The Old Royal Oak – Review

Posted by TTBoom on Apr 15, 2015 in Blog | 0 comments

Now then,  what can I say about Saturday night at the Old Royal Oak, the place was absolutely heaving,  something like being in the front row at Glastonbury when the stones are playing!!   The Oak is rapidly becoming one of our favourite venues and kinda feels totally like home,  we were all glad to be back and looking forward to seeing all you Boomers who had declared they going on the Face Book Event page.

I arrived with Ruth at about 7.20,  delayed slightly by a nervous approach to the security bollards which were in the down position, but with red lights ablaze on each side,  errrrm is it safe to go on, errrm don’t know, errrm maybe, sod it go for it – phew car in one piece – why they don’t make it obvious they are out of order I don’t know.

I popped in so see the lay of the land and find a few people already staking their claim to the comfy seats and then, miracles upon miracles, we see Mark on stage, everything set up and ready to go.  This may not seem that remarkable to you but for us it’s a first, usually Mark in pretty much last on scene due to his hectic work schedule.  Turns out a number of Marks people and his brother John were coming down to see us and he was keep to leave time for a chat.

So we began to get the kit in,  struggling a bit to negotiate the two high steps at the entrance,  thanks to the guys that helped lift the amp through the threshold, these old bones aren’t what they used to be.

The others were now arriving and after the usual secret handshakes we all got on with setting up the stage.   While this was going on loads of people were arriving,  thanks to you all for coming,   we noticed Sue Cutting and Adrian, who had arranged the gig,  our old friend Helen Smith, with Tabatha and Leigh,  Glenn daughters Drina and Zanda with their fella Brian and Ian ,  who came up all the way from Colchester,  Bob Holt, Melissa Milner, San, Johns wife and of course Kirstie and Ruth and so many more,  too many to mention here although I had a fair attempt.

And of course lets not forget our good friend Angus (Simon)  RIP who was definitely there in spirit on the night.  I’m pretty sure he had some influence as the following day we were contacted by his family wanting to honour him by coming and seeing his favourite band at The Old Royal Oak, and travelling all the way from Hong Kong to achieve it,   TTB are working on it.

By the time we were ready to kick of there was standing room only and the Bar was 3 deep, much to the delight of the landlord Andrew,   and sorry Andrew, we cannot play for you every week, that just wouldn’t work, but thanks for the vote of confidence.

So we were ready to go,  careful to block of the smoke alarm on stage so we didn’t get a repeat of alarms during Breaking the Law.    So off we went, only something was amiss,  aghh Mick switch ya mic on,  all right now, let’s go.  Dee Daa Dee Daa,  oops the fire alarm again, right on cue during Breaking the Law – spooky.

The place was a bouncing, it felt very much like a mini festival, all were up for a great time and were soon punching the air and singing alone to there favourite songs, a mass of cheering heads right out to the door and beyond.  We’ve always said that Burton rocks but this was something else, and very special,  we were all lapping it up and enjoying this fantastic atmosphere.  Those of you who were there know what I mean,  this was absolutely amazing.  We all put everything into our performance, fed by the enthusiasm of the increasingly noisy and by now jumping crowd.   During Enter Sand Man I noticed that my nice acoustic guitar badge had dropped of my top hat and landed under Mark, who went on to stomp it into the ground,  although  the pin did stick in his foot.  (It’s now a poor reflection of it’s former self).  Glen pointed out that his finger tip had worn off – snap I say, as the earlier formed blister on the index finger burst – PLAY THROUGH THE PAIN –  the show must go on.

Some of you were seeing us for the first time, so we hope you all enjoyed it, even those that were frogmarched in to watch us by the Landlord,  you know who you are.

During the night lots of photos and video were being taken, and they soon turned up on face book the following day,  having now attracted some 530 views already,  must be some kind of record,  thanks to those who took the videos and pics,  helping to spread the word.

So throughout the evening we dished out a selection of merchandise,  TTB goody bags, badges, pens and key fobs etc,   Helen being most surprised that we had a choice of left or right handed TTB pens, but we so do.  A huge thanks goes out to all of you who came down,  without you the Burton Live Music Scene could not happen, amazing music nights would not happen and the Burton social and night life would die.  We applaud you all, what an amazing lot of people.    Keeping Live Music Alive.