Bedford Corn Exchange Friday April 13th

So we decide to go overnight to Bedford, and figure that this time as John’s got a short detour to drop the band off in Welwyn, we should get to Bedford at about the same time. For once it actually works…Rodders and I arrive in the van just far enough ahead of him to realise that the venue haven’t left out the power cable for the bus or opened the load bay gates for the van. Great. We head off around the block to find somewhere to park
( without success ) and when we return the Corn Exchange’s burglar alarm is blaring like the Crack of Doom. John pulls up at that very minute, and we realise that there’s no way we’re going to be able to park up and have people try to sleep right under the hellish din. I call the local police but the building hasn’t got a police response arrangement, so there’s nothing they can do. Tired and fratchy from the five – hour drive, we’re having trouble even thinking, let alone sleeping, when as if by magic, it stops. The ensuing silence is blissful, so we pile aboard and crash out as soon as we can in case it starts again. Today’s a day off, but the Corn Exchange guys are really helpful when we wake up at 9.00am and go to see if we can have access to the showers, so as soon as the power cable’s out we’re set fair for the day. For me it’s a day of catching up on work AND sleep, for Tomps and the others it’s a chance to see how much cider can be consumed by the average human within a twelve – hour period. The answer, unsurprisingly, is quite a lot. Tomps has an almost superhuman capacity for the juice of the apple, and although he’s having trouble with the odd thing like walking, talking and staying upright, we just know he’s going to be fine in the morning, which just isn’t fair. He decides quite late in the evening to wander off to his girlfriend’s house and sleep there. As she lives in Doncaster this presents quite a problem. As expected, he tips up the next morning looking as fresh as a daisy, whilst all around him is carnage. Even I feel hungover, and I’d just had a single pint. We decide that as we’re already here, we’ll do the load-in early, so we get the first van emptied in record time, and then Steve and Jill turn up in the second van, nice and early as they’d promised, and by one o’clock we’re all loaded in and ready to start building. The head technician here, Marcello, is a seriously good bloke, and we’ve known him years, so it’s always a pleasure to come back and work with him. Today he agrees to let Rodders use all the house moving lights as well as our own, so our boy gleefully sets to work plotting some magic. We know tonight’s done well, too, added to which we’ll have a good few guests. Arthur and I were based here for many years and as such a lot of our suppliers are local, so this is a nice opportunity to get them along and say “thanks”. It’s also close enough to the band’s home patch for friends and rellies to come up, so it’s with some trepidation that I hand in the guest list with thirty – six names on it ( we’re allowed ten ! ). We have a good and long-standing relationship with the Corn Exchange, though, and there are no issues about this. One of the things we like about the venue is that it’s a got a visible, aluminium truss-style lighting grid rather than the conventional theatre lighting bars which are masked by tabs and drapes, so it actually looks like a big touring rig. This makes everything look more upscale than it actually is, and we’re really looking forward to seeing it in action. Rodders runs through a few of his programmed plots for Steve and Jill during the afternoon, and Steve’s very impressed….like the rest of us onstage, he’s never actually seen the show, so it’s good for him to get even an idea of what the audience see. When the doors finally open, I’m very surprised to note a large number of young people coming in, and even more pleased to see that most of them are female ( purely from a demographic point of view, you understand ! ). I make a mental note to ask the Corn Exchange where they advertised….one of the things we’re very much after with the show is to widen our appeal to younger people. These songs are SO timeless that literally everyone knows them, even if it’s via the soundtrack to Vampire Diaries or some such brain- numbing American poo, and so there’s no reason why everyone shouldn’t get SOME enjoyment out of the show. We’ve also got the .Uber-Booties like Marilyn and Dawn who support us through thick and thin, and I can see from her position in the front row that Marilyn’s ready as ever to lead the charge as soon as the band ask the audience to get up and
dance ! Right from the opening announcement, which gets a huge laugh, tonight is special. It’s a big crowd and they make a big noise, and you can see from the band’s faces that they know this is going to be a good one. The sound is great, and the lighting looks amazing, and as the band go into the psychedelic section and Rodders fills the stage with swirls and swathes of colour and movement, I suddenly realise why this is all so exciting. It’s because I can see the future. I don’t mean in a “ you’re going to meet a tall, dark stranger who will tell you he can help you reclaim PPI insurance on any loan you may have taken out over the last five years “ kind of way, but in a “ I can see where this show will be in a couple of year’s time “ kind of way…on big stages, with a touring lighting rig that’s totally bespoke to our needs as opposed to us having to adapt what’s already in the building, and with crowds that respond to all the high, lows and nuances of the set. It’s almost impossible to pick out a highlight tonight…Den’s solo Dylan turn gets as big a cheer as the band’s stormtrooping You Really Got Me, and even the pyrotechnics get a cheer of their own in Pinball Wizard. Den knows he can do and say no wrong here…it’s what a football pundit would call “ a partisan crowd”. The Corn Exchange have a slightly odd policy of not letting anyone dance in front of the stage, so we’ve got plenty of people bopping away in the side aisles long before the end, but as Mony Mony kicks in. Marilyn jumps to her feet, and like a little Boadicea leads her hordes in a joyful celebration of this music, this band, this show. It’s just beautiful. The band go off to a roar of acclamation more befitting Old Trafford or Stamford Bridge than this little town in Bedfordshire, and when they come back on, only one thing is going to satisfy these rabid fruggers. The sustained feedback into of Spirit In The Sky kicks the volume of the cheers up another couple of notches, and as the signature guitar hook winds sinuously out of the squall of noise, literally everyone in the place, crew included, is clapping along and grinning with pure daft pleasure..When this finally gives way to Steve’s heavy artillery salvo of drums and the full band get the motor running and head off down the highway, I’m suffused with the utter certainty that this is the best show I’ve ever seen us do. EVERYTHING is right…venue, sound, lights, visuals, band, crowd….and it distils the very essence of why we do this. It justifies the hard work, the miles of travel, the lack of sleep, the worrying about money. It’s a total vindication of our belief in the whole thing. It’s cost us time, months of effort, cash ( LOTS of cash ) sleepless nights and even relationships, but tonight I see that this, our brainchild, our baby, has finally grown up into a tough little bruiser that isn’t going to be bullied into submission or have sand kicked in it’s face by other shows. So listen up everyone else out there in theatreland…..start looking over your shoulders because the new kid on the block has laid down his marker…..