Basildon Towngate Wed March 17th

Basildon Towngate Wed March 17th

There’s no doubt about it….when you’ve had a break of even a couple of days your brain turns to bean dip and everything weighs three times more than it did before. When we cross – load the bits of gear that Arthur used on the Yamaha drum shows on Monday and Tuesday, we totter from truck to truck as though we were humping concrete blocks rather than the speakers that we’ve been tossing around easily for the past five weeks or so. It’s as though our bodies have just decided that they’ve had enough and are trying to tell us that an alternative career in librarianship or something equally sedentary would be more our forte. Pug in particular is very tired and quiet. This may well be something to do with the lovely Daniella , though he maintains it’s because he was, ahem, “ rehearsing” until late last night. Personally I’m more inclined to think it’s because he’s been ingesting industrial quantities of beer and pharmaceuticals, but that’s just me being a cynical old Hector and envious of young people. Thank Tigger that we’re doing a “proper” theatre today, which will make things a bit easier. I know it’s a bit early for Easter but there’s a definite resurrection theme going on…..not only has Arthur’s blue van rallied enough to make one last great troll round the M25, but Doris the satnav switched on this morning and started lecturing us just as we were about to peg her out the window, welcome events both. Must be our positive energy (man). We’ve done the Towngate before, something like a year ago, to about 150 appreciative souls, but we’ve doubled that figure this time, so we could be in for a good night. The band all look refreshed when they arrive, Steve especially dapper with a new buzz-cut, and we get a bit of an unusual soundcheck routine today; the band are doing a big TV show in Germany just after the tour finishes and they are backing Chubby Chekker ( still alive,
apparently ) as well as playing the Bee Gee’s Robin Gibb onstage, so we get chunks of “ Do The Twist “ and “ Got To Get A Message To You “ as well as the normal fare, and it sounds bloody good. We have a panicky ten minutes of grief with the PA system about halfway through soundcheck but Arthur and Pug get it sorted, and we’re back up and running. Once again I’m virtually hidden behind a curtain so I can’t see the crowd and it mutes the audience’s applause, making things a bit weird as you don’t know how well the band are going down. I can just about see Steve and he’s bouncing around and smiling, though, so he must be getting something good back from the auditorium. Some nights Missile Command is almost on the stage and you’ve got all the sights, sounds and smells of the show right up close and personal, and on others we’re so far back in the wings and behind drapes or whatever that it detaches you from what’s happening, but this isn’t as bad as some….at least I can see one of the screens so I know that the buttons I’m pressing are actually doing something. I can’t see the Black Box Of Bafflement at all though, so it’s a leap of faith when I fire in the light and smoke. The first half seems to fly by tonight and I’m not sure if it’s a case of just being over-familiar with the set or if the tiredness is still hanging around, but once again no-one strays too far from their positions at the interval so perhaps we ARE all a bit jaded still. Everyone says the show’s going down really well, though, and the new graphics Tomps has added to some of the inserts look fantastic, so we know we’re going to leave here tonight with another away win. I manage to burrow out of my House Of Black Curtains towards the end of the second half and get a good look at the audience who are, as I believe the common parlance has it, giving it large. Cue standing ovation and sustained applause. One – nil to us….GET in there ! As the crowd file out we can hear the house staff telling them “ tell all your friends and don’t forget to come back and see the show next year ! “ Suppose we’d better talk to them about a re-booking, then…..We’re out in just over an hour and head back to Bedford, but it would appear that there’s some kind of Roadworks Jubilee going on….I can say with hand on heart that I’ve never seen so many cones, flashing orange lights, blokes in hi – vis clothes and “ Lane Closed “ signs in my entire puff; it’s like discovering that there’s a whole new civilisation that only comes out at night and burrows into the country’s motorway network. This vileness starts on the A127 just after we come out of Basildon and dogs us right round the M25 and up the A1. We don’t seem to be clear until we’re almost back to Bedford, and as a result we get back late, shagged out and irritable. No change there, then……..