Well, I'd asked Ben Vickers if I could do the competition at Copcut a few weeks before, but as I've never been to the place before (their open night usually falls on the night I have Aki Maera practice) I had no idea what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised as Ben appeared to be running a very tight operation. He'd asked everybody to get there for 7.30, and everybody was there for 7.30. The show was scheduled to start at 8.30, and by all the Gods, it started at 8.30. The changeovers were slick, all the acts were consistently good, and the sound quality was absolutely brilliant for a venue this size. Compare that to, say, one or two places I've played in Walsall, where they ask us to get there at 6.30 and absolutely nothing happens whatsoever until 9.00 at the very earliest, and I've ended up walking out halfway through the show at the time it was supposed to have ended - even though the last two bands had yet to go on because they'd taken far too long faffing around with the sound - and you'll appreciate how significant I find all of this. Not only that but there were some serious and professional judges for the event, one of which was Kiki O'Connel I'd seen at Katies a while back, and at the Sence Bar in Birmingham as well now that I think about it.
So, how did I get on? Well, one thing I didn't know until about 10 minutes before I was supposed to go on was how many songs I was going to get, and when it turned out to be 2, I had to pick and choose carefully. I was always going to play Bitterness, however. I always do if it's a new gig to exploit the "Rock Star With An Acoustic Guitar" thing I have going on and since nobody there had ever seen me play before, this seemed the ideal choice. This actually went down very well indeed, I saw quite a few people in the audience (which, by the way, numbered in their hundreds,) dancing to this and I was told later that it struck a chord with at least one member of the audience who had recently split up from his wife. I decided to do the thing where I talk to the audience in the 'quiet' bit, this was a bit of a mistake in retrospect. It works when the crowd know me, but as Kiki pointed out to me afterwards, it looked like I was completely lost in the song up until that point and so was everybody else until I'd started talking, and it lost momentum. In front of a more familiar crowd it would probably have worked a little better but in this sort of environment I'd have been better off letting the song itself do the talking. Other than that, I played it very well, with the blood-curdling shriek I've been putting at the end of it feeling less and less welcome - and therefore more likely to occur - every time I do it.
My other song was We Will Survive. 'What?' you say, 'you played Bitterness without following it up with Get Out Of My Head?' Actually yes I did, and there was a reason for that - I've been trying to develop an awareness of what works better in front of certain audiences. There's a lot of factors in this and I still haven't got it down to a precise art, but quite a good thing for me to keep in mind is this: The younger audience tend to prefer my fast rock songs, and the older audiences tend to prefer my slower, arty songs. Most of the time both the audience and my set include a mix of the two split straight down the middle, however tonight there seemed to be quite a lot of younger people in the audience who I thought would appreciate We Will Survive better. I wasn't wrong in that respect as I could visibly see a lot of them enjoying themselves. It didn't do me much good in terms of the competition though, as I'd put my two pounding rock songs right next to each other and the lack of variety cost me; I would have done better with Get Out Of My Head or Storm From The North. That being said, this is probably the first time I've ever got through a set without making any mistakes at all, which shouldn't have taken a year and a half to achieve but I got there in the end!
I didn't get through to the final in the end, but honestly I don't mind. I have no doubt that the judging was done on the quality of the music, which was the first time this has ever happened as far as I'm aware.* The other acts on - and there were 8 - were all very good; obviously some better than others but none of them were rubbish, and there wasn't a single act among them who I didn't think had a chance. The guys and girls who did get through thoroughly deserved it and best of luck to all of them in the next round; I don't envy the responsibility of the judges for having to pick between those guys! Best of luck to all of you and I'm sure we'll see you again...
*Every other substantial competition I've played that hasn't been judged by a drunk has come down to how many tickets each individual band has sold. The organisers can say what they like about it being about the music but at the end of the day the venue has to make money so they'll invite back the people who draw the larger crowds. The Copcut competition was a refreshing change from this!
No comments:
Post a Comment