The Fakes: 29/7/2011 The Earl of Dudley Arms

Two gigs with the Fakes in the space of a few months is rare to the point where I actually think it’s unprecedented, nonetheless we were delighted to have the chance to play the Baseline at the Earl of Dudley Arms in July once again. It had gone well last time, we learned from our mistakes, and we were ready to give this gig a really good go. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way…

Being honest, this wasn’t one of our better ones. The problem was we went on far too late; we were last on a bill of 4 acts, and things were taking a long time to work through, so by the time we took the stage, the alcohol had been flowing, we were tired, and to be quite frank we weren’t concentrating. It didn’t start off too bad, our usual combo of set openers worked quite well and even though it wasn’t the best we’d played them, it was good enough. The problems began, I think, when I left the stage to go to the toilet. Reason I did this was because the rest of the band were playing Come As You Are, which I don’t actually play on. (I turn up late for near enough every band practice so the lads usually play this one while they wait for me.) By the time I’d come back, it had all one to pieces, we were making mistakes in the songs that we knew far better than to make, and it generally wasn’t working very well at all. I don’t know if leaving the stage had anything to do with it but by this precedent it’s not something I wish to repeat.

Not that there was nothing good about the show; the audience enjoyed it and the one person who was causing problems got thrown out just before we went on so I was able to be a lot more relaxed. The biggest thing I was pleased about, though, was the fact that we called it a day when we did. The original plan was to go back on stage after we’d finished our main set and do another 6 songs, but we decided not to. We finished once again with Dakota by Stereophonics, which to be fair we always play well no matter how badly the rest of the show went. We got off the stage, and the gig felt like it was over; there was no reason to go back on. Compare this to last time, where we over-extended our welcome by at least a few songs, and I think that was a mature decision and a noticeable progression from last time.

So, not so great this time. But in the Fakes we’ll never let something like that get us down, we’ll get back into the practice room next Monday, have a run through some songs, and look forward to the next gig, whenever that may be. There’s no plans for another Fakes gig yet, however I’m playing tonight at the Victoria Inn in Cradely Heath; it’s an acoustic gig, come and have a look!

See you soon.