Cast your mind back a few months ago and you may recall a blog where I told you our band was getting back together after splitting up twenty two years ago. We had talked about it for a couple of years, when our drummer sadly died and from that day on, we felt we had to do it for him and his charity. It was in sad circumstances and it was a challenge, as not only had we not played together since 1992, we hadn’t been in the same room together since that last gig.
To make it even more challenging, we all live hundreds of miles apart, so we had to find away to get our music off a cassette (yes, we’re that old) and share it digitally, so we could familiarise ourselves with the old songs. We were basically rehearsing individually over the internet and hoping that the magic (and it was magic) was still there, when we went to our first rehearsal up in Newark, Nottingham two weeks before the big reunion.
Anyway to cut a long story short, Steve’s brother took over the drums, which was a lovely gesture and our first rehearsal, after a weird start, went amazingly well. Two weeks later, we did another rehearsal, played the gig the following day to a sold out crowd and raised nearly £800 for the British Heart Foundation. It was a brilliant night. It was helped by our brilliant friends of course, some of whom had come as far as Barcelona and Edinburgh.
The gig itself went really well. It wasn’t slick by any means but we entertained our old crowd and picked up some new fans and we had a ball up there on the stage for an hour, dressed in a gold cat suit. It was one of the happiest and most memorable days of my life.
The following day we were still high on music and Midlands air but we found ourselves asking, ‘is that it?’ We loved it. They loved it. So why don’t we carry on? So we are. And I’m delighted. We got together this weekend, wrote two new songs (about falling in love, aimed at the Ed Sheeran market) and decided we miss being in a band and it was too good to give up.
We wrapped up the weekend by saying we’ll do an annual charity gig up in Newark every summer and we may possibly venture in to Brighton at some point next year.
But do you know what the best thing about being in a band is? It’s telling people, you’re in a band. It is the coolest thing I have ever and will ever do. And I’ve met Dr.Karl Kennedy from Neighbours.