The Curse Of The Sandringham

Aaaaaarrrrrrgggghhhhh!

The Sandringham was, in July 2002, one of the most enjoyable gigs I have ever played. In March 2008, it was the hottest, most cramped, loudest, hiccup-laden performance in memory.

Before I go on, I must qualify that anything I say here does not represent the view of Anubis, or in any way mean to diminish the excellent conglomerate we're taking part in, nor does it mean that I didn't feel pleased, post-gig, with the pleasure that the audience derived from our set. Far from it.

But I spent 35 minutes with only 7 sizes of my size 15 feet actually on stage, and the other 8 precariously hanging over a 1.5 foot drop into a wilderness of cables and anonymous roadcases, in what HAD to have been 50 degree heat, in a room no bigger than your average living room, with 130 people, minimal lights and a sound person, who already insenced at our displeasure of being cut by 10 minutes (through no fault of our own), realised she had no idea how to actually mix a keyboard player, and I might as well have not been there at all.

I lost about 4 pints of water in perspiration.

Musically, we mirrored the sound. Uneven at best and catastrophic at worst! Dougie, hearing nothing but himself got caught in polrhythm hell when he went into a 5/4 section over everybody elses 4/4 groove, and then we fell apart. Hilarious.

Nearly everyone of Steve's cymbals fell over.

My organ disappeared many times from inaudiable to absent and back again.

Nick got completely thrown at the end of the third part of disinfected and gave up completely before returning with twice the venom.

Robbie, perversely sang better than ever, and everyone said so.

The situation meant, on my part, a very static performance where I was unable to move (at all, for fear of broken ankles on my inevitable falling into the pit) and pinned in. The stage was smaller than the drum riser at the last Pink Floyd show.

The crowd lifted the performance as much as possible but during the show, which I believe to be our worst ever, the band were dispirited and very angry. Much of this ire is directed at the incompetence of the sound reinforcement person, and the inadequacy of the performance space to accomodate a 5 piece band with quite a technical set-up.

The positives, for there are a few, is that the audience was very responsive, and Anubis seemed very well recieved. Robert in particular came up for praise, and a poaching coup was attempted by another band, but failed at the hurdle of Nick requiring a fee for the use of Rob's services. Steven was also praised by people for his feel and percussive intelligence.

I wasn't, but then I was inaudiable for the majority of the time.

Nick and Doug's new rigs were very very good.

My old pal and former bandmate/current floydmate Chris made the trek and was uncharateristically positive about the performance (Chris specialises in 'constructive critiscism' that usually culminates in my slight disillusionment), and his advice, energy and enthusiasm meant much to this writer. The other garden ornament in my life, Dean the Spaniel, my fellow imitation muffin and Major Domo of the Floyd show, producer of Anubis and very easily irritated, also appeared, bleary eyed and sleep deprived, and disappeared before I got to the spot where I knew he was previously standing. Apparently he was positive too, but he has not been heard of since. I hope he didn't fall into the toilet (overflowing with flies buzzing around it).

The venue has gone down much in both it's ambience and sound quality since the days we debuted 'They Breed Them For The Credit' there in 2002. Still, I had Lazikos to look forward to.

On the way home, Rob and I reviewed the recording. The sound was atrocious. The music was average, the vocals were exceptional. The performance was enraged. We turned it off, at the conclusion of 'the Collapse', and went for a greasy post-gig nosh. When we began the last leg of the journey, we found the recorder had deemed the file corrupt and had formatted the card it records to, dumping the whole performance back into the ether from whence it was dragged.

The Curse Of The Sandringham strikes again.

Next stop: The Bridge. Hopefully with the excellent sound I have come to expect from the venue.

Now We Can Hear Ourselves Again... (Or not?)

Showtime! Rehearsals last week saw us ready to take a trip back into Floyd land and effectively try and 'become' the Floyd themselves for a couple of hours, and for the most part I was really happy with it.

Arriving at the venue at 3pm, I was most excited to see the venue was big and well laid out. The backstage area was comfortable and spacious, bordering on luxurious, even (a shower?). For the first time ever, the rider was more than an esky with a couple of cans of coke, and the band were treated to free beer, wine, and soft drink, gourmet sandwiches and fruit. No brown M&Ms though.

The stage layout was spacious, and given the amount of gear I was actually using up there, that was a relief. It's so hard to do the job well when you're competing for space in a small cupboard or alcove in the side of a wall. This stage was huge and given the size of the guitarists, looked huger (Is that a word?).

We eschewed the standard intro music (not my choice as I LOVE it and everyone else seems to, but Dean hadn't time, and although his alternative reasoning I don't accept entirely, I can fully sympathise with the time thing...), and I walked out to begin Shine On You Crazy Diamond.

Keyboards sounded fantastic. But given the size of the stage I should have actually HAD guitar in my wedge. It made it a little hard for me, especially as a number of cues are from guitar. Lachlan had the same problem. I think we expected to get a complete mix in our wedges with just louder vocals/keys/guitar etc. Not so.

