Happy After Harrods!

After all the excitement and anticipation leading up to the Harrods gig, it’s all over … and has been for a week. It didn’t change the world ; there was no Sony Records Executive who just happened to be shopping as we were playing ….may be next time! But we did have a great time. It was a hell of a long day – we had to have everything set up before the store opened at 10.00am. We were very organised and went up the day before to set up and sound check after the store closed at 7.00pm. Unfortunately, all we could do was unload the gear because the stage and back drop hadn’t arrived. Back in the bus. Home at 1.00am; up at 5.00am (including the kids!); back in the bus along with Trish, Julie V and my sister, George – what State of Undress stalwarts those girls are! – and off we went. Traffic was typically horrible and at one point it looked as though we wouldn’t even get to Harrods for 10.00am let alone set up. Anyway, Alan did some expert driving through London and at 9.40am we pulled up outside Door No 10. You have never seen a band move so fast! By the time Alan had parked the bus, we were ready. It’s amazing what you can do when you have to! We then had a leisurely three hours before we needed to be back at the HMV department . As we had the kids with us, the Harrods Toy Kingdom beckoned. Actually , we could have stayed there all day. We were wonderfully entertained by Marvin the Magician and just had to come away with a set of his magic fingers. Don’t ask! Lunch at Café Rouge at the back of Harrods where my mum joined us…Look, Mick Jagger takes 130 with him when he gigs including all his grand children …and back to the HMV department to be ready to play at 2.00pm. We were a little apprehensive because we hadn’t been able to have a proper sound check. But, d’you know, we had a great sound. The acoustics there are wonderful. We had a really responsive audience – it was brilliant, because playing in Harrods with people doing their Christmas shopping and stuff, we thought people would drift in and out – maybe stop for a song or two then move on but actually quite a few people stayed and listened for the whole 50 minutes, It was brilliant! There are just a few people I’d like to give a special mention to: Chris Sweet, Marketing Division, Harrods; Katie Assistant Manager at HMV; and Jez Styles who let us store all our guitar cases and oyther junk in his office all day; the lovely Malcolm Windett from local band Lost at Sea. He was in Middlesex that morning and came on up to central London for the launch. We really appreciated his support. Lost at Sea are playing at The Green Room, Portman Hotel, Boscombe on 22nd December. Get along to see them. We’d also like to thank Jo Laverty from the Musician’s Union for coming along to support us; and my wonderful friend Anne Barnes. It was lovely to see them in the audience. We met and signed albums for a couple from Denmark; a family from France; a couple from The States who all stayed and listened and two great lasses from Melton Mowbray who broke away from their school party to join in too and left us a lovely message on our website guest book. Our publicist Sue Williams from Frontier who is doing such great work on our behalf was also there together with a band called Masque – latin American/ world music. And then it was all over all too quickly. We had a mammoth task to break the gear down and cart it miles underground back to the bus. We have got to start making some money out of this band soon – we need some roadies! – just time for a quick glass of wine in the fabulous food hall then back in the bus for 6.30pm; back to Walkford for 9.00pm; fish and chips and a few beers back at ours! Very satisfying.

Since then, we’ve played at The Manor Arms – great little gig and a very nice après-gig with several bottle of wines and a plate of bread and cheese consumed in the company of Foz and Terry, Lloyd and Linda ; our sound engineer Rob Austin and our Lilac Fairy who crashed out on the sofa. Well, it’s hard work playing the Whistle! We’re really sorry to learn that Shane and Rachel are leaving The Manor. They’ve been really supportive of local bands and original music in the time they’ve been running The Manor. We wish them all the best with their next venture and the new arrival due in February!

We also played at our friend Sarah’s special birthday bash on Saturday. It was a ‘buxom wenches and men in tights theme’ – I’ll leave you to imagine the rest. But the guys looked very fetching!

We’re playing next as a full band at The Central, Lower Parkstone, Poole on Saturday 3rd December. Should be a cracking night. And Alan and I are doing a duo guest spot at Bohemian Voices, Lately Night Club, West End Lane, London on Thursday 1st December.

See you at a gig soon.

Love
Charlie