The Tudor Inn – Review
This will be the third year running we have been invited to perform at The Tudor Inn on the very eve of the huge Download Festival, as the Tudor is situated in the middle of Castle Donington it’s well within strolling distance of the famous festival and so has become known as the Pre-Download warm up gig.
We had been advertising this outing for some time on our website, and through Facebook, and more recently via posters outside the venue, whilst the venue had put up a poster inviting Download-goers to the event.
Carol from The Tudor had informed us that we would be playing in the main dining room , the place where bands used to perform before being placed in the bar for the last year or so. The dining area is a large room with a raised area to one end which nicely doubles up as a stage, there are no railings or barriers to contend with so this makes it ideal. To one side of the stage area is a fire exit which has wide steps leading directly to the car park, again making it ideal for loading and unloading equipment.
There are plenty of sockets serving the stage, two double on the left and a double on the right, a fire place and mirrors etc centre back stage were soon obscured by our copious black backcloth, which transformed the area once we had secured our backdrop to it and finally got it level.
On arrival we had a slight wait for some late diners, but respecting their position were happy to hang on while they finished their meal. It was only ten minutes or so and Mick declares the go ahead, so we systematically empty our vehicles of equipment until the familiar mountain of bags, cases and amps were in place.
So we set up, enjoying the luxury of loads of space, making a nice change from some of the tight spots we have had to contend with as part of this fun hobby we all like to partake in. I got out my quality Hercules mike stand and somehow it undid itself and slipped open smashing the handle mechanism, with bits flying across the room. A quick investigation and failed attempt to fix it left me with no other choice but the trusty duct tape (works every time). Now to set up the light, bugger, they’re not working on the controller, no matter how much they got jiggled, scratch it, put ’em on manual mode – all ok, well that’s all that can go wrong surely, damn, must have forgot to touch wood, the Jay Turser Guitar was now not working, so with Mick’s help a quick dismantling of the electronics and correcting of the short that was causing the problem and all was good.
Glen commented favourably on the quality cables I had just acquired, in my attempt to get the true Marshall sound from my amp without any electronics getting in the way, some reference to the laying of the Atlantic cable and having shares, what a guy, you gotta love him. So we were pretty much set up and Glen decided to practice his stage diving, only trouble was he was diving onto the stage after not spotting the recently placed monitor in front of the stage, Mick rushed over to assist whilst I gave him an 8.5 for artistic impression. Nothing broken and more importantly nothing spilt – amazing control that man.
People were steadily arriving and we were keen to get going, so after a quick drink and fag for the smokers amongst us we got on stage, hit the lights and smoke and struck up, in our usual way. After our first few numbers the place was now standing room only and we could see some familiar faces, the couple we met last year – sorry can’t remember your names but if you FB me I’ll be able to put names to the selfie, and of course there was Phil and Debs from the Chase Inn in Brownhills, great to see you there guys.
The evening was going well and we were getting a great response from the crowd, the guys at the front from Glasgow were have a particularly good time, and come on guys, there was really no need for the worshipping bit. As the evening progressed and we got into our more metally numbers etc the place was going nuts, with people dancing on the tables and head banging all over the place, wow, what a night. Mark showed me his plectrum at the end and it was worn down to a point, rock and roll (this isn’t a euphemism by the way!)
We really had a great night and would like to thank everyone for your really, really kind words, not sure if we could get into Download proper though guys, but you’re welcome to come see us at the other festivals we will be playing at.
It took us a while to calm down and pack up, and fulfil all the photo requests, but that we did, another successful one under the belt.
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