"I was there at the Mathew Street Festival and you where amazing! Thank you for ending that day in style I left with a beaming smile on my face"
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19th December 2008 - The Venue, New Cross, London

It was only last weekend that we were sat in a back stage area in the Netherlands commenting on how well we were being treat. Nice backstage area, fridge full of beer, kitchen on site to cook us up some food and the venue crew helping us with the gear. All three venues in the Netherlands provided us with all of the above (with the exception of the final venue not having a backstage area). "We don't get this in England" we lamented. So imagine our surprise when we're escorted to the back stage area, presented with a case of Bud to put in the fridge, along with some tokens for free food at the venue's kitchen!! Also, one of the sound engineers helped us unload and load all our gear! That never happens in England! Funny how things happen isn't it :) And just to throw another coincidence in there, the sound engineer, upon hearing I live in Cambridge, told me of his past work with the Broken Family Band - the drummer works at the same place I do and one of my close work colleagues is a huge fan! Small world eh.

We'd tried to get a gig at this venue in the past but had been turned down due to the manager thinking we wouldn't be the kind of music that would interest his crowd. However, our good friend from the Antarctic Monkey's crew had managed to persuade the venue to put us on. As such, we were well in the mood to prove ourselves. It was a late starting gig actually - we didn't take to the stage until just gone 11pm. There were quite a few people in the room when we started, 150 perhaps, all mingling about in various areas. It was a short set, only about 45 minutes plus encores, so we loaded it up with singles. The atmosphere right from off was great - the lighting was superb, moody, dark with plenty of smoke from the smoke machine. Quite a few people joined in from the start, getting down to Life in Technicolor, some good singing in Violet Hill and Speed of Sound. Still on a high from the previous weekend's gigs, full of confidence with a point to prove and the usual desire to give everyone a good time, we were playing well. As the set progressed more and more people started coming forward and by the time Viva La Vida was in full swing the entire room had turned around, moved forward and were getting down. Clocks followed and the lighting guy turned all the lights down, leaving just the laser streaking out into the darkened venue. We didn't pause much at all between songs, just gave them wall to wall Coldplay classics, ending with the entire venue dancing and jumping around to Clocks. We got a great call for more and so returned to round off the set with Fix You.

We really enjoyed this gig - we felt like we'd just gone in there and done a smash and grab operation. We all played really well, the sound was superb, both on and off stage (15 speakers and 6 bass bins for the front of house sound!!!) and the atmosphere was really buzzing. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Didn't enjoy lugging all the gear down the 5 flights of stairs after the gig though !!

Thanks to the two sound guys, a pleasure to work with and very friendly and also big thanks for the help with unloading and loading the gear.

Wayne, 22nd December 2008

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