The Olde Royal Oak – Review

Posted by TTBoom on Jul 18, 2016 in Blog | 0 comments

Saturday night saw us all back at one of our favourite  venues in Burton, The Olde Royal Oak.  The Oak has been under the cosh for a while with uncertainty about it’s future never far away from peoples minds,  however the efforts of Sue Cutting and the determination of the managers has kept it going as a foremost music venue for lovers of live performance.

We all arrived in pretty much succession, thankfully the bollard jobby at the entrance to the Market Place were still out of action, still made us feel a bit nervous driving through the constant red warning lights -not sure why they are still on.

Mick Rice had by now confirmed he was on his way, having performed 2 distinctive stints at Rock & Bike, was now thrashing down the A38 in a somewhat knackered state.  Still, saves on him popping down the gym.

We started by setting up the backdrop, now normally we would used the alcove space at the back of the somewhat small playing are, to position the drums, thereby giving much more room for the rest of the band to set up and move around.  This however was not possible as someone was using the space as a garage for their motorbike.

The temperature was stifling, simple tasks were becoming difficult and sweat was pouring from our brows and many other places, requiring regular visits outside to cool down and recoup. But eventually we got it all in complete with the spiders web of cables and switches.  Glen had selected to just go with his bottom bin on bass due to space restrictions.   Power was supplied from the pre-existing sockets in the alcove and some excellently place additional double sockets on the stage near the front, a welcome addition, well done the Oak.

Mick finally arrived and began setting up his drums, with the help of the lovely Joe.  Just as well as our expectations were verified as we looked onto a weakened and broken man, clearly close to his last legs and obviously totally more knackered than usual.  But he was up for it and for that I raise my top’at  to him.

By the time the show got underway there was a good crowd in situ, and they were still coming,  so again we hit the smoke machine ready for intro and nee naa nee naa,  fire alarm off again, bugger,  a quick fix with some duck tape and all was well,  note to self, must remember to block in future.  Off we went and the sound was great and the people were soon headbanging and getting into the swing of it, a great audience which was now filling the whole place.  Plenty of photos were being taken and a bit of video.  Some have since been posted on Facebook which I have  placed some on this website,  thanks to Sue Cutting for her pics.

 

Blimey it was hot,  the crowd chanting for more and we all on last legs, aggghhhh,  but we love it and giving so much pleasure to people is the main reason we do this, thanks to you all for making it such a great night, without you it is nothing.

Packing up was a bit of a marathon too, but I’m sure it will be all forgotten as we now focus on our next gig, a new venue for us in The Newhall Labour Club.  Ready to Rock and in the process of KEEPING LIVE MUSIC ALIVE.