Llandudno Venue Cymru Tues March 2nd

We’re by the seaside again today in sunny ( and it actually is !! ) Llandudno. The horrors of Boston are now two days behind us; we had a travel day yesterday so the crew came up early. We’re all battered and bruised from the rigours of that last load – out, and as such don’t mind too much when Pug, Rodders and Steve go out to sink a few jars while we swim in the bracing waters of the bay ( NOTE : one section of the last sentence may not be totally accurate ). Like good little producers Arthur and I stay in the hotel and try and catch up on our admin ( don’t forget that apart from keeping the tour going we’re trying to run our company Transmedia from the road as well ! ). We also resisted the temptation to go to the theatre last night and see Peter Andre play, though we DO take advantage of the theatre’s hospitality and park the truck there overnight. A sobering moment occurred while we were there.....as Arthur and I locked up the truck and left the backstage area to head back to the hotel we passed a big group of young women near the stage door clutching their Team Peter photos and scarves, hungry for a glimpse of their hero or those who merely exist in his orbit. They eagerly clocked us to see if we were anything to do with His Andreness and thus worth being nice to, so we straightened the shoulders, sucked in the belly and tried to disguise the limp as we approached, but they were obviously clearly pretty astute and dismissed us as two harmless old duffers with a single glance. It hurts, oh how it hurts……We’ve played the Venue Cymru before, and the theatre is fantastic but BIG, probably the biggest venue on the tour; we could fit the whole of Market Drayton Festival Centre on the stage here and still have room for a game of five – a – side. As I’ve said before, these “proper “ theatres are great for the crew, and on a fairly brutal tour like this one you need all the advantages you can get. However, not long after we get there we discover we haven’t sold especially well for tonight. This is always a downer but normally we just get on with it. It’s been a long drive up here for the band today, though, and when they hear about the ticket sales they’re a bit negative, which is not like them. As we keep saying, the whole point of the tour is to get the name out there and to consolidate in those areas where we’ve already done well, so we just have to make sure we send everyone who comes to see us away with a real wish to see us again. It doesn’t matter whether there are ten people or ten thousand out there; we just have to give them the best show we can every time. It’s hard work after that, though….the day seems full of little niggles; and everyone’s tired and snappy. A big part of it, I think, is that we know we’ve got a long trek ahead of us tomorrow before we play what is potentially the most successful ( and thus pressurised ) show on the tour, in Coventry, and the prospect of that long trip isn’t exactly filling us with joy. After working for so many years in the music business I’ve heard the “ why are we doing this show ? “ argument a bazillion times, and occasionally it’s justified, but at our stage of development with the Booties we’re still knocking on the door marked “ Breakthrough “, and THAT’S why we’re here. Here’s the weird thing, though…..despite the fact that the band are a bit lacklustre tonight by their own high standards, they still get a standing ovation at the end of the show, reinforcing what I was saying in a previous blog about the best bands being successful by still winning people over even when they’re not playing at their best. No matter how far we’ve travelled or what we’ve gone through, every single night of this tour so far has had the audience on their feet, dancing and singing, and that is really all you can ask. The atmosphere back at the hotel is still a bit subdued after the show, and even the vocal tics and idiosyncrasies of possibly the worst lounge entertainer in the world who is over in the corner cheerfully murdering the pop classics of the past forty years don’t seem to help too much. This is the first time we’ve gone back to a venue and not improved on our previous attendance, and it’s shaken the band’s confidence a bit, I think. With no disrespect to the good people of this very pretty Welsh town, it’s probably better if we just draw a veil over today, and move on. The importance of tomorrow’s show in Coventry is now even greater; the band need that boost again. We, however, just need to sleep, but there’s still work to do, e-mails to write, budgets to recalculate and so on. It wasn’t like this in the recruitment brochure ……..