gig.

This was Chris' last gig with us so we'd like to say thanks to him for doing the last few gigs with us, it was a great pleasure. An excellent musician and a top lad to boot. We really hope we'll catch up with you again some day. And thanks to his band, Square One for loaning him to us too - much appreciated.

Wayne, 3rd October 2007

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