First set largely was very strong. I felt very moved singing 'Wearing The Inside Out" as it's obviously a very personal Rick Wright track and with his death late last year, I felt the spirit there a bit. Probably imagined but it was a nice feeling. Lachie had a brown moment in 'Mother'; again... monitoring, and all in all it is hard to judge without hearing the FOH mix to know if we were good or not! Seemed to be, judging by audience feedback.

The newie, 'One Of These Days' was excruiating for me as ALL my cues are from the slide guitar. So I had to watch Dean's hands to actually fathom what was about to happen. I know there was one hiccup somewhere but as to what it was, I can't remember.

All in all, pretty good though. I am interested to see it from the audience perspective (We did film it).

Intermission was 20 mins and flashed by in a heartbeat (no pun intended). BAckstage the band was relaxed and the vibe was warm. Chris and I chatted and there seemed to be more friends than band members backstage. And a Vietnamese promoter chappy blagged his way back to talk to Dean about a Vietnamese tour!!! We obviously had not the time to discuss anything. And likely shall not do so either.

The second set saw some real problems for me. I buggered up the start of 'Echoes'. There is a complex little midi change I need to do to get one of my digital keyboards to sound like a big old piano through a big old Leslie speaker. Which is fine, but I forgot to make it a piano. And got a Wurlitzer electric piano instead. Stupid bastard had left it there from 'Money' in the first set. So I changed it, forgetting the midi would also change the other keyboard sound (on the second keyboard) to a very cheesy 90's midi-piano sound. Ouch. So whilst I fumbled around trying to change it on the fly, I must have played some very 'interesting stuff'. My mind was elsewhere. Problem solved, I continued into the song proper, which was absolutely fine right through to the second bit, the Hammond/Guitar duet, when disaster struck.

I have a little curse that seems to rear it's head after intermission. Once I lost my ARP Prosoloist, which suffered meltdown and from which it's still to recover. It makes strange farty noises now. On stage at Camden in 2007, I lost EVERYTHING in the 'Arnold Layne' keyboard solo which was a huge brown moment, and managed to get myself back online at the end of the song.

One of the 'wall-warts' that was powering my OTT volume pedal on the Hammond came out of the powerboard enough so instead of losing signal rapidly, it sort of farted out then back in, and disappeared. When you're using a 40 year old organ stuffed full of tubes, this sort of sound is like seeing smoke coming out of your kitchen. Not a good sign at all. I promptly shit myself.

Anyone would have seen the keyboard player disappear quickly into the bowels of his rig, with just his hand tapping away at the Roland Fantom that sort of resembled a Hammond Organ. To quote Dougie from Anubis "Digital Hammond Death".

Somehow, I got the thing back on, when I noticed that the power thing was half hanging out. Then I could play OK. But the wire precariously balanced in the back of the pedal was an issue that in the event I made any excited foot jabs at the gain pedal, would result in total Hammond meltdown, I had to sedate myself somewhat. From the ambient section of 'Echoes' onwards, it sounded brilliant, and the climax was very very authentic.

(Perversely, the one review I have read of the show cited this song as the absolute high point, but didn't mention the keyboards... either they didn't notice the mess up or I was just not very good and not worthy of a mention....)

The monitoring was slighty better, but still not THAT great.

'Time' was competant. Screen films looked good.

'The Great Gig In The Sky' was probably the highlight. The piano and organ work was good, and the vocals were just extraordiary. Katrina's finest hour I think... Very very happy with that one.

'Us and Them' was very good and Martyn's sax was, I believe very strong. 'Brain Damage' was okay but the tempo fluctuated too much and we went out of sync with the films. 'Eclipse', I believe was good... I couldn't hear anyone else. I think they were good!

The encores were enthusiastically recived and the vocal on 'Have A Cigar' was extraordinary. I was very happy with that one. I had a moment with the old Moog going into spasm in the first dual lead section, but I fixed it almost straight away. Hoary old chestnut's 'Comfortably Numb' and 'Run Like Hell' were good and very enthusiastically recieved.

The band convened for a central bow and recieved a stanging ovation. We must have been good!

I am looking forward to seeing the film as I have no idea what the show sounded like out front. I was so loud that quite clearly every keyboar error (and there were more than one!) was blindingly obvious at the level I played, although in the mix it's possible that it's barely audiable, if at all. High points were 'Shine On', 'Brick', 'Inside Out', 'Money', 'Us and Them', 'Eclipse', 'Have A Cigar' and the Encores.

All in all, I loved the show, and hope we get to continue the momentum by playing sooner rather than later. Another one this year, or maybe even another two this year would be ideal.

Photos and further info when I have them!

I think the biggest thrill for me, is that the band, although really only 5 shows old has arrived at a line up which is truly exceptional. Lachlan and Lex are as always on song, but loose enough to be authentic. Chris and Dean played exceptionally and sounded wonderful. I had all the sounds at my disposal to do my job well. The harmonies were tight and well done. Biggest credit goes to Elle who not only learned the whole set in two weeks but sounded marvellous, looked incredible and added to our chemistry ten fold. And my lovely Katrina who sang her heart out and was rewarded with the biggest cheer of the evening, and deservedly so. Taking the bow with the band was the thrill as it again proved we have the musical muscle to achieve much. And For the most part, when we're playing the 'same tune', there is much good will and affection.