Smithys’ Marina Bar – Review
Having not played for a couple of weeks we were all looking forward to an evening of plucking, thwacking and hailing to our favourite old tunes at Smithy’s Marina Bar, remembering that, the last time we stood amongst the sticks plecs, and scattered guitars from musicians past and recent and the odd Harley, we had had a fantastic night.
Arriving early to make sure we got parking near to the entrance we partook in a tipple or two in the sunshine garden while waiting for all to turn up, before we embarked on our set up ritual. First thing we noticed was that one or two changes had occurred, we received a warm welcome from Frankie who was now running the entertainments side of things, and he had now installed a new PA system, a bank of Par 56 lights and the Harley had gone. The PA was a powerful unit, however to get our sound we needed to DI and mike up all our instruments, so had to splice our desk into his 6 channel unit to accommodate this.
John used the in house drum kit and Glen took advantage of the provided bass amp, with Mark and myself using our own Marshall rigs. All was soon set up and sound checked and we were ready to go.
All through the set up a steady flow of people were arriving, many we new and a few new faces, Big Steve Lakin, Andy and Angie, Nick and Gillian, Aide and Laura (the stalker) and many more hailing from Cranfleet and Trent Lock, it was great to see you all there and thank you for your continued support. Also Helen even turned up, after trying to see us for a while and many communications via facebook, requesting a badge, which she is now the proud owner of. Hope you enjoyed your personal show Helen.
Barry Roberts and his wife also came down, specifically to film us, Barry had recently filmed the majority of bands at the Rock and Bike Fest and was up to his ears in millions of miles of video clips, and not only did he film us tonight, but he has also worked tirelessly to process all the clips and has posted them all over the last couple of days for you all to see, go to our Web homepage and click the Video link to view them. Thank you Barry we all really appreciate the hard work you have put in to make this possible.
Back to the noisy stuff. We cracked off and the sound was good, feeling it we all put our souls into the music, as we usually do but this time with the knowledge that this was our last gig for a number of weeks, with TTB taking it’s annual compulsory holidays to recharge the batteries, stabilise our blood pressures and nurse our aching bones.
The room was full and the crowd was communicating to us as only they know how, using a complicated array of whistles, hollering, shreeks, and whooping noises, we knew what they wanted though, so we gave ’em even more. At one point the room thinned just a bit, and we wondered what was going on, but a quick glance outside revealed as many outside as inside, taking a rest bite from the heat of the bar and getting in a quick fag break.
All was well, and as the evening progressed, more and more dancers got up, some more crazy than others – interesting moves there, must give that a go – seems like fun. Adam also joined in the fun, sporting his summer line of leopard print, there was no doubt he was the boss though, sporting that fetching captains hat – you’ll see him popping in and out of one or two of our video clips – not to be missed.
Anyway we finished of in a flurry and left ’em wanting more, always a good thing, thanks to everyone who came and the kind comments you gave, we are glad you all enjoyed it and thanks again.
We’re back at Smithys’ on New Years Eve so put it in your dairies. See you in September when it all kicks off again.
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